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.

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

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.

One-Four-Six-Three

What a difference a day can make! Tonight's 11-4 win over the Norfolk Tides was a great game to watch.

Arrived at stadium during bottom of 1st, when Pinch Hitter Jim Negrych was announced. Pinch hitting for Corey Brown, who must have been called up to the Nats at the last minute.

We voted for Yunesky Maya as Player of the Game. Some people might think Jesus Valdez deserves that title for his 3 RBIs, but Yuneski pitched 6 innings, and the Tides scored only 2 runs in those 6, each one a single shot home run. Pitchers never seem to get their due, at least not at ABS in the Player of the Game voting.

Carlos Maldonado walked twice. The first time, Josh Johnson hit him home.

Carlos at third, waiting to come home

 Carlos coming home

Greeting Manny Mayorson as he follows him home.

Then Carlos hit a home run in the 6th. Single shot, but beautiful none the less.
Brett Carroll hit a home run right before Carlos did, for 3 RBIs.
A better shot of "Captain America".

The Chiefs ended with 11 hits and 11 runs. Looked kind of funky on the scoreboard.

Play of the game was 1-4-6-3 triple play in the 9th inning. Tides batter hit to pitcher Eric Arneson who threw to 2B Seth Bynum, who threw to SS Josh Johnson, who threw to 1B Carlos Rivero. Very cool moment.

Couple of awkward moments: in the 7th inning, there were several defensive moves on the part of the Chiefs, which weren't announced until a third of the way through the inning -- after we'd already figured it out. Seth Bynum replaced Jim Negrych. Seth batted. Then it was time for Mark Teahen to bat, but his graphic never came up on the scoreboard. It remained on Seth. Perhaps this was in honor of Seth's old game worn jersey being auctioned.

Annoyance of the game:
Several times, people came to sit in Maven's seats. Danny-the-Usher asked them to leave each time. The last time, the guy started arguing with Danny. Danny asked to see the ticket, and the man clearly didn't have a ticket for that seat . . . and argued about it. What's to argue about? It's not the seat you bought!

I did see Maven on my way out of the stadium. He's sitting out of the sun for the time being. We miss him. Intensely. I miss discussing the game and players with him.  Next time I see him behind the net, I may go over and sit with him for an inning or two.

No Luck on Everything Irish Night

Thursday was Everything Irish Night at Alliance Bank Stadium. Big crowd.

We arrived during the final innings of the finish of the suspended game from April 10. I took my seat just in time to see Carlos Maldonado at bat. He walked. Some jerk in Section 205 started calling Carlos "Fat Boy." A lot. I was outraged.

Room to talk? I think not.

 Carlos finally shut him up when he hit a double in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately, the rest of the team couldn't help him out. The Chiefs lost that game.

The Everything Irish Scoreboard was very cool. The numbers were easy to read on the kelly green background. It's helped a lot since they've started outlining the numbers in black.

Other items of note:

• Last season, Uber Usher told me the ushers are not allowed to touch foul balls. I guess the rules are different this year. He picked up one and handed it to a child further up in Section 207.
• Maven is still sitting out of the sun. We miss him.
• The scoreboard no longer has the Taco Bell logo on the K-Man's picture when he comes to bat. I thought that was very cool when I saw it back when the scoreboard debuted. Perhaps it's a licensing thing. 
• I hate that one of the scoreboard sponsors has usurped the song Centerfield for their game.
• Irish music replaced at-bat music for an innng or two. In some cases, it was an improvement.
• Manny Mayorson made some awesome catches. We voted for him as Player of the Game.
• Four Chiefs were in the Triple A All-Star Game. There was a neat graphic bragging about that.

• The team wasn't wearing their Throwback Thursday Jerseys, which I happen to like very much.
• Some out-of-town visitors came late to the second game and sat behind us, not realizing they were in reserved seating. The peanut shells were annoying, but the people turned out to be okay. They were in town for a high school baseball tournament. We chatted quite a bit. 
• Suspect brought his daughter to the game. I took a photo of them. 

Suspect's daughter has grown a lot since last year.

• Koyie Hill's at-bat "music" sounds like a pinball arcade on steroids. Sheesh!
• We held up our Carlos Maldonado signs every time Carlos came out to warm up the pitcher during the second game. He acknowledged us. Even TV Stevie noticed it. 
• Someone behind us with a Hispanic Accent started shouted out things just like Suspect. The two of them finally got together. It was hysterically funny (if a tad annoying).

Suspect and Spanish Suspect. 

TV Stevie and I left the game at the bottom of the 10th inning. There was no score. We listened to the end on the radio. Chiefs lost in the 14th inning on a controversial play.

If it was Everything Irish Night, where was the Luck?

July 5, 2012: Prologue

The evening started with a buffet for first class season ticket holders held in the Hank Sauer Room. We arrived a few minutes late, and the place was full. TV Stevie ran into someone he knew, so we ended up sitting with them. Which turned out to be fabulous, because I got to sit next to long-time (1971-2006) team president Don Waful.

Molly with Don Waful

The man has so many stories! We had a delightful time.

The team provided players and coaches to mingle with the fans for a little while.

Molly with Eric Komatsu

Molly with Manny Mayorson

Molly with Seth Bynum

Molly with Tony Beasley

The players were all very nice young men. Coach Beasley  is nice man.

Funny moment: TV Stevie took the photo of me with Seth Bynum, and I said, "Thank you, dear." TV is, after all, my husband. I call him "dear" all the time. Seth replied, "No problem." LOL!

The game started. We were still talking with Don Waful, so we missed the first two innings, but I did notice that Carlos Maldonado was playing.

I grabbed a couple of bottles of water and made my way to Section 207 for the rest of the game.