On "The South"
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| Fluor Field, 2016 |
Friday, July 1, 2017
Asheville Tourists (Colorado Rockies) vs.Greenville Drive (Boston Red Sox)
Fluor Field
South Atlantic League (A)
Greenville, SC
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
Having gotten a good night's rest, I was up and out of the Holiday Inn a little after ten, and then headed even deeper into the south towards Greenville, SC, the first new state I'd be adding to my “visited” list in quite some time.
Greenville had a nice mid-sized zoo, so that was the first stop, of course. I spent a couple of enjoyable afternoon hours there before heading out to check into my hotel, which was on the way to the park.
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| I see you; I just don't care. |
Or, I think it was. Because Fluor Park was still pretty new, and apparently it was so new that it did not show up on my GPS. Or anything near it. And this was a problem because the narrow and newly upscale downtown was clogged with traffic due to a street fair of some kind, and it was taking forever to get anywhere. I eventually had to get by with navigating from a block or two off the main strip, and after a half hour or so of trying, I made it to the park to pick up my ticket and take my pictures in the humid, humid afternoon.
In walking around, I discovered that Shoeless Joe Jackson's last house had been moved next door to the park as a museum. While it was closed that day, it was open the next, so I put that on my list of things to do on my way out of town. Dripping with sweat and completely done with walking around, I went back to the hotel using the same parallel-street navigation and caught a shower and nap before the game.
Fun fact about Fluor Field: They didn't build a parking lot for it. So, parking for the game is a free-for-all on street parking and residents and businesses renting out their lots. The first place I tried to park made clear they were going to park me in completely as I was the earliest, so I took myself out of that and went down the street to a restaurant that had more direct parking accommodations. I can't imagine how fans deal with it on a regular basis.
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| Get ready for the boom. |
After the game, the street fair was over, so it was easy sailing back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Fluor Field |
Fluor Field is a Boston Red Sox minor-league park, and, say what you will about the Scarlet Hose, their minor league facilities are always top-notch. The park itself is right in the middle of revitalized area of downtown near the train tracks, and the addition of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum is a welcome touch. (The new team wanted to call themselves the "Joes," but the spoilsports at MLB prevented them from naming themselves after a permanently ineligible player.)
The team store and the ticket booths are a separate building at the entrance plaza, with the main entrance set back from the street a good distance. The main entrance behind home plate dumps out onto the main promenade that runs from outfield to outfield along the park. The seating area descends from the promenade and is topped by a second level with party decks and the luxury and press boxes from first base around to third.
A replica Green Monster manual scoreboard is on the wall in left field, with a video board in center for the more modern touch. Right field ends with the "Paladin Plateau" party area and the 500 Club restaurant (celebrating all the players who hit 500 or more homeruns, especially Red Sox). By the right field entrance is the Heritage Plaza, with history about the Red Sox and Greenville baseball. The structural supports, along the promenade, also carry images of Greenville baseball past. Left field ends with the Power Alley party area, the kid's area, and a picnic berm for standing-room-only seating. All the concessions are on the promenade, so you can grab grub while still watching the game.
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| Ready for Reedy |
Reedy the Frog was the mascot de jour, leading the regular host of races and contests. And since it was a Friday game, there were, of course, fireworks (set off from on-field given the tight confines of the park to the neighborhood).
There was a very healthy crowd on hand, though it was mostly families there for a night's entertainment and not just baseball. Given how poorly the Drive did this game, it seems unfair to criticize them based on this one sampling.
However...
At the Game with Oogie:
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| South scoring |
This has been, I guess, my first real baseball trip exclusively in "The South"--capital "T," capital "S." I mean, the atmosphere, political and otherwise, was about as conservative as I'd expected, but it wasn't as though it was a walking, talking stereotype or anything like that, and the people were friendly enough—at least superficially.
While I was walking around before the game, there was a gentleman who was very fired up about something the president had done. That wasn't the surprising part, really. The thing that stopped me pretty directly in my tracks—quite literally--was the gentleman was referring to the president as "N-word Obama," quite loudly, quite in public, and quite within earshot of a number of black patrons at the game. And no one but me seemed to be noticing.
In another story, this would be where I chastised him and put his ignorance to shame, but frankly, I was just amazed that this was a real thing happening. No one reacted. I don't know if it was because everyone was politely shunning him, or no one wanted to make more a scene, or if this was just acceptable, but I was the only one acting like there was a record needle screeching every time this guy opined on what "N... Obama" was doing.
Thankfully, he wasn't sitting by me, where I had scored some seats at the top of the lower seating bowl along the first base line. It was, per usual, families and the like, trying to survive the humidity that did not diminish when the sun went down. None of them shared any strong opinions on the president or race relations, thankfully.
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| BBQ sandwich, hush puppies, and souvenir soda. |
I ate a chili dog and a BBQ sandwich with hush puppies, because everything goes better with hush puppies. Except, one imagines, virulent racism.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Tourists vs. Drive |
On paper, this was a middling conflict between two teams sniffing just north of .500, but it ended up being a one-sided affair that went against the home squad.
It started slowly in the top of the first, with the Tourists squandering back-to-back, one-out singles, and the Drive going in order. Asheville got on the board in the second with a one-out homer to right field, but Greenville only responded with a two-out, ground-rule double of their own left on the bases.
The Toursists started the third with a single, but he got cut down trying to steal second. A walk, a single, and two walks followed to increase the lead to 2-0, but a double play ended the inning. It was mostly quiet until the top of the fifth, when Asheville started the frame with back-to-back singles and then a bunt to move the runners over. A grounder to short brought in another run, making it 3-0. The Drive started their half with back-to-back walks, but then the top of their order struck out in turn to end the threat.
Asheville was back at it in the sixth, with a leadoff single and a bunt to get him over to second. A two-out single brought the lead runner in, and let the man with the newly minted RBI make it to second on the throw. A double then brought him in to make it 5-0, but a throw out on the bases ended it there.
The game sped on until the top of the ninth, where the Tourists had a one-out walk and a single, and then a two-out single to bring in one more run to make it 6-0, while the Drive went in order in the bottom of the inning to make it official.
The Scorecard:
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| Tourists vs. Drive, 07/01/16. Tourists win, 6-0. |
The scorecard was a letter-sized photocopy separate from the program, with all the lineups already added in and the rosters on a separate sheet. It was incredibly cramped, however, even with no advertising, but it was usable. The card included fielding stats, and for the first time, I experimented with only filling in the columns that did not have null data, instead of writing in zeros for everything that needed it. It was a bit of a time saver/lazy move on my part, but I like the way it went, and it certainly saved some wear and tear on the arms.
Two plays of literal note were a double-play grounder in the top of the fourth that got thrown to the wall with no error (because the double play cannot be assumed), and a caught stealing to end the top of the sixth that was a failed attempt to get a base on a passed ball.
Otherwise, it was mostly an average game, though it took six Tourist pitchers to get the shutout, three-hitter against the Drive, while just three Drive pitchers stayed in to give up 6 runs and 15 hits. There's a message in there, I'm sure.
The Accommodations:
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| Baymont Inn & Suites |
I was staying at the tony-sounding Baymont Inn & Suites, located in the less-tony sounding Haywood Mall, about fifteen minutes from the ballpark and downtown.
The room was nice, but not exceptional, with a large bathroom off the entrance, and a bedroom with king-sized bed and small pull-out couch on one wall, with a dresser adjacent, and a desk and TV on the wall opposite the bed. Still, it did what it needed to, just nothing special.
2016 The Carolinas
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