Granville

On a New Kind of Obstacle

Terminal C, Newark Liberty Bald Eagle 
God Bless America International Airport

Friday, June 22, 2018

Morgantown, WV


Outside the Game:
After all my travel tribulations just several days before, to say that I wasn't looking forward to flying again that week was an understatement. But a trip is a trip. My main concern was not having a repeat of Tuesday and the fact that my new boss at work hadn't let me meet the person covering for me yet. But my problems were from a different source.

I've been incredibly lucky over the years as far as my health and vacation. Outside of one or two scares, my constitution has held up at least until I came back. Now, I'm not saying that this was because of all my travel stress the day before, but I didn't feel well at work on Thursday and left a little early. "Not feeling well" translated into a 101-degree fever when I checked at home, and I had the achy tiredness of the flu.

So, fantastic.

I finished packing and took some Nyquil at 8 PM and fell asleep as I was watching Brockmire, then woke up again at midnight, made my way to my bed from the couch and doused myself with more Nyquil.

My fever was down to 99.5 in the morning, but I didn't want to chance going to work. I was already looking into moving my flight to Saturday morning if things didn't improve. I took some aspirin and worked from home for the day, which worked out, because the person who was covering for me apparently decided to just work from home herself because she wasn't that busy, in a turn of events that really put my mind at ease. I got some work done in the morning, then took a nap. I had a call where I was finally able to talk to my coverage, gave her as thorough a briefing as I could manage, and then lay down some more.

My fever was slight at this point, so I decided to risk it with the flight. I arranged a Lyft to the airport, and we hit no traffic on the way in. I upgraded to First Class for the flight to Pittsburgh mostly to avoid any hassles, and I got through security with no problems. I was thankfully in Terminal C and feeling pretty hungry, so I went to the Italian place and grabbed some carbonara and rice balls. I started feeling achy again, and my fever was back up to 99, so I just went to the gate and rested up until boarding.

There, of course, was a slight delay in boarding, and perhaps for the first time in my life, I sat in seat A1 on the plane. Not wanting to deal with anything, I gate-checked my bag and settled into my solitary seat at the front of the plane.

I was mostly exhausted, but the flight went quickly, and I spent most of it watching the second third of Paddington 2, which was delightful. We ended up arriving a little early, which caused a real delay at the gate, as we were parked, but the team to work our jetway hadn't shown up yet. All of the gate-checked bags were out and waiting by the time the jetway was opened, to the especial chagrin of another First-Class passenger who refused to gate-check his bag and crammed it in an overhead, and now all the time he saved by doing that was made naught.

I walked off and got my bag and was quickly on the train back to the main terminal. I called my friend on my cell and arranged where to meet, and I dropped my bag in the trunk and had an uneventful ride back to his house in West Virginia.

He and his son introduced me to the world of Rocket League, but I started to feel achy and my fever started rising again, so I eventually adjourned to his computer room where a giant pull-out bean-bag bed awaited me.


The Accommodations:
I was staying with my friend and his family in Morgantown. This meant setting up in their computer room. The usual blow-up bed was replaced by a giant bean-bag chair that folded out into a bed. Skeptical at first, I was quite surprised at how nice it was, especially for my old back. In addition, a Death Star nightlight kept things nicely illuminated for the evening.

On a Second Visitation

Monogalia County Ballpark, 2018

Saturday, June 23, 2018

State College Spikes (St. Louis Cardinals) vs.
West Virginia Black Bears (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Monongalia County Ballpark
NY-PENN League (A-)
Granville, WV
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
I crashed for nine hours of sleep on the bean bag bed, waking up to a temperature of 76.7 and feeling much better. A breakfast of pancakes further fortified me for the game, which was spent in the traditional manner, playing video games all morning.

There was a break where everyone went for lunch at a local salad place, and then back to the video games for the rest of the afternoon. The weather had been a little concerning, with downpours running on and off all afternoon. Nevertheless, we packed up and made the short drive to the park, and the weather held out. As I wanted to do some photography, I was given my ticket, and we split up until I was inside.

After the game, we left before the post-game fireworks started and had a quick drive back to the house. We played more video games until we got tired, and then turned in for the night.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Monongalia County Ballpark

The flies-off-the-tongue Monongalia County Stadium hadn't changed all that much since my first visit at the opening for the franchise a few years back. The landscaping had been worked out, to be sure, but the usually premiere home plate entrance was still backed against a hill, though it had been now turned into a party area called "The Bear Pit." There were other little touches, like kaleidoscoping art on the outfield railings of the park, and the far-too-steep berms had been turned to good use with a "Berm-O" game put on the left field hill that was used for a between-innings game similar to The Price Is Right's Plinko. Also, privacy screens were put up on the ends of the dugouts to prevent kids from pestering the players during the games.

The big change came in the outfield, as the area behind right field had been opened up into an area called the “Back Yard." The was a grating put in the wall so you could watch the game from back there, picnic tables to sit, as well as pitching and batting cages for use.

Cooper

The team was still pulling healthy, if not sell-out, crowds, although that could be attributed to the iffy weather for this game. Cooper was still there entertaining the troops between innings.


At the Game with Oogie:

Pepperoni Roll

So, this begins with the "Clear Bag Policy." UWV had recently instituted this policy at all of its stadiums to try and curb underaged drinking at the games, and it involved nothing but completely transparent approved bags allowed in the stadium. Since the Black Bears technically lease the stadium from UWV, they had to start following this policy, which is the strictest in all of professional baseball.

My friend hadn't brought up my tiny camera bag, but when I got to the gates, they were not going to let me in, although they eventually tagged it "media" because I don't think they wanted to deal with it. Once inside, I did my normal pictures and look-around to see what had changed.

In a "small world" moment, my friend dragged me out to the new "Back Yard" area in right field where a player I had seen in Australia was signing autographs. He was a member of the Pirates organization, so he played in the ABL during the winter here and played minor league ball here during the winter there. We had a little chat about things, and he seemed a nice enough guy. I hope he makes it further up the chain, but I got the impression he was glad just avoiding winter altogether as long as he could.

I also had a brief chat with a member of the management group for the team. They were schmoosing my friend, who had been a season ticket holder since the inaugural season, so I got to talk to him a little bit, especially about the new area they opened in right field.

My friend's tickets, as before, were right next to the home dugout between home plate and first base. There were other families they were on a "hi" basis with behind and in front of us. Next to us was a couple, the man of which worked for NASA and was trying to recruit my friend into playing in a 1st Edition D&D game he was DMing. My friend was very ineffectively trying to bow out of it.

In keeping with things, I looked away for a minute, and my friend's son got a baseball from one of the players in the dugout. He also got to play the Berm-O game in the mid-innings. Yes, because you're going to be young and cute forever...

I grabbed a pepperoni roll and a drink for dinner. Everything else was the game.


The Game:
This mid-season match-up in the increasingly mis-named NY-PENN League had the visiting State College Spikes facing off against the West Virginia Black Bears in a game that started off a little slow but featured a barrage of runs in what turned out definitively to not be a pitcher's duel.

The Spikes had a leadoff single followed by a walk, but everyone died on the bases in the first, while West Virginia went in order. State College got to an early lead with a leadoff E5 that made it around the bases on stolen bases, passed balls, and another error, staking the visiting team to a 1-0 lead, while the Black Bears gain went in order in the second. The Spikes got a leadoff single to third but stranded him there in their half of the frame. West Virginia had a two-out rally in the top of the third with a single and a double, but the lead runner was cut down from the outfield trying to score to end the threat.

The scoring began in earnest in the top of the fourth, with two doubles, a hit batsman, a walk, and a single to plate four runs for State College, jumping to a 5-0 lead. The Black Bears answered with a leadoff error, two doubles, and a single, leading to three runs to make it 5-3. The Spikes couldn't keep up and went in order. But West Virginia didn't stop in the fifth, where a walk, hit batsman, a single, and two doubles got four runs across, giving them an 7-4 lead. Things slowed in the top of the sixth, where State College scattered a walk and a single to no effect, and the Black Bears got a leadoff single to second on a stolen base and stranded him there.

The Spikes got only had a leadoff single in their half of the seventh, while West Virginia two more in the bottom of the seventh with a walk and a homer to left to extend their lead to 9-5. State College got two runners on with an error and a walk, but stranded both in the eighth, while the Black Bears finally went in order again. The Spikes then went quietly in order in the ninth, securing the home-team victory, 9-5.


The Scorecard:

Spikes vs. Black Bears, 06/23/18. Black Bears win, 9-5.

When I first visited the Black Bears the last time, they didn't have a program or a scorecard. To be fair, it was their franchise's opening day, so they probably had a few other things they were working out. For this visit three years later, they finally had their program together, but it is almost sad they did. This is, hands down, the worst scorecard I ever saw.

The program is a free mini-tabloid on magazine paper. As minor-league programs go, especially for the NY-PENN League, it was nicely produced and laid out, with the specific and tragic exception of the centerfold scorecard.

The scorecard was on semi-gloss paper, so it was easy enough to write on with pencil, it took up the entire spread, and it was on a white background to make it easy to put in notes. This ends the list of good things about the scorecard.

First of all, they called it a "STAT SHEET," not a scorecard for some reason. The home team was on the left side instead of the more traditional right side, but that can be forgiven. What can't be forgiven was the fact that this was a Scoremaster-type scorecard that was clearly scaled down to the current print specs, making it almost unreadable, let alone unusable. Each Scoremaster-type scoring box has a line of progressions at the top of the box, a pre-printed diamond, an out-number box, and ball and strike counters. It takes a steady hand to be able to fill out a scoring box in this thing correctly, and it is barely, barely legible when you do. This is clearly meant to be printed at twice, perhaps three times, its printed size in the program.

There are room for two replacements with each batting line, but for some reason, there are 17 batting lines. It makes me wonder if whoever printed this up didn't know what a scorecard is for. There are regular summary lines at the end of each batting line, but the boxes are so small as to be almost useless. There are three stroked-out lines after the summary stats at the end of each line for some reason, taking up even more precious space. There are extended inning summary data (R/H/E/LOB) at the bottom of each inning column, but again the space is so small, more information makes it worse.

Oh, and there's no pitching lines. Half the card is wasted on player lines that can't possibly be used, and there is no space for pitching lines. I wrote the pitchers in at the bottom of the card.

Without doubt, without question, easily the worst scorecard in professional baseball.

As for the game, there were  a couple of tiny notes on the tiny card. A single in the bottom of the third was annotated to show it was actually an E6. And I made a note on the CS 7-2 in a blank area because the scoring square was so small I couldn't fit in in legibly. There were a number of costly errors for both teams, but thankfully for the space allotted, there was nothing too complex to record.


The Accommodations: 
I was again in the computer room with the surprisingly comfortable bean bag bed.

On Reverting to Type

Sunday, June 24, 2018
Morgantown, WV


Outside the Game:
With the wife and son off at an event all day, there was nothing stopping my friend and I was reverting to patterns long-held since high school and just sit around and play video games all day. We got up, and after breakfast, we started playing until a break for a late lunch at Wendy's, more video games, a break to make hotel arrangements for the next night, more video games, a break for dinner at Arby's, and then more video games, until a break for packing once the family came home. It was a good day.

In the process of packing, my luggage tag, which had lasted me since I had started these foolish trips, broke, but some quick mending got it back and working. Everyone was joining me for the next day in Bluefield, and then we were parting ways. I was going on to North Carolina, while they were going south to join up with other family in South Carolina. Everyone got packed up, and we went to bed.


The Accommodations:
I was in the warm bosom of the bean bag bed in the computer room for my last evening.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2018 East Coast Leftovers

Granville

On Getting Out of Town for Something Unlikely

Rental car

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Morgantown, WV


Outside the Game: 

I was burning one of my Summer Fridays to be able to go out to see the grand opening of a stadium, something I had never done before and one of the items on my baseball Bucket List that I wondered if I would ever be able to complete. But as it happened, a new minor league franchise was opening up in the backyard of my best friend, and he had already scored season tickets. So, this was pretty much a no-brainer.

I had walked the necessary people through my one-day coverage document, and I headed out to Newark Freedom Liberty Bald-Eagle Apple Pie America airport after work. I took the PATH out to Newark and grabbed a NJ Transit train one stop to the airport with plenty of time before my 9:30 flight. I got through security and grabbed dinner at the diner in C terminal and waited to board.

It was with great surprise that my flight boarded on time and with no major incidents, we were in Pittsburgh on time to land at 11 PM. I quickly got my rental car in a dead, night airport and started my hour-and-a-half drive to Morgantown. I may have gotten the drive time down to an hour fifteen, but sometime after midnight, I quietly arrived at my friend's house, and quietly went inside and crashed for the night so as not to wake the wife and child.


The Accommodations: 

I was staying in the computer room at my friend's house now that his step-son had taken over the old guest room for some reason. It was an air mattress, but my back survived the trepidations.

On the First Time for Everything

Monongalia County Ballpark, 2015

Friday, June 19, 2015

Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Cleveland Indians) vs. 

West Virginia Black Bears (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Monongalia County Ballpark
NY-Penn League (A-)
Granville, WV
7:05 PM


Outside the Game: 

After the somewhat late arrival, I was similarly a little late in rising the next day. But breakfast waits for no man, and the day got on its way, as we settled into some important video gaming, breaking only for lunch before getting back into the digital trenches.

Eventually, it was time to head out to the stadium for the grand opening. It had been on and off raining all day, but I knew that unless it was end-of-the-world weather, they were going to get this no-brainer sellout and grand opening in, come hell or presumably high water. Without the planned connecting road to downtown, it was a bit of a drive to the park, but we got there and parked in one of the only opened lots, as construction was still being completed on the other lots in the outlying areas of the park. It was down to a fine drizzle by the time we got inside, so we hoped that was a good sign.

After the game, we got back to the car and fought through some congestion back to the house, where we capped the night with a little more video gaming and then hit the hay.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Monongalia County Ballpark

With a name like “Monongalia County Ballpark,” you know they haven’t successfully sold the naming rights yet. On the damp day of its grand opening, the stadium was clearly not quite finished. The signage was all temporary, the gate procedures seemed ad hoc, and the landscaping was very much not finalized, with large swathes of unleveled dirt and unfinished pavement surrounding the park. This is perhaps even more surprising given that the park hosted a spring season of college baseball for UWVa prior to the start of the NY-PENN League season. The park wasn’t the only thing incomplete, as the new road to connect up more directly with downtown Morgantown was not yet finished, the surrounding stores and hotels were not yet open, and there was even just one parking lot available for all the facilities.

The park itself is a fairly standard layout in a very non-standard configuration. Entrances are at right field and center field, with center field only open for the stadium’s premiere. The park is aligned at the bottom of a large hill with the usual marquee home plate entrance jammed up against the base of the hill, with no access. I’m not sure if this was because of them not being able to do the necessary landscaping in time for opening, or if this was some misbegotten decision on the part of the ownership.

The entrance opens out onto a narrow promenade that starts in center field and runs out to right field behind home plate. The walkway winds down a steep slope behind left field until it reaches the grandstand at third base. It levels off as it runs around the top of the seating bowl, and then leads out a wider right field plaza that ends in a stairwell down to the not-yet-open right field entrance. The main grandstand runs from dugout to dugout, extending down from the promenade via staircases. A second row tops the grandstand from a slightly shorter distance, hosting the luxury boxes and the press box. The chairs are all molded plastic bolted onto bleachers and weren’t exactly what you’d call “comfortable.”

What in other parks would be picnic hills in left and right field are too dangerously steep for that purpose here, and just end up as empty space, though apparently there are plans in the works to level them off. The two main concession stands are on the grandstand promenade, although there are additional stalls in the right field plaza area. A small box of a team store is on the promenade by third base, and it is too small by half. People were entering the store and getting on the end of the checkout line as it weaved through the entire store on its way to get to the front. Similarly, the promenade narrows in the grandstand, and it was wall-to-wall people, especially by the backed-up and overwhelmed concession stands.

Some other things of note are the field is nearly completely turf, except for the pitchers’ mound, and especially in these wet conditions, they seemed particularly dangerous to the young prospects playing on them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a career-ending injury or two. Also, the seats ride up right next to the field, but this necessitates foul ball netting across the entire sitting area, as well as some interesting situations of people having to check behind them when foul balls are hit as they often carom off the upper deck and fly back into the stands. The only place to get an unimpeded view of the field is the right field plaza.

The brand-new digital video board and scoreboard sits in left-center field, above a single tier outfield wall that is not yet overgrown with local ads. A bank of trees forms the batter’s eye, and the rest of the outfield wall vista is the rolling mountains in the distance.

Hanging with Mr. Cooper.

So, the brand-new mascot for the Black Bears is Cooper, the black bear, named for nearby Cooper Mountain, home to actual black bears. The costume was preternaturally clean, as this is the first game he was attending, having only been out for a few PR appearances prior to the first game. He was introduced in the pre-game as “just having come out of hibernation,” so who knows if they will do this every spring or not. He pretty much did standard mascot duties for the game, schmoozing with fans and helping out with the on-field activities and whatnot. Most of those were standard minor-league stuff, apart from the “Smile Cam” and “Bear Hug Cam” (presumably in the place of kiss cams), and the playing of Thank God I’m A Country Boy by John Denver during the seventh inning stretch.

As this was the franchise opener, the park was packed to capacity, even with the rainy weather. All new franchises have enthusiasm at the start of the tenure, but who knows if it will keep up? But for now, the greater Morgantown area seems pretty smitten with its first professional team, and they were all very much into the game and festivities.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Rain scoring

So I was with my friend and his family, who had secured season tickets when the team first offered them last Fall. Because my friend is tenacious, he managed to grab seats right next to the entrance to the dugout and put the seat for his son right next to the dugout. Cute kid + dugout access = more freebies than he'll ever need in a long lifetime. This was evidenced nearly immediately, as the friggin’ President of the NY-PENN League, on hand this evening for the grand opening, gave him a ball even before the game started. That little so-and-so won't know how good he has it.

I split up with my friend and his family to do my walking around and photography. That was hampered a lot by the netting that covered the entire seating area and the weather, but I made do. Getting around was difficult, because the tiny park was filled to capacity, and my foray through the team store was even more memorable, as it was just a matter of joining the back of the register line as soon as you got in, as it was snaked throughout the entire confines of the small building. But I did get some opening day merch, so there's that.

Pepperoni roll and souvenir soda

I settled on a local favorite for food and got a loaded pepperoni roll, whatever that was, for food. I went down to the seats, which were right behind the plate and, as mentioned, right next to the home dugout. The seats were molded plastic things bolted onto bleachers, so they weren't the most comfortable things in the world, and the drainage left something to be desired, as water was pooling in the concrete floor at our feet.

But through it all, it was the first grand opening of a ballpark I had even been to, and it was probably the only opportunity I would have in this situation. It was also good to spend some time with my friend and his family watching a ballgame.


The Game: 

First pitch, Scrappers vs. Black Bears

The good news was that the inaugural game between the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and the brand-new West Virginia Black Bears not only got off despite the weather, but it was also a run-soaked affair. The bad news is that the new home team ended up on the wrong end of it.

The first inning was the first and only to go quietly, with both sides going in order. The Scrappers then went to work in the top of the second, scoring three runs on a single, a triple, a hit by pitch, a walk, an error, and a ground-out, putting them up 3-0 early. West Virginia came back in the bottom of the second with their own run on two singles and an error, to close it to 3-1. Mahoning Valley then tacked on four more in the third, starting the frame with back-to-back homers, and then getting two more runs on a hit batsman, a single, a wild pitch, and another single to extend their lead to 7-1. The Black Bears went in order in the bottom of the third.

The Scrappers didn't manage to score either in their next half-inning, with just a walk to show for the top of the fourth. West Virginia got a runner as far as third after a leadoff single, but he went no further. The hiatus on scoring was over in the top of the fifth, with Mahoning Valley blasting out four more runs on a spate of walks and hit batsman driven in by a sacrifice fly and a bases-clearing double, stretching the lead to 11-1. The Black Bears just had a two-out double in the bottom of the fifth. The Scrappers drove in three more runs in the top of the sixth on the back of a walk, two doubles, and a sacrifice fly, making the lead a ludicrous 13-1, while West Virginia just went in order in the bottom of the inning.

The scoring kept coming for Mahoning Valley in the top of the seventh, with two more runs on three singles and a bunch of errors, making it 15-1. Clearly reaching the limit of their dignity, the Black Bears busted out in the bottom of the seventh, with five runs on four(!) walks, two errors, a strikeout passed ball, and a double, to make it a more respectable 15-6. For the second time in the game, the Scrappers went in order in the top of the eighth, while West Virginia got another one back on four walks, to make it 15-7. Mahoning Valley went in order in the top of the ninth despite a leadoff walk thanks to a double play, and despite the efforts on a walk and hit batsman, the Black Bears were not able to more than double their score, and lost their very first game, 15-7.


The Scorecard: 

Scrappers vs. Black Bears, 06/19/15. Scrappers win, 15-7.

As the Black Bears hadn't gotten their scorecards printed in time for their first game, I was left with using the BBWAA scorebook for this game.

Where to start? There were 17 walks in this game. 17! There were also nine errors. There were also five hit batsmen, the sort of average you'd expect to see in a late 60's game between the Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The hardest part of scoring this game was keeping track of earned versus non-earned runs thanks to all the errors. You're hard-pressed to find many scoring plays where there isn't an E somewhere in there. Or at least a hit batsman. 

In all this slop, there were some plays of special note. In the top of the fifth, with a runner on first and second, there was a pickoff throw from the catcher 2-3 that caromed off the runner's helmet that let the runner on second advance to third. In the bottom of the seventh, a runner reached first on a wild pitch on a swinging third strike. He then made it to third on the next batter's double but was thrown out after going too far towards home 7-5. Also, the Scrapper as a team hit for the cycle, although you almost have to in order to score 15 runs.


The Accommodations: 

I was in the computer room again, with no great problems arising from the air mattress.

On Neither Rain Going Away and Nor Coming Back Another Day

Quitters

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Morgantown, WV


Outside the Game: 

So, we had plans to see game two in the short history of the Black Bears later in the evening, but until then, we had a day to kill. After getting up, having some breakfast, and starting with our day, it was time to retire to the computer room for more computer games for the rest of the morning, interrupted by a brief run out for lunch before more computer games.

As the afternoon wore on, there was more and more rain coming down from the skies, until it eventually cleared up mostly in the late afternoon, with a good prognosis for the weather clearing for the game, much as it had the night before. Despite the adult male optimism, the wife and son portion of the contingent was not so positive-minded, so it was just us to drive down to the park for the game. A drizzle turned into a downpour as we waited in the parking lot, and just before the gates were set to open, the stadium screen flashed up a message that the game was cancelled because of weather, so I got to be there for this milestone in the Black Bears franchise as well. 

We drove back to the house for some impromptu video gaming for the rest of the night before turning in.


The Accommodations: 

I was again in my friend's computer room on the inflatable mattress, and I was only starting to feel some ill effects in my back from it.

On When Delays Work To Your Advantage

Sunny Pittsburgh

Sunday, June 21, 2015
Jersey City, NJ


Outside of the Game: 

The delay on my flight actually worked out to my advantage in the morning, as I didn't have to get up nearly as early as I was expecting, so I was able to get up and say goodbye to my friend before heading out. I was on the road for a nothing interesting ride back to Pittsburgh International Airport.

After dealing with the New York area airports, it is so easy to forget how much other airports are not like that. I dropped off my rental car and was through security in under a half hour, so I had nothing but time to worry if there would be more delays. I tried to get on an earlier flight, but there were no seats left, so I just got some breakfast and waited sullenly by the terminal.

But I was pleasantly surprised when in addition to my plane being at the gate, the crew wandered up rather early in my waiting period. In overhearing their conversation with the gate staff, the pilot came in very late this morning, so they had to move the flight back so that he had his appropriate time off between flights. Thus informed, and sitting as I was close to the gate, I dozed off until the plane started boarding.

We all got on the flying bus with little effort and were off at our new flight time. I got out at Newark, hailed a cab home, and was off doing laundry in no time.


The Accommodations: 

Home, sweet Jersey City

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Stand-Alone Trip