Charleston

On Inadvertently Seeing All the Yankees Franchises

Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, 2018

Friday, June 29, 2018
Rome Braves (Atlanta Braves) vs.
Charleston RiverDogs (New York Yankees)
Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park
South Atlantic League (A)
Charleston, SC
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Despite my best efforts, I woke up at 6 AM the next day/later that day. I grabbed breakfast, did some planning for my hotel, grabbed a shower, packed up, and then went back to sleep until just before my late checkout at noon.

I packed up the car and headed back out onto the road. The gas station right by my hotel was also on the pull-off from 95 and had a line, so I gave up there, got on 95, and started driving south. About an hour into the drive, I pulled off again and filled up my tank with about an hour to go to my destination.

The road eventually petered out to two lanes, and the last part was marred by two truckers that took turns passing each other very, very slowly and backing up traffic for--no kidding around--at least a half mile. Some guy eventually cracked and got up behind the truck and just leaned on his horn for five minutes until he completed his pass more quickly, and then the backed-up traffic burst through the free lane hole in the damn and sprinted off to freedom.

I eventually got to Charleston around two o'clock and was able to check into my room a little early. I dropped off my bags, unpacked a little, and then headed out to "Patriot's Point," where there was the USS Yorktown and the ferry to Fort Sumter. The drive was okay, but there were some shaky bits on one of the bridges where the GPS lost coherence with reality again, but I managed to make it to the parking lot with no problems.

USS Yorktown at "Patriot's Point"

I was just in time for the last ferry out to Fort Sumter, but the last ferry back wouldn't dock until 5:30 PM, cutting it pretty close for the game. I decided to try again for the first ferry tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM and see the ships today. I paid my way in and headed out to the aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown. It was a hot and miserable day, and I nearly wilted walking across the large bridge to get to the ship, let alone going inside the metal monster itself. It really put into perspective what the crew had to go through when this thing was in the tropics. I can't even imagine.

The ship was broken into several "tours" that you could go on, such as "The Space Program," "WWII," "Engineering," "The Bridge," etc. I walked around to them all. The engine room was particularly eye-opening on how hot it was at dock in South Carolina, forget about with the generators on in the Pacific. Though, there were a couple of areas that had air conditioning added for events and in small museum spaces. I joked with one of the veteran volunteers on the ship that I thought it would be much hotter on the ship, but it couldn't have been that bad with the AC. Thankfully, he got the joke.

The whole thing was pretty impressive just form the standpoint of what was technologically possible to build in the 40s, with this literal city on the sea that stayed in service well into the 70s. It was also clear how much maintenance it required. Out on the open flight deck, there was a lot of obvious and visible rust that would not have been allowed in its working days. It is astounding to think of the effort necessary to keep this thing, uh, ship-shape.

After my fill of the ship, I forwent the sister destroyer berthed nearby and the submarine was undergoing repair work, so I went to "The Viet Nam Experience," or I as I called it, "The Flashback Machine."

The Flashback Machine

Now, granted, there were a ton of warning signs at the entrance to the exhibition to that effect, but it was frankly as if this thing was designed to provoke such flashbacks. You go through an initial building with some displays, and then you walk to Viet Nam era equipment and buildings from US bases. Where it goes really wrong is that there is a part that recreates repelling a Viet Cong attack, with sounds of gun and ordinance fire and yelling and the like that can't help but provoke a flashback in those susceptible.

I went back to the gift shop and bought my usual nick-knacks. I was a bit disappointed because they had an assortment of disabled grenades available for sale that I had no way of getting home. If I shipped them, my package would get confiscated, and if I took them in my luggage, well, you know...

I made the drive back to the hotel, just hitting a little traffic and dealing with GPS problems on the bridge again. I dumped off all non-baseball stuff, grabbed my game bag, and headed back to the stadium.

Except that my GPS didn't just have problems in Charleston with the bridge. It had problems with the area by the stadium. I'm not sure what happened, but it turned me around and had me out towards Patriot's Point again, where I had to turn around and deal with it not knowing where the bridge was. Once I was back downtown, I picked a direction and drove on the surface roads to get me away from any onramps that the GPS could take me on, figured out what direction I had to go in, and then just kept going in that direction. As I got closer to where the stadium was supposed to be, I got more and more worried, because I could see no signs of a stadium.

But I just kept going to where I knew the stadium had to be, and eventually, a lighting rig appeared in the distance. A little more driving got me to the stadium just before the gates were set to open. I jumped in one of the $5 parking lots shared with the college across the road and scrambled to get my outside pictures and pick up my ticket at will call. I finished up just as the first surge of people cleared up and I was on my way.

After the relatively quick game, I was off and back to the hotel before the fireworks with no GPS problems. I grabbed a shower, packed up, and double-checked my itinerary for the next couple of days. I worked out where two hours out was going to be the next night and booked my hotel, and then went to bed early to make up for the night before.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, "The Joe"

Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, pitched as "The Joe" by the RiverDogs, is named for the mayor that helped get it built in the 90s. And as part of that renaissance of minor league parks in that period, it is filled with the signatures of that period: brick construction, downtown location, and overstuffed interiors.

The outside of the park is all brick, with pictures of old-time baseball in Charleston in little reliefs along the surface. The main home-plate gate is at the base of a stairwell that leads up to the promenade, but other entrances have stairs or ramps up to the top level. The main ticket booth is by the front entrance, while the Will Call booth is next to the first base entrance at the top of a flight of stairs. The main stadium facade is flanked by giant blow-ups of the two mascots, Charles and Chelsea, and there is a giant blow-up of Charles' mouth you can walk through to get the entrance.

Either way you get in, you end up on the main promenade that goes around the outside of the park from center field to left field and holds most of the concessions, stores, and other entertainments. An interior walkway splits up the seating from the box seats by the field and is accessible via intermittent ramps from the promenade and at the end of the grandstand at the first- and third-base side.

The seating bowl runs from third base to first base around home plate, covered in the top rows by an overhang that goes most of its length. A lower level of seating goes out into left field, but in right field, it is replaced by "Shoeless Joe's Hill," a padded picnic hill. The press box and luxury boxes are at the top of the area behind home plate. Third base seats are topped with a party deck, and first base with the Ashley View Pub. Party decks are also at the end of each grandstand, and left field has a special concession stand area.

The “Mystery Box” is on the promenade behind third base, along with a giant bat. Height charts with famous former players are along the supports in the center field promenade, overlooking the strangely pretty swamp beyond the center field wall. There are two main digital boards in right-center and an auxiliary board in left center, both against the backdrop of trees that frames the outfield over the single-deck outfield wall covered in local ads.

There's a ton of memorials in the place, from the inevitable John Henry Moss plaque at a SALly League Park, the stadium dedication, a memorial for a local All-Star team, the SALly Hall of Fame, Charlestoners in the Hall of Fame, the Charleston Hall of Fame, RiverDogs who made it to the majors, giant decals of former players now with the Yankee in the stadium walkways, Local Baseball Players of the Year, Local Softball Players of the Year, the Scouts Hall of Fame, Citadel Baseball Championships, memorials for the silly string world record and correctly predicting the election, and cut-out photos of the mascots and the former mayor. Plus, two retired numbers are on the batter's eye in center. Whew.

Charles and Chelsea

Charles and Chelsea and the human fun team run the events between innings, which are the regular minor league contests, quizzes, and races. The place was generally packed for the Friday-night game, and people were paying attention the baseball as well as the between-innings goofiness.


At the Game with Oogie:

Bacon Dog

After my adventure getting to the stadium, I relaxed as soon as I was inside, helped along by the bubble machines they had at the entrance. There was much more to this stadium than most on this trip, so I took my time going around the park and taking my pictures. At the back of the park, I stopped at a specialty hot dog stand to get a bacon dog. The guy asked if I had been there before and suggested one of the hot dogs that I had to reject on the basis that it would kill me (as it had shredded lobster in it). I also grabbed a corn dogs and fires and a souvenir drink later on, as well as two Gatorades for the duration of the game.

I wandered out and found myself in the area behind home just down the first base line. A Hawaiian-shirted usher told me I was in the seat-service area, which did me precious good now. I went back up and out to hit the team store, and on the way back, I was waylaid by another Hawaiian-shirted usher who identified me as being from out of town and asked me to sign his guest book. It turned out he was originally from New Jersey as well.

I then settled into my seat, where there was a group of tie-died RiverDogs fans to my left and some leather-wearing biker to my right. There was no one in the rows ahead of me.

As the game went on, the usher talked to me about if I knew what happened if the game went to extra innings, as the minor leagues had just adopted the international extra-innings rules. We both bemoaned the change, but thankfully, it did not come to that, although it was close.

As I was out of practice, I managed to leave my souvenir soda glass in my seat, but I was quickly able to find one at the top of a garbage and wash it out before the trip back to the hotel.


The Game:

First pitch, Braves vs. RiverDogs

To say this game between the visiting Rome Braves and the home Charleston RiverDogs moved along at a clip is an understatement, with a one-run margin determining the outcome of the brief contest.

Both sides started off by going in order in the first. The Braves scattered some two-out singles before stranding them in the second, but Charleston again went in order. Both sides also went in order in the third, although the RiverDogs had a one-out single that was erased trying to steal.

Rome had a solitary single in the top of the fourth, while Charleston made the least of their opportunities, with three singles and no runs to show for it thanks to a double-play. The Braves went in order in the fifth, and the RiverDogs only had a single for the bottom of the inning. Rome again just had a single in the top of the sixth, while Charleston left an error and a single on-base to no effect.

The Braves had a walk and single in the seventh, and Charleston went in order despite a single thanks to another double-play. Scoring finally happened in the eighth when Rome had a leadoff double brought in by a single, staking them, finally, to a 1-0 lead. The RiverDogs went in order. The Braves sacrificed a leadoff single in the ninth over to second but left him there. In their last licks, Charleston had a leadoff walk and one-out error by the third baseman to leave it first and second with one out, but two strikeouts closed out the Braves' 1-0 road win.


The Scorecard:

Braves vs. RiverDogs, 06/29/18. Braves win, 1-0.

This $1 scorecard was the wonder of the trip. In having experienced perhaps the worst scorecard in professional baseball with the Black Bears, I had one of the best with the RiverDogs. The oversize tabloid cardstock bi-fold was big, and the entire inside of the centerfold was only scorecard. And this was good, because this was essentially a broadcast scorecard, with defensive alignments, cumulative stats, etc., that you just don't see. And it was printed on white, to leave plenty of space for notes, but there was a dedicated noted section as well.

The card starts with line scores at the very top left, and a scoreboard tally on the right, next to a placement map for the umpires. Underneath that on the left was a compressed line score, with areas for winning pitcher, losing pitcher, and save, above cumulative game stats. This was next to the defensive aligned map and the standings for the league. On the right, it was the league standings next to the defensive alignment, and then a large blank area for notes.

On both sides underneath that was the batting lines and inning totals. There was one line for each batting position, with amble space to write in any replacements. The scoring boxes were large, comfortable, and without pre-printed diamonds. Each batting line ended in stats column (that were also pre-printed for extra innings), and each inning column ended in an extended totals tally of runs/earned runs, hits, errors, and left on base. Underneath that for both teams was the bench listing, pitching lines, and bullpen. Thanks to limited data that I was provided, I was only able to fill out the bench for the RiverDogs, and the Bullpen for the Braves.

To say this card was intense is an understatement. There were abbreviations for things that I didn't know, and I still can't find, such as "WX," "C," and "IL." But it was a joy to use.

Sadly, there wasn't a ton of interesting scoring in this game. Three Braves got the Golden Sombrero, and there was a one infield hit awarded to the RiverDogs in the bottom of the fourth that was clearly home cooking, and I noted that it was really an E5. But besides that, there was nothing of note.


The Accommodations:

The Best Western, Charleston, SC

I had booked the Best Western in Charleston for a pretty hefty fee, but it was one of the cheapest of the decent hotel in the area, which made sense for a Friday, really. It was actually one of the nicest Best Westerns I've ever stayed in, so it was worth the price. I was a little worried when I checked in and I saw my next-door neighbor was outside his room in the flat bed of his truck, smoking, with a "Do Not Disturb" sign on his door, but he didn't turn out to be a problem.

I was in a room with a nice set of twin beds, with an end table and table on one side of the room, and a dresser, refrigerator, TV, and desk on the other side. The room ended in a sink and vanity, with the shower and toilet in the room next to it.

It had a lot of fancy frills to it, and it was comfortable, quiet, and the right place to recover after the previous night.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

 2018 East Coast Leftovers

Columbia

On Long Stays at Odd Affiliates

Spirit Communications Park, 2016

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Charleston RiverDogs (New York Yankees) vs.
Columbia Fireflies (New York Metropolitans)
Spirit Communications Park
South Atlantic League (A)
Columbia, SC
7:05 PM


Outside the Game:
After starting in Georgia, I was going to dip my toe into South Carolina for a day. But I had a night game and only a three-hour drive, so it was a slow and very lazy morning. I eventually pressed the good graces and liberal check-out times at the Marriott to their limits before packing up and heading out on the road.

Thanks to the vagaries of geography, I was pretty much heading due east. And I was on a road, it so happens, that was double tolls in the direction I was going, but not the way back, which I would not be taking, so there was that. A bit expensive, perhaps, but the drive was otherwise uneventful.

The Metropolitans and their affiliates have a reputation, and not in a good way. For the most part, from top to bottom, all the Mets teams are in really crappy locations. From the parent club setting the standard (located in the Iron Triangle of chop shop auto parts in Queens) down to their Spring Training home in "Port St. Lonely" (in the only boring and deserted place on the Spring Break coast), Mets affiliates tend to be in less than ideal locations. Their single A affiliate strives to live up to this lowly goal.

Now the park itself is brand-new and quite nice for a low minors facility. It is just located in a... Okay. So, at first glance, it appeared to be an abandoned college campus. But whatever it was, it was abandoned. Campus-like buildings named for people were quietly rotting all around it. Creepy, rusted-out bicycles lay chained to collapsed and rusting bike racks. Subsequent investigation would determine that it was not, in fact, an abandoned college, but an abandoned state mental health asylum.

I'll let that one sink in for a minute.

Looks kind of like this.

The New York Metropolitans were looking for the location of their new flagship affiliate, and after extensive searching they went, "Yes, let's build it on the crumbling remains of the state insane asylum." Our ownership, ladies and gentlemen.

Fun Fact: The building that now houses the team store was once the asylum morgue. Tell your friends!

After collecting my tickets and doing my pre-game picture sweep, I headed off to find my hotel. Now, perhaps I should have been tipped off by the fact that a luxury Sheraton hotel smack dab in the middle of downtown was available so cheaply, but I wrote it off in my mind to being in South Carolina, because, come on.

I was disabused of this notion as I drove to the hotel and found all of the roads to the hotel blocked off. This, as you'd imagine, is quite a problem in reaching said hotel. After ten minutes or so of driving around, I made an illegal run down a one-way street a block from the hotel, turned on my flashers, and tried to run to the hotel before I got a ticket.

It was then that I ran into the Pride Parade. To be fair, it was pretty damn hard to miss, and the only reason I had managed to do so until this point was because I was so fixated on trying to get to the hotel itself. The building was right on the parade route, and the entire area was swarmed with parade goers. Now, lord knows, I don't have any problem with The Gays, but I was falling into despair about ever getting any sleep that night.

I had a rather enlivened discussion with the hotel staff on the subject, and they managed to talk me down and told me they'd put me in a room facing away from everything in a quiet corner. Temporarily placated, I then remembered I was illegally parked facing the wrong way a block or so away and sought to sort out my parking situation rather quickly. I was provided with some convoluted directions to their parking deck, and grabbing my key, I rushed off to move my car.

Gloriously ticket-free, I tried to follow the directions to the parking lot. Driving around in the parade traffic, I made three passes by the supposed entrance before I noticed the hidden enclave literally in between two stores. I managed to get parked, grabbed all my stuff, walked the half-block back to the hotel, and shared an elevator with three drag queens to my floor.

The parade outside was just a dull roar at that point, and I passed out for a nice nap before heading back out to the game, having no idea of how long it would actually be before I'd be back in the hotel.

Departing

After the game, I drove back to a thankfully deserted downtown, and I was able to park and get back up to the room with minimal fuss, blacking out in the air conditioning and comforter while no doubt several thousand violations of the state’s still-extant sodomy laws were being perpetrated all around me.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Spirit Communications Park

So, we've talked about the crumbling mental health campus around the park already. Presumably, that is all going to be gutted and renovated into the "destination" they are clearly trying to build up around the park. The closest facility buildings have been incorporated into the park, and in right field is a brand-new, shiny business building. At least I assume it is for corporate use. I can't imagine they're trying to sell people condos in the middle of a deserted insane asylum, but what do I know about the real estate market? For the most part, once you are inside the stadium, you don't have to worry about the decaying campus, except in right field, where a cluster of buildings loom eerily over the proceedings.

The park itself is of a fairly standard, modern low-minors design. The ticket booth and team store flank the main entrance at the top of a wide flight of stairs up from the parking lot. (Although, I suppose "lot" is a grandiose term for weed-strewn grass area where you currently park.) The main promenade extends from the entrance all around the exterior of the field, and leads down into the seating bowl. A second tier of luxury boxes, party areas, and the press box extended above the promenade from first base to third base around behind home plate. The gigantor video screen looms in right, and auxiliary scoreboards hang down from the party deck.

Seating is regular stadium chairs in the infield, picnic tables in the outfield corners, and large picnic berms in the outfield. Table seating is available at the top of the seating bowl. A games area is in center, near the history plaques, and the SCU Kids Zone is off in left (featuring an off-putting bouncy castle of mascot Mason, where you enter through his feet on his splayed-out legs and bounce around in a window at just about junk level). Concessions and other stores line the promenade.

Mason, get it?

Firefly mascot Mason (as in jar, to catch fireflies) is in charge of the off-field entertainment. Your regular races and contests are spiced up with water balloon Whiffle ball, bubble-suit fights, and a dancing grounds crew.

There was a decent crowd of nearly all families out to support the still-new Columbia franchise. However, it was also the start of college football season, so the family in front of me were also streaming the football game on their phone, and they and everyone around them seemed far more interested in that game than the one on the field. So, they can't quite be labelled big-time baseball fans, per se.


At the Game with Oogie:

Affiliate scoring

I grabbed seats down the third-base line past the extended netting that had been put up at the park for "safety" reasons. As is the case in the low minors, there were families all around me. In a nod to the Metropolitans affiliate one-level down, they had Nathan's dogs on sale, so I grabbed one of those, along with some tacos. The extra food would be key in surviving the game itself.

Hot dog, fries, and souvenir soda

As the innings wore on, more and more of the crowd dispersed. There was a large exodus at the end of nine with most of the families with young children. Then around the twelfth, another mass migration out of the park happened, leaving just the die-hards to watch the end of it. Only two of the families around me stayed for the duration, and one of them only because they were watching the football game anyway.


The Game:

First pitch, RiverDogs vs. Fireflies

This was a cross-town rivals clashes of sorts, as the Metropolitans' single-A affiliate faced off against the Yankees' single-A affiliate. But this cross-town contest almost took longer than it would take to fly to the home clubs and back.

The RiverDogs dominated the first four innings. With two outs in the top of the first, a single, error by the third baseman, and another single got home their first run. In the second, a leadoff double was followed by a walk and a single, scoring the lead runner and placing the other on third. A sac fly brought him home to make it 3-0 for the second inning. A leadoff single and stolen base in the top of the third got caught trying to swipe third, but a leadoff homer in the fourth made the lead 4-0. In the same time period, the Fireflies scattered three hits and a walk. It looked to be over early.

In the top of the fifth, Columbia worked out of trouble with a one-out double-play to negate back-to-back singles to start the frame, and they got on the board in the bottom of the inning with a two-out, two-run homer to close the score to 4-2. After getting Charleston in order in the top half of the sixth, the Fireflies scored again in the bottom of the inning. A one-out double moved to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on a passed ball, but they got nothing else, leaving it 4-3 for the visitors.

Gaining steam, Columbia struck out the side in the top of the seventh, and then tied it up with three straight singles in the bottom of the inning, making it 4-4.

And then it all just stalled. Each side had three baserunners in the next two innings, and we went to extra baseball. In the top of the tenth, Charleston got a two-out double to third on a passed ball, but stranded him. A one-out walk in the bottom half of the inning got erased on a good old 4-6-3-6 double play (but more on that in a bit). The eleventh went quickly, but the RiverDogs squandered a leadoff double in the top of the twelfth, though the Fireflies went in order. The thirteenth also sped by, and Charleston got struck out in order in the top of the fourteenth.

And then the bottom of the fourteenth. The Fireflies got a leadoff single. Simple enough. The next batter got pegged, so it is first and second with no out. And then the walkoff fielder's choice. So, the third batter of the inning grounds to the second baseman for a tailor-made double-play. He flips to the shortstop for the putout at second, and then throws the ball to the wall at first, allowing the runner going to second to score on the error. Five hours of baseball leads to this.

Walk-off error

The post-game fireworks were cancelled for some reason or other.


The Scorecard:

RiverDogs vs. Fireflies, 09/03/16. Fireflies win in 14 innings, 5-4.

The scorecard was a pre-printed paper with the lineups, umpires, and coaching staff. It was utilitarian and served its purpose. It actually had eleven innings printed, so I had to draw in the remaining three.

As to the game, where in the hell to start.

Okay, it was 14 innings and five hours. That's a given. But for it all, there was a grand total of only nine pitchers and exactly one substitution (in the tenth).

I have so many explanatory notes for plays in this one. In the top of the fourth, a two-out single hit an umpire that prevented the runner at second from advancing to third, which may have killed a bigger inning for the RiverDogs. In the bottom of the sixth, with one out and runners on first and third (who got there on a wild pitch after a double), a first-pitch passed ball scored the runner from third. The catcher tried to throw the runner out at the plate to the pitcher. The pitcher missed it completely, letting the runner now on second to make it to third on the error. In the bottom of that inning, a batter was walked on a 2-1 count before being brought back to ground out to third. In the top of the ninth, a two-out grounder to the second baseman ended up in the dugout for a two-base E4.

And then there's the bottom of the 10th. There's a one-out walk, and the next batter grounds it to the second baseman. The second baseman flips to short for the putout, but the shortstop overthrows first, making the tail runner dash to second. The first baseman retrieves, and pegs to the shortstop for a tagout, leading to your routing 4-6-3-6 double play. And we already discussed the second toss past first on a double play by the shortstop four innings later that cost the RiverDogs the game.

The K-Man was the Riverdog first baseman, who struck out in the fourth and gave everyone half-off Miller drafts for 15 minutes.


The Accommodations:

Sheraton Columbia

Pride Parade issues notwithstanding, the Sheraton Columbia was a classy, old-school hotel, and my room was very nice, if a little small. My bed was huge, with a ridiculous comforter, along with a desk, TV, and dresser. The bathroom was almost larger than the bedroom, and had a Jacuzzi tub, and, for no apparent good reason, a TV to watch while you were in the Jacuzzi tub.

I had exciting plans with that tub and that TV for when I got home from the game, but at that hour, I had to defer them to the next morning.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Labor Day