What Vacation?
The blog is back. Following best practices in most US workplaces, it’s taken a two-week vacation in early August. The blog is well rested and ready to attack the last two weeks of the season. The team, however, didn’t have the luxury of a two week vacation and we soldier on, now in the midst of a roadtrip in Southern Callifornia.
The Inland Empire 66ers always play us tough. They beat us in extra innings two nights in a row until we turned it around last night, winning 5-1. Running before the game in San Bernardino in the middle of the day in August strangely resembled ripping a pack of cigarettes—all the pitchers were huffing and puffing after our pregame workouts in the less-than-crystal-clear IE air.
Inland Empire has a great stadium–one of the best in the Cal League I think–but they struggle to draw enough people to make it feel very fun. I’d say the stadium seats 4000, but there weren’t more than 1,500 at any of our games there. It could be due to the fact that running across the street before the game for a burrito requires dodging bullets…
Tonight we go down to Lake Elsinore–probably the best stadium in the league–for the first of a three game series. Elsinore takes it to the next level. I think tonight’s promotion has something to do with a hearse parade before the game. Creepy. They’ve also got this rabbit mascot guy who jumps out from behind the right field wall and dances every time the Storm scores. The first couple times it’s funny, but I think it gets awkward after that. THey have two jumbo screens, a huge restaurant in deep right field, and pretty hilarious mid-inning antics. We’ll see what happens this series.
So here we are, in the dog days of August, when everyone is pretty much running on cruise control. Most everybody’s stats are secure, and we’ve already clinched a playoff spot, so at this point nothing is too crazy. After BP, everyone just comes into the clubhouse and tries to get a quick nap in, listens to music, or tunes out for a while. Definitely not the nervous, anxious pre-game clubhouse that we had at the beginning of the season. It’s a lot more mellow.
More to come…
wow…I misspelled California. I need to start proof reading again. I also just realized that my last post was July 13th…I guess the vacation was a full month, rather than two weeks. The blog took a full month break to support a switch to the European four week vacation rather than just two weeks here in the states. Or something.
adam, Welcome Back! 2 weeks, 4 weeks, its just nice to hear the voice of minor league baseball again. You’re doing a great job and if you didn’t already know it were all thrilled for you!