On the Fucking Cops
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| ABC Supply Stadium, 2026 |
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals) vs. Beloit Sky Carp (Marlins)
ABC Supply Stadium
Midwest League (A+)
Beloit, WI
1:05 PM
Outside the Game:
I had a solid night's sleep and woke up early and well-rested. Another guest and I wandered into the breakfast buffet, which was in an unlocked restaurant connected to the hotel. We surprised the attendant, who was clearly not expecting people so early. They had neglected to put out the signs or lock the door, so he let us stay and have the first shot at the buffet since we were already here and the buffet was already set up. And it was a very good breakfast at that, and a relief after the last one.
After eating my fill, I wandered back up to the room for another nap, since the game wasn't until later tonight... Except it wasn't. I double-checked the schedule, and the game today was actually at 1 PM, not 6 PM. This accelerated the time schedule, so I quickly showered and packed up, checking out and heading for the short drive to the park.
I still arrived super early, and parked in the delivery lane to go and buy a ticket. After knocking at the ticket window, the guy waved me inside to the offices, and he sold me my ticket there in a more relaxed atmosphere, as well as giving me the lay of the land and where to find the actual parking lot.
I drove around to said parking lot, not having to pay as I got there just as another attendant was setting up, and he did not care one bit. I walked around the park and took my pictures, and then set out to kill an hour before the gates opened.
The park was right next to a river walk, so I rambled down that for a while, taking some turns here and there, and ending up on a historic district on the other side of the rive that had a number of listed houses, including one that had been torched in a fire recently. As it approached time for the gates, I went back to the park and lined up at the center field entrance.
Even with the extra innings, it was a quick game, so I headed out to my car to drive to my next hotel. I had left in a hurry in the morning, but I had called a new hotel in the next city, and the guy just told me to show up and it would be fine.
Except my car won't start. Or it turns on, but the engine won't turn over. I was suspect of this car since I picked it up. It had an energy saver feature that turned off the engine when you idled too long, and it had a (frankly, dangerous) driver assist feature that slowed down your cruise control if you were too close behind another car. It took me a while to even figure out what that was. And now the damn thing wouldn't engage the engine, and I couldn't think of what to do. So I called Dollar support line, and the woman who answered was less than useless. She wanted me to wait there for a technician to come out there instead of knowing basic trouble-shooting for a car in her fleet. And then she hung up on me mid-conversation. I was so pissed off that instead of calling back, I just jammed down everything I could think of an held down the start button as hard as I could, and the car eventually engaged the engine. Not wanting to be in Beloit anymore, I headed out for my quick drive up to another unpronounceable city in Wisconsin.
The only thing notable about the drive is that you didn't get more than a quarter mile without seeing more road kill. I wish I was exaggerating. It was disturbing.
At least the hotel for the night was nice, and right next door to my stadium for the next day. The front desk clerk was good to his word, and he got me a room. Apparently there is a corporate training place somewhere close, as the other people checking in were all there to get some certification or other. There was a free laundry and a pool and hot tub.
I got settled in my room and wandered down, and the front desk person told me about a burger place in town that would still be open this late on a Sunday, and also where a Walmart was if I wanted to get swimsuit. However, in driving out to the restaurant, there was a tangle of roads that I was trying to sort out on my GPS when I noticed the flashing lights in my rear-view. It was on this difficult stretch of road, so when my brain finally registered that the lights were for me, I found a parking lot to pull off to. An officer politely informed me that I was driving way too fast. (The 45 MPH zone apparently changed to a 25 MPH zone, in a confusing tourist area, and my Louisiana plates ass didn't have a shot in the world with the cop car clearly waiting right after the the speed limit changed abruptly.) I got my second speeding ticket in 30 years, and afterwards, he politely told me the best way to get to the restaurant, and was immediately joined by his fellow speed trap officer who was probably watching the other side of this confusing stretch of roads for other out-of-towners to pop for profits on this lazy Sunday night.
Once I parked, pissed off and hungry, I did get to the local burger place. Some college surfer dude was my waiter, and, to be fair, I had a pretty great burger. I told him about my trips, and he said his coworker was a big baseball fan and that it was all cool what I doing. I took a (very slow) drive to the Walmart to buy a bathing suit and get back to the hotel, because I absolutely needed that hot tub at this point.
I changed up to my new swimsuit, dragged my laundry down to the washers (where I had a problem with getting it started that the beleaguered front desk clerk needed to help me with), and then just went to the hot tub to obliterate my back in the nicest way possible.
On top of everything else, my key card kept deactivating. The front desk clerk could not be any more apologetic at this point, as I was coming in dripping from the pool because I checked on my laundry and then couldn't get back into the pool. The cards were apparently very sensitive and couldn't get anyone near cell phones, but by the last time this happened, I didn't even keep them in the same hemisphere. It turned out that the door locks had not been changed since daylight savings, so the pool thought it was an hour later than it really was, and this day was just about on my last fucking nerve.
I went back up to my room as the drier was done and the pool was closing to file all my unwanted paperwork, call my mother, take a shower, and get some sleep and put this fucking day to an end.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home to center, ABC Supply Stadium |
Despite the stupefying name, ABC Supply Stadium had a lot going for it beside its riverside location. It was the almost league-standard layout, with one promenade circling above one seating area running below it, ending not in berms, but a table-seating area in right. The giant scoreboard loomed in left-center against a backdrop of trees. A second level of luxury boxes and broadcast booths was above the are behind home from about first to third.
There was a city sign on the first base side, and the kids area was in right. Mascot Poopsie (I kid you not) helped run the regular array of contests and games.
Worth noting that the home walk-off was celebrated by an iced Gatorade shower that covered the home plate area. The put-upon grounds crew was left with cleaning up the giant mess before the impatient parents could let their kids run the bases after the game as advertised.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Mac and cheese and brats and onions and stuff |
I got into the park through the center field entrance and did my usual walk-around. It was another Wisconsin park with a lot of stunt food options. I settled on a bacon mac & cheese with onions and brats. The guy working the counter was from Chicago and told me to report back to him on that particular menu item, as he hadn't tried it yet and wasn't sure he would. After sitting at a table in the outfield and dinning on something that was actively stopping me heart, I went back and asked the guy if he liked bacon mac & cheese, and then if he liked brats, and since he did, he'd probably like this heart attack plate.
There was a woman selling baseball-theme practical art at a little stand on the promenade. I bought some baseball napkins from her.
My seat was just behind home plate. It was a decent crowd, but the only people around me were two old-timers right in the row in front of me, who kept telling each other old-man stories for the entire game. It was an amusing diversion.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Chiefs vs. Sky Carp |
The early-season contest between the Chiefs and the Sky Carp had a ton going for it just by virtue of the fact that it couldn't be as bad as the game I saw before it.
The Chiefs had a leadoff single erased on a double-play in the first, and Beloit went in order. Peoria kept with the theme and stranded a leadoff double in the second, while the Sky Carp did the same in the bottom half. Both sides went in order in the third.
Peoria stranded yet another double in the top of the fourth, while the Sky Carp had a leadoff single caught stealing and then stranded a hit batsman. The Chiefs went in order in the fifth, while Beloit went in order thanks to a bizarre double-play we will discuss in a bit below. Peoria finally got on the board in the sixth, with a bloop and a bloop and a blast, putting them up 3-0. Unable to answer, the Sky Carp went in order.
The Chiefs got another homer in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 4-0, but Beloit went crazy in the bottom of the inning, batting around and getting six runs off of four hits (two more doubles) that catapulted them to a 6-4 lead. Peoria kept the streak going with a solo homer in the top of the eighth to close it to 6-5, while the Sky Carp stranded two singles. For the fourth straight inning, the Chiefs homered, this time to tie it up 6-6. Beloit got two runners on in the bottom of the inning but failed to score, and so we were off to extra baseball.
In the 10th, Peoria scored their Manfred Runner, advancing on a fly out and then brought home with a double to make it 7-6. The Sky Carp got a one-out walk to put the winning run at the plate, and he came through, hitting a three-run bomb to center, walking it off 9-7, leading to the mess described earlier.
The Scorecard:
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| Peoria Chiefs vs. Beloit Sky Carp, 05/17/26. The Sky Carp won, 9-7. |
In the post-pandemic world, Beloit is one of the few MiLB franchises still giving out printed programs, with a scorecard in the centerfold as god intended.
Except, for some reason, the home team is at the top of the scorecard, which makes exactly zero sense at all. I'm not sure I've ever seen that abomination before.
The scorecard has a single player replacement line and space for nine players. There are columns for nine innings, with the statistic summary lines doubling as extra innings (which I had to use). The scoring squares have pre-printed diamonds. Individual inning totals are runs and hits, and player lines record at bats, runs, hits, and RBIs.
There are five pitching slots, tabulating decisions, innings pitched, hits, runs, earned runs, walks, strikeouts, batters faced, hit batsmen, wild pitches, balks, stolen bases, and caught stealings.
A stadium ad takes up a slice of the right side of the card, and there is limited spaces for notes.
There was a female ump working the bases on the two-man, er, two-person crew. This was the first time I had seen a female ump in the wild before.
There were less plays of note this game than last, no doubt because there was a lot less game. Outside of the homer-an-inning thing the Chiefs had going on, there was a gem play by the Peoria shortstop in the bottom of the second, and then a bizarre double-play in the bottom of the fifth. With a leadoff walk on, there was a grounder to the shortstop, who relayed to the second baseman for the first out of the double play, but then flung the ball wide of the first baseman. The runner on first made for second, but the first baseman was quickly able to retrieve the errant throw and return the ball to the shortstop covering second for the tag out, a routine 6-4-E4-3-6 DP.
I denoted the Manfred Runners with "Z" for "zombie runner."
The Accommodations:
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| Staybridge Inn, Oconomowoc, WI |
For a two-day layover, I went with the Staybridge Inn right next to the park for the next day (or so I thought). The room was quite nice, with a kitchen right by the entrance, leading to the living area. There was a king bed and end tables on one wall, a dresser and TV on the adjoining wall, and a couch and desk on the opposite wall. A hallway from the bed led to a vanity area and the (shower-only) bathroom. As I would be spending a good amount of time here in the next day or so, it was a good choice.
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