It was a long season, starting in late March on a gorgeous day in Philadelphia and running until late September. I saw a lot of good, a lot of bad and a lot of ugly. Lots of Orioles games, lots of Revolution games, lots of Senators game. I took in more Nationals games than I usually do and I didn’t see the Pirates quite as much as I would have liked, mostly because their bobblehead dates conflicted with others and their epic second half collapse. Drank lots of beer too and visited lots of new places.
Speaking of bobbleheads I added quite a few this year. Only really missed one, the Nationals added one late in the season that I didn’t know about. I’d get it on eBay but it’s going for $50 so I’ll wait. Maybe it’ll go down should Rendon leave as a free agent. I’d say I added a good 40 new ones to the collection. I am pretty much out of room so I will need to buy more shelving by next season. It looks like there is only one on the hockey slate for the year and that won’t be until March so I’ll be OK.
The week started off roughly. I came home Sunday after breakfast to relax and opened the window in my kitchen to let in some fresh air. I didn’t realize that there was no screen in the window and both of the fuzzballs decided to go on an adventure. I found the first one quickly but he was hiding out in a place that I couldn’t reach so I had to wait for him to decide to come out, and yes I tried a broom handle but he had room to move back and avoid it. The other I couldn’t find until around 5:30. He was hiding just up the alley in a slightly more accessible location but with a barking dog about 15 feet away. Pretty sure he was scared but he came out for a few treats. The other of course would not come even for treats or food.
The last time I had to wait until the next morning when he was tired and hungry to come back to where he knew he could get food and I figured this would wind up being the same. He wouldn’t come when I went to sleep, or at least tried to. Didn’t sleep well at all. It wasn’t all being worried about my lil’ buddy it was pretty muggy out too and my throat was sore so it was hard to sleep. I did leave him some food out and when I went out at 4:45 AM to look for him I noticed that it was gone and he was no longer in his hiding place. I made a brief look-around but I figured it wasn’t a good idea to be walking around the alley shining a flashlight in other people’s back yards. But I couldn’t find him so I went back inside to wait for daylight. An hour later I heard some meowing outside and there he was in the neighbors yard. Some rain had started and he was tired so I was able to corral him in about 2 minutes. I am glad it was 5:45 AM since I was in only my boxer shorts, there I put that image in your mind!. Whew. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep and dragged all day Monday. I was asleep by 9 PM. Squeaker slept most of Monday.
Spent most of the week with a bad cold. Don’t know if it was from being outside in nothing but my boxer shorts in the rain or if it was from going from August to October to July and back to October all within 5 days during the week. Finally got a good night’s sleep Thursday night and the worst appears to be over.
Outside of that it was an uneventful week until Saturday when the Hershey Bears season opened against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Made pregame stops at Pig Iron in Marietta, Cox in Rheems and Twisted Bine in Mt. Joy. First time to Twisted Bine, nice place and thanks to a monument outside I learned how Mt. Joy got its name. Never would have thought that it got its name because it was the name of the ship that rescued the original settlers of the area.
The hockey got started well for the Bears with Alex Alexeyev scoring about 1 minute into his pro debut. But the Penguins turned around and got two quick goals to take the lead. The Bears tied the game but once again the Penguins added two tallies thanks to some poor defense and some downright bad luck. Anthony Angelo was in the penalty box for the Penguins thanks to a too many men on the ice penalty and of course as it expired (looks like another crummy year for the Bears’ power play) he caught a puck at mid ice and scored on Bears’ goalie Vitek Vanecek. Most of the goals that Vanacek gave up came on the rebound, where he stopped the first shot but his defense was nowhere to be found. The Bears did add a 6-on-4 goal late but couldn’t equalize it. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton wins 4-3.
And now for the baseball season in review:
For the record I made personal appearances at these stadiums (in order of appearance):
Major Leagues
Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia PA
Class AAA
Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham NC
Class AA
Prince George’s Stadium, Bowie MD
FirstEnergy Stadium, Reading PA
People’s Natural Gas Field, Altoona PA
Class A Advanced
Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium, Frederick MD
Judy Johnson Field at Daniel Frawley Stadium, Wilmington DE
Segra Stadium, Fayetteville NC – first time
Grainger Stadium, Kinston NC – first time
Ticketreturn.com Stadium, Myrtle Beach SC
BB&T Ballpark, Winston-Salem NC – first time
Northwest Financial Field at Pfitzner Stadium, Woodbridge VA
Class A
Municipal Stadium, Hagerstown MD
Segra Park, Columbia SC – first time
McCormick Field, Asheville NC – first time
FNB Field, Greensboro NC – first time
Arthur Perdue Stadium, Salisbury MD
FirstEnergy Stadium, Lakewood NJ
Class A Short Season
Leidos FIeld at Ripken Stadium, Aberdeen MD
BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field, Williamsport PA
Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, State College PA
Monongalia County Ballpark, Granville WV
Independent
Clipper Magazine Stadium, Lancaster PA
BB&T Point Park, High Point NC – first time
Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf MD
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A fun, but draining season. I had two memorable firsts this season. The first was that I saw the first game in High Point Rocker history. I mean first game. I lived in Baltimore when the Revs played their first game and admittedly was a Big League-only person at that point. The 2 Revs games I attended that season were the only minor league games I went to all year. High Point’s first game is a game that will always be remembered in that franchise’s history and a lot of franchise firsts happened there including their first win. I’ve seen the first game in new stadiums (Nationals Park) or newly renovated stadiums (Harrisburg’s then MetroBank Park) but never a team’s very first game. It’s rare nowadays and I figured I would never have this opportunity again so I skipped the Revs’ opening day game and went to this. I don’t regret it. Who knows if the franchise will last but that is something that will be remembered by everyone who played in that game.
I also saw something during a game for that I have never seen and the funny thing was I saw it happen again a few weeks later. In all of the games I have seen I have never seen a base runner get hit by a batted ball. At a game in Harrisburg, and I don’t remember against which team, a runner going from first to second was hit. And a few weeks later the same thing happened again. Might not see that again for a long time.
Oh, and on my trip to Durham I saw a player hit the Bull. While it got me nothing that was cool to see.
I also learned one valuable piece of information this year. Did you know that pro umpires are required to wear black underwear? I didn’t until this year. Why? In case they split their pants no one will notice. Guess that makes sense.
I got to see a lot of teams this year. I saw all 30 Major League teams, 8 of 14 International League teams, all 12 Eastern League teams, all 10 Carolina League teams, 9 of 14 South Atlantic League teams, 8 of 14 New York-Penn League teams and all 8 Atlantic League teams. Whew!
I saw 3 players make their Big League debuts this season: Branden Kline of the Orioles, Yennsy Diaz of the Blue Jays and Tres Barrera of the Nationals. I anticipated more, especially with all of the players the Orioles would be using but it didn’t happen. Just didn’t get to the right games I guess. For the record the only Orioles players I did not see play in a game this year were Jose Rondon (played 1 game for them), Ty Blach, Chandler Shepherd, Josh Lucas, Josh Rogers, Tyler Eades, Nate Karns, Matt Wotherspoon (pitched in 2 games), Luis Ortiz (pitched in one game), Sean Gilmartin (pitched one game) and Pedro Araujo (pitched in one game). Certainly no baseball immortals there.
I won’t get quite this much in next year. I’m aiming to get to about 80 games next year, so no more Hagerstown on a Tuesday night or Frederick on a Wednesday night unless a bobblehead is involved. It’ll be less Nationals games, probably less Phillies’ games and more Revolution and Barnstormer games. I am planning on a baseball trip to New England. I’d like to visit New Britain, Hartford, Pawtucket and maybe one or two others. It will depend how the schedule falls and I won’t know that until next year’s Atlantic League and Can-Am League schedules come out. It gets made a bit easier since it doesn’t look like New Britain will be in the Atlantic League and instead will move to the Can-Am League so I am not tied to when the Revs come to town.
And don’t forget the 3rd Annual Kevy Awards are next week. It was delayed just in case the Revs had made the championship round and an award would need to be changed at the last minute.
