Bluefield

On It's Always Raining in Bluefield

Literally every day in Bluefield

Monday, June 25, 2018

Bluefield, WV


Outside the Game: 
A lovely Monday morning not at work featured breakfast, and then video games until it was time to pack up in the early afternoon. With a wife and son in tow, it took a little bit to get the ship of state moving, but we were off heading east at the appointed time.

The drive out was mostly without incident besides some construction. We stopped off for a late lunch at Appleby's and then made the rest of the drive out to Bluefield. As we were approaching, I found "Car Bingo" cards in the seat pockets in the back seat and had quite the enjoyable time playing with them, even if they had been designed in the early 80s and not updated since then based on some of the squares (Corvette, etc.), but I got into it so much that the youngster in the back seat with me put down his phone long enough to play for a little bit.

The first stop in Bluefield was the Enterprise where I'd pick up my car for the remainder of the trip, as we were parting ways the next day. We drove past out hotel, but the address for the rental place took us to a spot just past a small mall. A quick look in the mall didn't locate the business, so I called up to get directions, as we were flirting with 4 PM, and the place closed at 5 PM.

It took a few efforts to get through, and the woman finally gave us some useful directions, but claimed that I was to have been there at noon. That was when I was originally scheduled to pick up the car, but I had called the previous night to tell them I would be coming in later, and I was assured there would be no problems. She said she would see what she could do. And I got nervous.

After backtracking a little bit, we got to the Enterprise office, which was heralded by a tiny sign in the back of a car dealership. I went in and waited behind a couple that was also picking up a car. Apparently, there had just been a run on the place, and the lady behind the counter was bemoaning that her associate had left for lunch.

Once the other couple was almost done, the other guy showed up and handled me. They did have a car ready for me, so I sent everyone else down the road to the hotel, and then I finished up the paperwork with the representative and went out to see my car.

It means "antelope"

Despite asking for a compact, they had given me pretty much the opposite, which was a Chevy Impala Medicare sled. The guy showed me a bunch of little dings on the car that he assured me wouldn't be a problem, but I took some photos nevertheless, and then headed down the road to the hotel.

As I came in, I found my friend just finishing up his check in. I got a King Single right next door to his double twin, though we didn't have the adjoining doors to suite up the place. After a quick check in, I dropped all my stuff off in the room, took pictures, and got set up. I was enjoying the nice view of the pool when the rain started.

I headed out to my car to try and figure everything out. I adjusted all the mirrors and whatnot and worked out all the dials and lights and the on-board WiFi hotspot that it came with. I went back inside and called the stadium, and they said the game was still on. But as it came time to go to the park, I went next door, where my friend told me they had just announced the cancellation on their Twitter page. That was two straight rainouts when trying to go to a Bluefield game. I honestly had no idea how they managed to get a season's worth of games in.

But that is also why I budgeted the extra days. With not a ton of options available for dinner, we all went to nearby Chili's and then retired to their room to watch Thor: Ragnoroc streamed on their TV from a laptop. I then went back to my room to hit the sack and wonder what the hell I was going to do tomorrow.


The Accommodations: 

Quality Inn, Bluefield

I was at the Quality Inn and Conference Center, which was at the top of a windy road off the main state road through town. I had no idea what conferences they would have here, but it was a nice enough hotel, although sometime recently their restaurant had closed down.

The entrance to my room was right to right of the small but adequate bathroom. The king-sized bed was on one wall with end tables opposite a desk, dresser, and TV. I was on the ground floor right next to the pool that no one would be using because of the weather. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of guest besides ourselves in the place.

On Mercy, of a Sort, from the Weather

Bowen Field, 2018

Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Princeton Rays (Tampa Bay Rays) vs.
Bluefield Blue Jays (Toronto Blue Jays)
Bowen Field
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Bluefield, WV
5:05 PM


Outside the Game:
I woke up early to grab breakfast and say goodbye to my friend and his family, and they headed off to South Carolina. After breakfast, I went back to the front desk to arrange to stay over another day, and then went back to my room for a shower.

I decided to take a drive into town to get used to the car and kill some time. I went out to the stadium, and then drove downtown to see what was there. In addition to a lot of closed stores and displays about how Bluefield was the financing center of the coal region in better days, I ended up browsing through an antiques store downtown, where I bought some old books and a baseball poem plaque. I had lunch at a Burger King, which was the only thing open in the area, and then went back to the hotel to organize and pack a bit before tomorrow and take a nap. They were going to play a double-header to make up for the rainout the night before, so the game time was moved up to 5 PM, so I was ready to head out as soon as I got up from the nap.

Right as I headed to my car to drive to the stadium, it started raining, but it stopped during my drive out to the park, just enough to dose everything. I walked around and did my photographing, bought a ticket, and went inside.

After they brought the tarp out for the second time before the second game, I saw the writing on the wall and headed out to my car in the drizzle. I just headed back to the hotel to finish packing and hit the sack early.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Bowen Field

Bowen Field was an old WPA ballpark built in the 40s. The outside of the park is surrounded by a parking lot and a low wall that goes around it, just shy of the stream that runs on the other side of the road beyond the center field wall. A Sherman tank and a tree grove beyond left field are part of the WWII memorial, and further out past right is a kid's train that seems to run at an irregular schedule.

There is one entrance to the park one the third-base side of home plate, with a single ticket booth out building. The gate empties into a plaza where most of the amenities are found. At the far end by the grandstand is the built-in concession stand, and to its right is the building housing the Birds Nest team store and facilities. There are also entrances to special seating areas on the third base side, the “RailYard” party area, the “Rail Bird” bleachers, and a wooden staircase up to the third-base box seats. At the entrance gate, there is a small set of desks that house the programs and contest areas, as well as another table for the 50/50.

A ramp at the end of the plaza leads up to the grandstand and is lined with nearly a dozen dedications and plaques through the years. The grandstand houses the main seating area of the park. Everything up from the small walkway that runs around the grandstand are general admissions seats, with most falling underneath the overhang. A number are broken and unrepaired, marked with blue duct tape so people don't try and sit in them. More reserved box seats line the front of the walkway right by the field. Another section of box seats is accessed at the first-base end of the grandstand. The press box is located on the top of the first base dugout in an unconventional configuration.

The electric scoreboard sits in right-center, just to the left of the triple-decker batter's eye and on the unending backdrop of trees beyond the outfield. A “hit it here” sign is in left-center and is above the single-row of ads that covers the entire outfield.

The crowd was pretty good for mid-week game with threatening weather, and a good portion of the fans were from nearby Princeton. And that is because of the Mercer Cup.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair

The Mercer Cup is a high-school grade victory cup that goes to the winner of the season series between the Princeton Rays and Bluefield Blue Jays, both residents of Mercer County, right next to the Virginia border. I'm of two minds. On the one hand, it is a nice local tradition and bragging rights for two small towns that both have teams in the lowest of the minors, and it is a fun execution of civic pride. On the other, it is the definition of “never have the stakes been so low.” The fans were getting aggressively into it, all for a cheap trophy they could buy themselves if they were so interested.

That said, there wasn't much else between the innings outside of some PA announcements. But the fans in the seats were there for the game, which was nice, even if they took it a little far.


At the Game with Oogie:

Corn dog, delayed

For the very first time, I was able to enter Bowen Field, which was momentous in itself. Even after taking the time to do outside pictures, I was the first patron in the park, and I quickly went over to grab a program next to the Mercer Cup and walk in. I was immediately stopped by a guy who was from NY and spotted the Mets hat. We had a talk about it and how he came down here after a stint with Uncle Sam. I did all my interior photos in the old park, and then went back to buy some stuff at the gift shop. The person who was running the gift shop that evening had just shown up, so I was able to buy my souvenirs and then head over to the concessions stand for some food.

My first food order didn't work out, as I was told that they didn't actually have chicken sandwiches that night. I settled on a burger and a corn dog, which they assured me they had. The burger I got, but the counter person hadn't been informed that the fryer hadn't even been started up yet, so my corn dog was a long way off. The guy in the back assured me he'd find me in the stands and deliver it. (He did, just before the start of the game.)

I finished my burger, bought some 50/50 tickets, then headed up into the grandstand to find a seat in the open seating plan they had. I settled into a seat right behind home plate just far enough up to be under the overhang. As people filed in, there was eventually a Rays fan on my right a couple rows up, an older Blue Jays on to my right, a grandpa with his granddaughter behind me, and then a couple of rows of Princeton Rays personnel to my left, sitting by the scouts and the players who were not playing in the first game and thus running stats.

A Little League team was going around for collections to get them to a tournament, and there was also the local news there covering the Mercer Cup game, because that passes for news down here.

Between the games, the rain started up, and everyone retreated to my row and further back under the cover. The players who were running stats for the Jays were right next to me, and some big shot local came up and was talking to them, eventually inviting him to a big barbecue he was having the next day. Not with this rain, Champ.

The rain stopped, and the tarp came off, but a short while later, the rain began again in earnest, and the tarp came out again, and that is when I booked it to my car. I had finally gotten my game in here in. My duty was complete.


The Game: 

First pitch, Rays vs. Blue Jays

This game was a first in many ways. It was the first game of a doubleheader to make up the previous day's rain out, while also being the first game between the Blue Jays and the Rays of the year, and therefore the first game of the Mercer Cup series. The tightly-fought, seven-inning contest would go to the home team.

The Rays started the scoring early with a two-out homer to right to stake them to a 1-0 lead. Bluefield immediately tied it up in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double brought in by a two-out single to leave the score at 1-1. Princeton went in order in the second despite a leadoff single thanks to a double play, but the Blue Jays got a two-out homer to left field to get a slim 2-1 lead. The Rays only had a single in the top of the third, but Bluefield kept scoring with a leadoff single that scored on the double that followed, giving them a slightly larger 3-1 lead.

Princeton got a one-out single to third thanks to a walk and a wild pitch, but he was stranded there, while the Blue Jays managed to load the bases with a double, short single, and a hit batsman, but a new pitcher got the last out to leave them all aboard. Both sides only had a single to show for the fifth. In the top of the sixth, the Rays got a run the long way, with a walk, wild pitch, fly out to right, and another wild pitch to bring him home and cut the lead to 3-2. In the bottom of the frame, Bluefield had a weird one. After two strikeouts, they loaded the bases on a single, walk, and dropped third strike on a strikeout, but a fourth strikeout ended the inning and the threat.

In their last licks at the top of the seventh, Princeton got a one-out walk and then a two-out single to right-center. The lead runner booked it to third and drew the throw, but he made it safely. The batsman tried to make it second, but the throw from third to the shortstop got there in time to gun him down, and the Blue Jays walked away with a 3-2 Mercer Cup game victory.

As mentioned, the second game was rained out shortly before beginning. In four total games I tried to watch in Bluefield, exactly one was played. That's just amazing.


The Scorecard: 

Rays vs. Blue Jays, 06/26/18. Blue Jays win, 3-2.

The scorecard was part of the $1 newsprint mini-tabloid program, which came with a raffle ticket. The scorecard took the entirety of the centerfold and was printed on a white background for ease of notes, although there was a copious notes are in the scorecard itself to the left of the pitching lines.

Each batting line held room for one player, although there was an extra line for a replacement at the end of the batting lines. Each batting line ended with the regular cumulative stats, and each inning column ended with inning totals. The pitching lines were in the bottom right of each scorecard, next to the aforementioned notes areas.

The scoring lines were small, but workable, but were on top of a color background on newsprint, which made for messy erasing.

There were a couple of plays of note. In the bottom of the first, there was a foul ball to left field that was caught seemingly for an out, but the umpire ruled it hit the netting before being caught. This led to an argument and ejection of the visiting manager, and ironically the at-bat was ended several pitches later with a fly out to left. In the bottom of the sixth, there was the rarest of the rare: a four-strikeout inning. After two quick strikeouts, the bases were loaded, and the last batter got on thanks to a dropped third strike that was not thrown to first in time. The next batter also struck out, and the four K inning was made.

For a seven-inning game, there were also 14 total strikeouts, which was a lot, and the Rays run in the top of the sixth was made possible by two wild pitches in the same at-bat.


The Accommodations: 
I was at the Quality Inn again, for a surprisingly early night. Not much of note, but I did find out who had conferences at a mid-range hotel in the middle of nowhere. As I was going back to my room, I saw the meeting for a local mining union taking place in one of the meeting rooms, so that answered that, I guess.

They didn't bother me any, and I got an early night's sleep to offset all the driving for the next day.

Click here to see all the pictures from this game.

2018 East Coast Leftovers

Kingsport

On the Meaning of "Them"

Hunter Wright Stadium, 2017

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Princeton Rays (Tampa Bay Rays) vs.
Kingsport Mets (New York Metropolitans)

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.

The dam walkway

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.

Dark and damp

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:

Home plate to center field, Hunter Wright Stadium

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.

A listless Slider

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.

At the Game with Oogie:

Damp scoring

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.

Pizza on a Frisbee and burger

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.

Victory ball

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.

The Game: 

Sun breaks, finally

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.

Not promising

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.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee

Princeton

On a Long Drive with No Direction
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Princeton, WV


Outside the Game:
I got up somewhat groggily and partook of my breakfast buffet as rain poured outside the windows. It seems that I picked as good a day as any for a long drive. Given my prudent choice to stop off in North Carolina again instead of staying in Myrtle Beach, it was going to be a much shorter drive, as well. I was planning to meet up with my friend in West Virginia for a couple of days to grab the teams on the very edge of his state, and because we hadn't seen each other in over a year at that point.

After having my rain-enhanced breakfast, I went back to the room to shower up, pack, and check out of the hotel. I started driving on my way for a 3.5-4 hour run, and I was settled into a nice ride with next to no one on the road with me, going as I was from North Carolina to West Virginia on a rainy Saturday. I eventually had to stop for gas, and I was gassed up and grabbed some snacks and headed back out on the road in no time.

Except that my GPS would not pick up the satellite signal again. Granted, I had this GPS for nearly a decade at this point, but it had never failed me. More and more recently, it would have problems picking up the satellite signal, especially in new locations such as airports after a flight, but it had never completely gone to ground before. The good news, such as it was, was that my directions were fairly simple: Follow I-74 until it turned into I-77, and then get off at the Princeton, WV exit.

So I drove, using the roads as my guide for the extent of the trip. The ride itself was pretty calm and uneventful, and eventually I did a pull off for some lunch a short distance from my goal. I wrote down the exact directions at the exit in Princeton from the GPS during my lunch, and I confirmed them with my tablet before setting off again.

I needn’t have worried. The hotel I was meeting my friend at was literally a straight line off the exit of I-77, so although my GPS crashed, it at least crashed on the least complicated part of my trip.

I parked at the hotel to check in and found my friend had beat me there by a half hour or so, and I missed seeing his mother by the same timeframe. I went to the room and unpacked and took a nap after the longish drive.

After waking up, we took a drive to the nearby Walmart to buy a new GPS for the rest of the trip. I got a new GPS; my friend got a couple new LEGO sets. After getting back to the hotel room, my original TomTom unit finally woke up again, of course. Not quite trusting it anymore, I set up my new Garmin unit. We walked a couple doors down to have dinner at Shoney's (yes, because it was on the Rick and Morty episode, and I had never been in one before), and we had a thoroughly unremarkable buffet dinner.

We walked back to the hotel room, worked out some networking issues, and played video games for the rest of the evening. After looking up what the local entertainment options were, we decided on more video games for tomorrow as well.

Both worn out from our respective drives, we hit the hay relatively early and called it a day.


The Accommodations:

Holiday Inn Express

In case you're wondering, there's not a huge selection of hotels in Princeton, WV. We picked one on the higher end of the scale in a Holiday Inn Express. It was a nice, big, room with two twin beds on one side of the room, across from a dresser, TV, large desk, and small Ottoman.

Outside the bathroom was a small refrigerator and coffee machine, and the bathroom off the main entrance was a fairly standard affair with a tub and a long vanity and sink.

We spent a lot of time in here over the next couple of days, between the rain and the video games. I don't even think that housekeeping got a shot at the place until after we checked out.



On Meeting Friends and Yankee Invasions

H.P. Hunnicutt Field, 2017

Sunday, August 6, 2017
Pulaski Yankees (NY Yankees) vs.
Princeton Rays (Tampa Bay Rays)
H.P. Hunnicutt Field
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Princeton, WV
5:00 PM

Outside the Game:
We both woke up somewhat early the next day and went down to grab some breakfast buffet. We grabbed our stuff and went outside to a small patio adjacent to the breakfast room and ate our breakfast in the fresh air, which was thankfully not filled with rain again.

After breakfast, we managed to get showered and dressed and spent the rest of the morning continuing the video game from the night before until it was time to go to the park. We parked in the huge parking lot that encircled the stadium and managed to find at least a half dozen batting practice balls each on the tarmac outside of the outfield. I'm imagining not a lot of people come to collect them.

It is free real estate.

We did the walk around, and I took my photos until the ticket gate opened, we bought our tickets, and went in.

After the game, we went to a nearby Italian place for dinner and headed back to the hotel. I did my laundry, and we played more video games until we got tired enough to go to sleep.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, H.P. Hunnicutt Field

H. P. Hunnicutt Field has a grandiose name for a rookie-league park. It is a nice enough facility, also used for high school ball, next door to a football field. As mentioned, the park is almost completely surrounded by a parking lot split with the football field, with the one side not surrounded by the parking lot almost directly onto the road that passes the park.

The tiny park has one entrance, guarded by a quaint little ticket booth. The entrance opens up to a tarmac walkway that circles the outside of the field, hosting the one concession stand, team store, the bathrooms, and player and training facilities. There is a small picnic area underneath the home plate grandstand. A small, covered grandstand with flip-down seats sits behind home plate, topped with a tiny press box. Uncovered bleacher seats run down the base lines from either side of the main grandstand. A small digital scoreboard sits in left-center field, along with the site line of trees and distant buildings that provide the outfield view.

A number of memorials are in the park, including five retired numbers along the outfield wall, the dedication plaque for the stadium, a banner honoring "Princeton's Mr. Baseball Lefty Guard," the Dick McCormick Hitting Facility, and a small garden at the entrance honoring local booster Gail Cheatwood.

Roscoe P. Coltrain

Mascot Roscoe the Chicken (number 1/8) runs most of the interactions between innings. There was a small array of your standard minor-league quizzes and games, but a lot less than you see at the higher minors. Given a Sunday afternoon game after a couple of rainy days, there was a decent-sized crowd in the small park that cheered the Rays on to victory.


At the Game with Oogie:

Rookie scoring

As mentioned, I was at the game with my friend, and with the open seating, we grabbed two reserved seats behind home plate. We split up for a bit as I did my photography thing, and he grabbed some food and looked around. When we regrouped, it turned out that he had helped the mascot on with his chicken costume when he stopped in to use the bathroom. So, this was clearly a top-tier organization.

Sausages

There was only one concession stand at the stadium. I ate a brat before the game and grabbed a drink. As we had sprung for the "reserved" seats, there was seat service for concessions, and I snagged a sausage sandwich during the game, as well. A couple of visiting Pulaski Yankees fans who had come down for the game were sitting behind us and bemoaning their team's fate and the drive they had taken to see such a beating.

Roscoe the Chicken mascot tried to get my friend and I to participate in a game between innings, but we demurred.


The Game:

First pitch, Yankees vs. Rays

The visiting Pulaski Yankees were the class of the Appalachian League, facing off against the Princeton Rays at home, but the year up to this point had no bearing on this game, as the hometown boys cleaned the clocks of their brethren from up north.

Things started well for Pulaski in the first, with an early run off a leadoff single, stolen base, single, and sacrifice fly to put them to a 1-0 lead. That would be their first and last lead of the day. In the bottom of the first, the Rays had a two-out rally with a single and a booted grounder to second that was followed by a homer to left to give them to a 3-1 lead. The Yankees went in order in the second, but Princeton kept going with a booted grounder to third making it home on a balk, passed ball, and a triple. The runner left on third got brought in on another single, and the lead was extended to 5-1. Pulaski struck out their side in the third but had two walks in the middle, while the Rays calmed down and snuck in a single and nothing more.

The Yankees got nothing more than a single and walk in the top of the fourth, and even Princeton went in order. Pulaski had a single in the top of the fifth, while the Rays tacked on another odd run with a hit batsman moving to third on a single and then coming home on a wild pitch, making the score 6-1. The Yankees only managed another single and walk in the top of the sixth, while Princeton got three strike outs. But in the middle, there was a one-out rampage, with two walks, three singles, and an error by the center fielder, leading to four more runs to make this increasing blowout 10-1.

Pulaski had a single in the top of the seventh, and the Rays just a walk in the bottom of the frame. The Yankees tried feebly to get back in the game in the top of the eighth with another run on a double, stolen base, and single, to close it to 10-2. Princeton had a single to show for the bottom of the eighth. Not making the most of their last licks, Pulaski went out on three straight ground out, leaving the hometown Rays with a decisive 10-2 final victory.


The Scorecard:

Yankees vs. Rays, 08/06/17. Rays win, 10-2.

The $1 scorecard came with a raffle ticket stapled to it for one of the giveaways. I didn't win, but it was nice, nevertheless. The program was a magazine tabloid, with the scorecard in the centerfold on semi-glossy paper that made it a little hard to write on with pencil. At least 50% of the scorecard spread was filled with ads, but at least it was on a white background that left space for notes.

The scorecard was roomy enough, with just white boxes for each player, so it wasn't so cramped. There were a couple of oddities, though. There were no pitching lines, but there were so many player lines that I was able to fashion some ad hoc at the bottom of the scorecard. Also, there was a printing error on the home side, with one block that should have been two players lines was missing the divider line. It was pretty obvious, so it was odd no one thought to fix that.

There were only a couple of plays of scoring note. There was a balk in the bottom of the second, a CS 1-3-4t in the same half inning, and a CS 9-6 in the bottom of the eighth when the runner tried to turn a single into a double. The Yankees also committed four errors, which can't be good for the skipper's blood pressure, and there were twenty strikeouts combined with both teams.


The Accommodations:
We had another night in the Holiday Inn Express, mostly playing video games and accumulating a ton of wrappers and garbage, as room servicing was in prime video game time.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

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