Baseball Road Trip Planning: Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #2: New York-Penn League and Lake George Roadtrip

Dates: July 5, 2009 through July 8, 2009
Primary Destination: Lake George Village, NY

Twitter Address: http://twitter.com/Wtriebel

Games Attended:

Game 1: Lowell Spinners vs. Staten Island Yankees, July 5th, 4:00PM, Richmond County Bank Park, Staten Island, NY
Game 2: Brooklyn Cyclones vs. Tri-City Valley Cats, July 6th, 11:00AM, Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, Troy, NY
Game 3: Staten Island Yankees vs. Hudson Valley Renegades, July 8th, 7:00PM, Dutchess Stadium, Wappingers Falls, NY.

Summary:

The New York-Penn league is a short-season, single A baseball league affiliated with Major League Baseball. Most of its teams are located in the Northeast with 10 of its 14 teams residing in the states of New York or Pennsylvania. A few teams are in other states, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Vermont. Here are some of the teams in the league:
Staten Island Yankees: affiliated with the New York Yankees
Brooklyn Cyclones: affiliated with the New York Mets
Williamsport Crosscutters: affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies
Lowell Spinners: affiliated with the Boston Red Sox
Aberdeen IronBirds: affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles

During this four day New York-Penn League and Lake George Roadtrip, we attended three baseball games; stayed in the vicinity of Lake George Village, NY for two nights; and had one extra day for vacationing in the Lake George area of the Adirondack Mountains. Lake George is approx. 60 miles from the metro Albany, NY area, which is home to the Houston Astos affiliate of the New York-Penn League: the Tri-City Valley Cats. During this roadtrip, we saw five New York-Penn League teams play: the Staten Island Yankees, Lowell Spinners, Tri-City Valley Cats, Brooklyn Cyclones, and Hudson Valley Renegades.

The first game, Lowell Spinners vs Staten Island Yankees at Staten Island, NY, was attended as a day trip from home in Wayne, NJ. On the other hand, the Valley Cats game was seen en-route to Lake George and the Renegades game as a stop on the return trip to NJ. As part of the twitter stream for the roadtrip, I provided a number of traveling tips, including stadium addresses, travel distances and times, and a potential en-route rest stop.

This roadtrip is an excellent combination vacation/baseball trip for people located in the metropolitan NYC area. The stadiums for the Tri-City Valley Cats and Hudson Valley Renegades are close to the New York Thruway. So the games can be attended without deviating significantly from the route between Northern NJ/NYC and Lake George. I have included tweets that suggest a wide range of lodging options in or around Lake George Village, places to dine out, and a variety of summer family entertainment attractions available in the Lake George Region of the Southern Adirondacks.

As for all Twittered Baseball Roadtrips, I have tweeted pregame information prior to the game, such as the record of the teams, their current standing in the league, and the starting pitchers. As part of the in-game activity, I tweeted the inning by inning score, highlights as runs are scored, and other in-game activity. After the game, post-game tweets give the winning team, final score, and sometime additional information.

For this Twittered Baseball Roadtrip, I outlined and tweeted information for a number of similar roadtips. They are designed for Yankee and Red Sox fans to see the Staten Island Yankees or Lowell Spinners, respectively, play away games against two other New York-Penn League teams on consecutive days. The dates and locations of the games were selected to enable them to be part of a vacation trip to the Lake George area of the Adirondacks. Lake George Village is centrally located to the stadiums where the Tri-City Valley Cats and Vermont Lake Monsters play.

Twitter Roadtrip Information:
Total Number of Tweets: 139
Time/Date of 1st Tweet: 12:02 PM Jul 3rd
Time/Date of 139st Tweet: 7:31 PM Jul 9th

Roadtrip Planning Resources:

The following are the web resources used for planning this NY-Penn League Baseball Roadtrip.

Official Website of the New York-Penn Baseball League: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=l127

Current Standings of the Teams in the New York-Penn League:
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_sta&lid=127&sid=l127

Official Websites of the Home Teams: