Movin' Out...

When the season started, I had written about all of the changes that had taken place. One of the things that was easy to get used to was our new in-game home. We very much enjoyed the spacious confines of the dugout box on the 3rd base side. It was way more room than we had ever had in years past, with a great view of the field and easy access for in-game activities and pre and post game work. I could never quite shake the feeling that it wouldn't last, though. And those suspicions were to become reality today. We were informed that "our" area was to be transformed into another dugout suite to be sold on game nights. So, Sunday, the last day of a a 10 game home stand was to be moving day. Now, I must confess, I wasn't there. I hadn't missed a game so far this year, so I was granted a day off. And did I ever need it. I was exhausted. So all of the information contained herein is 2nd hand. So when I returned for the next home stand, I would have to get used to new digs, ( the former first base side media well) a new storage area, (the former keg storage area behind the home dugout), and a whole new way of doing things. Oh well, i knew it was going to be a year of change, so I guess we'll all have to get used to it. We won't have nearly as much room, but that should cut down on all the excess traffic, a good thing. But not nearly as much storage space and access to tools and such will be in a more roundabout way, not so good. But we've dealt with it all these years, so I guess we'll deal with it some more. I 'll report back during the next home stand and let you know how its going. Until then, later.

Draggin' the Line..

With my butt. Its Friday May 7th. Game # 8 of the home stand and I'm fading fast. I did something today that I've never done before. I stopped at the Turkey Hill before heading for City Island and bought a 5-Hour Energy drink. Never thought I'd have to resort to this, but I'm afraid its the only way I'm going to make it through the evening. Too many long, long days. I've had a fairly busy week at along with all the baseball and so I'm just about out of gas. As I arrived on the Island, i remember its Friday, so that means fireworks, which lengthens the night even more. I know most of the fans love the fireworks, but I've seen so many shows over the past 15 seasons that I can really take them or leave them. I don't really have time to stand around and watch them, because I'm trying to get my post-game work finished and get outta town at a reasonable hour. We haven't really had the issues with the debris on the field as much as we used to, so my absolute hatred for the fireworks shows has mostly faded. it actually looked to be a decent evening for baseball tonight, so that improved my outlook greatly. our opponent for this weekend series would be the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the newest entry in the Eastern League. The Squirrels are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants, kind of an odd arrangement. The Giants had double A affiliates in the Texas league for years, but decided to move into Norwich, Ct a few years ago when that affiliate was open. The fans there never really warmed to them, surprise, surprise. So when their lease was not renewed, nobody was shocked. They moved south to Richmond , VA, another odd situation. The Atlanta Braves had their Triple-A team there for quite a few years, but pulled out for a closer, newer facility in Georgia. That left Richmond with a big big empty stadium. So the Giants moved their affiliate there, still far far away from California, with no regional fan interest. The stadium itself is cavernous by Eastern League standards holding 10000 plus. But by all accounts, they're doing pretty well, packing in the fans, who must've been a little hungry for baseball, after having it all those years, and then all of a sudden, nothing. Tonight, though the Sens were coming off a tasty little 6-3 win the night before, finally getting the upper hand on Bowie. They started off strong against the Squirrels,jumping out to a quick2-0 lead in the first, only to see the Richmond put up 3 in the 2nd. Both teams added a run over the next 2 innings, with the Squirrels on top 4-3 after 6. They added 1 more in the 7th to make it 5-3, and that's the way it ended up. After all the post-game hoopla, we got our work done, and I headed out, seriously dragging butt. I hoped to make it home without falling asleep. We still have 2 more games to go. Can I make it 10 for 10? We'll see I guess. Until then, later.

The end of the road.

I'm jumping ahead a bit to May 5th. We're now 6 games into the 10 game home stand. Its starting to wear on me. You know, working all day at the'real job', then coming here right after and not getting home until 11 or 12. Its a very long day. And, of course, I have to play the 'age card' too. Not as young as I used to be. But today, I catch a break. Its a day game, starting at 10:30. so I get to sleep in a little, go work the game, and then get home before 5 o'clock. And I can cut the grass, tinker around the house a bit and then relax. So I headed for City Island, stopping at the bagel place first to pick up a little breakfast for the boys and myself. When I arrived, it was shaping up to be another beautiful day for a baseball game. The previous 2 nights had been pretty decent as well, except n the actual baseball department. This series was a 4 gamer with the Bowie Baysox. Our buddy, the Baysox manager Brad Komminsk was back for another season, so that was good. But his boys were beat up on us the last 2 nights. it was a little disappointing the way they did it, too. The Sens built a nice 3-0 lead on Monday, only to let it slip away and lose 5-3 in the late innings. Tuesday night they couldn't get anything going and got pasted 9-0. So maybe today was turnaround day. The crew today was the same as most of the previous days, me, Izzy and Doug. We whipped through the pregame prep and then settled into the crew area for some breakfast. Bagel sandwiches today, good stuff. Of course the ballpark was full of kids and it was noisy. The Baysox got out of the box quickly and it looked to be another one of those days. But I wasn't going to let it ruin my day. I was here instead of at work, the sun was shining, and I was loving it. I wasn't dog-tired from lack of sleep either. Around the 4th inning, Knute got a phone call, and said he had to go take care of something. It sounded a bit odd, but I didn't dwell on it too much. After the 2nd drag at the end of the 6th inning, I headed back to my locker to get some cash for a Spot Dog. As I was going back around to the back, I saw Chris Moppin, the clubhouse manager, carrying an equipment bag towards the back parking lot. On the end of the bag was the number 37. So it looked like the 'something' that Knute had to take care of was getting the Boy Wonder to his car. As I came back from my locker, I saw a group of people coming from the player's locker room area. It was Tim, Ben, Knute, Chris, and a couple of Harrisburg City policeman with Stephen Strasburg in the center. It looked like a perp walk. There were news cameras there, too, so I decided, what the heck, I might as well jump in too. It was the end of the road here in Harrisburg for him, and the end of the buzz. I must confess, even with all the hassles, I enjoyed it for what it was. So now we moved into A.S., after Strasburg. I wish him well, hope he really makes his mark. And I can say I was there at the start. As for the game, well the Sens took it on the chin again, 7-1. No turnaround today. Ah well, maybe tomorrow then. I don't have to be back for another 24 hours, so until then, later.

Third times a charm...

Sunday May 2nd. it will be the third home start for Stephen Strasburg, the most taalked about player to ever set foot on City Island. Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to see some of the best talent in baseball take he field here. Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Albert Belle, Jeff Bagwell, Scott Rolen, Ryan Howard, Deion Sanders, Omar Vizquel, Vladimir Guerrero, Ryan Zimmerman, the list is endless. But nobody has generated more hype than Strasburg. And rightfully so from what I've seen. He has a live arm. Is he ready for prime time. I don't think so. He's had a pretty easy go of it so far, breezing through all of his starts, with 3-0 record and a ridiculously low ERA. I thought he probably needed to get roughed up a bit, so he could learn to deal with a little adversity. The minors is the best place to do that. Granted, the spotlight here is still burning bright, but nothing like it does in the Bigs. So if your going to get kicked around a bit, this is the place to do it. And, as it turned out, today was the day. Stephen never really seemed to get in the groove. Maybe it was the delay. If memory serves, there was about a 30 minute delay, due to a passing rain shower. Every time he has pitched at home it seems that rain has been in the equation. (see April 16th entry) Maybe it was lack of support. The Sens didn't hit much, only 4 hits, and the defense was a little porous. The Curve on the other hand, only had 6 hits, but made the most of of them, plating 6. The Sens did get on the board 1st in the bottom of the first grabbing a 1-0 lead, but the Curve came right back in the top of the 2nd, pushing across 4 runs. That seemed to rattle Strasburg a little and he never did quite recover. He didn't pitch badly, throwing the gas, and settled a bit after that, but he hit his pitch count in the 5th inning and was lifted. The speculation in the crew area began at that point. Has he pitched his last game in Harrisburg? We'd been hearing rumors to that effect all week, and the early hook seemed to reinforce that belief. But after the game, which the Sens lost 6-1, Strasburg appeared, signed some autographs and went on his way, as he usually did. No extra bags or anything like that. So, with a rough start under his belt, would he hang around for 1 more. I guess we'll see. The only other entertaining thing to report was a lively exchange between manager Randy Knorr and the 1st base umpire after a questionable call at first. randy went over to calmly discuss the call and these things often do, go a little heated. Knorr was asked to vacate the premises after kicking dirt in the direction of the umpire's shoes. Unfortunately, it was the highlight of the day. At this point, I have nothing else to report. Once I get a little more caught up, I promise to make entries on a more timely basis, so I can remember all the juicy stuff. I may not write it all down, or I may paraphrase a bit, but it will be current. So until then, later.

I'm melting!!!!

Saturday was a busy day for me. I was playing in a golf tournament with friends during the day. It didn't start until 1 pm, so until we played 18 holes, had a little something to eat, and drove back to Harrisburg from Myerstown, I was going to be a little late for the game. And to boot, it was supposed to be brutally hot. And the weatherman did not disappoint. The temperature topped out at about 87 degrees, way too hot for May 1st, and we definitely were not prepared for it. We hit the ball pretty well as a group, but in the end, the heat just kicked our butts. We could have played the last few holes a lot better, but we just couldn't finish strong. We finished at even par. The winners were 16 under. And the highest score was 3 over. But we still did better than last year. As I headed back down the highway towards Harrisburg, I was blasting the air conditioning. I was almost wiped out by the heat, but I had about 4 more hours to go. The sun was going down, but it wasn't getting any cooler. When I finally made it to City Island, it was about 20 minutes into the game. The gang was all there, Doug, Izzy, Alan and Knute. They all looked they were ready to melt, too. the sens were already down 1 after 2 innings. It got worse after that, with the final being 9-2. The most memorable thing of the evening? It was hot. Did I mention that? After what seemed like an eternal post game work session, we finally packed it up and packed it in. Tomorrow was Sunday, so that meant a quick turnaround for a 2 pm game. And another appearance by the phenom, Mr. Strasburg. So until then, later

Its a long Way to Tipperary...

Friday April 30th. Looking down the barrel of a 10 game home stand. Its been a few years since we've played a 10 game home stand. As a matter of fact, I don't ever recall one that long. I'm not all that sure how I'm going to fare with that long of a stretch. This is my 15th year on the crew. I was 36 when I started. If you do the math, I'm 51 now. I don't have near as much in the tank as I used to. I used to be able to work 6 or 7 games in a row, getting home after 11 every night, getting up early to be at work in the operating room at 7 AM and working all day and coming back to work another game the next night. I'd be a little tired after the 6th or 7th game, but I'd bounce back after a day or 2. Now, after a 7 game home stand, getting home every night late, and getting up to be at work at 8, after about the 4th night, I'm dragging butt in a big way. no getting up at 5:45 to go to the gym to work out. I sleep as long as possible, drink a lot of coffee (which I never did until just recently) and barely make it into to work. But at least we're starting on a Friday. I'm pretty fried by Friday afternoon, but this Friday was a nice evening for baseball, so I headed for City Island in a good frame of mind. It was going to be the same crew for most of this home stand, Doug, Izzy and me. Alan was working in Philadelphia all week and would be next week too, so his appearances would be limited to weekends. Frank was still working a lot of overtime and working on his new house in his off-time, so we won't see him for a while. So here we go. Friday night with all of the associated activities. Flat screen TV giveaways and of course, fireworks after the game. And Launch-a-Ball. So no early exit tonight. Not really that big a deal, though, since tomorrow is Saturday and I can sleep in. So away we go. opponent for this series, Altoona. They've been kicking our butts with some regularity this season, so I have no reason to believe it would be any different this weekend. if we could squeeze out one win, I'd consider that a decent series. Altoona is in 1st place in the division and is playing some good ball right now, and we haven't exactly been lighting it up. So as things got under way, we settled in to our seats. It being a Friday it was another flatscreens and fireworks night. I can't remember if I've mentioned it yet, but on Fridays they give away, every inning, a flatscreen tv. Pretty cool. And, of course, fireworks after. The boys actually played a good game, were only trailing 5-4 going to the 9th, but coughed up 2 runs in the top half and couldn't push anything across in their half. So we headed out to finish up the post game work. Of course, we had to work around the Launch-a-ball and then in the dark while the fireworks were going up. We've been fortunate on fireworks nights in the fact that the wind has been favorable on every Friday so far. A nasty wind that blows the debris back onto the field makes for a long night, picking up trash for another hour. But, again tonight, we lucked out. We finished up, had a beverage, and vacated. One of ten in the book. Back again tomorrow. Until then, later.

The remains of the day(s)

Games 4, 5 and 6. Sunday's game, don't remember anything remarkable. Sens lose again 4-3. Just coming up short, in the game, close but no cigar. Lost 3 of 4 to the worst team in the other division. Hmmm. The highlight: Izzy smoked a pork shoulder and we had some outstanding pulled pork after the game. Monday's game against Reading: a tasty little 2-1 win in an efficiently played, rather short by today's standards, baseball game. And an early exit, just what the doctor ordered after all of the previous late nights. Tuesday night's game: an impressive 5-0 win. Again well played, not too long. Hey, things are looking up. We finished up and didn't hang around long at all. Tomorrow's game was the first "School Kid Special" 10:30 start. I had already requested the day off from work, so I would get to sleep in a little, hit the ball park around 9 an pretty much enjoy the rest of the day. The attendance was expected to be around 5500, rather large, traditionally for a day game. The reason: Stephen Strasburg is pitching today. Normally, these games are populated by kids and their teachers plus a few of the regulars. We don't get too many of the lunch time hooky players since the game starts at 10:30. But today, no big shocker, was different. Lots of people want to see the kid throw. I have to admit, I liked watching him pitch, too. He's good. But I like the buzz he brings to the place, something that's been sorely lacking for a long time here. Of course, since he was pitching, there was a chance of rain. So as we readied the field we spread extra Turface, just in case. It never really did rain, so we lucked out on that one. Again, it was another well played game on the Sens part and they came out on top 3-0, and finished the home stand with a sweep of the Phillies. A nice ending to a rather eventful home stand. W had about 8 days off and were looking forward to it immensely. We finished up with an adult beverage and a long recap of the previous weeks events and then headed for home. It turned into a beautiful afternoon so there was a lot more day to be enjoyed and probably some grass to cut at home, so until the next go around which starts Friday April 30 th, I'll see you. Later...

The rest is just a blur...

Ok, I'm back. As promised, the winner of Friday April 16th's Chaos-Fest was... New Britain , 2-1. I had to check the archives, because, frankly, I just could not remember much of the rest of the weekend or the following week for that matter. So this post will be an amalgam of games 3,4,5,6,& 7 and , hopefully I can remember some of the highlights. Thursday and Friday were unseasonably warm for April on City Island. Saturday was much the opposite. There was no rain in the forecast as I headed for City Island, but it was much cooler than the past few days had been. In fact, my over-packing would pay off later in the evening. As I mentioned last year, my time on the grounds crew had made me a Boy Scout. I'm always prepared for any type of weather when it comes to clothing. Tonight I had extra shirts, socks, a hoodie, a jacket, long underwear, a beanie, and insulated gloves. Not to mention the boots, extra sneakers and such in my locker. You can go from comfortable to miserable very quickly over the course of a couple of hours in the middle of the river. It was to be the same crew again tonight, Doug, Izzy, Alan and myself, as well as Knute. After the opening night hoopla and Friday's total chaos, it was nice to just come in, get the pre-game work done, and get the game started. I don't recall anything of note in this game, other than brilliant brainstorm. gold bond underwear. After all the unseasonably warm weather, I thought wouldn't it be great on those hot nights to have a nice refreshing moment on demand. And I came up with this: underwear with a pouch in which you could slip in a packet, like a rosin bag. And when you get a little too hot and sweaty, give it a little tap-tap and dispense a little cooling powder. And a built in excuse for some male enhancement and a legitimate reason for handling your nether region.I don't think this would fly as a marketing campaign, but all you guys out there are sitting there shaking your heads, thinking "What great idea!" Any women reading this are rolling their eyes, I suspect. Other than that, not much else to report. The Sens did not win, again falling 5-3. We were treated to the full slate after the game though, with the fireworks they did not launch at 1 Am after last night's ( or very early this morning's), the kid's base run, and Launch-A-Ball. So after a late night before, and a day game on Sunday, getting out at a reasonable hour was out of the question. Once every thing was done, we got our post-game work done and retired for an adult beverage. we didn't hang out too long as everyone was exhausted from the previous night, so we drank up and headed out. Still 4 more to go before we get a break. Until the next time, later...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Ok, 2 weeks have passed since the opening of the season. yes I'm a little behind. But of any game I worked in the last 15 years, April 16th could very well the most memorable. By a large margin. it was the first home start for thew Nationals # 1 dude, Stephen Stasburg. It was a sold out game, all the media including ESPN and Fox sports would be there. I expected chaos. But I never expected what was about to unfold this Fri. evening. As I came onto the island the traffic was heavy and the line of fans waiting to get into the ballpark was long, as I expected. I had been watching the radar at work all day, and frankly, it didn't look good. I made my way into the park, I could feel a few sprinkles starting. I hurried to get changed and headed down field. When I got there everyone was milling around speculating about the chance of rain. Tim told us to go ahead and get the field prepped and to hustle. We got busy and banged everything in record time. and not a moment too soon. We had barely finished when the wind kicked up, and when we looked to the western sky it looked nasty. We hauled out the mound and plate tarps, while the rest of the crew ran for the tarp. We laid the tarps down but it was so windy they kept blowing off. We recruited a couple of players to stand on the near edges to keep the plate tarp in place until we could get the field tarp over it. Unfortunately, out on the field, they were having some problems of their own. Some of the crew grabbed the wrong layer of the tarp and it became twisted. so we had to stop and untwist it and start over. By this time the rain had started to fall in earnest. We managed to get the field covered and as we were putting on the sandbags the wind really picked up. There were some air bubbles underneath and as one big gust blew through it picked up the tarp with one of the front office crew still hanging on and flipped him right up in the air about 3 feet. We retreated into the dugout to wait out the rain to the catcalls of some very unhappy fan. They were all there to see Mr. Strasburg pitch not watch us wrangle that old field tarp. It was close to actual game time at that point, and it looked like it was going to be an extended wait, according to the radar. So far, so bad. It sure didn't look like it was scaring anyone away. Any other night, weather like this would have cleared the seats out pretty well. But not tonight. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the # 1 prospect and they weren't budging until he threw the first pitch. That's the feeling I got. About 9:00 pm, it looked like we were going to get a little window. Any other night, this game would have been postponed by 8:15. But with all the fans, the media, and the Nationals in the house, there was no way we weren't going to play. in the previous 2 hours we must have taken the tarp off and put it back on 4 times, and felt the wrath of the fans every time. I can't remember ever being booed by fans before. Sorry folks, we don't control the weather or make the calls, we just do the work. And last time I checked, none of us were the Mayor of Harrisburg. A little after 9, we were able to get the tarp off and get things back in order and ready to play. Strasburg was warming up in the bullpen and the buzz in the ballpark was really unlike anything I've ever witnessed before. The crowd was that juiced. A huge cheer went up as he made his way to the dugout. Just about then, all the power in the stadium went out. For about 30 seconds, it was pitch dark. The emergency lights came on and then the ribbon boards. Most everybody had pulled out their cell phones to give a little light, and slowly things became a little brighter. But now, the delay would last even longer as the stadium lights would have to cool off before they could be restarted, about a 20 minute wait. The game finally got under way at about 9:50. Stephen Strasburg got a another huge cheer as he took the mound and threw his warm-up tosses. His first pitch was a blazing strike right down the middle, eliciting another huge cheer from the crowd. He set the hitter down swinging, getting an even bigger cheer from the standing room only crowd. The Sens retired the side in order and moved to the bottom half of the inning. nothing of any consequence happened until the bottom of the 2nd when the heavens opened up again, bringing the tarp back onto the field. This time the delay was about an hour and 20 minutes. That would end Mr. Strasburg's evening and cause a noticeable thinning of the crowd. By the time we were able to restart it was heading for midnight, not my idea of a good time. The game was completed around 1 am, just after Eastern League curfew. The curfew rule states that no inning may start after 12:50 am, but we were so close, that they let us finish up. We gathered up the tools and started to clean up the mess. And quite a mess it was. The temperature had dropped considerably since we had first showed up, about 15 degrees and it was very comfortable with just a windbreaker. The weather forecast for tomorrow was decent weather, but much cooler. We got everything cleaned up, had our adult beverage and reviewed the evening's events. One for books, we all agreed. Nothing ordinary about this one, for sure. It was about 2:00 am. Time to call a night. One helluva a night indeed. Who won. I'll have to look it up and report back in the next entry. Until then, later...