Game 1:Sussex Skyhawks vs. Quebec Capitales, July 20th, 7:05PM, Stade Municipal, Quebec, QCCanada
Game 2:Quebec Capitales vs. Sussex Skyhawks, Aug 12th, 7:05PM, SkylandsPark, Augusta, NJUSA
Summary:
This is the third baseball roadtrip that I have made that included visits to see teams of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball (CanAm League) play games at their home stadiums.Summaries of these two earlier trips, Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #1: Canadian American (CanAm) League and Twittered Baseball Roadtip #6 Independent Leagues of New Jersey 2010 Opening Days-Atlantic League and CanAm League, are posted on the this blog. By making this roadtrip, I have now attended games of all teams of the CanAm League, except the Pittsfield Colonials, at their home stadiums.
The plan for this roadtrip was to attend home and away games played between the same two teams. Because I live in New Jersey and had the opportunity to be in Quebec City, Canada for a brief period this summer, I chose the CanAm League. The Sussex Skyhawks were playing a 3-game away series with the Quebec Capitales from July 19th though July 21st, which was during the period I was in Quebec City. Also, the Capitales and Sussex Skyhawks were scheduled to play a 4-game series in Augusta, NJ from August 12th-August 15th. I have called this roadtrip “CanAm League-Sussex Skyhawks/Quebec Capitales Home and Away Series.”
The Capitales home stadium, Stade Municipal, is located in Quebec City just a short ride from the OldCity tourist section. This was the first baseball game I attended in Canada since going to a Montreal Expos game at JarryPark in the early 1970s. The stadium environment and game experience was interesting and a little different. I did not purchase a ticket in advance. When I arrived, I was surprised to see many long lines of people waiting to purchase day-of-game tickets. So a first difference was that, unlike most other games I attend, there was a huge walk up attendance. Also, the large enthusiastic crowd (Attendance: 3,821) appeared to be more adult oriented than those I have experienced at CanAm League games in the US. Even though the age of the audience tended to be older, the atmosphere at the game was very lively. The fans were very engaged with the team mascot, a lion named “Capi,” who interacted with them more as a cheerleader encouraging them to root for the home team. Finally, the Capitales enjoy strong fan support and have the highest average game attendance in the league, 3,288 per game.
The Strade Municipal ballpark is quite old. It was originally built in 1938, but underwent renovations as recently as 1999. I noticed a number of unique and interesting differences from other ballparks where I have attended games. One was that the netting that protects fans from foul balls, which is traditionally just in the area behind home plate at ballparks in the US, extended all the way down the fist base and third base lines to where the dirt of the infield met the outfield grass. The netting was quite high and would protect fans in the front rows from getting hit by a line drive. Second is that the stadium had a small modern electronic display screen where images of players and other information was displayed, but the score was posted on an old fashion manual score board. In fact, the scoreboard has several attendants sitting on founding chairs right on a platform in front of the scoreboard. You could watch them pick up the number plaques, walk down to the appropriate location, and physically hang the number up. This brought back memories of my youth when I played baseball in the little league and teener league and on a few occasion had the exciting opportunity of assisting at the scoreboard.
Finally, I have one last memory about the nuances of the stadium environment. I bought a general admission ticket to the game. The seating that this provided was quite interesting.The seats were similar to the wooden pew that one might see in a church and with a very high back. You did not get a specific seat, but could sit in any available location. Again a fun experience and unlike any type of seating I have seen before at a baseball game.
This “Home and Away” roadtrip concluded when the Capitales came to Augusta, NJ to play the Skyhawks in early August. I have been to see the Sussex Skyhawks play at SkylandsPark many times. In fact, it is one of the places I attended a game this spring on my “Independent Leagues of New Jersey 2010 Opening Days” roadtrip. As at the first Sussex Skyhawks game of the season, it was raining prior to the game, but this time the start of the game was delayed longer, about 1 and a half hours. The weather did clear up to allow the game to be played and SkylandsPark does have some seating areas where the seats are protected from the rain. So I was able to enjoy the game while remaining dry. Sussex Skyhawks games offer a very family friendly environment; however, due to the inclement weather the crowd was very small on this night. The photos blog post for this roadtrip includes a picture of the field covered by the tarp and an announcement on the scoreboard that a new start time would be announced as well as in-game action and a photo of the team Mascot “a hawk named Scotter.“
Summary of the Skyhawks/Capitales Home and Away Series Roadtrip Games:
Game 1:7/20/2010Sussex Skyhawks vs. Quebec Capitales
Sussex2R10H3E
LP:Jeff Icenogle (4W:2L)
HR: Kris Sanchez
Quebec 7R13H0E
WP: Jim Kukucka(2W:0L)
SV: None
HR: None
Game 2:8/12/2010Quebec Capitales vs. Sussex Skyhawks
Quebec 3R7H1E
WP: MattRusch (10W:1L)
SV: None
HR: None
Sussex1R7H3E
LP:Will Hassett (0W:2L)
HR: None
Twitter Roadtrip Information:
The tweets I posted on Twitter for each of the games includes pre-game tweets with information about the league, the teams participating in the games, and probable starting pitchers. In addition, a link is provided to view photos of the stadium. After the game, post-game tweets summarized the result, such as winning team, final score and overall team stats, winning and losing pitchers, how runs were scored, and other highlights of the game.
Games Attended:
Game 1:Toledo Mud Hens vs. Lehigh Valley IronPigs, June 10th, 6:05PM (1st game of DH), Coca-ColaPark, Allentown, PA
Game 2:Harrisburg Senators vs. Reading Phillies, July 12th, 12:05PM, FirstEnergy Stadium, Reading, PA
Game 3:Greensboro Grasshoppers vs. Lakewood BlueClaws, August 17th, 7:05PM, FirstEnergyPark, Lakewood, NJ
.
Summary:
The “Phillies Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip” is my second team fan baseball roadtrip of this summer. The prior blog post summarized my first, the Red Sox Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip. This trip is similar in that it is planned is to attend a game of a single-A, double-A, and triple-A minor league team, but they are affiliates of the Philadelphia Phillies. Like the Red Sox Fan trip, games for this roadtrip were attended on non-consecutive days to enable me to see games of other teams. This allowed me to participate in a number of different baseball trips at the same time. In all, six twittered baseball roadtrips were conducted this summer and I attended games in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Quebec City, Canada.
It is especially easy for Philadelphia Phillies fans to take a roadtrip to see the minor league affiliates and player prospects of their favorite team. This is because the Phillies have teams for each of these three levels of the minors within approximately 60 miles of Philadelphia. The teams that I saw play at their home stadiums were:
Lakewood BlueClaws, South Atlantic League, Short-season Single-A (A)
Reading Phillies, Eastern League, Double-A (AA)
LehighValley IronPigs, International League, Triple-A (AAA)
They play at FirstEnergyPark,Lakewood, NJ, FirstEnergy Stadium,Reading, PA, and Coca-ColaPark, Allentown, PA, respectively. Each of these ballparks is just a little more than a 1 hr drive one-way from Philadelphia.
Actually, this summer I saw the Reading Phillies play both at home and away. They were the visiting team playing at New Britain, CT when I saw the New Britain Rock Cats play at their home stadium as part of my “Eastern League of MLB” baseball roadtrip. This roadtrip was reported on in an earlier blog post.
An interesting observation during this roadtrip was how “family friendly” the environment was at these three games. The stadiums all had extensive concession areas that offered a wide range of choices of food and drink. But, in addition to that they all offered elaborate play areas for younger children to be entertained. In Reading it was “CampDay” and they had a “Splash Down Zone” where young people from the camp groups could sit and get sprayed with water from a fire hose. Not exactly something I would choose to do, even though it was a brutally hot day game. Finally, the stadiums in Allentown and Lakewood were designed to allow you to walk fully around the outfield offering numerous interesting sitting and standing points from which to view the game. This walk around characteristic of some of the newer ballparks is something I tend to enjoy. In Lakewood, the free sitting options included replica lifeguard chairs to add a little NJ shore flavor. I especially enjoyed the walk I took around the outfield in Lakewood. Along the way, stops were made at various vantage points to take photos of the game. The games were packed with people, plenty of activity taking place in the children play areas, and lots of home team enthusiasm from the fans. Overall the three stops on the Phillies Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip provided a very wonderful and rewarding baseball experience.
The town of Reading, PA has a long history in professional baseball and it has been the home of the Philadelphia Phillies Eastern League (AA) affiliate-the Reading Phillies-since 1967. Being built in 1951, FirstEnergy Stadium is now the oldest baseball park in the Eastern League. Even though the stadium has undergone extensive renovations over the years, it retains an “Old Time Ballpark” feel and offers a pleasant, comfortable environment for watching a baseball game.
In the game I attended in Reading, the Phillies played the Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals affiliate). I saw 1st baseman Matt Rizzotti hit his 12th homer of the season, left fielder Michael Spindel collect two hits and scored a run, and catcher Tuffy Gosewisch go 3 for 3. However, all of this was in a losing cause when the Senators came from behind to win the game by scoring 4 runs in the top of the 8th. On the other hand, the Phillies came from behind to win the road game that I saw them play against the Rock Cats in New Britain, CT. After being behind 1 to 0 for most of the game, the Phillies scored 1 run in the top of the 7th and 2 more in the 8th to win by a score of 3 to 1. The Phillies batting/scoring highlights were a 2 for 5 day by DH Rich Thompson, a 3 for 5 day by 2nd baseman Fidel Hernandez, and RF Kevin Mahar who scored the tying run in the 7th and singled to drive in Thompson and Hernandez for the lead and an insurance run in the 8th.These last minute hitting heroics were enabled by a strong outing by pitcher Michael Cisco. who threw 7 innings of 4H 1R ball to earn his 2nd win and Michael Schwimer who shut down the Rock Cats by pitching a 1, 2, 3 9th inning to get his 11th save.
At this game I may have seen some of tomorrow Philadelphia Phillies stars. A number of players on today’s Phillies roster came up through Reading on their way to the majors. For example, Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz, and Dominic Brown all played here. The long and rich heritage of the Reading Phillies franchise means that many Phillies stars and fan favorites have sat in the dugout and played on the field at FirstEnergy Stadium. Some of those that came up though the Phillies minor league organization, played for the Reading Phillies, and went on to have long careers wearing the uniform of the Philadelphia Phillies are: Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Bob Boone. Mike Schmidt, Darren Daulton, Mike Lieberthal, Scott Rollen, and Pat Burrell.
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs is Philadelphia’s AAA affiliate in the International League since 2008. During the 2007 season, this triple-A team resided in Ottawa, CA and was called the Ottawa Lynx. However, this was an interim stop while waiting for Coca-ColaPark in Allentown, PA to be completed. Prior to this, Moosic, PA was the home for many years of the Phillies triple-A affiliate, the Scanton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barrons. On the day I attended a IronPigs game, there were no players from the major league team rehabbing. However, as mentioned in my earlier blog post about my “International League of MLB Baseball Roadtrip,” I did enjoy seeing Cody Ransom play 3rd base, bat 5th in the order, and hit a home run in his first at bat to account for all 3 of the IronPigs runs. Cody has played in the majors for the New York Yankees (I am actually a Yankees fan and enjoyed seeing him again). In fact Cody was called up to Philadelphia shortly after this game, but has since returned to LehighValley. On this day, the IronPigs lost to the Toledo Mud Hens (affiliate of the Detroit Tigers) 4 to 3.
Here are a few interesting side notes from the games. First, since my attendance of the Reading Phillies home game on July 12th, Matt Rizzotti and Michael Schwimer have both been promoted to the AAA IronPigs. They have taken the next step in their dream of someday playing in the majors. Though checking the IronPigs roster, I found that they were both placed on the DL on 8/24/10, but for minor injuries. Hopefully they will return soon enough to get in some more play at the AAA level.
Second, while attending the Reading Phillies vs. New Britain Rock Cats game in Connecticut, a young boy, who was attending the game with his dad and sitting in the same row as me, got a foul ball that was hit by Matt Rizzotti. He displayed the ball in his hand as if it were a very proud possession. Seeing me sitting there feverishly taking exhaustive notes about the game and maybe thinking I might be someone more important than I really am, he asked me if I knew who #40 was or if I knew anything about him. There are several photos of Matt Rizzotti in the photo blog post for this game. One photo is a close up of him with his baseball cap off and a cup of Pepsi in his hand, another is of him standing near the plate adjusting his helmet just before walking up to the plate for his at bat (his number and name clearly displayed on his back), and the third is a photo of him running off the field from his first base position after receiving a throw from short for the 3rd out of an inning. To that boy, hang onto the ball and keep it in a safe place. Matt has taken a giant step closer to the majors and if you are lucky someday you will possess a baseball fouled off by a famous baseball star. This is baseball.
Summary of the Phillies Fan Roadtrip Games:
Game 1:6/10/2010Toledo Mud Hens vs. LehighValley IronPigs
Toledo4R6H0E
WP: Ryan Ketchner (3W:2L)
SV: Jay Sborz (13)
HR:Scott Sizemore, Ryan Striebly
LehighValley 3R3 H0 E
LP:Joe Savery (1W:6L)
HR:Cody Ransom
Game 2:7/12/2010Harrisburg Senators vs. Reading Phillies
Harrisburg5R9H 1E
WP: Joe Bisenius (3W:0L)
SV: Chuck James (2)
HR:None
Reading3R11 H 0E LP:Sergio Escalona (1W:6L)
HR:Matt Rizzotti
Game 3:8/17/2010Greensboro Grasshoppers vs. Lakewood BlueClaws
Greensboro4R10H0 E
WP: Sandy Rosario (7W:2L)
SV: None
HR: Chase Austin (14)
Lakewood3 R4 H1E
LP:Ebelin Lugo (5W:3L)
HR: None
Twitter Roadtrip Information:
The tweets I posted on Twitter for each of the games includes pre-game tweets with information about the league, the teams participating in the games, and probable starting pitchers. In addition, travel information is provided such as the address of the stadium, a link to photos of the stadium, distance, and travel time. After the game, post-game tweets summarized the result, such as winning team, final score and overall team stats, winning and losing pitchers, how runs were scored, and other highlights of the game.
After graduating from New York University with a Master of Science Electrical Engineering Degree in the early 70’s, I embarked on overlapping career paths that lead me through a 25+ year career in the semiconductor/electronics industry and a 15+ year career as an educator of Electrical Engineering and Electronic Technology students.
Early on in my teaching career, I identified that my strength was in the area of course development and design. With this in mind, I created a number of unique courses on the topics of logic design and microprocessor technology in the late 1970s. At that moment in time, these areas of electronic technology were leading the way in changing the world of computing and computers. Eventually, I used these course materials as the basis for writing books on these subjects. In this way, I established a third parallel career (30+ years) as an author. Since the late 70’s, I have authored more than 25 text and reference books (including editions) for the field of Electrical Engineering. Today, I am semi-retired and teaching Electrical Engineering courses based on my textbook.
