On Backing It In
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| Canal Park, 2014 |
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Erie Seawolves
(Detroit Tigers) vs.Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Indians)
Canal Park
Eastern League (AA)
Akron, OH
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
After getting up and enjoying some breakfast buffet, I thought better of the whole awake thing and went back to bed for a while. That seemed to be working a lot better with me.
Eventually, I had to get going, if only for fear of getting kicked out my apartment--uh, hotel room. I dumped everything back into my injured car and made the short ride to Akron, down the road a piece.
I got to the stadium, and after a little driving around, I found out that the parking meters were off for the weekend, so I parked on a street outside of right field. I picked up my tickets, discovering that the game was sold out in the process, and then walked around to take my outside pictures and stop at the team store. The game only opened up an hour before first pitch, and I'd need every second to explore the park, so I figured I'd at least get my shopping done ahead of time.
In walking around, I found a nice little park in the back dedicated to the Erie Canal. There was even a museum about it, but it was closed on the weekends. I also found out that there would be a concert in another park down the street from the ballpark, so it would probably behoove me to get back here for the game on the early side.
After doing what I do, I sent myself in the direction on the Akron Zoo, which was but a short drive away. On this fine, holiday day, the parking lot was quite full. I found a space, bought my ticket, and went off into the zoological afternoon. I immediately bought a drink to stave off the insane heat of the afternoon I had ignored to this point. The zoo had just undergone a lot of renovations, so there were a bunch of new exhibits. There was an amphibian/rain forest building that also held one of the major concession areas. I ducked in to get some lunch before seeing the exhibits. There was a working Frogger machine in the building, but sadly, it would properly accept quarters, so you couldn't play it. Which was a disappointment.
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| Debonair |
I spent some time walking around the zoo. As I was getting to the end of my circuit, they were about to do a training exercise at the bear exhibit that I stayed to watch. And observing these giant monsters do tricks that facilitated their zoological care, all I could think about is how lucky it is we have guns, because in a regular confrontation, those bears would just make short work of us. To underscore the point, there was a scale near the exhibit that let you know how much your weight was of a bear's daily food intake before hibernation. The subtext was quite clear.
Eventually done, I headed off to my hotel, which turned out to just be a short drive from the zoo. I checked in, dumped my stuff in the room, and tired from an afternoon in the sun, I took a shower and a nap. In short order, it was time to head back to the park.
Another quick drive later, I was back at the park, but all the free spaces were long since gone. A parking lot just across from the park wasn't yet filled, and just $5, so I pulled in there. The lot was an empty lot, and a building was clearly there before, because I ended up driving over a building bracket of some sort while parking, wondering if I had punctured my tire in the process. Not being able to do anything about it at the moment, I went to join the ever-growing line to get in.
Not caring for the fireworks, I found my tires still inflated, so I headed back to the hotel at a reasonable hour. Having to head out a bit on the early side the next day, I packed up as much as possible, showered up, and made an early night of it.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Canal Park |
Canal Park was pretty refreshing in being a relatively new park that was an anchor to a downtown revitalization effort that wasn't immediately sold off to corporate naming, unless there is a "Canal Corporation" that I'm not aware of, in which case, ignore everything I've said up to this point.
With its fake brick fronting, the park is right on the canal in the middle of downtown. You can circumnavigate the outside by going along the canal park, skirting the other parks and performance spaces in the area, and wandering down the downtown sidewalks. The "Diamond Boardwalk" outside of home plate connects with the canal. On the outside of the park are several facilities, including the several ticket booths, the team store, the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame, and "The Game" restaurant, with its lighted sign by its right-field location proclaiming what meal it is serving and if there is a game today. Entrances to the park are at home plate, third base, left field and right field.
The grandiloquently named "Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame" is unaffiliated with the Ducks, but the space offers free admission to the galleries, which features great local players, the Hall of Fame itself, and stories of the various teams that have played in Akron. The place has seen better days, unfortunately, as--for example--the "F" in "Of" in "Hall of Fame" was dangling precariously when I visited. The guy who runs the place was a hoot and half, though.
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| Hall O...f |
All the entrances dump out onto a wide promenade that runs from right-center field to left field around home plate. Center field is inaccessible, so you can't circumnavigate, but the walkway is very broad, so getting around is not a problem at all. The single section of seating all extend down from the promenade by regularly spaced stairwells, with regular seating running out to right field and to third base on that side of the park, with a table service "Fowl Territory" section running from third base to the left field corner. A second level runs from about dugout to dugout, housing the luxury boxes and the press box above home plate. All the concessions are found along the promenade, either built into the back of the grandstand or as free-standing carts in other parts of the park. Patrons of The Game restaurant can look out from right field, or eat on outdoor seating in the right field plaza to watch the game.
A single-tier outfield wall covered in ads winds through the outfield behind the impressively black batters' eye in center, the main digital video board in right-center, the auxiliary strip board in left-center, and the Akron skyline in the backdrop. A bit of local color is added by the fact that the center field wall by the batters’ eye indents into the field dramatically, leaving a pointed wedge in the wall, whether from necessity or being "quirky." Left field on top of the Fowl Territory ends in a large party area, while right field terminates in a kids' Fun Zone and a Tiki Terrace bar. The park also has a ton of memorials and dedications. There's a POW/MIA seat, a plaque dedicated to fans who met and married at the park, and championship banners along the right field wall.
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| Mascot lineup |
Webster the Duck and Orbit the Cat are the local mascots. Webster can even remove his mascot hat and hand it out to fans, as he often does during the course of the game. Most of the between-inning entertainment was minor-league standards, although there were a couple of unique twists such as slip-n-slide bowling, and less common things such as a seventh-inning grounds crew dance. As this was a potentially playoff clinching event, the game was eventually sold out, and it was rocking, even when it didn't look like it was going to work out for the home team.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Night scoring |
I bought my tickets before setting out from Niles, and it seems like a good idea that I did. By the time I showed up mid-afternoon to buy my ticket, the potentially clinching game was sold out to standing room only. With my magical single ticket, I had managed to get in the season ticket section behind the home dugout anyway.
After casing the place for food, I decided on a cheesesteak from local favorite Eddie's, and man, was that the right decision. The $9 cheesesteak was simply one of the best I've ever had, and exactly the right size to fill me up without feeling like you've eaten too much.
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| Eddie's cheesesteak |
As mentioned, the game was a sell-out, but as I was in the season ticket areas, I had the least populous area of the park due to no-shows. That said, there were still three or so families sitting around me. There were a couple storylines in the stands that night. The family in front of me had a young girl that just wanted to get a ball. She tried all game, and around the seventh inning, she finally got the player who caught the last out of the inning to give her a ball, and she was deliriously happy for the rest of the game.
On less happy news, there were a group of pre-teen boys who were sitting in the section to our left who had friends in the section to our right. Since there were a lot of open seats in our section, they kept running back and forth across our section instead of going up the stairs and back down the other stairs. This eventually annoyed the families in the way enough that they yelled at them on their next attempt, and, in the way that only kids who have been yelled out by adults can act, not only walked up and down the stairs, but avoided eye contact with our section for the rest of the night.
The family behind me had the star of the night. This family had a young son who never ceased in his Little League-level-of-enthusiasm chant of "Let's go Ducks!" And frankly, he seemed to be the only one to never lose spirit for the entirety of the game, featuring all of those improbably near comebacks by Akron throughout the night. He eventually made friends with some of the other boys and girls in his section, and he had them all chanting along for the rest of the night, up until the last rally in the bottom of the ninth.
The Game:
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| First pitch, SeaWolves vs. RubberDucks |
This was a potentially playoff-clinching game for the RubberDucks, with their magic number staying at one due to a loss the previous night. I'd never been to a clinching game before, so this was potentially a first for me.
It started off well for the Ducks, as a leadoff single in the first by the SeaWolves was picked off, and the rest of the side struck out. Akron got on the board quickly, with a one-out single in the bottom of the inning, who then stole second and moved to third and a deep fly to center, scoring when the center fielder threw the ball into the backstop, allowing the unearned run. Two quick outs ending the inning at 1-0, RubberDucks.
The lead lasted until the top of the second, as the first Erie batter was plunked and then came home on a homer to right. A one-out double was erased on an inning-ending double-play, but not before the SeaWolves were up 2-1. Akron only managed a two-out walk in the bottom of the second, and both sides went in order in the third.
Not so the fourth. Erie strung together four straight hits (three singles and then a double) to start the inning and bring in two runs. A walk followed, and a single brought in two more runs. The runner at second was gunned down trying to steal third, and two more outs ended the half at 6-1, Erie. Akron managed only a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth, and both sides went in order again in the fifth.
The SeaWolves stranded a one-out double in the top of the sixth, but Akron tried to get back in the game. They started the bottom of the inning with a single that went to second on a passed ball. The next batter tripled him in, and a single brought him in in turn. A double made it second and third with no outs, and grounder to second brought a runner in and over on the put-out to first. A double brought in another run and chased the Erie starter, but his replacement got two quick outs to end the scoring with a slim 6-5 Erie lead.
In keeping with the pace of this game, the SeaWolves opened up their lead in the seventh. A leadoff single was followed by a walk and a double-steal to make it second and third with no outs. A new Akron pitcher allowed a double to bring them both in, before getting out of the inning at 8-5, Erie. The RubberDucks went back to work in the bottom of the inning, starting off with a single, a hit batsman, and a single to center. The single brought in a run, and a misplay by the center fielder brought in the runner from first and put the batter at second with no outs. A single made it first and third with no outs, and the runner at first was pulled for a pinch runner. A groundout to short finally got an out, and a new pitcher was brought in, efficiently stopping the bleeding with a strikeout and fly out to left, preserving the Erie lead at 8-7.
And Erie opened up the lead again in the top of the eighth. A leadoff walk was erased on a caught stealing, but another walk followed, and he stole second. A new Ducks pitcher gave up a single to short that was subsequently bobbled by the shortstop, allowing a run to score. Another deep single on a hit-and-run brought in the speedy runner all the way from first, but two outs ended the half at 10-7, SeaWolves.
The RubberDucks went in order in the eighth, and Erie had two-out, back-to-back singles in the top of the ninth, and nothing else. Akron made one last try in the bottom of the ninth. Back-to-back doubles started them off, followed by a short single and a stolen base to put the tying runs in scoring position with no outs. But the Erie pitcher hunkered down and got three straight outs to end the last rally short with a 10-8 SeaWolves win.
That said, the team chasing the RubberDucks lost, so Akron did clinch their playoff berth, and the team half-heartedly put on playoff t-shirts in the dugout after the game.
The Scorecard:
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| SeaWolves vs. RubberDucks, 08/30/14. SeaWolves win, 10-8. |
The scorecard was part of a free program, but unexpectedly, it wasn't given away at the front gate at all, but needed to be asked for at the fan relations booth. The gentleman behind the counter looked a little taken aback by my request, but eventually went into a back room, returned with a box, and removed a stack of programs that he put on the counter for myself and other patrons. I'm not sure if he just forgot to put them out, or I was just the first person to ask in long while.
The program was a full-colored tabloid pamphlet, with the somewhat cramped scoring area taking up the entire centerfold. Each player line had room for three substitutions, and the visiting pitchers were listed with the opposing team, aligned perpendicular to the batting lines.
For all the on-field scoring, it was a rather conventional game from a scorekeeping perspective. There were certainly more replacements and pinch-runners than I had seen in a while, but outside of a few mildly odd plays (a 1-4-3 putout in the bottom of the third and a K-1-3 in the top of seventh thanks to the uncaught third strike bouncing back most of the way to the pitcher's mound), there was nothing much of note. Two after-play errors by the SeaWolves center fielder and one by the Akron shortstop were all that was left to mention. In the bottom of the first, after making a catch, he threw away the ball letting a run score, and in the bottom of the seventh, while fielding a single to center, he again threw the ball away, allowing another run in. In the top of the eighth, a ball to deep short was knocked down, getting the batter a single, but the shortstop threw the ball away, letting a run score.
The Accommodations:
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| Courtyard in Akron Stow |
After the Residence Inn the night before, anything short of a castle would probably be a letdown, but I decided to stay at another Marriott property, the Courtyard in Akron Stow, which was just off Route 8 a little north of downtime and pointing towards my destination for the next day.
While no Residence Inn, it was quite nice. The bathroom was off to the right of the room entrance, with the sink and vanity outside the bathroom proper, with the toilet and shower through the door. In the back room, my bed was against the perpendicular wall, facing the windows. The TV, desk, and dresser were on the left wall, and a small couch and dining table were on the right. The windows were sliding doors that opened out onto a small patio landing, with two chairs and a table. So, it had that over the Residence Inn, but no free popcorn.
