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.

July 5, 2012: THE GAME

 Yes, there really was a game buried in all the 14-inning/22 players hype. I believe I mentioned we lost. Not for lack of trying, though.

Item of Note: Carlos Maldonado got on base every single time he was at bat.

• 3rd inning single (eventually ended up scoring the Chiefs first run)
• 4th inning walk
• 5th inning home run to tie the game
• 7th inning walk
• 10th inning walk -- offensive substitution took place at this time, with Yuneski Maya coming in to pinch run for Carlos. Sandee and I were both offended by this move.

Carlos, it's great to have you back in Syracuse. Your fan club is ready to cheer. We didn't have our signs last night, but I had my Carlos Maldonado Fan Club T-Shirt, which I held up when that 5th inning ball went sailing over the right field fence.

K-Daddy in his "I Don't Know" On 3rd shirt.

Last night was also game of firsts for the season:

• Suspect attended his first game. He looks well, as do his sons.
• Jim Durkin also attended for the first time this season. TV Stevie says he seems to be doing well -- at least well enough to organize a bus strip to Buffalo in August. That would be cool.

Scariest moment of the game: Brett Carroll hurt himself in the 9th. He was hustling to first and went backside over teakettle. It wasn't pretty. He look as if he were in pain for several tense moments. He did eventually walk off the field on his own, but he was done for the night.

Brett Carroll being helped off the field

The new scoreboard shifts innings to the left when there are extra innings. Very cool. There are a lot of great features to the new board that are gradually being introduced. I love it when I look up and see "Wild Pitch" or "Error". Unfortunately, that info appears to have replaced pitch speed. I could be wrong.

Innings 4-12 on the big screen

 Corey Brown was ejected from the game in the 12th.

The most amusing play of the evening: Tanner Roark was called in to play left field in the 13th inning. (He's a starting pitcher). He caught a fly ball for the final out of the inning. He was laughing, his teammates gathered at the stairs of the dugout to congratulate him.

It was nearly midnight when we left the stadium. There were maybe 150-200 fans left by the time the game was over. 94-year-old Don Waful was one.

10-Nothing: I Like It

The Chiefs won tonight, 10-zip. Zach Duke got the win. I voted for him as Player of the Game, too.

It was a pretty quiet night at the stadium. Not that many fans turned out, which was a shame, because the weather was lovely, there was a cooling breeze, and there was awesome baseball on the diamond.

It was National Kidney Foundation Night, so Sidney the Kidney threw out the first pitch.

Sidney the Kidney

Every time I tried to get a picture of Sidney, someone walked in front of me.

Syracuse is playing the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees this weekend. The New York Yankees will be playing the Washington Nationals this weekend. We think that's kind of cool -- the Majors and the Triple A teams battling it out.

SWB is the home team all weekend, so the Chiefs wore their gray travel jerseys with the teal numbers. I like the black with teal much better.

The Famous Eric Cohen saw me sitting alone, so came down from the broadcast booth to keep me company for an inning or two. He's fascinated with the way I've started scoring the game in a real score book.

Corban Joseph (one of the SWB Yanks) should have his photo on the scoreboard retaken. He looks exactly like Ellen DeGeneris. I pointed it out to Maven, who agreed.

Former Chief Matt Antonelli is with the SWB Yankees now, altho' he's on the DL. He did coach first base from the 6th inning on.

Former Chief Matt Antonelli flipping his
helmet during a pitching change.

I called out and waved to him several times, but he ignored me.

Tanner Roark (usually a starting pitcher) pitched one relief inning tonight. Maven and I speculated what this means: was it just his turn to throw in the bull pen so they decided to use him, or has he lost his spot in the rotation. If the latter is the case, could it be Eric Arneson will be getting a shot at being a starter?

It's very weird being the visiting team in our own stadium. We're so used to not having to play the bottom of the ninth when we're ahead, that it's discombobulating when we have to play it as visitors. 

So why weren't you at the ball park tonight?

Harper Is Gone: The Game Must Go On

Double-header today with Charlotte. A cool but sunny afternoon to be at the ball park.


The first thing I saw as I headed toward my seat was the progress on the scoreboard.

Pretty cool, eh? They were working on it during the game, too. We were all pleased to have a clock again.

The first game jersey raffle was Atahualpa Severino's; the second game jersey belonged to Lee Hyde. TV Stevie bought tickets for that one, because it was number 24. Unfortunately, no one we know won either shirt.

Lee Hyde praying before taking the mound

Lots more broken bats today. Maybe it's the weather. Kevin said he noticed a lot of broken bats, too.

The team wore weekend red for both games.

Tyler Moore was last Sunday's Player of the Game. We voted for him as Player of the Game for both games today, too.

Carlos Maldonado was catcher in the first game. He waved to us. He knows he has a fan club.

The Bryce Harper Report:
He's in LA with the Nats, getting ready to start his first major league game against the Dodgers. Strasburg is pitching. Should be interesting coverage of that game.

Funniest thing in the afternoon:
The announce booth forgot to turn off the mic in the first inning of the first game. The umps had to stop the game. We heard an f-bomb (not loud) from the booth. The umps and players were shouting and pointing, "Turn off the microphone!"

The Corey Brown Report:
Game 1
1st - K
3rd - single
5th - K

Game 2
1st - 3-1
3rd - 4-3
6th - single

Corey played CF both games and was more than adequate out there. Third inning of Game Two he made incredible back-to-back catches.

Coolest new thing in the stadium:
Fan hands. Sandee bought a pair.

Sandee's Fan Hands

The make a clacking noise when you clap. I'm going to get me a pair of red ones. Then Sandee and I can high five each other.

Crazy Fan Man was at the game early. He spoke to Anthony again. But he was quiet throughout both games. We heard him only once, early in the first game.

The Tyler Moore Report:

Game 1 

2nd - K

4th - 3

5th - HR (3 RBI)

Game 2

1st - BB

4th - 4

6th - RBI double

Tyler played 1B in Game 1 and was DH in Game 2

Maven says T-Mo made a mental error in the 6th inning of Game 1. He made the easy out at first then threw to second for the forced out. Because the first out wasn't a forced out, it allowed the base runner to score. If he'd thrown to 2nd for the forced out, then made the out at first (and there was plenty of time), the base runner would not have scored.

Jhonatan Solano was 1B coach for both games, and he waved to us.

The Chiefs won the first game 5-2 and lost the second 11-1

Miscellaneous Stuff:

It appears Xavier Paul is back with the team. Before the 2nd game started, and when the song, "Cheer Cheer Cheer for the Chiefs" was playing, someone wearing #15 was boogieing in the dugout, just having a grand old time.

TV Stevie was in the Whistlestop Souvenir Shop and two women started admiring his SkyChiefs jacket. "We didn't know they used to be the SkyChiefs."

Superman's Closet in my living room 

TV Stevie's response: "Oh. You must not be from around here." Of course not. They were from Washington, and wanted to check out the Triple A Afflilaite. They probably wanted to see Bryce Harper so they could tell all their friends at home that they'd seen him. 

Maven Observations: "This has to be the first team since Adam & Eve with a Tyler and a Tanner on it." (Tanner Roark was starting pitcher for the 2nd game.)

"We have the worst bullpen since Adam & Eve."

So I asked Maven what today's fixation with Adam & Eve was about. 

You must know what he answered. "Baseball is biblical. In the Big Inning . . ."

There was a very scary pigeon at the game today. Game Two. After Crazy Fan Man disappeared. Sandee's theory is that it was Crazy Fan Man. He doesn't turn into a bat like a vampire, but rather, into a pigeon, like a crazy person. This bird swooped into seats, wandered around looking for food, and in general distracted us. Me. Whatever.

 And finally: I've found Jason Botts (along with Jason Bergmann and Jesse English): he's in the Atlantic League, playing for the Sugar Land Skeeters. (Bergmann's with the Camden Riversharks and English is with the Bridgeport Bluefish.)