On One Over the Minimum
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| Classic Field, 2014 |
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Dayton Dragons (Cincinnati Reds) vs.Lake County Captains (Cleveland Indians)
Classic Field
Midwest League (A)
Eastlake, OH
1:35 PM
Outside the Game:
I had another semi-lazy morning in another nice hotel. I knew I was going to have a long ride ahead of me later that afternoon and had showered and fully packed up the night before, so I stayed in bed for a good while before getting up. As I didn't spring for the breakfast voucher, I was on my own for food, so that wasn't a concern. However, the rain overnight and the threatening clouds that remaining in the morning certainly were.
I had to be at the park less than an hour away no later than noon, and my checkout was at 11 AM. So, I eventually dragged myself out of bed and got dressed around 10:30 AM. I packed up my car and drove around to the front desk to check out, but I was unable to find anyone at the front desk to check me out. Eventually, someone called over from the cafe and told me just to leave my key on one of the desks. And so I did and was off.
I pulled into the drive-through of the McDonald's next door to the hotel and got two Egg McMuffins to eat on the ride north. After a quick stop-off to prepare the sandwiches for in-car consumption, I was off on the road north. The directions were fairly easy in that I pretty much had to stay on this road until I nearly reached Lake Erie. If I hit water, I had gone too far.
The drive up was uneventful and short, and at a little after 11:30 AM, I was at the park. I quick drive-around eventually found a parking entrance. It seemed like it was at the back of the stadium. I asked the attendant if there was some place I could park to pick up my tickets. He told me that I could use this entrance, so I asked him if I could leave the lot and return, since I was looking to drive a little after I got my ticket. This confirmed, I paid him, drove around to the other side of the stadium, and parked. I walked and picked up my will calls at the booth and then walked around the park to do my regular picture routine.
In course of my photography, I ran into the parking attendant again. We got to talking about what I was doing and why. We talked about my trips, and the site, and what there was to see at the park. He told me that the game was a lock as he was wearing his lucky pirate glasses, which were undefeated for the year. And eventually I was on my way.
As I made my way to the other side of the park near the ticket office again, the other parking attendant saw me taking pictures and asked if I was the baseball blog guy. Apparently, the first attendant had radioed him and let me know I was coming. So I spent some more time talking to him about things, as sporadic early season ticket-holders arrived at the park. Eventually, he got a cell phone call from his wife that he had to take, and I went off to finish my picture run.
One of my topics of conversation with the two gentlemen was where to see the lake. I was under a mile away at this point, and since I came this far, I might as well see it. They both said to head down the main drag in town that was next to the park until I hit water. There was a big industrial chimney that was to be my destination. About 11:50 AM, I went to my car, pulled out, and headed north. When the road ended in a T intersection, my first decision was to pull into a side residential street, but this proved fruitless as the local property owners made it illegal to park on their streets, and there were no good vantage points. I went back out to the T road and drove for a bit in one direction. Most of the properties next to the lake were closed off, and, running short on time, I drove down the dead-end entrance to a large apartment complex, jumped out of my car, stood on a dumpster at the end of the road, and took a picture or two of what I could see through the trees. I then headed back to the park.
At a little after noon, I pulled back into the VIP lot, got my parking pass ripped officially, and parked again, this time closer to my original exit, which I was told would get me to the roads connecting to 80 faster. I got in the short line at the entrance, and the team mascot, Skipper (a Sesame-Street green monster type thing) was already outside the gate and entertaining the waiting fans, paying special attention to the kids in the group.
It was here that I got a bit of a shock, as Skipper was wearing a yarmulke on his head. This was unmistakable. I started wondering the worst about this big-nosed monster mascot being portrayed as Jewish, but I discovered later that this was just part of Jewish Day festivities at the game, and not some bizarre anti-Semitic enclave in northern Ohio.
The doors eventually opened shortly thereafter, and as I entered, I got my ticket ripped by the Captain himself, an older gentleman in nautical attire.
On the way out of the park, the parking attendants were handing out things to and directing the traffic of the leaving fans, and I said a final goodbye. And off I went.
If everything went right, I was about seven hours from home. With the weather questionable, and who knew how much construction or traffic looming, I was content getting home before 1 AM. If everything went right, departing at 4 PM would get me home at 11 PM.
There was a bit of going on back roads and state highways for about a half hour or so, but I eventually got dumped onto an X80 extension, which put me on 80, and from there on, it was a matter of not getting off the road. 80 became a toll turnpike in Ohio, so I got nabbed for $2.25 driving East, over double my $1 Delaware Memorial Gap bridge total for the ride out. Once I got into Pennsylvania, there were a number of construction lane closures that I experienced on the second day of driving after my blow-out, but the traffic kept moving.
After the construction, I didn't even have to slow down once. It was just keeping my wounded car on the road and heading east in as sensible a speed as I could manage. And that's all it was. Around 9 PM, I was running low on gas and high on hunger, so after a couple of false starts, I pulled off at an exit with hop off gas and food. I hit the McDonald's drive through (although I didn't even realize it at the time, it was the first time I had McDonald's for multiple meals on the same day in probably a decade) and then got some gas, as a local in a pickup truck made a truly awful attempt to flirt with the gas station employee trying to collect the garbage can liners. (Let's just say it involved him talking about wiping his ass and leave it at that.)
I was back on the road in under ten minutes, and from there on, it was just a matter of not getting too tired. The food certainly helped and gave me some extra attention, and the drive itself was uneventful. I pulled into Hoboken a little after 11:00 PM, and I was parked and dragging my stuff back to my apartment by 11:20 PM.
My apartment was pleasantly empty, and all I had the energy to do was dump all my stuff at the top of my stairs, proceed to the bedroom, and crash out for about eight hours.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Classic Park |
“Classic Park” is perhaps one of the most generic things you could name a ballpark, but there you are. It also features a faux brick façade that extends around the park, housing the two entrances (home plate and 3rd base), as well as the team store and the admin offices, and clubhouses for the team. The main parking lot is across the highway from the park (along with unaffiliated “Captain’s Club” sports bar), and a large pedestrian walkway spans the distance to the park.
Both entrances are up a flight of stairs from ground level, and empty out onto the minor-league standard promenade that runs around the entire park. All the seating on the grandstand is reached from stairways down form the promenade, the only exception being the bleachers in left field, located on top of the walkway. The grandstand runs from just beyond the bases behind home plate, with a second level above them holding party decks, luxury suites, and the press box behind home plate. All of the concessions are located on the promenade, mostly in the main grandstand. There is a picnic hill in left field, right field, and center field, all topped by a row of oversized beach chairs. The main digital board is stacked atop the digital scoreboard in right-center, both above a one-tier outfield wall covered in local ads and backed by trees behind the wall. Left field ends in the Castaway’s Bar, and the kid’s area, while a tented party area is in right field. There’s dedication and memorial plaques on the outside of the park, as well as a “Captains to the Major” plaque wall and a Youth Sports Wall of Champions.
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| Skipper surfs |
Generic baseball monster with baseball nose Skipper is the mascot de jour at the park. In addition, there is an older human dressed up like the titular “Captain.” Both were there from the opening of the front gates onward, hanging out with the crowd before the game and participating in the on-field games between innings. It is hard to gauge exactly how the mid-innings festivities usually go down, because in addition to some garden-variety races and contests, it was Jewish Heritage Day at the park, so most of the entertainment was Jewish related, including singing, dancing, and playing the shofar. Additionally, the miniature lighthouse in center lights up and explodes whenever the home team hits a home run. Even with the threatening weather, there was a decent crowd that filled about half the park up. While they definitely were into the non-game activities, they did pay attention to the on-field action as well.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Ohio scoring |
I made the purchase for the seat for this game the morning before along with my ticket for Akron. After a bit of confusion, I was able to secure my ticket behind the home first-base dugout. At the park, it was a little sparse on the season-ticket section of the park, but there was a large extended family in front of me. The several children were trying quite intently to get a ball or a free t-shirt, but they disappeared for innings at a time, no doubt taking in the other entertainments the park had on offer.
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| The FDA does not recommend internal ingestion of "The Barge" |
As for food, I had grabbed some McDonald's for breakfast, and I was pretty hungry by the time I got into the park. As with everything else at Classic Park, the food stands were nautically named. I settled on a stand on the first-base line with "The Barge," which was a foot-long kielbasa sausage with sauerkraut. I went from "hungry" to "full" rather quickly, to the point that I didn't think about food again until after 9 PM that night.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Dragons vs. Captains |
This was my first game in the A-level Mid-West League, with the playoff-bound Captains facing off against the playing-out-the-string, intra-state rival Dragons. And the game played out about as you'd expect, only more so, especially with top-prospect Lugo going for the Captains.
The Dragons did start off with a leadoff single in the first, but he was erased on an inning-ending double-play after a strikeout. The Captains wasted no time. A leadoff single was followed by a grounder to short that got the lead runner and a failed base-stealing attempt erased the trailing baseman. But a walk and a line-drive over the right-field wall put the Captains up early, 2-0.
The Dragons again got a leadoff single, and he was again erased on a one-out double-play to end the inning. The Captains only managed a one-out single in the bottom of the second, erased in their own inning-ending double play.
And that was pretty much it for the Dragons. They went in order until the ninth inning, where a one-out single without a double-play to clean it up meant that Lake County pitchers only faced one over the minimum, though surrendering three hits.
In the bottom of the third, the Captains hit back-to-back solo homers to raise their lead to 4-0. In the fourth, a one-out single and walk was followed by another homer to deep center to make it 7-0. In the fifth, a leadoff double moved over on a one-out single. He came home on the next batter's double-play ball, marking the first run not scored on a homer. A two-out double and single followed, and yet another homer left the yard in center, making it 11-0.
Lake County went in order in the sixth, but in the seventh, they were back to it. A one-out single was followed by a double and a walk to load the bases. A sacrifice fly to right brought a run in, but that was it, cranking the score to 12-0. The Captains only had a two-out walk in the eighth but cruised to a 12-0 shutout victory.
The Scorecard:
Dragons vs. Captains, 08/31/14. Captains win, 12-0.
The tabloid program was a free hand-out at the gate, but there is no scorecard to be found. One must avail oneself of the guest relations desk to get a free roster sheet and scorecard pamphlet. It was on regular paper with reasonable amount of space for scoring and the bottom quarter of the layout taken up by poorly photocopied scoring instructions that are nearly impossible to read.
The story of the game was nearly seeing the minimum batters come to the plate for the Dragons. It is probably even rarer for this not to happen for an imperfect game, as you need caught stealings, double plays, or interferences to erase baserunners once on the base paths. This unlikely arrangement stayed in play until the top of the ninth, when the Captain's closer let a one-out single go, and then struck out the next batter, erasing the possibility of a double-play. It was a little disappointing, to be honest. I doubt anyone noticed or cared besides myself, however.
Given the lack of anything on the Dragons side, there was not much out of the ordinary scoring-wise except for the five homers. There were a number of little notes, such as the home "Ice Cream Batter" (who went 0-4), the opposing "beer batter" (who struck out, resulting in half-priced beer for an inning), and two play notes, one of a fly ball to right in the bottom of the fifth that resulted in a collision that required a trainer's visit to resolve and a foul ball off a batter's foot in the bottom of the sixth that required a trainer visit before the batter would pop out to short.
The Accommodations:
Hoboken, before the break of September
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