Photos: Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #9 Red Sox Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip

DSC00201, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Lowell Spinners game, visit:
http://bit.ly/9F6RBX

Pawtucket_Red_Sox_8-15-10_012, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Pawtucket Red Sox game, visit:
http://bit.ly/cctKlx

Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #9: Red Sox Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip

Dates: June 21, 2010 and August 15, 2010
Primary Destination: Day trips to Lowell, MA and Pawtucket, RI

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

Games Attended:

Game 1: Tri-City Valley Cats vs. Lowell Spinners, June 21^st, 7:05PM, LeLacheur Park, Lowell, MA

Game 2: Buffalo Bisons vs. Pawtucket Red Sox, Aug. 15^th, 1:00PM, McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI

.

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 Pawtucket RI, 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 15^th 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, LeLacheur Park, 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.

An interesting side note. The designated hitter for the Buffalo Bisons was Valentino (Val) Pascucci. He hit a solo homer to left in the 4^th inning of the Bisons vs Pawsox game. I posted the following Tweet on Twitter: “Post game: Highlight #1: Bisons opened the scoring in the top of the 4th with 1 run on a solo home run to left by DH Val Pascucci. Sunday, August 15, 2010 11:11:17 PM via web.” Here is a link to the box score of the game: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l117&t=g_box&gid=2010_08_15_bufaaa_pawaaa_1. You can check out Val’s year to date stats for the Bisons 2010 season by clicking on this web-link: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=t422&t=p_pbp&pid=407831.

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 22^nd, Pascucci was the DH for the opposing Riversharks and hit a 2 run homer to center filed in the 5^th 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-City 5 R 4 H 0 E

WP: David Martinez (1W:0L)

SV: None

HR: None

Lowell 0 R 4 H 3 E

LP: Randy Consuegra (0W:1L)

HR: None

Game 2: 8/15/2010

Buffalo 1 R 4 H 0 E

LP: Raul Valdes (1W:1L)

HR: Val Pascucci (14)

Pawtucket 3 R 2 H 1 E

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.

Total number of Tweets: 72

Game 1: Tri-City Valley Cats vs. Lowell Spinners

Number of tweets: 30
Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 8:25 AM Jun 20th

Time/Date of Last Tweet: 2:18 AM Jun 22nd

Game 2: Buffalo vs. Pawtucket Red Sox

Number of tweets: 42

Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 7:31 PM Aug 13th

Time/Date of Last Tweet: 11:23 PM Aug 15th

Roadtrip Planning Resoures:

The web resources used for planning this Red Sox Fan Minor League Baseball Roadtrip are as follows: Official Website of the International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=l117 Current Standings of the Teams in the International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_sta&lid=117&sid=l117 Official Websites of the International League Teams: Pawtucket Red Sox: Home team http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t533 Buffalo Bisons: Visiting team http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t422 Official Website of the New York-Penn 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 New York-Penn LeagueTeams: Lowell Spinners: Home team http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t558 Tri-City Valley Cats: Visiting team http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t577

Photos: Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #8 The International League of Major League Baseball

DSC00142, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs game, visit:
http://bit.ly/b8Rvam

S-WB_Yankees_7-29-2010_073, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game, visit:
http://bit.ly/9eHRVa

Pawtucket_Red_Sox_8-15-10_012, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Pawtucket Red Sox game, visit:

http://bit.ly/cctKlx

Photos: Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #7: The Eastern League of Major League Baseball

DSC00175, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Trenton Thunder game, visit:
http://bit.ly/c4vK71

New_Britain--7-6-10_003, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the New Britain Rock Cats game, visit:
http://bit.ly/aDi9DK

P1010063, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Reading Phillies game, visit:
http://bit.ly/9UyWpa

Photos: Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #6: Independent Leagues of New Jersey 2010 Opening Days-Atlantic League and CanAm League

16_10A, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Atlantic League: Newark Bears 2010 Opening Day Game, visit:

http://bit.ly/aRPwBZ

21_1, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the Atlantic League: Somerset Patriots 2010 Opening Day Game, visit:
http://bit.ly/cVJc9k

CAN-AM_roadtrip_Sussex_007, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the CanAm League: Sussex Skyhawks 2010 Opening Day Game, visit:
http://bit.ly/bsejJw

CAN-AM_roadtrip_Jackals_003, originally uploaded by wtriebel.

For more photos for the CanAm League: New Jersey Jackals 2010 Opening Day Game, visit:
http://bit.ly/crdB1H

Twittered Baseball Roadtrip #8: The International League of Major League Baseball

Dates: June 10, 2010, July 29, 2010, and August 15, 2010

Primary Destinations: Day trips to Allentown, PA, Moosic, PA, and Pawtucket, MA

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

Games Attended:

Game 1: Toledo Mud Hens vs. Lehigh Valley IronPigs, June 10^th, 6:05PM (1st game of DH), Coca-Cola Park, Allentown, PA

Game 2: Norfolk Tides vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, July 29^th, 7:05PM, PNC Field, Moosic, PA

Game 3: Buffalo Bisons vs. Pawtucket Red Sox, August 15^th, 1:00PM , McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, RI

Summary:

The International League is one of Major League Baseballs (MLB) affiliated Minor Leagues. Players on the teams of the International League are at the highest level of the minor league system, which is known as triple A (AAA). They are just one step away from the major leagues. In fact, many of them have been up and down from the majors a number of times. Some of the players on International League team rosters are on the associated major league team’s 40-man roster.

This league has fourteen teams, which are organized into three divisions: the North Division, South Division, and West Division. Unlike the Eastern League, who’s teams are more concentrated primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States, the teams of the International League are located farther apart. The south most team of the South Division is the Gwinnett Braves in Lawrenceville, Georgia, who are the Atlanta Braves AAA team. The Pittsburgh Pirates AAA team, the Indianapolis Indians, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the west most team. The Indians are a member of the West Division. Finally, North Division teams form the northern and eastern bounds for the International league. The Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota Twins) in Rochester, New York is the north most located team and the Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox), located in Rhode Island, represents the east most team.

"The International League of MLB Roadtrip" is planned as a series of day trips to attend games of three International League teams at their home stadiums. Since the day trips originate from either the metropolitan New York City or Boston areas, the teams chosen were the following:

• Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Allentown, PA: AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies
• Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, Moosic, PA: AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees
• Pawtucket Red Sox, Pawtucket, RI: AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox

Three other International League teams were seen as visiting teams during the roadtrip. The Toledo Mud Hens, which is the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, was the opposing team of the IronPigs in Allentown. The Mud Hens are a member of the West Division of the International League. In game 2, the Baltimore Orioles AAA team, the Norfolk Tides, was the opponent of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. The Tides are a South Division team. Finally, the Buffalo Bisons played the Red Sox in Pawtucket. The Bisons are in the North Division and the triple-A team of the New York Mets.

I attended the first game, Lehigh Valley vs. Toledo alone, but was joined on the trips to both Scranton Wilkes-Barre and Pawtucket by my brother, Bob.

Summary of International League Roadtrip Games:

Game 1: 6/10/2010

Toledo 4 R 6 H 0 E

WP: Ryan Ketchner (3W:2L)

SV: Jay Sborz (13)

HR: Scott Sizemore, Ryan Stiebly

Lehigh Valley 3 R 3 H 0 E

LP: Joe Savery (1W:6L)

HR: Cody Ransom

Game 2: 7/29/2010

Norfolk 1 R 6 H 0 E

LP: Chris Tillman (8W:6L)

HR: None

Scranton/WB 7 R 12 H 0 E

WP: Jason Hirsh (6W:7L)

SV: None

HR: Jesus Montero (11)

Game 3: 8/15/2010

Buffalo 1 R 4 H 0 E

WP: Rich Hill (2W:0L)

SV: Fernando Cabrera (15)

HR: Val Pascucci (14)

Pawtucket 3 R 2 H 1 E

LP: Raul Valdes (1W:1L)

HR: Gil Velazquez (1)

Attending these International League games enabled us to see some of the top prospects of the affiliated major league teams, a number of major leaguers on the comeback path, and even current major leaguers making rehab starts. For instance, in the Toledo/Lehigh Valley game, I saw Cody Ransom (a former New York Yankee) play third base for the IronPigs and hit a home run in his first at bat of the game. Soon after that game Cody was called up to the majors by the Phillies. While in game 2, Norfolk vs. Scranton/WB we saw the Yankees top catching prospect, Jesus Montero catch the game and hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 5^th. Jesus was the subject of much trade talks in the days coming up to the trading deadline. In the Pawtucket/Buffalo game the sell out crowd of more than 12,000 PawSox fans cheered as Dustin Pedrioa was announced as the designated hitter. Pedrioa, who had been on the DL, was making his final rehab start before returning to play in Boston.

The “Baseball America” website http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2010/ provides team by team listings of the “Top 10 Prospects” for the 2010 season. For example, the New York Mets listing

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2010/269121.html includes pitchers Jonathon Niese, catcher Josh Thole, 1^st baseman Ike Davis, 2^nd baseman Ruben Tejeda, and outfielder Fernando Martinez, who all currently on the New York Mets Major League Roster. To be considered for the top 10 prospect listing, a played must still be considered a “Rookie” by MLB. The criteria for remaining a rookie is that the player must not have more than 150 at bats or pitched more than 50 innings at the major league level.

A number of other players we saw in International League games had spent time with their major league clubs during the 2010 season. They include::

• Kevin Russo, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (New York Yankees)
• Chad Huffman, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (New York Yankees)
• Jesus Feliciano, Buffalo Bisons (New York Mets)
• Daniel Nava, Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox)
• Josh Reddick, Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox)
• Gustavo Molina, Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox)
• Dane Sardinha, Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Philadelphia Phillies)
• Nolan Reimold, Tidewater Tides (Baltimore Orioles)
• Craig Tatum, Tidewater Tides (Baltimore Orioles)
• Rhyne Hughes, Tidewater Tides (Baltimore Orioles)
• Scott Sizemore, Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers)
• Will Rhymes, Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers)
• Jeff Frazier, Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers)
• Casper Wells, Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit Tigers)

Though in most cases, their stay with the parent major league team was short. All of them have made a big step in fulfilling their life long dream of playing on the biggest stage of Major League Baseball. For some of them, this is just the beginning and they will return to stay. But for all of them, this is an achievement that has only been attained by a few.

Also, during these games we saw a number of other players that are on their major league team’s 40-man roster, but had not yet been call up to the majors this season. For example, Nick Evans (3B), Justin Turner (SS), Jesus Feliciano (LF), and starting pitcher Raul Valdes, who are all on the Mets 2010 40-man roster, played for the Bisons against the PawSox.

Recently Eduardo Nunez, who batted 3^rd in the order and played shortstop the night we attended the Norfolk Tides-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees game, was called up by the New York Yankees. On that night Nunez play a prominent role in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s victory. He went 2 for 3 with two singles, reached base on a walk in a 4^th at bat, stole a base, and scored two runs.

This is Nunez’s first stint in the majors. He has subbed at third base for injured Alex Rodriguez and at shortstop for Derek Jeter. Eduardo played in his first game as a New York Yankee on 8/19/10 vs. the Detroit Tigers and got his first career hit, a single to right, in the 8/21/10 game against the Seattle Mariners. This hit knocked in the go ahead run for the Yankees and accounted for Nunez’s first RBI at the major league level. On 8/28/10 Eduardo hit his first home run, a two run shot, in Chicago off White Sox starter John Danks.

We made two stops en-route to Pawtucket. After participating is sports on the weekend when young, we frequently went to Bonds Ice Cream Parlor in Elizabeth, NJ for a special milk shake, known as an Awful Awful. An Awful Awful was extra large, extra thick and could hardly be consumed through a straw. In recent years while visiting Newport, RI, I discovered that the Newport Creamery was selling Awful Awful milk shakes that were quite similar to those we enjoyed when young. In fact, the design of the glass they served them in (which had vertical ribs and Awful Awful written at the top in red letters) was similar to the one used at Bonds, except plastic instead of glass.

If one would drink three Awful Awfuls in one sitting at Bonds Ice Cream Parlor, they were recognized by having their name posted on a plaque on the wall. Well many of us tried, but not many of us succeeded. Though, my brother Bob (accompanying me on this trip) did succeed and was so recognized in the Awful Awful Club. So it was in honor of his feat, we made a small diversion from our route between NJ and Pawtucket, RI to stop at a Newport Creamery Restaurant in Providence, RI (http://www.newportcreamery.com/). We stopped on the drive to Pawtucket and again on our return after the game to enjoy both a pregame and postgame Awful Awful. We both consume a total of 48 ounces of very thick, creamy milk shake. Yum! Yum!

Our other stop had a more somber meanng. When reaching Groton, CT, we visit the “United States Submarine Veterans of World War Two National Submarine Memorial East.” (http://www.submarinehistory.com/WWIISubmarineMemorial-East.html). The memorial has three elements:

1. The Monument, which is formed from the upper part (conning tower, fairwater, and periscopes) of the WWII submarine USS Flasher. The USS Flasher and its crew hold the record for the most tonnage of enemy ships sunk by any submarine in Naval warfare history.

2. A series of Engraved Granite Stones each with a tribute to one of the 52 Submarines lost during WWII. Engraved on each stone is a silhouette of the ship, its name and number, information about where and how it was sunk, and the number of sailors lost.

3. Wall of Honor that lists the names to honor all those sailors that gave their lives in service of their country on these submarines during WWII.

My brother and I were motivated to make this stop because our uncle Walter F. Seidman is one of the submariners that lost his life when his ship the USS Argonaut was sunk during WWII. The Argonaut was on patrol near Rabaul in the South Pacific Ocean when on January 10, 1943 it became engaged in combat, was damaged by depth charges, and was sunk by surface ship fire when it had to surface. At the memorial, we were greeted by William Beaman USN (ret.), an American Patriot, who had done a number of tours of duty aboard the USS Flicker during WWII. Together we found the engraving of our uncle’s name that honored him on the Wall.

Twitter Roadtrip Information:

The tweets posted on Twitter for each of the games includes pre-game tweets with information about the league, each team 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, and scoring highlights of the game.

Total number of Tweets: 128

Game 1: Toledo Mud Hens vs. Lehigh Valley IronPigs

Number of tweets: 47

Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 10:20 AM Jun 10th

Time/Date of last Tweet: 11:47 PM Jun 10th

Game 2: Norfolk Tides vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees

Number of tweets: 39

Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 11:07 PM Jul 27th

Time/Date of last Tweet: 2:38 AM Jul 30th

Game 3: Buffalo vs. Pawtucket Red Sox

Number of tweets: 42

Time/Date of 1^st Tweet: 7:31 PM Aug 13th

Time/Date of last Tweet: 11:23 PM Aug 15th

Roadtrip Planning Resources

The following are the web resources used for planning the "International League of MLB Roadtrip.” Official Website of the International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=l117 Current Standings of the Teams in the International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_sta&lid=117&sid=l117 Official Websites of the Teams: Lehigh Valley IronPigs: http://www.ironpigsbaseball.com/ Toledo Mud Hens: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t512 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t531 Norfolk Tides: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t568 Pawtucket Red Sox: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t533 Buffalo Bisons: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t422 ·