On a Weird One
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| SIUH Community Park, 2022 |
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Gastonia Honey Hunters vs. Staten Island Ferry Hawks
SIUH Community Park
Atlantic League
Staten Island, NY
4:00 PM
Outside the Game:
I was originally planning to grab a game on Saturday, but the weather had turned and I decided instead to go on Sunday, which worked out weather-wise, as we'll soon see. I had a slow morning on Sunday, but managed to drag myself into my regular soak in the tub before doing my farmer's market rounds and other assorted Sundaynalia.
As I was going to see the "ferry hawks," it only seemed fair to at least head out using ferries only. I walked down to the Hoboken terminal and found out that construction was messing with the subway lines anyway, so I grabbed the next ferry over to the financial district in New York, with a brief stop in downtown Jersey City. It was a good day for a ferry ride, with it being sunny but not hot, while warm enough that sitting outside with the breeze was pleasant and not cold. I swapped ferries to the Staten Island ferry from the financial district and had another nice boat ride out.
The financial district ferry lands right next to the stadium, as opposed to the main Staten Island Ferry (star of stage and screen), which parks at a terminal down the street. When I arrived, I was greeted by the sounds of baseball already being played. I was confused and went up to the ticket booth, where they explained the Saturday night game had been "fogged out," and they had started playing a double-header today at 1 PM, with the second seven-inning game starting up right around the planned original time. I acquired my ticket and then walked around taking pictures, in an odd circumstance of having a game going on when I entered the park. And it was flying by, as they were into the fourth inning after just an hour of play.
On the way out, I decided that I didn't need the romance of the ferries home, and I just grabbed a Lyft to drive me back in under an hour, as opposed to the one-two hours I would have had to deal with if I tried the late-Sunday public transportation. I settled up my gear and prepared for yet another week of work.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home to center, SIUH Community Park |
I'd been to this park a couple of times before. The guts of it hadn't changed, but they had made a big deal on social media of completely redoing the field. The park is a fairly standard low-minors design, with one promenade going from outfield to outfield over the main seating area. There is a variation in right field, as the seats are built up from the promenade, creating a narrow tunnel under the seats. An upper level from first to third holds press and luxury boxes. The signage has been changed to the new team name, but there are one or two vestiges of their affiliated past in signs and a Yankee's pinstriped van that is hidden in the back. The main digital scoreboard still rises up out of right field. The team store seemed sadly depopulated, as the copious Yankee-related gear of the past was replaced with a sparse collection of FerryHawks gear that had managed to make it off the presses at this point in the season.
The big thing here is that the new field is all turf. Not just the field, not just the basepaths, but even the mound, which is a first for me. Even fields that are 90% turf usually leave the mound dirt, but not here. Watching the pitchers on it, it is clear that they don't feel 100% comfortable with it, and I can't say I blame them. I do wonder what they are going to do when the turf on the mound inevitably wears through. Even this early in their inaugural season, there is already some serious wear on the mound.
The new mascot is Frankie the ferry hawk. All of the activities between innings is fairly regular low-minor fare of races, contests, and give-aways. Their big gimmic is "flying your FerryHawks towels" to get the crowd stirred up. That crowd was nearly non-existent for the first game that I walked in on (understandable given the circumstances), and filled out a little bit during the second game at the regularly scheduled time. But it still wasn't anything close to when they were affiliated with the Yankees just across the river(s).
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Scoring with some Italian Ice |
I was mostly alone for the first game, and to add to it, it is rare for me to be walking around when a game is going on. It has only happened one or two times in similar circumstances for me, so it was novel in a way. I bought a "tots and tenders" basket of chicken that I munched away on while watching the end of the first game, supplemented by a G-Knows Philly Cheese Steak right before the second game started. The cheese steaks seem to be really popular, but were hidden away in the worst concession stand in the park, under the overhang of the right-field walkway.
I asked for a seat out of the sun, and I was plopped in the last row behind home plate, which was fine for me. It gave me easy access to the promenade and concessions, which I used to grab an Italian ice late in the game between innings. There was no one sitting by me for most of the game, and it was nice to get some quiet contemplation. I had a brief conversation with one old-timer passing behind me who saw me scoring and thought I might be a scout.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Honey Hunters vs. FerryHawks |
This was the second game of a double-header from two teams that were solidly in the bottom-half of the Atlantic standings. What I saw of the first game wasn't a hum-dinger by any extent, and it played out in a low-action game for the second contest as well.
Both sides went in order in the first. Gastonia went in order in the top of the second, while the FerryHawks scrounged up a one-out walk that made it to scoring position on a steal, but died there on the vine. The Honey Hunters went in order in the third, while Staten Island left a leadoff double on the base paths to watch three straight strikeouts
The top of the fourth featured a breakout of offense from Gastonia, with a one-out homer to left, followed by a single, but the rally ended there with a 1-0 lead. The FerryHawks went in order in the bottom of the inning. The Honey Hunters got a two-out single in the fifth inning to second on a steal, but there he stayed. Staten Island again went in order. Gastonia got a runner to third base on a one-out single, stolen base, and fielder's choice, but as is custom for this game, he didn't score. The Ferry Hawks went in order, again, as in tradition.
The Honey Hunters started the seventh inning with a controversial infield single, but after a flyout, he was erased on a double-play. Staten Island didn't quite go quietly, with a one-out double that--and stop me if you've heard this one--got stranded to end the game, 1-0 Gastonia.
The Scorecard:
Even as the SI Yankees, Staten Island as a franchise never had their scorecard game together, so it wasn't surprising that I had to use the BBWAA scorebook due to a lack of anything other than a photocopied lineup being available. Perhaps the biggest news is that with 14 total strikeouts and so little offense, no one on either team managed a golden sombrero.
The Honey Hunters were no-hit through 3.3 innings (broken up by a home run of all things), and the FerryHawks only had two hits and three baserunners the entire game. The only play of note was a "single" in the top of the seventh that was clearly an error by the first baseman on the throw, but the blind official scorer felt differently.
The two-way woman pitcher didn't play in either side of the double-header that I saw.
The Accommodations:
Back in Jersey City
Click here to see all the photos from this trip.
Stand-Alone Trip, 2022
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