Asheville

On Southern Fried People

McCormick Field, 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

West Virginia Power (Pittsburgh Pirates) vs.

Asheville Tourists (Colorado Rockies)
McCormick Field
South Atlantic League (A)
Asheville, NC
2:00 PM

Outside the Game: 

I had an afternoon game this day, but thankfully at 2 PM and not noon. So, I was able to have a relatively reasonable morning of breakfast and packing before setting out on the two-and-a-half hour drive to Asheville. As I had the entire evening at the hotel, I made a snap decision to splurge on a Homewood Suites hotel with a full kitchen and make some dinner, because, why not?

I drove out to the park to get my ticket and take my pictures, and then had just enough time to go to my hotel and drop off all my bags and head back out to the game. The old stadium had a semi-residential locale at the top of the hill, but I got there early enough to utilize a street spot by the entrance. I don't know if it gained me anything; I just enjoyed that experience.

At a little before five, I was heading back to the hotel. As I had all night ahead of me, nothing was really open on a Sunday afternoon, and I had this nice kitchen in my room, so I walked to a nearby supermarket, hopping from patches of shade to shade, to buy some pasta and such and went back to the hotel in the sunset.

I'm not sure why the idea occurred to me, but it was far more enjoyable than I had even anticipated to cook for real for a night on the road. I made up some tolerably good pasta (with canned sauce, but what can you do) with a tiny bottle of wine from the hotel shop, and settled in to watch Game of Thrones and prove out my scorecard.

I've had worse nights.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, McCormick Field

Once again, when you put "historic" right in the name of the stadium, you know what you're getting into. "Historic McCormick Field" has been around since the 20s. (Babe Ruth sang its praises during his off-season barnstorming.) It is built into the side of a hill, facing out into the tree-covered rise that is a suitably bucolic an experience for baseball. The team name "Tourists" refers to the number of actual tourists that came to Asheville to enjoy the scenic beauty, and presumably the ballclub.

The main and only entrance (excepting for the staff entrance near the parking lot not open to the public) is at the top of a steep road from the main thoroughfare. An archway leads into a small plaza where the ticket booth and the team store reside. Many older renovated parks expand out instead of up, but the particular geography at work hasn't allowed that to happen.

There is an outer walkway that extends from outfield to outfield behind home plate. All of the concessions, stores, and party areas are all on this circuit, with regular breaks in the masonry of the seating area with stairs up to the seating bowl. Once out into the seating area, a smaller walk runs through the seating bowl, separating out the box seats from the regular seats. The small press box sits at the top of the seats behind home plate, underneath the awning extending out to save people from the fiery sun.

Old style clapboard advertisements are all along the outfield wall, with a small digital scoreboard sitting in right field. In another nod to Durham, there is a "hit sign, free subs for everyone" sign, as well as a more unconventional "hit white duck, win taco" sign nearby. Sadly, the close confines of the old seats to the field require the entire seating area be covered in netting. Both ends of the seating end in special party clubs where you can sit next to the bullpens from either team.

M-o-o-n, that spells "moon."

The Tourists have two mascots, Ted (the bear) and Mr. Moon, who (as promised) is a giant anthropomorphic moon head wearing sunglasses. It makes its own sense. The regular array of races and contests were on offer between innings, though the mascots were probably taking it at half speed to avoid sunstroke.

There was a decent crowd for a hot Sunday afternoon game, and it was a lot of families, but it was pretty obvious that this was a baseball town and they were watching the game for more than general entertainment purposes.

At the Game with Oogie:

Hot scoring

 I was desperate for lunch when I got inside, so I ended up get a hot dog meal, including a big-old hot dog, fries, and souvenir soda, for whatever ridiculous amount of money it was.

Given the really old stadiums don't generally have a wide variety of seating options, I ended up about two rows back from first base in what passed for the super-fancy area. It had in-seat service from a local buzz-cut college girl that I mostly used to ferry me a never-ending stream of beverages to keep me from melting in the afternoon heat.

Hot dog and souvenir soda

Just in front of me was a local fan who was really into the team. She knew all the players by name and cheered them on loudly, and she razzed all the opposing players loudly. Needless to say, you see where I'm going with all this. She was a hoot, and she made the afternoon go a little more cool. She made fun of my elaborate sun protection wear, telling me that I was never going to hide from this heat, as she sat in her shorts and tank top without a care in the world. Frankly, she was more qualified than myself to judge.

The Game: 

First pitch, Power vs. Tourists

This was a Sunday afternoon scorcher in the middle of summer, and it was hot as all get-out for this game. No, really. Check my scorecard. Under "Weather:", I wrote "HOT." The game was over in two hours and fifty minutes, and I can only imagine a little bit of that is both teams wanted to hit the showers as soon as possible.

The Power went in order in the top of the first, but the Tourists decided to go a different route, starting the game with a bunt single and a double that didn't get the runner from first in. A grounder to second scored him and moved the runners up, but a strikeout threatened to end the scoring until the next batter singled clean to center to bring in another run, leaving it 2-0, Asheville at the end of one. West Virginia tried a little harder in the second, with a leadoff single bunted to second, but there he was stranded.

Asheville didn't score in the bottom of the second, and it is still hard to work out how. The half began with a double to left-center. A fly out to deep right got the lead runner to third with one out. A walk made it first and third. A grounder to first got pegged home to stop the run but concede the runner to load the bases with one out. But then a weak pop to short made it two outs, and the next batter struck out swinging--but the catcher dropped it. He had the wherewithal to tag the plate, but that was some Metropolitan-level of not scoring right there. Both teams went in order in the third, but the Power finally showed some pep in the fourth. A one-out walk was followed by a towering homer to dead center to tie up the game 2-2. The Tourists went in order.

The fifth was a scoring frame for the Power, as a one-out double and single made it first and third. A sacrifice fly to left scored the runner from third, but the runner from first went to third on throw without touching second and lost the race back to the bag. The Tourists manufactured a run in the bottom of the inning on a leadoff double, a fielder's choice to second, and a single to right, leaving us knotted at 3-3 after 5.

Both teams had a player hit a double and steal third and get stranded in the sixth, which is nice for symmetry, but not scoring. The Power broke the tie in the seventh with a two-out single followed by a homer run, to take the lead 5-3, while the Tourists went in order. Both teams had symmetry again in the eighth with runner on first and second who made it no further.

In the ninth, the Power tacked on one more run with a leadoff single, a fielder's choice to second, and another single, while the Tourists went in order, leaving the final tally 6-3, Power.

The Scorecard: 

Power vs. Tourists, 06/26/16. Power win, 6-3.

The scorecard was a double-sided photocopy separate from the free newsprint, full-tabloid program. It was about average all-around, to be honest, although the Tourists didn't pre-print the lineups.

Scoring-wise, there were a couple of items worth mention. In the bottom of the first, the Tourists first baseman got a double that was his 100th hit of the year, and important enough to warrant an announcement on the PA. In the wild bottom of the second, there was a fielder's choice to the first baseman who threw home instead of tagging first to cut off the run, and that same inning ended on a dropped strikeout with the bases loaded that wasn't over until the catcher saw fit to tag the plate. And there was a good-olde CS 7-1-6 in the top of the fifth, as a runner advanced to second on a sacrifice fly, made it to third on the throw home, and then the alert shortstop called for the ball because he noticed the runner didn't touch second. The throw made it back before the runner, who was called out. I can still hear the manager yelling at him now...

Other than the wild bottom of the seventh described above, it was mostly straightforward.

The Accommodations: 

Homewood Suites by Hitlton

I was the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Asheville. Asheville is apparently quite a frou-frou town, with arts and renovated downtowns and the like. It was all closed on Sunday evening, though, so I just decided to stay someplace nice.

I had managed, again, to somehow get a handicapped-accessible room. Everything was a little lower than expected, but it didn't really affect me any. The full kitchen with the dinette table was just off the entrance to the room, and connected with the living room, with couches and chairs and TV and entertainment center.

The separate bedroom was through the doorway, with a king-plus bed, and end tables, and desks, and dressers, and another TV, just in case. The huge bathroom was perhaps even more spacious due to the handicapped access.

Needless to say, it was an acceptable time to spend an extended evening in a very civilized manner.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 The Carolinas