On Running on Luck
Just an average game
Friday, April 29, 2022
Vernon, CT
Outside the Game:
It was a long, stupid Friday at work, as well as other unwanted memories. This was the first week of my father's birthday and wedding anniversary since he passed, and I was in a fog most of the week to begin with and needed to get away to get my head straight. I was not in a good mental place, so I decided to put the first new notch in my belt in two years and see the new AAA-affiliate for the Red Sox up in Worchester ("Woo-stah"), MA.
The process didn't begin swimmingly, as I found at that every, single hotel within five miles of Worchester was sold out for the weekend. There are tons of colleges in the area, but none of them were graduating yet, and the sports teams were all done with their seasons, so I could never quite find out why this was the case, but a couple of people at the hotels I called acted like I was an idiot for not knowing without actually telling me why. So, you know.
I gave up trying for hotels nearby and just decided to stay outside of Hartford. It would be a two-hour drive up, and then a manageable one-hour each way to Worchester, with an easier two-hour drive home on Sunday. I booked my hotel, and then just stopped working at a little after 6 PM to grab a Lyft to my parents' house. The traffic wasn't too bad, but an accident held us up for a little bit, though the Rasta-man driving me helped me keep a cooler mindset on things.
Once I arrived at my parents' house, I did all my weekly things for my mom before heading out around 7:30 PM. I put the game on the radio, the address in the GPS, and headed out. I thought that I had checked the GPS and it was taking me the 84 route, but I was unfamiliar with my mom's GPS and found out much too late it was taking me via the dreaded 95. There was, of course, tons of traffic as I slogged across Manhattan, but at least the game was on, and I didn't have too long a drive through the sludgy--but moving--congestion.
After breaking out into mid-Connecticut, the traffic thinned out, and I was just night cruising, with the curious situation on the game following itself through, as the Metropolitans were pitching a combined no-hitter, the potential second game allow no-hits in their history. The time just flew by as I was driving. The further I went, the more I tried to change as little as possible so as not to effect the karma. I arrived at the hotel at the eighth inning. I left the car and radio running to check in, and then put the car around back into the last open parking spaces before settling in for the ninth. The victory in hand, I ran upstairs to my room with my stuff, stopping to grab some snacks in the vending machine, and then watched the post-game live on TV before getting ready for bed and amping down as much as possible, given the circumstances.
The Accommodations:
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| Holiday Inn Express, Vernon, CT |
I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Vernon, CT, on the east outskirts of Hartford. It was almost exactly what you'd expect of a Holiday Inn Express just past its prime. The facility was still nice, but rough around the edges. I wasn't paying too much attention on the way in due to the game, but it was a standard king bedroom, with the bathroom with tub and vanity sink to the right of the entrance, with the bed and nightstands in the main room opposite a wall with a desk, entertainment center, and appliances.
The bed was actually quite nice, and I appreciated it the most in all of the lollygagging I did during the mornings on this trip.
On Woostah
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| Polar Park, 2022 |
Buffalo Bison (Toronto Blue Jays) vs. Worchester Red Sox (Boston Red Sox)
Polar Park
International League (AAA)
Worcester, MA
4:00 PM
Outside the Game:
I didn't have to get up early today, and I knew it. Upon waking up the first time, I realized it was almost time for the breakfast buffet to open, so I threw on some clothes and went down to eat, the first patron to dare the morning. I put together a decent spread of food while I scrolled my phone, and then stomped back up to my room to nap and flop about until I headed out around noon. I acquired some gas, snacks, and a newspaper of the previous night's events at a gas station around the corner, and then headed out into the early Connecticut afternoon.
It was an easy drive out to Worchester. Once there, I wasn't quite sure what to do. The parking decks for the stadium were still very much under construction, and not having anything else to go by, I paid to park in a small mini-mall right underneath an overpass from the stadium. Parked up, I went out to stadium to do my photographs, though I was thwarted in going to the team store because they closed it well before the gates opened for the game. I found out gates were supposed to be at three, so I did my extended walk-around outside, and then ambled aimlessly around Worchester until the gates opened, putting in a call to my mother as I wandered. By the time I got back to the stadium, even though it was well before 3 PM, they were already letting people in, so I took the opportunity and went in myself.
After the game was over, it was just after seven. Having nothing else to do in Woostah, I decided to drive back to the hotel. Outside of dealing with some truly confounding New England streets, I was off and flying when I rejoined the highway, and stopped for some McDonald's snacks before arriving at the hotel. I made a quiet evening of things, getting all packed up and then soaking in the tub for a long time, increasingly worried about my neighbor across the hall coughing up a lung for hours. Brave new world.
I eventually settled into bed and was asleep at a reasonable hour.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Polar Park |
"Polar Park" is quite the edifice, carved out of some downtown space in Worchester. Though the park opened last year, the construction is far from done outside the park, with the most notable issue being the lack of complete parking lots. Several blocks around the outside of the park remain a construction zone, but everything in the immediate confines of the park are at least in working order.
At the home plate entrance plaza, you have grouped the team store, the ticket booths, giant faux-autographed baseballs of Red Sox greats, and giant World Series rings that you can stand and take pictures within. There are also various paintings on the park, the largest being a mural on the outfield wall detailing "Legends of the Canal District." A big yellow bench honors Harvey Wall, the local artist that came up with the "smiley button." Gate A in the outfield leads into a closed-off pedestrianized street entrance with a number of concessions.
The main entrance curiously takes you into a lower level with the team store where you have to walk up two flights of stairs or take an elevator to get to the main concourse. The stairway holds a great deal of Ted Williams memorabilia, as well of the Hall of Fame stolen from the previous AAA home of the Red Sox, sorely missed McCoy Field. The main promenade circles the entire park, with the main seating bowl descending from it. The seats taper off into a berm in left to center field and a "blue monster" in right field, for some strange reason. A giant new video board rises above the berm in left field, with a second small video board in the wall of right field. A second luxury box level extends first base to third base behind home plate, and special areas include the Hanover Deck in left field, the Flexcon Landing in right-center, the County Bank blue monster, and Shaw's Terrace by third base. The park did also have pitch clock displays that the pitcher, umpire, and players could see. I'm not sure how much an effect it had on the game, but the game did go along at a good clip--so progress, of sorts.
The outfield area by left field is a long street that has several stationary vehicles and two buildings for pubs. Directly behind the big batter's eye is an extensive playground for the kids that is patrolled by the likes of a clown making balloon animals and a stilt walker. In dead center, a Harpoon Taps Bar marks the distance from home plate, should a ball make it out there. There is an extensive patio in right field with concessions and a history panel on local pie-makers Table Talk, whose factory is a few blocks from the park. A grab-and-go Woosox Market is also nearby on the concourse.
The mascots are Woofster the dog and Smiley, literally a giant foam Smiley pin. The between-inning events are about what you expect from the minor in a post-Covid world, with contests and games, and a perhaps too on-the-noise giant inflatable ball wrestling match. The crowd, while not near capacity, was active in the game, with the regular amount of New England scorers in attendance.
The highlight of the game, really, was an usher who was either too into or not into enough the t-shirt give-away he was roped into doing. He specifically looked for people who weren't paying attention and whipped the shirts into the back of their heads. That man is my spirit animal.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Back on the scoring horse at a new park |
I walked about and poked and prodded and took my pictures, stopping to grab some Coney Island hot dogs along with a Table Talk pie (which seemed appropriate). I eventually trekked back downstairs to the team store for some shopping, and then occupied my time with more snacks and whatnot before settling into my seat by the home dugout on the first-base side before the start of the game.
The early-season game wasn't terribly crowded, but there was a family of men sitting next to me, and the oldest, with a gravel voice from the hoary depths of New England, started talking with me about what happened during certain plays, as he saw me scoring. He was super-disappointed at "tha Sawx blowing it again," and unbeknownst to him, he would have to go home and watch his beloved parent team get thumped in a walk-off by the Orioles, of all people. A family with a lot of surly and loud kids was in the rows behind me, but you can't get too mad at kids. A family with fraternal twins several rows in front of me took shifts keeping score for the game, so all was balanced in the world.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Bison vs. Red Sox |
I wasn't quite sure how well the AAA teams related to their MLB counterparts, because if then the Bison would wipe the floor with the Woo Sox (honest-to-god their real nickname), but what turned out on the field was even more inexplicable.
The Bison struck early, converting a leadoff walk, single, and sacrifice fly into a first-inning 1-0 lead. Worchester answered right back in the bottom of the first, turning two doubles into the evener at 1-1. The second inning was uneventful, with both teams going in order. Buffalo continued their woes in the third, but the Red Sox took a leadoff double, a triple, and a single to put two more on the board and grab a 3-1 lead after three.
The Bison came right back in their stead in the fourth. An error got the leadoff batter on, and a single and hit batsman loaded the bases. A double cleared those bases right up, and the Bison were quickly up again, 4-3. Not letting sleeping dogs lie, Worchester hit a two-out homer to tie it at 4. The Bison stranded a leadoff walk and two-out baserunner that reached on an error in the sixth. In their half, Worchester had a one-out single reach third base after a stolen base and errant throw, but there he stayed.
The action picked up again in the seventh, as Buffalo strung together a leadoff double, a walk, and a two-out double into two more runs, taking the lead again at 6-4. Coming right back, the Red Sox turned a walk and a homer to left field to knot it up again. Things slowed in the eighth with the Bison going in order and Worchester stranding a walk. Both sides rather unclimactically went in order in the ninth.
On to extra frames with that stupid, stupid ghost runner. Buffalo started with a walk and a double to bring in two runs, getting to third on the throw. He then executed a delayed steal of home that shook the pitcher so much that he threw the ball clear to the backstop. Another double followed and was left on the basepaths, but the damage was already done, with the Bison up 9-6. Worchester got a run back on a leadoff single (tell me how that makes any sense--seriously, just think about that sentence), but couldn't manage any more, losing 9-7.
The Scorecard:
The sombrero vendor got rich off this game, with four total golden sombreros to go around and one with tassels, along with the 26 total strikeouts. There were several plays of literal note, but they were only at the end of the game. In the top of the tenth, after a double, the runner was clearly out 9-6-5, but was somehow called safe. I made a note of the steal of home that followed, which I believe might be my first one in person ever. In the bottom of the tenth, there were arguments, recriminations, and ejections after a 6-4 putout call on a fielder's choice.
The only other scoring of note was the stupid extra inning ghost runners. I think I had my notation worked out for it going forward, but I still hate it.
The Accommodations:
I was at the Holiday Inn Express in Connecticut again. Not much to report on that front, although I did have a nice soak in the tub when I got back. Did I mention the soak in the tub? Because it was awesome.
On a New Month of Possibilities and Danger
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Jersey City, NJ
Outside the Game:
I had another slow morning, just braving the outside world enough to get some breakfast before collapsing back in bed for a while. I eventually got up the gumption to finish my packing and head to fill my car and check out of the room. I was quickly back to the highway and had a largely uninteresting drive back to my parents' house, as I went the 84 to Tappen Zee route instead of slogging through 95 again. I dropped off the car, checked in on my mother, and then called a Lyft to take me home, which was arrived at after a brief drive.
I did laundry and sorted out my items before going to bed early for another week of work.
The Accommodations:
Home, sweet home, sweet Jersey City
Click here to see all the photos from this trip.
Stand-Alone Trip, 2022
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