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

L'il bits

The Chiefs are on their longest road trip of the year. Tonight's game has been rained out.

Here are a couple of bits of news:

John Lannan named IL pitcher of the week.

Corey Brown and Carlos Rivero have been named to the 2012 International League Post Season All-Star Team.

Davey Johnson says one of the first positions they'll be calling up when expanding the roster is catcher. My money is on Sandy Leon, altho' I think Carlos Maldonado deserves the opportunity.

A former co-worker went to a Reds/Nats game this weekend and said that the Reds scoreboard tells the players' walk-up music and their Twitter account.

Gull-able

Briefly. John Lannan pitched all 9 innings and gave up only 4 hits.

Corey Brown has hit 7HR in 8 of his last games with the Chiefs -- and 6 HR in each of his last 6 games at Alliance Bank Stadium.

Tyler Moore hit a homer tonight, too.

Eric Komatsu -- in his first game at ABS this season -- hit a grand slam.

Cory Van Allen and Rafael Martin are both in Harrisburg and Martin is on the restricted list.

Chris Marrero is rehabbing in Hagerstown.

Jeff Mandel is back in Syracuse.

Odd moment of the game (and I couldn't get to my camera on time):

A sea gull kept swooping around our area, then landed on the back of a seat about 4 rows from us. He looked around carefully, then hopped off the back of the seat to the ground. A minute or two later he zoomed up from the seats with a hotdog in his mouth. He took the hotdog to center field, where he proceeded to eat it.

Louisville Bats' 2nd Baseman watching gull eat hot dog.

Co-rey! Co-rey! - - But No One Chanted

Another beautiful night at the ball park.

During the singing of the National Anthem, TV Stevie pointed out someone in the first row wearing a very vulgar T-Shirt. I did take a photo of it, but because this is a family blog, I won't post it.

Mere moments later, security and the ushers converged in front of us. The young man in question was asked to reverse his shirt, change his shirt, or leave the stadium. The security person to whom I spoke said he'd been getting a lot of calls from women who were offended by the shirt -- which was quite offensive. He told the young man that he had ties in his pocket and would be happy to arrest him and have the park police escort him off the premises. He then mused if the young man actually considered his mother or sisters in that light.

Leaving the stadium
to clean up his act.

There were two broken bats in tonight's game.

I didn't score the entire game because I took time out to eat a burger (which was very good) and a bit later, some popcorn.

It was a good game until John Lannan got tired. Then things went downhill fast. 

Corey Brown had a streak going -- home runs in consecutive games. The count was four going into tonight's game. Someone behind us asked Maven: "Did you see it? It's history in the making!" To which Maven replied, "If it's in the making no one has ever seen it." 

We really wanted to Corey to continue his streak when he came to bat in the 4th. The bases were load. That would have been a lovely time to hit a homer. But alas, it was not to be. He struck out.

Fortunately, there were more innings, and in the 8th,  Corey set a new franchise record tonight: home runs in 5 consecutive games. 

Annoyance of the game: the camera operators always show the fans in Section 208 on the scoreboard. Why? They aren't nearly as cool as we are.

But it's fun to watch the fans, especially kids, see themselves on the big screen. 

Best thing about tonight's game:

There was a father with two boys sitting in section 107. The older boy was an absolute scream to watch. 

He would also pose like a pitcher, with the ball in his glove behind his back. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of that. I told his father that the kid was great.

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.

The Empire Strikes Back: 10 - 0

Sunny and cold. It could be worse. It could be snowing. Been there, done that.

Tonight's uniforms were weekend red; the jersey raffle was Henry Rodriguez Throwback Thursday. Rodriquez pitched for the Nats today. Yesterday's player of the game was Yuneski Maya (I voted for him!)

The Easter Bunny threw out the first pitch tonight.

Catcher Jhonatan Solano helping Easter Bunny off the field

The pitcher was John Lannan, who's been in the news lately because he's not happy the mother ship jettisoned him to Triple A.

John Lannon

He lasted two innings in Syracuse, leaving with the score 5 - 0, Scranton.

The Bryce Harper Report:

2nd inning - grounded to second

5th inning - out at first

7th inning - popped to center

9th inning - popped to left

The Corey Brown Report:

1st inning - out at first

4th inning - walked

6th inning - struck out

8th inning - hit by pitch

It was not a good night. I couldn't even think of anyone to name player of the game. Maybe Eric Arneson who came in to pitch in the 3rd. 

Rafael Martin came in for the Chiefs in the seventh, and it was ugly. Cory Vanallen came in after Martin's eighth batter. It was an ugly, ugly inning. Maven heard me calling to "Cory" and asked if Corey Brown was pitching. I guess that scared him. It would also explain 11 batters in one inning.

The famous Eric Cohen finally arrived at the stadium this season. The entire 207 Row One gang was there, too. And Crazy Fan Man showed up for his first game. "If they don't swing at it it's not a strike, right?" "Around the horn, baby." "Come on, Red!" 

The bunting was down. I said something to John Simone promising me that the windbreak would be in place until Monday. He explained that it's supposed to rain tonight, and we don't want to desecrate the flag. That explanation works for me.

Scariest moment of the game: Scranton's catcher went head first over the railing and into the visitors' dugout chasing down a foul ball. 

Corey Brown played center today, while Bryce Harper took right. They conferred during a pitching change.

Brown & Harper returning to position after pitching change

The best part of the game? It's a tie.

Carlos Maldonado waved to us in the eighth inning. He had been warming up pitchers in the bullpen and was returning to the dugout during a break in the action.

I went shopping during the top of the fourth. I've been looking for a hoodie, but couldn't find an affordable (for me) one that had a decent logo on it. Steve found me one last night. The choices were navy or ash. I loathe ash. Fortunately, the navy was in my size. And it was bundled with a t-shirt. It's not exactly a Chiefs hoody, but it's more current than my Skychiefs jacket.