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
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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.
Games Attended: Game 1: Tri-CityValley Cats vs. Lowell Spinners, June 21st, 7:05PM, LeLacheur Park, Lowell, MA
Game 2:Buffalo Bisons vs. Pawtucket Red Sox, Aug. 15th, 1:00PM, McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI
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Summary:
Last summer, I did a “Yankees Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip” and at that time suggested that a similar type of trip could be planned by fans of the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, or New York Mets. This year the focus of our baseball roadtrips has been on the minor leagues of MLB and independent baseball leagues. With this Blog Post I am summarizing the “Red Sox Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip.” This roadtrip was not done as a series of consecutive days; instead games were attended on days that were quite far apart. This permitted me to conduct a number of other baseball trips in parallel.
Just like the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox have a single-A, double-A, and triple-A minor league affiliate conveniently located to permit their fans that reside in the Northeast to attend games at their home stadiums. The Red Sox minor league teams that are easily accessible from the Boston area:
Lowell Spinners, New York-Penn League, Short-season Single-A (A)
Portland Sea Dogs, Eastern League, Double-A (AA)
Pawtucket Red Sox, International League, Triple-A (AAA)
These three teams reside in the cities of Lowell, MA, Portland, ME, and PawtucketRI, respectively. Each of these destinations is within a day trip distance (approx 2 hr drive) of Boston. In fact, the one-way drive to Lowell and Pawtucket both take slightly less than 1 hr.
Though I reside in northern New Jersey, my daughter lives outside Boston and I attended the Lowell Spinners game with her. 2010 is the 15th season that the Lowell Spinners have been the single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Some of today’s stars of the Red Sox, when working their way up through the minors, played for the Lowell Spinners. They include Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clay Buchholz.
I was accompanied to the Pawtucket Red Sox game by my brother and we actually traveled from New Jersey as a day trip (approx. 4 hrs each way), instead of Boston. The Pawtucket Red Sox (or PawSox as they are affectionately known) have been an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox since 1970. During the first three seasons, they were the Red Sox AA team in the Eastern league, but in 1973 they moved up to the International League to become their AAA team. Over the years an endless stream of home grown talent has passed through Pawtucket on their way to the majors. The list of Boston Red Sox stars that played for the PawSox includes Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Roger Clemons, Wade Boggs, Nomar Garciaparra, and Jason Varitek.
Due to the fact that Portland is slightly over a 2 hr drive from Boston (more than 6 hrs from NJ) and time constraints while in Boston, we skipped the Sea Dogs as part of this trip. Therefore, on our Red Sox Fan Roadtrip we only attended games at two stadiums,LeLacheurPark, Lowell, MA and McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI. We will try to add a stop in Portland, ME on a future trip to Boston.
Who goes to a minor league game? Well the answer to that question is a real lot of people. Both games we attended were overflow crowds and effectively sold out-include standing room tickets in Lowell (Total Seating Capacity 5,030/Official Attendance 5,194) and left field berm tickets in Pawtucket (Total Seating Capacity 10,031/Official Attendance 12,154). Actually, the game we attended was the Spinners home opener. Sell outs in Lowell are not unusual. In fact, the Spinners sold out every seat in the stadium for the nine consecutive seasons from 2000 though 2008. The visiting team in Lowell was the Tri-City Valley Cats, which is the New York-Penn League affiliate of the Houston Astros. In Pawtucket, the fact that Dustin Pedroia was making a rehab start for the PawSox may have impacted the size of the crowd. We saw the PawSox play the New York Mets AAA team, the Buffalo Bisons.
His name sounded familiar, like I had seen him recently play for another team. When back home, I searched his name on Google and found this comment that was placed on a Blog by former Mets manager Bobby Valentine on Feb 03, 2010 at 10:39 am. “With Pascucci and Mike Hessman in Buffalo this year it should be fun for the fans. I’d have to look, but I’m sure between the two of them they must have like 2,000 minor league home runs. Have to give credit to AAAA guys like this. They really love the game and certainly can’t hurt to have them around our young guys coming up.” See this Blog post at http://www.tedquarters.net/2010/02/02/breaking-news-pascucci-returns/ and scroll down to find comment by Bobby Valentine.
In addition, I searched through my Tweets from games I attended earlier this season and found this Tweet on my Twitter Feed: “Score update: Riversharks score 2 runs to extend their lead. Chris Malec singles to left and DH Val Pascucci homers to center.” Thursday, April 22, 2010 7:59:42 PM via web. Was this the same Val Pascucci? Apparently yes. Further web research showed that Val Pascucci played 14 games for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League during the first weeks of their 2010 season. In the Newark Bears opening night game I attended on April 22nd, Pascucci was the DH for the opposing Riversharks and hit a 2 run homer to center filed in the 5th inning. Click here to see the box score for that game: http://atlantic.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=6843. You can see Val’s 2010 stats for his short stay with the Riversharks here: Team Stats:http://www.riversharks.com/team/stats.cfm.
Val Pascucci began his professional baseball career in 1999 and since has played for a number of teams at the single-A, double-A, and triple-A levels of the minor leagues of MLB. Moreover, Val did play for the Montreal Expos in the Major Leagues during the 2004 season and spent two more years playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Pacific League in Japan.Finally, Pascucci was a member of both the 2006 and 2009 Italy National Team that played in the World Baseball Classic. Find more detailed information on Val Pascucci’s career at this web-link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentino_Pascucci.
Summary of the Red Sox Fan Roadtrip Games:
Game 1:7/21/2010
Tri-City5R4H0E
WP: David Martinez (1W:0L)
SV: None
HR:None
Lowell0R4H3E
LP: Randy Consuegra (0W:1L)
HR:None
Game 2: 8/15/2010
Buffalo1R4H0E
LP: Raul Valdes(1W:1L)
HR:Val Pascucci (14)
Pawtucket3R2H1E
WP: Rich Hill (2W:0L)
SV: Fernando Cabrera (15)
HR:Gil Velazquez (1)
Twitter Roadtrip Information:
Similar to earlier Twittered Baseball Roadtrips, I have tweeted pregame information, such as the record and standing of the home and visiting teams in their league, probable starting pitches and their current won/loss records, information about the stadium and the travel route, and post-game results: winning team, final score and stats, winning/losing pitchers, and game highlights.
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.
