Aberdeen

On Vehicular Adventures

Ripken Stadium, 2014

Saturday, August 10, 2014

Jamestown Jammers (Pittsburg Pirates) vs.
Aberdeen IronBirds (Baltimore Orioles)
Cal Ripken Stadium
NY-PENN League (Short-Season A)
Aberdeen, MD
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Unlike most of my trips this summer, this one was doable as a day trip. (And likely the last new one I'd be able to do as such. Buffalo was the only city left in the "immediate" area, and the next closest new stadium was in Ohio or Virginia.) I did not want to get out of bed and spent a lot of time sort of getting up, only to mysteriously find myself back in bed again.

I was eventually able to peel myself out of bed, get showered, and run out to do some chores and grab lunch. My research into the traffic on this summer Saturday led me to believe that I would have to leave at around 2 PM to ensure getting there around 5 PM. With the closure of the military museum several years ago, there wasn't much in the way of attractions in Aberdeen, so I was fine getting there in time to get photos and watch the game.

I took an early afternoon nap, and then set out. My last review of the traffic led me to avoid the 78 extension of the Turnpike and to make the fateful decision to get off the Turnpike completely at exit 9 and take local roads down to after exit 8 to rejoin. Normally a problem that never seems to be corrected, the entire several-mile stretch was a violent and angry red on the traffic map.

Heading out, I had no real traffic problems, but the highway signs were already warning of heavy delays between exits 9 and 8, so I went through with my plan of getting off at exit 9. There was some congestion, but the traffic was moving, and my decision to bail seemed to be justified to this point. However, I had written down the road incorrectly, and missed an important turn. Instead of heading south and rejoining the turnpike, I was heading straight southwest on 1. I did have the option to stay on 1 and join up with the Turnpike again, as it takes a bit of a turn that parallels 1.

However, 1 turned into a parking lot, and I used the roadblock function on my TomTom to get me around it, which involved driving through the suburbs of Princeton. It was taking me to 295 and back onto the Turnpike, but taking 295 straight south would get me to the Delaware Memorial Bridge for free, and it would also avoid the apocalyptic last toll gate on the Turnpike, so I ignored the plaintive orders of the soothing British voice of my TomTom to rejoin the Turnpike and just kept going on 295.

From that point on, it was smooth sailing. Outside of being held up at gunpoint by the tolls in Delaware and stopping off in Maryland at a service area to get some much-needed liquids, I was at Aberdeen without incident. I parked and went on my normal pre-game photos.

In doing my walk-around, I discovered that there was an international Babe Ruth youth baseball tournament going on in the "Cal Ripken Experience" fields on the other side of the hotels to the park. I saw people going around with country team jerseys, and I eventually found signs and schedules showing that this was the first competition day of the tournament. There were games going on at many of the fields, which rivaled the Little League World Series venues in Williamsport. The facility had at least a dozen fields, including the main field, named for Cal Ripken Senior.

Cal Sr.'s Yard

When I leave for these trips, I generally reach into my baseball t-shirt drawer (which exists) and drag out as many shirts as I need for however long I'd be gone. For today, at random, I grabbed a t-shirt for the SK Wyverns, a Korean professional team.

I forgot about this completely, until a player from the Korean team saw my shirt and starting talking to me. It was at this point that I realized I had completely forgotten most of my Korean. I was able to blurt out something along the lines of, "Yes, Korean baseball." After that, he seemed to react positively and then ran off to find his teammates. I also ran into the Australian team, having a brief conversation with one of the heavily accented team coaches.

If I had known this tournament was going on, I would have driven down earlier to watch it, but as it stood, it was right before the gates were to open for the IronBirds game, and I had to go back across the way to get in line. The line, which then extended halfway into the parking lot, was efficiently cleared in about two minutes, and I was off to the races.

After the game, everyone was still in their seats for the fireworks, so I was nearly alone walking to my car and heading out back onto 95 in the other direction. Beside the minor annoyance of some left-lane sitters to move around, the only drama in my trip home occurred at the end. With about a half hour to go, my gas gauge headed towards "E" rather menacingly. I decided to push it and see what happens, as frankly there is no easy place to get gas anyway until you get off the Turnpike.

The needle ticked further and further left to the point where I was extremely distressed at the long line of cars to get off the Turnpike. The car was definitely starting to run roughly. But I was eventually through, and I pulled into the gas station by the entrance to Hoboken to get gas. I was to purchase 13.1 gallons of gas, which is interesting, as I only have a 13-gallon tank. So I was playing it fairly close there.

But I got to my parking garage and home safely, so crashed for the night at around 12:30 AM.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Ripken Stadium

In case you had any doubts at whose house you were at, the “Ripken Stadium” moniker should put the question at rest pretty quickly. Whether you consider Ripken a paragon of baseball virtue who is using his fame to give back to the community or an egocentric blowhard who won’t rest until his name is on every last thing is a matter of personal taste. The park is located in a little outcrop of nothingness just off the interstate, and is part of a larger complex. The brick-façade stadium has it main entrance just behind home plate, flanked by the team store and the ticket booth. The stadium sits in a sea of asphalt, next to a hotel just for the complex, and the huge youth complex on the other side of the hotel.

The centerpiece of the youth facility is Cal Sr.’s Yard, one the fanciest youth fields you ever will see. It is actually nicer than a lot of low A-ball fields you'll find. The smaller facade shares the same brick facing as the park next door, with a main entrance leading out to a promenade at the top of the walkway running outfield to outfield above a single row of seats next to the field. The entire outfield is a picnic hill with open seating. A press box pokes out of the top of the grandstand, and there’s even concessions along the walkway looking out on the field.

Carl Sr.’s Yard is just a small part of the youth complex, with includes many other practice fields, and the day I was there it was hosting an international youth baseball tournament, so there were additional amusements set up on the wide fields between the other ballfields in the complex. Also there was some inevitable statues and tributes to the Ripken brothers and their dad, including a really questionable artists choice of a statute of Cal, with his arm in what is just not a Hitler salute. Someone should have spoken up earlier in the design process about it, to be honest.

Ill-conceived

Back at the main minor-league park, the entrance empties out onto the higher of two promenades that runs along the top of the seating bowl and runs from outfield corner to outfield corner behind home plate. All the concessions and shops are on this upper promenade, giving fans continuing views of the field while they are waiting for their grub. Stairways at regular intervals lead down to the upper level of seating and to the lower walkway that runs to the edges of the grandstand and provides access to the box seats close to the field. An upper level runs from dugout to dugout behind the plate, holding the luxury boxes and the press box. The outfield wall is just a single tier with surprisingly few ads for the minors, with the tree-lined backdrop being broken up only with the smaller digital scoreboard in left-center and the gigantic video board looming over right-center. The retired Ripken numbers are on the outfield wall as well.

Left field ends up at a kids’ area and a patio for all-you-can-eat seats with tables overlooking the field, as well as a cutout for local Natty beer. Right field terminates in the Conrad Crab Seafood Deck, above the home bullpens that have their own small garden. The very top of the grandstand behind home plate houses the Extra Innings Club, a special seating area with their own bar and concessions.

Ferrus, the iron bird. Get it?

“Iron” birds Ripcord and Ferrous will be your mascots for the evening and are wandering around from when the gates open until after the game, as well as hosting most of the between-innings entertainment, along with a rather, uh, large human heading the human fun crew. Most of the entertainments were minor-league standard, with some unique events throw in, such as a squat contest between a couple.

There was a decidedly healthy crowd there that night, filling up most of the park watching the tense contest that wasn’t decided until the ninth, and they seemed as interested in the game as the entertainment between the action on the field. This may have something to do with a lot were probably part of the youth baseball tournament going on next door.


At the Game with Oogie:

Chicken fingers and corn-dog bites

I bought a ticket in the fancy-pants zone behind the home dugout in the morning before heading out. As a single, you can almost always sneak in to any section because there is almost always one somewhere. I was sitting next to a family of three to my right with whom we exchanged some chit-chat, especially with the father, but the story of the game was the family right in front of us. It was some parents with their three year-old daughter, who was both trouble and a charmer at once. (I definitively know her age because she kept telling the gentleman next to me she was ten, only to be corrected by her mother.) At any rate, she was a pleasant diversion who went from shy to unable to stop talking over the course of the game.

As another side note, Cal Ripken Stadium (part of the Carl Ripken Experience in Cal Ripken, MD) is out to try and kill me. All of the food stands either served crab or lobster, or had "bay salt" (containing the former) either on the dishes, or available as a condiment. Hurrah for aerosol death all around the park! I had to directly ask the people behind the counter if my chicken fingers and corn dog bites had any crab or lobster in them, and this is not a question I should have to ask.


The Game:

First pitch, Jammers vs. Ironbirds

This contest between two bottom-dwelling clubs didn't promise much in the way of excitement, and on that, it mostly delivered. Dominating pitchers on both side throwing major-league 90+ heat stifled the offense for nearly the entire game.

To begin, the Jammers had a one-out single in the top of the first, but he was erased on a strike-em out, throw-em out double play. The Ironbirds started the first with a single that was erased on a failed steal attempt, and a two-out single was stranded on a pop out to center. Jamestown started the second with a single and stolen base, but three outs in a row left him there. Aberdeen did them one better by starting the inning with a double and stranding him there. Jamestown went in order in the third, while the IronBirds had a leadoff single erased on a fielder's choice and not much else.

In the fourth, the Jammers had a one-out single erased on a caught stealing and nothing else. The IronBirds had nearly an identical inning, with a walk erased on a fielder's choice instead of a single. In the fifth, Jamestown had a leadoff double that made it to third on a fielder's choice, but was stranded. To match the futility, Aberdeen had back-to-back, two-out singles left on the bases with a fly to right field. The Jammers matched the feat in top of the sixth with back-to-back one-out singles stranded by a strikeout and a grounder to second. The IronBirds went in order.

The seventh was nothing more than a leadoff walk for Jamestown that made it as far as second on a steal and then six straight outs as both sides went in order afterwards. The Jammers had a two-out single in the eighth erased on a caught stealing, and the IronBirds went in order again.

Quickly to the ninth inning, we finally got some scoring. The Jammers had a leadoff single to deep short. The next batter, attempting to bunt, popped it up. The catcher made a great play to snag it, but a snap throw to first to double off the runner went astray, giving him second base. The next batter had the best-hit ball of the night, a rocket that went into the no-man's land of the right field corner. The runner from second easily scored, and the batter made it to third standing up. A deep fly to right plated him, and the next batter singled to center and went to second on a wild pitch. A strikeout ended the top of the ninth at 2-0, Jamestown. Aberdeen was unable to muster a rally, with just a two-out walk to show against the Jammers' closer, sealing the 2-0 Jamestown victory.


The Scorecard:

Jammers vs. Ironbirds, 08/10/14. Jammers win, 2-0.

This was a bit of an odd one. The free program handed out at the gate didn't contain a scorecard at all, which was unique in my travels in America. A quick trip to the fan relations booth resulted in a pre-printed, single-sheet scorecard, along with rosters and game notes. I have no idea at all why they weren't included in the program. There may be something similar as to why the St. Louis Cardinals have the worst scorecard in the majors in that all the scorers come to the park with their own instrument, so there is less demand for the program item.

The card itself was fairly straightforward, with a couple quirks. There were fielding stats; the opposing pitching line was placed with the other team (an idea that is, frankly, starting to grow on me); the official scorer gets a nod (first time I think I've seen that); and, for no good reason, in the section listing players who achieve doubles, triples, home runs, and grounded into double plays, the HR line is listed twice.

The game had a couple of scoring oddities of note. There were two steals and four caught stealings (oh, the low minors), and there was a fielder's choice call in the bottom of the third that should have been an E4 (the second baseman threw the tail end of a double-play into the stands). Ramping up the unusual, there was a 3-4-1 putout in the bottom of the sixth, as the pitcher threw the ball off the first baseman's mitt, and the second baseman backing up the play threw it back to the pitcher to record the out before the runner reached first. There was also a K-2-6 strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play in the top of the first. And in the top of the ninth, a runner was pulled for a pinch runner after hitting a triple. If he's got the legs to make it to third with a stand-up triple, he can get the last 90 feet on his own, Skip.


The Accommodations:
Hoboken, sweet, Hoboken

Click here to see all the photos from the trip.

2014 Stand-Alone Trip

Norwich

On the Fickleness of Rain

Dodd Stadium, 2012

Saturday, August 18, 2012
Aberdeen Ironbirds (Baltimore Orioles) vs.
Connecticut Tigers (Detroit Tigers)
Dodd Stadium
New York-Penn League (Short Season A)
Norwich, CT
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
This day did not start under auspicious circumstances. Before I left home, the forecast for Saturday was a bunch of rain in the morning, and then it was going to clear up for the rest of the day. In an inverse of the previous week, the weather report kept getting worse as time progressed. By Friday night, it was rain until mid-day the next day, and by the time I woke up Saturday, it was rain until mid-day, then no rain, and then more rain later in the evening. It did not look good to get this game in, and it was the last time the Tigers were going to be home before Labor Day, when I was going to be out of town to see the new Miami park. The Sunday game was not scheduled to start until 4 PM, making it very problematic for getting in a game (especially with questionable weather) and then getting home at a decent hour for work the next day.

 I had a fine breakfast at my hotel, packed up, and decided to head to Mystic Seaport anyway to see what I could see.

Almost immediately upon getting my tires on the road of 95, I hit a ridiculous traffic jam that completely validated my decision to avoid 95 like the plague on the way out. What should have been an hour ride was taking over an hour and fifteen before I bailed and used the TomTom's "roadblock" feature to take me off 95 for the rest of the way to Mystic.

It seems that everyone where I live had visited Mystic Seaport as a kid, and when polling around for something to occupy my Saturday morning in eastern Connecticut, it came up multiple times that I simply had to visit it since I missed the experience earlier in life. Not having anything better to do, I acquiesced.

Seaside-y

It was raining hard for all the trip down, and it didn't look to be stopping much when I arrived. I don't mind rain all that much at places such as these. It thins out the crowds. Seeing the way things seemed to be playing out, I broke out my rain gear from my game bag and rain slickered up.

I went to the entrance, payed my way in, and headed off into the rain. The place was nearly deserted, so I had my run of the area to myself, which is always appreciated. I poked my way through most of the exhibits at my own pace, and only the indoors ones had any other people around. In addition to walking my way around on the various ships they had at dock, my favorite part of the museum was the row of craftsmen shops they had. Each place (blacksmith, printer, instrument maker, cooper, etc) was staffed by a person who actually worked at the profession and was there to give talks and demonstrations to the visitors. Since it was so sparsely populated with guests, I ended up having long and excellent conversations with all the craftsmen about their work. It was really engaging. Especially of note was the printer, who had a hand-printed "rules of baseball" framed on the wall that was available for purchase at some of the stores on the premises.

And that was it operating properly

I spent a quite enjoyable afternoon walking around the place. There was an antique marine motor exhibition going on at one end of the seaport, and talking to some of the people there, they said that the radar showed that the rain was eventually going to let up soon, and, more importantly to me, that the storm had been just hugging the coast and had already passed up north. This gave me some hope that I may still yet get the game at Norwich in, and, as was foretold, the rain shortly started to let up and stop.

Almost immediately, more people appeared out of nowhere, and the seaport started to fill up. I stopped at a restaurant in the park to get some late lunch (again), and then I hit the museum store to get my poster and a bunch of other things I don't really need, before heading back to the car to go up to see if a baseball game was being played that evening.

Things looked up nearly immediately as I left Mystic, the sun was out and pounding down, giving credence to the reports from the folks in Mystic on the weather. The drive up went quickly, but it turns out that Dodd Stadium was located in the back of a winding commercial park. At the very start, I was heartened by the "Game Today" sign I saw at the entrance to the facility, but I got less and less enthusiastic every couple of minutes of curving driving that led to yet another sign to the park. After about ten minutes of this process, I eventually made it to the stadium, cracked a bad joke about getting there to the traffic attendant, and then went about my business taking pictures until the park opened.

After the game, the temperature had dropped, and all the cars in the lot were covered in dew. It took me a while to find my car, as it was hidden behind a large van that parked next to me after I left. With the sparse crowd, it was pretty easy to get out of the stadium. Remembering my lessons on 95, I managed to trick my TomTom into going the northern route home by picking waypoints along the path to feed to it until the way I wanted to go back to the Tappen Zee was the most direct route. I encountered no traffic on the way back, although night driving on the Saw Mill was a little nerve-wracking. I managed to pull into Hoboken a little before 1 AM, the same time I arrived from New Britain two weeks earlier.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Dodd Stadium

Dodd Stadium, besides its insane location at the very back of a commercial park that does not seem to have an end, was a nice enough A stadium. Outside, the facade extends between the outfield. A small walkway goes most of the way around the place, dead-ending in the back by left-center. All of the wood outfield wall is exposed, and over on the left field side is a narrow chain-linked path out to a gate in left.

There is an entrance in left field to the Manshantucket Piquot BBQ area, but the main entrance is behind home plate. The old Navigators mascot, Tater the Gator, stands outside in statue form, between the main ticket office and the team store. Directly inside the gate is the main fan services area, where the autograph signings and bat giveaway for the evening were set up.

The stadium has the standard alignment of a two-tiered row of seats from outfield to outfield around home plate. A second level of luxury boxes runs from third to first. Out in left field is an extensive picnic and barbeque area, along with a small kids' play area and a picnic berm. The bushes out on the top of the berm are spray-painted "Tigers 1" in a show of home-team support. In right field is a specialty burger concession, a "Hole in the Wall" bar, and a gazebo with deck chairs and a small garden on top of another picnic berm. Regular concession line the walkway around the seating areas, and the team store is located by home plate.

I've heard that the franchise gets good attendance overall, but on this rain-soaked day with dire predictions of nothing but more rain for the rest of the night, the crowd was sparse, and mostly located in the luxury boxes and on the Tigers' first-base side of the field. Those in attendance were pretty into the game.

There was the usual between-inning tomfoolery you expect in low A ball. There were skills contests, and races, and give-aways to the crowd. The Tigers had an odd mascot situation. There was the obvious CT the Tiger, but the old Norwich Navigator mascot (before the team changed affiliations), Tater the Gater, was so popular that he was apparently also brought back this season. In addition to these two, a giant chicken rounds out the extensive mascot parade.

Edgy

The mascots are joined by a rather sizable events staff that also dress up and throw out things throughout the course of the game, in addition to leading certain audience participation events throughout the evening.

Perhaps trying to evoke some of the mystique of Wrigley Field, the radio announcer for the team leans out of his broadcast booth and leads the fans in "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." Another Caray he is not.


At the Game with Oogie:

Jumbo Dog

As surprised as I was that the game was actually going to be played, I was still there prior to the gates opening up. There was some manner of pre-game prayer meeting going on near first base, but the regular folk would not be let in until an hour before game time.

In doing my regular walk-around the stadium, I came across one of the Tiger players walking back opposite to me from the back of the stadium. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it turns out that it dead ends behind the stadium, and the only way back is the way I came, so I started to wonder exactly what he was doing back there. A mystery it shall remain.

It was a free mini-bat giveaway at the stadium, so I suppose I was a little cautious of things, but nothing came of it. I had again sprung for seats behind the home dugout, but given the light turnout, I don't know if the ticket seller misunderstood me about wanting to sit right behind the dugout, or if there were a lot of season ticket holders who didn't come out because of the weather. I ended up with great seats in the second tier behind the dugout, but there were tons of free seats in the areas in front of me.

There was a small family directly behind me for the game who seemed to be season ticket holders, but there was no one else in my immediate area. The first-base side was the most filled area of the park, with the exception of the "luxury" boxes. It was mostly families, and given the weather, the light turn-out was pretty much expected.


The Game:

First pitch, Ironbirds vs. Tigers

Towards the end of the single-A short season, most of the players who have any real promise find themselves elsewhere, so it can be a crap shoot on what you get. Tonight's game was low offense.

The visiting Ironbirds went down in order in the first with two strikeouts, and the Tigers did only slightly better, scratching out a single. There was some activity in the second, however. The Ironbirds led off with a questionable single to second. A ground-out moved the runner over to second, and a straight steal got him to third. A strike out got us to two outs, but another questionable single back to the pitcher brought the run home before a ground-out ended the inning. Not to be outdone, the Tigers had a one-out walk followed by a single and another walk to load the bases. A wild pitch brought in a run, and a throwing error by the catcher let another run score and moved the man on first to third with only one out. The pitcher calmed down and got a strikeout and a liner to second to end the inning 2-1 Tigers.

The Ironbirds went meekly in order in the third, and the Tigers got only a single, erased on a double-play. The Birds went in order again in the fourth, but the Tigers got going. A lead-off walk scored on a triple, then two straight strikeouts looked like the Ironbirds may get out of it. The next batter, however, walked, and a new pitcher was brought in. The runner at first attempted a steal of second and drew the throw and a rundown, allowing the runner at third to score before he got tagged out, leaving it 3-1 Tigers at the end of four, with only one RBI to show for any of those runs.

The anemic Ironbirds went yet again in order in the fifth, and the Tigers only had one epicly plunked batsman (the ball bounced off the helmet and almost made it to first base) to show for their half. The sixth played out the same way, with the Tigers going in order as well. The Birds continued to get mowed down in order in the seventh, and the Tigers only managed one two-out hit.

The Ironbirds finally got on base in the eighth with a two-out walk and a single, and a passed ball got them to second and third, only to be stranded by a weak ground-out to the pitcher. The Tigers went in order in their half on three quick ground outs. For their last licks in the ninth, the Ironbirds got their lead-off man on with an E3 on the first baseman, but he was quickly erased on a double-play ball. The next batter struck out, and the Tigers secured their 4-1 victory.


The Scorecard:

Ironbirds vs. Tigers, 08/18/12. Tigers win, 4-1.

The scorecard was part of a free newsprint program. The cheap paper and inlaid logo made scoring with pencils difficult, but with experience, I was able to pull it off. The scoring boxes were also unnecessarily small, with wide tracts of land wasted on the pitching lines and the scorekeeping instructions.

There were a number of calls I disagreed with the official scorer on. In the top of the second, there were two infield "hits" that just had to be errors. It had real implications as well, as if those hits were rightly called errors, the Tigers had a no-hitter going through 7.6 innings (though with a myriad of pitchers), until a legit single in the bottom of the eighth.

A 3-6-3 double-play went down in the top of the third (always a welcome occurrence), and there was a weird one in the top of the eighth when the first baseman broke the webbing in his mitt on a throw over from the pitcher. This entailed a rather lengthy period where the first baseman tried to fix his glove and then had to rummage in the dugout for a replacement that was not readily available. As mentioned, the four runs for the Tigers had only produced one RBI, and only two of the runs were earned. Defense can be a killer, folks.


The Accommodations:
Late, but Hoboken

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2012 New England Weekend