One More Time

The first of the final two home games of the season . . . bittersweet. Full house -- stadium and Section 207 Row 1.

Eury Perez, John Lannan, and Sandy Leon all called up to the Mothership. The good news in this? Carlos Maldonado is the primary catcher.

 My guess is that Carlos Rivero and Corey Brown will be called up after Monday (the Chiefs' final game).

I don't see Chris Marrero being called up. Last season, when he played 1B for the Chiefs, I thought he was a natural for the Major Leagues, but I have since revised my opinion. He's one of those players who seems injury prone.

Corey Brown was named the Gold Star Player of the Year.

One of the Rochester fans who comes to almost every Rochester game in Syracuse wore some interesting shorts tonight.

Those are smiley faces on the
hem of his shorts

Jason Michaels wasn't coaching 1B tonight. Mostly Manny Mayorson, although Jarrett Hoffpauir put in at least one inning there.

We noticed new grass in spots and wondered what happened while the team was on the road.

Right field new grass

New turf around the pitchers mound

In front of home plate

This season, the interns toss out bags of Cracker Jack after the 7th Inning Stretch. It was a nice touch. Tonight, the intern gave a bag to one of the ushers instead of the fans in the stands. 

Usher stash of Cracker Jack meant for fans

Stampeeded

The Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bison again Friday night.

TV Stevie & I arrived at the stadium very early. So early, in fact, that the Player of the Game had not been changed from Jim Negrych to Jesus Valdez, the person for whom Sandee & I voted Thursday night: his grand slam in the 4th inning got the Chiefs back into the game.


Other items of note left over from Thursday's game:

• It was the longest game of the season -- not sure if that's innings-wise or time-wise.
• The Throwback Thursday raffle jersey was Chase Lambin's from two years ago. We didn't win it. 

Before Friday's game:



Carlos Maldonado signed some autographs for some fans. When he turned back to return to the dugout, he waved to me.

Carlos Maldonado returning to dugout after signing for fans.

It was Lions Club night at the stadium. The Lions consider their involvement with the Chiefs their "civic duty."
Duty?
Whatever happened to delight? Privilege? Joy?

Carlos Maldonado caught the ceremonial first pitch from the Lions Club speaker's grandchildren.

Lions Club Ceremonial First Pitch

He also caught the ceremonial first pitch from some boy band called Kicking Daisy.

Kicking Daisy Ceremonial First Pitch

I find that name (Kicking Daisy) offensive. Daisies are my favorite flower. Why would one kick them?

The Throwback Thursday jersey was for Shairon Martis. We didn't win that one, either.

Before the game started, there was a full-screen graphic on the board: Whose Bats Are Hot (maybe since being back with the Chiefs.) Carlos Maldonado and Jesus Valdez. So if Carlos has a hot bat (and he was awesome on Thursday night -- 5 at-bats, 5 times to 1B), why didn't he play last night? Makes no sense to me.

As I said, the Chiefs lost. It was ugly. Mark Teahen had the only Chief RBI of the game.


Lack of ballpark etiquette: 

Why would you come to the stadium and discuss the sexual practices of Islamic clerics (including Mohammed himself) in great detail -- especially when you are neither Islamic nor a cleric -- and in great detail and at the top of your lungs? The people sitting around you do not want to hear you expound. The admonition used in daycare centers applies also to baseball stadiums: "Use your indoor voice." If you must discuss this in public. Which we'd rather you didn't.

Why would a county employee say (after Bison Rob Johnson's name was announced in the starting lineup) "Finally, an American name!" at the top of his lungs so that people sitting several sections away could hear this racism? If you actually feel this racist sentiment, see above comment about "indoor voices." Those of us who are at the stadium because we love baseball care only about the team for which the player plays, not his country of origin. 

Now for a couple of fun questions:

• What is Carlos Rivero's at-bat music and where can I get a copy?
• What is Jarrett Hoffpauir's at-bat music and where can I get a copy?

Friday Means Fireworks

Another lovely evening at Alliance Bank Stadium.

The score was 1-0 Chiefs when we arrived. Gwynett scored in the top of the 2nd, tying the game.

Hoffpauir's sacrifice in 3rd brought Bynum home. 2-1 Chiefs

The top of the seventh inning, Sandee mentioned the game was a little boring. That's all it took.

In the 7th, pinch-hitter Jim Negrych hit a home rum that also brought Rivero home.
Score now 4-1 Chiefs.

The Gwynett Braves scored off Jeff Mandell to the scent of fresh skunk (we wondered if it was a coincidence) in the top of the 8th.

Syracuse continued their late-inning ways in the bottom of the 8th: Carroll hit a triple with 1 RBI, then Rivero hit a single that brought Carroll home. Final score: 6-2 Chiefs.

Seth wore his socks on the outside tonight. We liked it. We wonder if he thought the change would help him increase his bat power. Players are very superstitious, you know.

Fun moment of the game: Pops and a bunch of men stood in front of us to have a photo taken. We couldn't see the field. So Sandee and I grabbed our bats and stood up so that we're in the pictures, too.

We needed a little fun.

And the lights in the sky after the game weren't the only fireworks at the stadium tonight.

The Magic Of Baseball

Tonight started out really rotten. We were late for the game -- outside stuff we had to do. Then something happened when we arrived that really upset us.

So I didn't pay a lot of attention to the action on the field. Except the music. Home team players get to chose their own music when then come to bat. Carlos Rivero and Jarrett Hoffpauir have awesome music. Corey Brown's music makes me want to arrest someone. Or shoot someone. Preferably the so-called artist who recorded it.

The score was 5-3 Pawsox at the middle of the 9th. Sandee and I decided we'd had enough of that score,we started our vocal support of our team. That's all it took. Ninth inning rally tied the score. In one of the extra innings, the Chiefs had the bases loaded, but were unable to score the winning run, even though they were a mere 2 balls away from winning.

The ninth and tenth innings were terrific baseball. Corey Brown, the most dangerous bat in the International League, was instructed to bunt in the 10th inning. There was also a failed squeeze-play that should have resulted in the runner at third being out, but didn't.

Unfortunately, we had to leave in the bottom of the 11th. (The child who was born 5 weeks premature still has timing issues and needed to be picked up at the Regional Transportation Center, just around the corner from ABS.) We did get to hear Hoffpauir hit in the winning run. And we actually got to see the players converge on the field to celebrate the win -- on the big screen while we sat at a stop sign up the hill from the stadium.

Fun to watch, fun to cheer. That's why I go to the park.

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. 

Lannan Rocked

TV Stevie and I were late to the game tonight, and we missed an awesome first inning. The Chiefs scored 5 runs. Carlos Maldonado hit a single (yes, he caught the game). Charlotte scored one run in the second inning.

Sandee and I arrived in time for the bottom of the third inning. Yes! The Chiefs scored 6 more runs in honor of our presence.

Carlos Rivero singled
Carlos Maldonado singled
Corey Brown bunted a single (forcing an out at 3rd)
JJ Johnson singled
Mark Teahen singled
Jason Michaels struck out
Brett Carroll singled
Jim Negrych singled and there was an error in there somewhere
Jarrett Hoffpauir singled
Carlos Rivero popped out to RF.

Carlos Maldonado at 2nd

Carlos Maldonado at 2nd

Carlos Maldonado (and others) going into dugout
after scoring in the third inning.

It was an awesome inning. An awesome game. Charlotte was really off their game, with 7 errors. At one point we joked about them tying the Chase Lambin single-season record in just one game.

Jhonatan Solano coached 1B and waved to us.

Carlos Maldonado hit a double in the 4th, was stranded, then hit into a double play in the 5th to end that inning. He acknowledged us several times. Since the stadium was practically empty, he had no problem hearing us.

The two young men in front of us in the last row of Section 107 told us they'd be rooting for Carlos Maldonado. They did a fine job. They must have been impressed by the way Carlos acknowledged us

New Maldonado Fans

The Chiefs won, 12 - 4. John Lannan posts his second win.

Stories of the night:

• K-Daddy received a call from Suspect, who asked him to relay a message to Maven, Sandee, and the rest of 207. He will be back at the stadium in a while. (We heard another story from an usher, saying that management told the players to stop giving him tickets because people were complaining.)
• Broken bats -- we've noticed a lot of broken bats this year, and Sandee's friend Josh (who came to the game tonight) explained that it's because bats are now being made from maple instead of ash. The emerald ash borer is killing off ash trees in this country, so bat manufacturers have switched to maple, but they haven't yet perfected a way to make the maple as strong as ash.
• The guys down in the front row of Section 109 kept trying to start a wave. How do I put this delicately? The moon came out. Several times. I tried to take a photo, but my camera wasn't quick enough to capture it.
• Frank, one of the security guys, was acting bat boy for the Charlotte Knights. 
• One of the new Carlos Maldonado fans came up to us at between the 8th and 9th innings and told us how they'd been to dinner at Ichiban, and sat next to Kuhn, Gallagher, and Golson (they ate chicken and steak). They ended up giving the Charlotte Knights a ride back to their hotel and left tickets for tonight's game at will-call for them. 

And I will leave you with a shot of the new scoreboard at night. The next home game is the debut of the scoreboard, and it promises to be awesome.

Double-Header/Double Homers

Saturday's game was postponed due to rain, so they rescheduled it as Game 1 of a double header starting at noon on Sunday. Fortunately it was dry. If there had been precipitation, it might have been snow. Yes, sitting there was a challenge met only by a few birthday parties and die-hard season ticket holders. I put on my windpants and a second jacket before the first game started.

Miscellaneous pre-game notes:
Corey Brown was voted Friday's Player of the Game
Yuneski Maya's Throwback Thursday jersey from last season was the raffle
No visible progress on the new scoreboard
Zach Duke was signing autographs in the souvenir shop, so I had him sign the brim of my hat.
(Why can't I work up enough nerve to ask a pitcher the questions I need answered for my book?)
Players wore the Weekend Red uniforms.
Because Yuneski Maya was the starting pitcher for the first game, Carlos Maldonado played.

Carlos on 1st after hitting a
single in the 4th inning of Game 1

 Bisons wore a nice sapphire blue.

Valentino Pascucci doing sprints
before the start of Game 1

Maven arrived at the bottom of the first inning, with the observation, "There are barely enough fans here to show the ushers to their positions."

In the middle of the second inning, he said: "This could be the worst record in Syracuse history." He's been coming to games for over 50 years. He know a little bit of what he's talking about.

There were a lot of broken bats in both games today. I don't think I've ever seen quite so many in one afternoon.

Question of the Day: The word "Bison" is plural as well as singular. So why is the Buffalo team called "The Bisons?"

The Corey Brown Report:
Game 1:
1st inning - 3-3
3rd inning - K (looking)
5th inning - Single
7th inning - 8
Game 2:
1st inning - 8
4th inning - HR (which is why I voted him Player of the Game for the 2nd game. Or rather, I would have if anyone had been around to take my ballot)
6th inning - 8

The Bryce Harper Report:
Game 1:
1st inning - 8
4th inning  HR (his first ever Triple A home run, and I did vote for him as Player of the Game for the 1st game)
6th inning - single
Game 2:
2nd inning - K
4th inning - 7

Pleasant surprise of Game 1: Mark Teahen in RF. He made a couple of really impressive catches. His fielding usually does not impress any of us.

Oddity of the Game (Game 1):
6th Inning:  The Bisons put in a pinch hitter for their pitcher -- and no one was warming up in the bullpen.
Maven observed that was how much respect Buffalo has for Syracuse: why bother warming anyone up? Well, they should have warmed up the pitcher because Harper singled and Hoffpauir walked. That was all for that pitcher.

Other Maven-isms:
Game 1, 3rd inning
"Team record is becoming clinically fascinating. Soon people from around the league will come just to see us because we're such an oddity."
"The new Throwback Thursday jersey -- the Chiefs head on it is awful It looks like Pee-Wee Herman with lipstick."
"We have the highest payroll ever (with 4 multi-million-dollar-a-year players) and the worst record."
Game 1, 4th inning
"This music sounds like a reggae salsa polka."
Game 1, 5th inning
When Seth Bynum came in to pinch hit for Maya). "It's a circus. The Bynum & Bailey Circus."
Game 1, 6th inning
"They should have a give-away night with magnifying glasses so we can find our wins."

Game One was ugly. We lost 6-1.
Congrats to Bryce Harper on his 1st AAA homer.

Game 2 -- the Chiefs changed into a black jersey with teal numbers. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died even before Harper hit is homer in the previous game. They did not change their pants.

The Bisons changed into boring gray.

Jhonatan Solano was 1B Coach in for most of both games. He waved to us a couple of times. We saw him skipping out to coach 1B in the 3rd inning of the Game 2. That was our first clue that our catchers were feeling frisky.

Carlos Maldonado was swaying side to side the dugout. A foul ball went into the dugout, and he pretended he was bowling with it.  He actually coached 1B in the 5th inning, and danced his way out there. It was pretty funny to watch. Sandee was trying to get a good photo of him, but could get quite what she wanted.

In the 6th inning of Game 2, Carlos went out to the bullpen to warm up Ryan Perry. Sandee went down to the first row of section 105, and instructed Anthony and me to call out to Carlos as he came back to the dugout. We did. He stopped and waved to us. And Sandee's camera malfunctioned.

At least the Chiefs won 1-0. Yay Corey Brown!

Extra Innings

What a beautiful night for a ballgame. Not nearly as cold as last night. I arrived at the stadium in plenty of time to get the starting line-ups, which always makes me happy.

I was even happier when I heard Carlos Maldonado was catching. Unfortunately, I was never able to wave to him when he could see me, or call out "hi" when he could hear me.

And the faux Carlos (Rivero) was first base coach tonight. He doesn't yet know that when fans say, "Hi Carlos Rivero," he's supposed to wave or acknowledge us in some other way.

Carlos Rivero coaching 1B

Lots of progress on the new scoreboard:

Scoreboard in the 1st inning

Work on it continued during the game.

In the 6th inning. Work done for the day.

John Lannan started today's game and he pitched well enough that I voted for him as player of the game. He pitched 6 innings with only a HR against him (and that came in the 6th). Arneson pitched two innings, followed by Perry for two. Yes, that's right, we're at 10 innings now.  The score was tied 1-1. 

The game got ugly in the top of the 11th. Hassan Pena came in to pitch (making two Hassans in the game: Chief's pitcher and PawSox outfielder Alex Hassan). First batter singled. Second batter singled. Alex Hassan drew a base on balls. Okay, now the bases were loaded.Tony Thomas hit a single and was safe at first, but the first batter (Middlebrooks) was out at the plate. 

Wait. It gets worse. The next batter also drew a walk, which scored the go-ahead run. 

Enter Josh Wilkie, who struck out the Taco Bell K-Man ("We want a cha-loooooooooooooopa," the fans on the third base side chanted). The next hitter doubled, scoring three more runs.

Ugly enough? The next batter hit a single, scoring yet another run. 

At least the game ended at a reasonable hour.

The Bryce Harper Report:

2nd - 5

4th - 2-3

7th - 5*

9th - 4

11th - 6-4

He played right field tonight and did fine.

* For the second time tonight, the PawSox 3rd baseman snagged a really hard hit line drive from Harper. Harper let lose with an F-bomb that was heard even on the radio (according to someone who wandered over to 207 to chat with Maven).  

Harper is hitting hard. The past two nights, he's been the final out of the game. Casual fans and the media have unrealistic expectations of him. He's in Triple A to learn and grow as a player. He's here because he's not quite ready for the Nats. Give him a chance to do what he's supposed to do. 

The Corey Brown Report:

1st - 7

3rd - BB (he apparently missed a Hit & Run sign from the 3rd base coach during this at bat, so the man on base was tagged out at 2nd.)

6th - 4-3 (he swung on a 3-1 pitch. Someone told him "way to work a walk!"

8th - BB (the 4th ball was intentional)

11th - single

Corey played center tonight and did fine.

Harper, Brown and a third Chief conversing as
Wilkie warms up in the 11th

Carlos Maldonado Watch:

For some reason, I looked away from the flag at the end of the national anthem and saw Carlos crossing himself, plus the taps on the chest (Not being Catholic, I don't know what it means).

3rd inning - singled, but was forced out at 2nd when the next batter also singled.

5th - 5-3

8th - sac bunt, advancing the runner (he did this last night, too. He really knows how to bunt!)

10th - K - The Sox put the "no doubles" defense on against him. One of the strikes was protecting the plate so Hoffpauir could steal second.

It was fun to watch him in the top of the 10th checking signals with the manager in the dugout, then with the 3B coach and the pitcher. The phrase I heard this weekend was "Signals ricocheting all over the ballpark." A perfect description of what I witnessed.

Miscellaneous:

Yuneski Maya was last night's player of the game (Sandee & I voted for him)

The jersey raffle was for Jeff "The Fraze" Frazier's throw back Thursday.

Management telling the cotton candy vendor "get loud."

An overheard observation that "It must be nice to be paid by the team that doesn't you." The Chicago White Sox are paying Mark Teahen's salary.

There are four players making a million dollars or more per season on the Chiefs right now: Harper, Teahen, Maya, and Lannan.

Middlebrook's home run in the 6th bounced off the batter's screen and back onto the field.

I saw a minivan driving on the railroad tracks behind the stadium. At least that's what it looked like. Maybe there's a service road back there running parallel to the tracks.

Cate & Jeff from Skaneateles were at the stadium tonight (Alex Hassan didn't play last night)

Cate received a text from her daughter, who was following the game on MiLB video broadcast, saying that the broadcasters were talking about her. She asked Cate, "How do they know about me?" Cate came down and asked me if I'd blogged about it. (Cate & Jeff knew I was going to blog. I don't ambush blog.)

It's kind of cool knowing people might actually be reading this.

I learned about the "no doubles" defense, courtesy Maven. The Sox used it twice tonight. The infield protects the baselines and the outfielders are practically against the fence. Very interesting to see.

I did some counting today. There are more home games in April and June than there are in May, July, August, and September combined. It begs the question: what drugs were the schedulers using when they top loaded the season in the snow capitol of the US? 

I heard an interesting explanation. Don't know if it's true, but here's what I was told tonight: There are more International League teams in the south, so when it comes to voting on the tentative schedule, the south always wins, and they want the early part of the season in the north. I wasn't able to get an in-depth explanation of what that means or how the process goes because I think the person telling me might have been talking through his hat.

Crazy Fan Man showed up in the 8th, and announced (while Corey Brown was at bat): "Three ball! Rubber! You were there!"

Maven declared Tyler Moore (T-Mo) a "pleasant surprise." Until yesterday, he led the league in HRs.

As Crazy Fan Man shouted in the 11th: "What else you gonna call? You weren't looking!"

Tomorrow's game is at noon. I won't be there.