Burlington (NC)

On the Last Licks

Burlington Athletic Stadium, 2017

Sunday, August 13, 2017
Danville Braves (Atlanta Braves) vs.
Burlington Royals (Kansas City Royals)
Burlington Athletic Stadium
Appalachian League (Rookie +)
Burlington, NC
6:00 PM


Outside the Game:
In a week of lazy mornings, this lazy morning took the cake. I woke up and had breakfast, then went back to sleep until 11:45 on a noon checkout. I quickly booked a hotel for the night, showered, finished packing, and checked out by my noon deadline.

It was just under four hours from Bristol to Burlington, NC. The drive seemed to go on forever, but it kept moving with only one minor backup just across the border. I stopped for lunch at a Wendy's somewhere on 40 in North Carolina and got to the park early.

I parked up and bought a ticket, and then did my walk-around of the stadium. A pair of visiting Braves fans were just ahead of me and managed to scoop up all the balls that I was just a little late to get. All's fair, etc. etc.

In just my brief walk around the stadium, it was obvious this was going to be a brutally hot and humid day. I retreated back to my car and turned on the AC for a little sit down/nap until it was closer to gates for the 6 PM game.

Braced for the heat, I headed out with a healthy crowd waiting for the gates to open. It was "Princess Night," with all people dressed as princesses getting in for a free general admission ticket, so there were plenty of pretty, pretty princesses waiting to get it, and the crowd swiftly entered when the gates opened up.

After the game, I was straight to the car and the blessed air conditioning for the hour ride out to my hotel for the night. As I pulled into the Microtel, my tank was just about out of gas, a perfect condition to return the pre-paid gas car.

I checked in, showered all the humid off me while blasting the room's AC, and then packed and prepped for the flight the next day. I then watched Game of Thrones and went to sleep.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Burlington Athletic Stadium

Burlington Athletic Stadium has escaped corporate naming so far, which is a point in its favor. The stadium is also in the middle of nowhere, so there is space around it without being wedged in somewhere.  The parking lot was even a short distance away from the field, which was certainly a rarity with moist of the Appalachian League parks.

The park had clearance all the way around, so you can walk completely around it. The woods in the back are a nice breathing space, and a picnic area in that woods is protected from home runs by a large wall to prevent picnickers from getting picked off by homers. The admin offices are even in a separate building from the main complex, which was rare at this level, as well.

There was one main entrance to the park behind home plate, guarded, as per Appalachian League mandate (apparently), by the single ticket booth. A large concrete promenade extends around the outside of the seating area, from outfield to outfield, with entrances to the seating area from ramps at home plates and at first and third base. As with most Appalachian League parks, all the facilities are built into the back of the seating area, for the most part. The concessions are constructed in the back of home plate, and there were several stand-alone beer concessions, in addition to a separate team store behind third base, along with the "Grill 1986." The field house behind third abase lso has the bathrooms, and for "Princess Day" a number of stands were set up on the plaza to help decorate the princess further with face painting and temporary hair dying.

Seating was split into three areas. The main grandstand behind home plate had several rows of flip-down seats and them more rows up of bleachers, all under cover, with the old-time wooden press box on the top. Separated from the grandstand at each base was a run of bleachers going from beyond the dugouts into just past the bases. Right field ended with a picnic area, and a sizable children's play area behind it. Left field ended in another covered picnic party area. The digital scoreboard was in right-center above a single-height outfield wall covered in ads, except for the batters’ eye in center in front of the tree line running the length of the outfield.

"Future Stars" posters were just under the stadium sing at the main entrance, the broadcast booth was named for Stephen Gates, the field house was named for Richard Robinson, and several former players had their jerseys painting onto the field house wall, including Big Sexy, Bartolo Colon.

Bingo brings joy to everyone. Except Ned.

Weird-looking monster-ish mascot Bingo was on hand before and during the game to help with the usual between-innings shenanigans and contests. For a late Sunday-afternoon game in the summer, there was a decent crowd, and an appreciable number of pretty-pretty princesses. It didn't quite work out for the home team, but they seemed in good spirits.


At the Game with Oogie:

Pizza, burger, and a Gatorade

After all the rain and discomfort from bleacher seats, I treated myself to a reserved seat under cover and with a fold-down seat behind home plate.

Of note was when I was walking around, I saw a woman with an Eephus League scorebook with her. I asked where she got it, and she said it was her husband’s, but he couldn't make the game tonight, so she was keeping score. I thought that was pretty neat.

I did all my pictures in the slogging humidity, and then grabbed a cafeteria-style pizza and pulled pork sandwich along with a Gatorade from the one concession stand. I grabbed a couple more bottles of water to help me survive the rest of the game.

There was a decent crowd, but there was only one family with two kids in my area, off to the left. The kids spent most of the time running down the mascot and otherwise occupying themselves, while the mom and dad watched the game.


The Game:

First pitch, Braves vs. Royals

The home Burlington Royals and the visiting Danville Braves finally gave me a pitchers' duel in the Appalachian League, with a brisk 2-0 win taken by the visiting team.

That said, the scoring did start as early as possible, with a leadoff home run to left in the top of the first to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Burlington just had a walk to show for the bottom of the first. Danville continued in the top of the second with a leadoff double to right, which combined with a single and a ground-out to stake them to a 2-0 margin, and who knew that would be it for the day? The Royals got their leadoff man on in the bottom of the second, and he got as far as third before being stranded. The Braves just had a two-out double in the top of the third, and Burlington just had a runner reach on an error in the bottom of the frame.

Both sides went in order in the fourth, and Danville had two baserunners erased on steal attempts in the top of the fifth. The Royals just had a single in the bottom of the fifth. The Braves stranded two singles in the top of the sixth, and Burlington went in order in the bottom of the inning, while both went in order in the seventh, and eighth.

Trying to finish with some luster, the Braves had a one-out double reach third on a wild pitch before getting stranded, and in their last licks, Burlington had a two-out single make it to first and third with another single. With the tying run on third, and the winning run at bat, the game ended without heroics and a ground-out to short, to seal the Braves’ 2-0 victory.


The Scorecard: 

Braves vs. Royals, 08/13/17. Braves win, 2-0.

 The scorecard was part of a free, full-color newsprint booklet program as the centerfold spread. It was actually pretty involved, with each scoring frame having a Scoremaster-type layout, with pre-printed diamond, ball and strike boxes, initial on-base box, and out-number box. Each player line had a place for subs, as well as batting average, position, and inning entering the game. The full pitching lines were unnecessarily crammed into the bottom right of each score box, especially since there was an area for the officials on the bottom left of the scorecard with more lines than there have ever been for umpires in any ballgame, ever. Each inning tally had a full slate of stats, including not just runs, hits, and errors, but also earned runs, left on base, and double plays. Thankfully, the scorecard took up the entire spread, and it was printed on white, so there was enough space to record all this information.

That said, there wasn't a lot scoring plays of note except for a pickoff 1-5 in the top of the second and a 2U with the bases empty in the bottom of the fourth, resulting from a pop hit foul at the plate, called fair by the umpire, and the runner got tagged out by the catcher. Statistically, there were 17 strikeouts in the game, so you can tell why it went briskly.


The Accommodations: 

Microtel

 I ended up at the Microtel right by the Raleigh-Durham airport again. It was another tiny but clean room, with a small bathroom right off the entrance to the right, and a small bedroom with a twin bed and end table on one side of the room, and a small built-in desk, dresser, and TV on top of the dresser on the other side, with a small built-in window couch and drawers over the AC unit.

It was cheap and quiet, and I spent about ten hours total there, so it did its job.



On Naps

Raleigh-Durham again

Monday, August 14, 2017
Jersey City, NJ


Outside the Game:
So after everything, I slept really poorly my last night. I got up, finished packing, showered, and checked out. I smugly returned my running-on-fumes rental car with my pre-paid gas. I got into the airport and through security in a timely manner and grabbed some breakfast.

As soon as I got to the gate, my delay was announced. Not being in the mood for it, I plopped down at the gate and took a nap until it was time to board. I trudged on the plane and immediately fell asleep again. I woke up in time for snacks, and then woke up again in time to land. I grabbed a cab, went back to my apartment, did laundry and napped some more, dreading my return to work and wondering if I was getting too old for all this running around.


The Accommodations: 
Sweet home, Jersey City

Click here to all the photos from this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee

Surprise (Royals)

On Learning I Had No Idea What a Taco Really Was

Surprise Stadium, 2016

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Kansas City Royals
Surprise Stadium
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Surprise, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I was woken up again by the tramping of another tour group meeting outside my room far too early in the morning. This put a grumpy haze over my morning throughout breakfast and my post-breakfast constitutional, which had too many tweakers and not enough dogs. I went again to the gas station market across the street to grab some water to last me before I got into the stadium, as that worked out pretty well previously. I trudged back to my room to get showered and lie on the bed passive-aggressively until it was time to go to the park.

I headed out to Surprise and parked in the big lot by the main entrance, got out to do my pictures and whatnot, and was quickly ushered in when the gates opened. The drive back to the hotel was without incident, and on the recommendation from the hot tub, I went to the taco place, Birrieria El Gordo. This was the second of the recommendations, and since Honey Bears worked out so well, I was particularly excited to try this one out.

I was forewarned going in. This was a hole-in-the-wall place with a weird schedule, and they no habla ingles. The guy said it was well worth it, so I decided to give it a shot. Upon walking in, I could hear the guy behind the counter roll his eyes, thinking that here comes another gringo. I tried a little Spanish, but they either pretended to not understand, or, more likely, they really couldn't understand my crappy pronunciation. So, I went to the tried and true "point and use fingers" method to order up some tacos. That seemed to satisfy them, so they served up some tacos in a bag. I decided that I should probably get this to go and went back to the hotel to eat.

Holy crap, these were the best tacos I've ever had by far. It wasn't even close. It was well worth the cultural awkwardness to eat these tacos, and I generally don't think anything is worth that kind of embarrassment. The experience has completely redefined tacos for me.

After dinner, I decided I had to do some laundry, so I put a load of clothes into the machine and spent my time waiting to switch to the drier while in the hot tub. That worked out better than I expected. By the time the laundry was done, I was about done with the hot tub anyway, so I went back to my room to fold clothes, do paperwork, and hit the sack early to try and prepare for getting woken up again the next morning.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Surprise Stadium

Let's get this out of the way: it is fun to say "Surprise!" You can't help but be a little enthusiastic when you have to say you're going to "Surprise," especially when you get to say it twice, because you are going to "Surprise Stadium" in "Surprise, AZ." So, in summation, it is fun to say "Surprise!"

With that out of the way, this is one the stadiums that I was dreading the most, as it was shared between the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, who had, six months ago, ripped out my soul and trod upon it while beating the Metropolitans in the World Series. It is not that I held them any particular ill-will. The Royals had suffered even longer than we had, and their fan base are nice enough folks. But there still was a sense of dread on this one.

The park itself is a modern Spring Training construction in a sprawling desert complex with the stadium in the center of two large practice facilities (one for the Royals, and one for the Rangers) on the that team's side of the park (first base for the Rangers, and third base for the Royals). Each practice area mirrored the other, with a main center scouting tower surrounding a complex of the main practice fields, with minor league practice fields in the periphery. One bit of good news is that while I was blearily walking around the entire complex, I found an unclaimed home run ball that had cleared one of the Royals practice fields, so I had that going for me.

Free ball!

The stadium had three entrances. The main entrance was at home plate, flanked by the main ticket office and the outside team store. There are also entrances at first and third base. All the entrances empty out onto a main promenade that circles the stadium above the seating bowl. All the seats are proper stadium seats, and they run into the short outfield. One large picnic hill extends the length of the outfield, with the main video board behind the hill in left-center, and the "Home Run Porch" covered eating area behind it in right-center field. A second row of party decks, luxury boxes, second-level seating, and press boxes rises above the lower area from first base to third base around home plate.

The concessions and team store run along the promenade, in the blessed shade under the upper deck, and out in the open in the outfield. There are auxiliary team store tents in the outfields, as well as cart-based concessions. There are a number of memorials in the park. The field itself is named "Bill Parker Field," Buck O'Neil and Art Stewart get honorary seats, the Surprise Hall of Fame is on the walls in the covered promenade, and baseball quotes are on signs on the promenade. The Royals and Rangers have corners in their respective outfields, with the Royals proudly displaying a World series champion plaque, while the Rangers, pointedly, do not.

The Royals' lion mascot does not make the trip down, and the between-innings frivolities are kept to a minimum. The Rangers did pack the place, but there is no indication if this is due to their recent fortunes, or if the die-hards had been showing up every year. But they made noise and were paying close attention to the action on the field.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Shade scoring

I got seats right behind the third-base home dugout for the game. I was, of course, completely surrounded by Royals fans. They're an amenable bunch, however, so I resisted the urge to pick a direction and start stabbing. One of the older gentlemen next to me deciphered the Brooklyn Cyclones hat and asked me if I was a Mets fan, and he told me no hard feelings for last year, which was nice, but doesn't give me a damn World Series ring.

Chuckies sandwich

For food, I started out at a cart that apparently was really popular called "Chuckies," which just sold pork sandwiches and waffle fries. There was a complex ordering procedure, where you had to pay and get a chit and then turn in that chit for a sandwich. I was there right when they opened, so I guess I didn't have to deal with the lines that clearly necessitated such a process. To be fair, it was quite good.

Brat and souvenir soda

Still having some space before the game, I grabbed a brat and slaw and a souvenir drink before the start of the game. The soda would be useful during the first few innings, where I was baking in the sun before the shadows finally and gratefully overcame my section.

The Game: 

First pitch, Breweres vs. Royals

In my heart, I suppose, I was rooting against the Royals after what they did to me soul last year, but it was hard to actually hate them. They were just the better team. At any rate, this afternoon was the World Champs against the bottom-dwelling Brewers, but it was closer than the contest on paper might suggest.

Milwaukee came out swinging in the first, with a leadoff double and following single to bring in the runner. A one-out single made it first and third, and another double brought in two runs. The next batter singled in the runner from second, and just like that, the Brewers were out to a 4-0 lead at the close of a half-inning of play. The Royals threatened in their own half, with two singles and a walk loading the bases with one out, but a double-play ended the scoring threat.

The Brewers went in order in the second, but Kansas City came back with a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning, with three straight singles and a double driving in three runs to close the Brewers' lead to 4-3. Milwaukee went in order again in the third, whereas the Royals had a leadoff homer to right to tie up the game. In the fourth, the Brewers went in order, while the Royals kept scoring. A leadoff walk was followed by a single. Two outs followed, but the grounder to third to end the inning got thrown away and loaded the bases. A wild pitch scored a run and moved everyone up, a walk loaded the bases, but a fly to left ended the threat at 5-4, Royals. That lead lasted a half inning, as Milwaukee got a one-out single in the top of the fifth, moved the runner over on a ground out, and scored a two-out single to tie it back up at 5. KC went in order in the bottom of the inning.

Milwaukee retook a 6-5 lead with a homer to left in the top of the sixth, but the Royals tied in back up with their own leadoff homer to left in the bottom of the frame. Both teams went in order in the seventh, and the Brewers only had a walk to show for the top of the eighth. However, the Royals skirted ahead again in the bottom of the inning with another two-out rally of a single and a double to take a 7-6 lead. The Brewers went in order in the top of the ninth, and the home-town fans went home happy with a pointless 7-6 Kansas City victory.

The Scorecard: 

Brewers vs. Royals, 03/09/16. Royals "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was the centerfold of the mini-tabloid, full-color, magazine $1 program (branded for the Royals). As you might imagine, it was largely useless with pencils, especially the colored variety. But the suck did not end there. While there were not advertisements to make the space smaller, they neglected to even put in pitching lines. I had to add them in manually along the bottom.

(One other amusing note on the program is that they copied the stadium map for the Cactus League directly from the Cactus League Website. Not only is it obviously the same map, but they actually left in the "Roll over each stadium name for more information" line in the program. [I did try; it did not work.])

All that said, this was a pretty unexceptional game scoring-wise. There was scoring because of sloppy play in the bottom of the fourth, but beside that, it was a pretty average game with an exciting ending for the home team.

The Accommodations: 

The maintenance guy showed up again this evening while I was doing laundry to fix the non-critical things in the room. He was a nice enough guy, and I had seen him around before without knowing what his position was. He wondered why I was even in this room, because it an overflow room, and he thought it criminal that I was put in here for two weeks. I asked if he would pass his thoughts onto the management. He gave me a meaningful look and said, "What management?", without expanding further. I would later find out what that all meant.

But for the moment, I had successfully used the laundry and had most of the things in my room no longer falling apart. So, there's that.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League

Kansas City

On the Longest Day (Up to This Point)

Kauffman Stadium, 2009

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Minnesota Twins vs. Kansas City Royals
Kauffman Stadium
Major League Baseball, American League Central
Kansas City, MO
7:10 PM


Outside the Game:

Shaky start

I got up insanely early the next morning after not nearly enough sleep to turn in my rental car at the airport and get to yet another gate to get to yet another plane. My short hop flight up to Kansas City from Dallas was pleasantly mundane and slept through, for the most part. I had originally decided not to get a rental car in KC, but as I was going to a few different places, I relented. My not-quite-awake brain just nodded and agreed with everything the rental agent said, and when he offered a "free upgrade," I just continued nodding. The "free upgrade" turned out to be an SUV. I was too worried that my adrenaline rush would wear off on walking back to argue the issue, so I just took the Canyonero and drove out to my Howard Johnson's just outside the airport to take a much-desired and needed nap.

Canyonerooooooooo

One of the reasons I was so eager to get to KC early was to go to the Negro League Museum, located in the historic jazz district in town. After a nap that at least made me feel partially human again, I drove out there. For an extra $2, you get admission to the adjacent Jazz Museum, so I went for the two-fer. As I entered the Negro League Museum, I joined up with a tour group that had just started. As we entered the movie theater, the tour leader mentioned that the group of extraordinarily pale youths that was filling one area of the bleachers in the theater were a tour group from Belfast, who were visiting the US and going to places associated with segregation and discrimination as a reflection on their own Troubles, which was very pleasing to the tour guide. An amusing moment was had during the question and answer session when a mousy girl from Belfast tried to ask, as politely as possible, why the place was called the "Negro League" museum when black people didn't like to be called that. The question was answered informatively and in good humor by the tour guide.

Negro League Baseball Museum

The museum was quite extraordinary and had been under the directorship of Buck O'Neil before his passing. A recreated stadium has statues of Hall of Fame position players from the Negro Leagues, with Buck (cruelly left out of the HoF at the moment) poignantly looking in from the outside. The museum also helped to answer the question: who was the most marginalized group in all of baseball? The museum had three exhibits about black female ballplayers (some of whom played in the Negro Leagues with the men), but there was only one forlorn cabinet on Negro League umpires, containing the uniform of one of the only whose name was even known.

I pretty much had to contain myself to the best of my ability to keep from buying out the gift shop. After prying myself away, I went to the smaller Jazz Museum across the way. It was well done, but suffered from a lack of upkeep on many of the listening stations and interactive exhibits. They seemed to be in the middle of a remodel, so the criticism comes with a grain or two of salt. Part of the museum was an active jazz club attached to the back of the museum complex, which is the only working club in what was the center of jazz for many decades earlier last century.

After my time at the museum, it was a quick drive out to Kauffman Stadium for the game. It was a similarly quick drive back to the hotel after the game, which was good, because I was only getting about four hours sleep in the best-case scenario.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Kauffman Stadium

Kauffman Stadium had just undergone some renovations, and the fact that this is now one of the older parks operating in the majors tells you how many old parks have bit the dust in recent years. The renovations centered around remodeling the center field area, some modifications to the seating, and replacing the old jumbotron with a larger, more awesome jumbtron. The park itself was nice enough, clearly oriented around the humongous scoreboard towering over the proceedings in dead center field.

Also added into the center field area behind the iconic water fountains was a new Hall of Fame (which was not going to open until the next day) and a new kids play area, along with some specialty food concessions. While the kids area had a lot of what you would expect, it also included something unique to any other major league ballpark: an inexplicable miniature golf course.

In some odd feature of geography, nearly half the crowd were Twins fans. I never got a good enough explanation for this fact, but a couple of women behind me said they were huge Twins fans who just liked to watch the Twins play outside. I would have to imagine that waiting for their series against the White Sox might be slightly more convenient for them, but what do I know?

Is that his head?

Because the crowd was so evenly split, there wasn't much of a home field advantage for the Royals, and I wonder if that had any effect on the outcome of the game.


At the Game with Oogie:

Missed it by a day

I was in 200-level seats behind home plate. Now the field level was split between the 100 level (near the field) and the 200s (up underneath the loge overhang). The seats were excellent and in the shade, which was important until the sun finally set in the mid-innings. In keeping with the stadium as a whole, it was about 50/50 Royals and Twins fans in my immediate area, although the Royals mascot seemed to hang out right in front of my area for most of the night.


The Game:

First pitch, Twins vs. Royals

The home teams had been taking a beating since the Rays walk-off in the first game of the trip. It looked as though the Royals may change the streak by jumping out to an early lead, bringing across their first batter of the game. Both sides went down quickly for the next few innings until the Twins tied it up with a fourth-inning homer. The Royals threatened in the bottom half of the inning, but came up blank. A single, Royal error, and sacrifice fly brought home a second Twin run in the sixth, and while the Royals got runners in scoring position in the bottom of the sixth and eighth, they never got anything else across, losing a close one, 2-1.


The Scorecard:

Twins vs. Royals, 06/30/09. Twins win, 2-1.

The $2 scorecard was separate from the $5 program. It was a cardstock folder with plenty of room to score an AL game.


The Accommodations:

Howard Johnson's

I stayed at a very nice Howard Johnson's right outside of the airport. I was a lot less coherent than even normal for the trip when dealing with the hotel staff, and asked some pretty interesting questions (including things such as "Is my car still outside?") that I'm sure had them thinking quite odd things about me. Of what I do recall, I remember the bed being very, very comfortable.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2009 The Rest