Powerless

First of all, Josh Johnson has been assigned to the Auburn Doubledays. He must be coming off his 50-day suspension.

Now for the sadness. I went to to stadium tonight. So did a lot of other people.

But there was a power outage, so we couldn't get into the stadium. A firetruck was on the scene helping rescue people caught in the elevator.

Fortunately, the Renaissance Faire people were there and worked the crowd.

I called Sandee to let her know the game was delayed. Then I saw my friend Nicki Greenwood and her family.

Oops. Didn't mean to post this one!

Nicki and I caught up. I had a lovely chat with her husband and her cutie-boy.

Chiefs Management thought the power would be back by 7:15pm. No such luck. So they postponed the game. Fireworks have been rescheduled for next Saturday (thank you, Jason Benetti, for that update.)

In the meantime, I ran into the Eisenson family and spent several minutes catching up with them, too.

When I got home (traffic lights were out, too, making driving a challenge), it started to rain.

So much for a beautiful night at the ballpark.

Scoreboard Debuts

It rained all day, clearing up just before game time. I took my baseball clothes to the DayJob with me and changed there, as tonight's double-header started at 5pm.

I missed the debut ceremony of the new scoreboard. I missed starting line ups. I missed 1 and half-innings of the first game.

I was drying off my seat when Carlos Maldonado was announced as the next batter.

Carlos Maldonado on the big screen

I cheered like crazy, Carlos hit a double with an RBI. A sacrifice bunt by Seth Bynum took Carlos to third and a single by JJ Johnson brought him home. 

The Chiefs won the first game 4-2. Zach Duke, the Chiefs' pitcher, had a fine outing.

Comments about the new scoreboard:

• Maven finds the numbers difficult to read. They're smaller and white against gray, so the contrast isn't as sharp as it could be. 
• During the first game, when Carlos came up to bat in the 4th inning, K-Daddy wondered about his batting average. No stats were posted during the first game. No history, either -- tonight this batter did this type of info. This was corrected during the second game.
• The Alliance Bank Stadium sign over the scoreboard now looks old and tired. 

I finally broke down a couple of weeks ago and bought a real scorebook. I broke it out tonight for the second game. Learning all the symbols etc. is a challenge for me. 

I lost the jersey raffle (Craig Stammen Throwback Thursday) by 1 ticket. 

Things didn't go as well for the Chiefs in the second game, but the Chiefs still had a chance in the bottom of the seventh. Jason Michaels was walked with two outs. The manager then subbed Negrych for Bynum. Carlos Maldonado was in the on-deck circle, so apparently he was going to sub for the "new" catcher, Jeff Howell. Carlos is hitting .250, whereas Howell's batting average is .053.

The new scoreboard is going to be fun with Sandee and my new project. I can't wait until we're at games together again!

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.

Pawsox Come to Town

The games this week start at 6pm, which make it a bit difficult to get to the stadium in a timely manner. I listened to the first inning and a half on the radio at home, which was a true challenge trying to get the starting line ups.

We arrived at the stadium during the top of the third inning, and went off in search of dinner. I decided to try the grilled chicken sandwich (which TV Stevie said was the best thing he'd eaten at the food preview). It was fabulous. If it didn't come with fries, it would be perfect! TV Stevie and I shared the fries that came with my sandwich. He ate another of those quarter pound hot dogs, well done. We're going to start calling it a Steve-dog.

The entire 207 gang was in attendance tonight. That always makes for a fun time. Trivia, laughter, baseball. Does it get much better than this? TV Stevie came up with a great trivia question: Which players who were #39 have had their number retired? The Throwback Thursday Game Worn Jersey Raffle tonight was for number 39, which is what prompted the trivia question. I actually got it (after many hints): Roy Campanella, The Dodgers.

Yesterday's player of the game was not Mitch Atkins, but rather, Mark Teahen.

Chris McConnell has been sent down to Harrisburg; Xavier Paul has been put on the restricted list.
Josh Johnson played his first ever Triple A game tonight (SS). Sandee and I realized after the fact we should have voted for him as player of the game because he really hustled.

Work has begun on the new scoreboard. You can see something new right above the fence. Paul from the Chiefs seemed happy that I noticed. They've hired someone to run the board and he's going to school to learn how to do it. Paul also mentioned installation of the controls for the board has started, and it's a sight to behold.  It's going to be a Whiz-Bang of an experience. ETA: May 7.

Work has begun on installation of the new scoreboard.

The Bryce Harper Report
2nd inning: 1-3
4th inning: single
7th inning: double
The kid is 19. He's never played CF before. He dropped 2 balls in the 8th that should have been outs. He's 19. He's never played CF. Patience.

The Corey Brown Report
1st inning: 1-3
3rd inning: 7
5th inning: 3-1
7th inning: single
9th inning: K

Most exciting inning: The 7th.
It began with the score 4-0 Pawtucket. The Sox starting pitcher was tiring. Single by single, error by error, the Chiefs managed to fill the bases and score three runs. Then Garret Mock, former Chief, came in to pitch. Rally killer! The next three batters struck out. As Maven said, we couldn't even force a tie with a double play.

Tonight's jersey give-away was -- you guessed it -- Garret Mock's Throwback Thursday from last year. Sandee really wanted it, because it was Chad Mottola's number, Chad being her all-time favorite Chief. Guess who won it?

Molly modeling Garret Mock's game-worn jersey from last season.

Carlos Maldonado waved to us in the ninth.

Crazy Fan Man tried to strike up a conversation with Anthony when Anthony went to place our votes for Mark Teahen as player of the game. Scary!

As TV Stevie and I were leaving the stadium -- actually, he was taking photos of me in my new game-worn jersey -- we ran into one of his clients: Cate from Cate & Sally in Skaneateles, along with Cate's husband. Their daughter met Pawtucket CF Alex Hassan when they were attending Duke. They started dating. Alex played A ball, then Double A Ball (Cate and her husband went to Binghamton to see him play when Boston's double A team played there), and now he's in Triple A, playing center field for the PawSox.

Cate Davis and husband, waiting to take PawSox CF Alex Hussan for Dinosaur

Tonight there is going to be a post-game family dinner at the Dinosaur. (Proud dad wanted me to mention that his daughter played lacrosse for Skaneateles.) They never followed baseball much, but are learning the subtleties and nuances of the game and are finding it enjoyable. Wait until they figure out that they will never see all the nuances baseball has to offer because it is an ever-changing pageant.