Senators Baseball Grounds Crew Blog

Back at it...

2011-04-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

March the 5th. A litle over a month to go before Opening Day. So here we are, back at the ball yard, getting back in order for the new season. Tim and Knute have been at it for most of the last few weeks of February, getting things done as the weather allowed. So here we all are again, after a long layoff, doing what we can to get the field into tiptop shape for the 2011, 25th Anniversary season. 25 years. And I'll have been around for 16 of them. Doesn't seem possible. We'll be back on successive Saturdays for the whole month of March, weather permitting. The way the weather has been this winter, things are shaping up for a cold, wet, Spring. Not my idea of a good time. But it's great to get back out on the field, to play in the dirt and hang out with the gang. Didn't realize how much I've missed that gang until we got together and caught up on what was happening in their lives the past 6 months. Well, it's been several weeks since I've been able to get back to this entry, so I'll just leave things the way they are and move on to the next segment and try to catch up.

Wrap it up, and do it again...

2011-03-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've been here. So much has transpired since my last post, I'm sure I'm going to miss something. So I'll try to hit the highlights. As I'm sure you know the Sens did not make it out of the first round of the playoffs, falling to Altoona, the eventual league champions. But as recent seasons go, I guess you can see the silver linings. Like making the playoffs, surviving Strasburg mania, and getting the new stadium up and running. But, as we all do that time of the year, it was good to finally get the 2010 season in the book and get to other things we neglected all spring and summer.
The most prominent were the weddings of 3 members of the crew, Izzy and Knute and Asheleigh. Izzy's wedding was the last Sat. In Sept., a gorgeous day. He looked very handsome and his wife Rebecca looked beautiful, as did their 2 children, Jacob and Isabella. The reception was held on the main concourse of the stadium and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. I'm happy to report, a good time was had by all.
The 2nd wedding was the 3rd weekend in October, of Knute and Asheleigh. It was a nice day, although not quite as warm. Their wedding was held outdoors at the Milton Hershey Alumni Garden. Another member of the crew, my son Alan, officiated and it was a very nice ceremony. We then moved to the ballpark, again, for the reception. (it has become 1 of my favorite reception spots...) The reception was held, due to the somewhat cooler weather, was held inside the stadium club. Again, as with Izzy's wedding, it was very nice with excellent food. And, again, I'm happy to report that a good time was had by all. And, apparently some had an even better time than others. I'm very happy to report that Izzy and Rebecca are expecting their 3rd child, sometime in July.
Not too much new to report from my end. I spent my off-season tinkering with my old cars and going to some shows. I was able to garner a 2nd place for my 82 VW Vanagon at a show in New Jersey, a major coup for me. My 2 sons were able to move out of their apartment and into places of their own, so I spent some time moving furniture and doing little fix-it jobs. And my wife and I enrolled in a weight loss program right after Thanksgiving, the logic of which we have yet to discover. Dieting through the Christmas season was not fun. Come to think of it, dieting the rest of the year isn't much fun either. But we're perseveringly and doing quite well, I'm happy to say. As I finish writing this, I've just returned from my 2nd annual (hopefully) trip to Spring Training in Florida. More about my trip in the next installment.

It's on like donkey kong...

2010-09-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well the playoffs are in full swing. As I write this, Trenton has already reserved a spot for themselves in the finals and the Sens are hanging on for dear life. They started out on Wed. night with an impressive 10-5 win up in Altoona, hanging a couple of 5-spots up to snag Game 1. The idea was to get at least 1 win on the road, so they could clinch at home. Thursday nights game was a little less impressive, with both teams playing sloppy baseball and the Curve coming out on top 6-4. But the objective was met. We were all at the ballpark, putting the final touches on the field for Friday's game. The Sens took an early 1-0 lead and there was talk of plastic sheeting for the clubhouse. That was a bit premature as it turned out. When I got to my car to head for home, it had turned into a 3-3 tie and went downhill from there to 6-3. They managed to put up 1 in the 8th, but that was as close as it got. So onto Friday night. It was kind of strange, but familiar to me walking into the ballpark for a playoff game. Back when I started on the crew in 1996, playoff games were a given. We were always there. And for my 1st 4 years, all I knew were championships. Got real spoiled. We were that close in 2002, losing in game 5 of the championships. So tonight, I was getting that old feeling of anticipation. To finish at the top of the heap. Forgive me if it sounds a little maudlin, but it never gets stale or old or corny. #1 feels good. I like it. But the road got a little rougher Friday evening. It was a nice night for baseball. There was a smallish crowd, but pretty much what I thought it would be, due to competing with high school football. The first few innings shaped up to be a pitcher's duel, with neither team doing much damage. But Altoona caught a couple of breaks, got some timely hitting, a couple of miscues on the Sens side, and all of a sudden it was 7-0. And the Sens just couldn't make anything happen until, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, Adam Fox, the crew's personal favorite all year, hit a 2-run pinch-hit homer. But too little, too late. So its onto to Game 4. 4 PM start to accommodate the Penn State fans. Let's see if the boys have anything left in the tank. They fought the odds all year long to get here. Live to play another day. We'll discuss that tomorrow. Later...

On the brink...

2010-09-06T04:18:00.000-07:00

Sept. 6th, Labor Day 2010. The last day of the regular season.

The Sens won last night, crushing Binghamton 13-3. I must confess, I haven't listened to any of the games on the radio. And the boys have done well without me. I won't be listening today either, since I'll be on my way back from Delaware and out of range. Just as well, I don't want to jinx things at this stage of the game. So I'll check the score periodically via the Internet phone. At the very east, they've booked a trip to Bowie tomorrow night for a 1 game playoff, so win or lose, they get to play 1 more game. I hope they take care of business today and punch their ticket for Altoona. And that means at least 1 more game at home this Friday night. If they could get at least a split in Altoona, then they would play Saturday as well. And if they could actually move to the finals, we would be there Monday and Tuesday, too. 6 weeks ago, I never thought I would be playing out this scenario for you. Around July 4th, they looked dead in the water, probably limping down the home stretch, battling to finish at .500. The grounds crew guys were looking forward to an early exit and getting back to our home lives and routine. Its been a long season, with some long home stands, and as I related in the last post, I've worked a lot of games this year. And I never thought I'd be saying this, but how about 4 more. Its been an 8 year drought since we've been to the playoffs. And this team reminds me a lot of the last team to be there, the 2002 team. They came from way behind, had a great August run, had a bunch of guys who really stepped up, and cleared the way in the last few days of the season. And it was against a Reading team who was way ahead at the All-Star break and had the audacity to put playoff tickets on sale then, only to implode down the stretch. The Sens swept them over the Labor Day weekend, eliminating them from the playoffs and punching their own ticket in. They went on to make it to the finals against Norwich, losing in the 5th game of the championship round. Is this a team of destiny, too? Time will tell I guess. In any case I'll here to witness and document it. I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how it all shakes out. Until then, Happy Labor Day and see ya. Later...

That's all folks...

2010-08-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday Aug. 29th. This is the one we've looking forward to for about 4 weeks. The season tends to drag this time of year. Between the heat and just plain old fatigue, we're ready for the end. I've enjoyed this season as much as any of the past 14 that I've been around for. I certainly have been here for the bulk of it. Counting today's game, I've worked about 61 of the 71 games. That's the most I've ever worked in a season. I'll probably cut back next year and only work about 60. When I arrived, all the pre-game work was done, except for a couple more rounds o of watering the infield. It would need it today with an expected temp. of 91. Izzy was cooking up a storm again today, so we definitely would be eating well today. And drinking. (after the game). we went into this game on an up note. The Sens were still in 2nd place by 1 and a half games over Bowie. They took a tough 2-1 loss on Saturday night before the largest regular season crowd ever, 7900 and change. Any by all reports, there wasn't any exaggerating, because, apparently it was tough to move around. There wouldn't be nearly as big a crowd today, but bigger than a standard Sunday, since they were giving away all kinds of good stuff. All of the grounds crew gang were in the house today and is was a little cozy in the dugout today. We had to kick out the one photographer who usually makes himself at home in our area, but noone felt too bad about it. We don't care for him too much. The game was a back and forth affair until the Thunder opened up a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the 8th. The Trenton pitcher walked the 1st 2 of out batters, when Marvin Lowrance, the hero of Friday's game, launched a 3-2 pitch onto the right field boardwalk to knot things up at 5 each. The sore stayed the same until the bottom of the 10th, when with 2 men on, Jesus Valdez hit a single to center field and Josh Johnson, on 2nd, raced home, through a stop sign, to plate the winning run and sending the last day crowd home happy and kept the Sens in front of Bowie. Of course we still had all the post game hoopla, including a softball game between the Harrisburg police and firefighters. So we had something to eat and drink and watched the game for a while, then said our good-byes. I didn't clean out my locker today. Something tells me I'll be back in a little less than 2 weeks. For a playoff game. Imagine that. Its been a long time coming. I wanted the season to be over today. But I'll take a couple of more games. Could we actually win the championship? Stranger things have happened. Anyone remember the September of 1999? So until Labor Day, the actual last day of the season, later...

Just a plain old fan...

2010-08-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Friday Aug. 27th. I'll be in the ballpark tonight, again, as usual. But tonight I'll just be a plain old fan. I'll be sitting in Dugout Suite C, with family and friends, in a pre-anniversary celebration. My wife and I, my older son, Alan and his new bride, his in-laws Dan and Deb and their daughter Rachel, our friends Lou and Cheri from around the corner, my nephew Dan, and even my younger son Mike. Mike hasn't been to the ballpark in quite awhile, so it should be an interesting experience for him. And for me, as well. I haven't been to a game as just a fan for, well, I can't really remember the last time. In the last 15 years, I could probably count them on 1 hand. But tonight I was going to sit back and enjoy it. I might even watch the whole fireworks show at the end. Never get to do that, because I'm usually cleaning up. The place was in a frenzy when we got there. The so-so crowd they had originally expected, had exploded during the day and promised to be a sellout. And it looked like they would break the single season attendance tonight as well. And they did. Biggest single season attendance going the whole way back to 2001. And with a big crowd expected for Saturday's game, they should pad that total quite nicely. As it should be for a new ballpark. The game started slowly, but got interesting down towards the end. The grounds crew performed well in their role with guest performer Myron Noodleman, sticking their drag time dance moves. And we even had some scoreboard face time, with Dan competing for fabulous prizes in the movie clip contest. He won. As did the Sens, with a huge home run by Marvin Lowrance in the bottom of the 8th to give the Sens a 3-2 lead. Cole Kimball made it stand up, striking out the last 2 batters for the win. After all the post game hoopla, we hung out for a little while, until the traffic thinned out, said our goodbyes and headed for home. Just like the rest of the fans. So until Sunday and the season finale, later...

Last home stand update #1

2010-08-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

Wed. Aug. 25th. The 3 game series with Portland is in the book. We took 2 out of 3 and hopped over Bowie into 2nd place by a half game. The weather held, although on Monday night it looked it could open up at any time. It was tarp time after the game Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday we did not have to put it on after the game, due to a favorable turn in the weather. The next opponent will be the Trenton Thunder and all the Yankee fans will be here. Great. The boys will have their work cut out for them for the 4 game finale. I'll only be in for the 1st and last games. Friday night I'll be attending with family and friends and sitting in a dugout suite and Saturday I'll be out with my wife, celebrating our wedding anniversary. And then back in for the wrap-up. I'll check back in. Later...

The beginning of the end...

2010-08-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

Its time for the last home stand of the season. We on the grounds crew wait for 2 times during the year, the beginning and the end. The beginning is all anticipation of a new season after a long layoff, and getting back out on the field. The end is a different anticipation. We're ready to close things out after a long 5 month season, and hang out at the homes we haven't really seen much of since April. In the 8 previous seasons that has meant, well, the end of the season. But this year, who knows. We start this week neck and neck with Bowie for the last playoff spot. Can we finish the week in 2nd place? We'll see. We play a so-so Portland team but finish up with the Trenton Thunder who just happen to own the league's best record. The weather is kind of iffy for the first three days of the week, but I hope we can fight through to get to the better weather at the end of the week. That and it would minimize the damage to the field. The field has taken quite a beating the last few weeks, pretty much started before the All-Star break. It looks pretty good from the stands, but up close, Tim and Knute having been trying to work their magic on it. Just not enough time to let grass repair itself. Tim even said, if we had 2 more off days, we'd have been over the hump. But this time of year, we expect it and try to coax it to the end. & more games and we can put it to bed for the year or we get about a 2 week break before the playoffs start. That should be enough time to get things back to a reasonable condition for a couple of playoff games. Until then, though its time to play out the string. I report back in about the middle of the week. Later..

Diggin' time, diggin' time....

2010-08-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Thurs. Aug. 19th. It's Diamond Dig Night. This was event first held last year at MBP. It was an evening of mixed feelings for the grounds crew. On one hand it was very entertaining for us to see a bunch of extremely focused women digging like crazy in the infield, some them probably well-oiled from 2-buck beer on the boardwalk night. And digging with plastic spoons to boot. But no plastic spoons tonight. They made such a mess with them last year that we lobbied hard for metal, citing the reduced cleanup factor and the ability to use them again. It worked. We were happy. So we played the game, gave away another one in the late innings. And then it was time. We did some quick cleanup then prepped the infield for the onslaught. The box with the stand-in diamond had been buried by Tim and Knute the night before after we left for the evening. learning some lessons from last year, we knew that it was buried at least a foot off all the grass edges. The women last year dug right next to the infield grass and we had to rake all the dirt out of the grass afterwards. Tim also hinted that it would be buried not quite as deep, so it would probably be in a low traffic area, so as not to be dug up by any of the players inadvertently. We lined the infield into 4 quadrants and the women filed onto the field and staked out their spots. They would have 3 minutes to dig in the first round. After that the quadrants would be shut down 1 at a time and the women in those quadrants would be eliminated from the competition. When the word was given, the action was fast and furious, all the women tightly focused on the big prize, a 1 carat, $2500.00 diamond pendant. The first segment expired with no winner and the women in quadrant 1 were dismissed. No winner in the 2nd segment either and the group in quadrant 2 were eliminated. The diamond still wasn't found in segment 3, and the women in quadrant 3 were moved over to quadrant 4 near the 3rd base line to dig 1 more time. This time, though, we had a winner, with about 20 seconds to go on the clock. It was buried about 2 feet behind the 3rd base bag, right along the line. Of the 80-100 women on the field, 1 was extremely happy. As they all cleared out, we surveyed the carnage, and were actually pleasantly surprised. Not nearly as bad as last year, and no plastic spoons to clean up. One more in the books and now it was time for a weekend break before heading into the final home stand of the season. So until Mon. Aug. 23rd, we'll see ya. Later..

Close, no cigar.....

2010-08-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

Wed. Aug. 18th - Back again, not live this time. Well a 3-1 lead last night dissolved into a 4-3 loss. They had a chance to make up some ground on the teams around them, but it wasn't in thee cards.

Tonight's game however, was a different story. They came out of the box strong, scoring early and often. Tom Milone, who's leading the Eastern League in strikeouts was on his game again, striking out 8, padding his lead nicely. The offense was clicking, too putting up 10 runs, for a 10-1 final. Unfortunately, all the others won too, so no movement. Other than that, not too much to report. Back again on Thursday , should be good, Diamond Dig Night. Stay tuned, later...

Live from MBP, City Island

2010-08-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

Tues. Aug. 17th. For the first time this season, I'm writing live from Metro Bank Park,watching the game and writing. So far Its been pretty tame. The only thing of note so far, Frank almost got smoked in the head by a line drive. Didn't miss him by much. A recent call up, Michael Burgess has hit 2 home runs so far, the 2nd a moon shot to right field, that landed well into the old horse corral. As of the bottom of the 8th, its 3-1 Sens. Altoona is winning, Bowie is losing and Akron won their 1st game, is losing in the 2nd. If we win, Bowie lose and Akron would happen to win their 2nd game, that would create a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the Western Division. Getting interesting, isn't its folks. Playoffs, who said anything about playoffs.... oh well we'll sort it out tomorrow. Until then, later...

1st one of the year...

2010-08-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

Thurs. Aug. 12th. This will be a short entry, but of note. We had our first rain out of the season. For us, that's pretty remarkable, considering the kind of weather we've had. We haven't had near as much this year as we did last year, but still we've had our share of delays. But up until now we've played every one of them. Until tonight. It rained on and off all morning, then absolutely poured around 3 o'clock. When Knute called he said the outfield was under water. So that's all I got to say about that. Later...

Someone I can identify with.

2010-08-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Tues. Aug. 10 th. After a welcome night off, it was back in for another short 3 game series with the Binghamton Mets. Things seemed very much the same, except that I could tell that there was a little buzz in the place. Turns out we were to see the City Island debut of Orlando Hernandez, 'El Duque'. The Nats had picked him up and sent him to Harrisburg to get back to big league form and probably a September call-up. I didn't spot him until I saw him walk out o the first base line for the National Anthem. He looked like a grandfather compared to all the young faces he was standing with. But someone who was only slightly younger than me, so that's good I guess. He went back into the dugout and disappeared into the clubhouse. I figured we wouldn't see him the rest of the night. But lo and behold, in the 6th inning, it was time for a pitching change and who comes running from the bullpen? Yep, El Duque. And he didn't pitch too badly for a first outing in a while. He didn't look like the El Duque who was the MVP of ALCS in 1999, but that was 10 years ago. He threw a lot of off-speed stuff and was pretty effective for 2 innings, striking out 1 and walking 1. And he got a big round of applause when he came out. Just goes to show you, if you stick around long enough, you 'll see some big names come through. I've sure seen my share. Maybe I'll see if I can snag an autograph. But until then, later...

Movie time, Movie time.....

2010-08-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Sat. Aug. 7th. Its scout camp out night. This has been a bit of a tradition on City Island for the past several seasons. Usually I don't think too much about it, because its just a bunch of Scouts and their leaders camping out in the outfield overnight. My participation in the past has been limited to roping off the infield and watching them file in as we're finishing up our work for the evening. I may have stayed around for 15 or 20 minutes after the work is done, but that's about it. But this year I would be in full participation. As you may or may not remember, I acquired an older VW bus/camper. I haven't really used it for camping other than sleeping in it out in the driveway at my brother-in-law's house in Delaware over the 4th of July. Now this wouldn't really be considering full fledged camping either, but to me, its roughing it. That evening's game was running a bit long and when it did finally end, we still had the ever-present Launch-A-Ball and the kids base race. And, of course, there were a gazillion kids there for the camp out. So until everything finished it was getting late. I finally was able to pull the van right onto the warning track and took a spot right in front of the home dugout. I had brought provisions for the evening (beer) and for the next morning (eggs, sausage, bagels, the grill, etc..) so I plugged in the on board frig. and moved all the breakfast stuff inside from the cooler and checked the beer to see if it was nice and cold(yep!) The scouts were all getting situated and I was getting set up as well, setting up the chairs for : Movie Time, Movie Time! That is Tim's catch-phrase for, well, movie time. They always have a movie for the kids and now that we have the new scoreboard, its pretty convenient. Nobody has to go anywhere, just kick back and relax by your tent and watch. When its over, you climb in you sleeping bag and fall asleep. But the movie is for the scouts. For the rest of us its beer drinkin' time, beer drinkin' time. We all headed back to the back picnic area, out of sight, out of mind and popped some tops and talked and laughed until about 2:30 in the morning. I almost forgot, too. It was alumni night on the grounds crew with former head groundskeeper, Ryan Schmidt in attendance. He was last on the job in 2oo5 so it was great to have him back in the house. Ryno now works at Lebanon Valley College as head groundskeeper for football, baseball, and softball. He slid right back into the job like he never left. After everybody dispersed for the night I stumbled back to the van, I discovered that I forgot to inflate the air mattress,so rather than start up the electric pump and disturb everybody I just climbed in and went to sleep. After several beers, it didn't take long. The next morning, though, sleeping on just the seat cushions took its toll. I was as stiff as a board, groggy and had a ferocious headache. But I managed to get up and wander around for a bit, taking care of a few things to get ready for the next game, which fortunately was at 6 PM instead of 2 PM. That gave me some wiggle room to go home clean up, get to church, and grab a nap before I had t be back. After a bit, I pulled the van back around to the back lower picnic area and broke out the grill and started cooking breakfast for myself and the other guys. I wasn't sure if trying to make breakfast on my portable grill was going to work, but it actually worked out great and everyone had a great start to their day. Knute, who rarely eats breakfast, said that this breakfast actually helped him make it through the day and Tim said his was the best bagel sandwich he ever had. So we all survived another scout camp out, I learned a few things about camping, and the Sens won the evening game. All's well that ends well. Until next time, later...

Tempus Fugit, Pt 2

2010-08-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

After all the backward looking and whining about how old I'm getting in the last post, I thought I'd do it a little more. Well, not too much. I was on vacation last week, so I wasn't in town for the series against Portland. I did manage to catch the Potomac Nationals at Wilmington. They were winning 2-0 into the 7th, but relief pitcher Zach Dials, whom I see was promoted to the Senators the other day, gave up 7 runs and that was that. The Blue Rocks have a strange little mascot named Mr. Celery, who comes out when they score and jumps around by the backstop, then runs back in. Very strange... but on Sunday morning I was checking the sens score on the web and noticed that the pitcher for Portland had a familiar name. His name was Casey Kelly. When I first started on the crew back in '96, the Sens manager was Pat Kelly. He was an ex-big-leaguer and a great guy. He also had a 6 year old son named... you guessed it, Casey Kelly. I wasn't sure if this was the same kid or not, so I checked his bio on the Seadogs web page and sure enough, it was him. My 2 kids were around the same age and used to hang out together during and after the games and had some daytime play dates as well. So the 6 year old is now 21 and working his way to the show. We had heard he got drafted last year and didn't hear too much after that. And now here he is. Wow, I'm really feeling old now. I just wish I would have been around to say hello, even if he didn't remember me. Time marches on......later...

Special Edition - Tempus Fugit

2010-07-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Tempus Fugit. If you're not up on your Latin, it means 'Time marches on'. Its Saturday July 24th. My son Alan's wedding day. All the relatives are here, all the plans are in place, so at 4 pm today he officially moves on to the next part of his life. And as the saying goes, 'My work here is done' I've worked for the Sens for 15 years now. He's been there for 10. And has hung out there the entire time I've been there. When I started there, he was 10 years old. he's 25 now. Just a kid then, a married man now. The emotions for me? Happy, for him. Sad, a piece of our lives is moving on. Proud. I think his Mom and I did a pretty decent job of getting him to where he is today. Incredulous, that the time has passed in the wink of an eye. Anyone who has small children thinks they'll be around for a long, long time. Trust me, it flies by like crazy. Nothing you can do about it.

The wedding went off without a hitch. His new bride looked beautiful. The whole family was there. Everybody had a wonderful time at the reception. And it all seemed to fly right by. before we knew it it was done. Nothing left but the opening of the gifts on Sunday, and then dropping them off at the Baltimore airport for their honeymoon trip.

So as I sit here on vacation writing this, I can only say this: Congratulations my son and good luck to you and your new bride on your new life together. I'm proud of and love you both. Mom and I will be around if yo need us. And hopefully we can spend a little more time together at the ballpark with, I can easily say, the best bunch of guys I've ever worked with there.

Later...

Almost done...

2010-07-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

So, I was supposed to work Monday and Tuesday nights. I was also playing in a golf tournament on Monday afternoon. But with a mid round rain delay at the tournament and a necessary trip back the office, I never made to the Island Monday night. Tuesday was another bout with rain before the game. but we got the game started before 8:00 and it was a relatively fast game, so it wasn't a real late exit. Wednesday's game was a day game, couldn't make that one, so I was done for the week. And with my son's wedding on Saturday and vacation at the shore to follow, I won't be back to the ball yard until August 6th. So until then, later.

Odds and ends (mostly odd)

2010-07-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

The rest of the home stand for me would consist of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday. Since I'm writing this post after the fact, I'll try and pick the most memorable moments. There are 2 that come to mind. With all the impending nuptials, (weddings, dude..) those events were a lot of the conversation in the dugout. In fact, we all got into the act, as Izzy decided he was going to order his wedding invitations online from the dugout laptop. The website was walking him through, and he was soliciting advice from the group as he went along. That has probably been one of the stranger goings-on in the dugout in recent memory. I'm not sure if it was the same night, but the Saturday night game stands out in my mind and probably will for sometime. It started on time, no rain delays and was a regulation 9 inning game. However, it took 4 and a half hours to play. It was dominated by the Sens in the early innings, but Altoona battled back. Going to the 9th, the Sens had, what we thought was a comfortable 14-8 lead. The game was running a little long at that point, not too terribly though. But the Curve proceeded to post up 10 runs, giving them an 18-14 lead. The way they got them was the main point of contention. First of all, to be fair, our pitchers couldn't get anyone out. Altoona pretty much hit everything they threw. But with 1 man on an Altoona batter hit a ball to right field. Now everyone in the dugout clearly saw it hit the yellow padding at the top of the wall. Ground rules say it must clear the pads to be a home run. And with the metal fencing above that, a home will make a loud clank and carom off in a weird direction. This ball came straight back, with no sound, to the right fielder. But the ump called it a home run. OK, not too much damage yet. But.... after a pitching change, the bases were loaded again. The next Altoona hitter launched one down the left field line and it was foul by about 10 feet. But the home plate umpire signaled a home run. The ballpark had been pretty quiet what with beating the Sens had been taking up 'til then. The place just exploded at that point. People were screaming for this umpires hide. Sens manager Randy Knorr stormed out of the dugout and laid into the umpire. Needless to say, he was tossed in short order. After he departed the verbal storm from all corners was still continuing. Before another pitch was thrown, Sens pitcher Aaron Thompson was ejected. He hopped the dugout fence and went straight for the umpire. Fortunately, Sens pitching coach, Randy Tomlin cut him off before he could make contact. He finally got him off the field, when apparently some other words were exchanged, and Tomlin went after the umpire, getting right up in his face. I don't think I've ever seen him do that before. they separated before he could get tossed, too. All the while, in our space we had kept up the verbal assault on the umpire. At that point, the 1st base umpire started our way, and not wanting to be next on he ejection list, reeled our tongues back in. However, as the game resumed, we took every opportunity to needle the home plate umpire when appropriate. Altoona pushed across 3 more runs to make it 18-14, completing the comeback. The Sens mounted a small comeback of the own in the bottom half, but could only plate 1 run, to make it an 18-15 final. At 11:33 pm. 4 hours and 33 minutes later. easily the longest 9 inning game I've ever attended. With the typical Saturday night post game festivities, our exit time was around 1AM, far later than I had planned. But since I did not have to work Sunday's game, it kind of worked out OK. I had 2 rounds of golf in he next 2 days, so I was looking forward to that. So until the next trip in, later.

Hey Stars. Can you come out to play?

2010-07-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 14th. The return of the All Star Game to City Island. 22 years after the last one. A long time coming. And as I awoke that morning, it was raining. Can't say that I was surprised. It wasn't going to be a smooth road to game time. I was going to be at the island by 8:30 am for setup work. But by the way it was coming down, I thought I'd wait awhile. At about 9 I decided to head downtown. Of course it was still raining, although more lightly than it had been, when I arrived. When I got in, I donned my mud clothes. All the years on the grounds crew have made me Mr. Practical. I brought along several changes of clothes, knowing that I would be a muddy, sweaty mess by game time. We had decided to wear something special for this game, to show off a little bit. We would all be wearing a black and red, Dri-Fit, all-star game logo-ed polo, khaki shorts and red hats. The dress for most games is the same in that we wear the same Carolina blue t-shirts and that's about it. But for tonight we would look like pros. No guarantee on acting like it, though. I headed for the dugout to hang out with everyone else to watch the radar screen and watch it rain. When I got there, Jordan, Doug, Asheleigh, and Knute were there, staring at the laptop. The word was that, hopefully, by 11ish we could get things started. All the boys were supposed to be in tonight, arriving at various times. The rain did finally slow down by 11, so we dumped the water off the tarp and got ready to roll. The first event was to be the semi-finals of the high school home run derby. high School kids from the area competed through the season to compete today. It was to start at 1 pm. we couldn't get things ready quite that fast, so it was pushed to 1:30. It did finally get started at 1:30 and went off smoothly. So far, so good. The preliminary round for the big boys started at 2:30. Chris Marrero represented the Senators and made a fine showing, hitting 8 homers, the last of which was a moon shot. his strongest competition would be Hector Gimenez of the Altoona Curve. The high school derby wound up after the big guys were done with a young gentleman from Lower Dauphin High School taking the honors. The Eastern League final round was a tight battle between Marrero and Gimenez duking it out with Gimenez coming on top with a couple of monster shots, the last one landing on the Island drive behind the team office building. and then it was onto the game. The rest of the crew had shown by then with all the guys dressed in their finest. We had more than a few compliments about how good we looked. one of the highlights of the pre-game festivities was the appearance of NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick. His Nationwide Series car is sponsored by Ollie's who just happen to be owned by 1 of our minority owners, Mark Butler.He got to take the car they had brought out around the warning to the loud cheers of the more than capacity crowd. He asked Tim beforehand if he could do some donuts on the field. Tim replied something to the effect of 'Sure, but it might be hard to drive your next race with 2 broken legs" or something like that. As a plus, though, Frank got to autograph the front of the infield machine. Its the first time in about 12 years that its value went into the plus column. Once the game got under way things settled down nicely, with Tom Milone of the Sens getting the start. It went back and forth for a while with each team scoring a couple of times, but the West blew it open in the 7th with Chase D'Arnaud striking the big blow with the grand salami. The next batter Andy Dirks of erie added a solo shot and the put the West in front to stay, the final 10-3. Ther was a huge post-game fireworks show, which I actually watched part of for a change. (My non-love for fireworks are well documented in earlier posts) Since Thursday was back to regular games, we got things cleaned up, but with the size of the crew, it was done in record time. Be nice if it was like that every night. So, 7 more game to this home stand and then a break. So until next time, later

MBP, Center stage

2010-07-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

OK, its run-up time for the Eastern League All-Star Game. If you are reading this, you're probably a moderate to hard-core fan off the Sens. And you;ll know that there hasn't been an All-Star game her since 1988, the 2nd season of baseball on City Island. So is it a big deal? In the words of Sarah Palin, "You Betcha!" It was an all-hands call to get the place spic and span for all the big shots and just regular old fans. From all reports, it should be a full house for the game. The weather is looking kind of iffy, so we'll be keeping a keen eye on that. We haven't had a rain out all year, yet so I don't see a little rain keeping this game from going ahead, unless its a monsoon at game time. I've been going in and doing a lot of extra work, getting the field in shape, putting it back to near opening day shape. Of course, it never looks as good as opening day, and as I've said before, its all downhill from there. But we do our best, with camouflage techniques and just general sprucing up. And I must say, when I left on Sunday, it looked pretty darn good. All that was left was general cleaning up and for Tim to paint the logo behind home plate. That was to take place on Monday evening with lots of paint and string and a fair amount of beer. However, a late afternoon rain shower it was canceled. Looks like a Tuesday day job, so I won't be there to help out. Most of the other finish work needed to be done by noon Tuesday and the weather didn't look all that great either. So my next trip will be in on Wednesday morning. I've taken the day off from work, so I can have the full experience. So, until then, later.

Catching up...

2010-06-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

OK, I'll admit it, I haven't been as diligent in updating these posts in a timely manner as I should. As I write this, its June 17th. My last post was written regarding the game of May 9th. Has a lot of stuff happened in the 17 games and a month or so since then? Yes, most definitely. Can I remember any of it? Well yes and no. I' m going to try and cover some of the highlights, but unfortunately, it will not be all inclusive. Wait, did I say June 17th? well that was when I started this post. I've finally gotten back to it on July 6th, so several more weeks and baseball games have passed. Oh wait, did I say July 6th? Actually I mean July 23rd. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, I been starting to write an entry and keep getting sidetracked a few sentences in every time. Either I'm at work, and you know how that tends to get in the way, or its late at night after a game and I fall asleep before I get a few sentences down. There's too much going on this summer with my son getting married and all the activity at the ballpark, starting with the Strasburg show and continuing with all the changes to our routine, the stinking hot weather, our fair share of rain and all the extra work leading up to the All-Star game. The highlights? I try to list them here as best as I can remember them. First of all in the personnel department: Frank finally made it back. It was great to finally get him back in the fold. His personality adds so much more to whole experience for me and I'm sure, the other guys, too. Sure we try to have fun every night, and we do for the most part. But, in my eyes, its that much more fun when he's around, with the lively banter and such. As for the others, like I mentioned before, my son Alan is getting married, tomorrow, as I write this. That's a whole 'nuther post right there. But wait, there's more! Izzy bought a house and is getting married at the end of September. And if that weren't enough, Knute and Asheleigh bought a house and are also getting married in October. How's that for an event list? So, houses were bought and rings were bought and plans are being made. I'm probably going to need to sleep for the entire off-season. So I think I'll stop here, regroup and collect my thoughts and we'll talk about the All-Star game and other stuff next time around. Until then, later.

Movin' Out...

2010-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

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..

2010-05-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-05-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-05-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2010-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-05-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-05-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-05-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-05-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

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...

And so, it begins...

2010-04-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

I love opening night. And in hate it just the same. It's the start of a new season, a fresh start, a new beginning, you know, all that crap. But its great to finally get things started, especially this year. A brand-spanking new stadium, a high-profile player in the house and all the buzz associated with it. And all the nonsense as well. The second game has always been more satisfying for me. All the pomp and circumstance is out of the way. But here we were. And everything is a little different this year. With 14 seasons in the books, I've fallen into a bit of a routine. I always park in the same place... but not this year. i always go in the same gate...but not this year. We always have a new uniform shirt and jacket or sweatshirt of some sort...well, close on that one. As I made my way onto the Island, there was a long line of traffic. Good and bad. Lots of folks in the house tonight, but getting where I needed to go was going to be a challenge. I saw the familiar faces of the parking lot guys, so that was good. Made it to the Walnut Street and there was Chuck, also good. The foot traffic was funneled behind temporary barriers so I didn't have to dodge the fans. Things were looking up. As I went to turn into our regular parking lot, it was fenced off! Spoke too soon. So I headed around back and made a quick call to Knute. As I was waiting, one of the back parking lot guys came over to check on me. The voice was familiar and so was the face. It was Shaggy, one of the clean-up guys from a few years back. Good to see another familiar face. I finally ended up parking up at the beach house and hiking back to the ballpark. I've been spoiled all these years, parking behind the outfield fence and slipping in the back gate, no muss, no fuss. Well I made it through the back gate, no problem. "Back-gate Ron" was at his familiar post, good to see another thing hadn't changed. I got dressed and headed up to the field. The New Britain Rock Cats were the opponent for the first series and they were still out on the field taking batting practice. Most of the guys were there already, with Alan and Izzy still fighting the traffic like I had a little while earlier. As I looked around, I could see the chaos beginning to build. As the Cats finished up Alan and Izzy arrived and we started the BP tear-down. Pretty smooth, I must say, even with the new cage. It came right down with no effort at all and we even got it through the back gate with a minimum of trouble. We hustled back to start the pre-game prep, since we would need to finish early due to the festivities before first pitch. In the house, and I must say, I was more than a little surprised, was Mayor Linda Thompson and Governor Ed Rendell. I really didn't expect either to show up, but here they were ready to fill the unusually warm April evening with even more hot air. But I wasn't prepared for the crowd reaction when the Mayor stood at the podium to speak. She was roundly booed by the near capacity crowd, which was, by the way, the largest opening night crowd I have ever seen in my 15 years with the Senators. Her response was less than gracious, which fanned the flames even more. A very awkward situation. It was extremely rude, I thought, whether they felt it was deserved or not and cast a shadow on what was, otherwise, a great day for baseball in Harrisburg. Governor Rendell was next and he was also booed, although to a somewhat lesser extent. But he handled with much more grace and defused the animosity before it could escalate any further. Finally, after all the hoopla, the game did get under way. Since the boys won exactly 1 game so far this year, we weren't expecting too much. But, they were playing the worst team in the North division or the Eastern Division I guess its called now. Realignment since Norwich moved to Richmond, another change. But they fell behind early, did manage to score a few runs and going to the 9th, were down 4-3. New Britain scored 1 in the top half of the 9th to take a 5-4 lead. we had a good feeling, though, starting the bottom of the 9th. There was still a substantial part of the crowd remaining and the new on-field entertainment coordinator, Bob Hauer was whipping them into a frenzy. Something must have clicked and the boys banged out a few hits and ultimately plated the winning run sending the Opening Crowd happy and christening out the new digs with its 1st W. it was a much more satisfying finish to rough start. We loaded up and knocked out the post game work and afterward enjoyed an adult beverage to celebrate the 1st win in the new house. we all headed for home to rest up, for the real chaos would be tomorrow night, the first home pitching appearance by the wunderkind, Stephen Strasburg. Until then, later...

Workout night

2010-04-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

I thought I could sneak out of work a few minutes early today to catch a little of the workout and maybe eyeball the boy wonder, Steven Strasburg. Things never quite work out like I hope, so I made it downtown at about 5:40. The workout this year started at 4 pm due to the fact that the electrical connections to the field lights had not been completed. Things had pretty much finished up by the time I headed down the warning track. Doug, Alan, and Knute were already there, so we chatted a bit as we watched them finish their workout. After they were done we cleaned things up, put the equipment away, and covered things up. Not too much drama this year. We retired to the the annex office to drink a beer and go over the schedule for next week. There was a high school baseball scheduled for Saturday, so Alan and I volunteered to come in and work, the first actual baseball game in the new Metro Bank Park. We also decided to come back in the next evening for a little dinner and fellowship. Should be a good time. Until then, later.

The Run-up Pt.2

2010-04-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well back on the Island on the day before Easter Sunday. Got a little more work to do on the batting cage to make it ready for workout night this upcoming Tuesday. An amazing amount of work has been done on the stadium itself, making me partially eat my words from last Saturday. This week it would just be Doug, Knute and myself. We headed to the field and got to work on the batting cage again. The main task would be to get the net fitted and anchored to the cage frame. I had done this several times in previous years, but this was a different type of cage, so we'll have to improvise a bit. All in all it went pretty smoothly and after about 3 hours we declared victory. It was all ready to go for workout night. The other guys broke for lunch, but since I needed to leave a little earlier today, I stuck around and assembled the new batting practice L-screens. After that, I called it a day and headed home. I'll be back for the workout night on Tuesday. Should be interesting to see how much more work is done when we get back. Until then, later.

The Pre-Season runup

2010-04-22T18:22:00.000-07:00

Well, its that time again. Heading for the ballpark on Sat. March 27th to do a little pre-season prep work. Most of the guys should be there today and we'll get a good look at the progress being made on the new facility. The last time I was there was the Monday after I returned from Florida. Progress was being made, but, to me, it looked like they had a long, long way to go. Would it be ready for opening night on April 15th. Maybe yes, maybe no. I have to admit, I had doubts. As I Pulled in I saw several of the guys there already. Doug, Alan and Knute, Tim and Ben. We all gathered in the back parking lot to catch up amid the the construction chaos. And chaos it was. There was crap everywhere and nothing looked anything like it used to. The only thing that was remotely the same was the annex behind the stadium. After a few minutes Frank arrived and the entourage was complete. We carried on for a few minutes and then headed to the field for some work. On the agenda for today: Field edging and batting cage construction. Tim assigned Knute and Alan to edging the field and Doug, Frank, and myself to the batting cage. The old batting cage had outlived its usefulness. About 5 years ago. That cage had been there since the Senators had first returned to City Island in 1987 so it had served its time well. It survived all those winters outside and lived through 3 floods.The time had come. The new cage was one of those fancy fold down models, the kind you see in big league ball parks. It showed up in about 20 packages. It did come with some assembly instructions and some pictures. Were they good assembly instructions? No. They were written in English, but they might have well been written in Swahili, because they weren't very helpful. We initially thought it might take about 4 hours to put it all together. Boy were we ever wrong. By lunch time, we didn't even have the basic frame together yet. After a short break and some food and drink, we were back at it. This time things started to come together pretty quickly. we got it all together by 3 o'clock. After that we decided to take the 50 cent tour. We traipsed around checking out the view from every level. The view from the suite level was quite impressive. Once everything is finished and cleaned up, it is going to be a very nice ballpark. Looks like we'll be back next Saturday to finish up the cage and a few other things. Until then, later.

Spring Training, Day 3

2010-04-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

It had the makings of a glorious day as we arose Saturday morning. I had my doubts about this particular hotel when we arrived, but it turned out to be quiet and comfortable and I had gotten a very good night's sleep. I met up with ed and Becky and we headed over to the nearby Perkins to grab some breakfast and map out our day. On the docket for today: Pirates vs. Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. It was a short trip to the ballpark from our hotel and we stopped at the ballpark to pick up our tickets and try to score another for Becky. We were able to trade our original tickets for 3 together right along the wall behind 3rd base. Afterwards, we had a few hours to kill before the gates opened, so we headed over to the nearest Starbucks to grab a little caffeine. After some coffee and conversation, we headed back over to the ball park. Ed Smith Stadium was what I pictured a Florida spring training facility. It was obviously an older stadium with none of the amenities that we saw over in Tampa or Clearwater. But it was surrounded by palm trees and other tropical foliage, very picturesque. as we found our way to our seats, we chatted with the security guy and found out that a total renovation was scheduled as soon as the spring training schedule was over. He assured us that it would look completely different next year if we decided to come back. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I thoroughly enjoyed the the intimate setting. Even the warning track was very Florida-like. I t was made up of sand and crushed seashells, totally different than the crushed red brick that I'm used to. The sun was shining brightly and it was warming up quickly as game time approached. The Pirates players came onto the field and their warm up area was directly in front of us, so we got a good look at most of what would be their opening day lineup. Garrett Jones came over and signed some autographs for a couple of women sitting beside us, who coincidentally turned out to be from the Harrisburg area. Imagine that, coming the whole way to Sarasota Florida and sitting beside people from the same town as you. Weird. After the pregame parade of the youth baseball teams, the game got under way. Early on, it looked like it was going to be a low-scoring pitcher's duel, not many hits, and the innings turning over quickly. It went back and forth until the 5th inning, when the regulars exited and the guys battling for the last few roster spots came in. The Pirates pitching started to bend a little and the O's took advantage, eventually posting a 5-3 win. As we made our way to the car, we vowed to make a return trip next if the good Lord willed and the finances cooperated. All in all, a very enjoyable junket for our first trip to Spring Training. The only thing left was a stop to visit with Ed's mom and sister for dinner and then head back to Tampa for the night. We'll be heading back north to Baltimore and reality on Sunday, but with a lot of great memories.

Spring Training, Day 2

2010-04-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

We awoke Friday morning to clear skies and the promise of more Florida-like weather, or so the Tv weatherman said. After packing up, we had a little breakfast in the lobby, again forced to hang out with the Yankees fans. Not really my idea of a good time. One guy went so far as to comment on my Pirates jersey with disdain. He was old enough that I should have hit him with " !960 World Series, Mazeroski vs. Terry, Maz parks it over the left field wall, Bucs win 4 games to 3 in a series that everybody said they never had a snowball's chance in hell of winning" Couldn't think of all that quick enough, though, but its a waste of breath on Yankees fans anyway. They have a convenient way of blocking that kind of stuff out. But, then again, we all do. We hit the road, heading south across the bay to Bradenton. It was a nice day and the views out across the bay were spectacular, with boats and wildlife. We actually had a bird of some sort buzz right in front of us with a fish in its talons. Not something you see every day in central PA. We finally made it to our next hotel in south Bradenton and met up with my niece. I hadn't seen her since her sister's wedding almost 2 years ago, so it was good to catch up. She had lost a lot of weight since then and at first, I thought it was her younger sister, Cassie. She told us all about her new job at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Orlando, which just opened, and how much she was enjoying it in her new role as a pastry chef. She was working some long hours, but seemed to like it just the same. We headed up to McKechnie Field and had to do a little horse-trading to get 1 more ticket for Becky. It was going to be a full house again today, with a ton of Red Sox fans in attendance. They're annoying, too, though not nearly as bad as the Yankee faithful. It was a windy day, not quite as warm as we hoped, but delightful nonetheless, as we made our way in the ballpark. McKechnie Field was not nearly as large as Steinbrenner, very intimate, so we wouldn't be that far from the action. We found our seats in the right field grandstand, squeezed all 3 of us into 2 spaces, thanks to some nice accommodating fans. Most of the Pirates and Red Sox regulars started so we were hoping for a competitive game. But is was, after all, the Pirates, so if it wasn't a butt-whippin' that would work too. There were a lot more highlights than at the Yankees /Rays game the previous night. Big Papi went long to open the scoring up for the Sox. Didn't take long for the Pirates to get on the board as Garrett Jones went yard for the Buccos, a 2 run shot. A few innings later, he had a 3-run shot to put the Bucs up again. That lead would hold up and we left smiling and the Red Sox fans, well, not so much. We had a couple of foul balls come our way, one was a screamer that hit off the top rail about 3 people down, where fortunately, the folks sitting there had left to get a drink. It caromed back down into the box seats making a nice souvenir for some lucky fan. Other than that, not too much else to report except for a Kent Tekulve sighting and the Pirate Parrot harassing the Red Sox fans, which I must admit, was very entertaining. We headed back to the car and made our way back to the hotel to change, relax for a while and check out some potential places for our supper. We met up later on and headed for Clearwater. Our destination was the Bonefish Grill. Since it was Friday, and I'm Catholic, and its Lent, seafood was on the menu and the rest of the group was on board with that. The restaurant was packed, but we managed to score some seats at the bar. We were seated right next to a woman to whom we referred to as "Big-Boobs Barbie" (use your imagination). After dinner, we headed for the ballpark. The game had already started by the time we got into the parking lot. We were in need of another ticket, since my niece was along and there seemed to be no shortage of people offering up extra tickets. We approached a guy who had some reserved section tickets and exchanged our lawn seats plus some cash for 3 together in right field. It turned out to be a good move on our part, as it was, again, a cool evening and i did not relish the thought of siting in the cold damp grass to watch the game. As for the game,it was fun to watch all the Phillies stars of last year's World Series in a very nice , modern facility. This ballyard was easily as nice as Steinbrenner Field and there were just as many people in the house that night. The announced attendance was a shade over 10500. Unfortunately, it was all Orioles this Friday evening. The O's pitchers took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, while putting up a few runs of their own. Phillies' hitters just could not put the bat on the ball, managing just 2 hits. But all told, it was a very enjoyable evening, cool, but not as cool as Thursday, with the promise of a sunny, warmer day on Saturday. We headed back to Bradenton and the hotel to check up on the basketball tournament scores and then hit the hay. Tomorrow we're heading for Sarasota for a game between the Orioles and the Pirates. See you then, later.

Spring Training Adventure, Pt. 1

2010-04-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

Again, I must apologize. I promised to blog daily about my trip to Florida and Spring Training, but never quite got around to it. I did manage to post a bunch of picture on Facebook, so if you go to my page (Jeff Wadsworth) you'll see about 40 or so shots of sunny, kind-of warm West-coast Florida. We left on a very chilly (33 degrees) morning from Baltimore, after a rather unusual drive down from Harrisburg. My son Mike had some car issues, so he was driving my regular daily driver and I got to go in the Vanagon. In case you don't recall from last years' posts, I acquired a 1982 VW Vanagon camper. I was a bit apprehensive about driving that distance, but the van did well, with the exception of developing a small hole in the exhaust. I was stopped in the morning rush hour traffic on the beltway near the airport and thought it sounded louder than normal and when I reached the parking lot, looked underneath and discovered a hole big enough to put my thumb in. It was going to be a noisy trip home. After negotiating my way through the airport and finding my brother-in-law Ed, we boarded our plane to head south. we had 1 stop in Atlanta, my least favorite airport in the USA. After escaping from there, we made it to Tampa in good time. It wasn't quite as warm as I expected when we exited the airport and couldn't really even have the windows down in the car on the way to the hotel. Our hotel was just a short drive from the airport, just right up the street from George Steinbrenner Field, spring training home of the New York Yankees and Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It would be a reasonable walk from the hotel to the ballpark, not bad at all. Unfortunately, the hotel was completely infested with Yankees fans! What way to start a vacation. we should have expected as much, but it was disgusting. Oh well, I guess if you win the World Series you've got bragging rights. After getting a little grub at a local sports bar and catching up on the basketball tournament, we headed over to Steinbrenner. It was probably the nicest of the 4 ballparks we visited, definitely had the most amenities. It was a sell-out crowd for the game, about 10500 in the house. we met people from all over the place that evening, and not just New York. The guys sitting beside us were from Sioux City, Iowa and Yankee fans to boot. They were just like us, in town for a few days of baseball. And the people sitting behind us were from Portland, Maine. They confessed to being Red Sox fans, but stayed in Florida for the winter months and decided to catch a Yankees game. Just scouting the enemy I guess. After a parachute drop-in by the Navy Seal sky-diving team, the game got under way. Nothing truly exciting to report, however, the youth baseball team sitting in front of us consumed an incredible amount of cotton candy, much to the delight of the very animated and entertaining guy who was selling the stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if those kids ran the whole way home and never slept a wink from all the sugar. Anyway, the Yanks won and we headed back to the hotel to check the basketball scores and then pack it in for the night. We had a 1:05 date in Bradenton to catch the Pirates/Red Sox, so we had to be on our way fairly early, to locate our next hotel and meet up with Ed's daughter/my niece Becky. All described in the next segment.

Stay tuned.

On the Cusp...

2010-03-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all. Its been about 4 months since I've posted, so look out, I've saving up, and its all about to pour out. We had scheduled a get-together with all the guys for a Saturday night in December. But as luck would have it, it was the Saturday that we got the snowstorm.The only attendees were myself, Alan, Knute and Asheleigh. My other son Mike tagged along, too so a good time was had by all, although the other guys were sorely missed. Earlier in December Doug and I met up and hooked up with Tim and Knute at the ballpark to get the 20 cent tour. Everything was still in the early stages of construction, but we were excited to see things taking shape and could envision the finished product. I've been following the action via the picture posts on the Senators website and the further along they get, the more anxious I get for the season to start. This place will be a jewel of minor league ballparks and a completely different experience for Harrisburg baseball fans. Lemme tell ya folks, if you haven't been to a game in a while, this is the year to go. I mean, we'll even have dugout suites! That's going to be the best place to see a game. And it looks like we're going to have a primo spot right on the 3rd base side. I'm planning to make another visit on March 22nd to check things out. March 22nd is 8 days from now, a Monday. A Monday, you say. What, no work, you say? I say, nay, nay. I am off that day, the last day of my mini spring vacation. On the 18th, I will be meeting my brother-in-law Ed in Baltimore to board a plane for Florida and a few days of Spring Training. We've been talking about going ever since they moved back East. And with all the crappy weather we've had this winter, we need this! We're heading into Tampa, getting there around noon and at 7 pm we'll be taking in the World Champion New York Yankees vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. Should be a great start to the weekend. On Friday, we head over to Bradenton. At 1 pm we see the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Later in the day we'll get to see the Baltimore Orioles take on the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater. On Saturday, we head down to Sarasota and check in on the Orioles once again as they take on, once again, the Pirates. After that, we're going to stop in and see Ed's mom, who lives in Sarasota. Sunday morning, we pack up and head back to reality. But, by then, it will be 1 more day in fantasy land with a visit to the new ball yard. If you're not counting, tomorrow, March 15th will make it 1 month to opening night on City Island. 30 short days. And this season should be 1 for the books. An awesome new ballpark, the Eastern League All-Star game in July, and, hopefully, a team good enough to take us back to somewhere we haven't been for a while. Can you say "The Play-offs". I knew you could.... And as an added bonus, maybe the circus will come to town. A.k.a. a visit from Steven Strasburg. So stay tuned, because I'll be here to document it every step of the way. I'll start by checking in from Spring Training later this week.

Stay tuned!

Later...

checking in.

2009-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well, long time, no ramble.... The professional baseball season is now complete with every level now complete and champions crowned. The Yankees (bleah) are the World Series champs, and the Phillies will have to regroup, retool, and figure out how to climb the mountain for next season. Judging by some of the talent we saw come through City Island this year, and with a few key signings and acquisitions, they should be able to make another good run. The Nats? Any body's guess. Haven't seen much movement yet, although I haven't kept a real close eye on the scene, so we'll see what unfolds. Steven Strasburg, from what I've read, hasn't really been lighting up the Arizona Fall League and missed the Player's Showcase game with a sore shoulder, I believe. So the only real news to report is the naming of new manager, Randy Knorr. Wasn't too surprised when I heard that John Stearns had been cut loose. My guess is he didn't really ingratiate himself with the upper management. But some of the things they do sometimes leave me scratching my head. I was happy to hear Randy Knorr is coming to City Island, though. By all reports, I've heard he's a good guy, a real student of the game, and should be a good fit here. I haven't heard if they've named any other staff yet, but it would be nice to see Randy Tomlin and Troy Gingrich return, too. If they don't, I won't be all that surprised. It might be a total makeover for next year. The only things left will be us old farts on the Grounds Crew, exercising our superior intellect for "Are you smarter than..." I've been watching the pictures of the stadium renovations on the Weatherbug web cam. Moving right along, starting to look like a ballpark again. The field, as usual, looks immaculate. At last glance it looks like the basic framework for the dugouts, the seating areas behind the 3rd base dugout, the dugout box seats and some of the concourse areas are starting to take shape. I think the weather has been decent enough for them to move along at a fairly rapid pace. I really must head over there one of these days and get an up close and personal view of things for myself. Until then, I'll watch the Weatherbug web cam to keep abreast of the progress. You can too at www.weatherbug.com, punch in zip code 17105, and click on weather cams. There should be a choice for City Island that shows a view from the annex building behind 1st base. It gives a still picture and a time lapse version by the hour, several hours and for 30 days. Pretty cool. Other than that, haven't really spoken to any of the other guys in a while. It's going to be time to schedule the holiday get-together soon, to go out and eat and drink and catch up. Frank should be settled in his new house by now, hope every thing's going well there. Other than that, I've just been working, doing a lot of home remodeling stuff and tinkering with my Vanagon. I'll check back in when I catch up with the guys, or if some earth-shattering news comes along.
Until then, later....

Headin' for the Show...

2009-09-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. Been awhile, so I thought I'd check in. Its been kind of quiet for me since the end of the baseball season. I've been filling the time with work, doing all the things around the house (well, some of them) that I never got around to during the summer, and doing a little of the car show circuit. So far, I've cleaned the garage somewhat, did some major cleaning up of my VW Beetle and Vanagon. My wife and I attended a huge VW show in New Jersey on the 20th and snagged a 3rd place in the Vanagon class. (OK, so there were only 3 entries in that class, but that's beside the point) We're also getting ready for some major exterior remodeling of the house, so there are some other projects I'll have to tackle once that's finished. The ballpark renovation is going full force as w I write this. Knute sent me some pictures the other day and the old ballpark looks like a shell of its former self. I see great things for our ballpark in the future. (Apologies to Walt Whitman...) I did manage to make a little trip down south on the 27th. Knute, Asheleigh, my brother-in-law Ed, and I went to DC to see the Nationals take on the Braves. I've not been to the new ballpark yet, but I must say, I was very impressed. Everything was done right there, from location 2 blocks from the Metro, to every amenity inside. The drive is long, but taking the Metro avoids paying the $25 to $40 to park. (highway robbery) Of course, tickets aren't cheap either, but we have connections and landed in the Diamond Club section ($140 seats!!!) for nuttin'. Great seats about 25 rows back of the home plate on the 3rd base side. Waitress service (that left a lot to be desired. we were pretty much ignored the entire time), and very pricey food and drink, but we expected that going in. It was raining when we left Harrisburg, imagine that, but we slugged through and by the time we Timonium, MD it had stopped and the sun was staring to break through. After a small delay due to an accident on I-695 we made to the Metro station. My brother-in-law, Ed was already there and had purchased our train tickets, so we hopped on the train and were on our way. We made it to the stadium just after the gates opened and walked in to take in the place. Very spacious, laid out nicely, great views, and lots of food choices. It was easy to get around inside, but I suspect that was because there were not very many people there. A bit of a shame, but bad baseball will cause that. Another 100 loss season in the books. But, if you believe what you read in the program, there's light on the horizon. They've been drafting well, and if the pieces fall into place, there's better days in the offing. Dare we say it: playoffs? we'll see... The game started off well. The Nats got back-to-back homers from Ryn Zimmerman and Josh Willingham to take a 2-0 lead. It went back and forth until, by stretch time, the Braves had made it 3-3. The Nats got a lead off triple in the bottom of the 7th, but just could not push a run across. By the 8th, it started to.... wait for it.... rain. Who'da thunk it. Dammit, it follows us wherever we go! We sat through it for an inning, and then went into the Diamond Club to watch the rest on TV. It went to the 10th, with the Braves pushing across 2 runs on some dumb mistakes by the Nats. They went 1-2-3 in the bottom half and that was that. Not that we were terribly surprised. Hey, it is what it is. Wait'll next year! (insert your own cliche here...) But we had a good time on a nice day. That's all that matters. And the trip home was uneventful. ( Except for the Steelers blowing it.) We parted company and made plans for another outing soon. No details, but I'll be sure to report in when we do. So with that said, I'll leave it at that. Later...

That's all Folks...

2009-09-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Thursday Sept. 3rd, game 71 of the home slate, the last game at Riverside-Commerce-Metro Bank-Stadium-Park. As I made my way onto City Island tonight, a lot of things were going through my mind. It was the last home game of the regular season. But we still had a shot at the playoffs. As much as I was ready fo the season to be over, the playoff buzz still resonates with me. I've been coming to baseball games on City Island since 1988. I haven't missed a playoff series since. The 1st 4 years I worked on the grounds crew, we won championships. I know for the full time guys it just extends what is a brutally long season. But this isn't the way I make my living. But it has become a way of life for me. Nothing beats a run at the championship. So if it happens, I'll be there to drink it all in. But if it ends tonight, that's ok too. But I'll miss hanging out in the cubby with my friends every night. We had a rough year, weather-wise, probably the worst I can remember in my 14 seasons, but we slugged through it and had a helluva good time doing it. We really, really had a good time doing it! That said, as we got ready for the game, there we chairs and a podium out on the field. Festivities, one last time. They had gathered up a lot of the former staff to come back and say a few words to send off the old ballpark. Rick Redd, Todd Vanderwoude, even the first owner Jerry Mileur. And of course, the driving force, Hizzoner Mayor Steve Reed. Its gotta be a bittersweet night for him, finally getting to point of getting a proper home for his crown jewel, professional baseball on City Island, but probably on his way out as mayor. But he can be proud of what he's accomplished here. Pretty much single-handedly and with a lot of people saying it would never happen. It all came to a close with an outstanding video put together by Director of Game Entertainment, Aaron Margolis. Superb. The game finally did get under way about 7:30. After the late night last night, it didn't look like we would get out early tonight either. Not that it was in the cards anyway, with post game festivities of our own, for a change, on tap. And the whole gang was in tonight. The highlights of our night were numerous. We celebrated the last night with our last trip to The Spot stand. The eats were on the Spot tonight. Sweet! I decided to celebrate the old park's last night by breaking out the retro uniforms. My 1st crew shirt, the old crew shorts, the 1st jacket and several old hats. Stylin'. And of course, the last rendition of "Are you smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew" We went down again tonight, but are very much looking forward to next year's contests. As for the game, the Sens got out of the box quickly with a 2 run 1st. It went back and forth until the ninth, tied at 3. They worked it, got some runners on and Joel Guzman delivered the game winner, a fly ball to the wall, a perfect ending to a perfect night. The post game was a lot of handshakes and farewells to players and staff. Would we all be back next week. Who knows, so we''ll just enjoy the night. We did do a little cleaning up, not a whole lot though. After we finished, I saw Frank just sitting on the tractor behind 2nd base. I walked out to see if everything was OK. He said he was just doing a little reminiscing, thinking about all the nights we spent here and all the the people we got to know over the years. I took out my phone and snapped a few pictures of the way things looked one last time. I thought of all the good friends I'd made here over the last 14 years. Too many to count. And the way the ballpark had slowly changed. And next year it would look completely different. I'll miss the old place. once I see the new place, I'll decide how much. After we finished, we headed for the back to hang out to have a few beers, smoke a big cigar and send another season into the books. I hung in there until about 1 AM. But I knew I still had work in the morning, so I gathered all my stuff and hit the road. 14 years. That's the longest I've had any job for 1 continuous stretch. Hopefully I'll be back for a 15th. maybe I'll check in from time to time to catch up on what's going on with the guys and the ballpark construction. Until then, Tim, Knute, Ben, Frank, Doug, Izzy, and Alan, thanks for one more great year in the sun. Later.......

Edging closer...

2009-09-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

Sept. 2nd, Wednesday night, 2 games to play tonight, 1 more tomorrow, and that, as they say, is that. After the exciting win last night, there's a bit of a buzz going. I've been there before. It's a playoff buzz. Do the boys have enough momentum? Not sure. They've been playing like champs for weeks now, so these last few games will show us what they're made of. I think they've got a legitimate shot. The pitching has been outstanding and the hitting timely. But with a the player movement in the last few weeks, we'll see if all the parts are in place. Even if they come up short, it bodes well for next year. That would be great. A kickass team in a kickass new ballpark tearing it up. Sol, we'll see I guess. Since tonight its a double-header the first game started at 6 o'clock and since I work until 5:30, the first game had already started byt the time I hit the Island. The crew for tonight was Frank, Alan, Izzy, Knute, and myself. There was talk of some rain, but it was a nice night for baseball. The first game moved along fairly quickly, with the Sens jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead. Things were looking good. Tonight also had several little twists, such as a bonus drag after the 3rd inning guest starring the boys from Section 13. It all went down pretty smoothly, with no incidents. After that, at the end of the 4th, it was time, once again, for "Are you smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew" The question tonight: What is the only mammal that can't jump?" Alan was the keeper of the correct answer, an elephant. The other answers: the duck-billed platypus, and the manatee. The lady was too smart for us and picked the right answer. I guess we'll have to be even more diabolically clever in the 2nd game. As for the the game, the Seawolves tied it up in the 4th inning and pushed another run across in the 6th and the boys could get no closer. Damn, back under .500. Well, we had 1 more game to climb back in. We had been keeping a close eye on the out-of-town scoreboard. Both Bowie and Reading were losing, so it would be great time to pick up some ground on them. So after a quick redo between games, we got under way for # 2. Game 2 did not start as well, with Erie jumping out to a quick lead. The Sens battled back, but just could not seems to put any runs on the board. The only brief highlight was an encore of "Are you smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew" This time we sharpened up our answers and came away victorious. I can't remember what the question was for the life of me, but I know we won. Unfortunately more than i can say for the Sens, as they did some serious damage to their playoff hopes by dropping game 2 as well. So, 2 games under .500 and 3 and half games out of a playoff spot. It was getting late, so we tried to slug through the post game work as quickly as possible. With a larger crew it didn't take long at all. So its down to 1 game. See ya tomorrow night. Later.

In search of .500

2009-09-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

September 1st, 3 home dates and 4 games left. 1 game under .500 and 4 games back of a playoff spot. Inching ever closer to the seasons' end. It was another perfect weather night as I arrived on City Island. Maybe we really could finish this thing off without a tarp pull. The opponent tonight were the Erie Seawolves 3 games and 2 spots ahead of us in the standings. If the Sens could pull off a win tonight, and they got some help from the other teams ahead of them it could put them within shouting distance of the playoffs. (Take it Izzy: "Playoffs! Whose talking about Playoffs?!!) Nothing too out of the ordinary happening tonight as far as I knew. Just pregame prep and onto the game. That's pretty much the way it went down. Of course we did hear a little story about why the Senators supposedly suck. Seems we're not doing our job according to a player who shall remain nameless. Hmmmm. Maybe if we really didn't do our jobs very well, he'd see how bad it really could be. And opposing teams don't seem to be making quite as many errors as we are. So you do the math. Enough said about that. The game got under way, went back and forth for awhile and settled in at 7-7 at stretch time. That brought to what was quickly becoming the highlight of our evening: Are you smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew? The question for this evening: How much of the Earth's surface is covered by ice? Participants for the game tonight: Doug, Alan, and myself. Doug was provided with the correct answer which was 20 percent. We lined up on the field and the question was asked. My answer: 9.5 %, my reason being global warning and the loss of polar ice. (I personally don't believe that, but that's beside the point). Alan's answer: 45%, claiming that global warming was a huge sham perpetrated by the liberal media. Doug stated his answer of 20%, claiming that he went to school long before either me or Alan, and his teachers were right. The contestant picked correctly and we went down this evening. After Alan gave his answer, he received a huge round of applause. I guess it was Conservative Tuesday. OK by me. As for the game, the Sens put up a huge run in the bottom of the 8th and closed it down in the 9th, officially putting them at .500. A huge milestone for this team who was left for dead by the end of May. Its actually fun to watch baseball again and I'm hating to see the season come to an end. So 1 more in the books, 2 more days and 3 games to go. We play a make-up double-header tomorrow night, so I'll check back in then. Later

The Home Stretch..

2009-09-02T06:06:00.001-07:00

Monday Aug. 31st. 4 home dates with 5 games to go. Seems like last week we were just getting started. But I can tell that we're winding down. All the signs are there: gets dark sooner, need to put on the sweatshirt when the sun goes down, and the field is looking pretty beat. And everyone has the short-timer syndrome. You know, survival mode, just trying to make it to the end. For the full time guys on the staff, its a bunch of long days strung together, fighting the unbelievably crappy weather this year. I know how it wears on me, working all day, then being at the yard until late, then going home to catch a little sleep, then doing it all over again. It catches up with you after 5 and half months. When I arrived on City Island, things were pretty much as they always were, except it wasn't raining for a change. In fact, it was beautiful and the weather forecast for the rest of the week was the same. Quite a change. Don't know if we can deal with it. We'll make do. The crew for the evening: Frank, Izzy, Knute, and myself. As always, pregame was as smooth as silk. No delays, and right to the start of the game. it game 4 of a 4 game set with Connecticut, who had already clinched the Northern division and a playoff spot. The Sens won the first game, lost games 2 and 3, so were looking for a split. A playoff spot is still a possib ility. Things of note tonight: demolition has begun on the left field bleachers. I get to drive a brand new 2010 Ford Taurus chauffeuring a Ford exec to throw out a first pitch. Nice ride. And 1 more thing I'll get to in a second. The Sens jumped on it quickly, grabbing a 5 -1 lead by the end of the 5th. At drag time, the theme was stadium construction. Hard hats all around for the drag. Actually, Frank and I wore our old fireman's helmets. Odd but totally in character for us. After the drag, we had out traditional meal, a Spot Dog. The clock was ticking on the season and Spot Dogs as well, so we wanted to squeeze in as many as we could. After that we loaded up for post-game , then went back to hang out in the cubby. About the top of the 7th, Sarah Keel, 1 of the front office people popped her head into the cubby and asked if we would like to help out with a contest. Usually that's not our thing, but the contest they were about to do usually involved the interns. But since most of the interns had departed for the season, they needed some help for " are you smarter than a Senators intern" They would ask us a question and we would provide 3 answers and they would would have to decide which answer was correct. We were provided with the correct answer before hand, so we had to come up with 2 more plausible answers. The interns just came up with an answer, but we decided to punch it up a little and give an explanation why we thought our answer was correct. Tonight's question: "What state was the potato chip invented in?" Correct answer was New York, provided by me. Izzy said PA, since he read it was the snack food capital of the USA. I said New York, because the hot dog was introduced at ConeyIsland in NY, and the potato chip was the perfect side dish to the hot dog. Frank went with Idaho, because it is the potato growing capital of the USA. The contestant picked Idaho, was wrong and had to admit she was not smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew. Kings of the County! As for the game, the Sens went on to win 8-4, putting them 1 game shy of the magical .500 mark. They haven't been at .500 since the 2nd game of the season. They were 21 games under .500 on June 1st. Its been quite a climb back, so hats off to them. They could have packed it in a long time ago, but never quit. I'd have to put this team just below the 1987 team and the 1999 team, character-wise. If they would happen to make the playoffs, it would be nothing short of amazing. So tomorrow night they go in search of another win. We'll see. So until tomorrow, later

Afternoon delight?

2009-08-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Aug. 20th. Only 9 home games in 8 days remaining in the 2009 season. After this home stand, the old ballpark will start to change shape. The left field bleachers will be taken out to prepare for the next phase of renovations to the old ball field. It was hot and humid again as I headed to City Island from work. The game was under way when I arrived, so I changed and headed to the cubby to meet up with the boys. When I arrived it was Knute and Cullen. (Cullen is one of the day guys. This is his last game, since he is heading back to school next week) Altoona had already jumped out to a 2-1 lead, so the boys were working from behind again. The game moved along nicely, but it was starting to cloud over again. We were keeping an eye on the radar, watching a small storm heading our way. We managed to dodge the rain until the 7th inning when a light rain began. It looked like it would be short-lived, but wasn't stopping. After the top of the 7th, the umps called for some Turface, so we went out en mass to spread what we had. We were running low on Turface trying to stretch it to the end of the season and save the budget, so we could only do so much. It became apparent that the rain wasn't stopping, so we ran for the tarp. The tarp was covered with Turface and still pretty wet from the night before, so we knew it was going to be a bear to roll out. We finally got it to the home stretch, when the back of the tarp hit the infield dirt. The infield, at this point, was wet and sticky like glue. Add to that the fact that it was covered with water and the tarp stuck to it like a magnet. We hadn't gotten past the 3rd base line yet, and it would not move another inch as hard as we pulled. So that was that. The 3rd base line was like a moat. It was obvious that this game was in the book. When it finally stopped raining, we took the tarp back off to survey the damage. There was still standing water everywhere and the infield was a muddy mess. The umps and managers took a quick look around and decided that that was it. We rolled up the tarp, cleaned up as best we could, and called it a day. It was only 3:15, so we had a few beers and then headed for home. I know things will look a lot different when I come back next week, so it should be interesting. And it will be the final home stand of the season, the end of my 14th year in the dirt. So I"ll talk to you then. Later.

A Late Night...

2009-08-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

As uneventful as Tuesday night was, Wednesday night was just the opposite. Rain, heavy rain, as usual, was forecast for this evening. It did not disappoint. The tarp was on when I arrived on City Island. It had not yet started to rain, but it was only a matter of time.It started around 6:20 and got heavier as the time went along. I really didn't think that this game would be played, as hard as it was raining. Altoona had no desire to play it. Our guys really didn't want to play. The alternative, however, was a double-header on Thursday, ordinarily not a big deal. But tomorrow's game was a 12:00 start, our guys were leaving for Portland after the game, and, surprise-surprise, there was a 60% chance of rain. So we were waiting it out. It was also 80's night, so there were some interesting outfits on the office staff this evening, and a lot of 80's music and trivia from the scoreboard. The rain finally stopped about 8:30 and now the task of getting the field playable began. We got to it and and the game was able to start just after 9:00 pm. If we played our usual 3 hour game, that meant we'd finish around midnight. And after post game work, we'd get home around 1:15 or 1:30 am. Really looking forward to that. The crew tnight was a repeat of Tuesday, Izzy, Alan, Knute, and myself. The game limped along and the 2 teams traded leads for a while. The Sens finally took a 6-5 lead after the 7th and were able to hang on to take the win. We blew through the post game work as fast as we could, not really giving it our A game. It would have to do, since it was starting to rain again. We headed for the back, and had a few beers, while we recapped the evening. We all agreed that it was probably the worst weather night of the year. After that, we packed it in and headed for home. I'll be back in for Thursday's game, cutting out of work for half a day. Until then, later.

Drawing a blank...

2009-08-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I was definitely on City Island on Tuesday Aug. 18th. I'm just now getting around to an entry for this game. Its Sat. Aug. 22nd. What do I remember about this game? Not much. We were opening a 3 game series against Altoona. It rained earlier in the day, but was dry by the time I arrived at the ballpark and the game was scheduled to start on time. I think pre-game went well, and I think the crew was definitely Knute and myself, and , I think Izzy, and Alan. Our guys didn't play particularly well, as the final was 7-2. That's as much as I can report. Something else significant probably happened, but I just can't remember any of it. So I'll leave it at that. Later.

A Quick Shot...

2009-08-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

Didn't work Aug. 15th or 16th, due to family obligations. The Sens won both games. Monday is an off day, so I'll be back in Tuesday Aug. 18th. Later

Into the dark....

2009-08-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Friday August 14th, 13 home dates until the end. This particular night should be interesting, if nothing else. It is billed as "Halloween Night at the Ballpark". On a hot, humid night in August. Like I said, interesting. As I made my way onto City Island, I fully expected to see staff members in costume. I wasn't disappointed. There were several different things happening at the ballpark tonight. It being a Friday, of course there would be fireworks. As I already mentioned, it was "Halloween Night". And a personal appearance by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The guys had been talking about this since last home stand. We were all fans of Elvira. If you know anything about her, you'll understand why. If not, Google her and it should become readily apparent. When I arrived, pregame prep was underway. Doug was manning the chalker this evening, and had some issues with it while he was putting in the batter's boxes. The left hand box was a little thick. We referred to it as the western wall. After we finished up, Tim came over to inform us of our additional duties for the evening. We were to make sure that Elvira's trip down the warning track, to the pitcher's mound, and out the left field gate was as smooth as silk. I would be the chauffeur's assistant, helping Art Mattingly, the team bus driver and supplier of the convertible, get Elvira on and off the field. Frank and Doug would assist with the red carpet and escorting her to and from the mound. Frank was taking his work seriously tonight. Things went as smoothly by our standards, and she made to the left field boardwalk with a minimum of difficulty. And the game almost started on time. We grabbed our usual spots in the cubby and chatted about the pregame events. Elvira, from distance, still looked pretty good, fit and slim, with the large accouterments, which I, based on my observations, are unenhanced. She's 58 years old and up close, she looks it. no bad, mind you, just 58. At one point, we got a call from Tim. Seems we needed to provide some valet parking services for some VIP's. I had the pleasure of driving a Mercedes SUV. If I win the lottery, I'm getting one of those babies. Very nice. As the game rolled along, it was a low-scoring affair. There were some missed opportunities, some plays that were not so heads-up, but they were only down 3-2 heading to the 9th. The pitcher in the top of the 9th, threw 1 gopher ball that the batter laid into and parked it, giving Trenton a 4-2 lead. The boys managed to get some runners on and get 1 run, but came up short 4-3. Post game was the usual Friday fiasco, fireworks, Launch-a-Ball, etc. We did manage to get through post game fairly quickly and had time for a beer before wrapping it up for the night. Next outing for me, Sunday. Talk to you then. Later.

Can you dig it???

2009-08-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday August 6th, counting tonight's game there are 14 home dates left in the 2009 season. There are actually 15 games to be played, due to a double-header to make up a rain-out from earlier in the year. Tim made the call for all hands for tonight's game. There was some speculation of an announcement at tonight's game. What could it be? Presentation of the Eastern League Groundskeeper/ crew Award? Turns out, no. It was for extra help due to the Diamond Dig after tonight's game. As we were leaving Wednesday night, the lights had all been turned off and Tim and Knute were taking measurements for the burying of the box that would contain the fake diamond necklace. The real McCoy would be given to the woman who dug up the box later on this evening. When I arrived on City Island, the whole gang was there. Knute, Alan, Frank, Doug, Izzy, and even day-guy Ben. Pre-game prep was under way and, with that much help, we were done in record time. There were several big topics to discuss tonight. First and foremost was the suspension of 2 Senator players, Edgardo Baez and Offilio Castro. Seems they had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, each drawing a 50 game suspension. So that will do it for their respective seasons and probably do some serious damage to their careers. i don't believe either was either on or high up on the prospect list. Not good. So there was at least 1 new face in the lineup tonight and a lot of juggling of position players. As we expected, the boys fell behind quickly, with the usually reliable Erik Arneson struggling on the mound. by the end of the 3rd they had fallen behind 5-0. By the way that the Mets were smacking the ball around, it seemed like it should be a lot more. The Sens were able to post up 3 runs in the later innings with a few small rallies, but came up short in the end. After the game, the "fun" was about to begin. We had heard there were about 120 women registered for the Diamond Dig. It sure looked like a lot more than that lined up outside the gates. The attendance tonight was surprisingly larger than what was expected, with about 4500 or so in the park. The pre-sale was less than a quarter of that, so the walk-ups must have heard about $2 beers and a shot at a $2500 diamond. We roped off the infield and lined off 4 sections for the women to dig in. As we were setting up, the office personnel were handing out plastic spoons to the participants and boxes of spares to us to hand out in case of breakages. Once the women had all chosen a spot, the rules were announced. They could dig anywhere in the infield dirt in their chosen section for 5 minutes. If no one had located the diamond in that time, which they hadn't they would eliminate 2 sections and the women would move to those sections. As they started, it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to bee all that easy. The infield was almost as hard as the street and digging with a plastic spoon was, well, difficult. I had several offers of cash for any insight as to where the diamond might be, but, alas, I had no idea. As I met up with the rest of the guys from the crew, we all agreed that the best part of this event was the B & B Show (boob and butts). The women were so focused on what they were doing, some fanatically so, that modesty had flown out the window. That was the upside. The downside was the huge mess they were making of the field. After the 2nd segment had ended with no one locating the diamond again, the women all moved to section 1 near 1st base. While they were there, we started picking up all the broken spoon pieces, filling in the holes they had managed to dig, and raking the dirt that had been thrown into the infield grass back into the infield. When the time had finally expired, no one had located the diamond. At that point, the map and locator string was brought out. The women were instructed to place their right foot on the spot they thought the diamond was located and hang tight. Once the spot was located, and it took a little digging, the box was uncovered and 1 woman was very happy indeed. The rest, not so much. After we had herded everyone off the infield, we finished picking up pieces of spoons and brought out the tractor to try and return the infield to its previous state. All told they girls went through almost 1000 spoons. My guess is we'll be finding little pieces of them until the end of the season. After all that hoopla, what could top off the evening? Why another visit from a skunk! A small skunk came waddling through the 1st base gate, and right in to the 1st base cubby. We had it cornered and were waiting for Ben to bring the pellet gun. In the meantime, the skunk was trying to make a break for it. When he made it to the top step, Izzy nailed it with a rake, mortally wounding it. needless to say, the smell was powerful indeed. we managed to scoop it up with a shovel and deposit it in the garbage can from the dugout. My guess is that the garbage can stayed there until the next morning. After that, we all sat down to have a beer and cool off for a few minutes. After a beer it was pretty late, so we all packed it in for the evening. Next game is not until the 14th, so we'll take a break until then. Talk to you on the 15th...

Groooovy, baby

2009-08-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night, City Island. Promotions, promotions, promotions. Cheap gets cheaper night. Notre Dame night. 70's night. If you couldn't find a reason to come to a baseball game Wednesday night, then there's just no pleasing you. I headed down to the Island Wednesday evening, still a little bleary-eyed form the late night before. Since it was 70's night, I decided to bring a little 70's of my own to the ballpark, and drove my '73 Volkswagen Beetle. The plan there was to, at some point, possibly take it out onto the warning track and throw t-shirts or softee balls to the crowd from it. When I arrived, a decent crowd was staring to file in, including a return appearance of the Middletown H.S. Band. They were scheduled to perform the National Anthem earlier in the season at a game that was, imagine this, rained out. Also in attendance tonight was my youngest sister Michelle and her 2 children Ryan and Haley. They had stopped in Harrisburg for the evening, on their way to our hometown of South Fork, for the yearly family reunion. When I got to the field, the guys were already underway. We got things done in our usual efficient, speedy manner. In attendance this evening, Frank, Doug, Jordan, Knute and myself. I noticed several of the staff had very authentic 70's attire on for the evening. I wish I had saved some of the clothes I wore in high school in the 70's. I would have been cool. The conversation in the cubby was about the clothes we wore back then, laughing about the double-knit leisure suits, platform shoes, lapels that could put an eye out, and ties as wide as the Susquehanna river. Good stuff. The game itself started off with the guys in a hole, trying to dog out. They never really did, dropping a 4-2 decision, wasting several good opportunities. The game actually had potential to finish in under 3 hours, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. I did make it out at a semi-decent hour, with no skunk visits or tarp pulls for a change. Thursday is the last game of the home stand, with all hands called in. Something special is going on tomorrow night. I don't know if some kind of announcement will be made (Eastern League Grounds Crew of the Year, maybe?) or what. Or maybe it has something to do with the little box Tim and Knute were burying in the infield as we were leaving. Tomorrow's promotion is the Diamond Dig. That'll be a hundred or so jewelry-crazed women destroying our infield. Oh well, I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. Until then, later..

It's a celebration...

2009-08-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night we were back at it after an off day Monday, kind of weird scheduling with a 6 game home stand split by an off day, but a nice break nonetheless. Tuesday night would be a special one. it was Tim Foreman's birthday, his 40th. We had been planning a little post game celebration for about week, so we were looking forward to this evening. Tim had no idea what was going down, so that made it even better. All the guys would be in for tonight, with Doug, Frank, Knute, and myself working the game, and Izzy, Alan, and the day guys sneaking in later to hang out, eat and drink after the game. It was a nice night for baseball on City Island, hot, hazy, and humid which is typical for August, but as you know, the weather has been anything but typical this year. We knocked out our pregame work, while chatting about how we were going to get things setup for the after-game festivities as we were watering the infield. As the game got under way, the Binghamton Mets, out opponent for this series, jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead. The boys fought back and put up a 5 spot in the bottom of the 5th and took charge. They tacked on 2 more in the 7th and it finished 7-2. After the game, the party got started. Tim was still unaware of what was going on, I could even smell the turkey frying out back. He was making noises about taking off, so I had to spill the beans. Once we made it to the back, it was time to pull the turkey out of the fryer. I had turned the heat up too high initially, so the oil turned a little dark. When we pulled the bird out, the skin was black. It looked like we had actually fried one of the skunks we shot the other night. Actually, once we peeled back all the blackened skin, the meat underneath was tender, juicy and delicious. Frank had gotten some fresh sausage earlier in the day and had thrown it on the grill, so it was a nice post game feast for all of us. Tim had also accumulated 3 birthday cakes during the course of the evening, so there was plenty of cake as well. We all sat down and had something to eat and then it was time for the birthday toast. Tim poured out the cups of blackberry brandy and we all raised a glass to his 40 years. But it seems we would have a party crasher. Lo and behold, but who should show up, but one of the family of skunks. Knute ran for the pellet gun and the hunt was on. We followed that skunk around (at a safe distance, of course), but in all the time I was there were never quite able to track it down. It was getting late, so it was time to head out. Work in the AM, and another game Wednesday night. So until tomorrow, later..

Close Encounters of the Smelly Kind.

2009-08-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is another one of those " If you hang around long enough" entries. Saturday's game started off normal enough, 'normal' being a relative term, of course. There was no rain in the forecast until late night or early Sunday morning, so that was a huge relief. As I arrived at home plate, batting practice was just finishing up, so we packed it all up and go ready for pre-game,which was slightly delayed due to Portland taking infield practice,which is really unusual this time of year. As the season goes along, teams generally fore go infield practice and, a lot times, batting practice as well.
After they finished up, we got started. I set up everything to put down the baselines, then checked the chalker. I twas almost empty, so I headed to the cubby, remembering that there was a bag there from last night. When the guys came back with the truck, I noticed 2 other partial bags of chalk as well. I said to Frank " Are you lining tonight? Looks like we have enough chalk." (If you read my previous post, you'll understand that one.) Once the game got started I decided to stop and get a drink and some popcorn. Bad idea. The concession stand underneath the 3rd base grandstand was not all that packed, but the service was slow. God awful slow. (Note to SportService: your stands are understaffed, your customer service is bad) After that we just hung out in the cubby and watched the game. The boys put up a nice effort and staked themselves to a quick 3-0 lead after 3 innings, with some good pitching, timely hitting, and some good defensive plays. Hey good pitching, clutch hitting, good defense, sounds like good baseball. It actually is a pleasure to watch them play now. The first 2 months of the season were pretty hard to watch, with all the mental mistakes and just a serious lack of sticking to the fundamentals. They now do all of the small things that win games, making the routine plays and hitting with guys in scoring position. The pitching has been strong as well, even with all the movement to Triple A. They've been able to send capable replacements most times. That all translates into a bunch of wins. As I write this, they're only 10 games under .500 and 10 games out of a playoff. Depending on the mindset of the team, finishing at .500 or better is not out of the question, and if they can keep it up, they could match last year's 3rd place finish. Playoffs? I'm not even thinking about playoffs! It should be interesting. That said, the boys hung on for a tasty little 4-2 win. Afterwards, we had the usual post-game festivities, Launch-a-Ball, and the kiddies base race. Once we got all of that out of the way, the rest of the post-game work went pretty quickly and then it was time to tarp. because tomorrow it was supposed to rain. Imagine that... We all headed out back to unload and guess what was waiting for us. No, not beer. A skunk. We kept a close eye on it while Knute got the pellet gun. Just that quick, the little sucker disappeared. I didn't think anymore about it and headed underneath to the locker area to change. I heard some shuffling and chatter outside, so i started out to see what was going on. Knute yelled "Jeff, stay there!" Right after that, the skunk came scurrying in and ran right into the tool room. I got my stuff and got the hell out. We kept watching for it at the doorway. it kept peeking its head out, but Knute could never get a clear shot at it. In the meantime, one of the guys turned around towards the back fence and said" There's another one!" This one was a little bigger and almost completely white. Knute drew a bead on it and popped it once with a pellet. It seemed dazed and squeezed back out under the fence. It was wandering around in the grass behind the fence, when he popped it again. It seemed a little more hurt this time, so Frank decided to try and hit it with a cinder block. It took off and headed back under the fence towards the boardwalk. it was going up the ramp, stunned, when Frank got above it and tried to hit it with a bat. he missed it and the skunk headed underneath the boardwalk. We never did see it after that after a lot of very careful searching. We decided to declare victory and go home at that point. Too close for comfort, too many times. That is certainly one for the books. I won't be in Sunday, Monday is an off day, so I'll report back in after Tuesday's game. Until then, later.

The Great White Way...

2009-08-01T06:39:00.000-07:00

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.

It's all starting to run together...

2009-07-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night and I'm finally starting to get around to making an entry for Wednesday's game, Thursday's rain out, Friday's game, Saturday's game and Sunday's game. It's a bit of a blur. So individual details about each night are a little sketchy, but I shall do my best.
Wednesday. As usual, rain in the forecast. The crew: Alan,Izzy, Knute and myself. It looked like it would hold off until later in the evening, so we hung out and watched the sky. The boys got behind quickly, and the final was 7-1. The most memorable thing happened was when Alan and I were in the back waiting for the game to finish. There some kids up in the picnic area throwing ice down over the rail. That annoys me to no end. When I asked hem to please stop, they said " There's a skunk down there". I looked around, carefully, but didn't see any skunks. They kept whispering about a skunk, when out of the corner of my eye, I caught some movement. A skunk popped its head out of the tarps rolls underneath the steps to the picnic area. We gave it a very wide berth, while keeping an eye on it. It finally went under the back fence and out across the parking lot. We got a call from Knute saying post game work was cancelled, we were tarping immediately. After the last out, he hauled ass to the tarp,as it was already raining. Unbeknownst to me, another skunk followed me down the warning track, then changed its mind and headed back out back. great. We managed to get the tarp on and bagged, when it really opened up and poured. That's all i got to say about Wednesday.
Thursday night. It was raining when I left the office. It was raining when I got to the ballpark. The tarp was already on. Highlight of the evening: Mass tarp slide by the entire Bowie Baysox team. Very impressive. As was the early exit, home at a decent hour.
Friday night: against the Trenton Thunder, the little Yankees. That usually means larger crowds. But, as usual, we had a little pre-game shower, which kept the crowd down and we had a short delay. And a long game, which we won, by the way. And a long post game, with the usual Friday night festivities. Exit time, about 11:40 pm.
Saturday night: I was late arriving, due to attending my company picnic. (good time had by all, I finished 2nd in the belly flop contest. I'm getting old). When I got there, the tarp was on. Imagine that. It looked ugly. We took the tarp off, finally about 6:20 and rushed through pregame prep. They rolled the tarp up and we thought we were all set. At 6:55 it started to rain, so we put the tarp on again. As soon as it was on, it stopped raining. So we took it back off. It was a hot sticky night so after the rain shower most of the infield dirt was attached to the tarp. After we took the tarp off, most of the infield dirt was stuck to us. And we got paid to do it. Is this a great country or what? The most memorable event of the evening? Hands down, the video presentation for Autism Awareness night. Randy Tomlin, our pitching coach, has 3 children. His oldest, Coy, is autistic. Randy narrated a very moving presentation about his son, his autism, and how they deal with it in everyday life. very inspiring. At the end, Coy came racing out of the bullpen to the pitcher's mound, grabbed a ball from his dad and threw a perfect strike to home plate. With some heat. Made my night, and my week for that matter. We did get a little more rain later in the game, but nothing to bothersome. Also got another win. We managed to get our regular post game work finished, then put the tarp on and headed for home,late again.
Sunday's game: I wasn't really supposed to be there, since I was going to a car show in York. The show wasn't all that exciting, so I left about 1:30 and headed back to the 'burg and changed clothes and headed for City Island. I arrived in the top of the 6th, so I loaded the truck for post game and went in search of a Spot Dog. After procuring one, I took a seat in he cubby and caught up with the guys. The boys had another lead, that they extended, and at the end we had a sweep of Trenton. Turned out to be a pretty decent week after all. 7 games, 4 wins, 1 rain out.
Afterwards, we did the quick turnaround for the PA Legion All-Star game. With one brief interruption for a tarp pull. The perfect ending to a perfect week.
So until July 31st, later.

The Beginning of the End...

2009-07-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well, its the first night of a 7 game home stand, the longest home stand left in the 2009 season. After tonight, there are only 25 homes left to go. And things around the old ballpark will change. It will be a completely new look. Will the faces be the same? Maybe, maybe not. Will I still be around? I think so, at least that's my plan. But one never knows. It should be very interesting and exciting to see a new, first-rate facility. I'm sure I'll miss the old layout that I've hung around for the last 14 years. But, Tempus Fugit. (time marches on) OK, enough maudlin, let's lighten it up a little. I've seen the ads for the new luxury suites. Very snazzy. They can accommodate 20 people. I think the Grounds Crew will only need a Junior Suite though, since there are only 5 of us. I don't really see that happening, though. Unless I win the lottery this weekend. Right.... OK, there was a game tonight, too. It's 60' s Night at the ball park tonight. Groovy, baby. I'm looking forward to 70's night, though. I've offered to make an appearance with my 73 Bug to help the atmosphere. If this entry seems a little fragmented and all over the place, I apologize. It's late and its Wednesday, so a the details are not fresh in my mind. Actually its Thursday. Yikes... So, in short, Monday's game was long, it was hot, and the Senators won 2-0. Our buddy, Bowie's manager Brad Komminsk, wasn't on the field tonight. Seems he had a few run-ins with tonight's umpire crew in the past few weeks, and was tossed 3 times. And he's serving the last game of his suspension. Knute's girlfriend, Asheleigh, stopped in to visit tonight, too. Other than that, not too much else to tell. I'm off Tuesday night, so I'll check back in with a report of Wednesday's, hopefully by Friday. Until then, later.

Supplemental-EL All-Star game-vacation

2009-07-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation this week, so i have some extra time on my hands. Thought I'd throw in an extra edition of the blog to report on the EL All-Star game plus some vacation thoughts. First of all, vacation at the beach is THE Life. I love sleeping in, hanging on the beach in the warm sun, checking out the bikini babes, etc... A week is not near enough time. That's basically what we've been doing here in Ocean City, Md. The weather has been perfect, no tarp pulls or rain outs to date. We took a trip down to Assateague Island on Wed. to bike ride, see the wild ponies, and hit the beach for awhile. The beach there was great, except it was very windy, and we felt like we were being sand blasted the entire time. The wild ponies were awesome, hanging out, eating and generally putting on a show for us tourists. Other than that, we've just been hanging on the beach during the day, biking in the mornings, and eating out and drinking at night. My idea of a perfect vacation. My sister-in-law is visiting today from up the road in Delaware, so we're hanging at the beach today, too. As for the EL All-Star game, i see the South won 5-3, with Marvin Lowrance going 1-2 with 2 RBI's and Josh Wilkie pitching 2 perfect innings of relief. Unfortunately, Jack Spradlin did not get into the game. With the stadium project on track and scheduled to be finished by the start of next season, 2010 might be a good time for the All-Star game to make an appearance at MBP. Hey Eastern League, how about it????. I haven't heard any announcements to that effect, so I guess we wait. My son Alan promised to write an entry for the blog while i was away, but I haven't seen anything yet. So I'll just leave it until next week's home stand. Later

In and Out, Part whatever is French for 3

2009-07-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

A trend? Perhaps. Due to family obligations and summer vacation, I've had a lot of one night stands(?) at the ballpark lately. For this home stand I will only make it in for the first game of the home stand. The good news: today is the first day of my vacation, and there's no rain in the forecast. The bad news: can't think of any. Tonight's crew: Knute, Doug, Alan, and myself. Batting practice was still going as I arrived on City Island, which was looking to fill up nicely, judging by the amount of cars in the parking lots. We got through the BP tear down rather quickly and started to prep for the game. The field looked in fine condition, due to some outstanding work by Knute and the boys on the off-days. Oh, did I forget to mention, it was Star Wars night at the ballpark. And I forgot my light sabre. What a non-dork I am. After we finished up, we settled into the cubby. One thing I must mention. During the National Anthem, I was appalled by the boorish behavior by some of the Reading players. Come on guys, the anthem is not that long. Surely you can stand still, not stretch and fiddle with your socks, and keep your mouth shut for 2 minutes. I don't care if you're not an American, but your in America, and a little decorum is appropriate. The 1st topic of conversation was Knute's dog. Seems like he fell off the couch and was limping. They took him to the vet and turns out, he tore a ligament and cracked the bone in his hind leg. So a trip to the doggie orthopedic surgeon is in the future. ($$$$) Next topic was the Harrisburg Sentaors, Double A affiliate of the Washington Natinals. The scoreboard misspelled Senators, just like the Nationals did on their uniforms earlier in the season. Amusing.
The game moved right along for the first 5 innings, We even had a guest dragger tonight. Alan's fiancee, Sarah was in attendance tonight. Knute got pulled away for some problem on the concourse, so we needed an extra body for the drag. Sarah filled in admirably. After the 5th inning, the game started to get away from the boys. The bullpen was not sharp and by the 8th, they were down 10-2. And that's the way it finished. Post-game was another exercise in "How long can we drag this out.." Launch-a-ball and fireworks. It was a rather quick game sabotaged by the post game extras. Once we finished up, we retired to Club Shag (a.k.a. the back storage area) for some post game refreshment. I had, earlier in the day, purchased some adult beverages to take along on vacation. Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy and Berry Weiss, which, when mixed, produced a Pink lemonade flavor with a beer base. Very tasty on a warm humid night, which we haven't had many of this year. After a few rounds and some lively conversation, we parted company. I won't be back until July 20th. I'm heading to the shore for a week and looking forward to it. So until then, later.

In and Out...Part Deux

2009-07-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Monday's game was another one of those short stays for me on City Island. I had some family social obligations over the weekend, so I missed Saturday and Sunday's games. Just as well from what I read in the web news. However I was confident that the boys could snag a win before the Akron Aeros left town. When I arrived, I was confused at first. The sun was shining and there was no forecast for rain. In fact, this could be the first home stand in quite a while, that we could play and finish without a tarp pull. Not a huge accomplishment in any other season, but this hasn't been any other season, especially in the precipitation column. So pregame work was standard fare this evening, no extra Turface, standard watering of the infield, no tarps on standby, and the cubby buckets were for sitting on tonight, not ready with Turface. We settled into our seats in the cubby and the first topic of the evening was mound clay and techniques for keeping it in the mound and plate. Knute tried a new watering technique tonight, so we'll see if it works any better. The problem with the clay we use now is twofold: If its too wet, its soft and slippery. If its too dry, it breaks up and disintegrates. the pitchers like the mound on the harder side, which means it as to be drier. Trying to get a happy medium with this clay is difficult on a good day. The black clay we used to use was much better, but more expensive, so here we are.
After we finished that conversation, our next discussion was about food, specifically Spot Dogs. The Spot guys came up with a new dog last home stand called the Ollie. It has spicy mustard, barbecue sauce, pepper jack cheese, grilled onions, chili sauce, and ranch dressing.Very tasty. We then decided that we should come up with our own concoction. After much discussion, we came up with nothing. So I guess we"ll think on it on the off days and brainstorm some more when we come back. As for the game, the boys got off to a slow start and were down 2-0, and it was beginning to look like a sweep for Akron. But they chipped away and were up 3-2 after the 7th. In the bottom of the 8th, the wheels really came off for Akron. They made 3 errors and the Sens hit everything that was thrown at them. The final ended up 8-2 and it turned out to be the only win against Akron this year. Until the playoffs. (Playoffs! Whose talking about playoffs?!, But I digress) And it didn't rain. And we didn't have to put the tarp on. Good morning, good afternoon, and good night. Until next time, later.

In and Out...

2009-06-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

It seems like a month has passed since I last made an entry here. As i mentioned in my last post, I didn't see too much of the current home stand due to attending my youngest sister's wedding up in Connecticut. I took an extra day off from my regular job to to attend today's game. Several of my male coworkers also took half a day of to attend also, so it was nice day out for the boys. It was a very nice day for a change, too, with no rain at all in the forecast. I arrived early to make sure he boys had tickets for the game, and then headed for the field. When I made up to the dugouts, the gang was all there. The "gang" today was Izzy, Ben, Justin, Cullen, and Cullen's brother, whose name escapes me at this moment. The last 4 are daytime guys and were here to help us get things rolling. The field was pretty much ready to go, it just needed lined and watered. We got both done rather quickly and then took up our usual spots in the cubby as the game started. The Sens had won the 1st 4 games of this unusual 5 game series, (due to a Sunday double-header) so Erie was looking to salvage at least 1 win. They jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead as the Sens struggled a bit at the plate. One of the stranger things I have ever seen happened around the 3rd or 4th inning. With runners on 1st and 2nd for Erie, their next batter dropped a bunt down the 3rd base line. It rolled right down the chalk line. The Sens hoping it would go foul, followed it down the line, and catcher Luke Montz, tried to help it along by getting down on the ground and trying to blow the ball foul. I didn't put down a real heavy line, but the ball followed the line and came to a stop right on top of the line. Safe all around. Erie was able to add 1 more run to make it 3-0. The Sens were able to climb back in with back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 4th. It see-sawed back and forth until finally it was tied in the 9th. The game had moved along pretty well until the 8th inning when it came to a screeching halt. The Sens had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 9th, but couldn't push a run across. So we went to the 1th, then the 11th. Finally in the bottom of the 11th, the boys loaded the bases with 2 outs. Mike Daniel hit one in the hole to short and beat the throw with the winning run crossing the plate,giving them a 6-5 win and a 5 game home sweep. This team is starting to make a believer out of me. After the game we went out to check out, what we speculated, was a rather large hole in the pitcher's landing area on the mound. We were right. Our earlier conversation in the cubby was all about clay and repair techniques on the mound and plate. The type of clay we have been using, the gray stuff, leaves a lot to be desired. We used to use a different brand, that was black in color, that was much better to use and stayed together far longer than the gray stuff. Unfortunately, its more expensive, and the field budget doesn't allow for it. So we do the best we can, trying to figure out ways to make the gray stuff work better. Hey, Eastern League! How about negotiating a group agreement with an exclusive supplier to get us what works for less money. Well, its a nice thought and with that I'll take my leave. Until next weekend's home stand, later.

The gang's all here...

2009-06-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

I headed for City Island Thursday evening, thinking "Maybe we'll sneak one in without any rain"
It had been a mostly dry day and I was hopeful it would stay that way. I think this has been the longest 3 day home stand on record. It seemed like a week. As I arrived on City Island, late due to being hung up at work, I saw the tarp still rolled out on the field. Everything looked a lot wetter than I had anticipated, too. I found out why when I made it to the infield. They had gotten a heavy downpour around 3:00. Now I had been watching the weather outside my office and monitoring the radar most of the day, and we hadn't had any rain to speak of all day. This definitely has been the weirdest weather season I can remember. The sun was out now and it was a very pleasant evening, just a little humid. We knocked out pregame in our usual efficient manner, even watered the infield. The cast tonight was the same as the past 2 nights, Doug, Izzy, Knute, and myself. Alan is still on vacation, and Frank is dealing with some personal issues that I won't go into here. Tim had talked to him as we were finishing up pre game, trying to convince him to stop by, just to hang out and take his mind off other things. As the game started, we settled in to our usual spots. The usual comments and responses were flying back and forth. Around the end of the 2nd, i decided to head to the back and get my soda mug from my locker and get a drink. As I stepped outside the gate, lo and behold, there stood Frank. We talked for a few minutes, he seemed a little down, but happy to be here. He headed into the cubby between innings, as I headed back to the back. When I got back, we were all in our usual spots and we brought Frank up to speed on the events of the last 2 nights. Of course, it quickly degenerated in to the usual off-color humor and by the 4th inning, everyone's mood had improved greatly, especially Frank's. Frank is a good guy, a good friend, and its hard to see him have to deal the kind of thing he's going through right now. He headed out after the 6th inning and thanked us for helping to cheer him up. I hope things work out ok for him. As for the game, the boys had dug themselves a 6-0 hole. Didn't look like a sweep was happening tonight. But, in the bottom of the 6th, shazam. They put up 6 runs to tie it. That's good, but we were all grousing about the possibility of extra innings. Binghamton put up a couple of more runs in the 7th and 8th to make it 9-6, so it came to the bottom of the 9th. Earlier in the season, I would have said , this one's over, but its a different team with a different attitude now. Their lead off man got on base and they started stringing some hits together. They pulled to within 9-8 with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd. The next guy up, Edgardo Baez, stepped in, facing a former Senator from last year's team, Jim Ed Warden. Warden looked a little shaky and after a visit from the pitching coach settled in to throw. Unfortunately for him, good for us, he threw a big fat one that Baez crushed over the left field fence giving the Sens an 11-9 walk-off win. Pretty exciting stuff. And a sweep of the series, the first one all year. Gettin' further around that corner. We're out again for 7 days and I won't be back until June 29th, due to attending my youngest sister's wedding this coming Saturday. And speaking of weddings, I can officially announce that my son and grounds crew member Alan is engaged and will be getting married next summer. Talk about turning some corners. Later.

That's what she said.......

2009-06-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening on City Island was starting off like a lot of others this season. It looked like rain. I resigned myself to another long evening at Metro Bank Park, dodging the rain drops. As I arrived I noticed the tarp was off, but still rolled out on the outfield. As I started down the warning track, I saw that Doug and Izzy were already there. Doug doesn't usually work on Monday or Wednesday nights, since he plays senior league softball. Tim was on the tractor, and starting to drag, what looked like, a very damp infield. My guess was the tarp had been on all day, since it rained almost all day. I was mildly surprised that we were even playing tonight, since it had rained almost non-stop for the past 2 days. But it seems that the new philosophy is to get the game in no matter what. Whatever, not my call. I'm just here to do my job. My philosophy is simple: I do this for fun, so I'm not going to let anyone spoil my good time. Our group likes to have fun and keep it light. We're all business when it comes to out work, but when we're not working, we make our own fun. That's what leads me to the title of tonight's entry. Most of our fun comes when we settle into the cubby to what the game. It usually consists of busting each others chops. Tonight, though, we seemed to settle on using the catch phrase "That's what she said..." I'm not really sure of the origination of the phrase, but with us, it started during the first stand in the 2nd series with Akron. The first 3 games with Reading were atypical as the weather was summer like, totally not what we were used to in early April. However the 2nd set with Akron was pretty much what it has been the rest of the way, raining. We were hanging in the cubby, watching the radar, talking, when one of the Akron pitchers came in to see what was happening. He turned out to be quite a character. And that's when the catchphrase popped up for the first time. After that, we were off to the races, and it appeared periodically as the season went along. But Wednesday night, "That's what she said..." was the theme for the evening. Pretty much everything we said turned into a sexual reference and the obligatory use of the catch phrase. We were laughing our asses off between trips to the mound and plate to spread Turface, as there was a steady drizzle for most of the game. The game moved along at a fairly brisk pace, with the Sens jumping out to a quick lead. There was a bit of drama later in the game, with the Sens winning 4-1, loaded the bases, and Ian Desmond at the plate. He unloaded on one and sent towards the right field fence. The guy on first base base, unsure whether it was out or not, due to a nifty acting job by the B-Mets right fielder, held close at 1st. Desmond didn't realize it, or assumed he was going to take off and apparently passed him by a few steps. We were all watching the fence and the ump for the call, so the only people who saw it was the Binghamton bench. They immediately protested and the umps huddled to sort it out. As it turned out, 1 ump was watching the fence, 1 was watching the runner on 2nd and 1 was watching the runner on 3rd, so nobody saw what was happening on 1st base. So it was a grand slam for Desmond. It didn't affect the outcome of the game in the end, but I don't think that was any consolation to the B-Mets. It was an 8-1 final and the end of a very crappy weather night. It was actually a quick game by today's standards. We finished cleaning up the mess and put the tarp on and were out of there by 10:50. Maybe we'll catch a break tomorrow and get a dry night for a change. Until then, later

A Night of Cups and Buckets...

2009-06-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

Hey the boys are back in town for a quick 3 game set, and guess what? There's a chance of rain all 3 nights. Didn't see that one coming... It was overcast and cool with a few stray rain drops hitting the windshield as I arrived on City Island I was looking forward to tonight's game though, as the recently crowned AHL Champion Hershey Bears would be in attendance with the Calder Cup. If I played my cards right, I might get to mingle with the players and get a picture with the Cup. As I headed down the warning track, There was a noticeable absence in at the home bullpen mound. It was the home bullpen mound. Apparently the work for the new bullpen behind the right field fence was complete. The warning track was now a flat, straight shot down the line now. That will make it much nicer getting equipment in and out of the gate, no more dodging players, chairs, baseball equipment and the like. And more importantly, it will be easier on the grass edge at the corner, which usually takes a severe beating from all the dodging. And no more uncoupling of the BP equipment trailer as we come over the bullpen mound edge. I've left the trailer behind more than a few times in the past few years. In attendance tonight, Doug, Izzy, myself, and our fearless leader, Knute. Pre-game was the usual, with the infield looking extra primo this evening, due to some outstanding work by Knute and the boys during the layoff. I noticed the outfield cut was different, looking just like the "vortex" cut currently being used at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. I'll have to get a picture if it from centerfield before the homestand ends. The only issue with pregame prep was a stiff breeze blowing in from the east (unusual) which gave us a all a nice little shower while we watered. After we finished, I noticed a glint of silver over in the 1st base cubby. Yes, it was indeed, the Calder Cup, live and in person!
I made my way over and stepped down into the cubby to get an upclose look. One of the interns said" Don't you want me to take your picture with the cup?" Hell yeah! So I hoisted it up in the appropriate manner and got my photo op. By that time a group of people had made their way onto the field. Looking closer I realized it was several of the Hershey bears players and coach Bob Woods. There was quite a buzz in the ballpark tonight and a lot more people than usually attend Tuesday night games. Looking through the crowd, I saw a lot of Bears T-shirts and jerseys, so the Hockey fans were out in force. As I looked through the crowd, I heard someone call my name. Up on top of the 1st base dugout were my friends Ann and Andy Phillips sporting their Bears championship t-shirts. There was the usual pregame festivities, with the Bears throwing first pitches (and Coco umpiring) and then it was onto the game. The boys had an excellent road trip, winning 4 of 7, including a 16-2 beating of the team they were playing tonight, the Binghamton Mets, and an 11-0 pasting of the R-Phils. Hopefully, they could keep the ball rolling and get even further around the corner. Once the game started, we took our usual spots in the cubby. Now usually some of us grab empty (or Turface filled) buckets for seats. Tonight, buckets were scarce, just 2. And once was actually 2 buckets stuck together. Our mission over the next few innings was to tray and separate these buckets. It was, at times, extremely entertaining to watch the efforts of each other to try and get these buckets apart. In the end, the buckets won, but not after what was some true entertainment. as the game moved along, we kept a watchful eye on the skies. Although, nothing was showing on the radar, it looked as if it could start pouring at any time. The game went back and forth and by the end of the 7th, the Sens held a slim 3-2 lead. Doug and I headed to the back to load up for post game work and then stopped over to check out the new bullpen. Tim and Knute and the boys did an outstanding job. I picked up a loose ball leftover from batting practice that was laying under the cage and then Doug and I headed up to the boardwalk to catch the last few innings. As I started up the stairs, there were 3 men standing on the stairs talking, one them with a little girl on his shoulders. The little girl asked her dad (I assumed) if he could get her a baseball. I said" Like this one?" and handed her the ball. The gentleman turned out to be Bryan Helmer, captain of the Hershey Bears. And the other 2 guys, Alexandre Giroux and Keith Aucoin. I congratulated them all on a great season and shook their hands, saying I hoped we would see them all back next season. It was a little selfish, as they all deserved a shot at the Big Show, especially Giroux, with the record-breaking season he had. After they moved on, signing more autographs along the way, we realized it was the top of the 9th, so we headed down to the gate and manned our machines. After a lead-off single, the new guy, Clint Everts, got the rest of the side 1-2-3 and the boys put up another W. That's 5 out of the last 8. "Startin' to come together, Pepper, startin' to come together... ( Manager Lou Brown, 'Major League') We're back at again Wednesday night with, you guessed it, rain in the forecast. Until then, later.

Special edition

2009-06-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

As advertised, this is a special extra edition. No home games this weekend, but nonetheless a very special weekend for the hockey fans on the grounds crew. If you've read any of my previous entries, you may have noticed that we are serious hockey fans. Pens, Caps, Flyers and our hometown Hershey Bears. Friday night was the pinnacle of playoff nights, with the Pens ans Bears trying to lock the championships of their respective leagues. Both games were on TV and my wife Leslie, my son Alan and his girlfriend Sarah were gathered round to see if history could be made.
When it was all said and done it was a 2-1 nail biter win for the Penguins and a decisive 4-1 win for the Bears. Both teams were on the road, which to me made it even more impressive. I don't know for sure, but I think it is unprecedented for 2 professional hockey from the same state to win championships in the same night. It probably hasn't happened in 2 different sports. I believe we saw a unique piece of history right there. Hockey heaven. And Pennsylvania is now Hockeytown USA. I was able to attend the victory celebration for the Bears on Saturday night at GC. Absolutely awesome! As an added bonus, the Bears and the cup will be in attendance at Tuesday night's game. I will be there. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the Sens put an 11-0 pounding on Reading Friday night as well. I think we might be getting a better look around that corner....Until Tuesday night, later...

The View from the Cheap Seats

2009-06-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

After skipping Saturday's game to attend a wedding, on Sunday I"ve done something I haven't done in more than a few years. I actually attended a game as a plain old fan. And my wife came too, something else that doesn't happen very often. My wife wanted to go to see a friend of hers throw out a first pitch, and I was not on the work schedule for Sunday, so we loaded up in the Bug (my '73 VW Super Beetle) and headed for the ballpark. It was a gorgeous day for baseball and the boys were riding a 5, count 'em, 5-game winning streak. That's a season high, folks. Were we starting to peek around the corner? Maybe. Even if they lost today, it would still be a pretty good home stand by anybodies standards. We made our way into the park and staked out a spot to watch the first pitch. After they were done, we went over to visit with the boys in the cubby for a few minutes and then headed out to the boardwalk to sample the venues. Since all of the bar stools were occupied, we made our way over to center field and took a spot at the rail by the flagpoles. The view from there is a commanding one. The field looked picture perfect. Even though I know where all the problems and imperfections are, from being up close and personal most nights, I couldn't see any of them. Kudos to Knute, Tim, and the rest of the guys. After hanging there for a few innings, we made our way over to the seats above the left field wall. We found a few and sat for a while, enjoying another great view. Those seats, unfortunately, on a day like today were way too warm for us. The green plastic of the seats absorbed the heat, and they actually got hotter than the aluminum railings. We then moved over to the deck in the left field corner and took a spot along the rail. The view there was also good and the breeze was very refreshing. After that we headed to the Spot stand for a little snack. My wife and I both had one of my favorites, a Grounder. We headed back to the boardwalk to find a place to sit and eat, while we watched the game. I found the surroundings there both delightful and appalling. It was delightful to sit at a picnic table in the shade from the hot sun, with a great view of the game, and eat. The people around me, at times, left a lot to be desired. Please don't get me wrong, I love kids. I have 2 of my own (now grown). I have a slew of nieces and nephews, from toddlers on up. And I understand kids can get rowdy and want to have fun. But for parents to let their kids run absolutely wild is unacceptable. I never let my kids do it, and I can't accept from others either. I cast a shadow on what was, otherwise a very nice afternoon. Maybe I'll suggest to the higher-ups to have some tighter control out there. I think there is a potential to alienate a lot of fans. OK, I'm stepping down off my soapbox now. The game got a little out of hand through the later innings, with New Britain seemingly hitting everything they saw. The Sens managed to get a few back but not quite enough to break through. It was an 11-7 final. We spent the last inning and a half back in the cubby, chatting with the guys. and after the last out, headed to the car. It felt good to just be a fan for a day. maybe I'll do it again someday. In a couple of years. We're out for 7 days, so until next week, later.

Dare to dream, the Sequel

2009-06-06T06:26:00.001-07:00

Well, Friday's game wasn't looking too good as I made my way down Front St. after work. I had texted Knute around 3:00 pm looking for some insight as to whether we were playing or not. With the way the rain was still falling, I couldn't imagine we were still on. However, that wasn't the case. Knute replied "We're playing". So I resigned myself to another night of playing in the mud. As I made my way onto the Island, it looked like a bigger crowd than I thought was starting to arrive. Not 5 or 6 thousand big, but a lot more than i thought would be here on a rainy night. As I made my way down the field, it looked like they had just taken off the tarp. The warning track looked like a tributary of the Susquehanna and the umpires box behind first base was a quagmire. The rest of the guys were getting things cleaned up in the bullpens and Tim had started to drag the infield. I got my tools and the chalker and started to prep, wondering if it was all going to come together by game time. A light mist was falling, still, so watering the infield was off the checklist tonight. The chalk in the chalker was of typical consistency on nights like these, thick and chunky. Nothing was going smoothly so far, so I prepared to battle the chalker down the first base line, hoping I wouldn't end up with a 'wall' instead of a line. it actually went far better than I had thought it would, and didn't take near as long. Some wet nights like these, it might take 3 or 4 passes with the chalker to get something resembling a line, and not one that's all that straight. As we finished up, we had the now traditional sprinkling of the Turface and left it to the ballplayers. Being a Friday night, there was a long list of festivities on the slate, starting with a marching band to play the National Anthem. They marched right out to center field, non-standard on a night like tonight, to play. More than a few raised eyebrows. As the game got under way, we staked out out spots in the cubby, with full buckets of Turface as seats tonight. The conversation quickly turned to several different off-color subjects, none of which will be discussed at length here. I wondered a couple of things. Could we get the game in? Could we finish at a reasonable hour? And could we win? We were on a roll this week, so I was hoping that tonight would keep the streak alive. Well we did get the game in, although it was in serious doubt at times, with several visits to the mound and plate for the ritualistic sprinkling of the Turface. Finishing at a reasonable hour just wasn't in the cards tonight. The boys fell behind early, but clawed their way back to tie it up. They had some chances in the 7th and 9th with bases loaded, but couldn't push one across, so to the 10th inning it was. The Rock Cats(New Britain) went 1-2-3 in the top half and the the Sens came to bat. The quickly put runners on 1st and 2nd, with Bill Rinehart due up. He punched a ball over the center fielder's head, plating the winning run, touching off a mini celebration at home plate. A good win. 4 in a row. I guess we can dare to dream. Maybe 5 in a row Saturday night? Stay tuned. Afterwards, it was the usual Friday night post game festivities. The first was a dance troupe on the field to perform. All dressed like Heidi or the Von Trappe kids (from the Sound of Music, don't ask why I know this...).Again, if you hang around long enough you see some weird or should I say, out of the ordinary stuff. And then, of course, Launch-a-ball, and my personal favorite, fireworks. All that plus we got to clean up a muddy mess of a field. Just think, all that and we got paid to do it. Things that make you go hmmmmm. I won't be in attendance Saturday night due to a wedding, so I'll do a combined entry on Sunday evening. Until then, later.

Work quickly, change speeds, throw strikes..

2009-06-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening, game 3 of the home stand, rain in the forecast. What? Rain you say. Why it hasn't rained since, when, yesterday. Definitely not looking forward to tonight's game. We dodged the bullet the last couple of nights, but I think our luck is going to run out tonight. We also had some fast games the past 2 nights, with good pitching and good defense and low scores. That tends to speed things up. In fact the title of the post are the words of Ray 'the Rabbit" Miller, who I remember as the pitching coach of those, oh so close to being champions, Pittsburgh Pirates teams of the early 90's. I grew up in western PA, and it was all Pittsburgh, all the time. That was his mantra, and I believe it still rings true today. Games usually take at least 3 hours to play today and there's a lot of farting around by pitchers and batter. In fact, way too much. I was reading an article in this weeks' Sport Illustrated that really magnified the difference between today's game and the players and those of 30-40 years ago. The article was "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched" it was about the perfect game that Harvey Haddix threw for 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves in 1959. I was all of about a 10 months old at the time, so i don't have any first hand knowledge of the game, just what I've read since. When Haddix took the mound in the bottom of the 13th inning, the article states that the game was 'approaching its third hour' Approaching the 3rd hour. That's quick work. The other thing I thought was kind of funny was that after the 2nd inning, Dick Groat lit his cigarette in the dugout while the Pirates were batting. Smoking in the dugout? Its just weird to think about it today. The game did move along at a brisk pace, and like the evening before, the Sens had 1 big inning and it was all they would need. The rain picked up pretty well after the no-drag drag. Just raking tonight. Every half inning we made a trip to the mound and plate to rake the junk off and spread some Turface. We even had to spread some out on the infield at short and second, because it was even getting a little slick out there, too. The 2 relief pitchers were exact opposites when it came to the mound. Andrew Kown was slipping on the Turface and wanted it raked off. Dave Williams wanted a lot. To each his own I guess. After the game was over, the post game cleanup was short and to the point. We just raked off the junk, quickly filled what few holes there were threw some more Turface around and covered everything up. Bing, bang, boom, just the way I like it. Tomorrow's game is a day game. I'd like to be there, but can't make it. Maybe they boys can get their third win in a row. It would be the first time this year I think. Well, we'll see. I check back in after Friday night's game. The forecast is for, you guessed it, rain. Later.

Blackberry Brandy and a Birthday Kiss

2009-06-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday evening on City Island started out much the same as most others. Another game, same-old, same old. It looked like it was going to rain at some point, so nothing different there . Frank, Alan, Knute, and myself in attendance. Just like Monday. But I had forgotten, today was Frank's birthday. The middle man on the "senior crew" he turned 52 today. We really didn't have anything special planned, though, other than having his name announced with the other birthdays. I heard someone mention that he was asking for kisses before the game. Enough said there. Nothing out of the ordinary for pregame, we blew through it as always. We settled into the cubby and tuned in the Weather Channel to keep an eye on the sky. It was hockey night, too, so we waited for both the Penguins and Bears games to start. Pens at 8, Bears at 8:30. It turned out to be a good night for the Pens and Sens, but a tough one for the Bears. The game rolled along at a brisk pace as it had the night before. Could we get home at a decent hour again? Dare to dream... As it turned out, the game finished a little after 9:30. And the Sens got a nice win, 3-0. We got things cleaned up fairly quickly, and then put the tarp on, as it looked like rain after midnight. . We milled around for a few minutes, chatting, and were going to head out when Tim came up and said "everybody in the back." We made our back to the equipment storage area, where Tim produced a large bottle of blackberry brandy and a bunch of cups. He poured all around and we all drank a toast to Frank. Good stuff! After that we headed out to take advantage of the early exit time. Until tomorrow, here's a big birthday kiss for Frank. XXXXXXX

Life in the fast lane

2009-06-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

I may or may not have mentioned in previous posts, that I thought that Monday night games always seem to go faster. This Monday's game was another one in the fast column. As I arrived on City Island, the weather, once again, looked iffy. Once we started with pre game, though, things were starting to clear out. In attendance, Frank Alan, Ryan and myself, as well as Knute. No problems with pregame, although I noticed that the areas on the infield that usually show wear the earliest were lot worse than they usually are this time of year. All the rain, the tarp coverings, and the early work are starting to take their toll. It doesn't generally look this bad until around the 4th of July. But Knute said they've got renovation plans for the next break, which is a little longer than the last few. He said he didn't feel too bad, because a lot of the major league fields on the East Coast have re sodded the wear areas already. The weather is beating them up too. The heavy wear areas on a baseball field are in front and back of the pitcher's mound, the inside corners in front of home plate, the walk up areas from the dugouts behind home plate, the infield edges where the 2nd baseman and shortstop stand, and the areas where the outfielders usually stand. So after we finished up, we took up residence in our usual spot in the 3rd base cubby and watched/listened to a very pretty young lady sing the National Anthem. It was a typical, thin Monday evening crowd. A shame, since it was a decent Monday night. The foe this evening were the New Hampshire FisherCats, in for their only visit of the season. Once again, is was a little "Old Home Week", as their pitching coach this year is Tom Signore. Tom was the Senators' pitching coach back in '04 or '05. As the game progressed, none of us wanted to say it out loud, but it was moving at a rather quick pace. Before we knew it, it was the top of the 5th and the interns had joined us to prep for the drag and their "routine". Tonight's dance was to be to 'Greased Lightning'. They changed their stop point, so there would be less confusion as to which way to go when they were done. Well it was a nice thought. They still screwed it up, so I don't think the little 'chalk talk' I gave them, complete with diagram, before we went out helped much. Oh well, back to the drawing board, so to speak. After that, the game just kept rolling. It was a close one with New Hampshire only leading 2-1 going to the 9th. And it was only 9:10pm. Win or lose, it would be an early night for a change. The Sens lead off with a base hit and and then bunted the runner over to 2nd. another out was recorded and that left the man at 2nd with 2 outs and Luke Montz to the plate. he worked the count and the drove a pitch to deep right center field. From our vantage point in the new bullpen we couldn't see too well, but found out it was caught at the wall. If it had been hit to any other part of the park (except left-center) it would've been gone. And it would've been a walk-off win. But that' sour luck. Afterwards, it was a quick cleanup and we went happily on our way, about 40 minutes earlier than usual. Bonus. See you tomorrow,same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Call to the Bullpen

2009-05-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well it's Thursday, and the last game of the 7 game home stand. I was supposed to have the night off to go have a few adult beverages at our favorite watering hole, Arooga's. And as a bonus, it was a free glass night, with our new favorite beer, Leinenkugel's. (The Summer Shandy rocks!) It didn't quite work out that way. I got a call earlier in the day from Knute, saying Doug, who was scheduled to work, hurt his knee and was unavailable. Could I make it in? I was really looking forward to a night off after 3 late nights in a row and the threat of rain again. But, Semper Fi, so I made the trip to City Island. It was dry as I left the office parking lot, but did not look at all promising. As I headed down Front St., the roads were wet like it had been raining but had stopped. However, I couldn't help but think the skies could open up at any second, and I would get very,very wet. When I arrived, Izzy was just coming in also, and he said"What the heck are you doing here?" I explained I was here due to Doug's injury and we both lamented the fact that it was going to be a long evening and we were destined to get wet. Frank was already there and was bringing back the hitting cage as we turned the corner. We unloaded it and headed up the field to get going. We dove right in and got things ready quickly. I t was a good thing, too, because as soon as we were finished it started. The tarp was still rolled out, so we quickly put it on and covered the bullpens as a light, but steady rain started to fall. We've had nights that it was lot worse, so we figured maybe we'd just wait it out. Then the radar watch began, and the debating about whether to wait it out or postpone the game. We'd already lost a game with Erie earlier in the season, with a double-header scheduled for late June. I'm sure the management wheels were already turning trying to figure out how we could get this one in to avoid another double-header. I didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon, so we headed back to our cubby to stay dry, check some TV and shoot the bull. As the time passed, we made regular visits to the other dugout to check on the weather status. Things didn't improve much, and finally around 8:40 they called it. We put the sandbags on the tarp and tied up some loose ends and that was that. What a way to end a home stand. It certainly has been an unusual year for weather, with all the rain delays and rain outs. I can only remember 1 year that was close to this one, 1997, I think. I trained most of the month of May, and was not real nice for the rest of the summer. But I guess 2 out of 14 isn't too bad an average. Other than that, not too much too report, except for an outstanding Spot Dog. I had my usual 'Grounder' but on a pretzel roll this time. I've gotten to know the people at the Spot stand pretty well and they agreed to make me a "special", since there weren't any long lines. Most excellent. Next home stand starts Monday, a pretty quick turnaround. But its the weekend and that will give me some time to get a little extra sleep and get some things done around the house. Maybe the boys will win a few down in Bowie. I"ll check in again after Monday's game. Later...

Izzy's metaphor...

2009-05-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night, game 6 of the home stand. A couple of late nights in a row wear me down pretty quick. I'm not as durable as I was when I started 14 years ago, I guess. Old age, relatively speaking of course, will do that to you I guess. Sucks. As I arrived on the field, i saw the ever-present (or so it seems) tarp was still rolled out on the field. Gonna be another one of those nights. In attendance, Alan, Izzy, Ryan and myself, as well as our fearless leader. We got a quick start to pre-game and finished in good time. No issues, even with all the previous days' moisture. As for the title of this entry, it goes to one of the pre-game festivities this evening. It was Bike Night. A group of local mostly Harley riders were in attendance, and paraded around the warning track before the start of the game. As they were making their way around the outfield track, one of the Senator players came out of the dugout with a bicycle and headed out to catch the biker group. At that point, Izzy stated " This is kind of like the Senators and the rest of the Eastern League this year. Motorcycles out front leading the pack, and the Sens on a bicycle trying to catch them." Very interesting. As for the game, the boys jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the 1st. I thought, hey, maybe we'll get a W tonight. That optimism was short-lived, however, as Erie put up 3 in the top of the 2nd. They stretched it to 5-2 in the next few innings. At drag time, the interns were once again cued up, with 'Jump on it' the selection again this evening. The dance went well. i wish I could say as much for the drag. They got confused as they resumed dragging, and missed huge sections of the infield. I tried to pick up as much as I could but there just wasn't enough time. So back to the drawing board, more practice and philosophical discussions. After the drag and a Spot Dog, I headed out back to check on the post-game supplies and found that Izzy had already gotten things squared away. I parked the vehicles by the gate and headed up to the boardwalk to watch the rest of the game from various areas. Since we had already sat in the bar stools in right field I went over to left field this time. Not bad at all. I also sat in the left field "cheap seats" for half an inning, also not bad at all. In the meantime the boys had scratched out a few more runs making it 5-4. I had joked earlier, that they would tie it up in the bottom of the 9th again and force extra innings again. No way that I really wanted that though. While I was sitting in left field, The boys strung together a couple of hits and managed to tie the score, the go-ahead hit coming from an unlikely source, Michael Martinez. He's been struggling all year, below the Mendoza line. So it must have felt good to get a clutch hit. Baby steps. I started back to the right field side, thinking it might be a good time for the Viking Rally Horn. Someone must have read my mind, as it went off, just as I passed behind the batters eye. It must have done the trick, because in the bottom of the 9th, the boys got a runner to 2nd and an error by the Erie 2nd baseman got the winning run home. It was a nice walk-off win. No post-game festivities tonight except for the...... wait for it...... tarp pull. looks like a good chance for more rain tomorrow night, but I am off, so maybe I'll stay dry. Until next time, most likely Monday night, see ya.

What a Difference a Day Makes..

2009-05-28T04:36:00.000-07:00

It's a cliche, I know, but its true. We were expecting less pleasant weather for Tuesday's game, but not this much less. When I pulled into the parking lot on City Island, a misty rain was falling and it wasn't cool, it was cold. In perspective, Monday's game time temp. was 81 degrees. Game time temp on Tuesday was 51 degrees. That's 30 degrees lower for the non-math majors. Combined with the mist, it was ugly, totally unlike Monday. That's why my trunk is always full of jackets, sweatshirts, extra shirts, socks, gloves, etc... I'm more prepared now than I ever was as a Boy Scout. The field had gotten a big drink Sunday night with the storm that moved through, so even with the nice weather on Monday, the rain during the day on Tuesday made things a little moist, so pre-game was pretty much keeping things dry. Surprisingly, we started on time, with no incidents. We huddled into the cubby for what we anticipated would be a long evening. Turns out, we were right. The game plodded along at a snail's pace with not much excitement, until about the 6th inning, when manager Stearns took exception with a 3rd strike call on a check swing to Freddie Bynum. From our vantage point in the cubby, we can probably tell as well as anyone in the ballpark if a batter goes around or checks his swing. Stearnsy had a legitimate point, saying that the home plate umpire couldn't see it from his end. He should have asked for help, but didn't, which, with a runner on third and a 3-1 game, was a killer. He had a right to be upset. Unfortunately he got a little carried away, and got tossed. He continued on and got a little personal, and with not many people in the park, you could hear everything that was said. He finally made his way off the field and the game continued on, with the mist and wind picking up a little, making the evening even more enjoyable. In the bottom of the 9th, the Senators mounted a little rally, and tied the score at 3, with the winning run stranded at 3rd base. In the 10th, Zech Zinicola, the Sens most reliable closer, pitched pretty well, but threw a few bad pitches that Erie jumped on and plated 3 runs to make it 6-3. Luke Montz made a nifty save on a throw to the plate that actually saved a run, and looked like it would get them out of the inning, but the Seawolves cashed in, getting the clutch hits. The Sens went quietly in the bottom of the 10th, so it was time to clean up the mess. The mound and plate, once we cleaned up the chunks and debris, were generally in pretty good shape. I don't know why for sure, but on rainy nights there seems to be less damage than on dry nights. My theory is that the clay that we use in the batters' boxes and on the mounds just doesn't dry up and break apart, it stays wet and just packs down. There are the usual holes in the foot plant areas, but nothing near what they are on dry nights. So once we got done, it was back on with the tarp. Yay... Maybe, just maybe, we'll get through a homestand with no tarp pull. Looks like more rain tomorrow, really looking forward to that. Until then, later...

An artsy-fartsy Monday

2009-05-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Monday, Memorial Day in the 'burg. That means Artsfest on Front St., clogged traffic in town, and wading through a gazillion people to get to the ballpark. Which actually is kind of different since most years the boys are out of town for the Memorial Day holiday. I can't remember the last time they were in for Memorial Day. We usually spend the holiday getting things done in the yard, watching the Linglestown parade, watching the NCAA men's lacrosse championship, and picnicking with the in-laws. I did do some grounds crew work at home and watched the parade (all 30 minutes!!!), before we loaded up and headed downtown. I ran into Knute's girlfriend Asheleigh (still not sure if I got the spelling right) at the parade. She works for Lower Paxton Parks & Rec. at the Friendship Community Center. They had a float in the parade, and she was handing out plastic leis. I didn't even recognize her at first.
So Mrs. Waadsworth and I finally arrived on City Island and headed over to the Riverfront to catch up with Alan and his girlfriend Sarah. We around Front St., had something to eat, (Camp Curtin Barbecue Station!!!!) and picked up a few trinkets. Afterward, we headed over to the Island, and took the girls on the grand tour of the boardwalk. In attendance, Alan, Frank, Izzy and myself, as well as Knute. Pre-game was a breeze, nobody was dressed funny, and the game started on time. Bowie's manger Brad Komminsk, was happy to see Frank and promptly busted his balls. The game moved along pretty uneventfully until about the 4th inning, when interns showed up for the big discussion regarding the 5th inning drag "skit" apparently Sunday' s crew didn't show as much enthusiasm as the brass was hoping for, so we were relieved of our duties. The "performance" for the evening was to be "Jump on it" Sorry, guess I really am getting old. Never heard of it. We went over the basics and at the end of the 5th, we headed to the infield. I made my way around the base paths and when I came back around 2nd base, they were killing it. Got a very good crowd reaction.So, maybe people will come to baseball games to see what the grounds crew does during the drag. Or, maybe not. The rest of the game went without anything of note. The boys lost, again, only 3-2. They were in it, but as usual, just couldn't get the clutch hit. They left way too many men on base, hit in to a bunch of double-plays with men in scoring position, that killed the inning. basic stuff. Afterwards, hey, our favorite thing, fireworks. Actually, once we got things finished up, we were done at a decent hour. Tuesday night's game looks to be a little on the wet side, so we did tarp after the game. We'll see what the day has in store for us. More tomorrow.

Super Saturday Night

2009-05-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Another baseball Saturday night, another strange sight. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, every time I think I've seen it all, some new and different pops up. I arrived on City Island Sat. evening and there directing traffic at the Walnut Street bridge was not my old buddy Chuck, but Batman. That caused a double-take, for sure. It didn't get any better as I made my way towards home plate to prep for pre-game. I saw Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Zorro, A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Supergirl, and a Power Ranger. And a couple of guys in orange shirts. (the real super heroes). In attendance, Doug, Knute and myself. So, short-handed tonight. The pre-game routine went surprising smooth and relatively problem free. When I say relatively, the incident was a small chalker issue. As I was proceeding down the 1st base line, I waited too long to stop an redistribute the chalk in the hopper. As a result, I got a rapid, large drop of chalk all at once, creating a rather thick line. Actually we began referring to it as the chalk wall. Good for bunters tonight. Other than that, smooth as silk. We took up our usual positions in the cubby and the discussion for the evening was the impending "skit" that would take place during the drag. we found out that we would have 2 office staff employees joining us and would be performing "YMCA" at 2nd base in the middle of the drag. Wow! Something that's never been done before at a baseball game. ( Unless you don't count every major and minor league ballpark in the friggin' country) Well we griped and moaned about it, but we did it, and now everybody in Central PA will be wondering " What will that crazy grounds crew do next? I gotta be there to see it!" (Not really...) So we talked about it some more while we ate and came up with a few more ideas that might work and possibly even be fun. After that, Doug and I decided to take a stroll on the boardwalk. We thought that we would start from the left field side and check out the views the whole way around. They installed a set of stairs across from the visitors bullpen so access was easy. They view from the left field corner is commanding! I liked it a lot. We made our way around , stopping to talk to Irene, one of the SportService concession employees who took very good care of us when she worked at the 1st base grill. Alas, she's been shuffled around to different areas around the ballpark, so we've kind of lost track of her. It was good to talk to her, and she said she kind of liked being out there, where it was fairly busy, within view of the field so she could at least see some of the game from time to time. As we made our way around we paused to check out the views, all very good. We even sat for a second in the right field seats, very, very nice! The boys, in the meantime, has dug themselves into an 8-0 hole. They spent the rest of the game clawing back, making it 8-4 going into the 9th. We parked by fence in the new, as yet to be completed bullpen to watch the remainder of the game, and watched Leonard Davis launch one out over our heads to make it 8-6, but that's the closest they would come. We did get the snail's eye view of the scoreboard fireworks, though. Not bad. Afterwards, the were the usual post-game festivities, launch-a-ball and base race, so getting out at a decent hour was out of the question. We did finally get finished and camped out for a few minutes by the first-aid station to have an adult beverage and chit-chat. Bob Henley, a former Senators catcher from the championship years and is now a roving instructor, was there too. We listened to a few stories and caught up on all of the gossip and rumors, before packing it in for the night. I won't be back in until Monday night, so more then.

Let's hit the deck...

2009-05-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

The boys were back in town tonight, riding a a 2-game win streak, looking to, dare I say it, make it 3 in a row. I made it to City Island with relatively little trouble considering it is a holiday weekend and Front St. is its usual logjam, due to the festivities on Memorial Day weekend. I t was a gorgeous night for a baseball game with a sizable crowd on hand, I assume, to check out the new deck or boardwalk I guess we're calling it. In attendance, Izzy, Alan, Doug and myself, as well as our fearless leader, Knute. (I was informed that I have been spelling it incorrectly in all of my previous entries, so I stand corrected, and offer my sincerest apologies...) We blew through pre-game without a hitch and settled in to the cubby for the game, cuing up, as usual, a hockey game on the TV (Red Wings/Blackhawks) as well as keep tabs via the Internet on the Hershey Bears/Providence Bruins game. We had a short visit from the Bowie Baysox manager, Brad Komminsk, wondering where Frank was. He had try and call his cell, so he could bust his chops for not being here. No luck, though, as usual, as Frank keeps a low profile. As the game went on, the main topic of discussion was the "in-game entertainment" that the grounds crew was asked to participate in during the 5th inning drag. No one was very enthusiastic about it , due to the fact that: A: We don't really have a lot of time between innings to do the actual drag B: The suggestions for our "antics" were lame and done to death in other ballparks, and C: We don't really feel like doing it. The way we we approached about doing it was ham-handed and disrespectful (I think). But we thought about it and threw some suggestions around and agreed to give it a shot. So, tomorrow night, we shall see. The boys actually jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first and the game was cruising right along. After the drag, Dopug and I decided to get something to eat and go out to the boardwalk and hang out for a little while. It was pretty crowded, looks like its going to be a very popular place, and we did eventually find a place to sit at the bar stool/ drink rail area in right field. We really enjoyed the ambience and the view of the game was quite good. Alan joined us after a bit, and we ran into Jordan, one of our other part-time guys. Jordan only works Sundays for right now, but will probably get more appearances after school is out. The game was over fairly early, about 9:30, so got moving on post-game to get as much done as possible, because, it was Friday, and that means fireworks. I don't hate them as much as I used to, because the trash pick-up in the outfield has been minimized by better set-up by the fireworks crew and Tim's purchase of a lawn sweeper to pick up most of the debris that makes it onto the field. We did get to shoot some in-game fireworks as well, with Marvin Lawrence's 1st inning shot. I don't think all of the folks on the boardwalk were ready for them, though, and I think we scared the crap out of more than a few of them. Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful evening with the Sens picking up a win to make it a 3 game winning streak. I guess anything can happen now. Into double digits in the win column, a 3 game winning streak... Maybe we should start printing the playoff tickets now. Or maybe not. (and the Bears won 6-4, and the Blackhawks won 4-3 in OT)
More after Saturday's game.

Attack of the school kids...

2009-05-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

After a break Tuesday evening, I was back in the house for Wednesday's game. Being a 10:30 start, I arrived at 9:30. I did not attend Tuesday's game by choice, since i was at the Giant Center to see the Hershey Bears whitewash the Wilkes-Barre Penguins in Game 7 of the East Division playoff round. It was indeed, possibly the best game they've played all year. But that really doesn't have anything to baseball. So, as I arrived on City Island, I was immediately greeted by a huge traffic jam in the parking lot, due to a large number of school buses. It was Education Day, with a huge number of students in attendance. I did finally make it to the back lot and onto the field. In attendance, Izzy, Ben and Cullen, as well as myself. I don't know if I mentioned before, but Ben and Cullen are the day guys who work for Newt. It was a beautiful morning and smooth sailing through pregame. By the time we were finished, it was obvious that a large crowd would be on hand. As we found out later on, the announced attendance was 6410. A technical sellout is 6303. Judging by the difficulty of moving around the concourse area and the concession lines, I'd say it was pretty close to accurate. Maybe not 6410, probably more like 6401. The kids really seemed to be having a great time yelling and screaming, creating a noise level that we don't normally hear in the evening. It's too bad the boys didn't give them much to cheer about. Another game, another loss. Stearns changed the lineup a little, I guess hoping a change of pace would shake some things loose. Luke Montz played 1st base, Matt Whitney played 3rd and Joel Guzman played right field. Not the usual. They didn't get blown out, but just couldn't get any clutch hits to score some runs. If this goes on much longer, I believe there will be some wholesale changes by June. Meaning a lot of the current crew will be gone. Don't know whether that will be good or bad, so we'll see. But I think they'll have to do something. I brought along a lot of the old memorabilia I have, programs, card set, ticket stubs, etc to show Jeff Bannister and reminisce a little. Unfortunately, he had to move on to his next assignment, so hopefully we'll run into him again this season. The cubby chatter was mostly about tools and equipment. We talked about things we needed and would like to have for the field. We definitely need a new infield machine and a new Gator. Both are on the long side of 10+ years old and well past their prime. They always seem to make it for 1 more game, but I think they're time is growing short. I stated that if I won the lottery Wed. night I would outfit the crew with brand new everything, a mower, infield machine, a couple of gators, a new chalker, whatever we wanted. Well it didn't happen, so its the old stuff again next homestand and I have to go to work tomorrow. We're not back in until Friday May 22nd and hopefully the boardwalk will be open. If the weather cooperates, it should be a great Memorial Day weekend. Talk to you then.

it's old home week

2009-05-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

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.

One more time, with feeling...

2009-05-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well we were back at it Thursday evening, this time with the weather cooperating for a change. We're playing a double-header again this evening trying to get the games in for this series. It was a 5:00 pm start for game 1 so I was unable to make pre-game again, arriving around 6. The crew tonight was Newt, Ben (Newt's day guy), Alan and myself. I t was nice to be able to wear just a shirt and shorts instead of that damn rain suit. Game 1 moved right along with Erie jumping out to a quick lead, but our guys rallying to tie the game at 5 in the bottom of the 6th. I t stayed that way through the 7th and went to the 8th. Erie jumped on our reliever and lit him up for 4 runs and we couldn't answer in the bottom half, so Game 1 went to the Seawolves. Game 2 started around 8:05 with in between prep going rather smoothly. We were all hoping for the same pace for Game 2 so we could get out at a decent hour. The cubby conversation was mostly about what video clips we could get them to play on the scoreboard. "Clark the goalie" was our first choice along with several other movies. I left the cubby shortly after the game started to get a Spot dog(outstanding!) and decided to head back towards the picnic area and tap out last night's blog entry. When I finished, I headed back to the cubby and found out that Alan and Newt were engaged in one of my favorite pastimes, movie line quoting. They had run through most of the good ones until I got back. I'll have to load up and get it rolling some other night. I noticed upon my return that the boys seemed to be tanking in the 2nd game as well, the score being 6-0. We all thought is might just be a reasonable night, time wise, which is good since Friday is still a workday. However, when the bottom of the 6th rolled around, the guys really started to get things rolling. They started stringing together some hits and started plating some runs. Erie made some horrible plays in the outfield, dropping a couple of balls that extended the inning, which otherwise would have been over. Before it was all said and done, the score was tied
and we were headed to the 7th. It was looking like extra innings again as the Seawolves went down relatively quietly. In the bottom of the 7th, Bill Rinehart started it off with a base hit and was replaced with a pinch runner, Michael Martinez. It was down to 2 outs when Matt Whitney stepped in. He drilled one towards the middle and it skipped off the 2nd baseman's glove and into shallow center field. Martinez was on his horse and Stearnsy waved him through. It was going to be close at the plate, but the throw was just off-line enough to let Martinez to sneak through and plate the winning run. The dugout emptied like the had just won the league championship. It must have been a great feeling for the guys, after going 2-for-April. They've now won 4 of their last 6, thereby doubling their win total for April in just the first week of May. I'd say that's showing some signs of life. They're out for a quick 3 games in Akron over the weekend and back in on Monday the 11th. It's another quick 3 gamer with another 10:30 start in the finale. I'll be there. Maybe the boardwalk will be open. Probably not, though,more likely for the Memorial Day weekend series. It's Mother's day weekend coming up, so I'll be able to get some awake face time with Mrs. Wadsworth since I haven't seen her too much this past week. Until then, treat your Mom nice and I'll be back around next week.

who's gettin' the wet?

2009-05-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well, another night of baseball on City Island and..... it's raining. For the fourth big day in a row the rain's coming down in buckets. We're playing a double-header tonight, theoretically speaking , of course, to make upfor the rain out on Tuesday, the game we almost played. The 1st game started at 5, so since I work until 5:30, I didn't make it in for pregame. It was about the 2nd inning when I showed up in the cubby, rainsuit in hand. I bought my current rainsuit last year, I think I wore it once. I've already had it on 4 times this year. That's not good. it looked like it was going to start pouring any second when I got to the park, and it finally started about the 4th inning. It really picked before the 6th inning started, so we (Frank, Doug, Newt and myself) started filling buckets with Turface to prepare for the onslaught. Turns out, that was like preparing for a hurricane with sponges. The game was tied 0-0 in the top of the 6th. Erie (the team we finally started to play) was retired and we came to bat. The rain was coming down even heavier now. We did manage to get a guy on, and uke Montz stepped in. He drilled a pitch into the left field seats and put us up 2-0. After Erie got the 3rd out, we started out to spread Turface, but the umps called for the tarp instead. We put it on and sat back and watched some hockey on TV while it just poured. They halted the game at about 7:00 and we waited for an hour until they finally decided there wouldn't be any more baseball that night.
We did have a surprise visitor, though. When I arrived, Newt's girlfriend Ashleigh stopped by with their dog Buster. Buster is a minature daschund, still a puppy, and full of piss and vinegar. he made his rounds, visiting everyone, generally spreading himself around. He never did acheive his ultimate goal, which I believe was, to run out onto the field. That might have been very interesting. They didn't stay too long, due to the impending weather.
Oh, did I forget to mention, the Senators did win the first game, so that makes 3 out of their last 4. Definitely some signs of life. We're playing 2 again tomorrow night, starting at 5 again and the weather, finally is supposed to be dry, possibly even nice!. We'll see if they boys can pick up where they left off and maybe put another one in the win column. Should be interesting to see what kind of damage they did to the field. This will be the end of the homestand, though, so we'll have time to get things cleaned up for next homestand. we only have a 3 game set next time out, including a 10:30 am start on the 13th, which I will be attending, so that should be fun. I'll check in again after the double-header on Thursday.

Things you never thought you'd see....

2009-05-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Not having attended Saturday night's game, I guess I'll have to recap a bit. In short the boys won again, the first time they've won back-to-back games this year. Now, they've only won 4 games so far, so even though it's not really a huge accomplishment otherwise, in perspective, it really is. Showing some signs of life. They added a few new guys, who look like they can hit and field. And my guys tell me they played the game in under 3 hours, which is a notable accomplishment these days. Sunday started off rainy. I fully expected the game to be cancelled, as it rained steadily all morning, but not hearing anything to the contrary, I headed for City Island, resigned to wait around for a couple of hours, or play in the rain. Sure enough, the tarp had just come off as I arrived, even though it was still raining. We quickly prepped the field and then began the task of trying to dry things up enough to be playable. The drying agent we use, known as Turface, isn't cheap, about 7.50 a bag. We went through quite a few bags, so it was rather expensive to play yesterday. Taking into consideration the rather meager attendance and factoring in the wages paid to all of the ballpark employees, I' m guessing they didn't make a whole lot of money. I don't understand the logic, but hey, it's not my call. One we got the field prepped, the managers and umpires conferred, and....... we put the tarp back on. Mind you, it was raining the entire time. but after about an hour delay, we took the tarp back ( it was still raining....) we decided to start. In the top of the first, the R-Phils hit a few balls into the deep portion of left and left-center fields and the warning track was more than a little wet. So, of course, our guys fell and the got a couple of triples and a 3 run lead after 1. Our boys scratched back but just couldn't quite put it together. They had there moments, but leaving the bases loaded twice, once with no outs, doesn't help the cause any.
Speaking of moments, there were a couple of oddities yesterday.
I've never seen a 6 foot rooster with long hair and man-boobs. Saw it yesterday. All I can say is come to the ballpark and see for yourself. Its worth the price of admission. The 2nd moment was a hitting coach (coaching 1st base) getting into an argument with an umpire over a pick-off play and getting tossed before the start of the bottom of the 9th. It was Reading's hitting coach Frank Cacciatorre (who was our hitting coach a few years ago). I mean they were winning 8-4, so I'm not sure what he gained by it, but, knowing Frank, I'm sure he was right and was just making a point to the umpire crew to get it right. Things you don't see very often, but will if you hang around long enough. Ah well, didn't get out of there until about 6:40 pm, so I missed most of the Bears game. Looks like a lot more rain tomorrow, so that might make 2 Monday rainouts in a row. Something else that doesn't happen very often. Back again tomorrow

Back at it

2009-05-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

Starting a homestand on a Friday? Not totally unheard of, but not the norm on City Island. After a week off, the boys are back in town after dreadful road trip. Ididn't listen to any of the games on radio, but after combing through news accounts and such, they showed some signs of life, but keep making a lot of errors and dumb mistakes and not really hitting a lick. But, hopefully, they'll start the big turnaround tonight. I heard on the news this morning, that it woulld be "rally cap night". When I arrived at the park, all of the staff had their caps on inside out. I tried it, didn't work for me, so I just took it off. It had pretty much threatened rain all day, so the tarp was off, but rolled out still when I showed up. The guys had about 90% of the pregame work done, so we wrapped things up and settled in for the game. Since it was Friday, the post-game fireworks were in place and we accepted that it was going to be a long evening. All hands were in attendance, myself, Doug, Alan, Frank and Izzy. But best of all, it was payday! All of those Saturdays and games from the first homestand were about to payoff! The topic of conversation in the cubby tonight was dirt. We discussed types of dirt, prep, how much water to use, how much drying agent to use when its wet, plus an in depth discussion of the types of rakes, and which were our favorites. I, personally, over the years have found that different types of rakes work better on different dirt conditions. In other words, a rake with longer teeth works better in wetter, deeper dirt. A rake with shorter teeth works better in dry, powdery dirt. Very cerebral stuff. And lo and behold, the boys played a pretty decent game and won for the first time in 13 trys! You'd never know it by looking at the line score, though. reading outhit us 11 to 8 and we made 3 errors, but we beat them 4-2 . On the surface, that screams bad baseball on both sides. But.hey, a W is a W. After the game, we had all of our favorites, Launch-a-ball, fireworks, and the tarp. Pulling the tarp sucks. its my least favorite thing. Actually, 'favorite' doesn't even belong. I hate it. But we saved the best for last. We got to take the grnd tour of the almost completed boardwalk. Its extremely cool! I predict its going to be a huge hit with the fans. The views are totally unlike anything the fans have seen on City Island up to this point. It will be a great place to socialize and catch a little baseball, plus a place for antsy kids to strech their legs. When the whole project is complete, its going to rival anything in minor league baseball.
I'm playing in a golf tournament on Saturday, so I won't be at the ballpark, but I'll check back in on Sunday.

Let's play two...

2009-04-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, after 2 nights off, we finally got back on the field. And for the first time in team history, we started at 10:30 am and it was a double-header. We had quite a crew for a day game, Alan,Izzy, Doug, and myself, the part-timers, along with Newt and Ben, Newt's daytime assistant. We all arrived at around 8:30 am to get things in shape after all of the rain the past 2 days. We were quite fortunate that we didn't play last night, as the damge to the field was almost nil. I don't think the upper brass really has any insight into why we don't like to just "get a game in" on a rainy day. The damage to the field is, most times, substantial. It ends up costing the organization a lot more money in material and man hours to get things back in proper playing condition. If it happens more than 1 or 2 nights in a row, sometimes the damage can never be corrected and could create risky conditions for the players. In the end, it really isn't worth it. Today's pregame prep was as smooth as silk. The weather, although decent at gametime, was a bit cooler than the weekend and as the day went along, we had to deal with some intermittment rain showers, nothing heavy enough to stop the game. We were all shoe-horned into the 3rd base cubby and the topics of conversation varied widely and most were inappropriate enough to be left out of this post. We did resurrect yesterday's catch-phrase as we had several 'windows' of decent weather today.
I'd also like to comment on something I has been remiss in the lasst few games. That is: Spot dog's! The Spot stand was our favorite food stop at the park last year. Andthis year, we've picked up right were we left off. My personal favorite is the Grrrounder. A Grrrounder is a jumbo dog with spicy mustard, pepperjack cheese, grilled onions and Spot chili sauce. We also top ours off with some jalapenos from the condiment stand. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I had my first one the other night. Deee-licious. I believe it is the best food item at Metro Bank Park, without exception.
Our boys did not fare well again today.They were in both games until the end, but just keep making some fundamental mistakes and jsut can't get any clutch hits. A couple of the guys did break out a little today, with Bill Rhinehart getting a couple of hits including a towering home run too dead center field. Matt Whitney also got at least 1 hit that I can remember, so hopefully they all can start to break out a little and maybe pick up a few wins.
Work on the boardwalk continued throughout the game and is moving along nicely. I think I heard it may be open by Mid-May. Judging by the visible progress, I say that might be right.
Other than that, we'l be out for the next seven days, so I'll check in every few days until the next homestand starts on May 1. Later.

2nd verse, same as the first...

2009-04-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Once again, it was a rainout on City Island. After what seemed like a promising afternoon, the skies opened up putting Tuesday evening's game on hold. The only difference today was that we actually made to the ballpark. It was the first appearance of the season for the old rainsuit, probably not the last. It was a good turnout for the crew, though, withmyself, Alan, Doug, Izzy, Ryan, and Frank. It was Frank's first appearance this year for a game. He'd been tied up with long hours at work and has been a little under the weather lately. It was good to have the whole gang there together, even in the rain. We passed the time until a decision was made about the game, by continuously analyzing the radar and generally busting each others balls. When the actual gametime came and went, we, naturally, switched on the Pens-Flyers game and busted each others balls about that ,too. We did have a good time with one of Akron's bullpen guys who joined us in the weather analysis. We got into to an extended discussion about weather "windows", and that became the catch phrase for the evening. We had some musical entertainment in the form of the Middletown High School marching band. They had come to play the National Anthem, but ended up playing stand music and watching it rain. They finally called the game around 7:30, and we cleared out shortly thereafter. We're playing a double-header tomorrow with a 10:30 start. That should be interesting. i have the day off from work, sodoes Alan, Doug and Izzy, so we should be well staffed. Hopefully we can get both games in before the forecasted afternoon showers. Other than that, nothing else new or interesting. More tomorrow.

rained out...

2009-04-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

Didn't get the game in tonight, too much rain. So to keep the crew bond tight, we all headed to Arooga's out on 22 to eat, drink and hang. The crowd consisted of myself and my wife Leslie, Alan and his girlfriend Sara, my other son Mike, my nephew Dan, Doug, and Newt and his girlfriend Ashleigh. We ate, drank, and generally had a good time, catching up on all of the other stuff we don't get time to talk about when we're at the ballpark.We watched a little hockey, of course, watching the Caps finally beat the Rangers. Other than that, we headed for home relatively early, compared to the last few nights, and looked ahead to tomorrow night's game, which may or may not take place. Sounds like we may be in for some more more rain, which might mean a double-header on Wednesday. Wednesday's game starts at 10:30 am, something new this year. I think its to cater to the school kids who usually come to these early-season day games. We'll see how it works out. A double-header should be over about 2:30 or 3 :00 so that would make a nice early day for us.
I'll check back in tomorrow
'

The view from the cubby, games 3 & 4

2009-04-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to post on Saturday night or Sunday morning, due to a late return home on Sat. night and a quick turnaround for Sunday's game, so I'll do double-duty tonight. Saturday night was a gorgeous night for basebal, the best so far. Mid 70's and sunny, certainly not the norm on City Island this time of year. Another enthusiastic and sizeable crowd was on hand, a bit over 4500 I think I heard, also not the norm this time of year. I've always viewed Senators crowds a bit cynically. We've always had the faithfull core of about 800-1500 fans who are always there, but maybe the buzz about the new ballpark and some more energetic marketing by the staff is paying off. The great weather didn't hurt either. The weather is about to take a turn for the worse and of course the beginning of a new week. Monday nights, even in the summer after school has let out, are traditionally deadsville. The only thing good about Monday games, in my experience, are that they are usually pretty speedy affairs. I haven't seen any 1 hr.,59 min. games in quite awhile, but anything under 2 and a half hours is fast. We can't seem to play one in less than 3 hours anymore. With the new 7:00 pm start times, it makes for some late nights and some groggy mornings at work the next day. A couple of those in a row will do me in pretty quickly. Add in some extra inning games or a rain delay and I'll be toast. Saturday night's game was a good example. A 3 hour plus marathon, plus post-game activities,(Launch-a-ball and kids' base-race, plus some sort of student debate thing) gave us an 11:20 exit and about an 11;45 home arrival. Of course, I'm all wound up after all of the activity and wide awake. I usually crawl into bed about 12:30 or 1. Sleeping in is an option on weekends, but not during the week. I did manage to make it to church with my wife this morning. I did manage to get to the back parking lot today. It was great not to have to hike in from the main lot. Saturday and Sunday"s game ended with the same result, with the Sens on the losing end. They made a good showing both days, hit couple of home runsSat. night, (which means we got to shoot off some fireworks!!!!) but they made a lot of fundamental mistakes that cost them both games. Hopefully they"ll work out the kinks and get on the winning track. In past years, I've seen some good starts go south (last year) and some rough starts turn out pretty well(1996). I think all it takes is to plug the right guys in the right spots, with some steady guidance. I think they've got good guidance. John Stearns is the right guy for this team. Not sure about Randy Tomlin or Troy Gingrich yet. Time will tell. I liked both guys as players, so I support them both. For now...
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on the field side the last 2 days. We were a little understaffed Sat. night, just 3 of us. Everything got done, but we had to hustle. I made my semi-annual appearance on the tractor on Sat. night after the game. That always seemed like the glamour job, but I gravitated to lining the field before the game and fixing the plate after. I've gotten pretty good at both, so I'm told. We've all been doing a little of everything due to all of the post-game activities. We had a full crew for Sunday's game. The weather wasn't quite as good as the past few days, but it was perfectly acceptable as April weather goes. It's going to take a turn for the worse the next few days with cooler temps andlots of rain. Couldn't make it through a homestand without a little moisture. And after the game, we got to do my favorite of all activites at the ballyard. Putting on the tarp. The rollout was particularly difficult this year, due to my off-season shoulder injury. I had ibuprofen for supper. It looks like a rainout for Monday, calling for a 90% chance of rain. Works for me, I'll take a night off, especially a Monday. Probably head for Arooga's after work. Maybe catch a little of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We did watch all of the Pens/Flyers games in the cubby Friday and today. Good Friday, bad today for us Pens fans. But the Bears won last night, so we'll probably head for the Giant Center Friday night for game 4. Other than that I'll probably check in on Tues. night or Wed. morning before I head in for the 10:30 am game. (got the day off)

the view from the cubby

2009-04-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well, game # 2 is in the book. Things were pretty much back to the usual routine last night, with all the hoopla of opening night out of the way. I gotta say again, that hike in from the parking lot sucks. I'm going to see if I can talk my way in the back tonight. We did have one change in the routine, though. We(the grounds crew) now have charge of fire control. The new scoreboard is rigged with 6 bays of fireworks. They all work via remote control, which we keep in the cubby. They can be set off 1 bay at a time or all 6 at once.
I guess I should explain what I mean by the "cubby". The cubby is the smaller section on the end of each dugout. Traditionally, we used to hang out, during the game, in the 1st base cubby. We keep our rakes, drying agent, etc. in there in case of rain or other problems that might crop up during the game. We also store the screen drags we use at the end of the 5th inning to groom the field. Over the past few seasons, its become quite crowded with photographers, interns, you name it. So we made the decision to move to the 3rd base side. We got the place all to ourselves. Nobody really likes it over there due to the setting sun in the evening shining right in your eyes. Doesn't bother us, though. We have out tv in there to monitor the weather and we could watch the Pens/Flyers game last night. We're predominantly Pens fans, so we were happy with the outcome of last night's game. I wanted to shoot off all the fireworks when the Pens won, but got a quick thumbs-down on that. Damn it.
We never did get to shoot off any fireworks. No home runs for us, unfortunately. The game moved at a snail's pace last night. The Sens. pitcher was 1 of their top prospects, Ross Detweiler. he didn't have a good night, was lifted in the 3rd inning, losing 5-1. Jack Spradlin came on in relief, pitched well, as did the rest of the bullpen. The Sens made a late charge to come within 6-5, and Leonard Davis (I think) just missed a home run in the 8th inning with a guy aboard. With the old fence configuration, it would have been gone. It was hit right in the area where the fence angles back in right-center field. It used to be 375 feet in that area, but is closer to 400 now, and that ball hit off the fence. Oh well, progress...
The scoreboard functioned much better last night without the jittery look it had on opening night. Very impressive. Also impressive are the new on-field promotions. They're different than the same old stuff we've been seeing for the last 10 or so years, so it really is a breath of fresh air.
Can't remember if I mentioned in previous post, but the grounds crew should be fairly easy to "spot" this year. Our shirts and sweatshirts are bright orange. This is quite a departure form the navy blue, or black, or gray that we've had in past years. If you've been past the the"Spot" hot dog stand inside the ballpark this year, you'll notice their traditional orange Spot shirts. Ours are the same color.
Speaking of the Spot, it quickly became our favorite food stop. I personally found the food at the other stands, lacking. Compared to years past, the food quality is lower and the prices higher, although not rediculous. This year, though, I noticed that at the 1st base grill, where we have eaten a lot over the years, the prices took a huge spike. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $8 for a cheeseburger or a chicken sandwich, at any ballpark. But that's just me. I will be eating Spot dogs or bringing my own.
As I said, the game really dragged last night, and to make matters worse, they did the launch-a-ball contest, and there were fireworks after the game. (so there you go Pens!!!!) I will go on record as not being a big fan of fireworks at the ballpark. At least when I'm working. Usually too much post-game clean-up, but last night there was almost none. Apparently, the fireworks guys set a few things on fire behind the fence, so that was a little exciting. We finally slogged through the rest of the post-game work, had our traditionasl post-game chat, and packed it in for the night. And made the long hike back out to the parking lot. Did I mention how much I hated that....
Back at it tonight for # 3

70 more to go...

2009-04-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Well, opening night # 14 (for me, anyway) is in the book. It was, uncharacteristically, sunny and warm. The field looked awesome, and as I stated in an earlier post, it won't look that good until next opening day. But we'll all do our best to keep it looking top-shelf. A large, very enthusiastic crowd was on hand, 4034 I think i heard announced, pretty good as opening nights go. We hardly ever sell out for opening night, as a matter of fact, I don't ever recall a sellout for an opener. I think its the combination of traditionally crappy weather and a Thursday night, a tough night for familes with school still in. The renovations are moving right along and I hear that the boardwalk might be open by mid-May. Towards the end of the game, the crew and I went out into the area that will be the new bullpen area. The view of the gaame there was great, and up on the boardwalk the views should be outstanding!. I think it will be a great place to hang out for the casual fan who like to socialize and for parents with small kids who want to come to a game, but have restless youngsters. The pregame ritual went off without a hitch, with crewmembers in attendance being: myself, Doug, Alan, Izzy, the new kid Ryan, and, of course, Newt. Frank was unable to attend, due to work committents, and he was missed. With all the work being done to the ballpark, we were unable to to park in out usual location, behind the outfield wall. So the hike in from the regular parking lot sucked. The walk back out after the game sucked even more. As usual it was the usual opening night chaos with all of the pomp and circumstance. Once the game got started, we settled in to the familiar routine. The new scoreboard is indeed impressive, although they have some issues with the display that are being worked on. It was a little jittery most of the time, but I heard they should be worked out by the end of the homestand.The boys played a good game, with Marvin Lowrance parking one in the new left field seats to open the scoring. I t went back and forth until the late innings, when the Sens with a 3-2 lead put Mike Daniel up to pinch hit. he deposited one over the right-center field wall to bump the lead to 4-2. I the bottom of the 8th we got a couple of guys aboard and Javi Herrera hit a 3-run jack to make it 7-2, and that was the final. Post game got off to its usual delay due to the Launch-a-ball game so we had to wait them out. By the time we got finished, it was pushing the 11th hour, so it would be late until I got home. Getting up in morning was a blast! well back at it friday night. it's supposed to be a lot warmer, should be a great night for a ball game.

almost opening night...

2009-04-14T17:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here going over my prep list for opening night. I give it far more thought than I used to in the first few seasons, but I've learned a few things the hard way in years' past. I've learned over the years to carefully watch the weather and be prepared for any contingency. The weather this year looks favorable, maybe a bit on the cool side, so nylon pants, my crew sweatshirt and jacket need be present. I always pack extra socks, shirts and at least 2 pairs of shoes, as well as rain shoes, and extra gloves. The older I get, the less tolerant i am of the cold (until I get used to it) and wet feet (I never get used to that). At the ballpark out favorite topic is usually the weather, and we watch the Weather Channel ad nauseum. Opening night is always exciting, but there is too much hoopla before the game. things are much better once things get under way. As in past years, the road hasn't been to kind to the team thus far. Hopefully they can salvage a win or 2 before Thursday. The other thing about opening night that I love and hate is seeing the field. Its pristine right now, but it will never look better than it does on opening night until next opening night. It's all downhill from here, much as Tim and Newt (and the rest of us part-timers to aa lesser extent) try. It will always look good throughout the year, due to their skill, just not as good as that first night. I can't remember if I mentioned my other cowoirkers in my first post, but they are Frank Raudensky and Doug Husted, as well as my son Alan, plus a few others that come and go. Frank used to be a the visiting clubhouse manager, but the hours got to be too long and came to the grounds crew a few years ago. Doug was an usher and gate attendant for a few years, left, and came back a few years ago also. He is retired, but works for Susquehanna Twp. taking care of their athletic fields from spring to fall. Frank is a licensed electrician. Alan is an H/R specialist. We all do this strictly part-time, but spend a lot of time on City Island for 6 or 7 months out of the year. I have the most seniority on the crew, but am younger than Frank and Doug. We're all over the age of 50, so we joke about being Tim's "senior crew". The other odd thing is we all hurt our left shoulder in the off-season (doing non-work related things) and Alan hurt his in college, so we all refer to each other as "Lefty". My other baseball related activity I'm working on is a template for the Senators' "H" logo that we can use on each side of the mound like some of the big league clubs do. Other than that, I'm just biding my time until Thursday evening when I step ontothe field for the 14th year. I'll check in again Friday morning.