On Friggin’ Camp Days
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| The consolation prize |
Kinston, NC
Outside the Game:
After hitting the sack early the night before, I was up early and out and about after a quick breakfast and check out. I had a long drive across North Carolina ahead of me for the day.
I got an hour or so into North Carolina before needing to stop for gas. There is an extension project for I-70 that is going on that is not where I-70 used to be and is not on my GPS map, which led to an interesting end to my drive, as I was driving through what my GPS firmly considered to be fields and suburbs. The further on this unauthorized route I went, the more it had a nervous breakdown trying to get me back on track.
I remembered where the next road was and about how long it would take to get to the turnoff, but it ultimately proved unnecessary, as the actual I-70 and the GPS' idea of I-70 came back to the same wavelength shortly before the turn-off. Heisenberg wept.
Five hours after I started, I was pulling into the hotel at about 2 PM. It wasn't really that bad of a drive, in retrospect. Say what you will about the Impala, taking the drive in a giant recliner with modern cruise controls wasn't a bad way to go, although the satellite radio was not included in the rental, so I was at the mercy of local radio stations that bounced between country, gospel, right-wing talk, "classic country," and one or two classic rock stations that I held on to like a life raft. Since it was my first long drive this trip, I wasn't completely sick of the songs at this point, so all in all, it was a pleasantish drive.
I checked in at the hotel, and then had at the short drive to the stadium, where I found the game letting out because it was ANOTHER GODDAMN CAMP DAY.
The game was on a Wednesday. After the incident with Kannapolis two years ago, I specifically double-checked the start time for this game before I left for the trip, and it was still a 7 PM start. Well, sometime between then and now, they changed it to an 11:00 AM Camp Day start, and I was pissed, but mostly at myself. Even if I knew it was a Camp Day, there's nothing much I could have done about it. There's no way I could have made that five-hour drive to get there at 10 AM without leaving at 5 AM in the morning, and that was not happening. I had to write this stadium up to make the trip a business expense, so there was nothing to do about it.
The only thing I really wanted to do in town was go to King's BBQ, a famous local BBQ joint that started as a gas station restaurant in the ‘40s. I went to the original store, which was just down the road from my hotel, and had some late afternoon lunch/dinner. I was seated in a booth from the 70s and waited on by a nice old lady, possibly also from the 70s. She served me up a great BBQ platter, which I wolfed down because I was starving, and then I thought about what to do for the rest of the day.
I stopped at a Walgreen's by the hotel to grab shipping supplies and some toiletry needs, and then I went back to the hotel, got all mopey for a while, and then decided to take a nap. Thus refreshed, I did my laundry to replenish my clothes supply, and then double-checked every last aspect of the trip while I was waiting. I decided to cut down on the four-hour drive to Charleston by going to a hotel halfway down after the game tomorrow. I organized and repacked everything, and then I went to bed early, watching my recorded TV shows on my tablet app and getting some rest.
The Accommodations:
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| Quality Inn, Kinston |
I was at the Quality Inn on one of the main drags of Kinston. It was a nice enough room with two double bed and night tables on one wall, and a desk, dresser, TV, and refrigerator on the other. At the end of the room was a sink and vanity, leading to the tub and toilet room on the left.
Having two beds work out for a number of reasons. I was able to pile all the pillows on one bed for the evening to sleep, plus I was able to spread out all my crap and laundry onto the other bed and organize everything. I got a good night's sleep, which was also important for my long next day.
On a Long, Hot Day in a Small, Hot Town
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| Grainger Stadium, 2018 |
Potomac Nations (Washington Nationals) vs.
Down East Wood Ducks (Texas Rangers)
Grainger Field
Carolina League (A+)
Kinston, NC
7:00 PM
Outside the Game:
This was going to be a long, long day. I was going to have to kill all afternoon in small North Carolina town before the game, and then afterword travel about two hours to my hotel.
So I took it easy that morning. The first move was asking for a late checkout after breakfast and then going back to my room for a nap or two. My tablet hadn't fully charged during the night, so I was spending as much time as I could sucking juice, as it had to get me through the entire, long day.
I finished packing up after the nap and bought my tickets for the next couple games in South Carolina and then mapped out a halfway point for my hotel for that night. It turned out to be Dillon, SC, so I picked a hotel just off the interstate to stay, called them up, and preemptively asked them for a late checkout and told them that I would be arriving late that evening.
I lolled around until noon and then headed out into the day, dumping all my stuff in the car and checking out of the hotel. My first stop, for lack of anything better to do for six hours, was going to the park to buy a ticket. The booths were closed, but the gate and team store were opened, so I stopped in there. A nice woman greeted me in the welcome air conditioning, so I did my souvenir shopping before asking her about getting a ticket. She said that they could sell me one in the stadium offices down the way a bit, so I took her directions through the construction and bought a ticket from a half-interested woman at her desk. I did the photos around the park, and then headed out for the rest of the afternoon.
The first stop was one of Kinston's only claims the fame, the CSS Neuse. The Confederate ironclad was one of the few produced during the war, but this one saw little action, providing some shore support for Confederate infantry before being bottled up and sunk to prevent its capture. The remains were dug up by a variety of people over the decades before the state bought them and put them in a converted warehouse downtown in a museum.
As I parked and went in, the guy behind the counter swore that he met me before, and I pointed out the sheer impossibility of that circumstance. He was eventually convinced, and I went into the museum itself after a short movie, and myself and a small family were the only ones inside.
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| Pronounced "Noose" |
It was quite a nice museum, all centered around the remains of the hull that was the obvious centerpiece of things. It gave a good history of the ship and the war and the locality at the time of the war, with reproductions of the turret that you could climb through and other goodies. I stopped in the shop on the way out and asked for suggestions for lunch. They pointed me down the street to the Queen Street Deli, so I walked down and had a sandwich and soda while staying out of the blistering sun. There was also a full-sized replica of the Neuse built right by the downtown parking lot, but entry was by appointment only, so I didn't get to go inside.
After lunch, the only other attractions were a small nature museum near a campground at the north end of town. It was literally a small shed with a couple of local, small animals inside. The highlight was a rattlesnake they had in some flimsy sliding door cage that warned to back away from the glass if the snake started rattling. Buddy, with that kind of warning, I'm not getting anywhere near that cage.
I spent some time in the park by the river after my short visit, and there were giant wooden rocking swings that I took advantage of in the shade, watching the river pass by with a nice breeze blowing. Worse ways to spend some time.
I realized that I needed to get a new recharge cable for my tablet, as my current was too flaky for its job, and why my tablet was only at 60% power at the moment. I used the GPS, which pointed me to a JC Penny’s and Sears at the outskirts of town. It turned out that data was a bit out of date, as both of the big-box stores had closed down since my GPS had an update, in a bleak commercial tableau. Even worse, as I was driving around the parking lot looking to get turned around, there was a horrific traffic accident on the main road. Emergency services were just showing up, and it was a mess. I managed to circumvent it by going out a back entrance to the closed stores and get back towards town that way. I stopped in a Rite Aid I passed and got a new cable, so that was at least checked off the list.
I drove back to downtown to kill some time at local antique stores. One of them had just closed, and the other didn't have anything too interesting, so I was at a loss at how to kill another two hours before the gates opened. I was also drowning in sweat. I drove to a local Walmart to soak up some AC for a while, and then went to the connected Subway to grab a late lunch, also in the AC.
With nothing left to do but kill just under an hour, I drove out the park again, parked in the shade, left my AC on, and took a nap. There was another car next to me with a family inside, but I think they were just waiting in the AC and not napping, but what do I know, I was asleep. Fortified for the rest of the day, I went out into the sweltering heat and entered the park as the gates opened.
As soon as the last out was registered, I was off like a shot into my car and starting the two hour or so drive at just after 10. There was minor construction that caused some slow ups, but I was moving right along until I got into South Carolina, and a huge rainstorm exploded onto the scene. It slowed down the last half hour of my trip tremendously, but I eventually made it to the hotel.
I semi-coherently checked in and confirmed my late check out for, at this point, later this day, and then went up to my room.
Where my key didn't work, so I had to drag all my stuff down and get a new key and then drag all my stuff back up to the room. The AC wasn't on in the room, so I had to wait for it to cool down before I could sleep, so I spent the time finishing the scorecard and unpacking what I needed for the next day, eventually falling to blissful slumber when the ambient temperature was under 80 or so.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Grainger Stadium |
"Historic Grainger Field" was another park built in the 40s and updated since then. After being home to minor league baseball since the 40s, the stadium went dark in the early 10s when the Indians moved out, but after several years of campaigning, Kinston grabbed one of the teams that moved from out west to reinvent themselves as the "Wood Ducks."
Except for this game, it was a Throwback Thursday, so they weren't playing as the Ducks; they were playing as the K-Tribe, their previous incarnation. I have to wonder what the legality of that all was, but supposedly someone had that all figured out. Even new mascot duck Dewd wasn't around for the game, and old dog mascot Scout handled the duties between innings.
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| Scout, on throwback night |
The stadium is a nice old gem that they've kept updating, even to this day, as they were doing construction on the offices in the left field side of the park. It was all real brick construction around the main, covered grandstand behind home plate, with the wooden Delmont Miller Press Box sitting on top.
The only entrance was behind home plate and emptied out into an entrance plaza where the concessions, customer service, and most of the other facilities were located, either near or inside the back of the grandstand. A promenade ran along the outside of the grandstand, hooking up with a walkway in the seating bowl at the end of the grandstand by the first and third-base areas. The promenade extended out to the ends of the outfield, but don't connect, with the left field walkway ending in a picnic area, and the right field walkway ending in the small play area and the Mother Earth Brewery Pavilion. There was a picnic hill on the right field side at the end of the grandstand and a stretch of metal bleachers on the left field side. A row of season ticket seats ringed the field right at the end of the seating walkway. A second concession stand had its own building on the first-base side.
The digital scoreboard sits in right-center field, above a double-rowed outfield wall covered in ads and under the backdrop of trees across the outfield. At various places along the stadium, there are "Wood Duck Fact" plaques, and there are dedication and renovation plaques for the stadium near ramps into the grandstand and on the new concession stand by first base. A unique pyramid-tiered batters eye towers in dead center, no doubt compensating for the thrifty 390 feet to home plate from there.
The game had a pretty good turnout for a Thursday Night. It might have been because it was dollar beer night, but there were enough fans in their K-Tribe gear to say it might be that as well. The broadcast team tape up hand-printed "K"s in the press box for the strikeout counter, and the whole thing had a very cozy feel to it. I'm glad they got a franchise back, as the place clearly likes baseball.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Super-hot weather rations |
I struggled through the hot and humid night the best I was able. I obviously bought a lot of drinks, but I was so hot, that the only thing I ate all night was a singular hot dog.
After taking all my pictures, I went to my seat, which was behind the home dugout on the third base side. No one was to my right or behind me, but there was a family in front of me, and I was on the last seat in the row. There was a group of older disabled people in the box seats on the walkway in front of me that seemed to be enjoying themselves.
As I sat through so many squandered scoring opportunities by the home team, I started to watch the clock, and I was out like a rabbit as soon as the last out was recorded to start on my two hour drive out and down to South Carolina.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Nationals vs. Wood Ducks |
This was a tight pitcher's duel between the visiting Nationals and the home Wood Ducks (or K-Tribe, thanks to a Throwback Thursday) that the home team eventually lost because, frankly, they just didn't want it enough.
The Nationals started it off by all striking out in the top of the first, with a one-out single snuck in. Kinston also had a single (a leadoff one, at that) to show for the first. Both sides went quickly in order in the second, but Potomac had something in the top of the third with back-to-back singles to make it first and third with no outs. The sacrifice fly that brought in the run ended up as a double-play, catching the runner trying to go to second, which proved costly when there was another single just after that might have scored him. But the half ended with a 1-0 lead for the visitors. The Wood Ducks went in order despite a leadoff single thanks to a double play of their own.
The fourth started with the Nationals going in order, but Kinston came out swinging in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single coming on a one-out double. A walk and single loaded up the bases, but two quick outs ended the threat, one of many squandered opportunities by the home side, but tying the game up at one. The Nationals went in order in the fifth, and Kinston stranded back-to-back singles to leave the score as it was. The sixth went quickly as Potomac only had a single to show for the inning and the Wood Ducks went in order.
The Nationals had only a single in the seventh, and Kinston only had a single. Potomac had a single again to show for the eighth, but the Wood Ducks blew their best chance, with a leadoff walk getting to second on a stolen base and third on an error on the throw. With a man on third and no outs, the Wood Ducks failed to score, with two strikeouts, a walk, and then a ground-out to second. The Nationals took the lead in the top of the ninth, breaking the tie with a two-out homer to right field, granting them a 2-1 lead. Kinston had a single to start the bottom of the ninth and a bunt to get him to second with only one out. But the home team couldn't score again, and the Nationals went away with the 2-1 victory.
The Scorecard:
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| Nationals vs. Wood Ducks, 06/28/18. Nationals win, 2-1. |
The scorecard was a free handout at the entrance to the park. Unlike most other stadiums, the bi-fold magazine-sized cardstock scorecard was the only program on offer at the park, and it came with a lucky number used in the contests between innings. The scorecard took up the entirety of the right side of the centerfold, printed on a white background with lots of room for notes.
There were exactly nine batting lines for each team, with enough space to write in replacements. Each batting row ended with cumulative statistics, and each inning column ended with inning totals. Pitching lines were located underneath the batting lines for both teams and were to the left of cumulative statistics for the team on errors, doubles, triples, home runs, stolen bases, and time of game. There was no pre-printed diamond, and it was overall a nice card with plenty of room for scoring.
There were a bunch of informational notes to start out. There was a K-Man for the game (who struck out in the his at bat K 2-3), and a Hwy 55 Hitman (who did not get a hit). Because it was "Throwback Thursday," the Wood Ducks were competing as their previous incarnation, the Kinston Indians (or K-Tribe), which was also noted. One player got a golden sombrero drawn in for his three strikeouts.
There were a ton of strikeouts in this game, 23 total, and a couple of weird or notable plays. In the top of the third, with no outs, there were batters on first and third. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly to right field that got the run in, but the runner from first tried to make it to second on the throw and got caught in a SF-9-3-6t double play. Perhaps a little more conventionally, there was a bF3 in the bottom of the seventh on a popped-up bunt to the first baseman defending against the bunt.
The second Potomac pitcher who came in during the seventh was not announced, and his uniform number did not correspond to anyone in the roster for the team, so he went in as "(Unannounced)."
The Accommodations:
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| Quality Inn, Dillon |
I was camping for the night at the Quality Inn in Dillon, SC, just a bit over the border. I rolled in at 12:30 AM and had to wait for the AC to cool down the room for a half hour before I got any sleep.
The room, for the brief time I spent in it, was very nice. There was a king-sized bed and couch with end table on one wall and the desk, dresser, and wall-mounted TV on the other wall. At the end of the room was the sink and vanity, next to the bathroom with tub and toilet.
When the room eventually cooled down enough for me to sleep, it was a good enough place to rest my head for the evening.
2018 East Coast Leftovers
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