The Game Goes On

It appears I missed the annual "Garage Sale" at Alliance Bank Stadium. Never received my e-mail notice about it. Hmmm.

The Chiefs still have ties to the post season, even though Washington is out of it.

How, you ask?

Gregor Blanco on Breast Cancer Awareness Night
July 21, 2011 Alliance Bank Stadium

Former Syracuse Chief (2011 season) Gregor Blanco plays for the San Francisco Giants. In fact, he plays very well for the Giants.

In other news, several 2012 Chiefs are already playing winter ball in South America:

• Carlos Rivero & Tanner Roark are in Venezuela
• Zech Zinicola & Hassan Pena are in Mexico
• Manny Mayorson & Atahualpa Severino are in the Dominican Republic

The game goes on.

Monday, Monday

Arrived late at the ballpark.

There were a lot of people. Maybe too many people!

Fortunately, no one desecrated our row tonight.

Roster/Player update:

• Austin Bibbens-Dirkx released
• Atahualpa Severino outrighted to Syracuse 
• Chris Marrero back in Syracuse (saw him coaching 1B tonight)
• Jason Michaels has disappeared (he usually coaches 1B. Past two evenings, players have been coaching)
• Manny Mayorson and Mitch Atkins on 7-Day DL
• former Chief Lee Hyde is now with the Traveling Wilkes-Barres. He faced one batter tonight, walked him, and was pulled from game.

The Big Board:

I like the KKKK tracker.

And putting the pitcher's name next to the number of pitches is extremely helpful, especially when playing a team like the Traveling Wilkes-Barres that does not have player surnames on the backs of the jerseys.

In other news:

Learned at the ballpark last night:

Atahualpa Severino has been designated for assignment.

Seth Bynum has been sent to AA Harrisburg.

Other items of note from last night's game:

The Chiefs won game 1 of the double-header, lost the second. We left early. Had I stayed, perhaps I could have worked with Sandee and cheered in that tying run in the top of the 7th (The Chiefs were the visitors)

It was also Noche de Beisball Latino, with several messages from the Spanish-speaking players on the Big Board. The team wore the same uniforms as last year. We are not fond of these uniforms.

The clock has been moved off the Big Board and onto the old Pitch Speed  display, along with the temperature. That was kind of cool. The spot on the Big Board formerly occupied by the time is now an advertisement, but is still used for pitch speed, error announcements, wild pitch, etc.

I really like that if an inning is going kind of long, the Big Board will periodically remind the fans who's on what base.

When Carlos Maldonado came to bat, we noticed all of his stats were zeroed out. Was his history of this season wiped out when he was designated for assignment? If so, that stinks.

Between games, the Big Board played Teammates in a Glove with Greg Booker (pitching coach). Unfortunately, the audio was so low, we couldn't understand 80% of what was said. Suggestion: put an identifying super (that's my old TV talk coming) over the subject's photo. But I digress. Booker says 'Los is one of the top 5 players he's ever coached, and 'Los can play for him anytime. 'Los, of course, being Carlos Maldonado.

Harper Is Gone: The Game Must Go On

Double-header today with Charlotte. A cool but sunny afternoon to be at the ball park.


The first thing I saw as I headed toward my seat was the progress on the scoreboard.

Pretty cool, eh? They were working on it during the game, too. We were all pleased to have a clock again.

The first game jersey raffle was Atahualpa Severino's; the second game jersey belonged to Lee Hyde. TV Stevie bought tickets for that one, because it was number 24. Unfortunately, no one we know won either shirt.

Lee Hyde praying before taking the mound

Lots more broken bats today. Maybe it's the weather. Kevin said he noticed a lot of broken bats, too.

The team wore weekend red for both games.

Tyler Moore was last Sunday's Player of the Game. We voted for him as Player of the Game for both games today, too.

Carlos Maldonado was catcher in the first game. He waved to us. He knows he has a fan club.

The Bryce Harper Report:
He's in LA with the Nats, getting ready to start his first major league game against the Dodgers. Strasburg is pitching. Should be interesting coverage of that game.

Funniest thing in the afternoon:
The announce booth forgot to turn off the mic in the first inning of the first game. The umps had to stop the game. We heard an f-bomb (not loud) from the booth. The umps and players were shouting and pointing, "Turn off the microphone!"

The Corey Brown Report:
Game 1
1st - K
3rd - single
5th - K

Game 2
1st - 3-1
3rd - 4-3
6th - single

Corey played CF both games and was more than adequate out there. Third inning of Game Two he made incredible back-to-back catches.

Coolest new thing in the stadium:
Fan hands. Sandee bought a pair.

Sandee's Fan Hands

The make a clacking noise when you clap. I'm going to get me a pair of red ones. Then Sandee and I can high five each other.

Crazy Fan Man was at the game early. He spoke to Anthony again. But he was quiet throughout both games. We heard him only once, early in the first game.

The Tyler Moore Report:

Game 1 

2nd - K

4th - 3

5th - HR (3 RBI)

Game 2

1st - BB

4th - 4

6th - RBI double

Tyler played 1B in Game 1 and was DH in Game 2

Maven says T-Mo made a mental error in the 6th inning of Game 1. He made the easy out at first then threw to second for the forced out. Because the first out wasn't a forced out, it allowed the base runner to score. If he'd thrown to 2nd for the forced out, then made the out at first (and there was plenty of time), the base runner would not have scored.

Jhonatan Solano was 1B coach for both games, and he waved to us.

The Chiefs won the first game 5-2 and lost the second 11-1

Miscellaneous Stuff:

It appears Xavier Paul is back with the team. Before the 2nd game started, and when the song, "Cheer Cheer Cheer for the Chiefs" was playing, someone wearing #15 was boogieing in the dugout, just having a grand old time.

TV Stevie was in the Whistlestop Souvenir Shop and two women started admiring his SkyChiefs jacket. "We didn't know they used to be the SkyChiefs."

Superman's Closet in my living room 

TV Stevie's response: "Oh. You must not be from around here." Of course not. They were from Washington, and wanted to check out the Triple A Afflilaite. They probably wanted to see Bryce Harper so they could tell all their friends at home that they'd seen him. 

Maven Observations: "This has to be the first team since Adam & Eve with a Tyler and a Tanner on it." (Tanner Roark was starting pitcher for the 2nd game.)

"We have the worst bullpen since Adam & Eve."

So I asked Maven what today's fixation with Adam & Eve was about. 

You must know what he answered. "Baseball is biblical. In the Big Inning . . ."

There was a very scary pigeon at the game today. Game Two. After Crazy Fan Man disappeared. Sandee's theory is that it was Crazy Fan Man. He doesn't turn into a bat like a vampire, but rather, into a pigeon, like a crazy person. This bird swooped into seats, wandered around looking for food, and in general distracted us. Me. Whatever.

 And finally: I've found Jason Botts (along with Jason Bergmann and Jesse English): he's in the Atlantic League, playing for the Sugar Land Skeeters. (Bergmann's with the Camden Riversharks and English is with the Bridgeport Bluefish.) 

Oh What a Night!

Cold cold cold.

But worth it. Definitely worth it.

TV Stevie and I arrived in the bottom of the first. I was scoring the game in the car from the radio. Quite a challenge, let me tell you.

The jersey was #41, Matt Chico's Throwback Thursday from last year.
Eric Arneson was yesterday's player of the game.

The Bryce Harper Report:
1st - singled
2nd - out at first
4th - walked
7th - grounded to SS to 1st

The Corey Brown Report:
1st - walked
2nd - triple (and scored on a passed ball)
3rd - walked
5th - struck out
8th - grounded to first

It was a heck of a night.

Carlos Rivero suffers mightily from Lambinitis.

Carlos Rivero at the plate

Tyler Moore hit his first home run ever  in the second inning. I'd just finished telling someone to keep an eye on him because he's supposed to be an up-and-comer, and bam, right over the left field fence. Sandee was en route when it happened and texted me that the radio announcers said it was one of the deepest home runs to left field the announcer has ever seen.

The scariest moment of the game came in the third inning when Dickerson broke his bat and it went flying into the stands and hit a little girl. Three or four years old. WHAT WAS HER FATHER THINKING SITTING ONLY A COUPLE OF ROWS BEHIND THE DUGOUT WITH CHILDREN THAT YOUNG? Of course, everyone converged to make sure she was all right. "Medical" didn't show up right away, and I heard someone ask, "Where's medical? Buffalo?"  The girl and her dad eventually left for a bit. She came back wearing a batting helmet. TV Stevie looks a me and says: "Oh my God! They've killed Kenny!"

I nearly lost it. I couldn't stop laughing.

During the T-Shirt Toss, the interns kept trying to get t-shirts up to our section, but fell just short. One guy made off with two of them, just swooping in. Anthony eventually ended up with one. This year's shirt is very different.

Sandee shows off Anthony's T-Shirt

Then, at the bottom of the fourth, something truly cool happened. The Yankees changed pitchers, bringing in a guy named Pat Venditte. What's so cool about that? Well Venditte happens to be an ambidextrous pitcher. It was the first time an ambidextrous pitcher pitched in Chiefs history. Venditte is the only active professional pitcher who can pitch proficiently with either arm. It was . . . amazing. He has a custom made glove with two thumbs that he flips when he changes side. 

Unfortunately, either my camera is going bad or I was shivering so hard the photos blurred, but here's what I have:

Venditte Right

Venditte Left

Apparently he must declare which way he is going to pitch to the first batter. After that, I guess he can pitch however, but he cannot change arms on a batter, just like a switch hitter not changing sides during an at-bat.

Carlos Maldonado waved to us between the 4th and 5th innings. He's such a great guy. 

TV Stevie and I went to find something to eat at the top of the fifth inning, but TV kept wandering off to watch Venditte pitch. We eventually found hotdogs that had allegedly been grilled, but just like the allegedly steamed hotdogs, they weren't cooked. The concessions people insist the dogs are cooked, but really? No. They are only warmed. 

Crazy Fan Man showed up around the sixth inning. He was on fire. He had all of our row laughing, including Maven and our friend Kevin who was sitting right behind me.

"Put your foot on the rubber, baby!"
"Why don't you call me Cecile?"
"Rice-A-Roni call 'em back."

Atahualpa Severino came in in the seventh. He did not have a good outing tonight. Maven came over to me and Sandee to confide: "I would rather be at the dentist without Novocaine than watch this guy pitch." Tell us how you really feel, Maven!

It was an ugly inning, including one play that Kevin told me would be scored 7-2-6-3-4-3-4. (LF to catcher to shortstop to first to second to first to second). Plus there were two fielding errors in the top of the seventh. Bryce Harper, who played CF tonight, drifted too far right to catch a fly ball, so he and Xavier Paul sort of ran into each other and neither one of them made the catch.

Maven explained Harper's actions like this: last year, in double A, Harper spent most of his time in RF. He was taught that CF is to catch anything he can and that as a RF he must yield to CF. I guess it was a tough lesson for him, based on the way Maven explained it to me. So now, Harper in CF goes for whatever he can, because LF and RF are to yield to him. He just didn't realize that the fly ball had drifted so far right that it was clearly the RFer's catch.

There's a new Pops this year, and can that person dance. It is a joy to watch. As Maven said, "Keep Michael Jackson's doctor away from the guy and we'll be all right."

The last two innings of the game were tense. Josh Wilkie loaded the bases with the score 6-4 Syracuse, but managed to get out of it. Ryan Perry came in to pitch the 9th. 

Someone down front wanted to know why Maldonado wasn't catching the game. Don't we all wonder that all the time? 

Scranton scored a fifth run.  Pearce fell running to first, yet made it to second safely anyway, because of a fielding error by Corey Brown.  I was ready to pull on my wind-pants and find my blanket, expecting extra innings, but Perry managed to pull it out.

My vote for player of the game: Zach Duke (starting pitcher)

Sandee's vote: Tyler Moore (of the 2-run homer)

Maven tells us there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow night's game.

Day Two

Sunny and chilly, but not nearly as cold as Opening Day.
Instead of wearing the new uniforms from Opening Day -- which are probably Throwback Thursday uniforms now that I think of it -- we were back to the same old "we used to be the Blue Jays Triple A Team" jerseys. Too bad. The rest of the stadium experience has been freshened up. I wish the everyday uniforms would be, too. I guess there's only so much money.

The jersey raffle was for Carlos Maldonado's Throwback Thursday jersey from last season. I really really wanted it. So did Sandee. We both spent way too much money on raffle tickets. Our odds were good, because there was practically no one at the stadium. Even so, we didn't win. We're Carlos's biggest fans, and we couldn't win his jersey.

Between innings we heard snatches of the Electric Slide and the Macarena. Too funny.

The Bryce Harper Report:
2nd inning - struck out
4th inning - blooped out
7th inning - popped out
9th inning - singled, but then forced out at 2nd when next batter singled.
We are still not impressed with his fielding.

Yesterday's Federal Baseball blog was all about the Chief's game.

The Taco Bell K-Man struck out in the 8th.

Chris McConnell is also back with the team. I forgot to list him in the Opening Day Blog.

There were many jokes about five of us in the row wearing our Skychiefs jackets. And about the Opening Day Bunting hanging in front of TV Stevie & me. John Simone promised he'd keep it up for us until Monday.

Sandee & Anthony bought burgers from the new food scene. Said they were awesome. I should have taken a photo of them, but forgot to. I will get back into the swing of things as the season progresses.

We did call out to Carlos Maldonado several times when was on his way back to the dugout after warming up the pitcher, but he couldn't hear us.

We got to see Atahualpa Severino and Josh Wilkie pitch.

Josh Wilkie Warming Up

 Funny quote of the day: This came from behind us. Two men were on base. Tyler Moore was at bat. A home run could have tied the score. "I'll give you my taco if you hit a home run!"

And now for the shocker of the game: I wanted to vote for Corey Brown as player of the game. (Unfortunately, there were no ballots available. I asked the interns to please pass on the request).
Yes, you read that correctly.

I WANTED TO VOTE FOR COREY BROWN AS PLAYER OF THE GAME.

Corey was the lead off hitter. He hit a single his first at-bat. He made a spectacular catch in right field (his new position now that Harper has taken over center).

Total over all: Corey at 4 at-bats, three hits (including a stand-up triple) and scored the Chiefs only run when Seth Bynum doubled. I don't know why Federal Baseball says Corey was 2 for 3 with 2 singles. They're wrong. I was there. I even took a photo.

Corey Brown stand-up triple in the 8th inning.

Opening Day

Opening Day!

Sixteenth Opening day at this stadium. Fourth opening day as the Triple A Affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Fifty-somethingth opening day of the franchise.

God bless baseball.

The day started out overcast and cold, then gradually morphed to sunny and cold. What a difference from last year's rain delay/rain out. We met Sandee & Anthony in the parking lot and handed off the jackets we purchased for them back in October. It was a good day for warm clothes.

There are lots of differences from last year. One of the first ones is the absence of the horse, replaced by the Welcome to Chiefsville sign. I didn't understand the concept of Chiefsville until I entered the stadium and saw all of the changes.

TV Stevie went to the new food preview earlier this week and told me that lots of things had changed with the new concessionaires. He didn't tell me about the face lifts given to all the food stands. All of the food sites have been renamed as places in Chiefsville. I love the concept and what I saw today really works. The inside of the stadium is now like a community. I think it's great branding.

The ice cream stand has a new name.

Guess what this concession sells?

We didn't eat at the stadium today, but we did wander about looking at all the new choices. The prices have gone up from last year, but word is the food is better.

Another highly visible change was the absence of the old scoreboard. There's a small, temporary scoreboard in right field. The new scoreboard should be in place in five weeks. According to the announcer at today's game, it will be the largest scoreboard in the International League. Woo-hoo! We deserve a fabulous scoreboard. 

The old scoreboard frame.

There were plenty of familiar faces: Bill DeLapp from the Syracuse New Times, Tim Fox, Maven (and his Rochester Guests), XGMan, Sandee, Anthony, Danny-the-Usher, K-Daddy. Eventually we saw Sehl and other folks we've come to know.  Dave Anthony returns as the in-game announcer. He looked for the drink cup holder, but it was hidden behind the bunting.  

The only notable absence was Suspect. He's been a fixture at the stadium for years. We hope he's all right.

Syracuse New Times' Bill DeLapp

There aren't too many players from last year on this year's roster: 

• Seth Bynum 
• Corey Brown (who switched numbers and is now using Michael Aubry's 10)
• Jhonatan Solano
• Carlos Maldonado
• Atahualpa Severino
• Yuneski Maya
• Josh Wilkie

As Sandee said, it's going to be tough for a month or so until we get to know the new players, especially without a scoreboard.

Fortunately, Doug Logan read the starting line-ups slow enough that people could write them down. Frequently that is not the case.

I realized after the fact that I should have snapped a photo of the entire team on the field after they were introduced, but I didn't. 

The team wore new jerseys, with an older logo on them. Very nice. 

As usual, there were fireworks during the national anthem, a lovely touch of rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air and all. Then someone had to clean the debris off the field before the game. 

The Taco Bell K-Man struck out in the first inning. 

We noticed that the new RF was having  issues, and decided it was because he's not used to the dimensions of the stadium yet. 

There are two "big news" stories with the Chiefs this week. John Lannan was sent down from the Nats, which is a really bizarre move on the Nats' part, but we're happy to have him even for a game. Rumor has it he's slated to pitch on Sunday.

The other "big news" story is Bryce Harper made his Triple A debut today. He hit a stand-up double his first at-bat.

Bryce Harper's first Triple A hit

Rounding first

Stand-Up Double

Then he stole third.

Stealing third

Safe at Third

Unfortunately, he was stranded there. 

And because he is unfamiliar with our outfield (he played CF) he turned a hit into a triple in the fourth inning by bobbling a ball.

His second at-bat was a single. He stole second. But that was it for him for the rest of the game.

We watched Carlos catch the pitchers warming up in the bull pen.

Corey was hit by a pitch in the fifth. 

The Chiefs lost 7-4.

From Syracuse to Washington: With Love

I've been in touch with The First Ladies of Baseball, who seem to be the Sandee & Molly of the Washington Nationals.


Part of what I wrote (the night Strasburg debuted in DC):

Take care of your newbies Brad Peacock, Tommy Milone, and Atahualpa Severino. Syracuse's season is over, but the Nats have our best!

Maggie responded:

We’ll take good care of them. And we don’t blame Peacock for his bad outing last night – that was totally not his fault. I, personally, blame Doug Slaten. PS – Very jealous of you guys getting waves from players on a regular basis!

Good to know you'll take care of our guys, Maggie. And as for us getting waves from the players on a regular basis? Well that's easy. We're the coolest people at the stadium!

Reply    See all comm

MLB Debuts

Congrats to Brad Peacock, Atahualpa Severino, and Steve Lombardozzi on their MLB debuts last night.

Also called up: Yuneski Maya, and Craig Stammen.

Oh. And that outfielder. The fan dissing one.

TV Stevie & I listened to a late inning or two on the radio last night.

Sorry the Nats lost the game.

212 days, but who's counting?

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!

Why Is It Called "Common" Courtesy?

The third consecutive night of thrilling baseball was marred by the incredible rudeness of the jerks sitting several rows behind us.

They were banging the seats -- county property -- very loudly. TV Stevie asked them not to do that. The guy was cool, the girl was a foul-mouthed slut. And they were sitting in seats for which we had purchased the tickets. TV Stevie dubbed them the Squatters. Totally obnoxious group of young people who should have been booted from the stadium.  The girl -- I won't dignify her with the term "woman", which would imply a level of maturity she did not possess -- is the type who beats up other girls in the high school bathroom. You know. The one with the tramp stamp prominently on display. The f-bombs were flying. And they had a child with them! It went on all night. I told TV Stevie we should have gotten security and had them ejected from the seats.

Other than this -- which is not insignificant -- tonight was another night of awesome baseball.

Valbuena's pants are still torn

Tom Milone was the starting pitcher.

Valbuena's pants were still torn.

The third inning was quite interesting. The umps called a foul ball a home run. Milone protested. Manager Randy Knorr protested. The whole stadium protested. Knorr was ejected from the game. Now, I didn't see this next part, but Suspect told me Milone was so upset, he threw one ball inside the foul pole and told the ump that was fair, then threw another ball outside the foul pole and told the ump that was foul. The ump told Milone he was done (I saw that.)


K-Daddy with his Eye Chart for the Umps

Jersey Raffle: Throwback Thursday

Quote of the Game:  "They're from Ohio! Come on!"

First Base Coach Wave:

• Chris Marrero nodded and seemed surprised (it's the first time he's coached first that I've seen, as he's usually playing first.)
• Seth Bynum pointed to us to acknowledge us.
• Brad Peacock ignored us. Maybe he's hanging out with Lombardozzi & Brown too much. Brad, I blogged nice things about you last night!

Warm & Fuzzy Moment: When Carlos came out at the bottom of the 1st to help warm up Milone, he waved to us. He knows we're his fans.

Moment of Zen: Clippers pitcher was Zach; Chiefs pitcher was Zech.

Cool New Thing: When Steve Lombardozzi came to bat in a critical situation, the scoreboard lit up with a new chant: LOM-BO, LOM-BO (like TA-CO).

Spent time with Eric Cohen (WAER) and Bill DeLapp (SNT).

Eric Cohen, WAER-FM88



Bill DeLapp, Syracuse New Times












The ballpark is our community. When I missed the starting line-ups tonight, the Usher went to K-Daddy and asked if he'd share with me. And K-Daddy shared. He does exactly what I do: writes the starting line-ups in a note book.

The Chiefs were down 5-2. They scored a run in the seventh. Then they pulled ahead by a run in the 8th inning. Very thrilling. Lots of opportunities for the Squatters to be jerks. Then the Squatters were incredibly rude to Atahualpa Severino in the 9th. Okay, he walked three batters and filled the bases, but hey, he got out of it just fine when the next batter grounded out for the third out. It was tense, but there was no need for some of the filth flying out of some of the mouths.

It bothers me when people come in and think they can say anything they want because "you're at a baseball game, old man, so just f*****g chill and f*****g enjoy it."

Like the Squatters. They were rude to the other team, too. There's a difference between heckling and being a jerk. Suspect is an excellent heckler. He heckles, he doesn't get mean, or personal, or nasty, or vicious, or vulgar, or foul-mouthed. The things coming out of the Squatters' mouths were appalling. "How'd you get such a f-bombing fat @$$?" they called to a Clipper who was at bat. It was a constant stream of insults. Someone should have taken out the trash tonight.