Random Thoughts From My Trip To Tri-City

I am officially on vacation so I don't plan to post a lot from my Tri-City trip this week. But I did want to leave you with a few random observations.

First of all, the staff at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, more casually known as "The Joe," was nothing short of amazing. Chris Chenes, Matt Appel and Brendan Phillips, in particular, literally formed a welcoming committee for me and helped me more than I probably deserved! Keep in mind that my first credentialed day at the park just happened to be the day that number one overall draft pick Mark Appel made his professional debut (here's my story on that in case you missed it). I know they had more important things to attend to than helping me out, but they did so with good humor and overwhelming grace.

And that was just the staff members whose names I learned. Everyone was simply wonderful, from the ushers to the vendors to those keeping the stadium running to Manager Ed Romero. And, of course, talking to the Tri-City super fans who I have interacted with on twitter and by email was a great deal of fun as well.

And The Joe itself is a very nice ballpark. The exterior is quite attractive, the outfield trees and landscaping give it a park-like feel and there's nothing quite like watching the sun set behind Adrian Houser on the mound.

I'm always interested in seeing how the players interact, who the cheerleaders are on the team and other such peripheral details. I didn't get a really good feel for many of the players because so many of them are brand new to me, but I did get this much ~

Zach Morton and Chan Moon are the clowns on the team. You can't stay in a bad mood around either of them. Unfortunately, I did not get video myself of Moon doing Gangnam Style, but I saw the video and it was an inspiring performance!

Zach Morton

Mike Martinez and Luis Alvarez appear to be the cheerleaders, the guys who keep the dugout loose and get people pumped up (or at least they were trying very hard to do so).

Mike Martinez and Luis Alvarez

And Thomas Lindauer can seriously crush sunflower seeds. He puts them away. Actually, there may need to be an intervention at some point because I think he may actually be a sunflower seed addict.

Who stood out on the field? Michael Feliz impressed me to no end. He was routinely hitting mid-90's with his fastball and he made it look effortless. Several other pitchers looked great as well, including Andrew Thurman, Adrian Houser and Kyle Westwood. I hardly recognized Houser; he has really filled out and is definitely not a teenager anymore. Everyone was solid defensively, but I saw some excellent plays from Tony Kemp, Ronnie Mitchell and James Ramsay in particular. Offensively, they were a bit inconsistent in the games I saw and no one really stood out for me except I can say that Mike Martinez can seriously crush a ball when he gets a hold of one and Tony Kemp is blazingly fast on the basepaths.

Seeing Vince Coleman work with the outfielders the last day was a special treat. I hope to post some video on that at some point. In addition, I will have interviews with Tony Kemp, Ronnie Mitchell and Andrew Thurman coming out, but I'm going to try not to kill myself on vacation so those may not come out until next week.

If you're going to auction off jerseys for charity (American Cancer Society), why not make them attractive? I probably would have bid on one, but I didn't see the point since I would have to keep it in a lead-lined box away from my retinas.



One final observation. As I was waiting on the field for the game to begin, trying to get some candid player photos, I glanced into the dugout and saw a very hot and very tired looking Southpaw resting in a chair with his head in his lap. I could have taken a photo and totally outed Southpaw, but that isn't my style. The mystery of Southpaw shall remain a mystery. But it occurred to me that the man inside the mascot costume must really love baseball and people and just being around the game in order to put on that hot, most likely smelly, costume in mid-90's heat and humidity and go out and bust his tail to entertain people. But even Southpaw needs to take a break.

Similarly, as much as I love baseball and people and being around the game, I am metaphorically taking off my head for the rest of the week and getting out of the sun and the heat and the humidity and the stinky clothes. I will still bring you recaps and birthdays and tweets of the day, but this blogger is taking a much needed vacation to recharge and reinvigorate before I put the head back on and go out and try to entertain you for the rest of the season. Thank you for your indulgence. If you need me, I'll be sitting on this porch in the middle of nowhere, contemplating my navel.



Thanks again to Chris Chenes in particular for making my trip very enjoyable and very memorable.