Not quite jonesing for baseball yet. Enjoyed a nice week at home with two lovable little felines that haven’t gotten to see much of me this summer. I will admit that it did get a bit boring at night but I did get quite a bit done this week. I did visit Gift Horse and Collusion on Monday for some Happy Hour brews.

It is time for the 2nd installment of the Kevy Awards, a useless award given out by me that gets no one anything. Last year’s was on Facebook just in case you wanted to nitpick that this site has not been up for a year. Technically it was but the site was not active yet. This is not necessarily an award that you want to win but for some you might just want to pick up this imaginary award. If so get a hold of me and come for a visit. As a disclaimer these came from only games that I attended and for most of these I needed to see a team or player multiple times to include them for an award. So without further ado…

Minor League (since that season ended first)

These are all done off of memory and since I do not really feel like pulling out all of the games I went to and compiling a master list of statistics my memory will have to do. Same goes for Indy ball.

Top hitter – Will Craig, Altoona Curve. Lots of hits, lots of RBIs, don’t remember seeing him hit a home run though. I might be partial since he is always the Power House Subs batter of the game and got me discounts on their subs multiple games. So, for your efforts here is a worthless award as my thanks. Now as a York County homer if I had seen West Virginia’s Brett Kinneman one more time he might have taken this award.

Top pitcher – Mitch Keller, Altoona Curve A toughy here because none of the pitching staffs of the teams that I frequent were really that good. I might be a bit partial since I am a Pirates fan but he won all of his starts that I saw him pitch, even the one that Harrisburg roughed him up. Maybe if I had seen James Marvel again or Scooter Hightower not get ejected in the 2nd inning in Trenton they might have won this award. It was a weird year since it seemed like I saw a new guy everytime in Reading and Harrisburg once Reading’s Ranger Suarez was promoted and the only real repeat with Harrisburg was Brady Dragmire who I was never impressed with.

Worst hitter – Heiker Meneses, Reading Fightin Phils. There are very few hitters that you just say they have no chance. It would have been easy to pick Osvaldo Abreu from Harrisburg based on stats but he hit the Curve well so that took him out of the running. Meneses just never seemed to get a hit when I showed up. Reading had several guys (Kyle Martin, Emmanuel Marrero, Drew Stankiewicz) in the running for this but many of them did not play the entire season there so I went with the guy who somehow managed to stick.

Worst pitcher – Joan Baez, Potomac Nationals. No, not the singer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy have a good start and that continued this year. The Frederick Keys shellacked him when I saw him and I only saw him once so this is a bit of a lifetime achievement award. Don’t ask me how he managed to go 9-9 for the year and he will probably be in Harrisburg next year too so I will get to see him a lot more than I care to. Granted Jimmy Yacabonis of the Norfolk Tides could be here too but he gets his own award, his outing was that bad. Since I believe that Baez was the winner of this last year this will henceforth be known as the Joan Baez Award.

Worst performance – Henceforth to be known as the Jimmy Yacabonis Award. Congratulations Jimmy Yacabonis of the Norfolk Tides. Your start in Norfolk against the Toledo Mud Hens was absolutely pathetic. 2/3 of an inning, 2 hits, 5 walks and 7 earned runs. Your reward, promotion to the Baltimore Orioles, where pitchers careers go to die.

Best defensive play – Three nominees: Reading’s Cornelius Randolph for a leaping grab against Harrisburg,  Staten Island centerfielder Alex Junior for a leaping grab against Aberdeen and Trenton outfielder Trey Amburgey for taking away a homerun against Altoona. Congratulations Alex Junior. Your catch was not only the most athletic of the three but you saved at least two runs in a game that was decided by two runs. While Amburgey took away a homerun it turned into a sacrifice fly and his team had already all but lost the game.

Best individial game – Edinson Lantigua, West Virginia Black Bears. Hit for the cycle against State College, gotta go with that. A cycle is a rare thing. I’ve only seen one in all of the years I’ve been watching baseball so congrats.

Independent Ball

Top hitter – Melky Mesa, York Revolution. Blake Gailen from Lancaster may have put up the best numbers in the Atlantic League but I saw Mesa come through much more. He missed the first few weeks of the season and has been on fire ever since. I think he got a hit in just about every game I saw and he piled up the extra base hits and RBIs, almost to the point that he matched Gailen who played the entire season, so since I saw the Revolution more, enjoy a worthless award! I know it does not compare to your team MVP award.

Top pitcher – Mitch Atkins, York Revolution. Gotta go homer here (final start notwithstanding) and go with the fellow who for a time was the only consistent pitcher in the Revs rotation. Started off a bit rough but you were dominant in an extreme hitters league. With the turnover in the league it is hard to see some pitchers multiple times and I never wound up seeing Nate Reed pitch for the Barnstormers during the regular season and if I had seen him at all he might have won. It seemed like everytime I went to Lancaster Steve Johnson pitched and he just was not good in most games.

Worst hitter – Tyler Clark, York Revolution. York had a number of players who were just overmatched or their hearts just weren’t in it. Take out Clark’s 7 RBI game against the Road Warriors and his numbers were absolutely abysmal. Not that they were good otherwise but as a catcher he managed to hold onto a roster spot though you gotta get a hit every now and again. He was a better defensive catcher and was good at throwing runners out which is in a way what a backup catcher should be able to do but offensively he was not good.

Worst pitcher – Jailen Peguero, York Revolution. There are guys that make me cringe when they are warming up and he was one. He got released by the Road Warriors (OK the Revs signed him right after and I remember in previous iterations of that team if another wanted a player they could get him so that may have been the reason). Now granted most of the time he was coming in was when a starter was yanked early but I think I only saw him have one or two scoreless outings and he did improve greatly towards the end of the season before calling it a career at the end. Guess someone needs to come in, eat innings and take a beating on occasion and it happened to be you. The Revs had another pitcher who was just completely overmatched but I never saw him pitch in person. Peguero called it a career at the end of the season.

Worse umpire – This is an easy award and come on down Nate Caldwell. You are the only umpire that I shudder when I hear your name. Even “Country” Joe West doesn’t make me do that. Your strike zone is either teeny tiny or shifts during a game and you don’t seem to be happy unless both teams are mad at you. I would bet that pitcher’s ERAs go up dramatically when you are behind the plate and gametime also goes up. Yep, you are the only ump who I saw miss a blatantly obvious call this year. Please go back to beer league baseball, but then I read an article where you got into a shouting match at one of them out in Pittsburgh. So enjoy your Kevy, it’s not like you will hate the Revolution any less.

Most annoying fan – There is a guy in Lancaster who plays a slide whistle through the entire game. It gets old after about an inning and hurts my eardrums when he misfires. He also does it when the pitcher is delivering a pitch or when the hitter is waiting to hit the ball. That might be within the rules but doesn’t sit well with me and I haven’t seen fans do anything close to that anywhere else. He sits right behind the visitors dugout and they looked like they get pretty annoyed. Congrats, you won a Kevy! And I am sure that the Skeeter players thought of you, at least for a moment, when Tony Thomas hit that walk off grand slam to end the Barnstormers’ season.

The Majors

Top hitter – Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals. Given the number of Oriole games I usually attend this category was usually reserved for the top Oriole hitter. There was competition this year for this. I only saw four teams this year more than 5 times (Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) and the New York Mets and Houston Astros came in at 4 games so the winner comes from one of those teams. I will remember the game against Colorado were there were fans screaming that he was overrated and he hit not one but two homeruns close or into their section. I will say that if Manny Machado had played the entire season with the Orioles he would have won this. But Harper’s line – 10-36 (not impressive there) 8 runs, 11 RBIs in 10 games. 3 2Bs 4 HRs, 1 SB, 7 BBs and 7 SOs.

Top pitcher -Kevin Gausman, Baltimore Orioles. 5 starts, 4 wins, 32 1/3 innings with 25 strikeouts. Good for anyone but for the Orioles that was solid gold. Too bad they traded him. An Immaculate Inning to boot (I think that was the first one of those I have ever seen) and he earns this award. 9 pitches, 9 strikes and 3 strikeouts, you can’t get any better than that. OK you can, 3 pitches 3 outs but now we’re splitting hairs and this is my awards list so too bad!

Worst hitter – Colin Moran, Pittsburgh Pirates. Lots of guys to pick from here but Moran stood out for being a near automatic out. Josh Bell of the Pirates was close too but he did hit a homerun. You went 2-21 this year. Yeah you had two doubles in there but otherwise you were an automatic out. You aren’t the first player I’ve seen struggled as a rookie, in fact I think it took 5 games before I even saw Manny Machado get a hit. Let’s hope you get better, in fact as a Pirates fan I hope you do.

Worst pitcher – Brad Brach, Baltimore Orioles. Cringeworthy every time he came in. 4 2/3 innings in 5 appearances, 8 runs (7 earned) and yet he somehow managed a save. Several other Orioles relievers were tops on this list too. Their bullpen was just that bad…It was that kind of year in Baltimore.

The you outperformed your season stats so you should get me to more games – Maikel Franco, Philadelphia Philles. Runner up in the hitter of the year, he hit .500 (10-20) with 1 2B and 3 HRs in games I attended. Of course I have heard trade rumblings about you so I might be out of luck about this.

The you underperformed when I showed up so you should pay me to stay away – Scott Kingery, Philadelphia Phillies. When I showed up to see you in the minors you never really hit either but this season you went 1-17 with 7 Ks in games I attended. Now how exactly would this work with Franco? Not that it is going to since Franco could be traded…If it helps you can switch awards with Colin Moran so Maikel Franco can get me tickets. Phillies tickets aren’t cheap after all and they haven’t raised prices in the cheap seats for a few years so they are due to do that.

The completely crappy individual performance award – Dylan Bundy, Baltimore Orioles. This will become known as the Dylan Bundy Award. Your start against the Kansas City Royals was historically bad. You didn’t record an out surrendering 4 home runs and giving up 7 runs. Yep, I could have left after that and saved myself a lot of time.

The take ’em out behind the woodshed and beat the crap out of the award – That night in Baltimore where Kansas City, yes the Royals who were neck and neck with the Orioles for the worst record in the bigs all season, when the Royals beat the snot out of the Orioles. Did I mention that it was the Royals? Yep, if it were based on that one game I would be shocked that the Royals did not win the World Series. Sure the Orioles put up some runs but this was over before Mike Wright, who relieved Dylan Bundy who couldn’t get anyone out (see above), got out of the top half of the first. 10 runs in the first before the Orioles even batted and their starter couldn’t even record an out. I lost any hope of the Orioles having anywhere near a good season with this game so maybe I should thank the Royals. It is almost the epitome of the season for the Orioles.

The Why the heck did I go to this game again? award – It was a cold, cold night in Philly. 20 degree wind chill to be exact that I watched my Pirates get shellacked by the Phils. I stuck this one out for 5 innings and with my teeth chattering I left. I can handle the cold but this one broke me. I had also ridden Amtrak in to the game so I had to wait for the train to leave to the 30th Street Station around 11. Yep, that was not a good call on my part. But with the cold and the beatdown of my favorite team well this one gets the award. Baseball watching is not all fortune and glory. Didn’t get home until almost 1 AM. Considering the cost of riding Amtrak, it was not worth it. Much more convenient, I’ll give it that and I was able to visit a new brewery in Philly but I had to purchase a SEPTA card and I have money on that still so I guess I’ll have to go back to 2nd Story Brewing while riding Amtrak. I can do the math (yes it was not my best subject in school but it is basic math so I think I’ll be OK). The cost of parking for a Phillies game at the lot I use was at the time $8. It’s a 200 mile round trip so we’re looking at about 7 gallons of gas (3.40 per gallon since I use 93 octane gas) so about $24 totaling $32 before tickets. Add in that I can leave when I want and get home about 2 hours later it seems that Amtrak is not the way to go. For Amtrak parking at Lancaster is $5 and tickets totaled $38. I also used lets say 1.5 gallons of gas so about $5. Yep, $48 before the tickets. I save $16 by driving and can get home a heck of a lot earlier and if someone goes with it is much more cheaper. There’s a reason that I go down to DC more often.

Worst fan award – When I went to see the Cubs in DC there was a young woman that was a Cubs fan sitting behind me. My best friend when I lived down in Maryland was a Cubs fan and we went out to Chicago and have seen the Cubs in Baltimore, Philly and DC so I have been around Cubs fans. I have nothing against them and have found them to be good people but this one was insufferable and I am not a Nationals fan. In her eyes the Nationals could not do anything right. The starting lineup announcement was done the wrong way in her eyes. The guy standing on the dugout waving the Curly W flag when the team took the field was the stupidest thing she ever saw. The guy that got to say play ball was an idiot. Throw in a few f-bombs in there too (and that is being nice). She gave Cubs fans a bad name. She had a comment for everything. I assume she was with her boyfriend who seemed to be a Nationals fan but didn’t say much. I was glad when she got up and left after the second. She had to go to the bathroom, I think the whole section was informed of that but she didn’t come back. The section was much quieter but I wonder though what she thought about the President’s race? That would have probably taken the cake for the stupidest thing she ever saw…If this is you head on over and get your Kevy!

Ballparks

Best Major League – PNC Park, Pittsburgh. Yeah the team wasn’t that great but I’m a homer and this is my award so if you want to send someone to pick up this meaningless award Bob Nutting you can do that. It’s all about the view…Visited 5 big league parks for the year.

Best Minor League – Peoples Natural Gas Field, Altoona. Spent a lot more time here than past years and I like the place. 12 bobbleheads will do that. The Curve Burger is my favorite in stadium food choice and I am a homer for this as well. Lehigh’s is very nice too, maybe you should give away more bobbleheads? If this award matters to you you should…just saying. Visited 20 different parks this year.

Best Indy – We’ll complete the homer trifecta here and go with People’s Bank Park here in York. Hey, I can walk to the games if I want to and I can park for free since I know where to go. Can’t beat that for me anyway. I did actually walk to a game this year and barely made it home before a thunderstorm hit. I’ll try it again next year with hopefully better results. . Visited 5 different indy parks.

Best new – Two to pick from here, Yogi Berra Stadium the home of the independent New Jersey Jackals and Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees. This was an easy pick, Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Nothing against Yogi, for mid-level indy ball it was not a bad place at all, but it was a relatively spartan experience there and Richmond County was like stepping into the bigs compared to that, even if it is just Short Season A Ball. Better food and more to see and do around the stadium. And oh, what a view…

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Overshadowed by the Kevys was the start of hockey season. I headed up to Hershey for the home opener against the Syracuse Crunch and I went back up the next night against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. It is almost a seamless transition this year. Normally there is at least a week or two before the season starts but not this year. It’s not an Olympic year which usually starts the season early so I don’t know what the deal is though it seems like the AHL and ECHL are playing fewer back-to-back-to-back games which make for a longer season. On Saturday I visited Big Bottom, Mellow Mink, Harty’s, Burd’s Nest, Market Cross and Molly Pitcher breweries before the game (didn’t drink at each one, don’t worry just got beer to go or a logo glass) and stopped in at my Civil War book guy in Mechanicsburg.

It was not a good year last year in Hershey. The team underwent a fundamental change with the old GM retiring and the parent organization (The Capitals) dictating and deciding to go with a more prospect heavy lineup rather than the usual AHL veteran lineup which produces wins. They suffered in the win column to a last place finish though it did not help that their two main goalies were injured for about the first month of the season so we’ll see what happens this year. It started with promise with Hershey leading 2-1 after 1 but new goalie Ilya Samsonov let 2 more (one was not his fault, poor D) in while the Crunch shut down the Bears. Same issues with the power play and while they were much more aggressive on offense in this game it did not translate into goals, and both teams had chances to put more in. Syracuse wins 3-2. A lot of new faces in Hershey.

On it was back to Chocolatetown Sunday and saw the Stanley Cup. I wonder what it takes to get the job of the Keeper of the Cup? I’m not going to keep track of the games the same way I do for baseball but I’ll probably get 15-20 hockey games in during the season between Hershey, Reading, Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre. Might even make it up to Binghamton too. There’s enough breweries up there and while the arena is not that great I might get bored on a Saturday. Or I might head down into The Valley to update the battlefields section. Maybe I’ll head over to Gettysburg and walk the battlefield. Get my history fix in. And basketball season will take over in November. Stopped in at Boneshire for a pregame brew and then I headed over to the Giant Center to get in line so I wouldn’t have to stand in line for a long time to get a picture with the Stanley Cup. That worked out well. I was in line at 2:15 for a 3:30 gate opening. Apparently the season ticket holders were late in arriving and gummed up the works for the rest of us peons. When I got in the building I was told to immediately go back outside and get in another line. It took 45 minutes to get back into the building. The game started while I was about 50 feet into the building. The first period ended when I got to the back side of the arena and it was halfway through the second period when I finally got to see the Stanley Cup as well as several other trophies. After standing for 4 hours, I got a picture of me touching the Stanley Cup. Yay! I don’t need to ever do that again. Oh, an Bridgeport won 2-1.