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Red Sox time

Very fan friendly place.  Oscar Tejeda tossed Wyatt this one as the NEW STREAK continues.

As mentioned before, minor league, big league, college ball, they all warm up the same way.  There must be something to it.  Third player from right is 19 y.o. Carolina League All Star Oscar Tejeda.  He's the player to watch on this team.

Salem. VA home to the Advance Single A Salem Red Sox.  You can tell the teams that have money from thier big league club, just look at the field.  Beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mtns. from almost every seat.  Good players too.

More Fun Facts, Geography & Side Trips.....WV to VA

The college stop on this part of the journey was Virginia Tech.  What a really nice campus.  It's large yet most of the buildings are stone and as such the old and new easily blend together.  It's sports complex, which covers the south end of campus, is all very new and really nice too.  All the facilities are located together....football, baseball, softball, track, soccer/lacrosse and so on are all in one centralized area.

Say what you will about West Virginia but its mountain ranges are absolutely beautiful, and endless.  90% of the drive to Virginia looked like this.  Simply breathtaking.  It's considered the "Valley and Ridge" portion of the Appalachians.  This section goes north into PA and is the flavor of the mountains you see around Pittsburgh, or Somerset, or Altoona.  As you cross into Virginia near Blacksburg and Roanoke it becomes the famed "Blue Ridge" Mountains which extend to the "South Mountain" chain that is between Gettysburg and Harrisburg.

Who was born in a small house along a creek in Chelyan WV?  Basketball Hall of Fame hoops star Jerry West. He is also "The Logo."  It is his dribbling icon that is part f the NBA logo.

http://www.logoblog.org/nba_logo.php

Only in West Virginia do you find Tudor's Biscuit World.  This is the Mountaineer Breakfast Biscuit --- egg, cheese, Virginia ham, AND a hash brown on a heavily buttered homemade biscuit.  Oh my!

As we depart Charleston WV for Salem (Roanoke) Virginia the mileage continues to mount.

We saw the Phillies!

17-3 Phillies (BlueClaws) beat the Power.  Below is the Norfolk-Southern train horn that blows with every Power home run.  Oh, boy!

Almost every big leaguer has come thru a tiny minor league town like this.  In this game The Power played the Lakewood BlueClaws from Lakewood NJ, near Sea Girt.  This is the Phillies Single A team where Ryan Howard once played.  That means he too played on this Charleston field.  A fun note, the BlueClaws have a player, Mike McGuire, from Drexel Hill, PA near Philly.  It's always good to scan the players on a team and see their hometown.  When Mike walked-by we shouted his name and told him we were from the Philly area, got his autograph, and at game's end asked him for a ball, he tossed us one...thus a NEW STREAK begins.  We got another BlueClaw to sign it --- Jonathan Singleton, a 19 year old phenom from California.  He's a first basemen in the mold of Ryan Howard and was considered the 55th best prospect in all of baseball in 2009.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=1B&sid=t427&t=p_pbp&pid=572138

McGuire is a pitcher, a Univ. of Delaware grad who was drafted by the Indians, and was new to the team.  Apparently a hard thrower with 9 strikeouts in 5 innings pitched.  I asked him if he grew up a Phillies fan and he confirmed he did saying "I'm living the dream."

http://www.indiansprospectinsider.com/2009/01/indians-top-prospects-89-michael.html

Look at this "stadium."  Actually Charleston has a nice little downtown.  It's the state capital, and like most small towns it closes up at night.  The ball game was the only action.

The warm-up process is the same everywhere.

CINCY to Charleston WVa.

The old factory at Appalachian Power Park, home of the Pirates Single A, West Virginia Power franchise.

Every once in a while as time allows we pull off the highway to check out a side attraction.  These are the Leo Petroglyphs near Leo, Ohio.  They were carved into sandstone rocks about 700 years ago by the Fort Ancient Indian Culture.  Why do ancient drawings often look right out of ET or Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Petroglyph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ancient

Racking up the miles....Day 4 start in Cincy.

CINCY ho-hum.....Cards impressive, but, take the geography quiz.

Okay, here's another baseball & geography fun fact.  What river runs by the ball park in Cincy?  Come on, think.  I didn't know this.  It's the same one that passes near the ballpark in Pittsburgh.  Yep, the Ohio River.  So, here's the next question, does the river run from Pitts to Cincy or from Cincy to Pitts?  And, where does the Ohio begin and end?

Ok, baseball in Cincy doesn't quite make it.  The stadium is more like a 2010 version of Riverfront Stadium or the Vet than it is like Citizen's Bank, PNC Park or Camden Yards.  The color red everywhere and the place feels big.  Nothing homey here.  Outfield walls are high and deep, foul territory is wide, and the players a not fan friendly at all and neither is security or seating personnel.

Wyatt's ball/bat STREAK ended here.  Not many BP HR hitters with Cincy or St. Louis (Pujolis not included) and as mentioned the field just isn't hitter friendly.  They open that gates even later, here....5:45.  The only Red that reached out to fans was former Philly Scott Rolen (seen below).  He's come back to life this year.

Conclusion:  This is not a baseball town.  Look at the empty seats.  It was only 85% of capacity and this is Reds v. St. Louis.  They're in a pennant race.  It's 15 years since Cincy made the playoffs.  Where are the fans?  We picked-up a nice black, Reds' Joey Votto t-shirt.  Lesson learn:  go to ballparks (Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Citizen's Bank) with teams that have HR hitters and are know as hitter parks --- it makes for a better game and a more fun BP.   Be thankful if you live in, near, or root for a baseball town.  I'd go back to Pittsburgh for it's setting and fans and fun atmosphere but Cincy, eh.  Oh, St. Louis exploded for 7 in the 4th inning and won.

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How to get a game used bat!

Ok.  THE STREAK continues.  This is the 4th game used bat that Wyatt has gotten this YEAR!  It's not too hard to get one.  (1) You simply watch the game. (2)  Listen for that sound of a player hitting the ball and the bat being broken.  (3) Watch the bat boy run out, pick it up, examine the crack and head to the dug out.  (4) Your son or daughter asks you..."is that one broken?" (5) You answer, "yep."  (6)  In the ninth inning stand at the top of the stadium's, seating section, where the steps go down to the side of the dugout where the bat and helmet rack is located. (7)  At games end, have your kid jog down the steps to the first row and lean over into the dugout.  (8)  As the players grab the bats simply tell your child to say..."Hey, number 20" or if his name is on his uniform "hey Mitchell..." is there a broken bat I could please have?  BINGO!  You have a game used bat.  Most have some sort of player handwriting or manufacture notations on them not to mention lots of pine tar.

Check out this scoreboard....

.....and the score: 20-10.  It was ANOTHER 4 hour game.

 I like the old, 1920s, brick building in the background.  It is a lumber company.  Doesn't that just feel the way it should be:  brick, lumber, wooden bats, cowhide balls, leather gloves.....baseball IS the salt of the earth.

This is what makes the Minors fun!

Old time pros...Dayton played the West Michigan Whitecaps.  They are the Single A franchise of the Detroit Tigers, from just outside Grand Rapids near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  This is former Cincy Red, Luis Quinnones.

Up and comers...in the minors kids get to hang by the bullpen and even shoot the breeze with the players between innings.  Two of the players pictured here were playing NCAA college ball in May, were draft in June, shipped out to the Whitecaps, and now make bus trips thru the midwest, to sleepy, dusty towns like Dayton.  The dream of the big leagues is alive in their hearts.   Wyatt will often look at a player and ask me "do you think he's any good."  I always answer the same..."the kid is under contact to a major league baseball team, he's good enough for that!"

Sunday's Baseball Game

We fill the drives and days between MLB games with stops at minor league fields.  Sunday it was the Dayton Dragons.  They are the Single A franchise for the Cincy Reds.  Joey Votto passed thru here a few years ago.  It's a nice small stadium right out of Bull Durham.

OHIO history quiz and landmarks....

What is Zanesville Ohio known for?  Ready?  Ok, there's (1)  Zanesville Pottery and (2) -- this is a freaky connection......Zane Grey.  What is so freaky about that you might ask?  Well, while Zane Grey is best known as a writer of Western novels he also went to college where?  University of Pennsylvania.  How did he get there?  On  baseball scholarship!  Ask me about his pitching feats or check out Wikipedia.  And guess what....he actually played in one major league baseball game for.....the Pittsburgh Pirates.

We stopped by The Ohio State University.  It's main campus is in the mid-size city of Columbus, OH and borders an interstate highway on one side and parts of the inner city on the other.  We drove thru the football parking lot shouting We Are.....

Finally as we approached Dayton, Ohio for Sunday's baseball game we passed Wright Patterson Air Force Base name after the former WILBUR WRIGHT AIR FIELD and the home of the National Air Force Museum.  Oddly enough, it was Orville Wright who was born in Dayton.  Wilbur was born in Indiana.  Go figure.

How to survive Ohio.

You need a little help to survive a drive ACROSS the entire state of Ohio and at 11 cents a pop it's a lot cheaper than Starbucks!  Ohio is flat, boring, wide, straight.

NOTE TO SELF:  I can't wait until HE is old enough to drive!

Know your geography!

As you head west from PA what state to you enter?????  If you said West Virginia you are right!  Actually, the southwest border of PA is with, yep, WV.  You cross from PA into WV, head west to Wheeling, WV and cross the Ohio River into Ohio.  It's very hilly, and feels like a hill-billy kind of place, as if bluegrass should be on every radio station.  Wheeling seems like a Civil War town.  Does anyone know if it is?

SUNDAY MORNING START --- click on any photo to enlarge

Okay, here's the Sunday morning odometer reading.  As we headed west from the Pittsburgh area we got off the interstate to hit a Starbucks.  As we come off the exit ramp we see this sign....Collier Twp.  Boy it is a small world.  We played Collier Twp. in the Little League state finals.

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An added bonus

Little did we know it was a baseball, fireworks (remember the bridge photo) and rock-n-roll night.  Apparently they do this every August at PNC Park....it is a MARK YOUR CALENDAR Saturday night event.  Following the game (that lasted until 11:04 PM) out comes a stage and who shows up but George Thorogood and the Destroyers.  His blues  rockabilly is alive and well, and he can still do some fantastic guitar work.  It was HOT!  Bad to the Bone, Move it on Over,  It wasn't Me.  He'd play two songs, and then they would launch 5 minutes of out-of-this-world fireworks.  He'd play two more songs, and there'd be another 5 minutes of fireworks.  This back and forth explosive duel went on for 75 minutes.  They had fireworks launch from the field, from the bridge, from a barge on the river and from the roof top of one of the buildings.  It was great...we are coming again next August, who's joining us?!?!?!?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFZ4pt_-qtU&feature=fvw 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97-cCb_Lmg&feature=related

NICE SKYLINE....NICE GAME

4 hours and 4 minutes.  WHEW, that's how long this one lasted.  The first 5 innings were quite a pitchers duel.   For a team that doesn't hit many homers the Pirates took a 3-1 lead in the 6th on a smash by catcher Chris Snyder.   Later a blast by Garrett Jones gave them a 5-2 lead going to the ninth inning.  Rocky Ian Stewart sent a 3 run shot to deep left field to tie the score and into extra innings we went.  In the top of the tenth long time Rocky Todd Helton sent a ball way up into the RF bleachers for a 7-5 Colorado lead....out came the boos!  Pittsburgh got two runners on in the bottom of the tenth and with a full count -- two outs, Pedro Alvarez sent one into the Pittsburgh night as the Buccos won 8-7.   Forget about the lack of HRs in BP, they saved them for the game!  By the way, the Rockies kept their fan friendly ways and throughout the game they were tossing balls from the dugout to fans in the stands behind them.  You don't see that happen often anymore.

FOOD

Excellent beer and food selection at PNC Park....there are fewer concessions, and it's (ouch)  MORE expensive than Citizens Bank...but what's there is is good.  Here's a world famous Premanti Brothers sandwich...that's roast beef, cheese, tomato, coleslaw and french fries jammed between two thick slices of bread.  YUMMY!

The back story....on Wyatt's yellow T-shirt

In the course of time I have saved all kinds of baseball stuff including a ball from my 12 year old Little League championship game (in 19xx?) and numerous team photos from that childhood period.  Now, here's a secret nobody knows until now (after all, aren't blogs the perfect world for revealing secrets)?  That yellow t-shirt Wyatt is wearing is about 35 years old.  It was my father's coaches t-shirt from years after I was done with Little League but he was still involved.  He passed away when I was 23.  The t-shirt was simply one of those pieces of our relationship that for some reason I held onto.  It's lived in a chest of drawers, and went where I moved, for over 3 decades now.  In the last year Wyatt found it, the washing machine shrunk it, and he started to wear it.  It was a good color for a Pittsburgh game and the Pirates were my dad's favorite team.

THE STREAK continues !!!!!

While I was nursing a stinging right thumb from trying to do a barehanded catch of a BP home run ball Wyatt was three sections over in LEFT CENTER.  Ubaldo Jimenez signed his 3x5 autograph book and another Rocky tossed him a ball.  


For those of you who don't know THE STREAK.... for the past three years, attending close to 20 games, both minors and majors, every game we have been to Wyatt has gotten a ball, bat or won a few hundred in cash!  This includes games at Citizens Bank (Jason Werth ball), Fenway (Curtis Gunderson ball -- then with the visiting Tigers) and old Yankee Stadium a BP ball hit by former Yankee and now Rockie Jason Giambi.....plus minors such as the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals AA team), Hudson Valley Renegades (Single A for the Rays), Connecticut Defenders (AA for San Fran), York Revolution, and so on....