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| DeVault Memorial Stadium, 2017 |
Danville Braves (Atlanta Braves) vs.
Bristol Pirates (Pittsburgh Pirates) -- Game 1
DeVault Memorial Stadium
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Bristol, VA
6:00 PM
Outside the Game:
The day began with a lazy, lazy morning in Princeton, grabbing breakfast, washing up, and then checking out with the same people who had checked my friend and I in several days before. I entered my trip to Bristol into my new GPS, got gas, and headed out for the two-hour drive.
The trip was thankfully uneventful, and I stopped along the way for lunch. I discovered an issue with the hotel bill at that time. My friend had put his credit card down when he arrived first at the hotel. I had subsequently given my card to charge the room, as my friend had slipped me some cash when he left town the day before. But both of our cards had the room charge on them. A quick call to the hotel later, it turned out the charge on my friend's card was just a hold for the room and it should disappear in a day or so (which it eventually did). I called him up to make sure everything was straight, and then continued to Bristol.
Now the thing about eastern Tennessee is that it is the only place that has less going on than western Tennessee. Another friend of mine grew up in the area he accurately described as the "belt buckle of the Bible Belt," but he was from the somewhat more progressive west, and he was at a loss to what I would do with myself in the eastern part of the state, where one of the only real attractions was the Appalachian League that I was there to see.
The one thing that part of the state did have going for it was caves. The area of the state is riddled with caverns, and that was just fine with me. So, my first stop in the state was Bristol Caverns, a rather popular commercial cave just outside of the city.
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| Bristol Caverns |
I parked up and walked in just as a tour was ready to leave, so I and a group of about twenty people were led into the cave by a guide who gave a history of the cave as well as its commercial exploitation. One of the first things you pass in going to the entrance was a second entrance that was attempted in the 80s but failed for a number of reasons. The guide explained that the old family that owned the cave now had no real ambitions for it beyond what it was, as it brought in a tidy income for their golden years, and they weren't about to fiddle with the golden goose this late in life.
The caverns themselves were quite lovely, with a lot of interesting features and an underground river, but the guide was a bit of a character. When speaking of the rumors about the Native American use of the cave, he let drop the line that he was 1/8th Native, and I almost failed to stifle my laugh when he said it. You see, there is next to no chance that this good ole boy had Native blood in his lineage. It has become a hip thing for people to claim, even in the capital "S" South, but in reality, most tales of Native American blood (as in, nearly all of them, especially in the South), are a case of older relations trying to cover up African-American lineage. A little Native American blood was borderline acceptable and perhaps a tantalizing point of pride, but any "Negro" blood definitely was not, and it was an easy way to explain away some darker colorings.
Anyway, after the tour, I drove to my hotel and checked in, unpacked, and took a nap. And then I was off to grab some money and head to the game. The park was an oddly arranged affair with a shared parking lot with the football stadium next door. The sole ticket booth was at the end of a long walkway that led to the stadium, so I was able to score my general admission seat and head on in for the first of two games.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, DeVault Memorial Stadium |
DeVault Memorial Stadium was an odd duck of a park, as many Appalachian League stadiums would turn out to be.
The park was located right next door to a football field (another common occurrence), and the one ticket booth was at the head of a long, winding walkway the led to behind home plate of the field. A dual-level building behind home plate housed the "Mose" Saul Pressbox (upstairs) and the Fred & Brenda Scott Concession stand, and the Dotty Cox Souvenir Stand (downstairs). Further memorials were a POW/MIA seat, and a commemorative plaque on a 27-strikeout perfect game thrown in 1952 by the Bristol D-league franchise of the day. A cement walkway ran above the reserved seats and below the bleachers from outfield to outfield. Three rows of fold-down reserved seats ran from dugout to dugout behind home plate. From the bases into the short outfield, and behind the reserved seats at home plate were three rows of bleachers, metal in by the bases and straight cement behind home plate.
Behind the third-base side home dugout there was "Home Run Alley," a party porch with its own bar. Further behind the third base side was a steep picnic hill, topped a covered bench area (the only covered seats in the park). The basic electric scoreboard in left-center field is part of the two-level outfield wall covered in billboards and backed by trees. The park banned tobacco, and the only place to buy liquor was in Home Run Alley, which surprisingly enough, is where the lushes congregated for the duration of both games.
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| A lot of mascots for a Rookie team |
The team had two costumed mascots, generic monster "Ding" and pirate Captain Buc. There was also a human Captain Buc who wandered the stands interacting with the kids and blowing balloon animals and such. There was a decent enough crowd for a mid-week double-header, and they seemed into the game as much as you can be, given the outcome. Not surprisingly, the Home Run Alley crowd was the most vocal. There was a minimum of activity between-innings and mostly centered in the stands.
It is worth mentioning that they had a prayer before the start of the game. I had been to games in countless states and countries before this, but the moment I see a game in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt, they have a prayer before the game. It was a first, but sadly not a last, as it would be repeated for the rest of the games in Tennessee. I mean, seriously guys: even West Virginia didn't pray before games.
The area behind home plate were also packed with scouts. As in, there was a clutch of them with their speed guns taking notes after every pitch. That's rookie league for you.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Rookie scoring |
I grabbed a GA ticket for the game and still sat right behind home plate, so that worked out well, though the concrete seats were a bit too much, if you ask me. My back certainly agreed by the end of the first game. I scored a lot of cheap grub before the start of the first game and retreated to my seat for the duration.
Well, almost the duration. There was a Baseball Bingo game going that I didn't win, but my program came with a contest ticket that I did win. When I went to the souvenir stand to claim my prize, they seemed a little confused that someone bothered to come get their winnings, such as it was. It turned out to be a leather Volvo keychain, which I guess made some sort of sense in some way I didn't understand.
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| Winner, winner |
The bleachers behind home were pretty packed for the game. In front of me was a young family with a baby. She was catered to by the human mascot for a while, and then settled down for a nap in the later innings on a fuzzy blanket laid over the cement seats.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Braves vs. Pirates, Game 1 |
This Appalachian-League contest between the Danville Braves and the Bristol Pirates was going to be two, seven-inning games to make up from the rain-outs that had been affecting this area, as well as where I had been further north. It would turn out to be a historic one, at least for me.
Danville started the game with a leadoff single that was erased on a double-play. The Pirates second batter was hit by a pitch and erased on a fielder's choice to end the inning, so not much to brag about for both teams. Both sides also went in order in the second. The Braves woke up in the third with a leadoff infield single to third, a double to score the lead runner, a single to make it first and third, and then another double to bring in the lead runner and make it second and third with no out. The pitcher promptly uncorked a wild pitch to score a run and move the lead runner to third. A deep fly to center from the next batter looked to be a tailor-made sacrifice fly, but the center fielder gunned down the runner at home for an unlikely double play, and another fly out to center ended the half with Danville up, 3-0. Bristol again went in order in their half.
A single, a double, and a wild pitch somehow didn't score a run for the Braves in the top of the fourth, and the Pirates went in order again. Both teams sat down in order in the fifth, but Danville got it going again in the top of the sixth with a leadoff walk. A single, groundout, and booted grounder by the first baseman got in another run, staking them to a 4-0 lead. The Pirates again went in order, as it started to dawn on everyone that they were being no hit, and just missed having a perfect game thrown against them except for the hit batsman two guys into the game. In the seventh, Danville scraped another run across on a single, two groundouts, a wild pitch and a passed ball, and Bristol, in their last licks, went down quickly, cementing the Braves 5-0, no-hit win.
The Scorecard:
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| Braves vs. Pirates, 08/08/17, Game 1. Braves win, 5-0. |
The scorecard was part of the $1 program, which came with a Baseball Bingo card, as well as a raffle ticket. It was a solid program, as a full-sized tabloid with cardstock paper. Instead of the centerfold, the scorecard was on one page in the early part of the program. It took up the entirety of that page, on white background, with a decent amount of space for scoring, with each square not having a pre-printed diamond. There was not a ton of places for replacements, however, but that didn't affect me as it was two seven-inning games, and there were only three pitching lines, which also would have been a problem if these were normal games. The scorecard even had a brief paragraph in the upper left-hand corner about ground rules, and not chasing foul balls into the football field next door.
The big story here, of course, was the first no hitter that I had witnessed in person, even if it was only a seven-inning affair. It just missed a perfect game by the hit batsman two players into the game. The only odd scoring play of note was the DP F-8-2 in the bottom of the third when a runner on third tried to take it home on a fly-out to center and got gunned down by a great throw.
Also, I just noticed that I put the home Bristol Pirates at the top of the scorecard for some reason. Maybe that jinxed them.
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| No hits |
And, to sum up, no hitter.
The Accommodations:
There was a second game to see before rest, though I did take a nap in my room before heading out to the game.
On Playing Two
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Danville Braves (Atlanta Braves) vs.
Bristol Pirates (Pittsburgh Pirates) -- Game 2
DeVault Memorial Stadium
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Bristol, VA
8:20 PM
Outside the Game:
The second game of the doubleheader ended at around 10:30, and I was back to the hotel in no time. I finished up both scorecards and set my head to rest in Tennessee for the first time.
The Stadium & Fans:
See above. Most of the crowd stayed for both games, brisk as they were.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| First hit in a while |
Between games I went to the concession stand and grabbed a hot dog to tide me over for the second game. I decided to take in the second game from the bleacher seats behind first base. The metal bleachers were actually a welcome relief after the stiff concrete for the first game, and I sat at the very top, so I had some backing with the chain-link fence, so that was even more relief. Much as it must have been a relief to the home fans when the Pirates got a hit and then eventually even scored some runs.
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| Dog |
There was no one sitting near me for the second game, although some teenagers were running back and forth around my section intermittently. I was able to see some foul balls go into the football field just beyond the first-base side of the park. Even though the program had a notice not to, enterprising kids hopped the fence to grab souvenirs when they thought the adults were suitably distracted.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Braves vs. Pirates, Game 2 |
The second match-up between the Braves and the Pirates started at the odd time of 8:20 PM. It looked to be more of the same until a breakout inning halfway through the contest gave the home team something to cheer for.
The game began spectacularly with a passed ball third strike allowing a runner to reach base. A single got him to third, but he was thrown out by the catcher when he was sleeping too far off the bag at third. With two outs in the bottom of the first, the Pirates finally got their first hit in a while, though he was stranded there. Danville got a sole baserunner in the top of the second due to an error, and the Pirates went in order, while both sides went in order in the third.
Danville scattered a reached-on-error and walk in the top of the fourth, but the Pirates finally woke up. The inning started with a walk and then a bunt single. Everyone advanced on a grounder that the pitcher threw away after the play, letting a run score. The next batter grounded to first, and a play to home was too late. Another grounder was not played cleanly, and a single brought in another run. A walk loaded the bases, and a grounder to short was sent home to cut off the run, but the play moved up the runners. A hit batsman forced in a run, and then a would-be sacrifice fly to right field turned into a F9-2 double play, as the runner from third got nailed trying to score. But Bristol was out to a 4-0 lead. Danville went in order in the fifth, and the Pirates had a reached-on-error in the bottom of the frame.
In the sixth, the Braves finally got on the board with a leadoff double that got driven in with two short singles to close the gap to 4-1. Bristol had the first two batters of the bottom of the sixth hit by pitches, but they left them stranded there. In their last licks in the top of the seventh, the Braves only managed one baserunner on a two-out boot by the pitcher of a ground ball, and the Pirates got their 4-1 win of the nightcap.
The Scorecard:
Braves vs. Pirates, 08/08/17, Game 2. Pirates win, 4-1.
For the second game, I used the BBWAA scorebook to record the game.
While not a no-hitter, this one had a couple of scoring plays of note. In the top of the first, there was a runner that reached on a third strike thanks to a passed ball. He was eventually caught stealing off third 1-2-5 when the catcher saw him too far off the bag. The eventful fourth inning had some plays of literal note. What was ruled a bunt single was actually an E3, thanks to some home cooking. That runner would score on a fielder's choice 3-2, where he was called safe. In the top of the sixth, a hit was ruled a double, but it really was an infield fly with no one on that dropped for a hit. And the inning ended on a DP F-9-2 where another sacrifice fly ended up on a double play due to the outfield arms being faster than the runners from third.
The Accommodations:
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| Hampton Inn Bristol |
For most of the remainder of the trip, I was staying at the Hampton Inn Bristol, which was just on the Tennessee side of the border. I went with a nice efficiency room, and it proved to be a convenient and pacific base of operations for the rest of the week. Just off the entrance to the right was the somewhat small bathroom, which had a nice-sized tub that would get a lot of use over the stay.
The bedroom had a big king bed, with night tables, a refrigerator and microwave, and large easy chair with Ottoman on one side of the room. On the other was a small luggage table, a dresser with TV, a large bureau, and a desk by the window, that would be my base of operations for the trip.
It was comfortable, quiet, and had some space to move around in, so it would serve my purposes quite well for my time in Tennessee, as well as purging some awful memories of Arizona, where my last long-term stay was… not as enjoyable.
2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee
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