It's All Fun & Games; Until Someone Gets Hit By a Pitch

Without getting into too many details, these two teams must have a little history. Bottom of the first no outs and they plunk the York batter. He spins and ends up nose to nose with the catcher, then it was go time. The players poured across the railing and converged on home. The Pitcher and the hit batsman both, eventually headed for the showers after a 20 discussion by the skippers. Next batter settled the disagreement with a 4 run homer, aka a grand slam. This would be the only runs by the home team and 4 runs by Newark sent the game through to the 11th when the Bears got two more to finish up the night.

York Revolution Baseball

Add another stadium to the list. Sovereign Bank Stadium in York, Pa. is the home of the independent Atlantic League York Revolution. (hollered as "rev-a-lu-SHUN!"). The entrance to the stadium is named for former Baltimore Oriole and Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson whose professional baseball career started with the York White Roses in 1955 at the age of 18, his contract was later sold to the Orioles. A statue out front shows Brooks signing autographs for some children. I was offered skybox tickets to York just a day after going to an Orioles game. Heck yeah I went. All you can eat and drink and padded seats, heck yeah I went. The stadium, built just a couple years after Lancaster built theirs, is very similar, open concourse, outfield lawn seats and right and left field seat turned to face home plate. the Rev's played the Newark Bears this night, eventually losing in the 11th inning. The independent leagues seem to be full of washed up big leaguers and never been minor leaguers. York was managed by Chris Hoiles, former Oriole catcher and Newark's skipper was Tim "the Rock" Raines, Sr. York was mascoted by that blue and green thing, Downtown. One characteristic of the park is the green wall in left field, known as the Arch Nemesis, it is the tallest wall in baseball at 37 feet 8 inches. More on the game later.

Battle of the Beltway, Post No. 800

First off this is post 800, thanks for coming around day after day. I don't know why but it never gets any easier, I guess I keep trying to get you all something new and fresh to look at the same thing. Anyways, I made another O's game already, this time they were hosting the Washington Nationals. The give-away was a Nick Markakis t-shirt. I don't know if it was the shirts or the Nats coming the short hop up the Beltway but when we got to the stadium the lines were around the block. I dropped off the wife and kids and headed up the street to the parking garage. By the time I got back to the stadium the shirts were gone. I guess with only 10,000 shirts and 39,633 fans I wasn't the only one without a shirt. We did get 3, so we're set. Like I said, it was a full house. After a shaky start by Jeremy Guthrie, the O's starter, (2 hits and 3 walks in the top of the 1st) and thanks to long balls by Zaun, Reimold and Huff the Birds celebrated another victory. The Nationals brought along their mascot, Screech, who played a little wiffle ball with the Oriole's Bird. Also there last Saturday was Matt Hobgood, Baltimore's first round draft pick (5th overall). Matt, a right handed pitcher out of Norco, California High School came to terms with the team last week and is ready to play.

Baltimore Orioles Vs. New York Mets

Dateline Baltimore, Maryland... Bobblehead night leads to an O's win... film at eleven. That's right, my first visit to Charm City to watch my Orioles play turned out pretty good. Although we didn't get there until the 3rd inning we got to watch some fun baseball. In town that evening were the New York Mets in an interleague matchup. Pitching for the O's... Koji Uehara (picture no. 2) his opponent, Tim Redding. Koji did a good job but didn't go deep into the game, most nights he doesn't. But this evening the bullpen held up it's end of the deal. And finally it was time for the closer, George Sherrill (picture no. 4). George made quick work of the top of the ninth, without his usual loading the bases with no outs and then striking out three in a row. Picture no. 1 is just my obligatory field overview shot. Isn't it a beautiful site to spent your evening staring into? Picture no. 3 shows the O's right fielder Nick Markakis taking a lead off first and the Mets first baseman, Daniel Murphy, trying to hold him close. Picture no. 5 is the Bird celebrating the win and the last picture show Catcher Matt Weiters, just up from AAA, cleaning up a shaving cream pie in the face. Matt hit his first big league homer in the 2nd inning while we were still outside the park. I think Amber Theoharris (the interviewer) made it through without getting any shaving cream on herself. Excuse the lack of sharpness on some of these pictures, my seats were way up there. At least we had some roof over our heads when it showered a couple times.

Harrisburg Senators Baseball

More pictures from the Harrisburg Senators game back in May. This was my first visit this year, they were playing the Bowie Baysox (Baltimore's AA team) and managed to pull off a win. This was also the opening night of the new boardwalk that has been added to the outfield. Really nice and a new way to view the Senators. We sat in the Ollie's Cheap Seats, during batting practice two ball were hit very close to us. (Note to self... bring a glove next time) Also, there are new seats under the scoreboard, I mean the new HUGE scoreboard. Next year the infield seating bowl will be redone with new individual seats. No more hot aluminum bleachers. To top the night off it was Rascal's birthday. Rascal was joined by, maybe, a dozen other mascots some I had never seen before. And finally they changed the name of the ballpark from Commerce Bank Park to Metro Bank Park. It use to be Riverside Stadium, I still find myself calling it that.

Cedar Waxwing

I don't know if it's boredom or having the camera but I have been seeing new birds right and left. Had I ever seen a Cedar Waxwing before? I don't know. But within a short couple of weeks I have been literally seeing them all over the place. I've read that if you see one you'll see a whole bunch. Well, I've seen one and I've seen a whole bunch. I've heard they are mainly fruit eaters, a flock will move in a bare a tree of fruit. I've seen them sitting in a cherry tree eating fruit. And I've heard that earlier in spring they will eat flying bugs. I've seen them swooping over the ponds along with the Kingbirds and Swallows. So here I present you the Cedar Waxwing, named, so I've heard, for the red "dipped in wax" tip on their wings.

Bird Walk 6/21

This is shots of most of the birds I saw on my Father's Day walk around Wildwood Lake. I had parked at the main building, figuring that I would stop by the feeders when I got back. I didn't know how long the trail was but I took a short loop on a boardwalk out into the cattails. That is where the first two pictures came from, a Song Sparrow and a male Red-Winged Blackbird. Then I hit the Eastern Shore Trail headed north. Along the way I saw several Wood Thrushes but they were just passing through and I didn't get pictures. I did managed pictures of the Blue Heron and the Great Egret. Then at the northern tip of the trail I found the third bird, a female Red-Winged Blackbird and the last bird, which I believe is a female of juvenile Tree Swallow (correct me if I'm wrong with that one). And finally when I hit the western side of the lake, it seemed that this was the side everyone used, I saw a sign that said "Start Here 3.1 miles", I little longer than I thought. Along this side of the lake is where I found the Black-Crowned Night Heron saw the Green Heron and lots of these Tree Swallows (picture 6). I also saw plenty of other critters that I'll share later, next week is baseball week. Remember posting will be sporadic unless Blogger fixes the scheduled posting problems. I have all week ready to go and will check it from time to time so you may get two posts in one day if this problem persists.