Thursday, June 26, 2014

Any excuse to visit Asheville is a good one

Next up on our tour of the South Atlantic League: the Asheville Tourists.

Observations from McCormick Field


Arrive early and wander around the Grove Park Inn, back up Charlotte Street on the other side of I-240. There is an amazing waterfall sequence, and you get free parking for the first three hours.

If you are still early, walk up -- seriously, straight up, altitudewise -- Buchanan Street beside the front entrance, go left on White Fawn Drive to a trail head to Beaucatcher Greenway. The path is cool and pleasant, though there are some mosquito critters. After you climb over a fallen tree, there is a trail back down to the left that leads to the employee parking lot for the stadium. Go up to the parking lot entrance to get back to the stadium front.

Go on Doggies at the Diamond night. I bet we saw 30 dogs, of all sizes and colors. The coolest was a huge white dog -- unknown breed -- with sunglasses pushed back on his forehead. Certain he weighed 180 lbs., we almost asked to ride him out to the parking lot. There was also a Newfoundland who accepted all the attention gracefully. Many of the dogs gathered to argue and play in the general admission area -- concrete benches where folks make their own nests with blankets and lawn chairs.

Lots of local beers available, plus there are the deep-fried Oreos and deep-fried Moon pies.

No Carolinas Connections - but several players on this team stood out as not fitting the Sally League mold of 19-year-olds who are 6-foot-2, 170 lbs. The Tourists have some older, bigger players. It was nice not to worry about their nutrition like I have some others. I felt sorry for the lefties, though -- they have a 36-foot fence in right, though it's only 297 feet from the plate. Still, not many dingers are going over that baby.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Drowned by the deluge

Observations from Rome, Ga.

The spicy alfredo sauce at the Bella Rosa Grill in the parking lot is worth the drive 40 miles north of Atlanta and 25 miles west.

The Braves' unique food offering: fried bologna sandwich at Bubba's BBQ Barn.

They charge $3 for programs, unlike most parks.

It was really all about this storm that rolled in twenty minutes before first pitch and drowned all of northwest Georgia (photo courtesy of Dalya Adams).


Braves Carolinas Connections

Pitcher Tyler Brosius - Waynesville, N.C. (Tuscola High)
Pitcher Colby Holmes - Conway (S.C.) High and South Carolina
Pitcher Matt Marksberry - Campbell

Augusta: Go to see the GreenJackets, stay for the pecan pie

Observations from Augusta, Ga.

Augusta isn't the southernmost team in the South Atlantic League, but it's the only one I've been to so far that serves pecan pie, so it may be the SouthernMost.

The 2013 (inaugural) Hall of Fame is Pablo Sandoval (San Francisco's Kung-Fu Panda) and Tim Wakefield, who played infield for Augusta and was advised he'd never get past Class AA, so he switching to pitching and developed a remarkable knuckleball.

$13 gets you a seat very close to the action, and with no parking fee, it's comparable to the other parks.

Baseball bingo is much harder than the usual sort: you check off boxes for home players achieving such feats as bunts, touching the warning track, and putouts. 

The less said about the fifth inning's grounds crew "Macarena," the better.

GreenJackets Carolinas Connections


Pitcher Jake Smith is from North Augusta, S.C. (his parents come across the river to attend most home games) and he also played at Campbell

Second baseman Will Callaway is from Taylors, S.C., and played at Appalachian State

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Three Dog Night in Greensboro

Observations from Greensboro

The Grasshoppers have a magnificent park in downtown Greensboro, with a truly endearing mascot named Guilford. But it was three labrador retrievers who caught nearly all of our attention on Friday night: Miss Babe Ruth, Miss Lou Lou Gehrig, and Master Yogi Berra.

Miss Babe Ruth is in likely her final season as a bat retriever for the Hoppers. She worked several innings at our game, either retrieving bats for the home team or delivering balls to the home plate umpire between innings (safely dry in a bucket). We rooted for Hoppers to get hits just so we could see her do her thing (hitters brought their own bats back to the dugout if they struck out).

Yogi's big moment was between innings when he retrieved a baseball launched into the outfield by one of those T-shirt cannons.

The other animal excitement came on the scoreboard. During rally moments, a video showed a chicken jumping several inches in the air, over and over. We were stumped for a few innings but finally realized it was A Hopper, as is most everything at the park. The usher said it does not have a name, so we proposed Hedda the Hopper.

Friday's game went crazy fast, finishing nine innings in 2:20. Even the extra innings (the game went 12) still had folks out close to 10 p.m. A base-running choice in the bottom of the ninth prevented a chance at a Hoppers win, and instead the game stayed tied until the 4-run boom in the top of the 12th.

This park (in its tenth season) leads the list of those I'll visit again. Maybe next time the family in front of us will stand up for their frequent concessions visits between innings instead of during at-bats …

Hoppers Carolinas Connections

Outfielder Kentrell Dewitt - Green Sea (S.C.) Floyds High and Southeastern Community College (Whiteville, N.C.)
Pitcher Josh Easley - N.C. State
Pitcher Brad Mincey - East Carolina
Pitcher Sean Townsley - High Point University