Aberdeen

On Vehicular Adventures

Ripken Stadium, 2014

Saturday, August 10, 2014

Jamestown Jammers (Pittsburg Pirates) vs.
Aberdeen IronBirds (Baltimore Orioles)
Cal Ripken Stadium
NY-PENN League (Short-Season A)
Aberdeen, MD
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Unlike most of my trips this summer, this one was doable as a day trip. (And likely the last new one I'd be able to do as such. Buffalo was the only city left in the "immediate" area, and the next closest new stadium was in Ohio or Virginia.) I did not want to get out of bed and spent a lot of time sort of getting up, only to mysteriously find myself back in bed again.

I was eventually able to peel myself out of bed, get showered, and run out to do some chores and grab lunch. My research into the traffic on this summer Saturday led me to believe that I would have to leave at around 2 PM to ensure getting there around 5 PM. With the closure of the military museum several years ago, there wasn't much in the way of attractions in Aberdeen, so I was fine getting there in time to get photos and watch the game.

I took an early afternoon nap, and then set out. My last review of the traffic led me to avoid the 78 extension of the Turnpike and to make the fateful decision to get off the Turnpike completely at exit 9 and take local roads down to after exit 8 to rejoin. Normally a problem that never seems to be corrected, the entire several-mile stretch was a violent and angry red on the traffic map.

Heading out, I had no real traffic problems, but the highway signs were already warning of heavy delays between exits 9 and 8, so I went through with my plan of getting off at exit 9. There was some congestion, but the traffic was moving, and my decision to bail seemed to be justified to this point. However, I had written down the road incorrectly, and missed an important turn. Instead of heading south and rejoining the turnpike, I was heading straight southwest on 1. I did have the option to stay on 1 and join up with the Turnpike again, as it takes a bit of a turn that parallels 1.

However, 1 turned into a parking lot, and I used the roadblock function on my TomTom to get me around it, which involved driving through the suburbs of Princeton. It was taking me to 295 and back onto the Turnpike, but taking 295 straight south would get me to the Delaware Memorial Bridge for free, and it would also avoid the apocalyptic last toll gate on the Turnpike, so I ignored the plaintive orders of the soothing British voice of my TomTom to rejoin the Turnpike and just kept going on 295.

From that point on, it was smooth sailing. Outside of being held up at gunpoint by the tolls in Delaware and stopping off in Maryland at a service area to get some much-needed liquids, I was at Aberdeen without incident. I parked and went on my normal pre-game photos.

In doing my walk-around, I discovered that there was an international Babe Ruth youth baseball tournament going on in the "Cal Ripken Experience" fields on the other side of the hotels to the park. I saw people going around with country team jerseys, and I eventually found signs and schedules showing that this was the first competition day of the tournament. There were games going on at many of the fields, which rivaled the Little League World Series venues in Williamsport. The facility had at least a dozen fields, including the main field, named for Cal Ripken Senior.

Cal Sr.'s Yard

When I leave for these trips, I generally reach into my baseball t-shirt drawer (which exists) and drag out as many shirts as I need for however long I'd be gone. For today, at random, I grabbed a t-shirt for the SK Wyverns, a Korean professional team.

I forgot about this completely, until a player from the Korean team saw my shirt and starting talking to me. It was at this point that I realized I had completely forgotten most of my Korean. I was able to blurt out something along the lines of, "Yes, Korean baseball." After that, he seemed to react positively and then ran off to find his teammates. I also ran into the Australian team, having a brief conversation with one of the heavily accented team coaches.

If I had known this tournament was going on, I would have driven down earlier to watch it, but as it stood, it was right before the gates were to open for the IronBirds game, and I had to go back across the way to get in line. The line, which then extended halfway into the parking lot, was efficiently cleared in about two minutes, and I was off to the races.

After the game, everyone was still in their seats for the fireworks, so I was nearly alone walking to my car and heading out back onto 95 in the other direction. Beside the minor annoyance of some left-lane sitters to move around, the only drama in my trip home occurred at the end. With about a half hour to go, my gas gauge headed towards "E" rather menacingly. I decided to push it and see what happens, as frankly there is no easy place to get gas anyway until you get off the Turnpike.

The needle ticked further and further left to the point where I was extremely distressed at the long line of cars to get off the Turnpike. The car was definitely starting to run roughly. But I was eventually through, and I pulled into the gas station by the entrance to Hoboken to get gas. I was to purchase 13.1 gallons of gas, which is interesting, as I only have a 13-gallon tank. So I was playing it fairly close there.

But I got to my parking garage and home safely, so crashed for the night at around 12:30 AM.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Ripken Stadium

In case you had any doubts at whose house you were at, the “Ripken Stadium” moniker should put the question at rest pretty quickly. Whether you consider Ripken a paragon of baseball virtue who is using his fame to give back to the community or an egocentric blowhard who won’t rest until his name is on every last thing is a matter of personal taste. The park is located in a little outcrop of nothingness just off the interstate, and is part of a larger complex. The brick-façade stadium has it main entrance just behind home plate, flanked by the team store and the ticket booth. The stadium sits in a sea of asphalt, next to a hotel just for the complex, and the huge youth complex on the other side of the hotel.

The centerpiece of the youth facility is Cal Sr.’s Yard, one the fanciest youth fields you ever will see. It is actually nicer than a lot of low A-ball fields you'll find. The smaller facade shares the same brick facing as the park next door, with a main entrance leading out to a promenade at the top of the walkway running outfield to outfield above a single row of seats next to the field. The entire outfield is a picnic hill with open seating. A press box pokes out of the top of the grandstand, and there’s even concessions along the walkway looking out on the field.

Carl Sr.’s Yard is just a small part of the youth complex, with includes many other practice fields, and the day I was there it was hosting an international youth baseball tournament, so there were additional amusements set up on the wide fields between the other ballfields in the complex. Also there was some inevitable statues and tributes to the Ripken brothers and their dad, including a really questionable artists choice of a statute of Cal, with his arm in what is just not a Hitler salute. Someone should have spoken up earlier in the design process about it, to be honest.

Ill-conceived

Back at the main minor-league park, the entrance empties out onto the higher of two promenades that runs along the top of the seating bowl and runs from outfield corner to outfield corner behind home plate. All the concessions and shops are on this upper promenade, giving fans continuing views of the field while they are waiting for their grub. Stairways at regular intervals lead down to the upper level of seating and to the lower walkway that runs to the edges of the grandstand and provides access to the box seats close to the field. An upper level runs from dugout to dugout behind the plate, holding the luxury boxes and the press box. The outfield wall is just a single tier with surprisingly few ads for the minors, with the tree-lined backdrop being broken up only with the smaller digital scoreboard in left-center and the gigantic video board looming over right-center. The retired Ripken numbers are on the outfield wall as well.

Left field ends up at a kids’ area and a patio for all-you-can-eat seats with tables overlooking the field, as well as a cutout for local Natty beer. Right field terminates in the Conrad Crab Seafood Deck, above the home bullpens that have their own small garden. The very top of the grandstand behind home plate houses the Extra Innings Club, a special seating area with their own bar and concessions.

Ferrus, the iron bird. Get it?

“Iron” birds Ripcord and Ferrous will be your mascots for the evening and are wandering around from when the gates open until after the game, as well as hosting most of the between-innings entertainment, along with a rather, uh, large human heading the human fun crew. Most of the entertainments were minor-league standard, with some unique events throw in, such as a squat contest between a couple.

There was a decidedly healthy crowd there that night, filling up most of the park watching the tense contest that wasn’t decided until the ninth, and they seemed as interested in the game as the entertainment between the action on the field. This may have something to do with a lot were probably part of the youth baseball tournament going on next door.


At the Game with Oogie:

Chicken fingers and corn-dog bites

I bought a ticket in the fancy-pants zone behind the home dugout in the morning before heading out. As a single, you can almost always sneak in to any section because there is almost always one somewhere. I was sitting next to a family of three to my right with whom we exchanged some chit-chat, especially with the father, but the story of the game was the family right in front of us. It was some parents with their three year-old daughter, who was both trouble and a charmer at once. (I definitively know her age because she kept telling the gentleman next to me she was ten, only to be corrected by her mother.) At any rate, she was a pleasant diversion who went from shy to unable to stop talking over the course of the game.

As another side note, Cal Ripken Stadium (part of the Carl Ripken Experience in Cal Ripken, MD) is out to try and kill me. All of the food stands either served crab or lobster, or had "bay salt" (containing the former) either on the dishes, or available as a condiment. Hurrah for aerosol death all around the park! I had to directly ask the people behind the counter if my chicken fingers and corn dog bites had any crab or lobster in them, and this is not a question I should have to ask.


The Game:

First pitch, Jammers vs. Ironbirds

This contest between two bottom-dwelling clubs didn't promise much in the way of excitement, and on that, it mostly delivered. Dominating pitchers on both side throwing major-league 90+ heat stifled the offense for nearly the entire game.

To begin, the Jammers had a one-out single in the top of the first, but he was erased on a strike-em out, throw-em out double play. The Ironbirds started the first with a single that was erased on a failed steal attempt, and a two-out single was stranded on a pop out to center. Jamestown started the second with a single and stolen base, but three outs in a row left him there. Aberdeen did them one better by starting the inning with a double and stranding him there. Jamestown went in order in the third, while the IronBirds had a leadoff single erased on a fielder's choice and not much else.

In the fourth, the Jammers had a one-out single erased on a caught stealing and nothing else. The IronBirds had nearly an identical inning, with a walk erased on a fielder's choice instead of a single. In the fifth, Jamestown had a leadoff double that made it to third on a fielder's choice, but was stranded. To match the futility, Aberdeen had back-to-back, two-out singles left on the bases with a fly to right field. The Jammers matched the feat in top of the sixth with back-to-back one-out singles stranded by a strikeout and a grounder to second. The IronBirds went in order.

The seventh was nothing more than a leadoff walk for Jamestown that made it as far as second on a steal and then six straight outs as both sides went in order afterwards. The Jammers had a two-out single in the eighth erased on a caught stealing, and the IronBirds went in order again.

Quickly to the ninth inning, we finally got some scoring. The Jammers had a leadoff single to deep short. The next batter, attempting to bunt, popped it up. The catcher made a great play to snag it, but a snap throw to first to double off the runner went astray, giving him second base. The next batter had the best-hit ball of the night, a rocket that went into the no-man's land of the right field corner. The runner from second easily scored, and the batter made it to third standing up. A deep fly to right plated him, and the next batter singled to center and went to second on a wild pitch. A strikeout ended the top of the ninth at 2-0, Jamestown. Aberdeen was unable to muster a rally, with just a two-out walk to show against the Jammers' closer, sealing the 2-0 Jamestown victory.


The Scorecard:

Jammers vs. Ironbirds, 08/10/14. Jammers win, 2-0.

This was a bit of an odd one. The free program handed out at the gate didn't contain a scorecard at all, which was unique in my travels in America. A quick trip to the fan relations booth resulted in a pre-printed, single-sheet scorecard, along with rosters and game notes. I have no idea at all why they weren't included in the program. There may be something similar as to why the St. Louis Cardinals have the worst scorecard in the majors in that all the scorers come to the park with their own instrument, so there is less demand for the program item.

The card itself was fairly straightforward, with a couple quirks. There were fielding stats; the opposing pitching line was placed with the other team (an idea that is, frankly, starting to grow on me); the official scorer gets a nod (first time I think I've seen that); and, for no good reason, in the section listing players who achieve doubles, triples, home runs, and grounded into double plays, the HR line is listed twice.

The game had a couple of scoring oddities of note. There were two steals and four caught stealings (oh, the low minors), and there was a fielder's choice call in the bottom of the third that should have been an E4 (the second baseman threw the tail end of a double-play into the stands). Ramping up the unusual, there was a 3-4-1 putout in the bottom of the sixth, as the pitcher threw the ball off the first baseman's mitt, and the second baseman backing up the play threw it back to the pitcher to record the out before the runner reached first. There was also a K-2-6 strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play in the top of the first. And in the top of the ninth, a runner was pulled for a pinch runner after hitting a triple. If he's got the legs to make it to third with a stand-up triple, he can get the last 90 feet on his own, Skip.


The Accommodations:
Hoboken, sweet, Hoboken

Click here to see all the photos from the trip.

2014 Stand-Alone Trip