Winning Against The Empire State Yankees

As we were leaving the stadium yesterday, the announcer referred to today's opponent as the "Empire State Yankees." You see, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees' stadium is being refurbished, so the Triple A Yankees are homeless. They will be playing "home games" throughout the league, including ten "home" games in Syracuse. Our season ticket package includes tickets for those ten home games.

Day three of the season was sunny and warmer than the previous two days.

I stopped at Stadium Guest Services for my Player of the Game ballot and again was told they were available only in the program. Fortunately, TV Stevie bought a program.

Game 1 Player of the Game was Bryce Harper. No surprise there.
Game 2  was Corey Brown -- he would have had one more vote had I been able to find a ballot.

The team wore the red "weekend" uniforms, which brand them as a Washington Nationals farm team. And the line-up was mixed up from the previous two games: Corey Brown moved back to center field, Bryce Harper moved to right and Xavier Paul went to left.

The announcer of the lineups wasn't close enough to his mic and he read the lineups too quickly. Maven tells me that part of the new scoreboard will include an all-new, much improved sound system. Maven also said the wind direction contributed to the muted sound system today. It was very difficult to understand anything.

The best surprise of the day:

Carlos Maldonado catching the game

I texted Sandee to let her know. She and Anthony ended up not being able to make the game. XGMan, who sits on the opposite side of us, also couldn't make the game. TV Stevie and I spread out.

The Bryce Harper Report:
1st inning: base hit.
3rd inning: walked
4th inning: single
6th inning: struck out
He seemed more comfortable in right field than in center.

In other news: Jim Durkin retired. You know, the popcorn-in-a-helmet man. He sold the programs, too. And ice cream sandwiches in the stands during late innings.

Ben, the batting camera guy, stopped by to say hi.

Best Inning of the Game:
Third inning.
Xavier Paul singled
Tyler Moore singled
Bryce Harper walked
Carlos Maldonado RBI single

Carlos Maldonado at bat

Mark Teahen RBI Single
Carlos Rivero (who has serious Lambinitis at home plate) singled, which forced Harper out at home.
Jarrett Hoffpauir popped out
Corey Brown grounded to second.

Stranded!

Carlos Maldonado -- the real Carlos -- was stranded at third.

Congrats to Seth Bynum who, to open the bottom of the fourth, hit the first home run of the year

The jersey raffled off was Randy Knorr's (last year's manager) Throwback Thursday Jersey. We didn't win it.

Today's pitcher was Yuneski Maya, who pitched 6 complete shut-out innings. I voted for him as player of the game. The win is his.

Maya Delivers!

Maya was replaced in the seventh by Austin Bibens-Dirkx. John Simone was walking by when Bibens-Dirkx was announced, and John said he thought Bibens-Dirkx was the first ever hyphenated-named Chief. He was going to check old media guides to confirm that. 

The interns aren't around taking Fan Photos for the Photo Gallery yet. X-Chromo and her friend T were at the game with us and very disappointed not to have their Fan Photo taken. Mom to the rescue:

Faux Fan Foto

We finally ate at the ball park. TV Stevie tried a chicken-and-fries plate. He wasn't impressed. Said there was too much breading on the chicken and he doesn't like the Burger-King-like fries.

Chicken and fries special

I ordered a South-of-the-Border hot dog, which came with a bag of chips.

South of the Border Hot Dog

The hot dog wasn't cooked enough, the tortilla in which it was wrapped was stale and non-supple, but the corn and black bean salsa was fabulous!

X-Chromo had an "okay" hotdog and T wanted ice cream in a helmet, but they no longer sell anything in a helmet. At least, not this early in the season. She was quite disappointed.

The Taco Bell K-Man (Yankee catcher Cervillo) struck out. TACOS! X-Chromo and T planned to go to Taco Bell later tonight.

Yesterday we noticed a bit of a lag in the temporary scoreboard. The strike count went from 0 to 2 in one smooth move. Today, it went from 1 Ball 0 Strikes to 2 Balls 1 Strike in one smooth move. 

It's very difficult to follow the game without a true scoreboard, but the new one promises to be well worth the wait.