Trenton

On Agreeable Company

Arm & Hammer Field, 2014

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox) vs.
Trenton Thunder (NY Yankees)
Arm & Hammer Field
Eastern League (AA)
Trenton, NJ
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Every single time I thought work couldn't get worse, it did. This time it was the most incompetently handled lay offs that I'd ever encountered in my professional career. It actually ended with our CEO talking about what an awful week she was having. Frankly, that was just a taste of the tone deafness with which it was executed. So off for a game I was.

As they are only an hour away, I had been to the Trenton Thunder during my first "official" trip way back when in 2006, but I hadn't taken many pictures, so I decided to revisit them. Checking their Website, they were doing a (two-admission) double-header to make up an earlier rain-out in the season. The first game was at 2 PM, and the second at 7 PM. Being so close, I decided to try for the 2 PM game, setting out around 11 AM.

I made it maybe five miles. They inexplicably were still doing construction on the NJ Turnpike northern spur that had the entirety of it backed up nearly to the Holland Tunnel. After crawling along to the Bayonne exit for nearly twenty minutes, I bailed off at that exit and decided to go to the later game.

I drove back home ad did some odd chores and shopping, and then set out again around 4 PM. Duly warned by previous attempt, I took 1&9 from Hoboken around Newark Airport to hook up with the Turnpike after the spur. The drive down was quick and uneventful. I took my initial pictures and then walked around at Waterfront Park until the gates opened. I found some weird, off-limits, pillbox-looking thing above the park, but did not venture in. Eventually, it was time to line up to get in.

On the way out, there was some congestion at the front entrance because of all the school buses at the evening's event, so I left out the back and got home quickly, early, and without incident.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Arm & Hammer Field

Last time I was there, it was named "Waterfront Park." But the park in Trenton had apparently garnered the new title of "Samuel J. Plumeri, Sr. Field at Arm & Hammer Park." So, there's that.

There is now a statue of Mr. Plumeri in front of the park with several baseball-loving children, and an open seat to take pictures next to him. The main plaza is in front of the park where the statue sits, with the ticket booth on the bottom of the structure, and two entrances into the park up two stairways on either side of the ticket booth. There are two other entrances/exits between first base/right field and third base/left field. The left field entrance also has full handicapped access.

It is a fairly standard minor-league park layout. All the entrances have stairways that lead up to the upper promenade, which extends from left field to right field around home plate. A luxury level runs above from first base to third base. The press box is located on the walkway level behind home plate, and above the press box on the suite level is a giant, main "Yankees Suite," with big windows facing towards the field. Above the suites runs "Thunder Country," which showcases pictures of the mascots and many of the former Thunder players who now (or have) graced the majors, including Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciapara. Above the press box is a championship banner and the retired numbers.

There are two scoreboards, one in left-center and one in right. The one in left was used for pitchers stats, while the right-field board was edge-to-edge display and used for videos between the action, as well as listing full lineups and batter's stats during the game. This was rather unique for AA ball.

Right field was anchored by a Kids Zone that was at field level, and a picnic area sat at then end of the promenade in left. Concessions lined the top walkway, with the Waterfront Grille in right featuring local favorites from Chickie & Pete's and Case's. Behind home plate are the entrances to the suite level, the team store, lineups, and the "Road to the Majors" exhibit. A lower walkway runs the same course and separates the box seats below from the grandstands above.

The didactic Thunder the thunderbolt

The stadium was packed, as it was visited this evening by most of the New Jersey Special Olympics, as well as several other school groups and teams. Apparently, they are introducing baseball to the Special Olympics this year, and the NJ final will be played at Arm & Hammer Field. Boomer (the bird) and Strike (the thunderbolt) led the on-field antics. It was your regular races, quizzes, and contests, though they did have a "Dog of the Day" event with the local animal shelter to try and get a pet adopted, which is always nice.


At the Game with Oogie:

Thunder scoring

I was starving when I got to the park, despite having lunch. I went to the Waterfront Grille in right and got a Case's pork roll sandwich early, which was a good idea, because there was quite a line later on. You place your order at the front, get a form with said order, and then claim it at the end in back. This was the first stadium in a while that did not have a helmet of fries available.

As per usual, I got a seat behind the home dugout on the first-base side. There was only one older woman in the row with me, who had to move out of my way on my way to my seat. We eventually fell to talking, and she and her family are quite the baseball fans. They are from Staten Island, and they have season tickets to both the Staten Island Yankees, as well as the Trenton Thunder, so they are intimately acquainted with most of the Yankees low minors system, to say the least.

It is Taylor Ham, you barbarians.

I was wearing my Cylones cap, as always, and we got the trash talk out of the way early. She was good-natured about it, which clearly placed her in the one-third of tolerable Yankees fans of the world. We talked for most of the game, with her pointing out who was good and who was bad on the team, and expressing joy and disappointment in the events as the game progressed.

They showed the MLB scores between innings on one of the scoreboards, and as the Mets had managed to inexplicably go to extra innings again after blowing a lead, my rowmate surreptitiously kept up on the score of the game on her phone and let me know when the Mets went ahead and eventually won. What more can you ask of an evening?

After the game, I wished her well back to Staten Island, and told her that I may see her later this month, as I expected to re-visit the SI Yankees for the same reason I came to Trenton that day.


The Game:

First pitch Sea Dogs vs. Thunder

This was only to be a seven-inning contest, as Eastern League rules prohibit more than seven innings if the minor-league teams play a double-header. The Sea Dogs were the Red Sox affiliate in this league, and the Thunder are the Yankees affiliate, so there was a little bit of juice to this game, especially considering that the Sea Dogs were so dominating their division. Also, the Thunder were using a back-up manager, as their regular manager was off at a college graduation of one of his children.

Additionally, my rowmate had told me that the day's Thunder pitcher had apparently just come off the disabled list and immediately been thrown into the game--a testament to his quality--as well as being so good that another Thunder fan a short distance away had a K board set up for him on the railing. He lived up to his billing in the top of the first, getting the Sea Dogs in order, including two strike-outs. The Thunder had back-to-back, two-out singles moved along by an error on a throw, leaving first and third with two outs, but a pop to third ended the threat.

The Sea Dogs only got a one-out walk in the top of the second, and the Thunder went in order in their half. The third inning shook things up. After two quick ground-outs, the Sea Dogs broke up the no hitter with a single to right. A double to right brought in the run, another single to right drove that run in, and another single made it first and second with two outs, before a strikeout ended the half at 2-0, Sea Dogs. The Thunder went in order again.

In the top of the fourth, the Sea Dogs managed an one-out double to center and nothing else. The anemic Thunder again went in order. The Sea Dogs got a leadoff single in the fifth, but it was erased on a double-play. A two-out walk was stranded with nothing across. The Thunder went in order, yet again. Facing a new Thunder pitcher, the Sea Dogs similarly went in order in the sixth.

But in the bottom of the sixth, the Thunder found some... thunder. A one-out double to center got them started. A grounder to second moved over the runner, and the next batter singled him in. And then there was a monstrous homer to left field to clear the bases. A fly to center ended the inning, but the Thunder were up for the first time in the game, 3-2.

They held that lead for five minutes. A two-out walk was followed by a double to left, to make it second and third with one out. A single brought them both in, and then the runner stole second. He made it to third on a ground out, but another ground out stranded him, with the Sea Dogs back in the lead, 4-3.

The Thunder started their half of the (last licks) seventh inning with a double to right. A sacrifice bunt moved him to third with only one out, but the bottom of the order (with a total batting average of under .300 and not pinch hit for) could not get him home, as a strikeout and fly to right ended it at 4-3, Sea Dogs.


The Scorecard:

Sea Dogs vs. Thunder, 05/31/14. Sea Dogs win, 4-3.

The scorecard was a free paper program handed out at the door. Although it was black-and-white printing except for the cover, it was of reasonable size and handled pencil writing well.

Beside being a seven-inning game, it was rather conventional from a scoring perspective. The most interesting bit came from the "strike out" inning in the third, where the Thunder did get a strike out to end the inning, but only after coughing up two runs. There was one double-play, and in the first, there was an infield hit to third that also had an error attached to the end of it on the throw to first, but that was about it. The Sea Dogs K-Man did not strike out.


The Accommodations:
Hoboken, at a reasonable hour

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2014 Stand Alone Trip.