On Inadvertently Seeing All the Yankees Franchises
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| Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, 2018 |
Rome Braves (Atlanta Braves) vs.
Charleston RiverDogs (New York Yankees)
Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park
South Atlantic League (A)
Charleston, SC
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
Despite my best efforts, I woke up at 6 AM the next day/later that day. I grabbed breakfast, did some planning for my hotel, grabbed a shower, packed up, and then went back to sleep until just before my late checkout at noon.
I packed up the car and headed back out onto the road. The gas station right by my hotel was also on the pull-off from 95 and had a line, so I gave up there, got on 95, and started driving south. About an hour into the drive, I pulled off again and filled up my tank with about an hour to go to my destination.
The road eventually petered out to two lanes, and the last part was marred by two truckers that took turns passing each other very, very slowly and backing up traffic for--no kidding around--at least a half mile. Some guy eventually cracked and got up behind the truck and just leaned on his horn for five minutes until he completed his pass more quickly, and then the backed-up traffic burst through the free lane hole in the damn and sprinted off to freedom.
I eventually got to Charleston around two o'clock and was able to check into my room a little early. I dropped off my bags, unpacked a little, and then headed out to "Patriot's Point," where there was the USS Yorktown and the ferry to Fort Sumter. The drive was okay, but there were some shaky bits on one of the bridges where the GPS lost coherence with reality again, but I managed to make it to the parking lot with no problems.
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| USS Yorktown at "Patriot's Point" |
I was just in time for the last ferry out to Fort Sumter, but the last ferry back wouldn't dock until 5:30 PM, cutting it pretty close for the game. I decided to try again for the first ferry tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM and see the ships today. I paid my way in and headed out to the aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown. It was a hot and miserable day, and I nearly wilted walking across the large bridge to get to the ship, let alone going inside the metal monster itself. It really put into perspective what the crew had to go through when this thing was in the tropics. I can't even imagine.
The ship was broken into several "tours" that you could go on, such as "The Space Program," "WWII," "Engineering," "The Bridge," etc. I walked around to them all. The engine room was particularly eye-opening on how hot it was at dock in South Carolina, forget about with the generators on in the Pacific. Though, there were a couple of areas that had air conditioning added for events and in small museum spaces. I joked with one of the veteran volunteers on the ship that I thought it would be much hotter on the ship, but it couldn't have been that bad with the AC. Thankfully, he got the joke.
The whole thing was pretty impressive just form the standpoint of what was technologically possible to build in the 40s, with this literal city on the sea that stayed in service well into the 70s. It was also clear how much maintenance it required. Out on the open flight deck, there was a lot of obvious and visible rust that would not have been allowed in its working days. It is astounding to think of the effort necessary to keep this thing, uh, ship-shape.
After my fill of the ship, I forwent the sister destroyer berthed nearby and the submarine was undergoing repair work, so I went to "The Viet Nam Experience," or I as I called it, "The Flashback Machine."
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| The Flashback Machine |
Now, granted, there were a ton of warning signs at the entrance to the exhibition to that effect, but it was frankly as if this thing was designed to provoke such flashbacks. You go through an initial building with some displays, and then you walk to Viet Nam era equipment and buildings from US bases. Where it goes really wrong is that there is a part that recreates repelling a Viet Cong attack, with sounds of gun and ordinance fire and yelling and the like that can't help but provoke a flashback in those susceptible.
I went back to the gift shop and bought my usual nick-knacks. I was a bit disappointed because they had an assortment of disabled grenades available for sale that I had no way of getting home. If I shipped them, my package would get confiscated, and if I took them in my luggage, well, you know...
I made the drive back to the hotel, just hitting a little traffic and dealing with GPS problems on the bridge again. I dumped off all non-baseball stuff, grabbed my game bag, and headed back to the stadium.
Except that my GPS didn't just have problems in Charleston with the bridge. It had problems with the area by the stadium. I'm not sure what happened, but it turned me around and had me out towards Patriot's Point again, where I had to turn around and deal with it not knowing where the bridge was. Once I was back downtown, I picked a direction and drove on the surface roads to get me away from any onramps that the GPS could take me on, figured out what direction I had to go in, and then just kept going in that direction. As I got closer to where the stadium was supposed to be, I got more and more worried, because I could see no signs of a stadium.
But I just kept going to where I knew the stadium had to be, and eventually, a lighting rig appeared in the distance. A little more driving got me to the stadium just before the gates were set to open. I jumped in one of the $5 parking lots shared with the college across the road and scrambled to get my outside pictures and pick up my ticket at will call. I finished up just as the first surge of people cleared up and I was on my way.
After the relatively quick game, I was off and back to the hotel before the fireworks with no GPS problems. I grabbed a shower, packed up, and double-checked my itinerary for the next couple of days. I worked out where two hours out was going to be the next night and booked my hotel, and then went to bed early to make up for the night before.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, "The Joe" |
Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, pitched as "The Joe" by the RiverDogs, is named for the mayor that helped get it built in the 90s. And as part of that renaissance of minor league parks in that period, it is filled with the signatures of that period: brick construction, downtown location, and overstuffed interiors.
The outside of the park is all brick, with pictures of old-time baseball in Charleston in little reliefs along the surface. The main home-plate gate is at the base of a stairwell that leads up to the promenade, but other entrances have stairs or ramps up to the top level. The main ticket booth is by the front entrance, while the Will Call booth is next to the first base entrance at the top of a flight of stairs. The main stadium facade is flanked by giant blow-ups of the two mascots, Charles and Chelsea, and there is a giant blow-up of Charles' mouth you can walk through to get the entrance.
Either way you get in, you end up on the main promenade that goes around the outside of the park from center field to left field and holds most of the concessions, stores, and other entertainments. An interior walkway splits up the seating from the box seats by the field and is accessible via intermittent ramps from the promenade and at the end of the grandstand at the first- and third-base side.
The seating bowl runs from third base to first base around home plate, covered in the top rows by an overhang that goes most of its length. A lower level of seating goes out into left field, but in right field, it is replaced by "Shoeless Joe's Hill," a padded picnic hill. The press box and luxury boxes are at the top of the area behind home plate. Third base seats are topped with a party deck, and first base with the Ashley View Pub. Party decks are also at the end of each grandstand, and left field has a special concession stand area.
The “Mystery Box” is on the promenade behind third base, along with a giant bat. Height charts with famous former players are along the supports in the center field promenade, overlooking the strangely pretty swamp beyond the center field wall. There are two main digital boards in right-center and an auxiliary board in left center, both against the backdrop of trees that frames the outfield over the single-deck outfield wall covered in local ads.
There's a ton of memorials in the place, from the inevitable John Henry Moss plaque at a SALly League Park, the stadium dedication, a memorial for a local All-Star team, the SALly Hall of Fame, Charlestoners in the Hall of Fame, the Charleston Hall of Fame, RiverDogs who made it to the majors, giant decals of former players now with the Yankee in the stadium walkways, Local Baseball Players of the Year, Local Softball Players of the Year, the Scouts Hall of Fame, Citadel Baseball Championships, memorials for the silly string world record and correctly predicting the election, and cut-out photos of the mascots and the former mayor. Plus, two retired numbers are on the batter's eye in center. Whew.
Charles and Chelsea
Charles and Chelsea and the human fun team run the events between innings, which are the regular minor league contests, quizzes, and races. The place was generally packed for the Friday-night game, and people were paying attention the baseball as well as the between-innings goofiness.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Bacon Dog |
After my adventure getting to the stadium, I relaxed as soon as I was inside, helped along by the bubble machines they had at the entrance. There was much more to this stadium than most on this trip, so I took my time going around the park and taking my pictures. At the back of the park, I stopped at a specialty hot dog stand to get a bacon dog. The guy asked if I had been there before and suggested one of the hot dogs that I had to reject on the basis that it would kill me (as it had shredded lobster in it). I also grabbed a corn dogs and fires and a souvenir drink later on, as well as two Gatorades for the duration of the game.
I wandered out and found myself in the area behind home just down the first base line. A Hawaiian-shirted usher told me I was in the seat-service area, which did me precious good now. I went back up and out to hit the team store, and on the way back, I was waylaid by another Hawaiian-shirted usher who identified me as being from out of town and asked me to sign his guest book. It turned out he was originally from New Jersey as well.
I then settled into my seat, where there was a group of tie-died RiverDogs fans to my left and some leather-wearing biker to my right. There was no one in the rows ahead of me.
As the game went on, the usher talked to me about if I knew what happened if the game went to extra innings, as the minor leagues had just adopted the international extra-innings rules. We both bemoaned the change, but thankfully, it did not come to that, although it was close.
As I was out of practice, I managed to leave my souvenir soda glass in my seat, but I was quickly able to find one at the top of a garbage and wash it out before the trip back to the hotel.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Braves vs. RiverDogs |
To say this game between the visiting Rome Braves and the home Charleston RiverDogs moved along at a clip is an understatement, with a one-run margin determining the outcome of the brief contest.
Both sides started off by going in order in the first. The Braves scattered some two-out singles before stranding them in the second, but Charleston again went in order. Both sides also went in order in the third, although the RiverDogs had a one-out single that was erased trying to steal.
Rome had a solitary single in the top of the fourth, while Charleston made the least of their opportunities, with three singles and no runs to show for it thanks to a double-play. The Braves went in order in the fifth, and the RiverDogs only had a single for the bottom of the inning. Rome again just had a single in the top of the sixth, while Charleston left an error and a single on-base to no effect.
The Braves had a walk and single in the seventh, and Charleston went in order despite a single thanks to another double-play. Scoring finally happened in the eighth when Rome had a leadoff double brought in by a single, staking them, finally, to a 1-0 lead. The RiverDogs went in order. The Braves sacrificed a leadoff single in the ninth over to second but left him there. In their last licks, Charleston had a leadoff walk and one-out error by the third baseman to leave it first and second with one out, but two strikeouts closed out the Braves' 1-0 road win.
The Scorecard:
Braves vs. RiverDogs, 06/29/18. Braves win, 1-0.
This $1 scorecard was the wonder of the trip. In having experienced perhaps the worst scorecard in professional baseball with the Black Bears, I had one of the best with the RiverDogs. The oversize tabloid cardstock bi-fold was big, and the entire inside of the centerfold was only scorecard. And this was good, because this was essentially a broadcast scorecard, with defensive alignments, cumulative stats, etc., that you just don't see. And it was printed on white, to leave plenty of space for notes, but there was a dedicated noted section as well.
The card starts with line scores at the very top left, and a scoreboard tally on the right, next to a placement map for the umpires. Underneath that on the left was a compressed line score, with areas for winning pitcher, losing pitcher, and save, above cumulative game stats. This was next to the defensive aligned map and the standings for the league. On the right, it was the league standings next to the defensive alignment, and then a large blank area for notes.
On both sides underneath that was the batting lines and inning totals. There was one line for each batting position, with amble space to write in any replacements. The scoring boxes were large, comfortable, and without pre-printed diamonds. Each batting line ended in stats column (that were also pre-printed for extra innings), and each inning column ended in an extended totals tally of runs/earned runs, hits, errors, and left on base. Underneath that for both teams was the bench listing, pitching lines, and bullpen. Thanks to limited data that I was provided, I was only able to fill out the bench for the RiverDogs, and the Bullpen for the Braves.
To say this card was intense is an understatement. There were abbreviations for things that I didn't know, and I still can't find, such as "WX," "C," and "IL." But it was a joy to use.
Sadly, there wasn't a ton of interesting scoring in this game. Three Braves got the Golden Sombrero, and there was a one infield hit awarded to the RiverDogs in the bottom of the fourth that was clearly home cooking, and I noted that it was really an E5. But besides that, there was nothing of note.
The Accommodations:
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| The Best Western, Charleston, SC |
I had booked the Best Western in Charleston for a pretty hefty fee, but it was one of the cheapest of the decent hotel in the area, which made sense for a Friday, really. It was actually one of the nicest Best Westerns I've ever stayed in, so it was worth the price. I was a little worried when I checked in and I saw my next-door neighbor was outside his room in the flat bed of his truck, smoking, with a "Do Not Disturb" sign on his door, but he didn't turn out to be a problem.
I was in a room with a nice set of twin beds, with an end table and table on one side of the room, and a dresser, refrigerator, TV, and desk on the other side. The room ended in a sink and vanity, with the shower and toilet in the room next to it.
It had a lot of fancy frills to it, and it was comfortable, quiet, and the right place to recover after the previous night.
2018 East Coast Leftovers
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