On Heading West into Questionable Waters
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| Ramada Hazelton -- Don't stay here |
Friday, July 11, 2014
Hazleton, PAOutside of the Game:
Work, etc. No need to even go into details at this point.
I got back to my apartment after work, put a load of laundry in the washing machine, and puttered around the apartment getting little things done while waiting for the laundry in the drier. I had done a good deal of planning work earlier in the week, so it was just a matter of cleaning up and getting out on the road at 9 PM.
And so I headed out on time. Since it was only a weekend trip, I had my small bag filled with my necessary junk, which was deposited in the trunk as I set out. It was going to be an 80 weekend, and the first time I had been out on that road in a while. The TomTom was taking me on the Turnpike to get onto 280, and I rebelled and went out to 3, which was a parking lot. I immediately begged for forgiveness, and the soothing British voice got me back on the Turnpike.
Once I got out to 280, it was a matter of driving west and stopping when I got to where I needed to be. The goal was Hazleton, PA, almost exactly two hours from home and two hours from State College. It seemed as good a location to stop to prevent overly long drives on Friday and Sunday. I was originally going to meet up with a friend of mine on this trip, but an unexpected family commitment came up, so I was staying by myself anyway.
The drive out was relatively uneventful, besides dealing with Pennies clogging up the left lane at regular intervals. Around 11 PM, I pulled off the exit for Hazleton and found it was about ten minutes off I-80 to my hotel. Arriving at the subject of my search, I checked in and then drove next door the Burger King for some supplementary dinner before heading back to my room for the night.
The Accommodations:
As mentioned, I decided to stay in Hazleton for logistical reasons. Many of the hotels in the area were already booked up, which is why I ended up down the road a little instead of right off of 80. I could have sprung for the Holiday Inn right off the interstate, but it was an extra $40 a night. There was a cluster of hotels near the Hazleton airport, and in my booking, I found a Ramada Hazleton for a reasonable amount a night, and, never having a problem with a Ramada before, decided this would be a good idea. There were a couple of concerning reviews, but it is always the people who had bad experiences who go online and yell about it, and there were a lot of positive reviews as well, so I pulled the trigger.
The people who left positive reviews of the hotel were clearly plants. I pulled into the hotel at around 11:15 PM, and there was a big group of people having a party in the parking lot. I would find an even larger group having a party around the pool. None of this particularly mattered for me, as I had a second-floor room toward the back of the place. The hotel had clearly seen better days during the Reagan Administration and possessed a weird layout, but I wasn't too concerned until I got to the room.
The room was a little worn down, which I can't necessarily criticize, but there were legitimate things to glom onto. The TV sported big stickers warning that they would not work if they left the premises. The curtains didn't close correctly to prevent people from seeing into the room unless you do some complex origami with the edges of the curtains. The fire alarm had been ripped out of my wall. The heat lamp in the bathroom had been replaced by an energy-efficient bulb that was just another light. And then I found the desecrated socks under the bed frame. They clearly had been there for a while, and looked and smelled like they had been regurgitated by a whale.
The bed was nice enough, and the TV, dresser, and desk were all serviceable. The room had a split bathroom, with the sink and vanity outside, and the toilet and shower in a separate room. Everything worked, more or less, but that $40 more a night I could have spent at Holiday Inn Express suddenly seemed a penny wise choice, and I had finally found a Ramada that was disappointing.
On Interesting Conversations
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| Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, 2014 |
Staten Island Yankees (New York Yankees) vs.
State College Spikes (St. Louis Cardinals)
Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
NY-PENN League (Short-Season A)
State College, PA
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
I woke up the next morning with no particular agenda for most of the day. I took my time getting up and dragged myself downstairs for some breakfast buffet. On the way, I found out that someone had left the large, burning remains of something next to my room. So I had that going for me.
The breakfast buffet was crowded with a religious group whose organizers were trying to usher said group out as quickly as possible. "Switch the AM to PM, guys, and that's when we get home." So, I'm assuming some manner of a 12-hour drive ahead of them. I snuck in and got some of the under-appealing food (I mean, how do you screw up tater tots?), ate and went back up to my room.
Showered, I began packing up for the day, when I realized that I had left my game bag at home the night before. Because it was going to be this kind of day. I added a trip to an office supply store to my To-Do list, and headed out to my car. It was driving a little rough the last night, so I decided to check out my oil levels. I found out two things in quick succession: 1) The "Low Oil" light on my car doesn't work, 2) I needed some oil pronto.
A quick stop at a nearby gas station later, I topped off my oil, and then pointed the car east again to get to State College. Thankfully, it was another uneventful ride. Having no other destination, I had my TomTom take me right to the ballpark, which was in the heart of the monster of Penn State, literally across the street from the Stadium that Predatory Pedophilia Built (aka the football stadium). I drove around the block a couple of times, and decided to just go for it and park in the VIP lot behind the park and hope I didn't get towed in the five minutes it took me to buy a ticket.
I was successfully able to buy a ticket and get back to my car without incident, so I headed up the road to the Visitors Center, because Penn State is so friggin' huge, it needs its own Visitor Center. I was surprised by the number of cars there in the middle of the summer, but I soon found out there was weekend-long arts festival in town, which certainly explained why there were no hotels available in town when I was considering it.
I grabbed some pamphlets and maps, and I immediately saw my first stop, a local park that shared the last name as a friend of mine. A short drive got me over there, and once I parked, a quick phone call established that a branch of his family had headed to central PA, and apparently done well enough for themselves as to rate a memorial park with a dog run and a butterfly garden.
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| PONIES! |
After traipsing about the park, I needed to get some lunch. I looked in the TomTom for the nearest office supply store, figuring that there would probably be a fast food restaurant or two nearby. My gamble paid off, and I grabbed some lunch before going into a Staples and buying regular pencils, colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, an eraser, and some rubber bands. I didn't get any strange looks at the register, but I went out to my car in the parking lot and assembled my hasty game kit, which I could now leave in the car against other similar emergencies.
With a chunk of afternoon still in front of me, I considered playing some mini-golf, but instead headed over to Boalsburg, a olde timey town right near State College that seemed to have a couple of museums worth seeing. Well, it turned out that the huge arts festival was just across the main drag from Boalsburg. After fighting through the traffic to get to Boalsburg proper, it turned out that most of the attractions in Boalsburg were being co-opted for parking for the arts festival. I was able to find a space and walk around a little, but everything I was interested in was closed for the festival.
I eventually went up the Penn State Arboretum for a bit. There was a wedding being held there, and I just walked around until I found a shady spot, and took a nap to refresh me from the humid afternoon and steel me for the ride back to Hazleton after the game.
It was time to get to the park, so I drove across town to the stadium, found that the parking lot price had dropped $2 in the intervening time, and put my car near an exit. I got out with my impromptu game bag, took my pictures, and got in line for the game.
On the way out, I was out of the stadium before they even lowered the lights for the fireworks. I made it to my car and got out to I-80 at around 10 PM with no traffic holdups. It was then a matter of pointing my car east and flooring it until I was back in Hazleton. It was just a 20-something car screaming through the night with a forty-something driver, and I made it back to the hotel a little before midnight.
Back at the hotel, I was reassured to find the gang of middle-aged fishing enthusiasts partying in the lot the night before replaced by college-aged douchebags partying in the parking lot at midnight. I bought a bottle of water and went up to my room, packed up, and went to bed hopeful of getting some rest.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park |
Medlar Field at Lubrano Park is one of these stadiums that gets as much naming as possible for the dollar crammed in there. It is located within the Penn State athletic complex, right across the street from Beaver Stadium, the House that Pedophilia built. When not in use by the Spikes, Medlar is used for the Penn State baseball team, and perhaps as such, it is much nicer than the average NY-PENN League stadium. You can circumnavigate the outside of the park, but as it is in the sports complex, there's nothing much around it than other stadiums and parking lots, except for the Porter Gardens, one last gasp to cram in some more naming opportunities. A small VIP lot is in the back by the players' entrance, but one of the big football lots across the street is also used to house baseball fans.
A jutting archway with the ticket booth separates the season ticket holder entrance on one side from the larger main gate to the other side. Both empty out into a main entrance plaza behind home plate, with access to the main team store, and space for folding tables for autograph sessions or whatever groups are doing promos at the park that day.
A main concourse runs from outfield to outfield above the seating bowl below. There are no paths in between the seats, but the rows are far enough apart that walking isn't an issue. A second level tops from first base to third base, housing the press box and luxury boxes, a fairly rare item in the short-season A league. In right field, there's the "Spikes Fun Deck," a patio with a couple of unique concessions and patio seating, which ends in right-center with a deck of bleachers rising up from the promenade. Left field ends in a kids play area (including an arcade), and the Pepsi Picnic Pavilion, housing an all-you-can eat patio. All the concessions are along the promenade, and have some slick signage at the entrance to the park. A plaque about Mount Nitany is on the third-base side, facing out to the mountain itself in right-center a mandatory "road to the show" display is at the entrance, as well as the memorial plaques for the parks many namesakes just outside the main entrance.
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| Spike the deer. That is not a command. |
There's a bunch of mascots for the Spikes. There's the namesake Spike the Deer, the blue Nook Monster (sponsored by a local bank), LuCKy the Lion (who mostly mans a K-board out in right field), and "Jane Doe," a woman in an old-timey women's baseball uniform, with the addition of a deer tail. Most of the on-field events are your standard minor-league races, contests, and give-aways. They did have a unique contest where a contestant gets to roll three dice, and if they spell out "KIA," she wins a car, as well as an event when the fun crew just comes out and throws candy to the crowd. This definitely would not have been welcome at my last stop, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.
There was a proposal the night I was there. While I was watching it up on the scoreboard, I completely missed that it was happening about five seats down to my left. The intended said "yes," and there was a good five minutes of promotional picture taking with Spike after that proposal acceptance.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Pulled pork platter |
I had gotten a "Diamond Club" ticket behind the home dugout, as is my normal method of operation, so I was a little surprised to find when I entered the park that it had foul ball netting that extended largely from first base to third base. I wondered for a moment if I had been transported to Asia, but this was the first park in America that I had seen with extended netting in a very long time.
In doing my walk-arounds, I decided on some BBQ brisket meal from a place in left field to eat, and then, still hungry, I got a Polish sausage from a stand by home plate.
My seats were quite good, but, as mentioned, behind an annoying foul ball net that made me a little bit sad. There was a family sitting to my left, and a couple a little older than me to my right. Sometime in the middle innings, the head groundskeeper came up to them to ask the husband for some field care advise. He had mentioned during the conversation that his daughter was working on the grounds crew for the Reading Phillies.
We had spoken once or twice during the game about plays in the game, but I used the opening of her daughter working for the Reading Phillies to mention how much I loved that stadium, and we got talking. He did some grounds crew consulting, clearly, and I started talking about my trips, which carried us through in pleasant conversation for the rest of the game.
When the couple went away to grab some beer before last call, I became aware of an older couple behind me that I either couldn't hear or wasn't paying attention to because of my own conversation. The older woman was having a very quiet conversation with everyone at bat for the home team, telling the batter that we just really needed a hit right now, or to take to a strike, or other instructions. There's no way the players could hear her, but she kept on this endearing stream of consciousness with them for the entirety of the game.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Yankees vs. Spikes |
The Spikes, dominating their division, were facing the faltering SI Yankees, struggling to stay in a tie for second place in their division. There was some noise early, but this one ended up playing out as you'd expect.
The game began with a walk, which is never a good sign. The runner reached second on a ground-out to short, and then scored on a two-out triple, before a pop-out to left ended the half at 1-0, Yankees. The Spikes came right back in the bottom of the first. Back-to-back singles made it first and third with no outs, and then the trailing runner stole, and the catcher put the throw in center, allowing the lead run to score and the trailing runner to make it to third with no outs. A single brought him home as well. A one-out single made it first and third, and a grounder to short brought in a run and let the lead runner make it to second. The next batter got plunked, but a fly to left ended the bottom of the first, with the Spikes gaining a 3-1 advantage.
The Yankees cooled down in the second, with only a one-out single to show for it. The Spikes had a one-out single followed by another single. The lead runner tried for third too late and got caught in a complicated run down, ending with himself out and the tailing runner at second. And he'd stay there, as yet another fly-out to left ended the half.
Staten Island had a rally in the third, with back-to-back, one-out singles that left it first and third. A grounder to third scored the runner, but a fly (to center this time) ended the half at 3-2, Spikes. State College came back with a single to start the inning that chased the Yankees' pitcher. A one-out single made it first and third, but the trailing runner was gunned down trying to steal second. A two-out single brought the lead runner from third in before a ground-out ended the inning 4-2, Spikes.
There was finally a clear frame as the Yankees went in order in the fourth, as did the Spikes. The Yankees kept it going in the fifth, but the Spikes apparently had some more work to do. Back-to-back walks started the bottom of the inning, and then a double cleared the bases. A grounder to first moved the runner to third, but a liner to second by the next batter caught the lead runner off the bag to end the inning with an unusual double play, but not before the Spike's hadn't extended their lead to 6-2.
Staten Island had a leadoff single in the sixth, but he was erased on a ground-out fielder's choice to short. For some reason, the Yankees' manager had an issue with this, and eventually got tossed from the game and made a slow, petulant walk to the outfield clubhouse. A ground-rule double temporarily prevented a run and made it second and third with one out. A sacrifice fly brought in the runner from third before a groundout closed the half at 6-3, Spikes. State College got a one-out single who proceeded to steal second before the next batter was walked. And then, just for fun, he also stole third. The trailing runner was caught in his own steal attempt, but the next batter was hit by the pitcher. The rally ended, however, with a ground-out to short.
The Yankees went in order in the seventh and eighth, as did the Spikes. In the top of the ninth, however, the Yankees had a leadoff single, but it was erased on a double-play. Another single followed, but a strikeout ended the game at 6-3, Spikes.
The Scorecard:
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| Yankees vs. Spikes, 07/12/14. Spikes win, 6-3. |
Unlike a lot of NY-PENN League teams, the Spikes give away a free, pamphlet-sized newsprint program, with color magazine covers. It wasn't tissue-paper newsprint, however, so the scorecard in the centerfold wasn't constantly getting ripped or torn by the mere act of writing on it with pencils.
It was a bit of an odd design, as it had somewhat small squares, but it wedged in ball and strike boxes, which made it nearly impossible to write in how the batter got to first base outside of a single line for a single hit (but the direction had to be foregone for space concerns). I ended up writing anything other than a single (walk, hit batsman, etc) on the inside of the pre-printed diamond. Also, the scorecard lacked a pitching line. I used the small notes area in the bottom-left corner to at least list out the pitchers.
Unlike a lot of my previous games that did not have any interesting scorings, they were abundant in this contest. The first was in the bottom of the second, with a "CS 4-5-4-5-6-5t" thanks to a rundown drawn out to let the trailing runner make it to second. In the bottom of the fifth, there was the uncommon "DP L4-5" combo, as a liner to second doubled up the runner at third who was too far off the bag to get back. And in the top of the ninth, the game ended with another odd double-play, a "DP 4t-4-3," as the second baseman tagged the runner going to second before firing to first for the force play.
The Accommodations:
Regretfully, the Ramada Hazleton again.
On Getting It Over With
Sunday, July 13, 2014Hoboken, NJ
Outside the Game:
I seriously reconsidered my choice of hotel at 6:30 AM in the morning, when some manner of alarm went on outside my room for a good fifteen minutes. I was really kicking myself when it went off again just shy of 8 AM.
I finally got up for real, grumpy and looking for trouble, at a little before 9 AM. I packed up my car, got some breakfast, and checked out. I was accosted at the counter by an overly enthusiastic Indian gentleman who wanted to know how I was doing. And so I told him for a good five minutes, and then told him to stuff his apologies up a part of his anatomy. I believe I had mentioned I was grumpy.
I was out on the road around a quarter after nine, and listened to the end of the staticy first segment of Talking Baseball as I headed East. I just wanted to get home at this point, and there are a couple of traffic laws that may have been slightly ignored during the trip. Thankfully, there was no traffic to speak of, but circumventing idiots from Pennsylvania sitting in the left lane (while not passing and barely doing the limit) is nearly impossible, especially when you're their misbegotten homeland.
But I pulled into Hoboken at around 11 AM just as Ed Randall was signing off for the morning. I parked up, dragged my stuff back to the apartment, and prepared for a strenuous afternoon of soaking in the tub and napping. There was also some laundry.
A fine time was had by all.
The Accommodations:
As always, Hoboken
2014 Stand-Alone Trip
