Another Chiefs Loss/Yankees Win

Almost like a mirror of the major league teams, the SWB Yankees beat the Chiefs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Only the Chiefs hot bats and Mitch Atkins pitching on Thursday night kept this from being a sweep.

The game started at two. It's a hot & sunny day in Syracuse, but there's a fabulous breeze that kept sitting in the stands tolerable.

The jersey raffle featured Roger Bernadina's jersey.

Yes, Austin Bibens-Dirkx is gone, but James Skelton is back.

Some weird stuff to start off the game. The National Anthem was sung by an  a cappella group, who started. Stopped. The leader played a pitch pipe. They sang the first line. Stopped. Pitch pipe again.  Really weird.

Then there was a delay in the bottom of the first. Dickerson rounded first base and did something to it.
The grounds crew had to come out and work on it, causing a delay of game.

Grounds crew repairing first base as the umps look on.

Kevin joined us again today. He said he saw Corban Joseph get on the team bus last night, and the resemblance to Ellen Degeneres is astounding.

Seth Bynum shaved.

Bynum without his facial hair

This woman is the Yankees' Number One Fan.

No Comment

Post-game interview with Cervelli happened right in front of me, but a rude fan stood in front of me so I had to snap a photo off the board instead of the field. That's a major problem with 207 Row 1: people think it's okay to just stop and stand and never pay attention to who might be sitting there trying to watch the game.

Cervelli Post-game Interview

The Father's Day festivities consisted of fathers running the bases after the game with children aged 12 and under. Madras shorts! Everywhere!

Except on Dan Fellman, who had the good sense to leave his plaid at home.

Curse of the Catcher's Gear

The calendar may say it's still spring, but it felt like summer today, and I'm loving it.

It was warm and breezy at the ball park tonight. I arrived early -- alone -- and bought a chicken sandwich and a Molson's Canadian. Yesterday's Player of the Game: Mark Teahen. The Jersey being raffled -- Brian Bixler's Throwback Thursday from last season.

Pappi (Poppy) was sitting in the row behind Sandee, spitting sunflower seeds into the aisle. Blech! Last night he  was parked next to us and gave us the peace sign as he was leaving.

There's a guy who sits in Section 105. Tonight I noticed his hat for the first time. This probably means nothing to most of you, but this hat is a WTVH "Fish" Hat. Too funny.

Gio Gonzalez, one of the Washington  Nationals top pitchers, was tweeting for a date for some gala. A second tweet requested that they be 21 or older.

The grounds crew plays basketball in the old bull pen during the games.

James Skelton was injured in a play at the plate in the 4th inning and taken out of the game. Kyle Hudson: SHAME ON YOU!  Maven told me Skelton may have a concussion. A former co-worker, who happens to be a true Nats fan, told me he believes the Nats Catchers gear is cursed this season. I believe it.

A foul ball slammed into a seat only a couple of down from Sandee then bounced onto the field.

A Dunkin' Donuts t-shirt toss t-shirt landed at my feet, but before I could get it, XGMan's guest picked it up and handed it off to some kid walking by.

In the 6th inning, Yuneski Maya hurt himself in a play at 1st first. We were leading 1-0 at the time. Speculation is that it's a groin injury. He left the game. Jeff Mandel came in and proceeded to give up 4 singles before getting an out,. Then he gave up a double. And the damage was done. The Chiefs lost 4-1. Not pretty.

For the second day in a row, Carlos Rivero would snag a grounder then stand there and look around. Carlos? You're supposed to throw it!

Scoreboard fun with Tug Hulett. Thanks for pointing it out, Pete.

Tug!

Seth Bynum was first base coach in the later innings. He waved to us.

Around the 7th inning, we noticed Corey Brown had a fan. She was sitting in the handicapped area behind Section 205. She agreed to have her photo taken.

Corey!

I won the Brian Bixler Throwback Thursday jersey!!!

Molly in her new jersey

While I was at Stadium Guest Services collecting my jersey, some little kid climbed up on the roof of the dug out to dance with Pops. When the good people in Section 207 pointed this out to Uber Usher -- it's against International League regulations -- Uber Usher  . . . did nothing. The head of security told us it's about a 12-foot drop from the roof of the dugout to the concrete floor, with railings and other obstacles. What kind of moron parents let a toddler do that? And don't get me started on Uber Usher -- the same guy who had smoke blown at his head on Saturday and didn't notice it.

Anthony took our Player of the Game ballots (James Skelton) up to the ballot box and ran into Paul, who said no more raffle tickets for the first row of 207. We've won three this year and it's early June. But how many didn't we win last year? I really wanted one of the pink ones. 

Since arriving home, I've read that Roger Bernadina pulled a hamstring, so Corey Brown will likely be called back to the mothership.

Wow. More than enough to make up for last night.

This & That

I caught the Chiefs at Buffalo on the radio the past two nights. Carlos Maldonado had a great game last night.

I just read that Bernadina has been recalled to Washington.

Found an interesting website about the Washington Nationals and all the conjecture about who will be called up from the minor leagues and how former Chiefs are faring in the bigs. There are plenty of links on this blog, too, including Nats Nation (from Section 138) and First Ladies of Baseball.

Here's the missing video of the final strikeout of The Perfect Game.

Matt Antonelli has a website/blog here.

Sandee & Anthony will be at the game in Rochester tonight. I'll look for them on television!

Strasburg

Strasburg in Syracuse

DATELINE: Aug 27, 2011
We arrived at the stadium shortly after 5pm for a 7pm game. The main entrance was closed to traffic, but we use a different entrance anyway. There were plenty of folks already on hand. Several tailgate parties were in progress. The lot filled up quickly.

The gates opened at 5:45pm instead of the announced (and usual) 6pm opening. I immediately encountered Bill DeLapp from the Syracuse New Times, who was looking for a good vantage point from which to photograph the draw of the night.

I wondered if our first base coaches would even be able to hear us. Yet there didn't seem to be as many fans in the stands as there were cars in the lot. Soon, we glimpsed parked vehicles in the overflow lot.

While I was sitting around, waiting for starting lineups, they announced Brad Peacock was in the souvenir shop signing autographs. I went into stalker mode and got on line. He signed the brim of my hat. I said hi to him, but I'm not sure he recognized me. After all, he didn't go screaming off in the opposite direction.

NBA Hall of Fame &
One of the Top 50 Basketball Players
of All Time Dolph Schayes

Dolph Schayes showed up, so I went over to say hi to him and snap his photo. Not sure he recognized me either. He and TV Stevie are friends, having both graduated from the same high school in the Bronx. A local sports broadcaster interrupted us. Gotta suck up to Dolph.

Tim Fox from NewsChannel 9 stopped by to say hi.

I heard that Tug Hulett had been named Player of the Game for the 2nd game of the previous evening. YAY! We voted for him.

The crowd kept getting louder and louder. Sandee and Anthony made it in time for the start of the game, although they'd gotten stuck in all the traffic.

Finally, the game started. I began writing down pitch speeds.Strasburg got up to 96mph in the1st inning.

What's in Gregor Blanco's hand?

The first base coach in the bottom of the 1st (and for most of the game) was Gregor Blanco. The past several nights we've noticed him swinging something as he strolls to 1st base. It looks like a stopwatch to me, but that just could be my broadcast years catching up to me.

Bernadina, the first Syracuse batter, hit a home run to start the game right.

While I was looking around the stadium at the end of the first, I noticed something curious.

Grounds crew watching from
way up high!

Strasburg reached 98 mph in the 2nd inning . . . and never exceeded that for the rest of the game.

A newbie, Chris Curran, was first base coach for the next couple of innings.

We wondered if the lemonade stand people all went to the State Fair. We love the lemonade at the stadium and really missed it last night.

There was a family with several young children sitting immediately behind us, and TV Stevie loved them. TV decided that one little fella was going to grow up to be the next Michael Kay. "See ya!" the kid called out every time a ball was hit. It was very cute.

Carlos Maldonado tipped his hat to us before he started warming up Strasburg for the 3rd inning.

By the time the 4th inning rolled around, the sun was setting and the sky was gorgeous.

Notice the 200 Level is full
and the general admission
3rd level is nearly empty.

Can't find the words to describe

Gothic!

By the 5th inning, Strasburg had a perfect game going. It was very exciting to watch. Then the 6th inning. Oh boy. Strasburg allegedly gave up two hits, but I don't necessarily believe the first would have been a hit if a certain outfielder had just hustled a bit. Strasburg was pulled from the game. He left to a standing ovation.

Eventually Rochester scored. In the meantime, Steve Lombardozzi and Matt Antonelli each made an astounding catch. And Bernadina hit an RBI double in the bottom of the 6th (which is why I voted for him, not Strasburg, as Player of the Game).

At the end of the 6th, the stadium announcer informed us that Chris Marrero hit his first Major League hit tonight. YAY Chris!

During the 7th inning, the stadium announcer informed us that Dolph Schayes was in the stands.

Chase Lambin played pretty good at third base tonight, considering he has 25 errors on the season. We never did get his attention. The din in the stadium was unbelievable.

The Voice of the Orange
leaving the stadium
after fireworks.

Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, was sitting behind me.

WAER's famous Eric Cohen stopped by to say hi.

The last couple of innings were tense. The score was close (I like huge leads). Our relievers were distracted. The Rochester manager was tossed from the game. I couldn't get to my camera quick enough to catch the argument, but it was classic baseball confrontation.

The grounds crew moved from the tippy-top of the stadium to the outfield fence.

Grounds crew watching the end of the game

Eric Cohen commented that I notice the weirdest things at the stadium. Well, that's one of the reasons I wanted to blog. Because being at the ballpark is baseball and more.

Sandee's favorite closer, Josh Wilkie, managed to make sure the Chiefs won. Very tense end of the game.

Team walking off the field after post-game congrats.
Love the "rakish" tilt of Carlos's hat.

Team Photo Night

Bernadina Down

Tonight was Team Photo Night. Sandee & I met in the parking lot and went in together to do our thing. We noticed that there weren't as many players available as there were last year, but figured that was because it was a Tuesday night instead of a Sunday afternoon. (This event was rained out this past weekend). Then we noticed the players available were mostly pitchers . . . which is cool. We like pitchers. They were all very nice young men. One got a little snarky with me . . . "oh, you're the ones," when I mentioned we were the ones cheering. He never let me say "from 207, behind 1st base." Pffft.

I asked players who they were, because we couldn't see their numbers while they were sitting at the tables. Some people said, "Me," another responded in Spanish, and one wise guy said, "Charlie Sheen." Yeah. Right. It was all in great fun, though.


Highlights: 

• Jhonatan Solano signed my hat. The fact that Jhonatan was signing meant that Carlos Maldonado was catching. 
• Adam Fox is back with the Chiefs and I told him how much I enjoyed watching him play ball with his son over in left field after the games. Sandee said Adam's face lit up. I think I mentioned the photos to him. Later, during the game, I asked Tall Mike-the-Assistant GM how I could let Adam know where to find the pix.
• Brad Peacock. I said, "Brad, we have a bone to pick with you. When you're coaching first base, we call out to you and you ignore us!" He laughed and said that he heard us, but didn't know who it was, but now he knows, so he'll wave back.

As we were walking down the concourse, Sandee saw Carlos over by the bullpen, so we hurried down the stairs, calling his name. The poor man kept walking. We stalked him. But he finally stopped, and we chatted. We told him we're the ones in 207 who always call out and wave to him. He signed my hat and my #48 Batting Practice T-shirt. Carlos is a really big man.

Carlos Maldonado and Jhonatan Solano 

Carlos Maldonado signed my BPT

1st Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach - Jeff Frazier. Came out late, so we couldn't say hi.
• Roger Bernadina hit a 2-run homer.
• Carlos Maldonado looked right at us and waved when he came on deck. We didn't say a word.

2nd Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach - Adam Fox. Came out late, so we couldn't say hi.
• Carlos Maldonado grinned in our direction when he came to the plate.
• The Famous Eric Cohen predicted that Carlos would get a hit, and sure enough, he hit a double.

3rd Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Jeff Frazier waved
• Seth Bynum hit a home run
• Matt Antonelli hit a home run
• Back-to-back home runs! 

4th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Adam Fox came out late so we couldn't say hi.
• It was observed that Gwynett's outfielders all wore their sox inside their pants, while the infielders wore their sox outside their pants. 

5th Inning Highlights:

• Carlos hit another double.

6th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach Adam Fox waved.
• The Gwynett coach was tossed from the game. (We don't know why)
• A moment later, Roger Bernadina was hit inside his knee. He was down for a while (see photo at top of page)
• A foul ball bounced off the railing between TV Stevie and XG-Man.
• The bases were loaded when Carlos came to bat. He struck out. :-(
• Some guy went butt over teakettle over seats chasing a foul ball.
• Tommy Milone replaced Adam Fox as the 1st base coach so Adam could pinch hit for the pitcher.
• Adam Fox hit a grand slam!
• That cinched our vote for Adam as player of the game.

7th Inning Highlights:

• 1st base coach: Brad Peacock -- and he waved to us!
• TV Stevie finally won a jersey in the jersey raffle!

Jess-the-Intern hands TV Stevie his Throwback Thursday Jersey

TV Stevie modeling his jersey.

8th Inning Highlights:

• The Famous Eric Cohen came back to 207 and told us that he'd seen Adam Fox wave to us then hit the grand slam. He believes they are connected events. We won't argue. He also mentioned that (at this point) the Chiefs had 16 hits. Every man in the line-up had gotten a hit -- except Corey Brown.
• Suspect caught a Jeff Frazier foul right in front of us (lots of foul balls in 207 tonight).

9th Inning Highlights:

• Atahualpa Severino managed to load the bases, but struck out the final batter.
• The Chiefs win!

The Ups & Downs of Being A Fan

"What this chick digs is familiar faces, players I know and love. Statistically, women are the most loyal fans of anything." Alyssa Milano, Safe at Home.

Reading the league transactions is disheartening, especially at this point in the season, when we've come to depend on knowing the various line-ups.

Jason Botts is now on Buffalo's 7-day disabled list. Okay, he plays for Buffalo now, not Syracuse, but we still like our J-Botts. I hope he's back by the time Buffalo returns to Syracuse next week.



J Botts playing 1st for the 2010 Chiefs





As previously mentioned, Roger Bernadina has been optioned to Syracuse from Washington (and was activated today), but there have been plenty of other things happening. 

• Yunesky Maya and Brian Bixler have both been recalled to the Nats.
• Michael Aubrey and Tom Milone have both been placed on the 7-day DL
• Brad Meyers has been activated from the 7-day DL
• Evan Bronson (LHP) is coming up from Potomac

The great thing about Triple A Baseball is seeing the Major Leaguers of tomorrow. I was watching the Yankees the other night, when Brandon Laird had his first big league at bat, his first big league hit, his first big league RBI, and scored his first big league run. It was very cool, because we saw him play a few weeks ago when Scranton Wilkes-Barre was in town. And during the same game, I saw Scott Sizemore playing for Oakland. I have a foul ball Scott hit into Section 207 early in the season, when Toledo was in town.

The bad thing is, you never know what your team will look like game-to-game.

And It's One, Two, Three Strikes, You're Out . . .

The Columbus Clippers may have the best record in all of the the International League, but our Syracuse Chiefs beat 'em again tonight, three zip. That's three of four games this homestand. It was a fun game.

The fourth man at bat, former NY Yankee Shelley Duncan, thought he drew a walk, but the ump called him out. Shelley took exception to the call. Extreme exception. The ump took exception to Shelley and ejected him. Moments later, the ump also tossed the Clippers manager.

Because of the rain earlier in the day, the field was slippery, and at least three Clippers lost their footing on the wet grass, enabling the Chiefs to run the bases.

USA Today Best-Selling Author Gayle Callen

After all the excitement in the first inning, things settled down.

Local author Gayle Callen stopped by to say hello.



Pants and jersey don't match

 We noticed that Clipper #38's pants and jersey were two distinctly different shades of gray.

 And poor Valbuena is still wearing torn pants.

Valbuena's torn pants








Jersey Raffle: Throw-back Thursday

First base coach wave:

• Tug Hulett ignored us in the first, then gave a half-hearted, "oh-do-I-have-to" wave in the second.
• Innings 4 - 7 was our good friend Corey Brown. He heard us. He even heard me say, "Come on, wave!" Dissed.
• Tug was back for the 8th and there was no 9th, because the score was 3-0 Chiefs.

Line of the night: Came from a Clipper's fan, referring to Corey Brown: "It's your fault, first base coach!"

Exciting news of the night: The Nationals are sending Roger Bernadina back to Syracuse. I wonder how the Chiefs will make room for him on the roster. Maybe Corey Brown is wondering the same thing.

Curiosity of the night: Maven was no where to be seen. Even if he sits on the 3rd base side out of the heat or the rain, when things turn "normal" he comes home to Section 207. No one sighted him at the stadium tonight.