Rome

On the Braves Ruining Most Things

State Mutual Stadium, 2018

Sunday, July 1, 2018
Kannapolis Intimidators vs.
Rome Braves (Atlanta Braves)
State Mutual Stadium
South Atlantic League (A)
Rome, GA
2:00 PM


Outside the Game:
Sadly, I didn't have a great experience that night, as I was repeatedly woken up in the middle of the night by noise, so whatever little sleep I would have gotten was regularly interrupted. I had to leave early anyway, with a four-hour drive ahead of me, and my alarm at 7:30 AM was not very welcome.

I pulled it together as best as possible, showered, packed, and then decided to treat myself with a bed and breakfast in Rome that evening that had a previous life as a Victorian mansion. At least dreaming of better things, I was out on the road at 8 AM to start my drive.

Perhaps the greatest miracle of this trip was that I had to drive through the center of Atlanta to get up to Rome, and on this Sunday morning, I drove from the outskirts of Atlanta, through downtown, through the hell that is the downtown interchanges, and back out without hitting any sort of traffic. Considering I hit a legitimate traffic jam at 1 AM at one point in the past around Atlanta, this was nothing short of a miracle.

I pulled into the park at about noon, not having slept well, or eaten anything since lunch the previous day. I stumbled out of my car into the burning afternoon and grabbed a ticket. By great luck, it turned out that the gates for the 2 PM game opened at 12:30 PM with my ticket, so I just did all my outside photography before heading into the park.

After the game was called for rain, I went out into the damp parking lot, not hitting any traffic at all from the few souls that remained at this point. It was a short drive the downtown B&B in the rain. I came up to the intersection downtown where I had to turn for the hotel, and I obliviously made my left turn, not realizing until I was halfway through the turn that there was a horrible T-bone accident in front of me. Nothing else to do for it, I sheepishly continued my turn and drove the short distance to the hotel.

Or at least where it was supposed to be. The innkeeper had given me some vague warnings about the entrance being hidden, and it took me two or so passes around the block before some half-remembered advice he gave my half-awake person in the morning became clear, and I drove up the driveway to the establishment.

I piled out, damp and fading, into the courtyard, and the innkeeper met me and took me inside. The mansion was truly impressive, and it was clearly a labor of love from the innkeeper and his family, who were repairing and updating the place. They all lived in the old servants' quarters, while the mansion proper was turned into guest rooms. He took me up the palatial stairway to my room, let me in, and gave me a key.

I lugged all my stuff up to my room and immediately took advantage of the giant footed tub in my bathroom for a several-hour soak that really did fix a lot of things wrong with the world. Eventually, I got out and dressed and went back downtown for dinner.

A lot of the local restaurants were closed on this summer Sunday evening, but I finally went to Mellow Mushroom, which was one of the few places that were open. I got some pizza and then tried to digest a little, walking around the area and sitting in a rocking chair in "The Forum" to watch the river a bit before heading back to the B&B.

I got my tablet and phone and hung out on the porch in another rocking chair, enjoying the stark blackness of the night and meeting the three cats that made their home at the B&B. I made an abortive attempt to try and get some recompense out of United for my flight cancelation the previous week, but it was just getting me annoyed, so I just sat and watched the stars for a while.

I eventually went up to my room, packed up everything I was going to ship back to NY, and then climbed into one of the gloriously overstuffed beds to get some actual rest for the first time in a couple days. 


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, State Mutual Stadium

State Mutual Stadium suffered from corporate naming syndrome right off the bat, but it wasn't a bad park at all. Outside was a faux-brick facade that extended around the park. There were two main entrances: by home plate, and then a right field early entrance for club tickets and season ticket holders.

In front of the park, they parked an old bullpen car near giant baseball balustrades and statues of kids pitching and hitting. Dedication and memorial plaques are on the wall of the entrance plaza. The ticket booth and team store are slightly down the outside of the first-base line, and outside of right field is the Donald Evans Picnic Area and the Pavilion party deck that is also rented out outside of game days. Beyond left field is the service entrance and a small AstroTurf practice field for the team.

All the entrances dump out into a promenade that runs from outfield to outfield around the park and meets up with a smaller walkway through the seating bowl at the end of the grandstand near first and third bases. All the concessions are on this outer walkway, including the Three River Club restaurant, are only open to season or club ticket holders, with its own bar and a small collection of Rome baseball memorabilia. All around the park are panels about the history of baseball in Rome, in addition to a number of sometimes odd memorials, including one to GE, the team's championship banners, the Steve McRay Employee Entrance, a generic pitcher statue in front of the restaurant, and a "Hometown Heroes" memorial. Retired numbers run on banners along the top of the first-base seats. A bottom-only row of seats extends out to the outfield on both sides.

The main grandstand runs from about the third-base dugout to the first-base dugout, behind home plate, and is topped in a row of luxury boxes and the press box, with a small awning providing some cover to the top-most rows. The walkway through the seating bowl separate the upper seats from the box seats by the field.

In addition to the regular concessions and the restaurant, old in right field there is the giant "Bubba's BBQ Barn." In right-center, there is the Suzuki Showcase, and in left is the Captain’s Chair area, complete with two boats. There is also a picnic berm in left-center, and picnic tables in both left and right field. The main digital scoreboard sits in right-center, near a smaller digital auxiliary board, and there is a another video board in short left-field for some reason I was not able to ascertain. A single row of outfield wall covered in local billboards sits below the visage of trees beyond in the outfield.

Three mascots grace the field, in Romey and Roxie the monsters, and Roman, the anime-ish legionnaire. The fan team doubles as cheerleaders for most of the game, and the standard retinue of minor-league games and contest run between innings, with some unique offerings thrown in, such a plane toss. It was a sparse crowd for this Sunday game, probably especially with the weather threatening.

Romey gives away

In a unique screw-up, when the tarp came out, the grounds' crew hit some sort of literal snag getting the tarp all the way out, and part of the third-base line was left uncovered after several attempts to fix the tarp failed. A groundskeeper cart eventually sped away and returned with the bullpen mound cover that was used to fix the gap, but it was this failure that I am sure contributed to the field being declared unplayable after a rather short rain delay and left the last inning of ball unplayed.


At the Game with Oogie:

Ham sandwich and fries

So, I got in early because I had apparently purchased a club seat that included admission to the Three Rivers Club restaurant behind home plate. I went around to take my pictures of the park and field and then retreated to the restaurant because I was hot and hungry at that point.

I was seated right next to the window looking out onto the stadium promenade, and the mascots and players were right outside doing an autograph session. I ordered up a fancy ham sandwich platter with fires and a drink, which I wolfed down despite the heat. Still hungry, I got a corndogs platter, which also came with fries. I only made it about halfway through with that one, but the waitress put it all in a Styrofoam to-go container for me, and I carted it around to pick on for the rest of the game.

I had asked for something in the shade when I got my ticket, so they gave me a club ticket that was in the last row behind home plate, under the small awning that ran around the section. I was very much in the shade, and I was also right under the radio booth and the microphone they had sticking out onto the field. For most of the game, I was able to hear the radio call being made behind me, which helped me out once or twice trying to keep track of the game.

For the most part, there was no one near me except and old couple off to my left who probably made the same request I did. The shade turned out to be a good idea in more ways than one when the rain started, and the last couple of rows got crowded with the fans that didn't immediately leave and wanted to stay out of the rain.


The Game:

First pitch, Intimidators vs. Braves

This SALLy match-up had the Intimidators facing off against the Braves, and it featured a lot of scoring early that tailed off into the end of the game, and eventually rain.

Things started briskly as the Intimidators turned a double and a single into an early 1-0 lead. But Rome came right back in the bottom of the first with four singles converting into two runs, quickly regaining the lead, 2-1 after one. Kannapolis took the lead right back in the top of the second, getting four runs on two doubles, two singles, and a catcher's interference of all things, tipping the see-saw to a 5-2 lead. The Braves were unable to answer, going in order in the bottom of the inning. The Intimidators took up the cause going in order in the top of the third, but Rome got three runs in the bottom of the frame to tie it on two singles and a homer to right, leaving it knotted at 5-5.

Kannapolis went in order again in the top of the fourth, while the Braves kept on scoring with a leadoff double brought in on a single, staking them to a 6-5 lead. The Intimidators only had a single up the middle to show for the sixth, while Rome only had a hit batsman in the bottom of the frame. Kannapolis had another solitary single in the top of the sixth, as did the Braves in the bottom of the inning.

The seventh saw the Intimidators with another solitary hit, while the Braves went in order. Kannapolis went in order in the top of the eighth, when the rain came down, and the tarp came on, sort of, and they eventually decided to call the game there due to field conditions and not play the last inning, leaving the Braves with a soggy 6-5 victory.


The Scorecard: 

Intimidators vs. Braves, 07/01/18. Braves win, 6-5.

The scorecard was part of the $5, full-color magazine program. It was on semi-gloss paper that was alright for pencil writing and was in the centerfold of the program. The scorecard only took up about half of the space of the spread, with the other half being used for team advertisements.

The scorecard had summary statistics for the game at the top of both sides of the scorecard, duplicate on both sides. There were nine player lines, which included a place for substitutions. Each batting line ended in batting summary stats (with errors), and each innings line ended in extending inning summary stats, including errors and left on base. Game totals were located to the right of the innings summaries. Pitching lines were located on the bottom, with only four lines for pitchers, plus catching lines for each pitcher, as well.

Each scoring block was small, with a pre-printed diamond, but quite usable. The scorecard itself was printed on a white background, so there was room for notes, and thank god, because there were some doozies this game.

Let's begin in the bottom of the first, with the longest note I ever had to write on a play. With one out and a man on first after a single, the next batter hit the ball down the third base line. The home plate umpire twice called the ball foul, but the third baseman played the ball and threw to first, where the batter was already past the bag, but the field umpire called the runner out at first. Okay. Up to speed so far? Great.

The home manager came out and argued the call at first base, noting that a runner who was already passed the bag when the throw was made could hardly be reasonably called out, and that call was overturned. The Intimidators manager came out and waged his own valid point that the home plate umpire originally called the ball foul twice, and there should be no play at all, since the ball was out of play. The umpire did not see fit to overturn the entire play. It is times like these when it is helpful to know the names of the umpires. You will never see "Silvestri" and "Acosta" gracing the major league umpire roster any time in the near future.

But that was just the first of odd calls and plays this game. In the top of the second, there were runners on a first and third with no outs. The batter hit a line drive to the third baseman, who fielded it cleanly on the fly. The runner then went to first. And if I wasn't sitting right under the broadcast booth for the radio guy, I would never had known what happened. Apparently, the umpire at home called catcher's interference on the swing with the line drive, awarding the batter first base, but the runner at third could not advance.

In the top of the seventh, the batter threw his bat into the stands on the third strike of a strikeout, and I felt that deserved a note. And finally, although rather mundane, I had notes in there about the start of the rain in the top of the eighth, and the eventual calling of the game.

Also perhaps notable was this was the first time in a long time that no one got a golden sombrero, which meant no hat doodle. Oh, well.


The Accommodations:

The Claremont Room

As mentioned, I was at the palatial Claremont House bed and breakfast, actually staying in the Claremont Room itself at the top of the upstairs. The building itself was an old Victorian mansion that was in great repair, and it was being restored piece-by-piece by the husband-and-wife team of the innkeepers, replacing wallpaper, making upgrades, etc. I enjoyed it all tremendously until I realized that slavery probably had something to do with its construction, at which point I still enjoyed myself, but just a little bit less.

My suite of rooms was amazing. In the entrance room was two queen beds against one wall, with a blocked-up fireplace on the adjoining wall, and a dresser and a desk and mirror on the wall opposite, with a flat-panel TV in the neutral zone. Inside from there was a small vanity, with a period basin, along with a small sink and medicine cabinet and a dressing table with coffee maker. Further in was the bathroom, with a giant footed tub and a toilet tucked in the back corner.

There were a lot of little things that made the room even better, such as every conceivable drawer being filled with books of various stripes, and room-darkening shades that completely darkened the room once you went around to undo all the sashes.

I slept like the proverbial log, though I wondered how people managed to make it through the summer down here before there was the air conditioning that left the room pleasantly cool.

On The Zoo & Other Surprises

Hanging around

Monday, July 2, 2018
College Park, GA


Outside the Game:
I woke up early the next day and showered and went down for the "Breakfast" part of the "Bed and breakfast." I met the cook, who was a local mom and presumably friends with the innkeeper, who had five kids of her own. She also worked as a housekeeper at the place, but I wondered if she didn't work here just to get away from her own five kids, especially since they were all under 16. I started to do some uncomfortable math in my head on that situation, but wisely decided to stop for the sake of a calm morning.

She delivered up a killer omelet, croissant, and fruit. I surprised her with my request for no coffee, but she got me some juice and tea. After breakfast, I went back on the porch to sit for a while, when I was introduced rather abruptly to the innkeeper's dog, who nearly knocked me out of the chair greeting me, as golden retrievers are wont to do. The innkeeper’s daughters quickly followed, and I met them as well.

After a bit, I went back up to my room for another soak in the tub and then finished packing up. I booked a hotel by the airport for the night and then went back into the giant floofy bed for a nap before leaving.

I packed all my gear up into my car and then tracked the cook/cleaning woman down to pay. I stopped off on the way out of town at the post office to mail my package of accumulated garbage back to myself, and then headed off to the Atlanta Zoo, or, actually, "Zoo Atlanta," for some reason.

I hit traffic this time out, but eventually got to the zoo after nearly two hours. It wasn't just that the parking lot was full; it was that all the streets for blocks around were full as well. Several blocks away, and down the street from the cutest little police station that ever did exist, I finally got parked and then went into the zoo.

It was scorching hot, and I had a constant IV drip of Gatorade and water at all times while I walked around the medium-sized zoo and took my pictures. The good news, at least, was that my dehydration was worth something, as I got a lot of good animal pictures on the way. I hit the store and headed off to my new hotel.

After a half hour of driving, I discovered that my hotel was nowhere near the airport, and it was actually by the new Braves stadium. I called up Hotels.com super pissed, especially as the rain started falling, but to their credit, they handled the situation quickly, and got my reservation cancelled with no fees and put me in a new hotel, actually by the airport, and let me use a free stay day that I didn't even realize that I had. So it all worked out, expect that I had to drive another 45 minutes across Atlanta on a Monday afternoon.

But I did eventually get to the hotel, and I was completely reassured as I checked in, as everyone else was flight crews from the airport from major carriers, so I knew I was in a decent place. I dragged all my stuff up the room and quickly took a nap to get rid of all the frustration so far. When I got up, I decided to turn in my rental car now, as I wouldn't need it and it would just slow me down the next day.

I took the short drive to the rental return and turned in the car. That wasn't the extraordinary part. That was when the college-aged guy who took the car back got the pronunciation of my last name right on the first try. I was pretty damn floored, and I eventually congratulated him on his accomplishment.

I went back to the main terminal and was about to go back to the hotel, but then I realized I should probably just have dinner at the airport, as the restaurants here were probably better than the airport restaurant. I went into a steakhouse there and had a steak and some scotch before catching the shuttle back to my hotel, with two more flight crews in tow.

Feeling pretty beat, I did all of my final packing and organizing and made it an early night, still trying to catch up on the sleep I screwed up on the two long drives of the trip.


The Accommodations:

Hotel Indigo

The Hotel Indigo is an art hotel right by the airport. The suite I got was in the "fun" art design, with photos of old Atlanta street signs servicing as the art in the room. My suite began with an entrance room, with a coffee service on a table. It was across from the huge bathroom with the even huger shower with the rainfall spigot that I made copious use of. The entry foyer lead to a living room with a couch and easy chair and small collapsible tables. Further on was the bedroom with the huge king bed and nightstand across from a desk and dresser topped with a big flat-screen TV.

It was all rather nice, didn't have nearly any airport noise, and let me get a good night's rest. and thanks to a Hotels.com credit, it only cost me $5.

On Coming Home

Atlanta International

Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Jersey City, NJ


Outside the Game: 
I was up early the next day, and all I had to do was grab my stuff, check out, and get the shuttle to the airport. On the shuttle with me were two crews going to the NY area, but not the one on my particular flight.

While waiting in the security line, it seemed like they were repeating the process I had experienced the week before for Raleigh where they had a sniffer dog take a whiff of everyone so we didn't have to take everything out of our bags. But we all got red cards, because the sniffer dog was taking a break when we came in, and we had to go through extra screening, which stopped the line dead for a while, for some reason.

I eventually got through and headed off to get some breakfast. I went to the gate, and we boarded up no problem. But there was water or something on my seat, and I called for a flight attendant to clean it up before I sat down. The attendant gave me a lot of attitude about it, saying it was just water. I then invited him to sit in it if he thought it was no big deal, but for some reason he demurred and cleaned it up.

I helped an old lady put up her bag before she sat in my row, but she realized she was in the wrong row. Instead of her having to move her bag again, I told her I would bring it up to her at the end of the flight. Karma wasn't working for me that day it seems, because the United entertainment app wouldn't work for me for the duration of the flight, so I couldn't see the last bit of Paddington 2 that I had seen over several flights the last week or so.

We eventually landed, and I got the lady her bag, and the hot had followed me back to Newark. I was going to try to use Lyft to get home, but then it started raining, and I couldn't be bothered, so I just grabbed a cab home. It was a quick and uneventful ride back, and I started unpacking and doing laundry for the rest of the day, with the good news being I had another day to decompress before going back to work.

And so it goes.


The Accommodations:
Sweet home, Jersey City

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

 2018 East Coast Leftovers

Kannapolis

On Picking Up a Missed Spare

Intimidators Stadium, 2017

Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Orioles) vs.
Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox)
Intimidators Stadium
South Atlantic League (A)
Kannapolis, NC
12:05 PM


Outside the Game: 
Finally back in the swing of things, I woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel, going back to the room to shower and pack up. I picked a hotel for my stay in Myrtle Beach and then headed out to the car. I would eventually find that I had left my leftover food from the Old Salem bakery in the refrigerator in my hotel room, but such goes life.

It also turned out I was in the same hotel as the Salem Red Sox, as I rode down the elevator with several of the players as they were going down to the team bus. So, there's that.

I gassed up and headed out to the game, which was a 12 PM start for a local Camp Day. As it happened, last year I missed the game in Kannapolis because I had written the start time wrong and arrived at the game to buy a ticket just as a Camp Day game was letting out. And so it goes. I triple-checked this year, and I was ready for the early start.

One thing was for sure as I exited my car: It was insanely hot and humid this afternoon. I mean, brutal, absolutely brutal. I was bursting into sweat just leaving the car, and that did not bode well for the rest of the day. I bought a ticket and did my photos outside the park before heading in.

I left the park as sweaty as I entered it, getting ready to be stuck in the car with this stink for the next several hours. I was on the road around 2:30 PM-ish, and I didn't hit much traffic at all, because I might have been the only person in the universe driving from Kannapolis to Myrtle Beach that day. It was mostly easy going, and I pulled into the hotel at around 6:30 PM and went to drop off everything in my room.

I went to a nearby Sticky Finger's Ribs for dinner, then went back to the hotel to shower the day off of me and hit the sack early, dealing with some stomach implications of the perhaps poor decision of going to “Sticky Finger's” for dinner.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Intimidator Stadium

Intimidator Stadium, home of the Intimidators, was named for NASCAR racing legend and hometown son Dale Earnhardt, who purchased a stake in the team just before his fatal crash, and the team and stadium were renamed in his honor. The number 3, Dale's racing number, is permanently retired by the team, the team's uniforms are evocative of his racing outfit, and a replica of his NASCAR ride sits outside the front entrance.

The stadium has one main entrance with a brick facade behind home plate. It has a standard minor-league layout, in that the entrance emptied out onto a main promenade that runs from outfield to outfield above all the seating. The seating area is separated in two by a second walkway between the box seats and the upper seating area that runs a similar distance. The area between the dugouts is all flip-chair seating in both sections, while the areas from the dugouts to the short outfield is flip-seats in the bottom section and bleachers in the upper section. Picnic berms line the outfield corners and left-center field. The seats behind home plate are topped with a block house, holding the press box, and a second structure running along the first-base side, housing a level of luxury boxes.

The main promenade holds all the concession stands. At the entrance is the team store, which in turn houses a "From Kannapolis to the Majors" display. There is the requisite SALly-league John Henry Moss plaque, and the luxury boxes also sport the championship banners and the team's retired numbers. The left-field promenade ends in a party deck, and the right-field promenade ends in a children's play area and another picnic deck. The old-school digital scoreboard sits out in left-center field along a facing of trees that run the length of the outfield.

Tim E Gator... ugh. I need a minute.

Alligator Tim E Gator (get it?) is the mascot at the park. As nearly the entire crowd was kids on a camp day, most of the activities were around various races, with especially silly contests saved for the camp counselors. Tim spent a lot of time schmoozing the kids, and, I hope, staying hydrated in a giant fuzzy suit in temperatures approaching triple digits.

The kids were fine and having fun, but the activity on the field was clearly an afterthought to their day out.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Shade scoring

While I had bought a relatively cheap seat on the third base side of home plate, the weather was not allowing me to sit in it. The brutal heat and humidity dogged me as I did my walk around the park and stopped into the shop and grabbed a cheap brat and Gatorade. I decided to make the move and grabbed one of the unoccupied patio chairs with umbrellas on the top of the promenade instead of my seat, and since this was perhaps one of four times I have ever moved my seat because of weather conditions, you can perhaps imagine how seriously hot and humid it was this day. I could chew my brat more easily than the air.

Brat and Gatorade

Before settling in for the game, I bought a couple other Gatorades and sat down with my table for scoring and the umbrella to keep me from bursting into moldy flame. There was only one annoying guy sitting in the patio chairs a couple seats away. He was complaining about all the kids, which was an odd position to take on "Camp Day," but what can you do?

Of note was the fact that a hot foul ball came back and ricocheted off the other chair at my patio table. The annoying guy made a run for it, but a camp kid got it before he did, and I found that more than a little amusing.


The Game: 

First pitch, Shorebirds vs. Intimidators

This humid match-up placed the visiting Shorebirds against the home Intimidators, and for the most part, the Intimidators lived up to their name, except for the very end, where their closer tried very valiantly to give the game away.

Delmarva went in order in the first, while the Intimidators got two men on, but no one across. The Shorebirds had a lonely single in the second, while Kannapolis went in order. Delmarva scrounged a singular double in the third, while the Intimidators had a singular walk.

The action didn't pick up much in the fourth, with a leadoff single and nothing else for the Shorebirds, and a leadoff walk followed by a double that somehow didn't score a run for the Intimidators. Delmarva duplicated the feat in the top of the fifth with a double and then a walk and no runs, while Kannapolis managed to load the bases with two outs thanks to a walk and two hit batsmen with nothing to show for it. The Shorebirds went in order in their half of the sixth, while the Intimidators finally did some scoring with a leadoff homer to right-center, before going in order with a 1-0 lead.

Both sides went in order in the seventh, and Delmarva had a walk and a single in the top of the eighth. The Intimidators did some intimidating in the waning afternoon of the bottom of the eighth, with a leadoff single, a double, a flubbed grounder to first, and a sacrifice fly putting some insurance runs on the board and extending the lead to 3-0. And they needed it, because the Kannapolis "closer" nearly gave it all back in the ninth. A leadoff single for the Shorebirds was erased on a grounder to third, and a fly out to right made it two outs. Then three straight singles brought in two runs, with the tying and winning runs on base for the number two hitter. The closer finally got his act together an induced a pop up to the catcher to hang on by the skin of their teeth for a 3-2 home victory.


The Scorecard: 

Shorebirds vs. Intimidators, 08/02/17. Intimidators win, 3-2.

The scorecard was part of the $1 program. This was a little pricey is what is usually a give-away league, but the program and scorecard were actually worth the money. The scorecard was a cardstock centerfold that took up the entirety of a magazine-sized program spread. Nearly all the space was taken up by the scorecard, which made for a lot of space for easy scoring. It was a little weird in having "Visitor" and "Home" lines with checkboxes for the appropriate one at the top of the card, but it does give you some flexibility if you don't want to do the visitor left/home right default alignment.

That said, there was nothing of particular scoring interest in this game. There was one error, one dropped third strike that needed to be put out manually, one caught stealing, and that was about it.


The Accommodations:

Country Inn & Suites

I was staying at the Country Inn and Suites just outside the real touristy area of Myrtle Beach (i.e. all of the beach). It was nice enough room for my two-day stay. It had a large king bed and easy chair across from a dresser, TV, and desk. It had a nice-sized bathroom with a long vanity and tub.

It was away from most of the tourists, quiet, and clean, so it had everything I needed of it.

Click here to see all the pictures for this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee

Hickory

On Not Double-Checking

At least I saw art.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Charlotte, NC


Outside the Game:
After being stuck in Charlotte for two days, I made the decision to stay another day. Kannapolis didn't have that many hotels, it was only a twenty-minute drive, and I'd be closer to where I was heading out the next day if I stayed there. The hotel was fine, I already was locked into a low rate, so I went with it.

After days of dancing around the closed Mint Museum, I decided to spend my morning there. Getting a double-pass, I was able to go to the museum downtown, as well as the actual nominal museum in the old mint north of town. Considering my only other option was the Dale Earnhardt museum and memorial near the stadium, I figured I'd go for some culture.

Wood warping

The larger annex downtown had a lot of artisanal work that, as someone just starting out in woodworking, I had the faint flickering of how insane the organic forms being executed truly were. A prefer "real" craftmanship art such as this over the modern executions. It was just enough to wallow in the craftmanship. There was also an exhibit of Ansel Adams photography to make me feel really, really badly about being such a crappy photographer. It is enough to make you want to throw up your hands and quit. The annex in the actual old mint building north of downtown had more of the same in a smaller space. I went hog wild in the store.

I decided to head up to the park to pick up my tickets, and, of course, there was traffic, turning a twenty-minute drive at worst into a forty-five minute excursion. I got there just after 3 PM, and my Spidey senses were tingling. There were too many cars in the lot. The stadium gates were open and unmanned.

I still went up oblivious to try and pick up my ticket, to be informed that the game just ended. The one game that I hadn't confirmed the time on was moved to 1:05 PM “Camp Day” start on a getaway day, and the team was not going to be home for two weeks.

Well, friggin’ fabulous.

So, of course, I had to sit in traffic on the way back to the hotel, I dumped my game bag in my room, and decided to just go out to dinner and make the most of it. I immediately passed a Cracker Barrel and gave up; had my chicken, biscuits, and gravy; and went back to the hotel to sulk for the rest of the night.

And an early, failure-filled night was had. Always double-check your start times, kids.
 

The Accommodations:
I was at the Clarion Hotel Airport again. Same room, same situation. Nothing much new to report, except that the dead cockroaches in the stairwell were finally cleaned up.

On Getting Back on the Horse

L.P. Frans Stadium, 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox) vs.
Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers)
L.P. Frans Stadium
South Atlantic League (A)
Hickory, NC
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
When I woke up, I double-check all the game data very carefully so as not avoid a repeat of the previous day. The game for today was, in fact, that night at 7 PM, and all I had to do was drive over to Hickory. I did my morning routing and got out on the road by 11 AM and drove the hour over.

I started at the stadium, and picked up my ticket and took my pictures, and then looked for something else to do for the rest of the day. As per usual, "local historical stops" won out. There is always, always, always a local museum or whatnot no matter how small the burg that I travel to, and it turned out there were two historic houses in the area, The Maple House and the Harper House. As can often happen, there appeared to be two local historical concerns that ran the places separately and didn't seem to get along too well, because whenever the stakes are the lowest, people seem to be dug in the deepest.

Baby respirators. Anti-vaxxers want this.

The Maple House was a free, self-run tour by the "indie" historical society. It was a nice little excursion, and I remain more interested in architecture than I find seemly. After that, I went over to Harper House, maintained by the "official" historical society, with a proper tour and everything. There was a second building of an old pre-fab home next door to the Harper House, and in the basement of that was also a large exhibit on when the area was used as a polio quarantine during the last big outbreak. I spent a good deal of time there just wallowing in what the anti-vaccination crowd would like us to go back to. It is important to remember what the consequences are for such stupidity.

Speaking of stupidity, afterwards, I drove to my hotel and checked in, ready for a quick shower and nap before the game, but then my cell phone rang. This can never be a good thing. It was either my landlord, my parents, or work, and none of them would have good news. Hoping for a wrong number, I saw it was my boss, and answered, and I was informed about the latest round of layoffs at my company. The small “victory” was that it did not affect me, but it did hit my department in the stupidest way possible. I thanked my boss for the update, turned off all the lights, and sat in the dark staring at the ceiling. I may have fallen asleep or not. I'm not sure, but at some point, it was time to go to the game.

Slightly sullen, I drove to the game, parked, and then went in for the duration. I drove straight back after the game and went directly to sleep, because I was just about done with Thursday.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, L.P. Frans Stadium

After a run of somewhat cookie-cutter minor league parks, L.P. Frans Stadium was a nice cracker of a refurbished old park to mix things up a bit. From the outside, it certainly had all the hallmarks of turn-of-this century construction, with a main entrance decorated with some precursory baseball statuary and a team store and ticket booth flanking a main entrance that emptied out onto a promenade. But those appearances would be deceiving. A quick walk around the park reveals the original wooden outfield walls still standing, and wooden bleachers and practice areas at the end of the outfield.

The main promenade does extend from outfield to outfield behind home plate and lead down into the single seating bowl, but it is not the same old, same old. The "luxury boxes" and press boxes are bunkers sitting on the top of the seats, not elevated above, with angled sun shades extending up from them. A second walkway extends in the seating bowl, separating the cheap from the more expensive seats below.

The wooden party deck ends the walkway in right, while the left field end of the park ends with play area, complete with a merry-go-round. Memorials, the Hall of Fame, and the "Crawdads in the Majors" are all on the promenade behind home plate, and the main scoreboard is perched nearly in dead center.

The main concessions are pleasingly retro brick bunkers serving up cafeteria food at cafeteria prices, but the Crawdads Cafe in right offers baseball-stool seating or indoors table service that ranges from overflowing diner items at decent prices to eating "challenges."

Careful, there.

Conrad the Crawdad was the day's mascot. Extra points for difficulty, as it is hard to do anything with claws. It was a cereal-themed night, for some reason, so cereal give-aways and a "guess the cereal" contest spiced up the regular races and such. There was a pretty thin crowd for the Thursday night game. You're tempted to give points off, but there were one or two die-hards riding the opposition, as well as a family doing a K-counter, so there is a little hope on that front.


At the Game with Oogie:

Rebound scoring

I got seats behind the third base line and behind the dreaded "extended netting." Most of the fans were families, but they were few and far between. Utterly enchanted by the little bunker concessions, I started out with a burger and soda for under $2, and then went to the Crawdad Cafe. I resisted the urge to try one of the eating dares, and just got a gaping basket of chicken wings for $5.

Honking basket of chicken fingers

I was writing up the stadium for the magazine, so I was taking copious notes. I got a lot of curious stares from the Cafe staff, but I don't think any of them could quite get up the courage to ask the weird Northerner what was going on.


The Game: 

First pitch, Intimidators vs. Crawdads

This match-up between the farm teams of the Rangers and the White Sox was fixed to be about as exciting at the top teams meeting, but it ended with the home team going home happy, so I suppose that is something.

The Intimidators threatened with two singles in the first, but stranded them with strikeouts. On their side, the Crawdads started the game with a triple, brought home by a double, brought home by a one-out single, to jump to an early 2-0 lead.

Until the sixth, the Intimidators did nothing but strike out five times between the second inning and then. In the bottom of the second, some sloppy play got the Crawdads more runs. A one-out double was followed by an E6 to make it first and third. A blown pick-off throw brought in a run and got the runner on first to third, where a sacrifice fly brought him in, making it 4-0 Crawdads after two. But then the Crawdads also went fallow until the fifth.

In the bottom of that fifth inning, a one-out walk came home on a three-base error on a dropped fly in left. A homer followed, bringing in two more runs. The bases eventually were loaded again before everyone got stranded. In the top of the sixth, a two-run homer finally got the Intimidators on the board to make the score 7-2, but both offenses slowed down until the eighth. In top of that frame, a two-out Intimidator walk was driven home by a deep double to make it 7-3, but that is as close as it would get.


The Scorecard: 

Intimidators vs. Crawdads, 06/30/16. Crawdads win, 7-3.

The scorecard was part of the free newsprint program, but unlike most newsprint programs, this one didn't fall apart at the first hint of use and stood up to pencil writing fairly well. The card itself wasn't taken up by odd proportions or advertisements, so it was large and comfortable to use.

Outside of a bigger than average homerun count, the game was fairly conventional from a scoring standpoint. There was a 7-1-4-3-6t caught stealing in the bottom of the first, and in the bottom of the second, a blown pickoff throw to first led directly to a run and the trail runner going to third when the throw went in the dugout. A dropped fly in left field in the fifth led to two more runs. The Crawdads starter struck out eight over six strong innings, and there was a nice 5-5-3 double play in the bottom of the seventh.


The Accommodations: 

Holiday Inn

I was at the Holiday Inn in Hickory for this evening. Outside of the unpleasantness with the news in the afternoon, I can't quite complain about the rest of the stay.

The room was the standard arrangement of roomy (and slightly fancier than average) bathroom off the entrance and double queen beds in the bedroom, along with an easy chair, desk, and dresser with TV. All of the pillows were pooled to one bed for maximum pillow fort effect.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 The Carolinas

Salisbury

On Reasons I Don't Like Delaware

Friday, May 23, 2014
Dover, DE


Outside of the Game:
The Friday before Memorial Day was technically a holiday for my company, but for some reason, my team and I were working all day. We had some last-minute deliverables that we had to submit before the end of the week, and, of course, we did not receive them from the necessary folks until the submission day. And so we worked until 6 PM in an empty office, but we did eventually get done what we needed to do.

Getting home "early" that Friday (or at least earlier than I had in about three weeks), I was able to more leisurely do some laundry and rudimentary planning. It was still before the short-season June leagues opened, and my only choice within a reasonable driving distance was the Delmarva Shorebirds in Maryland. That said, they were near the east Maryland ocean beaches on Memorial Day, so I'd make my best time driving at night. I could leave to go down Friday night, and since the game was at 7:05 PM on Saturday, I'd be driving back at night. There were no other teams in the area playing, it would be easier driving on Saturday, and I had to be around on Monday, as it is a holiday in America, and not in Europe, and some work stuff might come through. A plan was born.

I packed up and left at 10 PM into an intense downpour that had been on-and-off during the day and evening. It made the driving slow going, and, more importantly, it rained out the in-progress Mets game, which just left me with the Yankees game in dry Chicago to keep me company on the drive south.

Right around the shore, the rain let up, and I proceeded to make up some time getting out of Jersey--until I had to get off at the end of the Turnpike. There were only three cash booths opened at midnight, and it took nearly twenty minutes to pay the toll and be on my way, eating up a lot of precious driving time.

Once I finally got past the toll gate, it was relatively easy going onto the Delaware Memorial Bridge (probably remembering how much money they're taking). Thankfully, I wasn't going across the second stick-up of the 30 miles of 95 in Delaware, but heading south on 1 to ride the length of the state.

While I had discussed my distaste with the cash grab that is driving in Delaware previously, I had never really spent much more than the time necessary to drive through the state in the state, with the exception of the game I took in at Wilmington last year. As with most people, I don't have a really good grasp of Delaware. It has no identity to speak of. Outside of them being the first state in the Union, hosting a ballclub in their capital, having a water gap and a state college that is the safety school for every Jersey resident, and grabbing every last penny from people driving through the state, I don't know a whole lot about it.

Driving the length of the Delaware this evening, I found out some more, and I didn't like much of it. For one thing, for such a small place, there is a lot of nothing. Between Wilmington and Dover, there are wide expanses of not a lot. And what few things there were, most of them were churches. Everyone can have or not have whatever religion they want, but I didn't really expect Delaware to be so Jesus-y. But there were more churches per capita on at least the roads I drove on than in some places in Italy.

At around 12:30 AM, I passed the outer edges of Wilmington's suburbs and headed south on 1. I made the fateful decision not to stop for the night there as I imagined there would be other places along the way at regular intervals. That was a false assumption. There was literally nothing (at least, nothing advertised on road signs) between the southern end of the suburbs and Dover, about an hour to the south. As it creeped up towards 1:30 AM, there was a hotel of some sort just north of Dover. I pulled in to find a large group of people in the front parking lot having a party with blasting music at this hour of the night. This was a serious warning sign, but I was getting really tired and running low on gas. I went inside to find the only room available was a queen suite for $200 or something like that, and I told them what to do with the room, and hey, they might want to stop that party out front. There was a motel across the highway, but it had no vacancies.

This was apparently when 1 and 13 (the two big state roads, such as they are) diverged, so I found myself led down 13 by my TomTom, and wondered if the soothing British voice was sending me in a direction that had no gas or hotels. Ten minutes or so later, I came up on the outskirts of Dover, which had a cluster of hotels by the first exit. Seeing a Holiday Inn Express, I immediately pulled in, but I found myself curiously in a check-in line, as a family had probably had the same experience as myself and was getting a room for the night as well. I was able to get a single King for a reasonable amount of money, with the caveat that it was a handicapped accessible room. I told the clerk that as long as a handicapped person didn't need it, it was fine with me. I parked the car, grabbed my gear, went to my room, dropped said gear, and went the hell to sleep.


The Accommodations:

Holiday Inn Express

So, as mentioned, I was in the Dover Holiday Inn Express. This was the second time I had been in a handicapped-accessible room. The previous time was in my first visit to Miami. The rooms are largely the same, with the exception that everything is lowered so that it can be easily used by a person in a wheelchair, and there is a collapsible seat in the shower.

The room had a couch and table in the bedroom, and a slightly oversize bathroom to accommodate wheelchairs. I didn't spend much time in it at all once I had built a pillow fort in my bed and gone to sleep.

On the Weirdest Half-Inning Ever

Arthur W. Purdue Stadium, 2014

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Kannapolis Intimidators (Chicago White Sox) vs.
Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Orioles)
Arthur W. Perdue Stadium
South Atlantic League (A), Northern Division
Salisbury, MD
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Thanks to seemingly unavoidable habit, I woke up later that day at 8 AM. Being solidly awake, I went down to take advantage of the free breakfast, piling on bacon, sausage, and biscuits and gravy with my seemingly superfluous oatmeal. After eating what I blearily thought was my fill, I headed back up to the room. Thankfully, the check out wasn't until noon, so I re-piled my pillow fort and nestled in for some serious napping. I turned on the TV and threw the remote on the couch before discovering that a block of Two and a Half Men was on. I was so bleary that I could not get out from the nest to get the remote, but dear lord, is that one unfunny television program. How can it still be on the air?

A little after 11 AM, I re-emerged from the cocoon. I took a shower and packed up while calling the stadium to buy a ticket. At a little before noon, I checked out of the hotel, got some gas, and pointed my car southward. I was a little under an hour and a half from Salisbury and not in any rush. The game wasn't until seven that evening, and I had a whole day to kill. I took a leisurely drive down, stopping for lunch on the way, and got into town a little before two.

The good news was that Salisbury had not just a zoo, but one of the few free accredited zoos in the country. And that always spells a way to kill an afternoon to me. I got to the park containing the zoo and was able to get one of the few parking spaces left, as the zoo was packed this holiday Saturday.

Not entertained

I gave a donation at the gate and made my way inside. For a small zoo, it was quite well done. The grounds were laid out with some forethought, and besides a few signs of dubious age, everything was kept up-to-date. A leisurely walk around encompassed an hour or so of photographing the animals and spending some time out of the car and stretching my legs. After I had my fill of the zoo, I took some time to walk around the surrounding park before heading back to my car. It was around 3:30, and the ballpark was only ten or so minutes away, as the TomTom goes. I took a drive over there, and it was easy enough to find, so I swung back to town.

I spotted a Rest Area off the highway on the way back, and feeling a little sleepy and knowing I probably had a long drive that night, I went into a designated Rest Area to use it for its stated purpose for my first time ever. There were about three other cars in the area, driven by more aged individuals. I pulled into a shaded space, turned off the car, pulled my hat over my face, and napped for about a half an hour.

Upon waking up, I felt as like unto a god. It was around 4:30 PM, so with nothing else to do I went to park. I did my normal walk-arounds, picked up my ticket, and got in line to get into the park at 6 PM when the gates opened.

On the way out, everyone was still pretty much asses-in-seats for the post-game fireworks and the charity ball toss. Not caring much about either, I made my way back out to my car in the lot, watched the first few salvos of the fireworks, and got into the car.

It was already ten, and I had at least a 3.5- or 4-hour drive ahead of me, if there were no delays. With the nap under my belt, I decided to risk it, and set out to get onto 13 northbound. While driving can be a pain sometimes (mostly due to other people), there is something to be said for heading out at night, with nothing but a direction to drive, a full tank of gas, and open road in front of you.

Thankfully, there were no delays on the drive home. At around 1:30 AM, I pulled into my parking space in Hoboken and unloaded all my stuff for the walk back to my apartment. In a case of multiple miracles, even the downstairs neighbors seemed to be gone for the holiday weekend. For the second night in a row, I just dropped my stuff where it lay and went to a much-needed bed.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Arthur W. Perdue Stadium

Arthur W. Perdue Stadium is named for the chicken magnate of the same name, which is apparently headquartered in Salisbury, along with the stadium. The press box is similarly named for Frank Perdue, which those of you of a certain age will recognize from his unavoidable television commercials during the 80s.

Perdue Stadium is a fairly standard single-A park. Two entrances are at the top of stairs, leading to the upper promenade that rings most of the stadium above the entire seating bowl. The lower, middle entrance opens to the lower walkway around the park behind home plate. The upper walkway runs from left field to right field behind home plate and houses most of the concession stands. In right field is a party/picnic area with terraced tables down the seating bowl, while in left field there is the kids area, highlighted by a large carousel at the entrance. A picnic berm also sits at the end of the seating bowl in left. The lower walkway runs about the same distance, and separates the lower field boxes from the regular grandstand seating. There are kids concessions behind home plate (pizza and candy), but nothing else on offer. A club level rises above the regular seats from first to third base, with the "Executive Club" on the first-base side, the press box behind home plate, and a more open party area on the third-base side.

Somewhat oddly, the home dugout in the park is on the third-base side. This no doubt has to do with sun fields and which side of the park is more pleasant for day games. Two aging scoreboards in various states of repair sit out in left and right field, with the one in right seemingly only semi-functioning.

Next to the center entrance to the park is the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame Museum. It has a free admission and extensively goes into the rich baseball history of eastern Maryland, an area--perhaps ironically--that these days is known as the hotbed of lacrosse is the country. The museum has exhibits about all the previous and current teams in the area, sportcasters from the area, Negro League teams that played in Delmarva, as well as the Hall of Fame itself and an exhibit/meeting room on high school baseball in the region. It was a nice little museum that was clearly a labor of love for those involved, and you can't beat the price.

Hall of Fame

Even though it is only single-A ball, the fans came out and were quite into the game, if needing of some prompting in certain areas. The park was mostly filled with families out for some fun, and fun they seemed to have, so there's a good transaction. (Except, of course, for the Orioles' clubs continued mangling of the National Anthem with their "O" shout.) Of note was a young woman in my section who I'm imagining was a girlfriend or family member of one of the players. They moved her down to the box seats early in the game, and she spent the rest of the game taking pictures of the Shorebirds.

What you looking at?

Sherman the Shorebird (sure, why not?) is the master of ceremonies for the minor-league hijinx between innings. The regular sponsored contests and t-shirt cannons are there, with a few wildcards like a cash box. One aspect defies easy explanation. A company called "Hardwire" sponsors the team, and, for lack of a better description, they make products for scared white people. They are, I kid you not, bulletproof shields that can be camouflaged into everyday school or office items, such as white boards. Now, we've all watched The Wire, and I know Baltimore and DC can be rough places, but are the suburbs so over-run with gun crime that we really need this product? And--let's buy into the premise for a minute--if you do, is a white-board sized bulletproof shield really going to be what saves you from a gunman? Nevertheless, they have the shields at regular intervals around the stadium, and they do a "Shield the Field" chant they do when they are trying to protect a lead. All in all, it might be the most bizarre thing I've seen at a ballgame, and I've watched Steve Traschel pitch.

White fear, in marketing form

At the Game with Oogie:

Wait for this story

I got a ticket right around the home dugout on the third-based side when I called up in the morning. I was sitting in a row filled by a family. There was another family there before, but it turned out they were in the wrong section. The field boxes were not numbered in a straightforward manner, so perhaps their moving would have been a hint to check my own ticket, but I didn't until the owner showed up. He was with the larger group, and since there was a space next to my seat (well, his seat), he let me stay put for the game. It being a pain to move in the middle of things with all my crap, I accepted his kind of offer.

Corndog and a helmet full of fries

The main concession stand had a foot-long corndog and a batting helmet full of fries (which seems to be the big thing these days), so my eating choice was a fairly obvious one.


The Game:

First pitch, Intimidators vs. Shorebirds

Well, this was a weird one. Let's just get this out there. It also included the strangest half-inning of baseball I think I've ever seen. Also, one of the teams was called the "Intimidators." Seriously, that is their name.

To start us off, the Intimidators managed a bloop single to center in the top of the first, and that and two strikeouts were all they had to show for it. The Shorebirds, however, started differently. The first batter hit a long fly ball to right-center. Both fielders were racing for it, the center fielder even got his glove on it--and deflected it to right field. By the time the ball hit his glove, the speedy runner was already around second. By the time they threw it to the plate, he didn't even have to slide, but he did, marking my first ever in-person inside-the-park home run, and a 1-0 Shorebird lead. After a flyout to third, the next batter got one off his fists to the same area that just went too far to catch, for a single. And the batter after him did the same thing to right field, making it first and third with one out. A strikeout followed, but then so did another fisted single to left to bring in the runner from third. A walk loaded the bases, but a ground-out to short ended the half-inning at 2-0, Shorebirds.

The Intimidators went in order in the second (with two more strikeouts), and the Shorebirds started their half of the second with another weak single off the fists just over first. A grounder to short got the lead runner, and then a weak fly to right was dropped, but with enough time to get the runner at second on a force-out, because there is no "outfield fly rule." A fly-out to right ended the threat. Just to mix it up, the Shorebirds struck out the side in the top of the third. Bad defense reared its ugly head again in the bottom of the third, and a grounder to short was throw into the dugout to start the inning. It was followed by a walk, but a double-play ball to short and a pop to first ended that threat, as well.

In the fourth, there were two more strikeouts for the increasingly mis-named Intimidators, but a runner made it to first after getting plunked. That batter also happened to be the only batter to get a hit off the Shorebird's starter so far, and I'm sure that's coincidental. The Shorebirds started their half with another bloop single to left, but the runner promptly got caught trying to steal. Two quick outs ended the inning. The Intimidators started off the fifth with a single to center, but a ground-out and a double-play wrapped up their half. The Shorebirds again started off the inning with a bloop single over third base, but a double-play and a grounder to short ended the inning.

It is worth noting at this point that the Intimidator's pitcher was a hard-luck case. The Shorebirds had a lot of hits, but every last one of them was off the hands. Bad defense accounted for most of the other baserunners at this point. The Shorebirds' pitcher, on the other hand, was dominating. He had nine strikeouts to this point, and the Intimidators hadn't even gotten a runner to second all game, and only four had made it to first.

This changed in the sixth. The first Intimidator batter got plunked and moved to second on a passed ball. A single made it first and third with no outs. Another single brought in a run and made it first and second with no outs. The first baseman ole'd a grounder to load up the bases, and the Shorebirds pitcher hit the showers. The new pitcher got a fly out to mid-depth left, but the fielder had such a gun the Intimidators didn't send the runner from third. With one out, there was another fly out to left, but this time, it was deep enough that the runner made it home on a close play. A strikeout ended the half with the score tied, 2-2.

Which brings us to the most bizarre half-inning of baseball I've ever watched. The first batter smoked one out of the park in the left-field corner to give the Shorebirds back the lead. A line-out to third was rather routine. A clean single to center followed, and a ground-out to second moved over the runner. The next batter grounded one to second, but the ball made a jump and got by the fielder, bringing the run all the way in from second.

The next batter is when things went nuts. The batter popped out to second to end the inning. The entertainment team was already coming out onto the field to do a horse race, when everyone stopped and ran back. The umpire had called interference on the catcher, as the batter hit the catcher's mitt when popping out. So now it was first and second with two outs. The next batter looked at ball four out of the strike zone. He didn't get a walk because the ball skipped off the catcher's mitt and bulls-eyed the umpire in a particular spot. He was out of it for a good while. The trainers came out and everything. The original ball four was never resolved, but the batter walked on the next pitch, and that was it for the Intimidator's starter. The switch didn't help as the next batter doubled to left to clear the bases. There was a single to center that brought him in before a grounder to second ended this insane inning at 8-2, Shorebirds.

The Intimidators had some life in the seventh, with back-to-back singles to start the inning. A ground-out to first moved the runners up, but two strikeouts ended the half. The Shorebirds kept going in the seventh with a lead-off single. A pop to first got an out, but two more short singles loaded the bases. A grounder to second got the runner at second but brought in a run. A single brought in another run, and a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third with two out. A new pitcher got a ground-out to end the inning at 10-2, Shorebirds.

The Intimidators had a leadoff single and nothing else in the eighth, and the Shorebirds went in order. The Shorebirds' closer got the Intimidators in order in the ninth to cement a 10-2 win.


The Scorecard:

Intimidators vs. Shore Birds, 05/24/14. Shorebirds win, 10-2.

The scorecard was a free hand-out at the gate. It was a small tabloid on shiny paper that made colored pencil usage rather difficult. The scorecard was in the centerfold and was a little on the cramped side. It used large diamonds in the boxes, which made charting the path around the bases easier, but it left little space for notes, which was desperately needed for this game.

As mentioned, there was a lot of wackiness. In the first place, every player promotion was fulfilled, which may be a first for me at a minor league game. The K-Man struck out. The "Healthy Hitter of the Game" got a single. And the "Home Run Inning" in the sixth was led off with a homer to left that netted some lucky fan a one-ounce gold coin, or some such.

I made a note of the first inside-the-park homer I saw. I may come up with a special notation for it (four lines in a box, maybe) if I feel ambitious for the future. I also made notes of the player promotions above. And then there was the home sixth. I made a note of the "F-4" that was erased by the catcher's interference. I also made a note about the walk that wasn't because the umpire got beaned in the beanbag. I don't even think is a scoring for such things.

Otherwise, there were other small things. The Shorebirds struck out 15 over the course of the game, which is a lot. The Intimidators didn't get a batter to second until the aforementioned sixth. And there were three double-plays in the game, along with three errors.

Ah, the joys of low-minors baseball.


The Accommodations:
Hoboken, early the next morning

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2014 Stand-Alone Trip