On Bad Omens
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| Jerry Uht Park, 2014 |
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox) vs. Erie SeaWolves (Detroit Tigers)
Jerry Uht Park
Eastern League (AA)
Erie, PA
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
The day started poorly, and from that, I should have stayed in bed, but, well... I'm getting ahead of myself.
This was the only night this week that I could properly sleep in with no consequences. My game for today wasn't until this evening, I was already in town thanks to the drive the day before, and there wasn't so much that I wanted to do that I had to be out immediately in the morning.
I again managed to wake up at some unholy hour, so I went down to grab some breakfast. Back to my room by eight, there was some proper going back to bed to be done at this point. I stripped back down and went back to sleep.
An hour later, there was a banging on my door. Wondering what was up, I found it was housekeeping, who had ignored the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. I yelled at her until she went away. She then proceeded to go next door, and slam the door every two seconds dragging things in and out. I still managed to get back to sleep, only to have her again bang on my door a half hour later.
I lost it at this point, and yelled that "do not disturb" means not to disturb my ass, and then got dressed and went to my car. On the way, I complained to an apologetic desk staff, but it didn't do anything towards getting me my catch-up sleep back.
My first stop that day was the Erie Zoo, because I'm all about zoos. It was only ten minutes from my hotel. It was during this ten minutes that my phone started ringing. Fearing work, I fished out my phone and saw it was my landlord, and I immediately went into panic mode. What could possibly gone wrong that they needed to call me? Had the idiots downstairs finally done something destructive? I was still several minutes from the zoo, but I ignored several traffic laws to get parked as quickly as possible.
Calling my voice mail as soon as the car was in park, it turned out that my landlord was going to be in town for the next few days and wanted permission to do some maintenance work while she was there. Quite relieved, I called her up and told her I was vacation, and confirmed that it was fine, and then went to pay my way into the zoo.
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| Mooooom, people are loooooking. |
I was in the room for about ten minutes. The room had already been made up, and before I headed out, I heeded a call of nature. Not a minute in the bathroom, the housekeeper was trying to get into my room again, prohibited from doing so only by the bar I had thankfully put on my door. This was beyond all my reckoning. On the way out, I complained again and went on my way.
My next stop was Presque Isle State Park, which was on a tiny sliver of land that juts out into Lake Erie. I figured spending this much time around the Great Lakes, I might as well actually see one. The circuit of the park is ringed by a two-way road, with stop-offs along the way at various beaches, facilities, or historic markers (mostly for the War of 1812). The first part of the road goes around the part that faces the closest shore, so it presents the visage of a large, if ordinary-looking, lake that is rather unexceptional.
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| Now that's a great lake. |
The other side of the loop passes on the side facing Canada, and this is the much more water-to-the-horizon impressiveness that you expect in your average Great Lake. I stopped at several of the park pull-offs until it was time to get back to the hotel for a shower and a nap, which I did with a "Go Away" sign on a Post-It note to supplement the "Do Not Disturb" sign on my door, just to be sure.
The ballpark was a similarly short drive away, and I parked in a municipal lot across the street from the park, and then went out to retrieve my Will Call ticket, take photos of the outside of the park, and got in line to get in.
After the game, it was still pouring (retroactive spoiler warning), so I went to pick up my car bedecked in my rain poncho. On the way back to the hotel, I decided to get gas before the next day, wherever that would take me, grabbed some Arby's, as I was still hungry, and then went back to the hotel for the night, hanging up my damp clothing and putting out my two signs and hoping for the best.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Jerry Uht Park |
After spending most of the week in the more modest confines of short-season A stadiums, I was looking forward to the upgrade that would come with the AA Jerry Uht Park. And it even had a 200 level.
The park is located in the middle of downtown Erie, and it sort of gives definition to "regional capitol." The park is next door to an arena that hosts the minor-league hockey and basketball franchises for Erie, as well as the concerts for B and A-Listers that come through town. It is undoubtedly urban, as the park is bordered on nearly all sides by city streets, with the exception of the main entrance, which has a small plot of land large enough to call a park in front of it.
Seating extends from outfield to outfield. A lower walkway extends through the seating area around the park separating the lower box seats from the 200 level above it. The exterior of the park is ringed by an outer walkway that similarly goes from right field to left field. The upper levels are split into several sections. One row extends up behind third base and ends at the top in luxury boxes and the press box. Running from home to first base is another second level that is accessible only from stairs on the promenade, hanging over the box seats below. A walkway runs along the top of those seats to provide access. And in right field, there is a two-level section of the Picnic Garden (below), which houses concessions and the All-You-Can Eat Buffet, and the Beer Garden (above) with beer and food concessions along a long bar, right in front of special club seating in prime home run territory. Left field ends in the kids play zone and its own picnic area with several specialty concessions. The remainder of the concessions run along the interior and exterior walkways. The stadium store is in the large entrance plaza, along with other concessions.
Retired numbers reside on the right field wall, championship banners hang next to the press box, and a Hall of Fame runs along the exterior wall on the third-base side. The main scoreboard sits in right-center, and a smaller auxiliary board hangs on the building abutting left field.
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| C. Wolf, get it? |
C. Wolf (get it?) runs the on-field fun, which, from what limited examples I saw this night, were standard minor-league contests. For a Tuesday night game, they had quite a respectable crowd, with some good representation for the visiting Sea Dogs as well. And a sizable portion stayed until the game was inevitably called.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Casual scoring |
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| Braaaaat |
I had my regular tickets behind the home dugout, but as logistics would have it, I was in the very last row of seats in the section, technically on the promenade level. This row had spaces between the seats for handicapped fans, and actually had quite a nice view, as I was above the first section of seats with nothing obstructing my view. One catch to this was that I wasn't really sitting near anyone. There was one fan behind home plate who had iron lungs and was riding the umpires the entire game while giving support to the home team.
The rain drove me from my seat multiple times. The first time, I made the misguided choice to try and make it back to the area behind home plate, and I caught a lot of rain because of it. When the skies opened up the second time, I made the move to around the left field seats, which was much faster. I broke out one of the ponchos at this point, and took my chances walking around the park until they eventually called the game. After the game was called, the grounds crew came out and did shoulder-to-shoulder belly flops across the tarp to amuse the damp and disappointed crowd.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Sea Dogs vs. SeaWolves |
This was a contest between the short-season A teams of the Tigers (the home SeaWolves) and the Red Sox (the visiting Sea Dogs). Outside of the jaunty nautical theme, it involved the Red Sox, the only team during my travels who managed to give me a rain-shortened game. The weather was certainly foreboding, and an extended "discussion" between the umpires and managers went on before the commencement of the game. Sitting by the dugout as I was, I heard one Sea Dogs player ask another what the group was talking about. On cure, some thunder crashed in the distance, and the other player answered, "That."
A little later than expected, the game got underway. The Sea Dogs went in order in the first, and the SeaWolves managed only a two-out double. The top of the second got one at-bat completed before the skies opened up to the point where the game was suspended. The tarp came out, the fans went for cover, and we all waiting. The sky seemed to be alternatively light and dark, so it looked like the game might sneak in.
Eventually, the rain stopped, the tarp came off, and play resumed. A two-out single was followed by a homer to the right field corner, and before a strikeout ended the inning, the home team's will to get this game in likely vanished into the 2-0 Sea Dog lead.
But the bottom of the second started positively for the SeaWolves. Back-to-back singles put them in a great position, before the skies catastrophically opened up again, suspending play.
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| Saaaaaaaaaaafe |
With tarp out, and what little crowd remained hanging by, there was a long delay before the official calling of the game. This was a bit of controversy, as depending on who was saying it, the game was suspended or called. If suspended, it would be picked up in the same place the next day. If called, an entirely new game would be played from the top of the first on. The last story I heard at the park was that the game was called. This, of course, would prove to be wrong.
The Scorecard:
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| Sea Dogs vs. SeaWolves, 06/17/14. Suspended by rain. |
After the money-grubbing for programs at the low A parks, it was refreshing to get a free program just inside the gate at the park. It a color-cover, pamphlet-sized program, with the scorecard in the centerfold. It was on good paper that took the brunt of the rain quite well.
As my last information was that the game was called, I finished filling out the card. In less than two innings of work, there was nothing particularly special to note, except that this was only the second called game that (I thought) I had been to before.
The Accommodations:
I was again at the Fairfield Inn. I got back that evening a lot earlier than I was expecting. After dealing with packing up and trying to work out what to do the next day, I was too tired to care and went to sleep a little on the early side, hoping that the housekeeping crew wouldn't see fit to wake me up in the middle of the night.
On Finishing What You Started
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| Jerry Uht Park, 2014 |
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox) vs.Erie Seawolves (Detroit Tigers)
Jerry Uht Park
Eastern League (AA)
Erie, PA
11:05 AM
Outside of the Game:
If you had told me before the start of this trip that I would be seeing two professional baseball games with start times at 11:05 AM, I would have rightly called you mad. Yet here we were.
Some research had revealed that Rochester was in the same boat as Erie, and they were going to continue their game from the night before, starting at 5 PM. Given this, I decided to risk trying to catch the end of the Erie game and then head up to Rochester. As long this game was over before 3:30 PM or so, I should be okay.
Up unnaturally early yet again, I went down to get some breakfast, finished packing up, and then loaded the car and checked out of the hotel. Having gotten all my stadium pictures the night before, I didn't have to get to the park much ahead of game time.
Since the park was so close, I managed to park and exchanging my rain check (for a slightly better seat, it would appear) at about 10:30 AM. What happens after the game will be handled in its own entry.
The Stadium & Fans:
Not much had changed in several hours at Jerry Uht Park. C. Wolf came back, and while the crowd seemed certainly different, it was an even more impressive turn-out for a Wednesday morning game that a Tuesday night game. The crowd was very into the game, and the between-innings contests were more of the same minor-league races, contests, and skill demonstrations. One unique event was the "Kids Stampede," which gathered up all kids who were interested in left field, and let them lose to run to right field, with the inevitable adorable stragglers.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Ready for rain |
This was the first resumed game that I had ever been to, but it missed by two days being the first game I'd been to with a start time of 11:05 AM. They were going to finish the last six innings of the game from the night previous and then play a seven-inning version of the regularly scheduled noon game. (Double-headers in the minor have to be scheduled for only seven innings, so they could get away with resuming a nine-inning game and then playing the second seven-inning contest).
Since it was a single-admission double-header, my original seat was occupied, so I actually got upgraded to a single in the first row behind the dugout. The crowd didn't really show up until around eleven when the gates were scheduled to open for the previously booked noon game. It seems that the early noon game was a group event day much like in Jamestown. There were some schools, as well as a special needs school, with many in attendance. Some of the special needs students were behind me. For everything you could say about them, they were paying more close attention to the game than most of the fans there, and when they saw I was keeping score, they asked me questions about players and plays throughout the game. I also got to let them know that they didn't arrive late, and that there was an entire other game to be played when the one we were watching was over, and they seemed to enjoy the news.
Since it was around 11, I couldn't quite get myself to buy another brat, but I did grab a pretzel and a drink, and that drink was important, as when the rain cleared up, it got brutally hot for the remainder of the game.
The Game:
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| Resumed first pitch, Sea Dogs vs. SeaWolves |
And so we resumed in the bottom of the second, with the SeaWolves having two on and no outs. A new pitcher came in to resume the game a walked the first batter to load up the bases. He got the next batter to strike out, but walked the nine hitter to walk in a run and leave the bases loaded. A single then brought in another run. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly to center that brought in a run, but the runner from second made a break for it on the throw, and got caught stealing in a 2-6-2 put out. But the SeaWolves had the lead, 3-2.
Portland had only a two-out single in the top of the third, and Erie went in order in their half. But the Sea Dogs led off the fourth with a double, and a short single made it first and third with no outs. A grounder to short brought in the tying run, but two more outs left the score tied at 3-3. Erie again went in order.
The Sea Dogs worked a two-out rally in the top of the fifth. Back-to-back singles brought in a run, but the following double only made it second and third with two outs. A new pitcher ended it with a fly to center, but Portland had the lead back, 4-3. Erie seemed to take offense, and started their half with three short singles to load the bases. A double brought in two runs, but the runner on first got gunned down trying to make it three. A stolen base got a runner to third, and a sacrifice fly brought him in before another pop up ended the inning with the SeaWolves leading, 6-4.
Portland started the sixth with a double, but stranded the runner there. Erie, however, started their half with a triple to right, who came home on a one-out sacrifice fly. The next batter got a single, and then went to second on a wild pitch. A deep single to right brought him in, but a groundout ended the damages there at 8-4, SeaWolves.
Both teams had singles and nothing else in the seventh. But Portland started the eighth with a solo homer to right. A single afterwards was stranded, closing the gap to 8-5, SeaWolves. In the bottom of the inning, there was only a one-out hit batsman to show for it.
The Sea Dogs would not go quietly into the night, or early afternoon in this case. The started the ninth with a single, a walk, and a single. Another short single loaded the bases, after a desperately needed strikeout, a sacrifice fly to right brought in a run. But another fly out to left ended it with an 8-6 SeaWolves victory.
Another seven-inning game followed, but I was driving in my car by the first pitch.
The Scorecard:
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| Sea Dogs vs. SeaWolves, 06/18/14. SeaWolves win, 8-6. |
This was the first suspended game I had to pick up, and as I finished my scorecard the previous night, thinking the game was cancelled, I had to copy over the scoring for the first 1.5 innings into the new scorecard. This, of course, was a first.
Scoring-wise the game was notable only for the small things. There were more caught stealings than normal, as well as unsuccessful attempts to extend hits. The 2-6-2 put-out in the bottom of the second was pretty unique. Otherwise, the game was rather run-of-the-mill, if with a lot of scoring. Also, the time of game, taken literally, was quite impressive, as it began at 7:10 PM, and ended at about 1:50 PM.
The Accommodations:
None, as we now jet off to the second part of the day...
2014 Western New York
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