Not that it means anything at this point . . .

Scanning the International League transaction page, I see some familiar names assigned/optioned to Syracuse:

• Eury Perez
• Jason Michaels (I thought he was a coach . . ..)
• Corey Brown (yawn)
• Jhonatan Solano
• Chris Marrero
• Yunesky Maya
• Ryan Perry

And a couple of unfamiliar names, too.

Counting down!

Friday Night at the Ball Park

The Chiefs should not have lost tonight's game. Mitch Atkins had pitched a good game and left with a three run lead in the 7th. Ryan Perry pitched 1/3 of an inning and left the game with the score 4-4.

Seth Bynum was named player of the game for last night. I don't get it. Yes, he hit a 2-run triple, but every Chief got on base last night and all but two had RBIs. Scoring the runs was a team effort. Zach Duke pitched an awesome game. The final score last night was 10-NOTHING. The problem with the casual fan is they think the 10 is the key, when the NOTHING has more meaning in this case. Maven explained it this way: Seth is a popular guy (I don't know of anyone who doesn't like Seth. I like Seth. That's not the point.) and he probably had family in town. There were only a few people at the stadium last night.

The opening pitch was tossed out by Dave & Diana Johnson & Family, who happen to be friends of my parents, so I made sure I snapped several photos. It was Home Builders & Remodelers of CNY Night; the Johnson family just had a total house makeover.

Dave & Diana Johnson & partial family

The scoreboard was dark green again, which makes the scores easier to read.

TV Stevie bought us beer during Happy House -- and it was served in Dixie Cups!

Beer in Dixie Cups

The Famous Eric Cohen joined us for an inning or two. He told us he went to the Change of Pace after the game last night and ran into Matt Antonelli there.

There were four umps officiating tonight. That's unusual.
Also unusual -- and Maven said he's never seen anything like it:

Pitching Coach Greg Booker -- coaching first base

There is scuttlebutt that the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees may revert to their previous name: the SWB Red Barons.

The SWB Yankees wear their socks out -- no pajama pants. Mark Teahen does, too. I've decided that I like seeing the socks over pajama pants.

Corban Joseph still looks like Ellen DeGeneris in his scoreboard picture.

Corban or Ellen? You decide!

And speaking of scoreboard pictures -- most of the Chiefs have one of three facial expressions: mean, dazed or blase. Not Brett Carroll. He looks delighted!

Brett Carroll: Happy Camper

Matt Antonelli coached 1B from the 6th inning on. He looks good in Yankee pinstripes.

TV Stevie went to sit with a friend in Section 205, where he spoke with K-Daddy as K was hanging a K on the railing.

And finally, an observation. There were two female Yankee fans sitting in the last row of 107. They each wore madras shorts. Madras shorts? I didn't even know you could still buy madras shorts? Are they coming back in style? I sincerely hope not.

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.

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.