The Gateway Grizzlies are looking to regain the "Minor League Concession of the Year" award next year by offering "The Beast". The Beast includes 15 black angus burgers for starters. Looks like a trip to see the Grizzlies might have to go on the calendar.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34378458
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
08.13.09 #23 Gary Railcats vs. Winnipeg Goldeneyes
I finally have made it to a game in Gary, the home of the Northern League's Gary Southshore Railcats. I have driven by this stadium more times than I can count on my travels on the Indiana Tollroad. I have always thought the stadium looked like a really nice ballpark and I must say, my visit did not disappoint.
My visit started off by picking up a complimentary ticket at the box office and being admitted to the park early. It pays to know people. The ticket even had my name printed on it, that's a first of the summer.
Let me back up a minute. This picture is of me and Bryan Van Den Bosch. Bryan is a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brother of mine and is a senior at Valparaiso. He also happens to be interning with the Railcats and hooked me up for the evening. While on vacation a few weeks earlier, Bryan texted me with an offer to throw out the first pitch when I came to the game. He had already lined this up with the GM and completely surprised me with the offer. Seeing as I had thrown a last pitch already in St. Paul, I jumped at the opportunity to throw a first pitch. In addition to the pitch, Bryan offered to give me a tour of the ballpark if I got there early on game day. Must say an office tour is pretty cool when your office is a ballpark.
We headed up to the suites and took a look in most of them and Bryan gave me all the details on the options. Seems like he has been paying attention to the sales staff this summer.
Then me headed up to the PA booth. The booths here were more spacious than those at my last ballpark tour, Wrigley Field.
We headed down to the home team dugout while the visitors were finishing batting practice.
A rack of batting helmets. Notice the minor league standard helmet with the double ear flaps. I assume this is due to not everyone having an individual helmet and the need to be flexible, or maybe every guy on the team is a switch hitter.
The view from center field. It was nice strolling around the park during batting practice. This was actually the first game where I got there early enough to take in batting practice and the relative calm of the park before the festivities involved in the game begin to take place.
During the tour Bryan told me about the scoreboard and how if you look closely at the second "E" in Steel Yard you can see where two balls have busted the "E". Christian Guerrero, Vlad's cousin is responsible for both of them. As you can also see, they scrolled my name across the board several times during the game. Kind of cool.
The tour continued and then Bryan had to get back to work. The promotion of the day was the Railcats own Stimulus Plan. They gave away envelopes of money to the first 1,000 fans ranging from $1 to $1,000. I headed out of the park to meet more friends and get in line for the chance at $1,000. Sadly when I opened my envelope, I only got $1. However, that was enough to buy half a beer since they were only $2.
As it got closer to game time, I had to head down to the field to throw out the pitch. Little did I know it was Valparaiso night at the park. I mingled with a couple other people throwing pitches and waited for my turn. I was going third out of four. As I was getting ready to walk out to the mound the on field announcer warned me to wait until he ready the whole blurb about me. Apparently Bryan wrote up a paragraph or two about my summer trip for the announcer.
Without further ado, here is the first pitch at for the Gary Railcats game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Eh_xHBQVY
People in the crowd claimed it may have been a little bit short, but I personally am experiencing a bit of short term memory loss and can't recall the exact moment as I was overcome with emotion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArE-8Nq6dPg
My dear friend Jeremy Swindle giving a little post pitch commentary. With friends like this who needs critics.
Oh Canada! The US and Canadian national anthems were both played as a Canadian team was visiting today.
Here's the view from our seats. Like most minor league ballparks, there is probably not a bad seat in the whole park.
View from behind home plate during batting practice. I-80, the Indiana Tollroad runs right beyond left field with US Steel on the other side of the highway.
This is the most unique set-up I have seen for the radar gun. They have it mounted to the top of a bat.
Rusty
Rascal
Christian Guerrero in the on deck circle.
Guerrero at bat. We did not see him hit the scoreboard tonight, although we did see the Railcats win 6-2 and move into a tie for first place.
Attendees:
Front Row: Angela Baker, Officer Dave Byers, Jeremy Swindle, Jason Holy, Greg Mack
Back Row: Kevin Marks, Olivia Dumas, Marc Dumas, Daren Ellefson
The team hat and lucky me, it was 30% off all hats that day. What a deal.
My visit started off by picking up a complimentary ticket at the box office and being admitted to the park early. It pays to know people. The ticket even had my name printed on it, that's a first of the summer.
Let me back up a minute. This picture is of me and Bryan Van Den Bosch. Bryan is a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brother of mine and is a senior at Valparaiso. He also happens to be interning with the Railcats and hooked me up for the evening. While on vacation a few weeks earlier, Bryan texted me with an offer to throw out the first pitch when I came to the game. He had already lined this up with the GM and completely surprised me with the offer. Seeing as I had thrown a last pitch already in St. Paul, I jumped at the opportunity to throw a first pitch. In addition to the pitch, Bryan offered to give me a tour of the ballpark if I got there early on game day. Must say an office tour is pretty cool when your office is a ballpark.
We headed up to the suites and took a look in most of them and Bryan gave me all the details on the options. Seems like he has been paying attention to the sales staff this summer.
Then me headed up to the PA booth. The booths here were more spacious than those at my last ballpark tour, Wrigley Field.
We headed down to the home team dugout while the visitors were finishing batting practice.
A rack of batting helmets. Notice the minor league standard helmet with the double ear flaps. I assume this is due to not everyone having an individual helmet and the need to be flexible, or maybe every guy on the team is a switch hitter.
The view from center field. It was nice strolling around the park during batting practice. This was actually the first game where I got there early enough to take in batting practice and the relative calm of the park before the festivities involved in the game begin to take place.
During the tour Bryan told me about the scoreboard and how if you look closely at the second "E" in Steel Yard you can see where two balls have busted the "E". Christian Guerrero, Vlad's cousin is responsible for both of them. As you can also see, they scrolled my name across the board several times during the game. Kind of cool.
The tour continued and then Bryan had to get back to work. The promotion of the day was the Railcats own Stimulus Plan. They gave away envelopes of money to the first 1,000 fans ranging from $1 to $1,000. I headed out of the park to meet more friends and get in line for the chance at $1,000. Sadly when I opened my envelope, I only got $1. However, that was enough to buy half a beer since they were only $2.
As it got closer to game time, I had to head down to the field to throw out the pitch. Little did I know it was Valparaiso night at the park. I mingled with a couple other people throwing pitches and waited for my turn. I was going third out of four. As I was getting ready to walk out to the mound the on field announcer warned me to wait until he ready the whole blurb about me. Apparently Bryan wrote up a paragraph or two about my summer trip for the announcer.
Without further ado, here is the first pitch at for the Gary Railcats game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Eh_xHBQVY
People in the crowd claimed it may have been a little bit short, but I personally am experiencing a bit of short term memory loss and can't recall the exact moment as I was overcome with emotion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArE-8Nq6dPg
My dear friend Jeremy Swindle giving a little post pitch commentary. With friends like this who needs critics.
Oh Canada! The US and Canadian national anthems were both played as a Canadian team was visiting today.
Here's the view from our seats. Like most minor league ballparks, there is probably not a bad seat in the whole park.
View from behind home plate during batting practice. I-80, the Indiana Tollroad runs right beyond left field with US Steel on the other side of the highway.
This is the most unique set-up I have seen for the radar gun. They have it mounted to the top of a bat.
Rusty
Rascal
Christian Guerrero in the on deck circle.
Guerrero at bat. We did not see him hit the scoreboard tonight, although we did see the Railcats win 6-2 and move into a tie for first place.
Attendees:Front Row: Angela Baker, Officer Dave Byers, Jeremy Swindle, Jason Holy, Greg Mack
Back Row: Kevin Marks, Olivia Dumas, Marc Dumas, Daren Ellefson
The team hat and lucky me, it was 30% off all hats that day. What a deal.I must say this was a great game and I want to really thank Bryan for making all the arrangements and showing me around. If you have a chance to catch the Railcats in the playoffs, do so.
Finally, I am not sure what this has to do with the minor league team, but apparently it was inundated with visitors after the King of Gary died. This monument is in the right field corner near the world's largest Bennigan's Restaurant which looks over the field from the right field corner.
Monday, August 10, 2009
08.09.09 #22 Iowa Cubs vs. Las Vegas 51s
Time for another first of the summer. A minor league game in a major league park. Although with the way the Cubs have fallen off the map and the number of guys called up from triple A, some might argue the Cubs are playing minor league ball already at Wrigley.
2009 Road to Wrigley. This is the second year that Wrigley Field has hosted one of the Cubs farm teams for a game. Last year, the single A Peoria Chiefs, this year, the triple A Iowa Cubs.
The Iowa Cubs are obviously an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs and once you look at the uniforms, one would assume the Las Vegas 51s are a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate, but they actually justed switched affiliation to the Toronto Blue Jays and have not yet changed their branding and uniforms. That change will come for next season and will be the result of a fan naming contest. The 51s are rumored to be no more after this season.
The players line up for the national anthem under the blazing sun. One of the few days this summer that saw temperatures above 90 degrees out. I really picked a great weekend for the Marks boys to taken in a coupe of baseball games. The night before we caught the Chicago White Sox hosting the Cleveland Indians.
Looks like the Cubs on the mound, however close examination shows the added Iowa in the logos.
The Dodgers, I mean 51s at bat. Full extension and some early hits for the visitors.
As this game was kind of a big deal, they pulled out some extra stops. First extra was the appearance of Birdzerk. This was my second Birdzerk sighting of the summer.
51's taking the bump.
Recently demoted Micah Hoffpaiur at the plate. Sadly for Micah there just was not room on the big league roster at this point. I am sure he will be back up for September call-ups though.
Iowa Cubs scoring early.
Not sure what B-Bops is, but it must mean something to those die-hard Iowa Cubs fans. The B-Bop Burger race is the poor man's Sausage race.
Rounding second base on a home run trot.
Time to hit the showers.
Besides Birdzerk, Harry Canary joined the game for the 7th inning stretch. There was also a Clammy Sosa sighting between innings.
Final Score - Iowa Cubs 5 Las Vegas 51's 4. Iowa Cubs Win, Iowa Cubs Win, Iowa Cubs Win.
The Marks boys at our now 3rd annual baseball game. Kevin Marks, Andy Morris, Dan Marks, John Marks.
For those keeping score at home this was only the second game I have not gotten a hat. The first was the Frontier League All-Star game because they had not specific hat. This game however, I looked all over the stadium and could not find an Iowa Cubs hat. May have to end up buying one online to complete the eventual display of hats when I decide what to do with them all.
Monday, August 3, 2009
08.03.09 KCRG's Matt Nelson and his ballpark tour
Little change of pace here. After returning from a weekend away from baseball and e-mail, I was greeted by an e-mail with the subject line "Ballparks" from Matt Nelson. Not knowing a Matt Nelson, I was intrigued. Turns out Matt Nelson works for KCRG-TV in Iowa City and has gotten the task of a Midwest League ballpark tour stretching over this year and next. Basically he is getting paid to do what I have been doing on my own this summer. He stumbled across my website and clearly is in awe (I might have made the in awe part up). Matt provides additional insight, pictures and video from some of the Midwest League ballparks I have been to or plan to still visit, although I don't see any evidence where he has thrown out a Ceremonial Last Pitch. If you can't get enough minor league baseball from my site, feel free to check out Matt's tour.
You can find Matt's video reports at: www.kcrg.com/sports/ballparks
Matt's blog can be found at: http://kcrgballparksofthemwl.wordpress.com/
You can find Matt's video reports at: www.kcrg.com/sports/ballparks
Matt's blog can be found at: http://kcrgballparksofthemwl.wordpress.com/
Thursday, July 30, 2009
07.29.09 #21 Schaumburg Flyers vs Fargo-Morehead Redhawks
After the softball exhibition, I felt I needed to also see a regular game at Alexian Field, so I headed out to see the Schaumburg Flyers take on the Fargo-Morehead Redhawks of the Northern League.
The same random mascots of Bearon the Bear, Orange Man and Bat Girl joined in for some more fun.
The managers take to the field to turn in their line-up cards. Only a few days later this same league erupted in a melee when Fargo-Morehead's Manager Doug Simunic traded punches with the Winnipeg manger. Tonight's game was more more subdued.
Sitting close and the park is not nearly as full as the softball exhibition gimmick.
Flyers pitching.
Redhawks pitching.
Flyers batting
Flyers scoring.
Whoa! A Randall Simon sighting. Sausage race participants everywhere are taking cover and hiding from this known abuser of sausages.
Great sky framing this picture from behind home plate as twilight gives way to evening.
Sitting close.
The Rick. Actually did not respond to questions of if he was "The Rick" from the ESPN commercials. Guessing he hears that way too much and finds no humor in it. Oh well, its nice to heckle the visitors.
Hang from this Velcro and get hit by a home run and win a car. No luck tonight.
Sky was really putting on a show tonight.
Northern League standings.
Attendees: Daren Ellefson, Jason Holy and myself.
All games are actually broadcast on AM 1410, who knew.
Flyers hat, repeat performance from Monday night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
