Thursday, August 10, 2017
Hunter Wright Stadium
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Kingsport, TN
6:30 PM
Outside the Game:
I didn't sleep well the night before, so
it was a super-slow and lazy morning. I grabbed breakfast, and I went back for
a nap after my shower before finally getting the energy to get on with my day.
My first stop for the day was Bays Mountain Park and
Planetarium, a nature preserve/zoo out by the Kingsport stadium I was going to
later, but still only about a half hour from Bristol. As it was an overcast day
with on and off rain, it was pretty hard to find any of the animals, who mostly
had the sense to stay under cover and out of sight in this weather. At the visitor’s
center, I signed up for a barge ride later in the afternoon, then headed out to
see what animals I could find and then take a walk on one of the nature trails
that surrounded the artificial lake created by the damn that ran on one edge of
the park. The trail itself goes over the dam on a small railed walkway, and
after thinking to myself how I definitely should not do anything with my
glasses while on this precipitous path, I nearly dropped my eyeglasses in the
lake while fiddling with them due to the power of negative thinking, or some
such.
Even overcast, it was a very beautiful area to walk around
in, and it was nice to stretch my legs for an extended period out in nature. On
my way to the barge ride, I tried to stop into the visitor’s center, but I was
directed to go in the back door by the bathrooms only as they were filing some television
segment inside. As I only needed the bathroom, that worked out, and it turned
out the local news was talking to the planetarium folks about the solar eclipse
later in the year and how to prepare for it and watch it safely. This reminded
me to find my eclipse glasses when I got home, as I had completely forgotten
there was going to be a solar eclipse in the US for the first time in forever.
After not being able to find much wildlife, there was a
flock (further research indicates "herd" is the right term) of
semi-tame deer that followed me along the walkway from the visitor's center. I
got down to the barge ride, and it started to rain, and unsurprisingly, it was
just me on the trip. A young college-aged girl was taking the barge out today,
and over the course of the ride, it was clear that she really, really liked
beavers. She went through all the talk she was supposed to give about the other
areas of the park, but she went on and on about beavers, and the lodges, and
how she kept up on them, and that she could identify all the individuals by
sight, and that she was going to go closer to the one dam because those beavers
were more active in the rain. She was pleasantly geeky about her beavers, so it
made for a nice ride.
It started really coming down during the barge ride, and it
was still going as I made my way back to the car. I headed to a Chik-Fil-A for
lunch and got the number for the stadium. I called and got constant busy
signals, so I gave up and went back to the hotel, grabbing some gas on the way.
I lay down for a "short nap" of 1.5 hours -- it seems the walking and
the weather really took it out of me.
When I woke up, I called the stadium again and got through,
and they assured me that the game was still going on because "they"
wanted to get the game in. And that was the first "they" of the
night. "They" want to get the game in can be a number of people.
"They" can be the managers, because they will miss an off day if they
have to make up the game or have an unfortunate commute for a make-up game or
another double-header. "They" can also be the ownership, who want to
get a game in on a weeknight so as not to have another doubleheader wreck their
concession numbers, or for some of the same scheduling reasons.
"They" can be the umpires, or the league, and on up the line, and the
further up it went, the more likely "they" were to get their way. At
any case, "they" are never the stadium workers, who universally hate
working soggy games that go on forever, and the players, for exactly the same
reasons.
Since "they" said it was on, I drove back out the
half hour again to the stadium, parked, did my outside photography and grabbed
a ticket. It started raining again as soon as I got inside.
After the damp but glorious game, it was a quick drive back
to the hotel, where I just grabbed a hot shower and went straight to bed.
Because after bad sleep and a long, damp day, I couldn't even muster the
enthusiasm for a soak in the tub. And, of course, the bathroom was full of my
ponchos and clothes from the day hanging out to dry.
The Stadium & Fans:
The Metropolitans generally have a
problem with stadium location for their affiliates. Locations range from
"in the middle of nowhere" (GCL, Spring Training), to "next to
an abandoned insane asylum" (Columbia), to "right next to a rail
yard" (Binghamton), to "in an auto parts depot" (MLB). Outside
of the Cyclones, the stadium locations all suck, and Hunter Wright Stadium
falls solidly in the "middle of nowhere" category. But, especially
for an Appalachian League park, it was quite nice.
In following the Appalachian League tradition, there is one
entrance behind home plate, guarded by the one ticket window. A walkway leads
to the field, and splits of in several directions. One goes up the third-base
side by the merchandise stand, one goes into a covered area under the press box
above that houses the concession stand, and one curves around to drop in from a
hill on the first-base side. There is a small stand of plastic fold-down chairs
behind home plate (topped with an outside "Owner's Box"), and the
rest of the seating, running from home plate to just beyond the bases, are
tiered bleachers. None of them have cover, which was a particular issue this
rainy night. The only covered area was a picnic area at the top of the hill on
the first-base side. The digital scoreboard peaks out over a one-level outfield
wall plastered in advertisements, set amongst a bucolic tree line along the
entire outfield.
The Don Spivy Press Box towers over the field behind home
plate as part of the one sprawling building that constitutes the only building
in the park. It contains the clubhouse and umpire areas, covers the concession
stand in the tunnel under the press box, and extends down the first-base line
with the merchandise stand peeking out from the end closest to first base.
There is a picnic area just outside the concession stand tunnel, along with a
"Wall of Fame" road to the majors for the team. There was a sign for
a kid’s area in the right field corner, but given the weather, they did not
bring out any of the inflatable rides next to the batting cages.
Slider the mascot made a damp appearance for the game, and
there were a number of minor-league standard games and contests between
innings, perhaps to reward the dripping stalwarts that sat it out for the
entire game. Also notable and a source of personal pride is that the game did
not have an official pre-game prayer, although both teams huddled up on the
field for private prayers before the start of the game.
You can't really judge a fanbase fairly on a rainy Thursday
night game, but the people who stuck it out were invested in the team, and by
their sighs and harrumphs as the K-Mets nearly blew it and surprise at them
actually pulling it out, you could tell they were truly fans of the
Metropolitans organization.
I purchase a general admission
ticket on the way in, and with the paltry crowd that day, it hardly mattered,
as I could eventually sit wherever I so desired. My first stop was to the
merchandise stand, where I stocked up of another Metropolitan affiliate's gear.
I then grabbed a slice of pizza on a Frisbee and a burger and went out to the
covered picnic tables to have a soggy meal.
All through the hour rain delay before the start of the
game, I spent the majority of my time in the overhang area by the concessions
stand, not coincidentally with most of the on-field staff and what few other
patrons stuck around for the game. We all knew each by sight before the game
started. Someone rather senior in the team management was bitching about how
"they" still wanted to get the game in, so it was most likely the
league officials that wanted to get the game in for whatever reason, which
meant that one way or another, this game was probably going on.
Once the rain stopped and they got everything ready for the
game, I picked out a seat on the bleachers on the home first-base dugout that
wasn't marred by netting. There were two die-hard locals in my section a row or
so back from where I was, and that was about it in my area. They went on
talking to each other for most of the game, and I was left to myself.
When the K-Mets pulled the win out of their hat, they threw
little foam victory baseballs into the crowd, such as it was. I got one,
because I was one of the only people they really could throw them to. The two
guys in back of me got balls as well.
Whenever I visit a Metropolitans affiliate, I
always expect the worse. This was the case as the Kingsport Mets faced off
against the Princeton Rays on a rainy evening in August. So you can imagine my
surprise when the K-Mets not only came back from behind late and held on to a
win by the skin of their teeth. I was as shocked as the dozen people left in
the stands at the end of the soggy game.
After a delayed start, the Rays jumped all over the Mets
with a two-out rally in the first. Three singles and a double quickly drove in
two runs and put the Rays out to an early 2-0 lead. The Mets went in order. In
the second, Princeton went in order (although the last batter singled and was
caught stealing). Surprisingly, the Mets came back in the bottom of the second,
turning two singles and a double into two runs to tie it up, 2-2. The Rays went
in order in the top of the third, while Kingsport kept going with a walk, a
double, and a throw-away ball by the second baseman turned into two more runs,
staking them to a 4-2 lead.
The Rays came back in the top of the fourth with a leadoff
homerun to cut the lead to 4-3, while the Mets went in order. Princeton went in
order in the fifth, while Kingsport stranded two singles. The Rays tied it up
in the top of the sixth with two singles and a stolen base, while the Mets only
had a walk to show for the bottom of the frame.
Princeton had just a walk in the top of the seventh, while
Kingsport broke the tie. A leadoff single was followed by a triple and a
sacrifice fly to gain a lead again at 6-4. In top of the eighth, the Rays
closed it to 6-5 on a walk, double, and double-play ground out. Kingsport just
a had a single in the bottom of the eighth. At the top of the ninth, it looked
like the Mets would blow it, as is their birthright. They managed to load the
bases with back-to-back singles to start the inning, and then they hit the next
batter. Amazingly, the pitcher got a clutch strikeout on the next batter, and
then a pop-up to the shortstop. After a long at-bat, the last batter grounded
to the third baseman, who stepped on the bag for a force out and cemented the
rain-delayed 6-5 victory for the K-Mets.
The Scorecard:
Rays vs. Mets, 08/10/17. Mets win, 6-5.
The scorecard was part of the $1
magazine-size program. The program was printed on semi-gloss paper, which made
writing with pencils difficult, but not as bad as other paper of this type. The
scorecard was on the centerfold spread, but the scorecard was only about half
of the spread. The top of the spread was ads, and the bottom was stadium regulations
and scoring instructions. There were plenty of players lines, but nothing for
pitchers. I used several of the copious players lines to at least list out the
pitchers. The scoring boxes didn't have diamonds and were small, but usable.
The background was white, which allowed for marginal notations, a welcome
change from most Metropolitan-affiliated scorecards.
There weren't that many scoring plays of note. There was a
CS 9-6 in the top of the second as a runner tried unsuccessfully to extend a
single into a double, but that was about it. Everything else was
run-of-the-mill.
The Accommodations:
I was at the Comfort Inn again, and
there was nothing really to mention, except I had plenty of space to hang up all
my wet gear from the day's activities.
2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee
