On the way back from my travels to Buffalo for the Phi Kappa Psi Woodrow Wilson Leadership School, I wanted to stop for a game and break up the drive and visits an old friend. A quick three hours from Buffalo is Youngstown, Ohio.
Outside of Youngstown is Niles, Ohio, home of Eastwood Field and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the New York-Penn League. The Scrappers are the short-season single A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians and they were taking on the Jamestown Jammers, affiliate of the Florida Marlins.
You may notice that the price of my ticket was free. Evan Bentley, one of the Phi Psi's in the chapter where I am an advisor was already planning on going to the game when I told him my plans to also attend. He told me his friend from high school was interning there and could get us some complimentary tickets, which was pretty sweet. Unfortunately he left us five and we had six in our group. I sent the guys in and Craig and I stood in line and waited to buy a single ticket. I am not sure if it was because of the Fathers Day crowd, but the ticket sellers were completely swamped and Craig and I did not enter the game until the bottom of the third inning, but at least we got the chance to chat baseball and listen to the sounds of the game. Our only concern was that they might sellout before we got to the front of the line, alas we entered and there were still good seats available.
View from behind home plate. The view here kind of hides the fact that this park is located behind a shopping center and the opposite direction is a sea of parking lots and big box stores and movie theaters.
Decent crowd out with dad on Fathers Day. The short season A teams just started and this was only the Scrappers third game of the season.
View from the party deck in right field. picnic tables down the lines are a pretty standard site at minor league games. So is the ability to stroll around the park and soak it all in.
View from our seats looking down the first base line and towards the right field party deck.
The Jammers at bat.
Action shot without a lot of action. The Scrappers played tough outside of a couple air-mailed throws from the shortstop to the first baseman. Apparently the shortstop though the first baseman was Yao Ming and 7'4".
I think this is my new favorite player. Lurvin Basabe. He may or may not ever make it big time, but is name is a classic.
Eastwood Field actually has a little one room museum with some team memorabilia and a framed proclamation from their US Representative. This was a first on my tour and a unique addition.
This is pretty much a single A staple, the dry erase board with league stats, displayed somewhere in the ballpark.
Scrappy the Scrapper was a huge hit with the children. Here he is breaking it down on the visitors dugout. Sadly we were not at a Jammers home game as their mascot is Bubba Grape, the Baseball Ape. I think we can all agree that is probably something to see.
Signature food at the park was probably the Handels Ice Cream. Those familiar with Youngstown, Ohio are familiar with Handels ice cream. I opted for the cotton candy flavored ice cream in a cone, and devoured it before I could snap a picture. Take my word for it, it was good.
"Sir, could you please stop playing with the merchandise" and "No, you don't look like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine"
My first walk-off! It took until the 10th game of the summer, but I witnessed my first walk-off. I had almost decided to leave prior to the 9th inning as we still had a long drive back to Chicago ahead of us, but I felt compelled to stay. About as I said we were not staying for extra innings, the Scrappers lofted a sacrifice fly to left field that plated the only run of the day.
Scrappers Win! Scrappers Win! Scrappers Win!
Myself and Craig Rossi. Craig is a Phi Psi alumnus from the University of Dayton and is actually originally from the Warren area. However, I did not realize he had recently relocated to Cleveland, so big props to Craiggers for making the trek back to Niles. Plus I am sure his dad appreciated the visit on Fathers Day. I also want to thank Craig ahead of time for getting married later this summer and providing a good reason for me to travel and hit two other minor league games. That's Craig, always the giver, unless it is 3:00 a.m. in New Orleans and you are in a cab looking for cajun meatloaf, but that's another story.
Chris DeMarchi, Evan Bentley, Chris Hammer, Drew Turro in the Front row and myself and Craig Rossi in the second row made up the attendees.
Mahoning Valley Scrappers road hat. The girl at the counter told me the wrong hat, as I always double check. I wish I had gotten the home hat as it is pretty unique as shown below, although the maroon hat is a welcome change from the many black and blue hats I have already picked up.
Outside of Youngstown is Niles, Ohio, home of Eastwood Field and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the New York-Penn League. The Scrappers are the short-season single A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians and they were taking on the Jamestown Jammers, affiliate of the Florida Marlins.
You may notice that the price of my ticket was free. Evan Bentley, one of the Phi Psi's in the chapter where I am an advisor was already planning on going to the game when I told him my plans to also attend. He told me his friend from high school was interning there and could get us some complimentary tickets, which was pretty sweet. Unfortunately he left us five and we had six in our group. I sent the guys in and Craig and I stood in line and waited to buy a single ticket. I am not sure if it was because of the Fathers Day crowd, but the ticket sellers were completely swamped and Craig and I did not enter the game until the bottom of the third inning, but at least we got the chance to chat baseball and listen to the sounds of the game. Our only concern was that they might sellout before we got to the front of the line, alas we entered and there were still good seats available.
View from behind home plate. The view here kind of hides the fact that this park is located behind a shopping center and the opposite direction is a sea of parking lots and big box stores and movie theaters.
Decent crowd out with dad on Fathers Day. The short season A teams just started and this was only the Scrappers third game of the season.
View from the party deck in right field. picnic tables down the lines are a pretty standard site at minor league games. So is the ability to stroll around the park and soak it all in.
View from our seats looking down the first base line and towards the right field party deck.
The Jammers at bat.
Action shot without a lot of action. The Scrappers played tough outside of a couple air-mailed throws from the shortstop to the first baseman. Apparently the shortstop though the first baseman was Yao Ming and 7'4".
I think this is my new favorite player. Lurvin Basabe. He may or may not ever make it big time, but is name is a classic.
Eastwood Field actually has a little one room museum with some team memorabilia and a framed proclamation from their US Representative. This was a first on my tour and a unique addition.
This is pretty much a single A staple, the dry erase board with league stats, displayed somewhere in the ballpark.
Scrappy the Scrapper was a huge hit with the children. Here he is breaking it down on the visitors dugout. Sadly we were not at a Jammers home game as their mascot is Bubba Grape, the Baseball Ape. I think we can all agree that is probably something to see.
Signature food at the park was probably the Handels Ice Cream. Those familiar with Youngstown, Ohio are familiar with Handels ice cream. I opted for the cotton candy flavored ice cream in a cone, and devoured it before I could snap a picture. Take my word for it, it was good.
"Sir, could you please stop playing with the merchandise" and "No, you don't look like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine"
My first walk-off! It took until the 10th game of the summer, but I witnessed my first walk-off. I had almost decided to leave prior to the 9th inning as we still had a long drive back to Chicago ahead of us, but I felt compelled to stay. About as I said we were not staying for extra innings, the Scrappers lofted a sacrifice fly to left field that plated the only run of the day.
Scrappers Win! Scrappers Win! Scrappers Win!
Myself and Craig Rossi. Craig is a Phi Psi alumnus from the University of Dayton and is actually originally from the Warren area. However, I did not realize he had recently relocated to Cleveland, so big props to Craiggers for making the trek back to Niles. Plus I am sure his dad appreciated the visit on Fathers Day. I also want to thank Craig ahead of time for getting married later this summer and providing a good reason for me to travel and hit two other minor league games. That's Craig, always the giver, unless it is 3:00 a.m. in New Orleans and you are in a cab looking for cajun meatloaf, but that's another story.
Chris DeMarchi, Evan Bentley, Chris Hammer, Drew Turro in the Front row and myself and Craig Rossi in the second row made up the attendees.
Mahoning Valley Scrappers road hat. The girl at the counter told me the wrong hat, as I always double check. I wish I had gotten the home hat as it is pretty unique as shown below, although the maroon hat is a welcome change from the many black and blue hats I have already picked up.
1 comments:
What a ridiculous home hat. Too bad you didn't score one of those.
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