Play Ball!!

[susandennis]

I love minor league baseball.  The Tacoma Raniers are the AAA farm team of the Mariners.  Ann and I drove down there last night for a game and it was such fun.  I love the name of their program is The Dirt.  Our seats ($25 each) were 8 rows back between 3rd and home.  You could see the label on the batter's underwear.  They flung towels into the stands between innings and gave away prizes and the food was horrible and expensive and it was just so much fun.  It was the perfect night to go.  Not crowded and cool in our shady seats.

Major league farm teams step up from pony to single A to double A to triple A to the bigs.  Here's where it gets depressing.  Half of last night's team was made up of guys who had played for the Mariners and got demoted.  And the other half stunk.  If the Mariners are going to build their next few years from this crop, we are so totally doomed.  And they played like they could not wait to get home to their Nintendo games.  It was just horrible.  There was a home run or two and a line drive here or there but even those where pretty joyless.

Also it was very easy to see why the coaches and umpires were in the bigs yet either.  The strike zone was somewhere between toes and crotch.  The other team was the Marlins team from New Orleans.  Their third base coach put up the stop sign if any of their guys even thought about getting to 3rd base.  He would not let them run home even when they had so much time, *I* could have made it safely.  Until one inning when he finally waived the guy in and the guy was so stunned he literally stopped first and, of course, was then tagged out.

It was all just pretty funny and really sad.  Especially when you consider that now, after playing all Summer, they should really have this thing nailed.  

Week after next I'm meeting seattlejo up in Everett and we're going to an Everett Aquasox game which will be much more fun because they are a Single A team so no pressure plus their mascot is a frog.  Much better than the Raniers Raindeer...

Comments

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me. I heard about this book (http://www.amazon.com/Pitchers-Beer-Story-Seattle-Rainiers/dp/0803228473) earlier in the year and it sounded like much fun. I knew a little of the Emile Sick story from the year Jim Bouton spent with the Pilots in their converted Rainiers ballpark, but I've been meaning to catch up with the rest of it.

[susandennis]

neat!

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Our SSA team, the Brooklyn Cyclones, have a nicer (albeit smaller) stadium than the Mets (who they are a farm team for). There isn't a bad seat in the house; the tickets at field level are $16; the games are at a reasonable time; and I don't have to travel halfway across the city (taking over two hours) to go see a game. And, several times a season, a player from the Mets will join the team for an evening (Johan Santana was there on Sunday, but the group of friends I go with had gone to the Saturday game).

So, yeah, although the Mets will always have my heart (as they have since 1969 [I was a little late on the bandwagon]), I much prefer seeing the Cyclones at MCU Park, rather than paying "event seating" prices at Citi Field.

Oh, and our Mascots are Sandy the Seagull and PeeWee the Pigeon (Sandy is a seagull because he is the Brooklyn Seagull (a play on the "Brooklyn Eagle" which was a Brooklyn newspaper in the old days).

[susandennis]

You just can't beat minor league baseball for fun.

I was in college in 1969. My parents lived in Manhattan and my Mom was a rabid Mets fan. Mom got tickets to the world series and her girlfriend from San Diego came for the world series. They called me at school during every 7th inning with the score.

I wrote about her Mets adventures once a long time ago...

http://susandennis.livejournal.com/257701.html

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

No, you can't beat minor league baseball for fun.

Thanks for pointing me to the entry about your Mom and the 1969 World Series! My dad was working Security at Shea that year, and we got tix to the home games, including the Series, That's when I got hooked in to baseball. (My father was not a fan, but my mother was -- at least until the Dodgers left Brooklyn. She didn't watch another game until the 1986 playoffs.

[howeird]

Oh well. Tacoma sounds like they think they are important or something. $25 for a ticket? Highway robbery.

When I was rehearsing for a show in Everett, I passed by the Aquasox stadium every night. I would not have guessed that was a frog. Their web site looks very positive, they are hosting the all-stars next year.

I go to San Jose Giants now and then, lots of fun, Orchard Supply usually has free tickets available. They have a lot of events between innings, races for the kids, stuff for the adults too. And the team is usually in the playoffs. Not sure about food, I haven't eaten there.

[susandennis]

I was a season ticket holder for the San Jose Giants for the two summers I lived there. Section F for the WIN!!! It was amazing fun and I met a lot of really neat people there. (The food, then was excellent, actually.)

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Yes, one of the best things about minor league baseball is the fun they have between innings. We have the Beach Bums (pretty girls in skimpy outfits), King Henry, races, dance contests, tee-shirt tosses, and -- being a couple of blocks from Nathan's -- condiment races.