"If a tie is like kissing your sister, then losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out." - George Brett
The season is over............Crap. The end came at the hands of Ezequiel Astacio, a Round Rock pitcher who throws nothing straight and looks like a Chia Pet on steroids. In the first inning of Game Five of the American Conference Championship Series, Astacio threw a pitch that resembled a wiffle ball more than a hard ball that Chris Barnwell missed by a good two feet. It was not a sign of good things to come.
I could sit here and go over the list of things the Sounds could have done differently, but that would be Monday morning quarterbacking and short of convincing Doug Melvin to option Prince Fielder and Francisco Cordero and somehow trade for A-Rod and send him to Nashville. It's pretty much a moot point.
The Sounds played hard. Every day. Every game. And in the end that is the most you can ask of them. Life is not always fair, the line drives get caught, the bleeders get through and despite my best efforts, the DH still exists. The team accomplished a lot using the best defense in the PCL along with the best pitching staff, but a decidedly average offensive game. Yes, there were great players that came through Nashville, and the roster spot occupied at different points by Nelson Cruz, Laynce Nix and Drew Anderson hit a combined .328 with 28 homers and 93 RBI. Tony Gwynn and Chris Barnwell each hit .300 and Graham Koonce may have only hit .256, but he drove in 56 runs and belted 19 homers in a little more than half a season. But usually the offensive threats were in Nashville at different times during the season. We never had a middle of the order of Cruz, Nix and Koonce. Add in Rottino in the second half and Gwynn and Barnwell we might have actually won a few games by forfeit, the other team refusing to take the field.
There were many notable accomplishments and memories. Brent Abernathy and Jermaine Clark each reached the 1,000 hit milestone, Abernathy on a single to right versus Round Rock and Clark on a laugher check swing that rolled to a stop on the third base line.
We saw two players come out of nowhere to reach the big leagues. Chris Barnwell, who led all AAA shortstops with a .300 average, had his contract purchased in the first half. Rottino, the Pride of Racine, WI, changed his approach at the plate at the All-Star break and hit .312 before his call-up. Not bad for a young man who was on the verge of attending UW LaCrosse Pharmacy school before being signed out of an open try-out camp near Milwaukee.
We witnessed the close of a career cut short by injuries but a career that ended with a courageous complete game performance. A pitcher who decided to leave it all out on the mound one last time like a real-life version of "For Love of the Game". Justin Thompson knew it was going to be the last game of his career and he went out on his own terms.
We got to see journeyman Jared Fernandez reach 100 wins and 1,000 strikeouts in the same game. A knuckleballer who is viewed with the same suspicion as a beggar on the street by major league clubs, but only because we fear that which we do not know and nobody really knows were that knuckleball is going. Except, apparently, Fernandez.
We had the privelege of seeing the 5th no-hitter in Sounds history as Carlos Villanueva, Mike Meyers and Alec Zumwalt combined to no-hit the Memphis Redbirds on July 15th, 2006, the first combined no-hitter in Sounds history.
And of course Sounds fans got to see a team that stayed atop the division almost wire-to-wire. A team that commited a league low 100 errors, sported a league best 3.62 ERA and led the league by a wide margin with 196 stolen bases.
Many of the players Sounds fans got to see this year will not be back in the red and black of the Sounds uniform. Instead, they will be seen on a game televised across the country wearing the blue and gold of the Milwaukee Brewers. We have seen the last of players such as Cory Hart and Nelson Cruz. They have used Nashville to make the final step to every ballplayers dream, the Major Leagues, and now travel in the rarefied air of big league baseball.
Long may they run.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The More Things Change.......
"I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don't even get printed." -Bob Uecker
By the time the Sounds return from this roadtrip, the season will be almost over. Or not. The Sounds are currently on a 13 day 12 game roadtrip to Fresno, Sacramento and Albuquerque. When we return on August 15th, the Sounds will have only 12 home games left and 12 road games. When the Sounds return they will have a different looking roster than they did a month ago. When the Sounds return home (I apologize for hammering home the same sentence again and again but the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is on the TV in my hotel room and thats how all these induction ceremonies are presented, with constant repetition and over dramatic use of the same phrase over and over again. I also want to thank Tom Landry and Paul Tagliabue, the NFL Commissioner, for allowing me to be here today. And my mom.) they will likely still be in a fight for the Division title.
Last season the Sounds hit a wall at about the same velocity as a bug on a windshield. Hard. The difference being that last years Sounds survived that crash, losing 16 of 19 games yet hanging on to win the division by a game with two days left in t he regular season. The question will be whether this team can survive this years windshield approaching at 85 miles per hour.
I think they can. Triple-A teams lose players, usually the best ones to the big leagues. I'm glad they are gone as it gives players who have worked their butts off for years a chance to succeed at the top level and enjoy the benefits. Teams adjust. Many consider Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Corey Hart and pitchers like Rick Helling and Justin Leher and Jose Capellan to be the core of that championship tem. They did make huge HUGE contributions no doubt, but it was players like Tony Zuniga who drove in the winning run to win the division. It was Bret Evert who threw more than 3 innings of relief in extra innings to win the championship. Nelson Cruz, who started the year in Huntsville, won the PCL Championship Series with three homers including the three run shot in the top of the 13th inning of that final game. In the picture of the Nashville Sounds celebrating on the field it is those players that are holding the trophy high above their heads.
There have been changes to the team. Nelson Cruz was traded to the Rangers as part of the Carlos Lee deal and many Sounds fans including myself let out a collective "Oh....Crap." The Brewers received an A Ball pitcher we may see in a few years in Julian Cordero, outfielder Kevin Mench and reliever Francisco Cordero, big leaguers both. The Brewers also traded for Laynce Nix, an outfielder playing in Oklahoma City for the Redhawks. Nix? Didn't we get him out like....everytime when we played the Redhawks? We traded Cruz for THIS guy? Yeah, we did. Well, actually, Doug Melvin did. And, while Nelson Cruz is doing a fine job for the Rangers (3-for-9, 1 HR, 2 RBI) Laynce Nix is hitting the ball for Nashville like it stole something from him. He's hitting lefties and righties out of the park and as a veteran of 14 years in minor league baseball I can't think of another arm to throw at him. In Fresno alone he has had two late inning homers that have impacted the game and he is batting over .550 in six games with the Sounds and is smack in the middle of a 15 game hit streak. The only constant is change and sometimes that change is for the good.
Fresno. This is only my second time here at Grizzlies Stadium and its a nice facility. Good sightlines, its fairly new and the staff is friendly. And despite the fact the Nashville Sounds current Director of Sales Joe Hart used to be the GM here, the place is still standing. Just kidding Joe, though they do have a 'Glad Your Gone' Party every Thursday at Grizzlies Stadium and its their busiest day of the week. The hotel is pretty good as well. A Raddison nearby the ballpark that is pretty nice and accomodating. The good news about the hotel is that its within walking distance. The bad news is that you have to walk back to the hotel at night through downtown Fresno. Walking the five blocks from the ballpark to the hotel you sometimes feel the need to announce out loud, "Attention! Attention all would be muggers and serial killers! I am armed and I know karate and some other chinese words and if I whistle my combination Rottweiler Pit Bull Raiders fan will come running and he is trained to kill anybody that so much as looks at me funny! And he's flatulent!" Fresno's economy has improved since our last trip here but they have more than their fair share of people who are nuts. My first day here I needed directions to the ballpark and had to ask a man with a homeless sign hung around his neck. He was also apparently drunk. The conversation went something like this:
ME: Excuse me, can tell me how to get to Grizzlies Stadium?
HOMELESS MAN: WALLAPONIFIA! FELGUSPAR! DRAMAKILOGISUBAL!
ME: Grizzlies Stadium? The ballpark?
HOMELESS MAN: SATAN HYJOLOB! WUGGA BUGGA MUGGA ZIPLOC BAG!
ME: Thanks.
HOMELESS MAN: (GRUNTS).....(GRUNTS AGAIN)
Maybe the only constant is change but as equally true is the saying that the more things change the more things stay the same.
After Fresno its off to Sacramento then Albuquerque, a city with way too many Q's in its name and beautiful sunsets, and dust. Losts and lots of dust. You can't swing a dead cat in Albuwhatever with out hitting some dust and if you hit anything else you just cause more dust.
As always you can email me any questions or comments at:
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
By the time the Sounds return from this roadtrip, the season will be almost over. Or not. The Sounds are currently on a 13 day 12 game roadtrip to Fresno, Sacramento and Albuquerque. When we return on August 15th, the Sounds will have only 12 home games left and 12 road games. When the Sounds return they will have a different looking roster than they did a month ago. When the Sounds return home (I apologize for hammering home the same sentence again and again but the Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is on the TV in my hotel room and thats how all these induction ceremonies are presented, with constant repetition and over dramatic use of the same phrase over and over again. I also want to thank Tom Landry and Paul Tagliabue, the NFL Commissioner, for allowing me to be here today. And my mom.) they will likely still be in a fight for the Division title.
Last season the Sounds hit a wall at about the same velocity as a bug on a windshield. Hard. The difference being that last years Sounds survived that crash, losing 16 of 19 games yet hanging on to win the division by a game with two days left in t he regular season. The question will be whether this team can survive this years windshield approaching at 85 miles per hour.
I think they can. Triple-A teams lose players, usually the best ones to the big leagues. I'm glad they are gone as it gives players who have worked their butts off for years a chance to succeed at the top level and enjoy the benefits. Teams adjust. Many consider Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Corey Hart and pitchers like Rick Helling and Justin Leher and Jose Capellan to be the core of that championship tem. They did make huge HUGE contributions no doubt, but it was players like Tony Zuniga who drove in the winning run to win the division. It was Bret Evert who threw more than 3 innings of relief in extra innings to win the championship. Nelson Cruz, who started the year in Huntsville, won the PCL Championship Series with three homers including the three run shot in the top of the 13th inning of that final game. In the picture of the Nashville Sounds celebrating on the field it is those players that are holding the trophy high above their heads.
There have been changes to the team. Nelson Cruz was traded to the Rangers as part of the Carlos Lee deal and many Sounds fans including myself let out a collective "Oh....Crap." The Brewers received an A Ball pitcher we may see in a few years in Julian Cordero, outfielder Kevin Mench and reliever Francisco Cordero, big leaguers both. The Brewers also traded for Laynce Nix, an outfielder playing in Oklahoma City for the Redhawks. Nix? Didn't we get him out like....everytime when we played the Redhawks? We traded Cruz for THIS guy? Yeah, we did. Well, actually, Doug Melvin did. And, while Nelson Cruz is doing a fine job for the Rangers (3-for-9, 1 HR, 2 RBI) Laynce Nix is hitting the ball for Nashville like it stole something from him. He's hitting lefties and righties out of the park and as a veteran of 14 years in minor league baseball I can't think of another arm to throw at him. In Fresno alone he has had two late inning homers that have impacted the game and he is batting over .550 in six games with the Sounds and is smack in the middle of a 15 game hit streak. The only constant is change and sometimes that change is for the good.
Fresno. This is only my second time here at Grizzlies Stadium and its a nice facility. Good sightlines, its fairly new and the staff is friendly. And despite the fact the Nashville Sounds current Director of Sales Joe Hart used to be the GM here, the place is still standing. Just kidding Joe, though they do have a 'Glad Your Gone' Party every Thursday at Grizzlies Stadium and its their busiest day of the week. The hotel is pretty good as well. A Raddison nearby the ballpark that is pretty nice and accomodating. The good news about the hotel is that its within walking distance. The bad news is that you have to walk back to the hotel at night through downtown Fresno. Walking the five blocks from the ballpark to the hotel you sometimes feel the need to announce out loud, "Attention! Attention all would be muggers and serial killers! I am armed and I know karate and some other chinese words and if I whistle my combination Rottweiler Pit Bull Raiders fan will come running and he is trained to kill anybody that so much as looks at me funny! And he's flatulent!" Fresno's economy has improved since our last trip here but they have more than their fair share of people who are nuts. My first day here I needed directions to the ballpark and had to ask a man with a homeless sign hung around his neck. He was also apparently drunk. The conversation went something like this:
ME: Excuse me, can tell me how to get to Grizzlies Stadium?
HOMELESS MAN: WALLAPONIFIA! FELGUSPAR! DRAMAKILOGISUBAL!
ME: Grizzlies Stadium? The ballpark?
HOMELESS MAN: SATAN HYJOLOB! WUGGA BUGGA MUGGA ZIPLOC BAG!
ME: Thanks.
HOMELESS MAN: (GRUNTS).....(GRUNTS AGAIN)
Maybe the only constant is change but as equally true is the saying that the more things change the more things stay the same.
After Fresno its off to Sacramento then Albuquerque, a city with way too many Q's in its name and beautiful sunsets, and dust. Losts and lots of dust. You can't swing a dead cat in Albuwhatever with out hitting some dust and if you hit anything else you just cause more dust.
As always you can email me any questions or comments at:
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Thursday, July 13, 2006
The All Star Break is Over, Let's Get Back to Work
Warning, this blog will ramble like Marlon Brando on Zoloft.
The All Star Break is over and the Sounds went into the break with a record of 47-42 and a three games and shrinking lead over the Iowa Cubs. The same problem that Frank Kremblas is about to beat my head in over, I ask it every time I interview him, is still there. That would be the Sounds puzzling inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Its not as if these guys have NEVER been able to hit with ducks on the pond. 'The Pride of Racine' Vinny Rottino (I still think thats a pretty cool nickname) is hitting around a buck-fifty with RISP, he also set a Brwers minor league record with 120 plus RBI's a couple years ago. He knows how to drive runs in. The Sounds need a game where they get all cylinders firing : offense, defense and pitching. Voila! The first game back from the All Star break the Sounds win 8-0! Jared Fernandez throws a five hit shutout, the Sounds rap out 12 hits (many with two strikes) and the Sounds play error free ball. The Memphis Redbirds were so thrown out of their game that they had two players, a coach and a manager ejected for argiung balls and strikes. I don't think I've ever been so excited about hitting ground balls through the hole the opposite way ever. Fernandez had his knuckleball dancing all over and by the end of the game it was moonwalking. THIS is a good sign.
The AAA All-Star Game was not so enjoyable. Ben Hendrickson gave up three unearned runs to get the loss and the Sounds hitters were a combined 0-for-6. The PCL had a total of two hits, count'em, two hits in the game. Thats like....two more than me, and I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the time. I will say that Jim Weber, Toledo's broadcaster, and Mike Curto, the Tacoma broadcaster, both did an excellent job. I did get a chance to watch the Major League All-Star Game, otherwise known as........The All-Star Game, and I have to admit, the game almost matters. Back in the 60's All-Stars would play nine innings just because they hated the other league and free agency did not move players around as much as it does now. Lets face it, we will never again see a runner bulldoze a catcher like Pete Rose did to Jim Fosse again, but thisa game had some hints of that. Beltran stealing third, Michael Young's two out two strike triple to give the AL the lead. What was most encouraging was what I did not see. Batters acting like Shriners clowns in their at bat as Larry Walker did vs. Randy Johnson. That was evidentiary display numer one that the game does not matter, when you can't even be bothered to wear your helmet with the bill forward. MLB is on the right track. A portion of the All-Star team truly cares how the game ends. The only flaw is the "every team must be represented" rule. How would you like to be an All-Star for the Chicago White Sox or the Detroit Tigers and have home field advantage for a World Series you might be part of determined by Mark Redman of The Kanssas City Royals. I wouldn't be surprised to see A.J. Pierzynski charge the mound with his own pitcher on there. Do you think Redman really gives two hoots and a holler if the White Sox have home field advantage?
****Shameless Plug Alert!****
There is a Sounds connection so don't get your knickers in a wad. One of the funniest guys on the comedy circuit today is Keith Alberstadt. He's a Nashville native you can hear once in a while on XM's Comedy Channel 150. He is also a former Sounds Account Executive and he has a website, www.keithcomedy.com. He is hilarious and he still pays full price for Sounds tickets.
For those of you wondering how I spent the All Star break........I discovered cold fusion. So far, besides keeping my beer cold it has very little practical use.
The All Star Break is over and the Sounds went into the break with a record of 47-42 and a three games and shrinking lead over the Iowa Cubs. The same problem that Frank Kremblas is about to beat my head in over, I ask it every time I interview him, is still there. That would be the Sounds puzzling inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Its not as if these guys have NEVER been able to hit with ducks on the pond. 'The Pride of Racine' Vinny Rottino (I still think thats a pretty cool nickname) is hitting around a buck-fifty with RISP, he also set a Brwers minor league record with 120 plus RBI's a couple years ago. He knows how to drive runs in. The Sounds need a game where they get all cylinders firing : offense, defense and pitching. Voila! The first game back from the All Star break the Sounds win 8-0! Jared Fernandez throws a five hit shutout, the Sounds rap out 12 hits (many with two strikes) and the Sounds play error free ball. The Memphis Redbirds were so thrown out of their game that they had two players, a coach and a manager ejected for argiung balls and strikes. I don't think I've ever been so excited about hitting ground balls through the hole the opposite way ever. Fernandez had his knuckleball dancing all over and by the end of the game it was moonwalking. THIS is a good sign.
The AAA All-Star Game was not so enjoyable. Ben Hendrickson gave up three unearned runs to get the loss and the Sounds hitters were a combined 0-for-6. The PCL had a total of two hits, count'em, two hits in the game. Thats like....two more than me, and I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the time. I will say that Jim Weber, Toledo's broadcaster, and Mike Curto, the Tacoma broadcaster, both did an excellent job. I did get a chance to watch the Major League All-Star Game, otherwise known as........The All-Star Game, and I have to admit, the game almost matters. Back in the 60's All-Stars would play nine innings just because they hated the other league and free agency did not move players around as much as it does now. Lets face it, we will never again see a runner bulldoze a catcher like Pete Rose did to Jim Fosse again, but thisa game had some hints of that. Beltran stealing third, Michael Young's two out two strike triple to give the AL the lead. What was most encouraging was what I did not see. Batters acting like Shriners clowns in their at bat as Larry Walker did vs. Randy Johnson. That was evidentiary display numer one that the game does not matter, when you can't even be bothered to wear your helmet with the bill forward. MLB is on the right track. A portion of the All-Star team truly cares how the game ends. The only flaw is the "every team must be represented" rule. How would you like to be an All-Star for the Chicago White Sox or the Detroit Tigers and have home field advantage for a World Series you might be part of determined by Mark Redman of The Kanssas City Royals. I wouldn't be surprised to see A.J. Pierzynski charge the mound with his own pitcher on there. Do you think Redman really gives two hoots and a holler if the White Sox have home field advantage?
****Shameless Plug Alert!****
There is a Sounds connection so don't get your knickers in a wad. One of the funniest guys on the comedy circuit today is Keith Alberstadt. He's a Nashville native you can hear once in a while on XM's Comedy Channel 150. He is also a former Sounds Account Executive and he has a website, www.keithcomedy.com. He is hilarious and he still pays full price for Sounds tickets.
For those of you wondering how I spent the All Star break........I discovered cold fusion. So far, besides keeping my beer cold it has very little practical use.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Yeah, We gotsa chance. We gotsa GOOD chance.
"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing... I told him I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."
Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th U.S. President.
We've got a good chance. I can't think of any other way around it. I look at our roster and our libeup day after day and I see a team that does a lot of the little things right, like turning the double play or taking out the opposing second baseman on a double play and you think, "We've got a chance ." This team knows how to win. Of the 24 players on the Nashville Sounds roster, 16 of those players have been part of AAA championship teams in the last three years. If the Sounds were to show up at the airport with all of their championship hardware, you'd think Lil' John and his entourage had arrived with all the bling. The latest and maybe the most obvious example that the Brewers do value winning at the minor league level was the signing of Graham Koonce, a first baseman of prodigious power who routinely does to baseballs what Tyson did to Michael Spinks. Koonce was a major cog in the back to back championships that Sacramento won in 2003 (beating the Sounds three straight) and 2004 and was even the PCL league MVP in 2003. You probably never saw his name in lights with the Oakland A's because they had another slugger named Jason Giambi playing first base and then Dan Johnson moved into the neighborhood. At the very least I still think Koonce could have been a 20 homer guy in Oakland.
Look around the Sounds clubhouse and you'll see players from last years championship such as Chris Barnwell and Mike Meyers who quiwetly go about their work and in the case of Meyers, come up with a big game when they most need it from the pen or, in the case of Barnwell, anchor a Sounds defense that make the impossible plays seem routine. Its odd that champion is originally a french word, since the French have never won a World Series and haven't really won anything since Charlemagne was the head coach. In fact, the French have won as many wars in the last 100 years as....I have.
Back to the Sounds. One thing that most clubhouses have are clubhouse leaders. These are the guys who lead by example in the way they prepare for a game, the way they conduct themselves on the field and off, and always make sure that the guys are playing the game the right way. Their the ones who organize Kangaroo Court, tell a young player to wash their shirt, etc. They are also the ones who will take a player aside who maybe didn't run out a ground ball as hard as they should have and remind them that there is most likely somebody in AA just as talented who WILL run out that grounder. The Sounds clubhouse is full of these type of leaders. Clark, Johnson, Abernathy and until he retired, Justin Thompson. I will admit, in the last two years I have yet to see a Sounds player dog it on a ground ball or pop up so being a clubhouse leader for this group may be a pretty cush job. When you have a group of guys who know what it takes to win, the little things get done with no questions asked.
The team is off for two days, Monday is the Nashville Sounds CMT annual Charity Golf Tournament is Monday the 19th with proceeds going to the Nashville Sounds Foundation which benefits youth baseball, education, and literacy in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. I will not be playing as I am to golf, what fish are to bicycling. Instead I will be building a picnic table so that I will be able to write these blogs in the 99 degree outdoor comfort of my backyard. Tuesday I will most likely be heading to Home Depot to BUY a picnic table that has four legs instead of three and does not list at a a 45 degree angle. Wednesday its off to Round Rock, TX to play the Round Rock Express in a five game series. Round Rock is a great place to play and visit, though I have yet to have a chance to travel to 6th Street in nearby Austin, TX, the place where Stevie Ray Vaughn cut his teeth and became the "Texas Tornado" on guitar and somehow channeled the spirit of Jimi Hendrix until his untimely death in 1990. Unfortunately by the time the game is over, I get back to the hotel and make the 30 minute drive to Austin, I have about as much time to grab a beer and listen to some great live music as a NASCAR pitstop. Luckily there is a nice little steakhouse nearby that does not turn their nose up if I wear jeans and eat at the bar because thats where the TV with the ballgame is on.
In case you were wondering, the Brevard County Manatees are second in the Florida State League in hitting. Their hitting coach? Former Sound Corey D. Hart.
Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th U.S. President.
We've got a good chance. I can't think of any other way around it. I look at our roster and our libeup day after day and I see a team that does a lot of the little things right, like turning the double play or taking out the opposing second baseman on a double play and you think, "We've got a chance ." This team knows how to win. Of the 24 players on the Nashville Sounds roster, 16 of those players have been part of AAA championship teams in the last three years. If the Sounds were to show up at the airport with all of their championship hardware, you'd think Lil' John and his entourage had arrived with all the bling. The latest and maybe the most obvious example that the Brewers do value winning at the minor league level was the signing of Graham Koonce, a first baseman of prodigious power who routinely does to baseballs what Tyson did to Michael Spinks. Koonce was a major cog in the back to back championships that Sacramento won in 2003 (beating the Sounds three straight) and 2004 and was even the PCL league MVP in 2003. You probably never saw his name in lights with the Oakland A's because they had another slugger named Jason Giambi playing first base and then Dan Johnson moved into the neighborhood. At the very least I still think Koonce could have been a 20 homer guy in Oakland.
Look around the Sounds clubhouse and you'll see players from last years championship such as Chris Barnwell and Mike Meyers who quiwetly go about their work and in the case of Meyers, come up with a big game when they most need it from the pen or, in the case of Barnwell, anchor a Sounds defense that make the impossible plays seem routine. Its odd that champion is originally a french word, since the French have never won a World Series and haven't really won anything since Charlemagne was the head coach. In fact, the French have won as many wars in the last 100 years as....I have.
Back to the Sounds. One thing that most clubhouses have are clubhouse leaders. These are the guys who lead by example in the way they prepare for a game, the way they conduct themselves on the field and off, and always make sure that the guys are playing the game the right way. Their the ones who organize Kangaroo Court, tell a young player to wash their shirt, etc. They are also the ones who will take a player aside who maybe didn't run out a ground ball as hard as they should have and remind them that there is most likely somebody in AA just as talented who WILL run out that grounder. The Sounds clubhouse is full of these type of leaders. Clark, Johnson, Abernathy and until he retired, Justin Thompson. I will admit, in the last two years I have yet to see a Sounds player dog it on a ground ball or pop up so being a clubhouse leader for this group may be a pretty cush job. When you have a group of guys who know what it takes to win, the little things get done with no questions asked.
The team is off for two days, Monday is the Nashville Sounds CMT annual Charity Golf Tournament is Monday the 19th with proceeds going to the Nashville Sounds Foundation which benefits youth baseball, education, and literacy in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. I will not be playing as I am to golf, what fish are to bicycling. Instead I will be building a picnic table so that I will be able to write these blogs in the 99 degree outdoor comfort of my backyard. Tuesday I will most likely be heading to Home Depot to BUY a picnic table that has four legs instead of three and does not list at a a 45 degree angle. Wednesday its off to Round Rock, TX to play the Round Rock Express in a five game series. Round Rock is a great place to play and visit, though I have yet to have a chance to travel to 6th Street in nearby Austin, TX, the place where Stevie Ray Vaughn cut his teeth and became the "Texas Tornado" on guitar and somehow channeled the spirit of Jimi Hendrix until his untimely death in 1990. Unfortunately by the time the game is over, I get back to the hotel and make the 30 minute drive to Austin, I have about as much time to grab a beer and listen to some great live music as a NASCAR pitstop. Luckily there is a nice little steakhouse nearby that does not turn their nose up if I wear jeans and eat at the bar because thats where the TV with the ballgame is on.
In case you were wondering, the Brevard County Manatees are second in the Florida State League in hitting. Their hitting coach? Former Sound Corey D. Hart.
Why Fathers Day and Baseball Go Together
Almost every kid has a story like mine. The story involves them and their father and baseball. For me, I have a bunch of them. I remember growing up outside Chicago and on weekends, before I could go play baseball with other neighborhood kids at the nearby junior high school, I had to help my dad in the yard. My bedroom faced the back and my dad would usually tell me to put the radio in my window. It was an AM radio with a big dial and it was green. The dial would be tuned to AM 720 WGN, the home of the Cubs. Jack Brickhouse would be calling the game along with Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau. I'd be in the backyard with my dad cutting the grass, weeding the lawn, turning over dirt in the garden or pruning an apple tree that manged to produce apples only once in the 16 years it was in the ground. Sometimes the yard work was done around my little league schedule. My dad never managed a team I was on, but he almost always coached first base. Anyways, we'd be in the back yard and then you would hear Vince Lloyd yelling after Billy Williams or Rick Monday ripped a homer into the bleachers. My dad would stop what he was doing and look at me because he knew what was coming next. I would drop the rake/shovel/lawn mower and tear into the house and run to the TV, turning on WGN Channel 9 (before it was a superstation) and watch the cheap HEY! HEY! CG graphic flash on the screen as Jack Brickhouse celebrated along with the rest of Chicago.
There were plenty of other stories. Playing catch out front with my dad, which usually resulted in him running up South Milton Avenue multiple times after my errant throws. I remember hanging out with grown ups one day in the backyard. My fathers parents had come to visit from Scranton, PA and they were sitting in the backyard having a beer and smoking. My grandfather was a pretty unlikable fellow who scared the living bejeesus out of me and it still amazes me that my dad and his sisters turned out to be extremely nice people. I don't really think that my dad was very fond of him, but they would still sit out back and talk about the Red Sox. Both were Sox fans, mainly because the Red Sox for years had a farm team in Scranton. My dad said he once saw Ted Williams go five-for-five in an exhibition game. Despite their differences they could still communicate through baseball.
My favorite memories of my dad were rainy weekends. If it were raining and the little league games were cancelled and we (aka, me) couldn't mow the lawn, my dad would grab a beer, a pack of cigarettes a radio and a lawn chair and sit in the garage with the door open and listen to the Cubs play if they were on the road. I would sometimes go out there with him with a soda, a lawn chair, and no cigarettes and listen to the game with him while the thunder boomed in the distance and the rain came pouring down. If the Cubs were in Philly my dad would usually remind me that he had seen the Phillies growing up and that he thought Mike Schmidt was a pretty good player. I never knew how glad I would be later in life for those moments with my dad. My father passesd away in 1990 at the far too young age of 54. I like to think that he's sitting in a garage somewhere while a storm rages outside listening to Jack Brickhouse yell "Hey! Hey!" as a Cub hits another homer.
Happy Fathers Day and I promise I'll write about the Sounds soon.
There were plenty of other stories. Playing catch out front with my dad, which usually resulted in him running up South Milton Avenue multiple times after my errant throws. I remember hanging out with grown ups one day in the backyard. My fathers parents had come to visit from Scranton, PA and they were sitting in the backyard having a beer and smoking. My grandfather was a pretty unlikable fellow who scared the living bejeesus out of me and it still amazes me that my dad and his sisters turned out to be extremely nice people. I don't really think that my dad was very fond of him, but they would still sit out back and talk about the Red Sox. Both were Sox fans, mainly because the Red Sox for years had a farm team in Scranton. My dad said he once saw Ted Williams go five-for-five in an exhibition game. Despite their differences they could still communicate through baseball.
My favorite memories of my dad were rainy weekends. If it were raining and the little league games were cancelled and we (aka, me) couldn't mow the lawn, my dad would grab a beer, a pack of cigarettes a radio and a lawn chair and sit in the garage with the door open and listen to the Cubs play if they were on the road. I would sometimes go out there with him with a soda, a lawn chair, and no cigarettes and listen to the game with him while the thunder boomed in the distance and the rain came pouring down. If the Cubs were in Philly my dad would usually remind me that he had seen the Phillies growing up and that he thought Mike Schmidt was a pretty good player. I never knew how glad I would be later in life for those moments with my dad. My father passesd away in 1990 at the far too young age of 54. I like to think that he's sitting in a garage somewhere while a storm rages outside listening to Jack Brickhouse yell "Hey! Hey!" as a Cub hits another homer.
Happy Fathers Day and I promise I'll write about the Sounds soon.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The next new supplement will be.....SPINACH!
That's right, spinach. As case number one on the detrimental effects of spinach I present Exhibit A. We'll call him "Popeye" He already has abnormally large forearms and a malformed chin that can only be had through supplement abuse. Sportswriters have noticed in the last few years how Popeye's arms turn into sledgehammers and his biceps start waving around with battleship guns firing akimbo during times of great stress.
Tongues were wagging in clubhouses all over the league."The trainers put the stuff out like its candy! You can get it with a little vinegar (the 'clear') or get it with a little queso (the 'cream'). The effects of the "Jolly Green Giant", as it is known, are almost immediate. One unamed source described the effects. "Usually you'll see Popeye out there getting hammered on the mound. He just couldn't get much on his fast ball, his curveball had no bite and somebody had dropped a piano on his head. Then he sneaks off and ingests some spinach and it's Katy-bar-the-door!" According to researchers Spinach causes massive growth of forearm muscles and in tests increased velocity on fastballs by 130 mph and batters were able to hit the ball two miles farther. Unlke HGH however, it has no effect on eyesight, "Every time he takes the spinach he winds up with Olive Oyl, what's up with that?" one unamed player was quoted.
Major League Baseball released this statement a few days ago in regards to the increased use of spinach:
Spinach first made the headlines when the IRS served a warrant to a player named in court documents only as "Wimpy" after spinach was intercepted in transit from your grocers freezer. The case against "Wimpy" involved non-payment of taxes and was resolved before trial when "Wimpy" promised to gladly pay them back Tuesday.
League officials were careful to note that the use of spinach was still not commonpplace and that spinach only seemed to work if you were playing against David Wells, aka "Bluto".
Tongues were wagging in clubhouses all over the league."The trainers put the stuff out like its candy! You can get it with a little vinegar (the 'clear') or get it with a little queso (the 'cream'). The effects of the "Jolly Green Giant", as it is known, are almost immediate. One unamed source described the effects. "Usually you'll see Popeye out there getting hammered on the mound. He just couldn't get much on his fast ball, his curveball had no bite and somebody had dropped a piano on his head. Then he sneaks off and ingests some spinach and it's Katy-bar-the-door!" According to researchers Spinach causes massive growth of forearm muscles and in tests increased velocity on fastballs by 130 mph and batters were able to hit the ball two miles farther. Unlke HGH however, it has no effect on eyesight, "Every time he takes the spinach he winds up with Olive Oyl, what's up with that?" one unamed player was quoted.
Major League Baseball released this statement a few days ago in regards to the increased use of spinach:
Major League Baseball has had record attendance for two years running and may set another record this year. It's early, but pennant and wild-card races are competitive throughout our divisions. Baseball is enjoying a golden age of fan support and excitement. Our great game has never been more popular.
Yet, despite the good news in Baseball, there are problems. I was disappointed and angered by revelations that a Major League player had acknowledged using spinach (Jolly Green Giant), a performance-enhancing substance banned by Major League Baseball, and had said that others were using spinach as well.
Seven-hundred-fifty great athletes play Major League Baseball. The overwhelming majority are hard-working, honorable individuals, except David Wells, who play to win the right way. But among the seven-hundred-fifty, there have been and still are those who would cheat the game to gain an advantage. They hurt not only themselves, but they unfairly raise questions about the integrity of their teammates who play by the rules and they violate the trust placed in them by you, the fans. These players who use performing-enhancing substances such as spinach offend all of us who care for the game and I will not tolerate their actions. Unless they can still throw 95.
Spinach first made the headlines when the IRS served a warrant to a player named in court documents only as "Wimpy" after spinach was intercepted in transit from your grocers freezer. The case against "Wimpy" involved non-payment of taxes and was resolved before trial when "Wimpy" promised to gladly pay them back Tuesday.
League officials were careful to note that the use of spinach was still not commonpplace and that spinach only seemed to work if you were playing against David Wells, aka "Bluto".
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Take The Time To Remember
Elmer Gedeon
Harry O'Neill
Herman Bauer
Fred Beal
Lefty Brewer
Merrill Brown
Ordway Cisgen
Howie DeMartini
Harold Dobson
Frank Faudem
Robert Gary
Conrad Graff
Alan Grant
Nay Hernandez
Robert Holmes
Gordon Houston
Ernie Hrovatic
Harry Imhoff
Art Keller
Lester Kirkkala
Walt Lake
Walt Loos
Henry Martinez
John McKee
Marcus Milligan
John Muller
George Myers
Walt Navie
William Niemeyer
Hank Nowak
John Ogden (front office)
Jack Patteson
Charlie Percod
Metro Persoskie
Joe Pinder
Robert Price
Ernie Raimondi
Mike Sambolich
Bill Sarver
Ed Schohl
Frank Schulz
Marshall Sneed
Rod Sooter
Billy Southworth Jr.
Earl Springer
Gene Stack
Sylvester Sturges
John Tayler
Jimmie Trimble
Wirt Twitchell
Lewis Varanese
Art Vivian
Elmer Wachtler
Roman Wantuck
James Whitfield
Elmer Wright
Marion Young
Can anybody tell me who these people are? Almost all the names here had little or no notoriety except to their familes and hometowns. The list above is a partial list of major league, Negro league and minor league players who died during WWII. The list does not even include those who died in WWI such as Captain Eddie Grant, who played for the Cleveland Spiders, the Phillies, the Reds and the Giants, who was killed in the Argonne Forest in 1918 while on a rescue mission to save the 'Lost Battallion'. Nor does it include Dodgers minor leaguer Carl Tumlinson who was killed in action on April 7th, 1952, what should have been Opening Day, while serving in Korea. On June 1st, 1968, ,the same day the Atlanta Braves were getting pounded by the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 at Forbes Field, Braves minor leaguer Udell Chambers lost his life in a rocket attack near DaNang in Vietnam.
As we celebrate this Memorial Day Weekend with a barbeque, family and friends, please take time to remember those who served and gave their lives in service to their country. Whether they were ballplayers or not, whether you agree with the cause, conduct or command decisions of the war, please remember that almost all of those who died giving "The Last Full Measure" died doing their duty for something they believed in.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last season the Nashville Sounds did not have their 32nd roster move until July 17th, something this years Nashville Sounds accomplished in a month and a half less time. Usuaally, this is not a good thing. Stability in a roster usually means the guys are getting the job done and there is a much better opportunity to gel and bond as a team than if you have a constant shuttle between farm clubs. Despite the increase in transactions from last year, the Sounds still have a comparitively stable roster compared with many teams. The Brewers made some moves to try and shore up their pen, calling up Joe Winklesas from AA as well as sending down Ben Hendrickson, Justin Lehr and Chris Demaria. While these moves are great for Joe and bad for Justin, Ben and Chris, they do help the Sounds out quite a bit. Lehr was designated for assignment by Milwaukee and upon his return to Nashville, was put in the starting rotation and threw five solid innings. Many of you may remember that last season Lehr was in the Nashville pen and Jose Capellan was in the Sounds rotation. When those two switched roles, they both took off and Lehr became one of the best starters on the team. As for Ben Hendrickson, his demotion was unfortunate. Anytime a team tells you that you are going down your confidence takes a hit. In this case it was the second time for Ben but the Brewers were very adamant in telling everyone that Ben figures into their future. Ben had three bad starts, but did show promise in relief and showed he has the stuff to be in the bigs. Down here his stuff is electric and he has been much more effective because his confidence at AAA is much higher. After his one hit outing last week, there were some grumblings that Ben was a Four-A player. PFFFFTTT!!! is all I have to say to that. A Four-A player has good enough stuff to get AAA guys out but not big leaguers. Ben has big league stuff. His problem is apparently mental. He even admitted that he has trouble with the first inning. Once he conquers that he will be back in Milwaukee.
I apologize for not writing a blog about Tucson and Vegas, but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Though I think I might be married now, I can't remember. Suffice it to say that Vegas was hot. Pitchfork-and-horned-upper-management hot. As for the games, while the saying goes, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" the same can not be applied to Cashman Field. "What is thrown in Cashman Field does NOT stay in Cashman Field". As for Tucson, it was also mind numbingly hot. Nelson Cruz did apparently find a really good Cuban restaurant, but it was so hot the memory of the restaurant name melted on the asphalt. I did manage to find a Mexican restaurant nearby for a Sunday (okay, Thursday) brunch and it was not Taco Bell. My server kept reccomending I try a Mexican Chardonnay Mimosa. White wine and OJ, hmmmmmm.....No. I know a little about wine and I am pretty sure that unless its champagne, mixing wine and juice is pretty awful. If you have to mix Tropicana in your chardonnay thats a bad sign. I asked the server about the white wine from the Chihuahua, Mexico
"The orange juice is good."
I'll pass.
I'm writing this blog from the press box of Principal Park in Des Moines, IA. The Sounds are leading the Cubs 3-0 in the top of the fourth. Brad Nelson has already homered twice and it's nice to see Brad get some good whacks at the ball. Not to mention he is doing it in front of his family from nearby Algona, IA.....Mark Johnson just hit a two run shot woohooo! The game is not being aired due to the Vandy SEC game on WNSR and a technical glitch with the Iowa network server that won't allow us to webcast the game either. This despite the best efforts of the Sounds own computer guru, Alex Short and the Iowa Cubs technical network experts as well. I guess my laptop is the Ozzie Smith (old, no power) to the Iowa Cubs Tony LaRussa. They just can't work together.
Some listener email:
from Matthew Bond: "On a different subject, what was the curfew rule that halted the Cinco de Mayo marathon at 18 innings?"
Thanks for the email Matt. Minor League Baseball does not allow any inning to start after 12:50 AM. It's a little known rule and was not really applied until about 1:15 AM. The Sounds were still tied with New Orleans 4-4 after 18 innings. The game was completed the next day after 24 innings, the Sounds lost 5-4. The game was the third longest in professional history at eight hours and seven minutes total. Oh, and the Sounds and the Zephyrs had to play another game right after that the same night they completed the 24 inning game.
Mike Valentine wrote: "I was looking over the Brewers website and noticed that Cory Hart is a coach for the Brewers A ball team in Brevard County. Is that Cory D.
Hart?"
Yep. Thats right Mike. Corey D. Hart was released in spring training and at the same time offered a coaching position as the hitting coach for the Brewers Single A club in the Florida State League. It's been a good year for Corey, he got a championship ring, a new career, he met and married a good friend of mine, Stacey Peterson (now Stacey Hart) and they are expecting a baby.
Thanks for the hellos to snmartin@chorus.net, as well as Molly, Ryan, Jesse Eichorn and Gator Jay.
Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend
Harry O'Neill
Herman Bauer
Fred Beal
Lefty Brewer
Merrill Brown
Ordway Cisgen
Howie DeMartini
Harold Dobson
Frank Faudem
Robert Gary
Conrad Graff
Alan Grant
Nay Hernandez
Robert Holmes
Gordon Houston
Ernie Hrovatic
Harry Imhoff
Art Keller
Lester Kirkkala
Walt Lake
Walt Loos
Henry Martinez
John McKee
Marcus Milligan
John Muller
George Myers
Walt Navie
William Niemeyer
Hank Nowak
John Ogden (front office)
Jack Patteson
Charlie Percod
Metro Persoskie
Joe Pinder
Robert Price
Ernie Raimondi
Mike Sambolich
Bill Sarver
Ed Schohl
Frank Schulz
Marshall Sneed
Rod Sooter
Billy Southworth Jr.
Earl Springer
Gene Stack
Sylvester Sturges
John Tayler
Jimmie Trimble
Wirt Twitchell
Lewis Varanese
Art Vivian
Elmer Wachtler
Roman Wantuck
James Whitfield
Elmer Wright
Marion Young
Can anybody tell me who these people are? Almost all the names here had little or no notoriety except to their familes and hometowns. The list above is a partial list of major league, Negro league and minor league players who died during WWII. The list does not even include those who died in WWI such as Captain Eddie Grant, who played for the Cleveland Spiders, the Phillies, the Reds and the Giants, who was killed in the Argonne Forest in 1918 while on a rescue mission to save the 'Lost Battallion'. Nor does it include Dodgers minor leaguer Carl Tumlinson who was killed in action on April 7th, 1952, what should have been Opening Day, while serving in Korea. On June 1st, 1968, ,the same day the Atlanta Braves were getting pounded by the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 at Forbes Field, Braves minor leaguer Udell Chambers lost his life in a rocket attack near DaNang in Vietnam.
As we celebrate this Memorial Day Weekend with a barbeque, family and friends, please take time to remember those who served and gave their lives in service to their country. Whether they were ballplayers or not, whether you agree with the cause, conduct or command decisions of the war, please remember that almost all of those who died giving "The Last Full Measure" died doing their duty for something they believed in.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last season the Nashville Sounds did not have their 32nd roster move until July 17th, something this years Nashville Sounds accomplished in a month and a half less time. Usuaally, this is not a good thing. Stability in a roster usually means the guys are getting the job done and there is a much better opportunity to gel and bond as a team than if you have a constant shuttle between farm clubs. Despite the increase in transactions from last year, the Sounds still have a comparitively stable roster compared with many teams. The Brewers made some moves to try and shore up their pen, calling up Joe Winklesas from AA as well as sending down Ben Hendrickson, Justin Lehr and Chris Demaria. While these moves are great for Joe and bad for Justin, Ben and Chris, they do help the Sounds out quite a bit. Lehr was designated for assignment by Milwaukee and upon his return to Nashville, was put in the starting rotation and threw five solid innings. Many of you may remember that last season Lehr was in the Nashville pen and Jose Capellan was in the Sounds rotation. When those two switched roles, they both took off and Lehr became one of the best starters on the team. As for Ben Hendrickson, his demotion was unfortunate. Anytime a team tells you that you are going down your confidence takes a hit. In this case it was the second time for Ben but the Brewers were very adamant in telling everyone that Ben figures into their future. Ben had three bad starts, but did show promise in relief and showed he has the stuff to be in the bigs. Down here his stuff is electric and he has been much more effective because his confidence at AAA is much higher. After his one hit outing last week, there were some grumblings that Ben was a Four-A player. PFFFFTTT!!! is all I have to say to that. A Four-A player has good enough stuff to get AAA guys out but not big leaguers. Ben has big league stuff. His problem is apparently mental. He even admitted that he has trouble with the first inning. Once he conquers that he will be back in Milwaukee.
I apologize for not writing a blog about Tucson and Vegas, but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Though I think I might be married now, I can't remember. Suffice it to say that Vegas was hot. Pitchfork-and-horned-upper-management hot. As for the games, while the saying goes, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" the same can not be applied to Cashman Field. "What is thrown in Cashman Field does NOT stay in Cashman Field". As for Tucson, it was also mind numbingly hot. Nelson Cruz did apparently find a really good Cuban restaurant, but it was so hot the memory of the restaurant name melted on the asphalt. I did manage to find a Mexican restaurant nearby for a Sunday (okay, Thursday) brunch and it was not Taco Bell. My server kept reccomending I try a Mexican Chardonnay Mimosa. White wine and OJ, hmmmmmm.....No. I know a little about wine and I am pretty sure that unless its champagne, mixing wine and juice is pretty awful. If you have to mix Tropicana in your chardonnay thats a bad sign. I asked the server about the white wine from the Chihuahua, Mexico
"The orange juice is good."
I'll pass.
I'm writing this blog from the press box of Principal Park in Des Moines, IA. The Sounds are leading the Cubs 3-0 in the top of the fourth. Brad Nelson has already homered twice and it's nice to see Brad get some good whacks at the ball. Not to mention he is doing it in front of his family from nearby Algona, IA.....Mark Johnson just hit a two run shot woohooo! The game is not being aired due to the Vandy SEC game on WNSR and a technical glitch with the Iowa network server that won't allow us to webcast the game either. This despite the best efforts of the Sounds own computer guru, Alex Short and the Iowa Cubs technical network experts as well. I guess my laptop is the Ozzie Smith (old, no power) to the Iowa Cubs Tony LaRussa. They just can't work together.
Some listener email:
from Matthew Bond: "On a different subject, what was the curfew rule that halted the Cinco de Mayo marathon at 18 innings?"
Thanks for the email Matt. Minor League Baseball does not allow any inning to start after 12:50 AM. It's a little known rule and was not really applied until about 1:15 AM. The Sounds were still tied with New Orleans 4-4 after 18 innings. The game was completed the next day after 24 innings, the Sounds lost 5-4. The game was the third longest in professional history at eight hours and seven minutes total. Oh, and the Sounds and the Zephyrs had to play another game right after that the same night they completed the 24 inning game.
Mike Valentine wrote: "I was looking over the Brewers website and noticed that Cory Hart is a coach for the Brewers A ball team in Brevard County. Is that Cory D.
Hart?"
Yep. Thats right Mike. Corey D. Hart was released in spring training and at the same time offered a coaching position as the hitting coach for the Brewers Single A club in the Florida State League. It's been a good year for Corey, he got a championship ring, a new career, he met and married a good friend of mine, Stacey Peterson (now Stacey Hart) and they are expecting a baby.
Thanks for the hellos to snmartin@chorus.net, as well as Molly, Ryan, Jesse Eichorn and Gator Jay.
Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Personally, I blame Jim Byers
Jim Byers is a great guy. He is a wonderful broadcaster for the Oklahoma Redhawks. A funny fellow he follows another Oklahoma celebrity's motto, Will Rogers, who said he never met a man he didn't like. Of course neither Jim nor Will Rogers ever met Jose Guillen, but I digress. Jim is a great guy and I am glad to call him a friend but if he gets within 100 feet of me I'm calling security. Here's why: I first met Jim in 2000 when I became the number one broadcaster for the Sounds. The day after I met Jim I wound up on an operating table. Fast forward a couple of years to 2003 and the Sounds are hosting the Redhawks for a four game series. I, of course, get the flu. In August! Skip along the chronological trail to 2005 and a series against Oklahoma City where I have a mini disc player stolen. This year I have been to Okie City once and had to make an emergency trip to the dentist. The great benefit to knowing Jim Byers is that I get a lot of really, really good painkillers. The bad news is that the painkillers are used to stop really bad pain. When we last visited Oklahoma City the tornado sirens went off after the second inning and a staff member came into the booth to inform me that a tornado had touched down about 30 miles to the west in a town called El Reno but that we were in no danger. I asked if Byers was in the building and upon being told that he was I told the staff member I was looking for shelter. Thankfully there were no injuries because, I believe, Jim Byers was 30 miles away!
Don't get me wrong. Jim is a great kind talented man, but I swear, If I wind up in one more dentists or doctors office, or jail, or operating table, or natural diaster, or if any firearms are discharged when he is near, I'm going to seal him in a lead coffin and drop him in the ocean. Not really, but I have priced them out. The curse of Byers must be stopped.
The Sounds are playing some amazingly good ball and except for one game, a game for the record books, have done all the fundemental things right. At 20-9 as of this writing its hard to find fault with any aspect of the Sounds game. The one game that all fell apart was one for the ages. And, in "One for the Ages" I mean that it took ages to finish the game. On Friday May 5th and 6th the Sounds played a 24 inning game. Chris Barnwell was clean shaven at the start and had a full beard at the end. The game lasted a total of eight hours and seven minutes. You could read "War and Peace" in eight hours and seven minutes! Not that you would want to, but you could. The game tied a record set in 1911. 1911. 1911! It also broke records for most at bats, most pitchers used and most strikeouts. the old record was 29 K's for both teams and we managed to etch our name in stone with 29 on our own! Between the Zephyrs and the Sounds there were 48 strikeouts which kept our home plate ump busy as a bee. Both teams were frustrated by the end of the game. Both teams went something like 0-for-a-gazillion or something with runners in scoring position and the interminable time passed without any help from New Orleans catcher Wiki Gonzalez who went out to the mound so many times I thought that was where the keg was. The worst part was that I broadcast every pitch while suffering from a cold.
The Sounds have been pretty lucky weatherwise. Every city we go to has had rain predicted for it, but except for Opening Night in Omaha we've managed to avoid bad weather. The same has been true for Nashville. The weatherman predicts 68 degrees and a 75% chance of rain, we get 80 degrees and clear skies. You may as well have chimps throw darts at a dartboard. "Let's see 20, 13, 4, 8 thats 45, add 3 thats 48.....The chimp says its going to be 48 degrees!" And when you walk out the next day and its 87 degrees and you go, "What....the....." They just say, "Well, what did you expect? It's a chimp!" My apologies to all Lewis Black fans for my blatant thievery.
A few emails I got.
From Danny H.
What ever happened to Steve Scarborough?
Steve, who was a pivotal part of the Sounds championship team last year decided to hang'em up and now enjoys life outside of baseball and works, I believe, in a family owned business.
From brewcrewguy: Where is Julio Mosquera, he made it up to the big leagues last year and now he's dissapeared?
Well brewcrewguy, Julio also hung up the spikes this off season, but he is still in baseball. I've heard that Julio is now the roving catching instructor for the New York Yankees, working in their minor league system. I was a little surprised, only because I thought that Julio would wind up coaching in the Brewers system. From what I could tell Gord Ash is a big Mosquera fan and I thought that he brought Julio over with the eventual goal of getting him into coaching. The Yankees are lucky to have him.
Thats all for now, keep the emails coming at
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Don't get me wrong. Jim is a great kind talented man, but I swear, If I wind up in one more dentists or doctors office, or jail, or operating table, or natural diaster, or if any firearms are discharged when he is near, I'm going to seal him in a lead coffin and drop him in the ocean. Not really, but I have priced them out. The curse of Byers must be stopped.
The Sounds are playing some amazingly good ball and except for one game, a game for the record books, have done all the fundemental things right. At 20-9 as of this writing its hard to find fault with any aspect of the Sounds game. The one game that all fell apart was one for the ages. And, in "One for the Ages" I mean that it took ages to finish the game. On Friday May 5th and 6th the Sounds played a 24 inning game. Chris Barnwell was clean shaven at the start and had a full beard at the end. The game lasted a total of eight hours and seven minutes. You could read "War and Peace" in eight hours and seven minutes! Not that you would want to, but you could. The game tied a record set in 1911. 1911. 1911! It also broke records for most at bats, most pitchers used and most strikeouts. the old record was 29 K's for both teams and we managed to etch our name in stone with 29 on our own! Between the Zephyrs and the Sounds there were 48 strikeouts which kept our home plate ump busy as a bee. Both teams were frustrated by the end of the game. Both teams went something like 0-for-a-gazillion or something with runners in scoring position and the interminable time passed without any help from New Orleans catcher Wiki Gonzalez who went out to the mound so many times I thought that was where the keg was. The worst part was that I broadcast every pitch while suffering from a cold
The Sounds have been pretty lucky weatherwise. Every city we go to has had rain predicted for it, but except for Opening Night in Omaha we've managed to avoid bad weather. The same has been true for Nashville. The weatherman predicts 68 degrees and a 75% chance of rain, we get 80 degrees and clear skies. You may as well have chimps throw darts at a dartboard. "Let's see 20, 13, 4, 8 thats 45, add 3 thats 48.....The chimp says its going to be 48 degrees!" And when you walk out the next day and its 87 degrees and you go, "What....the....." They just say, "Well, what did you expect? It's a chimp!" My apologies to all Lewis Black fans for my blatant thievery.
A few emails I got.
From Danny H.
What ever happened to Steve Scarborough?
Steve, who was a pivotal part of the Sounds championship team last year decided to hang'em up and now enjoys life outside of baseball and works, I believe, in a family owned business.
From brewcrewguy: Where is Julio Mosquera, he made it up to the big leagues last year and now he's dissapeared?
Well brewcrewguy, Julio also hung up the spikes this off season, but he is still in baseball. I've heard that Julio is now the roving catching instructor for the New York Yankees, working in their minor league system. I was a little surprised, only because I thought that Julio would wind up coaching in the Brewers system. From what I could tell Gord Ash is a big Mosquera fan and I thought that he brought Julio over with the eventual goal of getting him into coaching. The Yankees are lucky to have him.
Thats all for now, keep the emails coming at
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
A Lot of Damage, A Lot of Hope
The drive from the airport in New Orleans to the hotel on Magazine Street takes about 30 minutes. You get to see a lot of the damage that Hurrican Katrina caused just in that drive. You drive by the Superdome and the same image of the Dome with the skin of the dome ripped off is still evident. So is a large banner that reads, "Will re-open 9-24-06, GO SAINTS!" If you look off to the sides of the highway you also see some of the neighborhoods affected by the hurricane. What you see is a sea of blue plastic tarps. Those tarps cover roofs damaged, destroyed, vaporized by the hurricane. When you arrive at the hotel on Magazine Street you see even more damage, caused, not by the storm, but caused by looters. At one intersection in the French Quarter there are many businesses still open, still doing business. But in that same intersection are three stores; FootAction USA, and two Foot Locker outlets. These shoe stores are boarded up because looters broke in and stole the inventory. The sidewalk is made of pieces of slate and many of those slates are now gone. Outside the hotel are two street lamps. One is missing one of the lamps, the other is lying on the sidewalk, the entire thing snapped at the base and still lying on the sidewalk. Everyday life is a lot harder. I spoke with a freing in New Orleans who stayed and she said, and I quote,"If you live in New Orleans, you drink." She also told me that just going to a grocery store to get milk and bread can be a two hour ordeal. Imagine going to the local Krogers and finding out that they had NO milk and bread. Them picture the Harris Teeter and the Publix in your neighborhood in the same fix.
That's the bad news. The good news is that there is a lot of work being done. Construction (or, re-construction) is everywhere with orange barricades and highway cones and yellow tape marking the area where repairs are taking place. The people, and there are fewer of them than there were a year ago, were pretty hopped up when I was there. It was not because they were happy top see me, but rather they were happy about recent events. During our first game word leaked out that the Houston Texans had inked a deal with Mario Williams for the number one pick in the NFL draft, thus ensuring their place as the biggest chumps in the NFL. This meant that the Saints would get Reggie Bush from USC, the best player in the draft, bar none. Apparently the Texans felt that they would be okay with Domanick Davis, which is like telling somebody that you'll pass on the Maserati because you already have a Chevy Impala. Maybe they figured Mario Williams would be the safer pick because that way, with Williams on defense, the Texans pathetic offensive line would not get him killed. Needless to say the city of New Orleans is printing up Reggie Bush jerseys ASAP.
The other good news for the Big Easy was Jazzfest. Jazzfest started the day after we arrived and was a huge success despite some wet weather and the fact that Little Feat was one of the acts. Attendance was great and gave a lot of hope to the city that it will recover its place as the city where everyone gets drunk, throws beads, and flashes complete strangers.
As for the Sounds (you think I forgot this was a baseball blog?) they did not do much to improve the cities mood as they swept four straight from the New Orleans Zephyrs. Its hard to find a fault in the way the Sounds played. They were outstanding defensively, the pitching was superb, even Dennis Sarfate, who struggled with his command, kept the damage to a minimum, and the offense was, well...............Johnny Knoxville on a dare. The Sounds are team built for speed and they were playing in a ballpark (Zephyr Field) rated as the best pitchers park in all of AAA year after year. So, of course the Sounds hit eight home runs in four games, including four in the final game. Nelson Cruz hit a shot the opposite way that landed halfway to Lake Pontchartrain and Corey Hart hit a home run to left field that gave the pitcher whiplash. You know you've hit the ball hard when the leftfielder only drops his head and never moves his feet at the crack of the bat.
I think the most encouraging part was the bullpen. Allan Simpson, who had struggled early on, saved two games on the trip and Mike Meyers curveball is still going to make somebody cry one of these days. Knuckleballer Jared Fernandez joined the club shortly before the trip and some of his pitches were ghastly in their movement. The Oklahoma Redhawks at times looked like angry men swinging at bees. The Sounds finished the trip 6-1 with one game suspended by weather and tied for the best record in the PCL and their best April record since the Sounds joined the PCL in 1998. The philosophy that manager Frank Kremblas has instilled in this club of putting pressure on the other team with aggressive baserunning and shifting defenses is paying off. I spoke with Breent Abernathy and Jermaine Clark on the way to the ballpark one day and they helped explain how Frank's philosophy is paying off. At the beinning of the year the Sounds were running all over other teams and scoring runs by forcing errors from their opponents. Now the Sounds are not as successfuol stealing bases because other teams are starting to spend extra time holding runners and calling for pitches that help the catcher throw out base stealers like fastballs, and fastballs away.. Of course when you spend so much time worrying about the runners, you can't spend as much time worrying about the guy at the plate. Sounds hitters are seeing more fastballs because that is what the catcher is calling for so he can get a throw off quicker to try and nab baserunners. Sounds hitters, ALL hitters, love fastballs. So instead of running all over the opposition, the Sounds are pounding fastballs over the wall and getting good counts to hit in because the other team is calling for pitch outs. Eventually the other team will make an adjustment and start throwing more pitches that concentrate on the hitters and the Sounds will start running again.
Thats all for now. I'll try and write more later. And a quick P.S. If anyone knows where the good fishing is around Nashville, post it here. A couple of the Sounds are trying to waste a good day in a boat.
As always please email your questions to
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Thanks Jilly!
That's the bad news. The good news is that there is a lot of work being done. Construction (or, re-construction) is everywhere with orange barricades and highway cones and yellow tape marking the area where repairs are taking place. The people, and there are fewer of them than there were a year ago, were pretty hopped up when I was there. It was not because they were happy top see me, but rather they were happy about recent events. During our first game word leaked out that the Houston Texans had inked a deal with Mario Williams for the number one pick in the NFL draft, thus ensuring their place as the biggest chumps in the NFL. This meant that the Saints would get Reggie Bush from USC, the best player in the draft, bar none. Apparently the Texans felt that they would be okay with Domanick Davis, which is like telling somebody that you'll pass on the Maserati because you already have a Chevy Impala. Maybe they figured Mario Williams would be the safer pick because that way, with Williams on defense, the Texans pathetic offensive line would not get him killed. Needless to say the city of New Orleans is printing up Reggie Bush jerseys ASAP.
The other good news for the Big Easy was Jazzfest. Jazzfest started the day after we arrived and was a huge success despite some wet weather and the fact that Little Feat was one of the acts. Attendance was great and gave a lot of hope to the city that it will recover its place as the city where everyone gets drunk, throws beads, and flashes complete strangers.
As for the Sounds (you think I forgot this was a baseball blog?) they did not do much to improve the cities mood as they swept four straight from the New Orleans Zephyrs. Its hard to find a fault in the way the Sounds played. They were outstanding defensively, the pitching was superb, even Dennis Sarfate, who struggled with his command, kept the damage to a minimum, and the offense was, well...............Johnny Knoxville on a dare. The Sounds are team built for speed and they were playing in a ballpark (Zephyr Field) rated as the best pitchers park in all of AAA year after year. So, of course the Sounds hit eight home runs in four games, including four in the final game. Nelson Cruz hit a shot the opposite way that landed halfway to Lake Pontchartrain and Corey Hart hit a home run to left field that gave the pitcher whiplash. You know you've hit the ball hard when the leftfielder only drops his head and never moves his feet at the crack of the bat.
I think the most encouraging part was the bullpen. Allan Simpson, who had struggled early on, saved two games on the trip and Mike Meyers curveball is still going to make somebody cry one of these days. Knuckleballer Jared Fernandez joined the club shortly before the trip and some of his pitches were ghastly in their movement. The Oklahoma Redhawks at times looked like angry men swinging at bees. The Sounds finished the trip 6-1 with one game suspended by weather and tied for the best record in the PCL and their best April record since the Sounds joined the PCL in 1998. The philosophy that manager Frank Kremblas has instilled in this club of putting pressure on the other team with aggressive baserunning and shifting defenses is paying off. I spoke with Breent Abernathy and Jermaine Clark on the way to the ballpark one day and they helped explain how Frank's philosophy is paying off. At the beinning of the year the Sounds were running all over other teams and scoring runs by forcing errors from their opponents. Now the Sounds are not as successfuol stealing bases because other teams are starting to spend extra time holding runners and calling for pitches that help the catcher throw out base stealers like fastballs, and fastballs away.. Of course when you spend so much time worrying about the runners, you can't spend as much time worrying about the guy at the plate. Sounds hitters are seeing more fastballs because that is what the catcher is calling for so he can get a throw off quicker to try and nab baserunners. Sounds hitters, ALL hitters, love fastballs. So instead of running all over the opposition, the Sounds are pounding fastballs over the wall and getting good counts to hit in because the other team is calling for pitch outs. Eventually the other team will make an adjustment and start throwing more pitches that concentrate on the hitters and the Sounds will start running again.
Thats all for now. I'll try and write more later. And a quick P.S. If anyone knows where the good fishing is around Nashville, post it here. A couple of the Sounds are trying to waste a good day in a boat.
As always please email your questions to
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Thanks Jilly!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Good to be back home (Written as I pack for another road trip)
Former Pirates and Cardinals outfielder Andy Van Slyke was once asked what the difference between playing at home and playing on the road. His response? "At home if I wander down to the kitchen in my underwear to get a cup of coffee, they don't call security."
Minor league life is a life of extremes. You get to be a part of a baseball game almost everyday. You are doing what you love for a living. You get to see different cities and meet people from all over the country. You get to hear funny accents. On the downside most players are paying a mortgage AND a rent. The flights leave at 6:30 AM in most cases, which can mean that you get back to the hotel at 12 midnight after the final game of the series and have to get up at 3:00 AM to catch a 4:30 AM shuttle to catch a 6:30 AM flight that has a two hour layover in Dallas and finally lands in Nashville at 3:00 PM allowing you to get your luggage at 3:45 PM and get home at 4:15 PM and drop your bags off so you can head to the ballpark for a 5:00 PM stretch before a 7:00 PM game. This is why minor league ballplayers (and broadcasters) have become experts at sleeping. Anywhere. On the plane, in the airport, on the shuttle to the hotel, on the clubhouse floor, anywhere. But ask any ballplayer or broadcaster if they would trade with you and you'll get a big fat no. As Willie Stargell once said, "I ain't complaining. I ASKED for this job."
The travel is a lot easier when the team is winning. Nobody wants to fly 5,000 miles roundtrip to get stomped like Luxemborg or (shudder) the Kansas City Royals. Last year a Sounds win was not uncommon. After all they did win the whole enchilada. So far this season it has not been too bad. The Sounds came home at 3-5 after splitting the series with Iowa and the guys got to play behind Ben Sheets, who not only is an incredible pitcher, but an incredible teammate. Some players are intense on game day like Roger Clemens. Others, like Sheets, are pretty loose. Someday soon Ben Sheets is going to take the mound with a flower on his lapel and when the umpire goes to the mound to tell Sheets to take it off, he'll squirt the ump with water. He keeps the players loose behind him and it seems that his teammates have an extra spring in their step whenever he takes the hill.
Coming back from Iowa the Sounds made thir return to Greer a memorable one, sweeping the Oklahoma Redhawks. They even treated the fans to a little extra excitement when Nelson Cruz put on a show with a two-run, walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth. It showed the type of potential Cruz has as he stayed with two straight Scott Feldman pitches down and away. His first line drive went foul down the right field line by five feet. The next time Feldman threw the same pitch Cruz hit a line drive fair over the wall. The team and the fans and I went crazy.
One part of the game that has been exciting to watch has been the defense, anchored up the middle by Chris Barnwell and Jermaine Clark. Last season when Barnwell was promoted from AA Huntsville he seemed like a scrappy player who hustled and got the most out of his ability. This season Barnwell is a leader. He is doing all the things you need to do to win games. Hitting to all fields, running the bases, getting the runner home from third with less than two outs. He has even made an appearance on the mound for Nashville.......That didn't go so well. Defensively Chris looks comfortable and confident. And he looks like Harry Potter, a FACT I constantly reminded him of last year. Vinny Rottino deservedly got a lot of attention in spring training. Barnwell deserves some as well. Before he gets sent off to Hogwarts Magic School or something.
That will wrap up this blog. The laundry is almost done, I've picked up the dry cleaning and my neighbor has agreed to watch my dog for the next nine days while I am on the road **NOTE: For those of you thinking of robbing my place while I am gone my dog is a mixed breed Rottweiler, Pit Bull and Raiders Fan so don't try it.
If you have any questions you want to ask, feel free to email me at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. As soon as I figure out how to make that a link to email me instead of crashing my hard drive I will.
Minor league life is a life of extremes. You get to be a part of a baseball game almost everyday. You are doing what you love for a living. You get to see different cities and meet people from all over the country. You get to hear funny accents. On the downside most players are paying a mortgage AND a rent. The flights leave at 6:30 AM in most cases, which can mean that you get back to the hotel at 12 midnight after the final game of the series and have to get up at 3:00 AM to catch a 4:30 AM shuttle to catch a 6:30 AM flight that has a two hour layover in Dallas and finally lands in Nashville at 3:00 PM allowing you to get your luggage at 3:45 PM and get home at 4:15 PM and drop your bags off so you can head to the ballpark for a 5:00 PM stretch before a 7:00 PM game. This is why minor league ballplayers (and broadcasters) have become experts at sleeping. Anywhere. On the plane, in the airport, on the shuttle to the hotel, on the clubhouse floor, anywhere. But ask any ballplayer or broadcaster if they would trade with you and you'll get a big fat no. As Willie Stargell once said, "I ain't complaining. I ASKED for this job."
The travel is a lot easier when the team is winning. Nobody wants to fly 5,000 miles roundtrip to get stomped like Luxemborg or (shudder) the Kansas City Royals. Last year a Sounds win was not uncommon. After all they did win the whole enchilada. So far this season it has not been too bad. The Sounds came home at 3-5 after splitting the series with Iowa and the guys got to play behind Ben Sheets, who not only is an incredible pitcher, but an incredible teammate. Some players are intense on game day like Roger Clemens. Others, like Sheets, are pretty loose. Someday soon Ben Sheets is going to take the mound with a flower on his lapel and when the umpire goes to the mound to tell Sheets to take it off, he'll squirt the ump with water. He keeps the players loose behind him and it seems that his teammates have an extra spring in their step whenever he takes the hill.
Coming back from Iowa the Sounds made thir return to Greer a memorable one, sweeping the Oklahoma Redhawks. They even treated the fans to a little extra excitement when Nelson Cruz put on a show with a two-run, walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth. It showed the type of potential Cruz has as he stayed with two straight Scott Feldman pitches down and away. His first line drive went foul down the right field line by five feet. The next time Feldman threw the same pitch Cruz hit a line drive fair over the wall. The team and the fans and I went crazy.
One part of the game that has been exciting to watch has been the defense, anchored up the middle by Chris Barnwell and Jermaine Clark. Last season when Barnwell was promoted from AA Huntsville he seemed like a scrappy player who hustled and got the most out of his ability. This season Barnwell is a leader. He is doing all the things you need to do to win games. Hitting to all fields, running the bases, getting the runner home from third with less than two outs. He has even made an appearance on the mound for Nashville.......That didn't go so well. Defensively Chris looks comfortable and confident. And he looks like Harry Potter, a FACT I constantly reminded him of last year. Vinny Rottino deservedly got a lot of attention in spring training. Barnwell deserves some as well. Before he gets sent off to Hogwarts Magic School or something.
That will wrap up this blog. The laundry is almost done, I've picked up the dry cleaning and my neighbor has agreed to watch my dog for the next nine days while I am on the road **NOTE: For those of you thinking of robbing my place while I am gone my dog is a mixed breed Rottweiler, Pit Bull and Raiders Fan so don't try it.
If you have any questions you want to ask, feel free to email me at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. As soon as I figure out how to make that a link to email me instead of crashing my hard drive I will.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Hello from Omaha
One of the most revered rules in baseball is posted in every clubhouse in professional baseball. It is the rule banning gambling. Players have lifetime bans over this sort of thing. One player, whose name rhymes with 'Beat Nose', is still under the effects of the ban. Gambling is the biggest taboo in professional baseball.
So, of course, I'm writing this blog from the Holiday Inn/Ameristar Resort and Riverboat Casino where the team is staying. Remember, no gambling allowed!
Opening Night has come and been washed away. Heavy rains in the Omaha area, the same weather system that would cause so much destruction around Nashville on Friday caused the postponement of the season opener. The Sounds defense of their PCL title would have to wait.
Friday was not much better. It had stopped raining but the temperature dropped into the 30's. The Sounds showed some positives in their first game of 06', especially Ben Hendrickson who threw five innings of no-hit ball and pitched out of a couple of jams early on. Unfortunately the Royals scored five unearned runs in the eighth to get the win. The night took a definite turn for the worst after the game. I wandered over to the hotel/casino sports bar to get something to eat and found the place packed. Apparently a local band was performing and they usually brought in a good crowd. This was a great crowd. This was the type of crowd every band in Nashville wishes they could draw! Too bad the band in no way DESERVED a crowd this big. It's hard to appreciate the music scene in Nashville until you see a band like The Rumbles mangle every rock and roll standard there is. I guess you have to have a real sadistic band bent to jump from Cheap Trick to the Bee Gees to Green Day. They also rapped. I have no idea what they rapped, but I'm pretty sure they screwed it up. The worst part about The Rumbles was that they were not even really playing! I found out from some of the employees that they use a CD track for the music because you apparently have to concentrate really hard to screw up all those INXS tunes. They were a lip synching cover band. It boggles the mind. Most everything they did on stage was puzzling. Instead of the lead singer or the lead guitarist jumping into the crowd to show off, the bass player started moving through the crowd playing, well, psuedo playing and showing off. Unless your Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, bass players are pretty boring. There is an old joke that asks how you get a bass player off your doorstep. The answer? Pay him for the pizza. If any Nashville band ever wanted to be a big fish in a small musical pond head ut to Council Bluffs, IA. You'll own the place in a week.
Some good news. The Sounds recently signed a deal with WNSR Sports Radio 560. Though we have not done a full game yet on 560, so far everything is working great and the board ops are just as good as I remembered. More good news. I read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online and they say that Ben Sheets will make a rehab start in Iowa vs. the Cubs. I feel bad that he won't pitch in Nashville. There has not been a huge star playing for the Sounds since Jason Scmidt made a rehab start, and that was before he became a Cy Young candidate. It will still be nice to watch Sheet's pitch as he has oustanding ability and is rumoured to be quite a fun character as well.
As always you can email at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. I'll try and answer as soon as my ears stop bleeding.
So, of course, I'm writing this blog from the Holiday Inn/Ameristar Resort and Riverboat Casino where the team is staying. Remember, no gambling allowed!
Opening Night has come and been washed away. Heavy rains in the Omaha area, the same weather system that would cause so much destruction around Nashville on Friday caused the postponement of the season opener. The Sounds defense of their PCL title would have to wait.
Friday was not much better. It had stopped raining but the temperature dropped into the 30's. The Sounds showed some positives in their first game of 06', especially Ben Hendrickson who threw five innings of no-hit ball and pitched out of a couple of jams early on. Unfortunately the Royals scored five unearned runs in the eighth to get the win. The night took a definite turn for the worst after the game. I wandered over to the hotel/casino sports bar to get something to eat and found the place packed. Apparently a local band was performing and they usually brought in a good crowd. This was a great crowd. This was the type of crowd every band in Nashville wishes they could draw! Too bad the band in no way DESERVED a crowd this big. It's hard to appreciate the music scene in Nashville until you see a band like The Rumbles mangle every rock and roll standard there is. I guess you have to have a real sadistic band bent to jump from Cheap Trick to the Bee Gees to Green Day. They also rapped. I have no idea what they rapped, but I'm pretty sure they screwed it up. The worst part about The Rumbles was that they were not even really playing! I found out from some of the employees that they use a CD track for the music because you apparently have to concentrate really hard to screw up all those INXS tunes. They were a lip synching cover band. It boggles the mind. Most everything they did on stage was puzzling. Instead of the lead singer or the lead guitarist jumping into the crowd to show off, the bass player started moving through the crowd playing, well, psuedo playing and showing off. Unless your Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, bass players are pretty boring. There is an old joke that asks how you get a bass player off your doorstep. The answer? Pay him for the pizza. If any Nashville band ever wanted to be a big fish in a small musical pond head ut to Council Bluffs, IA. You'll own the place in a week.
Some good news. The Sounds recently signed a deal with WNSR Sports Radio 560. Though we have not done a full game yet on 560, so far everything is working great and the board ops are just as good as I remembered. More good news. I read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online and they say that Ben Sheets will make a rehab start in Iowa vs. the Cubs. I feel bad that he won't pitch in Nashville. There has not been a huge star playing for the Sounds since Jason Scmidt made a rehab start, and that was before he became a Cy Young candidate. It will still be nice to watch Sheet's pitch as he has oustanding ability and is rumoured to be quite a fun character as well.
As always you can email at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. I'll try and answer as soon as my ears stop bleeding.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
I Can't Help Myself.....I'm Ready To Go
Two weeks until Opening Day. 14 days. 336 hours. 20,160 minutes. Okay, it's 6:55 PM as I write this so 20,165 minutes. Sue me.
Every time I stop by Greer Stadium I see more and more signs of spring. Robins? Naaaahhhhh. Outfield Billboards! The Stadium Ops crew is hard at work getting Greer Stadium ready for the 2006 season and as more and more sponsors get their billboard art work in, more and more outfield signs are being put up and since corporate marketing departments tend to put stuff like artwork off until the last minute, that must mean we are getting down to the....the last minute! 20,161 to be exact.
This off season has been more exciting than most. We had a great 2005 with more than 420,000 fans coming through the gates and that all culminated in a championship banner. The first professional championship in Nashville since the Sounds won the Southern League title 23 years prior. The Sounds are the defending Pacific Coast League Champions, yes, I know many of you may say "Pacific Coast League?" and wonder how we could be seven hours drive from the Atlantic Ocean and three DAYS drive from the Pacific Ocean but, go figure. We've even got the big gaudy rings to prove it. I think these things have Wonder Twin Powers or something, they are huge! If they have a secret compartment you could stick a small person in there. In reality they are great. White gold with the Sounds logo on the top with a bunch of diamond/cubic zirconia/glass/clear plastic on the top. On the sides there is a Milwaukee Brewers logo engraved and my name (Maybe that is why the ring is so big?) it also says PCL Champions on there and the 3-0 series score the Sounds won by. It's big, it's gaudy, it will punch through glass long before it cuts through it, but it is great. It was very nice of the Sounds owner, Al Gordon, and GM Glenn Yaeger to get one for the staff as well as the players.
Of course the other big news took place in the chambers of the Nashville City Council on February 7th when the council approved the new stadium. In 2008 the Sounds and Nashville will have a new home for baseball on the riverbank. The design process is yet to be completed but I know it is going to shine as one of the best ballparks in the country. I have already made two specific requests for the new stadium.
1. The new stadium has to have a broadcast booth. I need job security people!
2. The broadcast booth has to have a window.
3. I know I said two, but make sure the window faces the field.
A lot of people worked a lot of hours to get the stadium deal done, from the development partner, Streuver Bros., to the members of city council who lobbied on behalf of it, to longtime ticket holders and of course to the Sounds' staff. GM Glenn Yaeger led the fight for the new ballpark and it took more than three years of negotiations to get it done. Many would have folded their tents a lot sooner.
Yes, 2005 was a great year. We saw plenty of players who will be stars in the big leagues such as Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder. We had a clubhouse full of talent that played as a team and didn't put self above Sounds. We'll miss them and we'll have to be happy with catching them on television playing for Milwaukee. However, the 2006 season is shaping up to be a pretty good one as well. Plenty of pitching talent should be on display at the start of the year and while back to back pennants are pretty hard to come by, I think the Sounds will have something to say about the 2006 champ when it's all said and done.
Next blog I'll try and go over some of the players.
Until then, if somebody hands you a carton of milk and says it smells funny? Don't taste it.
20,132 minutes to go.
email me at chuck@nashville sounds.com
Sunday, February 26, 2006
My first blog....O.K. Now what?
My first blog..O.K. Now what?
When Doug Scopel, our Media Relations Director(I'm not sure I have his title right, Doug has picked up so many extra responsibilities over the last few years he may also be U.S. Ambassador to New Guinea for all I know) first brought up the possibilityof me writing a blog I said, "Yeah! Great idea!" I figured I could write a blog detailing life on the road. Then I realized that I pretty much do crossword puzzles and sit in airports and that makes for a pretty boring blog. Though I must mention that the Chick-Fil-A at Gate 11 Terminal C at DFW is tres magnifique`!
So now its a week or so into spring training and I'm staring at my computer screen like the monkey staring at the monolith in 2001 A Space Oddessy. As a matter of fact, if I don't think of something to write soon I'm going to take drastic measures with a club on my own skull.
I would like this blog to be interesting. I want this blog to hold peoples attention. I suppose I share something in common with the average reader in that I and you, dear reader, both love baseball. So I guess thats what I will spend a good deal of time covering in this blog....baseball. I'm not the sort to blare out opinions as fact though I could generate a larger response if I just took a contrary point of view from reality. Writing that Frank Kremblas is a lousy manager with no grip on his team and a lousy toupee to boot would generate plenty of response to be sure, but it would also be untrue. Frank relates incredibly well to his players and walks the tightrope that a minor league manager has to walk between winning ballgames and developing players as well as anybody I have seen in my 14 plus years in this sport. Besides, he doesn't wear a toupee.
If you have any ideas at home about what YOU would like to read about, please drop me a line at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. I'm desperate for ideas.
When Doug Scopel, our Media Relations Director(I'm not sure I have his title right, Doug has picked up so many extra responsibilities over the last few years he may also be U.S. Ambassador to New Guinea for all I know) first brought up the possibilityof me writing a blog I said, "Yeah! Great idea!" I figured I could write a blog detailing life on the road. Then I realized that I pretty much do crossword puzzles and sit in airports and that makes for a pretty boring blog. Though I must mention that the Chick-Fil-A at Gate 11 Terminal C at DFW is tres magnifique`!
So now its a week or so into spring training and I'm staring at my computer screen like the monkey staring at the monolith in 2001 A Space Oddessy. As a matter of fact, if I don't think of something to write soon I'm going to take drastic measures with a club on my own skull.
I would like this blog to be interesting. I want this blog to hold peoples attention. I suppose I share something in common with the average reader in that I and you, dear reader, both love baseball. So I guess thats what I will spend a good deal of time covering in this blog....baseball. I'm not the sort to blare out opinions as fact though I could generate a larger response if I just took a contrary point of view from reality. Writing that Frank Kremblas is a lousy manager with no grip on his team and a lousy toupee to boot would generate plenty of response to be sure, but it would also be untrue. Frank relates incredibly well to his players and walks the tightrope that a minor league manager has to walk between winning ballgames and developing players as well as anybody I have seen in my 14 plus years in this sport. Besides, he doesn't wear a toupee.
If you have any ideas at home about what YOU would like to read about, please drop me a line at chuck@nashvillesounds.com. I'm desperate for ideas.
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