Indianapolis Indians: Apathetic or Incompetent?
I have a decent amount of baseball related items on my list of things I want to do before I die. In fact, there may be enough to construct a baseball-only "bucket list" from them. So I decided that on Thursday I would cross two of those things off my list...sorta.
The Indianapolis Indians often hold 11:00am games during the season. They're usually known as the "Business Day Special." I've always wanted to go to one based solely off the premise that I think it is absurd to be watching a pro baseball game (in person) at 11am. Another thing I have always wanted to attend is a doubleheader. With the intent to go to the game Thursday, the Baseball Gods granted me a gift by allowing a downpour on Wednesday to cause a doubleheader to occur on Thursday.
Too bad the Indians had to ruin it with absolutely dreadful play.
Unlike some of our other minor league recaps, I was not accompanied by any of my blogmates, but I was accompanied by an attractive woman who I happen to be dating. Due to the rain out the day before, the game time was moved up to 10am, thus making my rationale for wanting to go stronger because I was spending my first day of my last "summer vacation" at a ballpark when I could be catching up for all that sleep I missed this semester.
It was "Education in Baseball" day at the stadium which basically means that the game began early to allow school children to see a professional baseball game. I wish my field trips would have been as awesome. Going into it, my girlfriend and I thought that the kids would be elementary aged and it would be fun to watch a baseball game with a bunch of little kids. We were wrong. Almost all of these kids were in middle school. Upon seeing this, I let out a groan because I knew what was to come.
At first when we entered the stadium there were about 30 people in the actual seated area of the field. While there were school buses parked in the street, we saw no children. Then slowly, the stadium started to fill and within two innings the ballpark became crowded and the chatter in the stands similar to what you would hear in a middle school cafeteria erupted from all corners of Victory Field.
Now, since you're reading this blog, I'm going to assume you've been inside of a ballpark or a stadium of some sort. And I'm also going to assume that when you were in the stadium, the process of finding your seat was quite simple. Well apparently, none of the adults who were chaperoning this event had no idea what section numbers or seat numbers were, nor did they understand that their ticket was this magical map that could guide them to their seats if they matched it up with the corresponding numbers. People were constantly changing seats, middle schoolers were making life and death decisions about whether to go walking around or sit next to that cute boy and act interested in the game. All the while, OBSTRUCTING MY VIEW! People were everywhere, standing in the aisles, standing in rows (seriously?), constantly making me have to stand up and sit down and then came the screaming. Oh god. The screaming. You know what I mean, when a little girl decides that she needs to make noise at a sporting event so she screams at the top of her lungs and it's always the most blood curdling noise you've ever heard. That happened, multiple times.
Needless to say, my idea of relaxing at the ballpark on the first day of summer wasn't going as swimmingly as I had thought it would be.
Here's a recap of what happened in the first game.
- Scranton/Wilkes-Barre jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after four and never really looked back. They then put the game away in the sixth by scoring four more runs and eventually won the game 7-2.
-¡Romulo! came in to pitch with two out in the fourth. He went 2 2/3, surrendering two hits and giving up three runs.
- Garrett Jones apparently doesn't care about hustling, or really fielding for that manner as he almost seemed to walk to the ball every time it was hit in his direction.
- Erik Kratz was one of the few bright spots for the Tribe as he went 3 for 3 with two doubles and an RBI.
- Jack Wilson who is on a rehab assignment with the Indians did not play in this game.
- I noticed that almost every player for the Scranton/WB Yankees was hitting near .300 which actually surprised me a little as I did not know the Yankees try to buy AAA championships as well.
- A rhyming beer vendor spoke exactly how I felt during this game, "90,000 kids, you need another beer?"
-Apparently AAA doubleheaders end the games after 7 innings. I was pissed, but not too angry as my one standard priced ticket gave me admission for both games. So essentially I paid a 9 inning price for 14 innings of baseball.
After the fantastic display of athletic performance exhibited by the Indians, I couldn't wait to see what was in store for the next game. This game was quite different from a fan perspective as the crowd heavily dissipated due to the fact the schoolchildren needed to get back in time for school to end.
Here's the game two recap:
- The Indians gave up three runs in the second and after three the score was 3-1.
- Indianapolis showed signs of life in the bottom of the 4th, with no outs and runners on the corners. Then a half-hearted steal attempt by Pearce, a line out by Walker and an out by Broadway ended the inning. This is a typical half inning for the Indians this year. I'm quite sure something like this will have to happen in the clubhouse to turn things around.
-In the bottom of the fifth, McCutchen hit a perfectly placed line drive on a double steal, which brought the game within one run. Then Shelby Ford brought home the tying run on a sac fly.
- Some Indians fans have begun to refer to Andrew McCutchen as "McClutchen" and I hope that nickname sticks.
- Steve Pearce went 2 for 2 with a homerun and a walk.
- Tom Gorzelanny went six innings and gave up 3ER on four hits. He also had 8 Ks.
- Jack Wilson did not make an appearance in this game either, meaning the Indians and I missed a fantastic opportunity to do this.
- Things were looking up for the Indians until the top of the seventh happened. Juan Mateo came into the game and gave up 5 runs on 4 hits in only 1/3 inning's work.
- With two outs in the seventh, there were maybe 200 fans left in the ballpark.
- By the bottom of the 7th our section behind the plate was composed of us, 15 people who had moved up and a bunch of scouts. It isn't a reflection of the economy, but rather the fact that people have better things to do than watch poorly executed baseball at 3:15 on a Thursday.
Indianapolis Indians: Apathetic or Incompetent? I'm going to go with lollygagers.
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