Half a Night

Due to family obligations, TV Stevie and I didn't get to the stadium until the top of the 6th inning tonight. The first thing we noticed was that the Maven was back. I hugged him. Then I noticed Sandee and Anthony weren't there. Family issues, according to a text message.

So it was a discombobulated evening at the stadium. The score was tied. The stadium was as full as I've seen it this year -- Public Library Night and lots of freebie tickets. It was also very, very loud.

I did give Tall-Mike-the-Assistant-GM the note for Adam Fox. Adam, I hope you find and enjoy the photos of you and your son that are in the archives here.

It was very loud in the stadium tonight. There was a row of kids in front of me (last row of section 109) doing a wave. So trying to say hi to the first base coaches was an exercise in futility. Okay, the 6th inning coach was Corey Brown, so I didn't bother. I did try to call to Carlos when he helped warm up a new pitcher, but he couldn't hear me.Other first base coaches were Tom Milone, Adam Fox, and Brad Meyers. Sorry guys. Maybe next time.

Gwynett scored two runs in the 7th to pull ahead and eventually win the game. The Chiefs should have won, but there were some . . .  interesting calls by the umpires.

In case you're living under a rock, A-Rod was sent to Scranton Wilke-Barre on 8/16 -- one day after the series with Syracuse. Doesn't that figure.

And in case you aren't aware, Tug Hulett is out on paternity leave. No word yet on Baby Hulett. Good luck, Tug!

Team Photo Night

Bernadina Down

Tonight was Team Photo Night. Sandee & I met in the parking lot and went in together to do our thing. We noticed that there weren't as many players available as there were last year, but figured that was because it was a Tuesday night instead of a Sunday afternoon. (This event was rained out this past weekend). Then we noticed the players available were mostly pitchers . . . which is cool. We like pitchers. They were all very nice young men. One got a little snarky with me . . . "oh, you're the ones," when I mentioned we were the ones cheering. He never let me say "from 207, behind 1st base." Pffft.

I asked players who they were, because we couldn't see their numbers while they were sitting at the tables. Some people said, "Me," another responded in Spanish, and one wise guy said, "Charlie Sheen." Yeah. Right. It was all in great fun, though.


Highlights: 

• Jhonatan Solano signed my hat. The fact that Jhonatan was signing meant that Carlos Maldonado was catching. 
• Adam Fox is back with the Chiefs and I told him how much I enjoyed watching him play ball with his son over in left field after the games. Sandee said Adam's face lit up. I think I mentioned the photos to him. Later, during the game, I asked Tall Mike-the-Assistant GM how I could let Adam know where to find the pix.
• Brad Peacock. I said, "Brad, we have a bone to pick with you. When you're coaching first base, we call out to you and you ignore us!" He laughed and said that he heard us, but didn't know who it was, but now he knows, so he'll wave back.

As we were walking down the concourse, Sandee saw Carlos over by the bullpen, so we hurried down the stairs, calling his name. The poor man kept walking. We stalked him. But he finally stopped, and we chatted. We told him we're the ones in 207 who always call out and wave to him. He signed my hat and my #48 Batting Practice T-shirt. Carlos is a really big man.

Carlos Maldonado and Jhonatan Solano 

Carlos Maldonado signed my BPT

1st Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach - Jeff Frazier. Came out late, so we couldn't say hi.
• Roger Bernadina hit a 2-run homer.
• Carlos Maldonado looked right at us and waved when he came on deck. We didn't say a word.

2nd Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach - Adam Fox. Came out late, so we couldn't say hi.
• Carlos Maldonado grinned in our direction when he came to the plate.
• The Famous Eric Cohen predicted that Carlos would get a hit, and sure enough, he hit a double.

3rd Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Jeff Frazier waved
• Seth Bynum hit a home run
• Matt Antonelli hit a home run
• Back-to-back home runs! 

4th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Adam Fox came out late so we couldn't say hi.
• It was observed that Gwynett's outfielders all wore their sox inside their pants, while the infielders wore their sox outside their pants. 

5th Inning Highlights:

• Carlos hit another double.

6th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Adam Fox waved.
• The Gwynett coach was tossed from the game. (We don't know why)
• A moment later, Roger Bernadina was hit inside his knee. He was down for a while (see photo at top of page)
• A foul ball bounced off the railing between TV Stevie and XG-Man.
• The bases were loaded when Carlos came to bat. He struck out. :-(
• Some guy went butt over teakettle over seats chasing a foul ball.
• Tommy Milone replaced Adam Fox as the 1st base coach so Adam could pinch hit for the pitcher.
• Adam Fox hit a grand slam!
• That cinched our vote for Adam as player of the game.

7th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach: Brad Peacock -- and he waved to us!
• TV Stevie finally won a jersey in the jersey raffle!

Jess-the-Intern hands TV Stevie his Throwback Thursday Jersey

TV Stevie modeling his jersey.

8th Inning Highlights:

• The Famous Eric Cohen came back to 207 and told us that he'd seen Adam Fox wave to us then hit the grand slam. He believes they are connected events. We won't argue. He also mentioned that (at this point) the Chiefs had 16 hits. Every man in the line-up had gotten a hit -- except Corey Brown.
• Suspect caught a Jeff Frazier foul right in front of us (lots of foul balls in 207 tonight).

9th Inning Highlights:

• Atahualpa Severino managed to load the bases, but struck out the final batter.
• The Chiefs win!

Sunday Afternoon With the (SWB) Yankees

Another very competitive game, although the Chiefs weren't able to pull off this one. It was an exciting 9th inning, tying run on base, winning run at the plate. Great baseball.

The First Base Coach Cheer:

• Adam Fox -- a little wave
• Tug Hulett -- a smile
• Jesus Flores -- talking to players in the vistors dugout

Oddities of the Day:

• the woman walking by us with a tray filled with condiments. Nothing else. Just ketchup & mustard.
• Pena (Hassan) pitching against Pena (Ramiro), followed a couple of innings later by Flores (Randy) pitching against Flores (Jesus).  (Maven called out, "Come on Pena!", so I asked him, "Which one?")
• Cheering when the 1st base coach and the batter have the same first name: Chris Marrero and Chris McConnell (last night); Jesus Valdez and Jesus Flores (today).

Annoyance of the Day:

• The Ballot box for the voting for the Player of the Game was gone when Anthony went to cast our votes, around the seventh or eighth inning. A friend of ours asked, "What if someone who wasn't in the starting line up comes in and hits a grand slam to win the game?" A very good question! And the scenario came true -- okay, no grand slam, but still -- in the ninth inning. Tug Hulett and Jesus Flores, neither of whom were in the starting line ups, came in during the ninth and made signficant contributions to the game. But could we vote for them as Player of the Game? Nope.

Pleasant surprise:

• Carlos Maldando played today. Go Carlos!



Carlos at bat




Carlos Maldonado ready for 1st game pitch



"Grizz" from 30 Rock was on hand for the National Kidney Foundation.

"Grizz" throws out first pitch

Kei Igawa was the Yankees' starting pitcher. When his name was announced, there was a collective gasp throughout the stadium.

Kei Igawa


For the third game in a row, the Chiefs are raffling off a jersey from last year's Armed Forces Day. While I am all in favor of US Armed Forces, I don't like the jersey. I've been trying for two season to win a pink one (Breast Cancer Awareness). It seems like they have a lot of Armed Forces ones. (This year's Armed Forces jersey is also the Memorial Day and Independence Day jersey, and is much nicer than last year, altho' TV claims it looks like an Astros jersey).

Camo or used cat litter?

Two former co-workers have told me that they're reading this blog! YaY Kevin and "Flanders"!

The Yankees Are In Town

The Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Yankees, that is.

Yesterday also turned out to be Longhouse Council BSA Night (among other promotions), so there were lots of people at the game. I was nearly T-boned trying to get to the parking lot because people were running the stop sign and not yielding right-of-way. I stopped my car and told the other driver that the stop sign meant she had to stop. Sheesh!

And people were, as usual, sitting wherever they wanted, regardless of the ticket they held. The Usher told several people to move out of reserve seats, but they wouldn't leave. Then when the season-ticket holder arrived, they merely moved over a couple of seats. I was telling Anthony the story and the two girls must have heard me because they spent a couple of innings glaring at me. I, of course, glared back. Then it started raining a little, and they left. Fair-weather fans. I have no use for them.

Enough complaining.

Okay, it rained for a couple of innings, but it was still a great night for a ball game. Ryan Zimmerman, 3rd baseman for the Washington Nationals, made his Syracuse Chiefs debut. He's down for rehab. He looked pretty darn good to me.

Ryan Zimmerman at bat



Ryan Zimmerman playing third



Ryan Zimmerman at first

Maybe some of the many fans were there to see Ryan.

The first base coaches for the night were Adam Fox, Chris McConnell, and Gregor Blanco.

Adam gave us a huge wave and grin.
Chris probably couldn't hear us.
Gregor heard us, but didn't realize he was supposed to smile and wave back at us. Next time, Gregor!

The oddity of the night: someone in the upper deck was blowing bubbles, which drifted over the stadium.

After the game, I spied a very short person in a Chiefs uniform in the dugout. So I hung out a few extra minutes, and sure enough, Adam Fox and his son emerged from the dugout to take batting practice. The Little Fox was wearing a pint-sized Chiefs uniform with his dad's number. It was so cute! And kudos to Adam for being a great Dad.


Fox Jr. & Sr. heading out to left field for batting practice

In their Chiefs uniforms

Batter up!

"Dad! Give me one over the plate!"

"Wild pitch!"

Barking Gulls and Loons

I missed my first game of the season on Thursday. Education day. I'd thought about trading in my coupon for a ticket and taking the time off from work, but I had a lot going on this week during regular working hours and couldn't justify -- to myself -- more time off.

And I was late to Friday night's game. Not as late as I'd been the rest of the week, but late enough to miss Chris Marrero's 3-run homer. Sandee texted me about it as TV was parking the car. Then I ran into Suspect on my way to Section 207, and he told me all about it.

Chris: I'm sorry I missed it!

1st base coach waves for Friday, June 10: Adam Fox and Jesus Valdez!

One thing Sandee and I noticed the other night, and commented on it again last night: whoever was umping behind home plate sounded like a barking gull every time he called a strike. Even TV said something about it. But even more disconcerting was the person making loon calls somewhere in section 209. I mean, I felt like I was in ON GOLDEN POND or something. I was at a baseball game, not some lake resort in the Adirondacks.

Even though the Chiefs lost, they play a very competitive game against the Louisville Bats last night. It was a good game.  Now bring on the SWB Yankees!

They're Baaack!

The Chiefs are home again!  Not that I've been able to catch very much of their play. I had to do something with TV Stevie on Tuesday night, so we didn't get to the stadium until the top of the 8th inning. And tonight (Wednesday) I had a meeting that ran until about 8:15, and the game was in the middle of the 7th by the time I arrived. But the Chiefs won tonight, and against Louisville, too.

As late as I was, I still beat Sandee to ballpark. We yelled to first base coach Jeff Frazier and got a wave from him. And as late as Sandee was, she arrived before Suspect.

After the game, we noticed a young boy running the bases. Turns out it was Adam Fox's son. We watched Adam and his son play out in left field. I grabbed my camera, but the batteries were dead, so I used my cellphone instead to capture the moment.

It was one of those moments that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. We could have stayed at the stadium all night, watching, but they wanted to lock up and go home, so we had to leave, too.

Intro: 2011 Season

Sandee and I are Syracuse Chiefs baseball fans. We met last season. We bonded. I love sitting next to someone who likes to watch baseball the same way I do. Toward the end of the 2010 season, we toyed with the idea of blogging from a fan point of view. But we both have very full plates, and neither of us was certain we could carve out the time to do justice to a blog. I've decided to give it a try. Sandee has been posting a quote of the game nearly every night on Facebook.

We've been to every home game to date this season, sitting through rain, snow, and even some sunshine. So far, it's been a very wet season. At one point, I thought I was beginning to mildew.

There are very few Chiefs from the 2010 on the 2011 roster. Most of them are pitchers. Seth Bynum (infield) and Carlos Maldonado (catcher) are still around, although both of them are on the DL.

Saturday, May 14 was historic: DH Michael Aubrey hit four home runs in one game. It was only the 2nd time in Chiefs' history that a player as done that, the 10th time in International League history, and only 15 players in the majors have ever done it. No one has ever done it twice, and no one has ever hit more. It was a fabulous day to be in the stadium. Topping that as a high point this season might be tough.

A couple of nights ago, Carlos Maldonado was coaching first, so we hooted and waved, and he waved back at us. Sandee and I have decided to see how many first base coaches will acknowledge our greetings this season. Tonight, Carlos and Adam Fox both waved back at us.

The ball park experience is about more than the game (although the Chiefs have had a great home stand this time around).  Tonight, there was a squirrel. I don't know where he came from, but he sat in front of me between games (a suspended-due-to-rain game was finished before the scheduled game began). Every time someone moved, the squirrel flinched. I felt bad for the little guy. If only he'd arrived at the stadium a little sooner, he could have seen the Chiefs win. Maybe he hung around and saw them win the second game.