Oosterhaut

On Mishaps and Redemption and Mishaps

Sportpark De Slotbosse Toren, 2019

Sunday, May 26, 2019
Amserfoort Quick vs. Oosterhaut Twins
Sportpark De Slotbosse Toren
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
Oosterhaut, The Netherlands
2:00 PM


Outside the Game: 
It was another early morning for me to utilize the breakfast buffet that was included in my stay at the hotel. I filled myself with an unrecommendable amount of meat and cheese and went back to my room to organize my packing and take a quick nap before showering and heading out a little before noon.

This last trip, of course, would be the longest and most complicated of the trip, having to backtrack out to Oosterhaut (the furthest team from the big cities) after finding out they didn't play Thursday evening games there in my first attempt. The distance was so long that it was cheaper for me to buy a Netherlands Train Pass (good for free transit for the day in the entire country) than to purchase an individual return ticket to Oosterhaut from Sloterdijk. I grabbed a crowded train to Schilpol and was quickly able to get an Intercity Direct to Breda. So far, so good, and a celebratory nap was had.

After I woke up, the train had emptied at Rotterdam, and the rest of us had a more spacious ride out to Breda. The terminal WIFI was spotty, and I got my check-in email for my flight home, but I wasn't able to actually check in. It was mildly annoying, but not anything to worry about too much. After my last fiasco with the buses from Breda, I had fully planned out the correct bus time tables and schedules so there wouldn't be a repeat. I knew I had enough time to grab some kiosk food and then head to the bus terminal, where I was able to board my bus early and wait for us to head off.

What could go wrong?

Well, the super-helpful digital displays that showed the stops were down on the bus I was on, which again was a solvable problem. I had the entire route printed out after my last trip, so I just had to keep my eyes open. The trip went fine, until we had the stop at the Oosterhaut bus station. The driver stopped the bus and got out, and then nothing happened. The driver just abandoned us. After five minutes, I asked one of the few passengers on the bus with me what was up, and he said that they sometimes changed drivers here, so it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Okay, fine. I sat down and waited. And five minutes turned to fifteen. I asked the other passenger what was up, and he didn't know. I ventured out, and no one was around. Another bus pulled up, and I asked the driver where our driver was. And he said, essentially, that there's a strike, and the other driver would show up at some point.

And then I panicked. Because it might not even be a matter of being late to the game, despite all my planning. The word "strike" thrust fear into my soul of being stranded in a bus station in the furthest east part of the country. After twenty minutes total, another driver did show up and start us on our way, and I ended up getting to the park with fifteen minutes to spare instead of over a half-hour. But at least I was there.

After the game, I wasn't trusting public transportation at all. I googled up some taxi services and started calling, marking the first time this had ever worked right in my entire Dutch vacation. The first couple I called said they couldn't have anyone for an hour or so. The last one said they knew a guy who might be able to help, but that didn't sound promising. The next taxi place I tried said no problem and that they would have someone out shortly to pick me up. Great success! I got a called right after from the driver, and I explained where to pick me up and all was good.

I wasted some time watching the ongoing softball game and taking some more pictures when I got a text saying the car was here. I was greeted by a smiling taxi driver (no doubt seeing euros in his eyes at the prospect of a transit strike) who loaded me into his cab, and we were off to Breda.

We had a talk, and he said that there was going to be a full transit strike on Tuesday: No public transportation at all. This meant people at Sloterdijk station would have no choice but take cabs to get to the airport or to the city center and back, which would be a nightmare for anyone just starting their vacation. I was getting out just under the wire. The cab driver was a nice enough guy, though I wondered if he leaned a little right-leaning, because the way he kept talking about "the real Holland" and "those people" were striking me a little wrong.

About halfway through the trip, I got a call from the cab driver, which confused me because I was in the cab. It wasn't my driver, obviously, but the guy on the phone said he was here to pick me up. I asked him what he meant, because I was in a cab already. I apologized for any confusion, but I said I was already most of the way to Breda. The only thing I could figure is that the driver who called me the first time was the guy that other car service said might be able to help me and not this car service. I felt bad about it, but what are you going to do? He was way later than he said he'd be, for starters.

The only way to score

One way or the other, I was back at Breda. With fifteen minutes until the next Intercity Direct to Schilpol, I stopped at the Julia's, an Italian chain place that I had been avoiding, but since it was my last day, why not? I got a box of pasta and a Pellegrino for the train ride back and went to the train, where I ate as I finished my last scorecard and caught up on my notes, then took a little nap.

Last damp look at Amsterdam

Back in Amsterdam, I walked around a little bit as a light rain started to fall. I took one last run through the city down to the Dam and back up, stopping for "NY Pizza" for dinner, because, why not? I took the train back to the hotel as the rain really started to come down in earnest. I bought my ticket to the airport for the next day, tried to see if the news had changed on the transit strike, and then went back to the hotel to check into my flight, shower, and pack up all my crap before climbing into bed for the last time in the Netherlands.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Sportpark De Slotbosse Toren

I had been to Sportpark De Slotbosse Toren once before, but it was nice to show up when there was an actual game this time. As seems the norm, the sportpark was surrounded by canals and fishing lakes, and there is an archway opening next to a couple of maintenance buildings that leads out to the plaza by the main ballpark and softball field. The clubhouse is behind home plate on the third-base side of field, behind center field of the softball field. A single section of molded plastic seats runs behind home plate, topped with a small pillbox press box. The seats and access area ends right at the first-base side of the field, while the entire third-base side of the park is open and runs out to the adjoining softball field. Smoking tables are outside the clubhouse, and a low row of benches runs the length of the third-base side of the field, populated by visiting team fans.

Clubhouse

The clubhouse was Dutch standard, with a bar/canteen serving cheap food and drinks, and filled with tables, trophies, and other baseball paraphernalia. The simple digital scoreboard sits near dead-center with just the basics, standing out against the uninterrupted background of trees standing over advertising draped on the chain-link outfield fence. While the park notably lacks lights, it did have Dutch flags flying, the only ones I saw in the rather un-jingoistic Netherlands. The dugouts and bullpens were within the confines of the chain-linked field, and two retired numbers for Martijn Meeuwis (33) and Patrick van Gool (23) stand on the outfield wall corners.

The crowd was the Dutch-standard 100-200 of humans and dogs, and the home team and visiting fans were among the most engaged I saw at any game in the Netherlands. Frills were at a minimum, of course, with the Seventh-Inning Stretch being the only bit of flair in the whole proceedings.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Last scoring

So, for the second time, I arrived at the Twins' park after a bad bus experience. This is not the sort of habit I wanted to fall into. This time at least, there was, in fact, a game on to watch. The softball field was in use for a game, and everyone was practicing up for the man honkbal game as well, so my first great victory.

Hello, darkness, my old friend

I walked around and got my pictures, running into the man and wife and dog from my first two Dutch ballgames. This pretty definitively proved they were Quick fans, at least. The dog ran right up to me, sniffed, and then looked annoyed and trotted away. Love you too, buddy.

In walking around, I saw one of the two mothers I met on my first visit watching, I presume, her daughter's softball game. We smiled and waved at each other. I went into the clubhouse to get some food, but upon ordering, I found out that they didn't take cash and only took Dutch credit cards. I felt awful, but they only wasted one soda that they opened, so what can you do?

I took a seat behind home plate for the game. I ended up next to an older lady who asked me if I knew if the Japanese player was in the game. It turned out that he was, and she said she came to see him, as her friend had been his host for the year, and she hadn't seen him play yet. (There were actually two Japanese players in the game for the Twins, the starting pitcher, and the third baseman.)

With about a third left to play, I got up and went over to the smoking table for the last three innings. I was near a man who had a dog that was being naughty, and he imposed the standard, strict European discipline on him. To be fair, the dog straightened up pretty well after that.

The WIFI was spotty during most of the game, but it did come up afterwards, and I was able to have my cab fiasco as described previously. But mission accomplished: Another league under my belt.


The Game: 

First pitch, Quick vs. Twins

The last game in the Netherlands featured the Quick versus the Twins, finally, in a close-fought game of second-division teams that was ultimately decided in the eighth.

Things started slowly for the Quick, going in order in the first. Oosterhaut got a leadoff walk to second on a sacrifice, but he was caught stealing, wasting a single that followed and leaving it no score after one. Amserfoort went in order again in the second, while the Twins had a leadoff hit batsman erased on a double-play and managed to go in order. The third was repeat performance for the Quick in going in order, while Ootsterhaut was more successful in the bottom of the inning. A leadoff single was sacrificed to second and followed by a walk. A deep double brought both runs in, and two wild pitches brought in the runner from second, leaving the home team with a 3-0 lead after three.

In the top of the fourth, Amserfoort finally broke up the perfect game and got on the board. A leadoff walk was followed by a triple and a double, scoring two and closing the lead to 3-2. The Twins started their half with a homer to right, extending the lead back to 4-2. The Quick reverted to form and went in order in the fifth, while Oosterhaut turned a leadoff walk, a sacrifice, and two singles into another run, making it 5-2. Amersfoort was back on their game in the top of the sixth, as three singles and a walk with two outs got two runs in after loading the bases, closing the lead to one run at 5-4. In the bottom of the frame, the Twins loaded the bases with a hit batsman, a single, and a walk, but no one came across.

The Quick just had a walk and a single to show for the seventh, and Oosterhaut had their own solitary single. Things moved in the eighth, as Amersfoort got a run to tie it up on a single and a double. The Twins came right back with a leadoff double and a hit batsman that were sacrifice bunted up the basepaths. A grounder to first resulted in the runner from third getting gunned down at home, but a wild pitch on the next batter brought in the trailing runner for a 6-5 lead. The Quick managed a sole single in the top of the ninth, and Oosterhaut held on to win, 6-5.


The Scorecard: 

Quick vs. Twins, 5/26/19. Twins win, 6-5.

As always in the Netherlands, I was using the BBWAA scorebook.

As with most Dutch games, there was some weirdness. There was a caught stealing at third in the first inning, which you usually don't see anymore. At the end of third inning, both benches cleared and charged, but there was no fight. I'm not even sure what the reason was, as there was nothing on the field that would cause offence, at least to my eye. It may just have been some trash talk that got out of hand. The bad umpiring moment of the game was in the top of the fourth. The batter hit a long drive between the left and center fielders for a legit double. He tried to extend it to a triple and was visibly out CS 8-5, but called safe. There was a lot of jawing from the managers on that play, but it stood, for some reason. There were also three wild pitches by Quick pitchers that led to two runs. Sloppy play gets you runs.

I was able to suss out all the Twins' players, but the Quick pitchers were all unknown to me except as uniform numbers, thanks to their Website not giving player numbers to the lineups.


The Accommodations: 
I spent most of the evening in the hotel room packing up for the next day, as well as the extended time in the morning. It was the most time I spent in the room, and it was fine.

On Sad Returns

Schilphol Airport

Monday, May 27, 2019

Jersey City, NJ


Outside the Game: 
I woke up early for my last partial Dutch day, and I flailed around a while in bed before heading down to get a quick breakfast and coming back to shower and finish packing. After checking and double-checking the room, I went down to check out, and then dragged my stuff over to the train station for the short, but uncomfortable, ride to Schilphol.

It took a little bit of doing to find the entrance to the airport, but I was eventually inside and through security with minimal fuss. I had some time to kill, so I did some last-minute shopping and changed all my Euros to green stuff again. I went over to the gate, and there were little carts manned by staff doing pre-boarding checks, which was odd, but efficient.

Our actual plane was far enough away that we all had to get on shuttle buses to get over there. I boarded the second bus, and we drove over to the plane and lugged all our stuff up the stairs and in. I got to my seat, got my bag in the overhead, and then relaxed a little. I had the aisle seat, and my central seatmate would turn out to be an American with the smallest bladder in the world, who kept drinking beer. No kidding, he got up at least once an hour during the flight to go to the bathroom.

Beside that, the flight back in time went quickly. I spent most of it watching movies after the food service (Aquaman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and The Catcher Was a Spy--the Moe Berg biopic from last year). There was a nap or two in there as well. The flight went really quickly, and I got my exercise getting up repeatedly for Captain Tiny Bladder.

My real problem came after we landed. Bleary and jet-lagged, we were let out into the late morning in the US into a perfect storm of suck. A bunch of international flights let out at the same time just as customs was doing a shift change, and the lines got unbelievable quickly. When I walked into the area, the digital signs proclaimed a 15-20 minute wait. By the time I got through to a scanner and got on the line for screening, the wait was up to "over 60 minutes." It was a slow and painful slog made worse by the fact that the lines were now so long and doubling back into the scanner area that a good deal of scanning machines were being blocked by the line, thus making the lines grow longer, etc.

It was a mess, but there was nothing to do but wait. I eventually got to a disinterested customs agent who just asked what was in one bag I was carrying. I told her it was duty free, and as I was reaching to get the forms, she just waved me through. Past the worst of it, I called the car service to tell them I was through customs, and a short time later, I met my ride back to Jersey City. I called my parents to tell them I was back safe, and I reached my house with no traffic.

The rest of the day was laundry, organizing, and the metaphysical dread of going back to work the next day.


The Accommodations: 
Jersey City, again and regretfully

Epilogue:

Honkbal Hoofdklasse

And so another league down. The two weeks of vacation into Memorial Day worked well this time, and since the Italian league uses a similar schedule, I think I will pursue that next year for that trip, or at least it will be the plan. We'll have to see.

With Europe hopefully covered in 2020, I'll have to make the effort to try and crack the world of beisbol after that.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2019 The Netherlands

Bussum

On a Day of Almost

A failure on many levels

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Outside the Game: 
Despite the travel this day with a game at the end of it, I still had a lazy-ish morning. I got up and finished my packing, and before I left, I had a premonition in the back of my brain to double-check the game for the evening. I had everything packed but my tablet and my binder, so I sat down and looked through everything. And the little voice in my head was right, as I was set to go to The Hague this evening for the game, but even though they were the home team in the schedule, they were playing at the Rotterdam field and not their own. After cross-checking it a number of times, I confirmed it was true. I then re-arranged the rest of the games I had left, double-checked them, and was set to go to Oosterhaut this evening for the Twins game instead. I was smugly proud of myself.

For the moment.

I checked out of the hotel and then got on my Intercity Direct express train with no problem. The morning ride down to Rotterdam went without incident, until the very end, where I left my camera on the train. Now, normally, I am always paranoid when I am switching hotels for this very reason, so I am usually hyper-vigilant, but due to an extra bag or so, I was out of my normal process, and I was able to overlook the small camera bag.

Thankfully, a Dutch man didn't let me get three steps from the train before he returned the bag to me. I thanked him profusely, and then began a shocked re-inventory of all of my items before venturing forth. This already put me in the wrong mindset for the afternoon.

It should have been a relatively straightforward walk to my hotel, or at least as straightforward as anything is this country of narrow, crooked streets and canals everywhere. The distance started off longer than I was expecting, so I was already a little annoyed, but after walking even longer than I knew I should have, I started to get really frustrated, carrying all my possessions around and not being able to find the damn hotel.

I took a minute to pull all my gear off to the side of the sidewalk, sit down with a WIFI signal, and try to work out where I was. After several minutes, I was able to identify my wrong turn and the fact I had overshot my hotel by several blocks. I grumblingly got my gear together again and retraced my steps, finding the hotel on the second try, and ready to leave my bags and go off on the day. However, to my surprise, upon arrival I found that my room was ready early, so I dragged all my crap up to my room, unpacked and got settled in, and then had a brief stress nap to try and reset things.

I went back down to the front desk after my nap and asked the manager a bunch of questions about travel and the like, which he dutifully answered. Armed with knowledge, I marched a couple blocks over to a post office to buy shipping supplies for all the souvenirs and junk that I was carrying around and dropped them back off at my room. I then headed out to the tram stop at the corner to go back up to Centraal station, forgetting my jacket in the cool afternoon. I bought my train ticket for this evening and decided to walk back to the hotel from the station, this time unburdened from all my travel possessions. I stopped in a shopping market to buy some bread, meat, and cheese for sandwiches, as well as water and other sundries, and made it back to the hotel much more successfully this time. I had some sandwiches and took nap #2, because the first one had not been enough.

I prepped all my game gear and took the tram to Centraal. I was able to get an express train to Breda quite quickly, and once I arrived, I topped off my transit ticket with E20.00 and went to the bus terminal. Getting to Oosterhaut was only possible on public transit by bus from the larger Breda station, or at least the place I wanted to get to in Oosterhaut was only accessible in that way.

So there are three bus lines that took three slightly different routes through Oosterhaut that all leave from the same bay. Two of them go to the bus station I needed, and one did not. You can guess that I managed to get on the wrong bus, but thanks to the helpful video screens on all the buses, I worked out my error relatively quickly and was able to exit several stops along the journey while all the bus lines were going to the same stops. My problem now was that the next bus going to the station I needed wasn't for a bit, and I would be cutting it very close to getting to the game on time.

I spent some time nervously waiting for the next bus, which showed up on time. I carefully asked if it was going to the station I needed, and upon confirmation, I climbed aboard and waited nervously as time clicked by. We eventually got to my needed station a little early, and I jumped out to find that it was a much shorter walk to the park from the bus stop than I expected, as I could cut across a field. I realized I would be able to get there with five minutes to spare before the game. And I was feeling pretty pleased with myself again.

For the moment.

Briskly walking across the field to the sportpark for the stadium, I realized that it didn't sound right for a game. There were too many bat noises and not enough crowd noises. Blitzing through the front gate, I arrived, dejectedly, in the middle of a two-field practice going on for lower-level softball and baseball. I couldn't quite process the complexity of my failure just yet, but wandered into the park trying to make sense of it all.

Almost baseball

Two moms watching their kids play in the two practices called me over and asked what I was doing there. I explained my situation the best I was able, and they in turn explained that I did get the schedule correctly, but the Twins home field does not have lights, so they play the Thursday evening games at another field.

Because of course they do.

They introduced me to another adult fan who had gotten the same thing wrong that I did, and they tried to make me feel better that even local fans make this mistake. He offered to drive me over to the actual game, but I had to sheepishly explain that I needed to see the Twins here for it to "count," and he went on his way. One of the mothers said she lives in Breda, and if I was willing to wait for the practice to be over, she would give a ride to the train station. They seemed particularly horrified that I had used the bus to get out here. I thanked her and took her up on the offer, and we waited for her son to finish batting and gather up his gear, and we went to her car and had a pleasant drive to the station in Breda, talking about how she used to live in America with her family for a while before returning and commiserating with me on the current state of affairs back home. She dropped me off at the station and strongly urged me to take a cab next time out, and I thanked her as she left.

There was some semblance of luck left with me as an express back to Rotterdam was leaving just as I got there, and I just stared out the window for most of the ride back. I grabbed dinner at some kiosk or other at the station, and walked back to the hotel a broken man. Back inside, I did a complete strip-down of the rest of my trip. Thanks to a flex game day that I had used with this fiasco, I could still make all the teams as long as there were no more problems with the games. The only issues was that my last day of the trip I'd have to come back to Oosterhaut, which was the longest trip possible to make within the league, but it could not be helped.

I made another sandwich with the remaining ingredients from before, had a shower, and packed it in for the night.

sigh


The Accommodations: 

Hotel Van Walsum, Rotterdam

This was my first hotel switch for the trip, and, as mentioned, it was nearly disastrous. My hotel for the Rotterdam leg of the trip was the Hotel Van Walsum, two old canal-type houses merged together into a historic hotel. It was more stereotypically "Dutch" than my Amsterdam hotel, with its narrow stairwells, smaller rooms, and lack of air conditioning. But Dutch "small" is less oppressive than, say, Japanese small, as the Dutch live and die by gezelligheid, that sense of coziness.

My narrow room had a large wooden dresser right past the door on one side, and the entrance to the small bathroom on the other side of the entrance.  The little bathroom had a sink and shelf right next to the toilet and the shower, which was demarcated just by a curtain running across the room, as the drain shared the same tile floor as the rest of the bathroom.

The bed was against the wall right past the dresser, across from a plush easy chair and a side table. At the far end of the room was a small desk with a TV above it and a luggage rack on the opposite wall. The room ended in a bank of two outward-opening windows under stained glass top windows. Those windows had no bars or anything in them, so when you opened them up, you could throw things out of them or jump out if you were so inclined.

There were also snake lights over the bed and on the wall to direct specific light as needed, in addition to the main ceiling lighting. All of it was controllable by panel switches reachable from the bed, which was nice. I was a little worried about street noise or noise from the hotel itself, but it turned out to be unwarranted, even later in the trip when I had to leave the windows open at night to let in cooler air.

On Problems with Timing

Strange vegetation

Friday, May 17, 2019
Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Outside the Game: 
Given my stressful failures and near failures of the previous day, it is perhaps not surpsing that I slept fitfully. I was up early and went down to another cheese-and-meat-laden breakfast, culminating in a sandwich of the gods. I perused my guide book to see what to do with my off day while I ate an inadvisable amount of food, and then waddled up the stairs back to my room for another nap.

Upon my second wakeup, I contemplated a selection of VPNs on my tablet so that I could access my DVR back in the states and get through the last episodes of Game of Thrones and be done with it. I should have been able to access them legally on either HBO Go or my DVR, but the European IP addresses were preventing me from doing so. Either way, I put a pin in it until later and grabbed a shower before heading out into the day at around 11:30 AM, quite late for me.

That kind of day

It would seem that my luck from the previous day was holding over, as nearly as soon as I boarded the tram to Centraal, it got into an accident with a truck. After determining that it wasn't going to move any time soon, I walked down the street to the Metro station, and just as I was going down the stairs, I saw the tram happily drive past.

So it was going to be that kind of day.

I worked out the metro system and which line I needed to get on and finally arrived at Centraal. I walked from there for my first stop for the day, Mini-World Rotterdam, basically an entire H-O scale re-creation of the city. I arrived just before noon, when I discovered that the place didn't open until noon, so I hoped that this was an indication of better luck to come.

Teeny, tiny bunkers

I spent the early afternoon walking around the exhibit. In addition to seeing everything in miniature with helpful information panels, there were also action buttons you could push to make a ship lock work, or start an outdoor concert and the like, as well as having the entire place cycling through day and night every half hour or so. In the basement, they were in the process of building a Mini-World Britain, and they were pretty lenient about you walking around in their active build zone.

Having my fill, I headed back to the metro to head south for the Maritime Museum. On the way there, there was a tourist information center, so I decided to stop in. I had seen Kinderdijk, a UNESCO polder and windmill site, in most of my books on the city, but it was always represented with a vague arrow off to the east. I talked to a nice young lady who set me up with some tickets for the ferry there on Monday and some more sundry maps, and I was off to the museum.

How to Smuggle Coke

Rotterdam is a weird mix of Prague and Pittsburgh. It is a city fiercy proud of its avant-garde architecture and arts, but equally prideful about its working port, the largest and most mechanized in Europe. The Maritime Museum reflected that, with a large outdoor section on port machinery and support boats, as well as amazingly frank videos from docks workers over the years (discussing things like drinking on the job, for example). Indoors was more of a formal museum, which was currently invaded by an absolute mob of schoolchildren attending a performance by the museum's scientist mascot. The museum had some interesting exhibits on sea monsters and cruise ship travel over the years (the cabin representing the 70s had, of course, The Love Boat playing on a screen), but the perhaps the most interesting was the display on smuggling. As I've said, the Dutch do not shy away from controversial topics. Things You Won't Find In An American Museum Part 231: A panel describing, in detail, how to smuggle cocaine.

Alien cubes

I forgot what I was originally planning to do, but I decided to walk over to Blaak Station to see the Cube Houses. Of all of Amsterdam's architecture, the row of tilted cube houses near Blaak Station is perhaps the most iconic. One of them is permanently open as a public museum, and after a certain bit of walking around, I finally found my way to the entrance. The tiny cube house had a till and small shop wedged in in the entry foyer, and it was crammed with tourists, making it a bit hard to get around. Once you got used to the weird angles, the house wasn't too bad, but the big deal breaker for me, at least, was the fact that you could not only look into your neighbors' windows directly, but thanks to the arrangement of things, look into the neighbors' house beyond him as well. Despite the oddities, they are incredibly desirable and iconic living spaces, and fetch up to E300,000 for the small houses, and there is a waiting list to get one.

METAL!!!!!

I passed a Chess Men Museum while I was looking for the Cube House Museum, and stopped in there for a bit after. I mean, it was only E2, so why not? The fee was collected by a disinterested college student reading a book, and the museum was just as much a store as it was an educational institution, as many of the sets were on sale and not just for show.

Market Hall

After that, I made the short walk over to another of the architectural standouts of Rotterdam, the Market Hall, a giant, inverted "U" with huge glass walls on the open ends, housing a food court inside and chic apartments along the outer perimeter. Starving for food, I stopped at a German restaurant and got a winerschnitzel sandwich to go and then went back to the metro station to head back to the hotel.

This was my first go using the metro to get to the hotel, so once I got out of the station, it took me a bit to get oriented. A sign for "New Hoboken" certainly caught my attention, and it turned out to be right next to the little side road I needed to walk down to connect up with my hotel, so that became a useful sign-post for the remainder of my trip. I thought I had figured out how to get to the my destination for later than evening, but given my luck so far, I decided to check with the hotel front desk just to be sure. The man there informed me that I was normally correct, but because of tunnel construction, the bus I was thinking of taking would not go where I thought it would normally. He gave me some alternate directions, and I went back up to my room for a defeated nap.

Waking up, I played around with the VPN I had selected earlier in the day to see if it worked, and then I headed out for the Euromast, using the alternate directions provided me by the hotel staff. The Euromast is a giant observation tower that was originally constructed as part of an annual flower exhibit in the 50's. Now it is just a tourist trap for the kind of tourist that likes to see things from very high up, i.e. me.

The pointy end

After paying, you take a high-speed elevator that takes you to the main section of the building, which houses a restaurant and outside viewing area. On the top of that is an additional mast added later to again make it the highest building in Rotterdam. You wait for a small elevator that takes you to the very tippy-top and spins you around while you get a recorded spiel. Unfortunately, there was a group of very drunk Dutch people having an event in the restaurant, and they decided to go the top just at the same time as me. I couldn't hear a thing of the recorded messages, and as soon as I was out of the elevator, I lost them quickly.

Pizza Day

I took a whole bunch of pictures and then headed back down to find everything in the areas closed: the restaurants on the canal, the nearby mini-golf course, all of it. I decided to make the best of it and took a walk around the adjoining "Het Park" (literally, "The Park") to clear my head from the drunkards and then headed back to Market Hall again to get some dinner. But on a Friday, most of the restaurants were already closing. An Italian place was open, but they sat me in the hot back of the place at the bar and no one came to see for ten minutes, and I bailed. But I remembered it was National Pizza Day in America, so deciding kismet was at the wheel, I went to "Very Italian Pizza," which still had sittings. I had a quite nice little dinner and a good chat with the manager on the way out.

Then it was the Metro back to the hotel for some planning and organizing for the next day's game. That completed, I put the VPN and the hotel's WIFI to work to watch the last two, insanely disappointing GoT episodes before going to sleep wondering how a show could end that badly.


The Accommodations: 
I spent a good deal of time in my room this day, but most of it was asleep. Even thought it was on the small size, it was quite functional, and I never felt cramped while I was there. Also, an extra plus to them for having WIFI that was up to streaming television over a VPN, even if the content itself wasn't what was expected, but I can hardly blame them for that.

On Getting Back on the Paard & Getting Shot Out of the Saddle

Rob Hoffmann Vallei, 2019

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Oosterhaut Twins vs. HCAW Bussum
Rob Hoffmann Vallei
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
Bussum, The Netherlands
2:30 PM


Outside the Game: 
Perhaps with some residual depression at how awful the ending of Game of Thrones was, I had another lazy morning. Or maybe it was just the trip starting to catch up with me. But mostly GoT depression.

Given me fiasco on Thursday, I spent some of the morning re-checking all my scheduling over and over again until I was pretty damn certain how the rest of this would play out. I was out the door with my game bag at around 11:30 AM for a leisurely walk to the train station, as this game was at 2:30 PM for some reason. Arriving at the station, I decided to try and use the automated ticket kiosks as opposed to the packed customer service area. I bought my ticket and upgrade successfully, and then went off to find my train. Not able to locate the Intercity Direct, I went to a smaller info desk to be informed that they weren't running the Intercity Direct trains today because of track work, leaving me with the regular Intercity Trains and a useless upgrade. I mean, it was about E2.00, but it was the principle.

I grabbed a bunch of breakfast then booked it to the next train to Utrecht. Perhaps because of the construction, or perhaps because it was a weekend train to a big hub, the train was packed. I had to jostle an annoying Italian couple that was trying to monopolize a four-seat section with their luggage, but only to find that there were some--probably drunk even at this hour--Germans right behind us, being boisterous. So I got annoyed by the entire Axis on this train ride.

I managed to nap a little, as well as eat and stare at my tablet until Utrecht. Then it was a giant scrum as a packed train emptied into a busy station. I found my local Sprinter to Bussum a little after 1 PM, and had a short, uneventful ride to the Bussum South Station by the sportpark. Once I exited, it was a little disorienting where I was, but a bit of sussing out got me pointed in the right direction. A short walk later, I was at the ballpark with slightly over a half-hour to spare.

Walking back to the station, I was being tailed by someone from the game. I mean, he probably wasn't following me per se, but we were both going back to the train station. It was about a 20-minute wait until the next train, so I grabbed some bench and finished off my scorecard. I had an easy ride back to Utrecht, but once I got there, it was utter pandemonium, even more so than before. I never got a sufficient answer, but perhaps because of the track work, all the direct trains back to Rotterdam were cancelled. There was only one, swarmed information booth inside the ticket area, and I got as much info as I could. When the next Rotterdam train was cancelled, I used their suggested alternate plan of getting a Sprinter to Gouda. (I also learned I've been pronouncing "Gew-dah" wrong my entire life. It is "GOW-DAH," as a Bostonian would pronounce "chowder.")

Utrecht anarchy

As packed as the train was before, this was even worse. It was standing room only as people were trying to get home or to their destinations by any means necessary. Of course, there were several babies, and one by me was particularly inconsolable. Not that I could blame him. It was hot and stuffy, and everyone was giving off very negative energy. I felt real pathos for its poor parents who could do nothing about it. They went from constant apologies, to trying to console the baby, to awkward smiles.

On the other hand, I had more problems with Italians on trains. I was jammed in by the far door of the train. As is the case in the Netherlands, there was a gentleman with a bicycle against the door itself, and its handlebars were jutting out into me. You couldn't quite see the bike from certain angles, and there was an Italian couple next to me who thought I was just blocking the fold-down seat on the wall for no reason, and also clearly thought I couldn't speak Italian. I asked him if he wanted to sit with a bicycle up his ass ("Tu piace sedere con una bicicletta sul culo?," should you need this in your own life), and he looked surprised, then sheepish, and then turned his back to me for the remainder of the overlong train ride.

Of course, this train experiences long delays as well to keep us all as miserable as possible. After a millennium or two, we finally reached Gouda, where I was immediately able to transfer to a train to Rotterdam Centraal, and then bask in the freedom of movement denied me for an hour or so.

After some shopping for some essential supplies at Centraal, I was pretty much starving, so I stopped into a pho place in the faux-Chinatown Rotterdam has right by the train station and filled up on some noodle love. Enjoying the use of my legs again, I walked around for a while around the canals before heading back to my hotel for shower and some tea. I organized and re-checked my itinerary for the next day, and then went to bed early to catch up on my DVR'ed episodes of Brockmire.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Rob Hoffmann Vallei

Rob Hoffmann Vallei was another sportpark laid out like a Spring Training complex. After the alley with the ticket booth at the entrance, the main field lies down a small row of stairs, holding the main seating that runs from dugout to dugout (which were situated further than normal on the field, out by the bases). A low brick building on the first-base lines houses the team changing rooms and offices, the clubhouse and "Fanshop" is behind home plate, and another low building runs down the third-base line with the "Buccaneers' Business Club." A small, unattached scoring and announcing booth is halfway down the first-base line.

Baseball bench

There are four retired numbers on the left field wall, and the basic digital scoreboard pops up in right field against the backdrop of trees, other ballfields, and a large training building beyond left field. There is a team mural on the alley wall on the walkway inside and a "Violin Plein" of flowers right by the scorebooth. The clubhouse (called the "DugInn") was similar to many around the league, with tables, trophies, library, and a small canteen selling affordable snacks and drinks. (As a matter of fact, you could just order up a literal crate of Heinekens, as several members of the crowd seemed to have done.) The clubhouse also had a nifty baseball couch made of bats and balls and leather. The "FanShop" seemed to have team-specific, as well as generic baseball, merchandise, but it wasn't open for whatever reason.

The crowd at this game was easily the most sizable I saw in the entire trip. It perhaps topped 200 people at its peak. A small number of them were Twins fans, who mostly situated themselves down the scattering of seats on the third-base side. The umpiring in this game left a lot to be desired (to be discussed later), and both groups of fans were quite vocal during the disagreements that resulting from the officiating. There was no pomp or festivities as per normal, except again the bizarre Meet Me In St. Louis during the 7th inning stretch.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Dutch scoring

I rolled into Rob Hoffmann Vallei with a little more than a half and hour before the game. I was greeted at the gate by someone clearly surprised to see an American show up, but he told me he was excited for me to be here and sold me the E5 ticket and sent me inside. I did my regular walking around and picture-taking of the field and the other fields in the complex before heading back to the clubhouse.

Hot dog and 7Up

The team store was there, but closed--as many of the team stores seemed to be. I went inside the main clubhouse and grabbed a hot dog and some 7Up and exited, as they were getting ready for the game. I sat right behind home plate in the last row, and an older gentleman sat next to me and asked me a bunch of questions before being called over to another one of his friends. Another old man started to play catch with--what I'm assuming was--his granddaughter behind me in the middle innings, before their game was disrupted by one of the dogs in attendance, who fetched the ball for the little girl and upset her.

The game started overcast and cold, so I was happy in the blue seats until later in the game, when the sun came out blazing. I moved over to some shaded seats on the third-base side for the remainder of the game, bailing between innings to get more drinks, as it went from chilly to scorching quite quickly.


The Game: 

First pitch, Twins vs. HCAW

This game featured the middle-tier match-up of HCAW Bussum against the Oosterhaut Twins. Unfortunately, it was the case of the umpires nearly deciding the game, but that outcome was avoided with a last-minute rally.

The game started with the Twins jumping out early, thanks to two singles and two-out double staking them to a 2-0 lead. Bussum went in order quietly in the bottom of the first. A single and a sacrifice bunt got a runner into scoring position for Oosterhaut in the top of the second, but there he was stranded. HCAW had a one-out single and then a walk stranded in their own turn. The top of the third had the first umpire misfires of the day, as a leadoff hitter had a seeming infield single, but it was called back and ruled a foul ball, engendering an argument that eventually involved both managers and delayed the game for a good five minutes. After settling the dispute, the Twins just had a single for their part of the frame, and Bussum also had a solitary single erased on a stealing attempt in their half of the third.

Oosterhaut went in order in the fourth, and the bottom of the inning saw Oosterhaut get jobbed royally by the umpires. That half-inning began with the leadoff hitter smacking a long shot that had some interaction with the fence. No matter what the issue, I knew the call should be "ground rule double." The crew on the field came to the same decision after a good ten minutes of discussion. This was no the jobbing, but it was indicative of the umpirial incompetence to come. A hit batsman followed, but the runner on second stole on the play, which is illegal, as the ball is dead. But the umpires let that stand, although it didn't matter much, as a long double to right cleared the bases. A ground-out got that runner to third. Here was the jobbing. The next batter hit a fly ball to right. It was a clear sacrifice fly to bring the run home. From my seat, I saw a clean catch into the fielder's mitt. The umpires, for some reason, ruled it a trap. That run would have scored regardless, but another clear ground rule double brought that run in, and two singles, a double, and another single followed, bringing the total damage to seven runs, giving HCAW a 7-2 lead. The Twins just had a single in the top of the fifth, while Bussum went in order, and Oosterhaut stranded back-to-back singles in the sixth, with HCAW having a sole single.

The seventh was sluggish as well, with the Twins going in order, and Bussum managing only a stranded single and a hit batsman. Oosterhaut started to climb back in the eighth with a new pitcher giving up back-to-back walks, and then a double and a single brought in three runs, to close it to 7-5. HCAW only had a single to show for the bottom of the inning. The ninth saw a completion of the Twins comeback, where an error, fielder's choice, a walk, and a hit batman loaded the bases. A ground-out to short brought in a run, and then a double to left cleared the bases, giving them an 8-7 lead. Bussum's last licks fizzled, and they went in order, leaving the visiting team with a comeback 8-7 victory.


The Scorecard: 

Twins vs. HCAW, 05/18/19. Twins win, 8-7.

Where... to... begin...

Well, I was in the BBWAA scorebook again, for starters. All the umpire miscues above got detailed notes written on them, so there's that. Lots of hit batmen (3) and doubles (6). There were a weird on-filed play, where a sacrifice fly in the top of of the fifth that turned into a DP F9-2. And a majority of the Twins' offence came from one man, left fielder Martin, who went 4-for-5, with three doubles, one run scored, and five RBIs. Not a bad day, indeed.

Between the team Websites and the on-field announcements, I was able to get most of the players down, except for an Oosterhaut reliever, two players on HCAW, and all of their pitchers. The PA wasn't very good, and the HCAW Website didn't have a good rundown of lineups with numbers.


The Accommodations: 
I spent little time in the room between getting up in the morning and watching TV in bed at night. But a bed was all I really needed after the travel challenges of the day.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2019 The Netherlands

Johnson City

On Dollywood or Bust

Virtual Dolly--we have the technology

Friday, August 11, 2017
Pigeon Forge, TN


Outside the Game:
So, I had a bit of a conundrum. Even though it was a Friday, none of the teams that had been rained out previously were playing at home, and none of the other teams that I wasn't planning to hit this trip were home, so I was left with a free day.

For some reason, Dollywood sprang to mind. It was only about two hours from Bristol, and I had a bug in my ear about it for a while. Dolly Parton in a saint in Tennessee, and although a bit of kitsch character, she fully embraced it. And she was a decent enough person. She made a theme park right in the poor area where she grew up, bringing tons of jobs to the area, as well as doing things like having a charity that sent a free book per month to any child that signed up. That, and being this close to something as "Dollywood" and not going when I had a free day seemed like a wasted opportunity.

So after a long sleep, I got up and had breakfast, showered up, and headed off. It was a crisp just-under-two-hour drive straight down 81 to where it turns into 40, and I was at Dollywood fairly soon after it opened. In fact, the only real traffic I hit was when you had to turn off 40 to state road 66 to get to the park.

I got to the garish entrance and was quickly whisked over to a picket-fence-lined parking lot, and a short tram ride later, I was at the entrance to the park. I opted to grab an amusement park-only ticket, and not a double-ticket to the water park next door, which would turn out to be prudent, and not just because I didn't have a bathing suit with me.

They saw me coming a mile away

You walk into Dollywood and are immediately faced with the Palace Theater with the Dollywood sign out front, where nearly everyone stops to grab a picture. I took a walk to "Craftsman’s Valley," where Smoky Mountain craftsmen have all sorts of stores. I got about a quarter of the way in before I saw the handmade bat store, called "The Batter's Box." I ordered up a custom bat, and found out they had a service where you could just get everything you bought in the park hand-delivered to the gift shop at the exit so you didn't have to carry it all around, and as I walked out to see the bald eagle rescue area across the way, I was completely bought into the experience.

You'd be surprised how much I can eat

There are a number of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants in Dollywood, which is to be expected I guess, and I passed "Miss Lillian's Smokehouse," which was an all-you-eat place with nothing but smoked meats. And I went in and had lunch. And I just kept eating until I could just about move. And I also got a souvenir cup that you could refill for cheap around the park. And eventually, I waddled out to the park. I stopped at another craftsman place where you can blow your own glass ornament. And I did that, too. And it also was sent to the front for me to pick up. I even dipped my own candles and bought a bunch of old-timey stuff like liniment at a "general store." And it was all shipped to the front entrance for me.

What kind of wheel is this? Bueller? Bueller?

I walked out to the fairground area of the park, and road on Ferris wheels and played skeet ball and other fairground games. I put all my stuff in lockers and started to go on some of the roller coasters. It was a Friday afternoon in August, yet the crowds weren't bad at all, so I was able to go on a lot of rides quite quickly with no wait. As I was going up to another roller coaster, all the rides suddenly shut down. A guy out front said a thunderstorm was coming through, and they had to shut down as a precaution until the storm was however many miles away from the park. Fair enough.

I went on a few inside rides, and then as the rain started to fall, I went inside to the Dolly Parton museum at the park, to be greeted by a Dolly hologram before seeing the story of her life. There was even a section on the Imagination Library and places to sign up your kids for the free books.

A little rain

The steam train was still running, so I ran over to get a ride on that when I came out of the Dolly museum, and we went on a damp ride on steam train, which at least served to keep the smoke and ashes from the rain tamped down, as they had a safety message on the train about what to do if you got an ember in your eye during the ride that I was glad I didn't need to put to use.

The rain looked to be slowing down, so I headed back to my original locker to grab my stuff and move it over to a locker nearer to the rides I was going on. As I got there, the sky really opened up to a torrential downpour where you couldn't see two feet in front of you, and the small group of people who had the same idea as I did were trapped with me in the small overhang until the rain gave up. It was so long a downpour that I called my parents out of want of anything better to do, as the WiFi didn't reach to the location we were at.

Eventually, the rain gave up and I retrieved my stuff, and I started walking around. No one had any idea how long it would be before the rides started up again, so I spent my time with a couple inside rides and going through some of the other stores in Craftsman’s Valley to bide the time. I had an unofficial estimate of a half hour on the rides, and just as that time was about to come up, it started raining again. Giving up, I headed back to the entrance, did some shopping the gift shop there, and then went and picked up all the stuff that I had bought in the various other stores throughout the park.

The park, even at this late hour, were letting you get a rain check on your ticket, but as I didn't know if I'd ever be back in the area again, I demurred. I damply got back to my car, and damply rode the two hours back to the hotel.

I grabbed some dinner on the way back and spent the rest of the evening drying out my clothes and gear. There was a hot shower and soak in the tub to cap it off, and I was in bed at a relatively early hour, exhausted from the endeavors of the day.


The Accommodations: 
Not much time spent in the hotel at all today. Mostly, it was after coming home from Dollywood.



On Slipping, Shipping, and Dripping

TVA Credit Union Ballpark

Saturday, August 12, 2017
Elizabethton Twins (Minnesota Twins) vs.
Johnson City Cardinals (St. Louis Cardinals)
TVA Credit Union Ballpark
Appalachian League (Rookie+)
Johnson City, TN
7:00 PM


Outside the Game:
I had another extremely lazy morning, getting up just in time to grab the last of the breakfast buffet, and then heading back up to the room for a post-shower nap.

Once motivated to leave, I took a 20-minute ride south-west of Bristol to another commercial cave, Appalachian Caverns. This was a larger commercial cave, and it even had a wild cave tour (where you do actual caving and have to get dressed properly). I wasn't feeling particularly energetic, so I stayed with the commercial tour, which was run by the female owner of the cave, and she brought along their terrier dog, who loved to go running around in the cave.

With me was a family and another couple, and the guy--a veteran by all accounts--was charitably one of the dumbest people I think I had ever met. Now, he wasn't a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, but his cognition level had me surprised he was an army vet and not eating crayons with the marines. (My dad was a marine; I say it out of love, leathernecks. Please don’t kill me.) I mean, one of his first questions was how long it took someone to dig out this cave, and it went downhill from there. How long did it take them to fill the "pool" (the underground river)? Were there any monsters living in the cave? These were all, honest-to-god, real questions he asked seriously.

Tiny garden

The cave itself was quite extensive and beautiful. There was a lot of wildlife in the cave, including crickets, bats, and cave fish. They had even installed a bridge over the river in one place. The cave saw action as a Confederate hospital during the war. A big room in the cave relatively close to the entrance was used to house wounded, with its high humidity and stable temperature. The location was previously used by the natives for ceremonies.

On the way out, I stopped at the gift shop and stocked up on knickknacks, and then drove back to the hotel. I packed up to leave the next day, grabbed a nap, and then went back to the Burger Hut for lunch. I then grabbed all the stuff I was shipping home and my game bag and headed out for the night.

I stopped in at a FedEx Office location in Johnson City and packed up all my stuff for home, including a  shipping tube for the bat from Dollywood. A little while later, I had a much lighter load, and headed off to the park.

I got to the stadium and bought a ticket and started to do my walk-around the park when it started raining again. By the time I had done my circuit, it was really starting to pour, so I retreated back to my rental car to wait out the torrential downpour. As luck would have it, it slowed down a lot and stopped right as the gates were scheduled to open, so I went right in.

Crowd distraction technique

On the way back, it was an easy out of the parking lot, as most of the crowd was still watching the fireworks. I made the 45-minute drive back to the hotel in about a half hour, and then hit the shower and the tub, finished packing, and then hit the sack.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, TVA Credit Union Ballpark

TVA Credit Union Ballpark unfortunately sounds like a higher-level minor league park with the inevitable naming rights, but it was actually at home in the modest Appalachian advanced rookie league. It certainly was a stand-out park from most of the others in this league and looked like a higher-level, purpose-built park as opposed to others in the league. The park was actually on a large footprint, taking over the entirety of a plot of land, and you can completely walk around the outside on a sidewalk next to the iron fencing with brick posts.

There was one ticket booth and one entrance on the first-base side behind home plate. The entrance opened into a wide promenade that extended around the entire outside of the park from outfield to outfield. All of the concessions, stands, and activities were out on that promenade, with entrances into the park on the third- and first-base sides and via a walkway under the press box to behind home plate. The main concession stand was just to the left of the press box ramp, and the team store was just off to the right. The rest of the promenade on the first-base side was covered with tents hosting beer concessions, local groups, and even a band (that could only play sporadically due to the weather). A small children's play area was at the right-field end of the walkway.

The seating bowl was a little unusual. Two rows of box seats (ironically not under cover from the overhang) ran from dugout to dugout. The rest of the seats were bleachers running from base to base. The press box sat at the top of the seats behind home plate, and an overhang covered most of the bleacher seats from about dugout to dugout. There was a party area called "The Perch" in short left field. A small digital scoreboard was part of the double-height outfield wall in left center, with the rest covered with ads for local businesses, with the exception of the batters' eye in dead center and a championship placard in right-center. An affiliate banner hangs in right field, and plaques honoring Lonnie Lowe and Howard Johnson are in the ramp under the press box. Players banners run the length of the brick wall outside of first base.

JC, sorry. Jay Cee

Even with the weather, there was a more than healthy crowd at the stadium that day to cheer on the home team. Mascot Jay Cee the cardinal was around before the game and between innings for a full suite of minor-league mayhem of contests, games, and quizzes.


At the Game with Oogie:

Damp scoring

Most of my time in the park was spent dodging the intermittent rain storms. Given the weather, I sprang for a reserved seat under the covered grandstand by home plate. I was in the first row, so it was a good view, obviously. After a bit of a wait when the sun came out, I grabbed a Gatorade, hot dog, and Bojangles chicken sandwich from the one concession stand, made a trip to the team store booth, and then settled in for the game.

High-school fare

There was a large family of no-doubt season ticket holders beside me to the right and behind me, and there were somehow two rotating families in the seats to my left. I wasn't quite sure how that worked.


The Game:

First pitch, Twins vs. Cardinals

No one will ever call this game between the visiting Elizabethton Twins and the Johnson City Cardinals a pitcher’s duel. But even given the score, there was a lot of nothing in this game, with a ton of action crammed into the bottom of the fifth where the Cardinals would blow the game open for good.

Elizabethton jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first with a one-out single, triple, and sacrifice fly, staking them to a 2-0 lead. The Cardinals went in order in the bottom of the first thanks to a double-play after a one-out walk. The Twins would also go in order in the top of the second, but Johnson City tied up the game with a single, hit batsman, single, and a misplay by the center fielder, leaving it 2-2 after 2. Elizabethton went in order again in the top of the third, while the Cardinals got another run a single, two wild pitches, and a ground-out with a purpose, giving them their first 3-2 lead.

The Twins went in order again in the fourth, while Johnson City tacked on another run off a leadoff double, and a single, increasing the lead to 4-2. Elizabethton went in order yet again in the top of the fifth, and the Cardinals absolutely obliterated the opposing pitching staff in the bottom of the frame. The inning started with a walk and a wild pitch, but a home run to left made the wild pitch moot and cleared the bases. The next batter singled, but was caught stealing, giving the first out of the inning. The next two batters walked and singled, and then another wild pitch moved them up a base. Another walk loaded the bases, and a hit batsman forced in a run. A fielder's choice gunned down the runner at home, but left the bases loaded. Two more walks forced in two more runs, and then a double left it second and third with two outs. The next batter mercifully popped out to second, but the batting-around damage had been done, with seven runs in and the Cardinals out to a 11-2 lead. After that inning, the Twins responded with a sole walk in the top of the sixth, and an exhausted-from-the-running Johnson City team only had a single in the bottom of the inning.

In the seventh, Elizabethton got a little something going, with two singles and a sacrifice fly helping to close the lead to 11-3, but the Cardinals got in right back in the bottom of the seventh with a single, hit batsman, walk, and a groundout, to make it a nine run game again at 12-3. The Twins started the eighth with a leadoff double and a walk. A two-out hit batsman leaded up the bases, and a ground out and a balk brought in two runs to make it 11-5, and Johnson City only had a sole single in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the ninth, the Twins had a leadoff walk, and nothing else, ending the long, drippy game with a 12-5 Johnson City victory.


The Scorecard:

Twins vs. Cardinals, 08/12/17. Cardinals win, 12-5.

The free scorecard was part of the free, half-tabloid, full-color program. The problem was getting one. With the rain at the time of gates opening, they didn't have anyone giving them out. After asking around, I eventually had to go back to the ticket booth to have someone dig one out for me. The scorecard was one page of a spread at the back of the program, with the other page providing scoring instructions on one half and an ad on the other. As with most Cardinals scorecards, it was bad. There were lines for players with replacement, as well as pitching lines, and each scoring square had a pre-printed diamond. But everything was so tiny as to make it really hard to be legible, and the glossy paper made it hard to write with pencil. Even the pre-printed categories were almost too tiny to write in. It looked as though it may have been designed for a two-page spread and then shrunk down for one in the worst way possible.

That said, outside of a balk in the top of the eighth and the complete collapse of the Twins pitching staff in the bottom of the fifth, there wasn't anything of note as far as scoring.


The Accommodations:
I was spending my last day in the Comfort Inn. Not much time spent at all.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee