Well, Monday's game against the Altoona Curve was a little of the the same-old, same-old and a little change of pace. It looked like it might rain on our parade at times, but it was dry. In attendance, Frank, Alan, Ryan and myself. Pre-game was routine for a change, nothing out of the ordinary. As we settled in to watch the game, we had our, now pretty much routine, Stanley Cup hockey game on the TV, Pens-Caps,with most of us hoping the Pens could close it out tonight. Frank has all of a sudden become a huge Caps fan. Just to yank our chains, of course. The Caps did finally win it in overtime, although we never got to see it. Overtime happened during post-game, which by the way, was fairly early. We were done by 10:10 which is way early for us. The fast Monday nighter strikes again. of course, we lost 5-0 which tends to speed things up.We also had an in-depth discussion about lining the field. Sort of a little chalk-talk. The discussion covered technique, the chalker , and the chalk itself. Having lined the field for 13 of the 14 seasons I've worked there, I've picked up a few things and learned some tricks. I learned from 2 of the best, Tim Foreman and Bill Hamilton. It's like i told the guys, once you've used a piece of equipment for that period of time, you learn the little quirks and shortcuts. I've laid some perfect lines over the years, but I've also put down some really ugly ones, too. All it really takes is a steady pace, a decent eye and a lot of patience. When you get that perfectly straight line that's just the right thickness, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride for a simple thing of beauty. For the purist. Most people, including the umpires, don't really give a crap, as long as its reasonably straight. The catchers hate it if the batters boxes are too thick, since they have to breathe in all the excess chalk for 3 hours. Luke Montz routinely kicks away the catcher's box as soon as he steps in. He hates it. it used to piss me off, but now its like, whatever.
Now to the change of pace. We had few familiar faces from the past look in last night. Dean Treanor, who was the pitching coach here in 1997, is the pitching coach for Altoona. We chatted for a few minutes to catch up, asked where he had been. He'd been in Albuquerque(?) N.M. for the last 7 years. I remember seeing his name a few years ago, whole watching the Triple-A All-Star game that was held in the Isotopes new ballpark that year. He spoke well of his time here and winning a championship in '97. My most vivid memory of him is he night he got into a donnybrook with umpires and got tossed. He was usually a pretty mild-mannered guy, but whatever they did that night really set him off. I think that's the only time I ever saw a pitching coach get thrown out. Later on in the game, I went back to get my netbook and load up for post-game, and when I got back there was a guy in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform sitting in the cubby. he looked familiar, and I said hello. I looked over at Newt and he whispered" That's Jeff Bannister" I thought he looked familiar! We got to talking about his time here in 1989 and 1990, who he played with back then, what the ballpark looked like and such. I told him I had a bunch of pictures from back then, and I would bring them in if he would be here. He said sure, so I'll have to dig them out. I have a lot of old pictures from the late '80's, when my kids were small, so that should be interesting. So that's all I got for this time. I'm going to the Hershey Bears game Tuesday evening, so I won't be back in until Wednesday for the 10:30 game. (yay! no work that day!) Hopefully, we'll have a Bears victory to celebrate and a few Senators wins.
Now to the change of pace. We had few familiar faces from the past look in last night. Dean Treanor, who was the pitching coach here in 1997, is the pitching coach for Altoona. We chatted for a few minutes to catch up, asked where he had been. He'd been in Albuquerque(?) N.M. for the last 7 years. I remember seeing his name a few years ago, whole watching the Triple-A All-Star game that was held in the Isotopes new ballpark that year. He spoke well of his time here and winning a championship in '97. My most vivid memory of him is he night he got into a donnybrook with umpires and got tossed. He was usually a pretty mild-mannered guy, but whatever they did that night really set him off. I think that's the only time I ever saw a pitching coach get thrown out. Later on in the game, I went back to get my netbook and load up for post-game, and when I got back there was a guy in a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform sitting in the cubby. he looked familiar, and I said hello. I looked over at Newt and he whispered" That's Jeff Bannister" I thought he looked familiar! We got to talking about his time here in 1989 and 1990, who he played with back then, what the ballpark looked like and such. I told him I had a bunch of pictures from back then, and I would bring them in if he would be here. He said sure, so I'll have to dig them out. I have a lot of old pictures from the late '80's, when my kids were small, so that should be interesting. So that's all I got for this time. I'm going to the Hershey Bears game Tuesday evening, so I won't be back in until Wednesday for the 10:30 game. (yay! no work that day!) Hopefully, we'll have a Bears victory to celebrate and a few Senators wins.
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