Season’s End, Part 2: A Big Finish

Skipper takes umbrage and my cap when he sees my Beloit Snappers gear. 

When I hatched the plan for the crazy three-state end to my baseball summer, it was an extra bonus that Ohio’s Lake County Captains were playing the Beloit Snappers, the High-A minor league team of the Miami Marlins. This would be the third game of my trip after a Tuesday game in Allentown with the Iron Pigs and a Wednesday game at the Erie Seawolves. 

Classic Park, home of the Captains, is a short drive east of Cleveland, where I was staying with my friends. That’s a great name for a baseball stadium, even though it’s a corporate sponsor, the Classic Automotive Group auto dealer conglomerate, that paid for the naming rights. There are other examples where a sponsor’s name looks good as a stadium name, like Great America Ballpark in Cincinnati or Valley Strong Park in Visalia, Calif.

The Captains are the High-A team of the Cleveland Indians and one of closest farm teams to its major league affiliates. The two teams also have a long association that goes back to 1991 in Columbus, Ga., when the Captains were known as the Redstixx. The team moved to the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio in 2003, but remained in the South Atlantic League until they switched to the Midwest League. They’re now in the East Division of Minor League Baseball’s High-A Central League.

The nautical theme is everywhere at Classic Park.

It was 3-2-1 Night at Classic Park: $3 draft beers, $2 hot dogs, and $1 fountain sodas or water. I don’t need fantastic menu concoctions with a deal like that.

There was a kerfluffle before the game when Skipper, the Captains’ furry mascot plopped down in the seat next to me. “Uh-oh,” I said, “You’d better not look at my shirt.” Both my cap and t-shirt featured one of Skipper’s arch enemies, Snappy the turtle, mascot for the Beloit Snappers. Skipper shot out of the seat, grabbed my cap, and put his giant sized Captains cap on my head.

He was probably surprised that his cap was almost a good fit for my giant-sized noggin. When he tried to switch back, I threatened to hold on to his cap as a fair exchange. I finally gave it back it him, and he gave me mine . . . but only after wiping it all over his tail end.

The jumbo screen says it all: Captains Win!

The Snappers got the same kind of treatment from the Captains. The Snappers scored first in the fourth inning, but Raynel Delgado tied things up with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning and the inning ended with the Captains up 3-1. The Snappers evened the score at 3-3 in the sixth, but Christian Cairo launched a two-run homer to put the Captains ahead for good. Jose Tena added an insurance run with a solo homer in the eighth. Final: Lake County Captains 6, Beloit Snappers 3.

Friday was a traveling day to get back to my home in Pennsylvania. We left early Saturday with the goal of getting to Yankee Stadium by 11 a.m. in order to line up for our Don Mattingly bobbleheads. There was a good-sized, good-spirited crowd, but we arrived with time to spare. I was expecting to wait an hour before the gates opened for the 1:05 game time, but found out we’d be able to get in at 11:35.

The early crowd gathers with Gate 2's metal detectors in sight.

The extra time allowed us to get our bearings once inside, and we were able to beat the late crowd at Monument Park without a long wait. I had never been to see the legendary display in center field at either the old or new Yankee Stadium, so I’m glad we had time to stop by on our way to our seats. Whether you’re a Yankee fan or not, it is an astonishing tribute to the pantheon of Yankees who represent a large slice of baseball’s history.

The legendary gallery in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

I don’t know if there’s still much of a debate over old vs. new Yankee Stadium, but for me, it’s still one of the most exciting places to see a baseball game. The atmosphere is electric and I think they did a good job of bringing a sense of history from the old ballpark into the new one.

It’s only the second time I’ve been in the new stadium and the first time since I retired from my job in New York City. It was fun to watch the players, the majority of the starting lineup, who I’ve been seeing over the years at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

The dramatic atrium at Yankee Stadium.

I even got to see Giancarlo Stanton, an old favorite of mine from the Miami Marlins, hit one of his signature home runs. Meanwhile, my friend Paul got to see his Cleveland Indians knock the tar out of the Yankees for an 11-3 victory. The night before we had watched on TV as the Yankees shut out Cleveland, 8-0.

I had only been to the old stadium a half a dozen times in all the years I lived and worked in the city. I could look it up. Maybe it was eight times. But one game in particular was on my mind, 25 years ago to the day, when I took my brother, Drew, to see a Yankees game on his birthday. That was in the old Yankee Stadium and those seats are gone. Still, it was a sweet memory of one of my favorite baseball buddies and the many games we were able to see together over the years. Leaving one memorable season behind, I can look forward to next year, when I can go back to the ballpark.

Season’s End, Part 1: The Tickets That Keep Giving

A September sunset at UPMC Park, home of the Erie Seawolves.

While AAA baseball is in the midst of what they’re calling the Final Stretch, while the lower minor teams are wrapping up their league championship best-of-five series, and while the final pieces of the playoffs in the big leagues are falling into place, my thoughts are focused on closing out my blog for the season. I have no tickets for any games the rest of the way, but you never know with me. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, right?

It was a good, long season for me and it ended with a great baseball trip with four games over a span of five days in four cities across three states. Two of the ballparks were new to me, so I should be posting at least two reports. The problem is the four games all part of the same tale and I’m having trouble sorting things into their separate and proper compartments. So here we go with one big, season-ending, back to the ballpark blowout, part 1. 

We have to go back to May when I bought two tickets to a Seawolves game on a tag-along business trip with my niece to Erie, Pa. Then her meeting was cancelled and so was the baseball trip. It looked like I would end up losing the ticket investment, so I decided to call and offer the tickets as a donation so a couple of kids might get to see a game. I got lucky when the right person answered the phone and said I could use my tickets for another game. 

The first thing I had to do was decide when I could get back to Erie and use the tickets. Maybe it could be part of a trip to western Pennsylvania coupled with more baseball in Altoona or Pittsburgh. Or I could stop for a game on my way to Cleveland to see my friends there and to see more baseball in Ohio. 

I always ask a few questions when I’m picking a date for baseball tickets. Are there other nearby teams playing at home? Who are they playing? Is there a special event like Bark in the Park? And then there’s the big question: What are they giving away? 

Oops. A mixup over bobbleheads. Wait 'til next year.

It turns out the Seawolves had two bobblehead giveaway dates on September 15 and 18, a Wednesday and Saturday. Saturday’s bobblehead would be Matt Manning, the rookie pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, who was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Year in 2019. Wednesday’s offering was a piñata bobblehead, specifically a bull piñata, the mascot for Las Piñatas de Erie, the alter ego of the Seawolves in baseball’s Copa de la Diversión series. 

One serious giveaway and one silly was OK by me. I penciled the two games into my calendar and moved on. These games were months away in the last week of the regular season and I could make the exchange closer to the dates. It’s a good thing I waited, because I would later pick up two free tickets to see the Yankees, thanks to my association with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Once again, I went through the process to find a good date for the Yankee game and hit the jackpot. On Sept. 18, they would be giving away a Don Mattingly bobblehead at their game with the Cleveland Indians. As much as I hated to give up the Matt Manning bobble, there’s no way I could miss out on Don Mattingly, the manager of my favorite team, the Miami Marlins.

Bubblegum and Stardust hurry to the starting line for the unicorn race
across the outfield between innings, "the fastest 20 seconds in all of sports."

This also meant I’d probably miss out on the piñata bobblehead too, because it would be sandwiched between a Tuesday night game in Allentown and Saturday’s game in New York. Then I got a crazy idea. I could drive to Cleveland, take my friends Paul and Sally to the Seawolves on Wednesday and maybe go to another game on Thursday. Then Paul and I would drive back to my home in northeastern Pennsylvania on Friday so we could go to the Yankees-Indians game on Saturday. From there Paul would fly home to Cleveland.

Paul was on board, but with one small change. It would be me flying to Cleveland and Paul and Sally would do the round-trip drive. There’s icing on this sweet cake. On Thursday, the Lake County Captains, who play just east of Cleveland, were scheduled to play the Beloit Snappers, the High-A team of my Miami Marlins, in the final week of their farewell season before re-branding as the Beloit something or others next year.

Waiting to board the bus for the "flight" to Newark and on to Cleveland.

Adding to the wackiness of this trip is that the first leg of my flight from Allentown is a bus ride at 6 a.m. to Newark Liberty International where I get on a plane to Cleveland. Did I mention I went to an Iron Pigs game in Allentown the night before? (The Railriders beat the Pigs 4-2.) It was a short night’s sleep at another niece’s house near the airport before the flight, and an ill-fated ride to drop me off. I made it to the bus with plenty of time, but her car broke down after dropping me off. This is just the latest in a series of car mishaps the two of us have had involved with sporting events. At least she had the use of my car while I was gone.

At the Iron Pigs '90s Night, Mitch Williams was on hand to sign his bobblehead box.

I arrived in Cleveland on schedule and even had time for a short nap before we headed for Erie, an hour and a half away. UPMC Park, where the Seawolves play, is named for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Erie. It might be the most unusual baseball stadium I’ve seen, and I’ve been to at least 100. It has two separate grandstands, one on the first base side and the other on third. There’s a high gray wall in left field where the stadium butts up against the arena.

Erie’s previous baseball team, the Sailors, moved to New York in a dispute over stadium improvement issues and became the Hudson Valley Renegades. Not long after that, Erie’s city government was able to get help from the state to build a new ballpark, and the Welland Pirates moved from Ontario, Canada, and became the Erie Seawolves.

The team is no longer affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it has kept its piratical identity even though it’s one of the Detroit Tigers’ teams. Give them a call some time and go through their automated menu until you get to the last option. “Press 7 to hear a pirate joke.” 

There's a hot dog underneath the rest ot the Cuban dog ingredients.

There are good food offerings at the ballpark. I had a Cuban dog that was a challenge to eat on it’s tiny, regular hot dog bun. A Cuban roll would have made it a lot easier. Another option was a basket of French fries covered with the ingredients you’d normally find on super nachos. I forget what they called it, but it sure looked good.

Pepperoni balls, two per order, are the specialty of the house. They’re filling, so consider sharing with someone if you want to have room for some of the other tasty offerings. Hand scooped ice cream is particularly good at UPMC Park.

Imagine a filled doughnut, but without the sugar coating
and stuffed with pepperoni instead of jelly.

It was a big disappointment that the piñata bobblehead giveaway was postponed until next season. The good news is that our tickets will be honored next year when the bobblehead game is rescheduled. Looks like it’s back to the ballpark next year thanks to the tickets that keep giving.

The Piñatas on the ball field took the lead early in their game with the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Erie answered back with 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after Richmond tied the game at 2 apiece in the top half. Both teams added a run in the eighth, but Erie held on to win. Final: Piñatas de Erie 5, Richmond Flying Squirrels 3.

Next: Season’s End, Part 2. More minor league baseball and back to Yankee Stadium.