Throwback Thursday

TV Stevie and I didn't get to the stadium until the top of the second inning. Neither one of us attended last night's game, although Sandee and Anthony did. It sounded like a good one.

Tonight's was a good one. Between Yuneski Maya's pitching and three HR from the Chief's bats, the win was enjoyable. The weather was cool but dry, unlike last night's drizzle.

Corey Brown: didn't do much of anything tonight at the plate, although his fielding was great.

Jim Negrych hit a home run in the third; Xavier Paul hit a 3-run HR in the 4th; and Carlos Maldonado hit a HR in the 7th.  Chiefs won 5-1.

Carlos Maldonado waved to us, 1st base coach Jarrett Hoffpauir waved to us, too.

Weird play of the game. the Durham Bulls pitcher was chasing a ball and slid into first base. Unfortunately, the first baseman snagged the ball and got the out.

There's a new character at the park: TV Stevie calls him Peanut Salesman. He sits a couple of rows behind us and delivers strange lines in a staccato, mechanical-sounding voice. He had Anthony cracking up at one point. I have a difficult time understanding him.

Pretty sunset.

Some observations about the new scoreboard:

• The operator keeps playing with color combinations, and one has to wonder what kind of background said operator has. Basic TV production/basic website construction frown on some of what we've seen because the contrast isn't good. I realize we're in the first week of operation, but some combinations are obvious no-nos:
• white numbers on gray background; 
• pale blue letters on medium blue background; 
• yellow characters on white background.
• The contrasts aren't strong enough. Maven lamented this again tonight. 
• Anthony made the same observation tonight that Maven mentioned on Tuesday: Balls, strikes, and errors are very blurry and difficult to read.
• The new games are fun on the board
• Love seeing instant replay.
• Fan cam is interesting
• I don't like the commercials, but I guess it has to be paid for somehow.
• We always know who's at bat -- including a photo of the player
• Sometimes we get "history", other times we get stats. Why can't we have both, the way we did on the old scoreboard? I want to know stolen bases, home runs, batting average plus what the player has done in that game.
• The players should have better pictures take of themselves.