The Great White Way...

Friday July 31st, the 1st game of an unusual home stand. 3 games, an off day and 3 more games. And after tonight, 18 games to go until Riverside Stadium-Commerce Bank Park-Metro Bank Park ceases to exist as we've known it for the last 23 baseball seasons. As usual, we had a nice little (big) blast of rain earlier in the day to make things nice and wet, just perfect for a hot steamy evening. The tarp was off, but still rolled out, when I arrived on City Island. The boys, Alan, Frank, Doug and Knute, had gotten an early start and were watering as I came around the corner and down the field. When I got there, they were all giving Frank crap about something. Apparently, he decided he would put down the lines for tonight's game. Knute said to me "check out that third base line." It was a little wavy, not all that unusual, considering our chalker is from the 1920's, I think. (It's not really that old, its just seen better days, like the rest of our equipment. Note to the big boss: We really could use some new field equipment!) Then he said " Now check out the first base line." I did and said "Wow!!!" Wavy didn't even begin to cover it. And it was more like a small wall of chalk than a line. Seems he'd gotten it a little heavy towards the first base bag. At one point Tim had taken the digout tool and stuck it down into the chalk and it was almost an inch thick. The guys said Tim told him " Its supposed to be 4 inches wide, not 4 inches thick. The Great White Way. I guess we'll just use the tractor and scoop it up with the bucket after the game. As for the game, also in attendance were Alan's fiance, her parents and her sister to see tonight's opponents, the Portland Sea Dogs, AA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. As I suspected, The Red Sox crazies were all in attendance. As I've said before, every time you think you've seen it all, something new comes along. A few enterprising fans had cut the top off a gallon milk jug, attached a rope to it, put a baseball and a pen inside, and were "fishing" for autographs form above the dugout. Very clever and very weird. As the game got under way, our starter, Matt Chico, did not appear to have his best stuff. The Sea Dogs hit pretty much everything he threw and by the 3rd inning had staked themselves to a 5-0 lead. I was mildly surprised that it was only 5-0. The boys did rally back and put up 3 runs to make it close, but couldn't hold it or get any closer, with the final being 8-3. As usual, the game dragged on, and it was after 11:00 until we finished. Post game was was a particular challenge on several fronts. The guys couldn't either of the Gators to start, so we had to bring all the tools, clay, etc. on the infield machine or carry it. With it being a damp night, the infield dirt was a sticky mess. The clay was also a little on the wet, sticky side (do you see a pattern here?) and the day guys put way too much new dirt on home plate, so I had my work cut out for me. I did the best I could without making a bigger mess and covered it up, knowing it would probably dry out nicely tomorrow during the day and look good by game time. As we were finishing up, the umpire crew came by on their way out and said "You guys still have the best playing surface in the Eastern League" Always nice to hear something like that. We go back at it Saturday night, looks the weather will be a little better. Until then, later.