Trenton Attempts To Stave Off Elimination

As last night, I went to the New Britain/Trenton game tonight. Much was on the line: Trenton wins, they live to play on tomorrow. A loss, and they are eliminated from postseason contention.

Tonight was a little different than last night.

For one thing, Ryan Pope pitched pretty darn well.





Pope pitched 7.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, though the tying runs, although charged to him, were inherited runners that Valdez allowed to score.

The Trenton offense tonight was far from brilliant--even forgetting that you cannot, in fact, have two men on the same base--but a win is a win, and when you are trying to stave off elimination, any win will do.



Austin Krum AKA the dude from AAH Real Monsters AKA the Bulgarian Seeker...



Sunset shot from the game.


The Thunder won the game, 4-3, in twelve innings. They must win tomorrow and if they do, then again on Monday to make the postseason. It's a long shot, but it's by no means impossible.

Thunder lose heartbreaker

For various reasons, which you may or may not know, I ended up taking the Amtrak today from New York City to Hartford, with the singular purpose of catching the Trenton Thunder in their series against the New Britain Rock Cats, with dire playoff implications.

For the Thunder to make the playoffs they more or less needed to take three of four from New Britain--but alas, tonight it was not to be.



Jeremy Bleich started for the Thunder. He gave up five hits and walked two before recording an out.





The Thunder's first baserunner. At one point, the Thunder were trying to beat out the Yankees for the-most-likely-to-be-no-hit-tonight bid.

At one point the Thunder were down 7-0, which, given that the Thunder's offense without Montero is the AA equivalent of the San Francisco Giants, is usually an insurmountable thing.

At some point in time, however, the Thunder decided that it'd be fun to mess with everyone and stage a furious comeback. They tied the game with 6 runs in the 7th.





Thunder(ers?) trying to play the hero.


Alas, the comeback could not be completed and in the ninth inning the Rock Cats walked off--a walk, and then a line drive into the corner.




I'm going back tomorrow and may or may not take more pictures. If the Thunder lose another game they will be officially eliminated.

Scranton Outing a Success

On Sunday, readers of Pete Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog gathered in Scranton for the second annual LoHud blog outing.

The group was seated in the left field bullpen box--a field-level box, with all-you-can-eat ballpark food (the pasta salad was pretty good, actually...), and an open view to the field--so players could come over and say hi.

Francisco Cervelli came by; Shelley Duncan came by--and signed my program (yes, I'm a fair girl). Duncan would later hit the home run in the first game of a double-header, and a grand slam in the second.

We also received a visit from Champ, Scranton's mascot.

During the second game, a couple friends and I wandered to the other side of the ballpark and did a "Roll Call" for the minor league team. John Rodriguez, Shelley Duncan, Kevin Russo, Cody Ransom and Ramiro Peña all (not always eagerly) responded.

Through a raffle and donations, the LoHud group also managed to rage almost $800 for the Codey Miley Memorial Scholarship Fund. Miley, the son of Scranton manager Dave Miley, was killed in a car accident last summer.

Much thanks must go out to Ron H., who organized the outing for the second year running. It takes a lot of planning to put something that large together, and Ron has done a flawless job now for two years running.

Feel the Thunder (or some such)

Along with Brent (@bnycz), Gayle (@gcf123) and Stefanie (@stefmara), I went tonight to the Trenton Thunder game.

I am much, much too exhausted to do a detailed report, so I'll leave it at: it was awesome, and provide you with some pictures.



How close were we to the field? There's no zoom on this picture. NONE.



Lining up for the National Anthem.



McAllister warming. His first start after coming off the DL; rumored to be limited to around 50 pitches or so.



So I used the zoom on this one, I know...



PJ Pilitterre (I know I didn't spell that right. It's late and I'm too tired to look).



Yes, the dog is carrying the bat back to the dugout.



We didn't actually talk to any of the players, but one came right up to the fence, leaned against it, nearly invaded Brent's personal space and...said nothing.

Another kept giving us weird looks when Stefanie and I started talking about our favorite at bat music.



Reliever and spot-starter Kanekoa Texeira. He came over in the Nick Swisher deal, and has probably the coolest name of anyone not named Jesus.







Bromance, dude, bromance





Trenton had a walk-off win in game one. Chris Malec. He does it fairly often; it's like he caught the disease from the big boys' club.

How I discovered that I could throw a knuckleball for a strike

Two nights ago, my friend Brent suggested getting tickets to tonight's Brooklyn Cyclones game because of a Darryl Strawberry bobblehead giveaway.

Being me, I said yes, because, hey, it's baseball and an excuse not to do more important things.



We took the long D train ride all the way down to Coney Island, headed over to Keyspan Park and sat through the first couple of innings of Short Season A ball.



Let me tell you, in that first inning, the Cyclones played both like an affiliate of the New York Mets and like a class A team.

After a while, we got a little tired, not so much of the game itself, but the summer camp sitting next to us. Lots of kids. Lots of very, very LOUD kids. So we decided to get up and walk around.

The cool thing about Keyspan Park is that part of the park--or at least part of it accessible via the same ramp that leads to the bleachers--is a separate turf field. It's got two soccer goals and a home plate and mound area, still outlined in chalk.

So Brent, who came prepared with a glove and a baseball, and I did the only thing one could possibly do in those circumstances: We took turns pitching and catching.

I tried every grip I knew: two-seamer, curveball and knuckleball. The only one that was a strike on a consistent basis was the knuckleball, but don't let me fool you. The fastest I've ever thrown a pitch is 30 MPH, and even pitching from a flat mound that was probably closer to 50 feet from home plate than 60 feet 6 inches, there were quite a few pitches that came, well, uh, short.



My pitching form is only slightly less embarrassing than my batting stance, which really doesn't say much...

In other words, please, please, please don't ask me to throw out the first pitch any time soon...


At any rate, we stayed there, switching on and off for about an hour.

My one, real shining moment came when Brent was attempting a side-arm delivery. After quite a few pitches that were nowhere near the strike zone, I was sort of joking, sort of not when I blurted, "you're throwing across your body too much. More arm, less body."

Strangely, the advice worked--the next three throws were all strikes.


Still, on that field I realized something: this is something every minor league park should have. While it would be unfeasible for a major league park to do so, the idea that one can go immediately from watching a game, to playing it, to watching again tugs at the very heartstrings of what this game is about.

After darkness fell and it became impractical to continue, Brent and I ended up exiting the ballpark to take in some delights of the Coney Island pier at night.




Oh, and for what it's worth, some dude on the Hudson Valley Renegades hit a home run that took out the video board in left field.

You know it's bad when...

...When you turn on the Yankee game and see empty seats behind home plate during the last homestand at Yankee Stadium, ever.

Whether this is a reflection of the Yankees' poor performance or the current financial crisis, I have no idea. It's probably a little bit of both, but it's still telling.

***

Congratulations are due to Derek Jeter for breaking Lou Gehrig's record for hits at Yankee Stadium. He needed just one more at bat to do it.


***

Congratulations are also due to the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees and the Trenton Thunder for winning the International League (AAA) and Eastern League (AA) playoffs, respectively.

There is a lot of young talent at both levels, and if you're reading this, chances are you're already familiar with some of the names--Melancon, Jackson, Curtis, et al.

This year might be bleak, but the future is not--as far as baseball is concerned, anyway.

A Journey to the Island (no, not that one)

Last night, Brent Nycz of The Bronx Block and I decided to take it down a few notches and headed out to Staten Island to catch the Staten Island Yankees in action.

The Staten Island ferry offers some excellent views of the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline.









Richmond County Bank Stadium (or whatever it's called) is probably the smallest minor league venue I have ever been to--and that's saying something because Syracuse is pretty small as well.



We had great seats--an amazing view and right behind the scouts, so I could peak at the guns to see what the other pitchers were hitting.

The starter for the Hudson Valley Renegades, sat around 91-93, struck out nine over six, walked two and allowed one run on two hits.



Ah, there we go, Richmond County Bank.



Can you tell who's starting for the Staten Island Yankees? No? Well, believe it or not, it was Jonathan Albaladejo.



The view was amazing.




The tickets were a bit expensive for a minor league game, but it was certainly worth it. My only regret is that we did not get to see Pat Venditte--the switch-pitcher--in action.

Let's Play Two!

As you may or may not know, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre -- Syracuse Sky Chiefs game yesterday was rained out, which was a disappointment, seeing as I had tickets.

However, Dan, the one with whom I went to Boston, and I are of the opinion that you can never have too much baseball, so we decided to make good on the rain check and head back out to the ballpark, given that it's only a ten minute drive from the University.

What we didn't realize, was that in the minor leagues, the way double-headers work (or at least in Syracuse), is that you have to exchange your tickets, and the new tickets are good for both games.

Now, originally, our seats were fourth row behind the SWB dugout, which is awesome in its own right.

However, when we went to exchange our tickets, that section had already been exchanged/sold out (there was another game originally scheduled for today, hence the doubleheader), so we went with the best available--which just happened to be row two in between home plate and the dugout--literally RIGHT behind the on deck circle.

The nice person behind the ticket counter told us that the seats were behind the netting as if telling us that we were sitting right behind the foul pole like in the old cartoons, but netting is a very small price to pay.

Anyway. So as you probably know, I like to take pictures.


Bernie Castro. I am amused that his name is Bernie and he wears #51. He does not, however, play center field--he plays second base. The man sitting in front of Dan and myself had a conversation with him through the netting in Spanish, but alas, my Spanish skills were not quite good enough to understand the entire conversation. However, the guy did make Bernie Castro laugh, so I guess that's a good sign.


During the anthem.


Brett Gardner. Offensively, he had a day he'd probably like to forget. However, defensively, he made a couple of good plays, especially in the first game, which was needed as Scranton won the first game 2-1.


Getting ready for game action.


Cody Ransom. He had a great Spring Training, if you remember.


Juan Miranda. Another guy in front of us tried to ask Miranda if he was related to someone, but I'm not sure Miranda speaks English.


Rasner pitching. He went into the sixth (of seven), three hits, one run. He looked good--seemed to be throwing mostly strikes.


Rasner wasn't actually looking at me when I took this picture, but I can pretend he was.


Jason Lane talking to hitting coach Alvaro Espinoza.


Bullpen getting loose.


Getting ready for the next inning.


A peek into the dugout.


Right after Rasner left the game. Rasner got a very nice hand--there are a lot of Yankee fans in Syracuse! In fact, there were audible Let's-Go-Yankees chants throughout the doubleheader, but no such for Syracuse.


Yes, that is Kei Igawa, and yes, he is in the stands, signing autographs. Igawa was actually sitting in the stands for the entire game. I was tempted to go over and say hi, but I don't speak Japanese. That, and according to one of the boys sitting behind us, his translator is scary.


Bern, baby, Bern? This was right before he started talking to the man in front of us.


Kei Igawa sat there through both games.




Igawa was charting pitches--when I took this it was the second game, so Marquez was pitching. Dan and I didn't stay for the entire second game; Marquez and the SWB Yankees were down 2-0 or 3-0 when we left. By this point I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the score.

We had a great time--in fact, we went and bought tickets for Syracuse--Pawtucket on Thursday.

Because, after all, you can never have too much baseball.

****

I did follow the ML Yankees game on my cell phone--excellent performance by Wang, great home run from Melky, not so great with RISP. However, the Yankees needed the win, and they got it. At 5-0, Wang is setting himself up for a great season.

****

The news about Jorge Posada, however, is not fun. The New York Times, as you likely know by now, is reporting a muscle tear, which means that for the first time in his career, Posada will be headed for the DL.

Since Chad Moeller has been DFA'd, Jose Molina is more or less our only catcher--and even he is not at 100% with his hamstring. Rumor has it that Chris Stewart will be called up for SWB, but, of course, one has to wonder, if Cervelli had not gotten hurt in Spring Training...