Bridgeport

On The Beauty of the Tapan Zee Bridge

The Ballpark at Harbor Yard, 2012

Sunday, August 12, 2012
Camden River Sharks vs. Bridgeport Bluefish
The Ballpark at Harbor Yard
Atlantic League (Independent)
Bridgeport, CT
2:05 PM


Outside the Game:
This weekend was one of dire weather predictions. There was a large storm that was supposedly going to blow through the area this weekend on Friday and Saturday. It was a gloomy prognostication for storms as bad as the freak event that tore through the area in July. And this was proving problematic for me to go see a ballgame.

The Bridgeport team was home this weekend, and they were the only one of the three teams to check off my list for this year (covering all of Connecticut and Rhode Island). Given the forecasts, the Saturday night game was looking to be rained out at best, so I shifted my weekend around and did all my Sunday activities on Saturday, with the plan of going to the Sunday afternoon game.

Well, of course, the storm did not show up Friday night as scheduled. There was a touch of rain, but all the reports for apocalyptic weather were moved into Saturday, erasing any last hopes of the storm hitting early and being able to make the Saturday game. I went about my various tasks and chores as the rain got pushed further and further out in the day, and at game time, the sun was still shining high and bright. The new supposed deadline of 8 PM came and went, and it became clear I could have just gone to the Saturday game. Outside of some rain overnight, nothing came of the "dangerous" storm.

And so Sunday came around. I had hoped to be able to listen to "Talking Baseball" on the radio during the drive up, but it was only an abbreviated 45 minutes this Sunday to make room for the men's Olympic basketball finals, which were being covered live on the radio for some reason. So that, instead of the dulcet tones of Ed Randall, were the soundtrack for my drive up.

It being Sunday morning, I decided to risk a city crossing again, taking the Lincoln Tunnel to the West Side highway, up to 95. Heading away from Jersey, 95 was mostly smooth sailing (but with the Cross-Bronx, you never know minute-to-minute), but I did see 95 West-bound backed up at least eight miles from the George Washington Bridge.

The drive up to Bridgeport was mostly fine. Outside of Darien, in a work zone, there was an accident that had traffic stopped nearly dead for three miles. I decided to chance the "roadblock" feature on my TomTom, which took me on county roads and residential streets around the blockage (and coincidentally, fairly close to a friend's suburban home), and got me back on 95 past the accident and on my way. I pulled into Bridgeport about an hour and half before the game and parked in one of the rather expensive ($7) lots.

After buying my ticket and taking my photos outside, I still had some time to kill before the gates opened, so I walked a little into town, following the signs for the P.T. Barnum Museum. I found that it had been damaged in a storm two years ago and still wasn't re-opened. Mildly disappointed, I headed back to the stadium to await its opening.

After the game, there was little traffic heading out, and the stadium's close proximity to 95 had me back on the road home in no time. I stopped off at a service area to get some gas, and then I was off again. Remembering the trip out, I jumped on 287 to the Tapen Zee to avoid crossing on the GWB, taking the Palisades down Jersey on the way back. Giving the TomTom another chance (after nixing its suggestion to go back into Manhattan to take the West Side Highway down,) it took my a new and interesting route down to 495 to back into Hoboken that proved acceptable. I was back in the house and making dinner by a quarter after seven, quite pleased with myself.

Ah, the Tapen Zee: Not only are you cheaper and generally more traffic-free than other river-crossing options, you are also a more scenic ride. And so, of course, it is apparently going to be torn down and rebuilt with something more expensive and less pretty. So it goes.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Ballpark at Harbor Yard

The Ballpark at Harbor Yard was pretty typical of an indie league park, at about the A-AA level. The ballpark was located on the riverfront as part of a complex that someone clearly built in the 90s or so to "revitalize" the waterfront. In addition to the ballpark, next door was a small arena that seemed to host minor-league hockey and basketball teams, as well as some B-list concerts.

The park itself was nice, with a statue of local baseball notable James Henry O'Roarke out in front. The front of the stadium had a series of stairs up to entrances, while around the corner, what seemed to be the main entrance under the "Harbor Yard" sign sat facing the arena. The ballpark was situated with its back to the Metro-North train tracks, and a small passage goes around the place, with storage and the like out back.

All the entrances were up a flight of stairs, with the exception of home plate entrance to the luxury boxes, which presumably had an elevator. All the entrances led out to the main promenade that circled the stadium, with stairs leading down to the seating bowl. The luxury boxes were the only things above that, hovering over the area behind home plate.

One row of seats went from the start of the outfields around home plate. A second row of seats extended above them, in the shade of the luxury boxes for most of the area directly around home plate. In right field was a Kids' Cove play zone, and in left field was the expected picnic area. The main promenade looked out onto the field and was lined with concession stands, so that you could grab food while you watched the game. Out behind third base was the largish team store. Two retired numbers graced the left field wall.

The crowd was a little sparse. This could have been because of the dire forecasts one way or the other or a general lack of support for the bottom-dwelling team. Sunday was "Family Day," so before the game, all of the players lined up outside the dugout to sign autographs from all comers, and after the game (once the inevitable ball-toss game was done), kids were allowed to run the bases.

The mascot was named "BB" and didn't make a lot of appearances on-field. This may be how they do it there, or it may have been concerns about heat stroke. Most of the between-inning events were standard faire: ball tosses, bat races (performed by two Chinese tourists who needed extra instructions this time), and the like. In the later innings, a child had to catch rubber chickens flung by an elastic slingshot with a giant fishing net. I think it speaks to the fact that I've gone to too many of these games that it didn't even make me bat an eye.

There was one fan worth note, who looked like an aging hippie of some kind. He spent the game walking around with his hand-made sign asking to be hit a foul ball and other generic team support. He seemed to be enjoying himself, so good for him.


At the Game with Oogie:

Not kidding

For this indie league game, I again went big with the $15 seats behind the home dugout. As opposed to the week previous, the sun was coming at me from the back this time, but it didn't make it any less hot. I was mostly seated around season ticket holders, as well as a large group from a martial arts school that was having an outing at the stadium that day.

I was in the row behind the front row, but there was an incident with the next section over in that first row. A father and his son kept putting things on the top of the dugout itself, to the great consternation of the security guard for that section. After the third time getting warned, the father pointed to some girls sitting further down the row who had their feet up on the dugout and not getting harassed. The security guard then had to go over there to get them to stop, and this led to a shouting match between them and the father, and it just escalated, and eventually the father and his son were escorted from their seats. Everything else aside, is this really how you want to act in front of your kid? I mean, really. I was embarrassed for the tyke.

What was most notable about the whole experience was that the sun eventually got to be too much even for me. There was no sun going down halfway through a 2 PM game. Earlier, most of my section-mates had made a bee-line for unoccupied seats further up in the shade. I made it until about the seventh inning before I had to go up and spend the rest of the game watching from the shaded rail before I got sunstroke. There were a hardy few who stayed in the sun-blasted section, but they made frequent trips out of the sun for concessions and the like.


The Game:

First pitch, Riversharks vs. Bluefish

With indie league ball, you're never quite sure what you're going to get. In looking through the program, I was surprised by the number of players that at least had a cup of coffee in the majors instead of the AA-and-out you usually get, and to their credit, there weren't even any errors in the game. But the first half of the match did plod on slowly, and there was a lack of both hit and pitch in this game that can only be partially attributable to the heat for this afternoon game.

The visiting River Sharks and the Bluefish both scattered a hit in their respective halves of the first with nothing to show. With one out and a 3-2 count on the second batter in the second inning, the Bluefish's pitcher collapsed on the mound. Everyone in my section was busy following a foul ball hit right over our heads, so we didn't quite see the start of it, but in the end, the trainer walked the hobbled pitcher off the mound, and a spot replacement got a good deal of time to warm up. Although he got that batter, he promptly gave up a double, a walk, and a single in quick succession, eventually ending the inning giving up only one run. But in their half of the second, a two-out homer by the Bluefish tied it up, leaving it 1-1 at the end of two.

The newish Bluefish pitcher gave up a lead-off single and then two one-out singles to load the bases in the third. A sacrifice fly brought a run in, but more men got left on base as a liner to left ended the half. The Bluefish got a single and walk and nothing to show for it, making it 2-1 River Sharks after three innings. The River Sharks found an odd way to go 1-2-3 in an inning, with a lead-off single, erased on the next batter's fielder's choice, who was erased on the next batter's fielder's choice, who was in his turn caught stealing. The Bluefish had a more traditional inning, getting just a walk and nothing else.

In the fifth, the River Sharks went in order rather more normally, while the Bluefish were unable to capitalize on a one-out single and walk. Perhaps feeling the heat, the River Sharks went down in order again the sixth, and the Bluefish had their first two go in order as well against a new River Shark pitcher. But they got a two-out single, then a walk, then another single to load the bases. Another short single brought in a run, leaving the bases loaded, and a walk brought in another before the River sharks pulled their ineffective pitcher. A ground out to third ended it, but not before the Bluefish regained the lead, 3-2.

The River Sharks tried their own two-out rally in the seventh with a walk and a single, but a new Bluefish pitcher came in and got a fly to center to end the threat. The Bluefish, for their part, went in order. The River Sharks went in order in the eighth, and the Bluefish had a leadoff single erased on a double-play before striking out to end the half.

With their last licks, the River Sharks went meekly in order, and the bottom-dwelling Bluefish got a rare 2-1 win.


The Scorecard:

Riversharks vs. Bluefish, 08/12/12. Bluefish win, 2-1.

The scorecard was again part of a $3 program, but here it was actually in the center fold of the program on shiny magazine paper instead of the photocopy of the week before. The magazine paper was a little problematic with erasing and re-writing with pencil, but it was clearly designed with pen scorers in mind.

It was a standard diamond-box design with a good amount of space for writing, though the center diamond was so thick that it was hard to write legibly over it. It had places for a good amount of generic data (date, start/end, scorer, umpires, and weather), and repeated a lot of information on both sheets. It was actually a little difficult to determine if the scorecard section was for the home team or the opponent.

Rather untypically, it had an inning-by-inning line score under the individual performance statistics that didn't make a lot of sense, but it lined up with the cumulative data in a nifty way I had never seen before so that the line score and the team stats meshed pretty nicely.

There were some odd scorings of note. For the first time ever, I had to record a pitcher being removed in the middle of a batter (because of the pitcher's injury). I wrote in the count that the pitcher left on (3-2), and it would have gotten interesting if the batter had gotten on base, but he grounded out to third.

Also of note was a 3-6-1 double play in the third, where the first baseman came so far off the bag to make the relay throw to short that the pitcher backing him up got the back end of the double play. Bonus points for solid fundamentals, but it was all tinged with a bit of sadness as I always love a good 3-6-3 double play.


The Accommodations:
Hoboken

Click here to see all of the photos from this trip.

2012 Stand-Alone Trip