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.

No More T Moore

I shouldn't have been surprised when I turned on my computer this morning and learned that Tyler Moore had been called up to the Nationals. Surprised by the sunburn I sustained on my face at yesterday's double-header, yes. The news about T-Mo? I was devastated. Not that he hasn't earned it, because he has. Too bad it comes at the expense of the Chiefs, but that's the nature of minor league baseball.



At the last game I attended in Rochester, the home crowd yelled encouragement to "New Guy." That's just the way it is. There's always a new guy.

Talking to Paul (from the Chiefs) during the game -- he's right in that the next couple of weeks and months are going to be interesting. Washington is going to have to send someone back down once players leave the DL. Will we see Harper and Moore back in Syracuse, or will Danny Espinoza and  Steve Lombardozzi be back? Makes me glad I broke down and bought official scoring books yesterday.

It was a beautiful day for baseball in Syracuse today.

Not a cloud in the sky at Alliance Bank Stadium this afternoon

No T-Mo at 1B, no Harper in the outfield. The players were in their weekend red. Colin Balester's Throwback Thursday jersey from last season was being raffled. While en route to the stadium, we heard a radio interview with Tony Beasley in which he talked about Carlos Maldonado (among other things).

Second shock of the day came when I read that Corey Brown was yesterday's Player of the Game. Kevin and I decided they gave Corey PoG honors to make up for T-Mo's call-up, even though T-Mo earned both. Yeah. Right.

The Corey Brown Report:

1st - 4-3

4th - 9

6th - 4-3

8th - 5

Carlos Rivero hit a home run, which was really nice. Several times the tying run was at the plate, but the Chiefs just couldn't pull it out. We voted for Rivero as Player of the Game.

Carlos Maldonado caught today's game. We never did get him to wave at us, but Jhonatan Solano waved when he was 1B coach in the 9th. (We couldn't figure out who was 1B coach during the rest of the game. Possibly Xavier Paul or T-Mo's replacement, Jim Negrych. 

Miscellaneous stuff:

• the grounds crew playing basketball out behind the old home team bullpen in left field. Every so often you could see someone taking a shot.
• Dave Anthony claimed the contestant for the dice roll was Ron Howard's sister. I corrected him after the fact: she's Curly Howard's grand-niece. Dave admitted that with the current popularity of the Three Stooges Movie, my joke was more timely. 
• Loved the optimism of warming up a new pitcher in the top of the 9th with the team down 5-2.

Oh, and I bought my fan hands -- in red. They are very odd to wear, but are nice and loud.