Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #5: 2009 Atlantic League Playoffs

Date: September 24, 2009 through October 4, 2009

Primary Destinations: Day trips to Bridgewater, NJ and Newark, NJ

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

Games Attended and Tweeted on Twitter Marked with an *:

Freedom Division Championship Series

Game 1*: Newark Bears vs. Somerset Patriots, Sept. 24^th, 7:05PM, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ

Game 2*: Newark Bears vs. Somerset Patriots, Sept. 25^th, 7:05PM, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ

Game 3*: Somerset Patriots vs. Newark Bears, Sept. 26^th, 7:05PM, Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, Newark, NJ

Game 4: . Somerset Patriots vs. Newark Bears, Sept 27^th, 1:05PM, Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, Newark, NJ

Atlantic League Championship Series

Game 1*: Southern Maryland Blue Crabs vs. Somerset Patriots, Oct. 1^st, 7:05AM, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ

Game 2*: Southern Maryland Blue Crabs vs. Somerset Patriots, Oct. 2^nd, 7:05AM, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ

Game 3: Somerset Patriots vs. Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Oct. 3^rd, 6:35PM at Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf, MD

Game 4: Somerset Patriots vs. Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Oct. 4^th, 2:05PM at Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf, MD

Summary:

This is the second consecutive Twittered Roadtrip to see play of Atlantic League baseball teams. Differing from the last trip, this roadtrip follows play of the leagues 2009 playoffs series. The eight teams of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball are partitioned into two, four team divisions: the Freedom Division and the Liberty Division. The leagues 140 game regular season is split into two 70 game half seasons and the winners of 1^st half and 2^nd half of the season meet in the post season to determine division champion. The winners of the Division Championship Series play each other in an Atlantic League Championship Series.

The first part of the roadtrip attends games of the Freedom Division Championship Series, which is a best-of-five series of games between the Newark Bears and the Somerset Patriots. Actually, the Somerset Patriots won both the first half and second half seasons. Because of this, the leagues playoff rules state that their opponent in the divisional playoff is a “Wild Card” team. The team chosen as the Wild Card representative is the one with the next best full season Won/Loss record. The Newark Bears, with a 2009 full season record of 74W and 66L, qualified as the wild card team for the Freedom Division.

The Freedom Division Championship Series lasted 4 games and was won by the Patriots, managed by major league relief pitcher and 1977 Cy Young award recipient Sparky Lyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparky_Lyle). The manager of the losing Newark Bears is Tim Raines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Raines), 7 times All-Star and member of the New York Yankees 1996 and 1998 World Series Champion teams. .

I was only able to attend and tweet: travel details, pregame information, in-game play, and post game results for the first three of these games. To attend these games, I made two day trips from my home in Wayne, NJ to the Patriots home stadium, TD Bank Ballpark, Bridgewater, NJ and one to the Bears ballpark, Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, Newark, NJ. I also tweeted post game results for Game 4, the one that I did not attend.

Summary of Freedom Division Series Results: Somerset wins 3 games to 1

Game 1: 9/24/2009

Newark

0 R 2 H 3 E

LP: Williamson

HR: None

Somerset

2 R 3 H 0 E

WP: Magrane, SV: Minix

HR: None

Game 2: 9/25/2009

Newark

0 R 4 H 1 E

LP: Hess

HR: None

Somerset

5 R 3 H 0 E

WP: Kirsten

HR: None

Game 3: 9/26/2009

Somerset

12 R 11 H 1 E

LP: Prinz

HR: Hagen, Ayala

Newark

13 R 17 H 1 E

WP: Thorpe

HR: Jimerson

Game 4: 9/27/2009

Somerset

8 R 9 H 1 E

WP: Adams

HR: Smith

Newark

3 R 9 H 3 E

LP: Santos

HR: Otanez, Hernandez

During the second part of the roadtrip, I attended games of the Atlantic League Championship Series between the Freedom Division Champion Somerset Patriots and the Liberty Division Champion Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. This round of the playoffs is also a best-of-five series with the first two games schedule at the Patriots home stadium in NJ and the last three at the Blue Crabs home, Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, MD. The Blue Crabs are managed by former Boston Red Sox third baseman (1975-1980) and manager (1992-1994) Butch Hobson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Hobson).

I only attended and tweeted updates for the two NJ games of the Atlantic League Championship Series. The Patriots and Blue Crabs split these games 1 to 1, but Somerset became the league champions for the 5^th time by winning the next two games played in Maryland. I posted game results for Games 3 and 4 on Twitter.

Summary of Atlantic League Championship Series Results: Somerset wins 3 games to1

Game 1: 10/1/2009

Southern Maryland

2 R 5 H 3 E

LP: Grube

HR: None

Somerset

8 R 9 H 0 E

WP: Magrane

HR: None

Game 2: 10/2/2009

Southern Maryland

10 R 12 H 1 E

WP: James

HR: Ramistella, Shanks, Nicolas

Somerset

4 R 7 H 1 E

LP: Kirsten

HR: Nettles

Game 3: 10/3/2009

Somerset

8 R 11 H 2 E

WP: Miller, SV: Minix

HR: Nettles, Anderson

Southern Maryland

6 R 16 H 1 E

LP: Estrada

HR: None

Game 4: 10/4/2009

Somerset

11 R 12 H 0 E

WP: Standridge

HR: Nettles

Southern Maryland

1 R 5 H 2 E

LP: Halama

HR: None

The Atlantic League is a very interesting Independent Baseball League. Its team’s rosters typically include players with extensive major league experience. In fact, this years overall Newark Bears team roster included over forty former major league players. Of these, contracts of fourteen players, including former Yankee Shawn Chacon and former Met Armando Benitez, were purchased by affiliates of major league baseball teams. Some of the major leaguers I saw participating in the Atlantic League 2009 playoff games I saw are the following:

Somerset Patriots:

• Bret Prinz, Pitcher: pitched in over 100 games during seven seasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Prinz

• Jason Standridge, Pitcher: sparts of 7 seasons at the major league level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Standridge

• Jeff Nettles, 3^rd base: played shortstop for the New York Yankees Triple-A affiliate Columbus Clippers during our 2001 “Eastern Loop of the Midwest” baseball roadtrip. http://www.somersetpatriots.com/roster/players/index.html?player_id=138

Newark Bears:

• Carl Everett, Outfilder/DH: drafted by Yankees, played three seasons with Mets, selected twice to the American League All-Star team, and member of the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Everett

• D’Angelo Jimenez, Shortstop: Debuted for the New York Yankees in 1999. Major league batting average over .260 and with 225 RBIs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Angelo_Jim%C3%A9nez

• Ramiro Mendoza, Pitcher: 54-40 career win/loss record with the Yankees and Red Sox. Four time World Series Champion with the New York Yankees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiro_Mendoza

• Scott Williamson, Pitcher: Rookie of the Year with Cincinnati Reds and National League All-Star in 1999. Member of Boston Red Sox World Series Championship team in 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Williamson

Southern Maryland Blue Crabs:

• John Halama, Pitcher: 56W 48L major league record over a nine major league seasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Halama

• Michael Tucker, Outfielder/DH: Eleven major league season with over 100 home runs and 500 RBIs at the major league level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tucker_(baseball)

Twitter Roadtrip Information:

Total number of Tweets: 218

Freedom Division Championship Series:

Number of tweets: 128

Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 9:02 AM Sep 23rd

Time/Date of 128^th Tweet: l1:16 AM Sep 29th

Atlantic League Championship Series:

Number of tweets: 91

Time/Date of 129^st Tweet: 1:20 AM Sep 29th

Time/Date of 218^th Tweet: 10:58 AM Oct 5th

Roadtrip Planning Resources

The following are the web resources used for planning this "Atlantic League" baseball roadtrip. Official Website of the Atlantic Baseball League: http://www.atlanticleague.com Official Websites of the Teams Somerset Patriots: http://www.somersetpatriots.com/ Newark Bears: http://www.newarkbears.com/ Southern Maryland Blue Crabs: http://www.somdbluecrabs.com