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.