Bloggers at the Ballpark

Bloggers of the world (two of them anyway) united at Hadlock Field on Thursday afternoon for an afternoon of baseball and cameraderie in the swealtery noontime heat. Fellow Maine-based blogger Wisdom Weasel, his "Little Bruva," Bruva's wife and daughter joined me and Ms. SeaBlog in checking out the new rightfield Pavilion seats. By all accounts, Weasel did get married over the weekend, but the blushing bride wasn't feeling up to the trip to Portland on this particular afternoon. Also missing was another local blogger, who had some lame excuse about a College World Series to attend.

(Weasel, his little bruva, littler neice, little friend Ms. SeaBlog, and little Sister-in-law, enjoy the view).

I have mostly great things to say about the Pavilion seats. For one thing, the view from rightfield is terrific (though balls to deep right disappear from the view). For another, the seatfront tables are extremely convenient for keeping one's food, camera, binoculars and scorebook off the lap and at an easy arms reach. Weasel would call the tables "outstanding." There is also more leg- and elbow-room than in the grandstands.

As for negatives, I understand that the "queue" for the concessions can be quite long (and on this particular day was referred to as "Middle School Hell." Also, the chairs, tables, rails, stairs - all are made of aluminum. I'm sure this is fine for night games. On a muggy 87-degree afternoon, it begins to resemble a solar oven. The heat was too much for some of our fair-skinned friends from across the pond.

View of the full house from right field.

Those of you who are familiar with Wisdom Weasel know that he is a very funny man whose wit ranges from silly to ascerbic. I spent perhaps too much time with my scorebook and not enough time with my notebook, but we were treated to a few nuggets on the afternoon:

• On Ms. SB's noting all of the disco music played between innings and at bats: "It's like it's Pride Day at the ballpark."
• A comparison of American Football and Rugby inspired the observation that "Aussie rules football is basically a bunch of men with speedos and mullets colliding into one another."
• Weasel's version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame," which we won't repeat here.

He also noted that a pile of aluminum probably isn't the place you want to be during a thunderstorm, and when one rolled toward the park in the 8th inning we decided to skedaddle. The umpires halted play in the middle of the 8th, and though the delay was short we had already committed to calling it a day.

As for the game itself, it turned into a slugfest, as the teams combined for 27 hits in a 10-5 Portland victory. Top Yankee prospect Philip Hughes took the mound for Trenton. He was pretty good for the first four innings, then got knocked about in the 5th and 6th, finishing with eight hits and six runs allowed in five innings pitched. He did manage to strike out six batters. The bullpen didn't fare any better as the Dogs scored two runs in each of the last four innings that they batted. Jeremy West led a balanced attack with four hits and three RBI, Tyler Minges had three hits, and Chris Durbin and Dusty Brown both had two hits, Brown's both being doubles. Jose Vaquedano was much more impressive than he was last Sunday. Vaquedano cruised through a perfect first three innings before having a bumpy, three-run fourth. He settled down again to finish with just the three runs allowed on four hits and two walks through 5.2 IP, impressively striking out 8 Thunders in the process. The other highlight on the afternoon was Little Papi, aka "wheels", stealing second base following a fourth inning single.