We are the mundane
The baseball park that was just built here was started through $2.5M in seed money by Anthony Lubrano, a former Penn State baseball player. As a result of his donation, the university choose to include his name when they named the ballpark “Medlar Field and Lubrano Park”.
So you would have thought that $2.5 million might have been enough to get people to pay attention to your name. Evidently not. Check out this sign from the concession area.
The new State College Spikes fell 5-3 to their “arch” rivals, the Williamsport CrossCutters. Starting pitcher Brad Furnish struggled earlier, walking the first batter, then hitting the second, as he fell behind 3-0 in the first inning. The Spikes tried to rally a couple of time but just fell short.
The real star of the game though was the ball park. It drew rave reviews from all. Doug Smith, a sportswriter from Grand Island NY said it best “I’ve been to 169 different professional ballparks but this one honestly is just different. It has this aura and feel with it that in my experiences is unmatchable.â€
Minor League baseball has been doing stories on ball parks around the minors and Medlar Field was their featured story last night. In this photo from their article how can see how much the real stadium looks like the artist rendition that I used in my previous post.
It’s Opening Day
For the last year or so, State College has been anxiously awaiting today. It’s Opening Day for the State College Spikes, a short season baseball team in the New York/Penn League. About 15 months ago, Penn State announced that they had structured a deal with a minor league baseball group (fyi – Jerome Bettis and Mario Lemieux are part owners) to build a new stadium that would be shared between the University’s baseball team and a, to-be-named-later, short season team.
That started a whirlwind of activity. Fifteen months ago, the deal to place a team here was announced. Thirteen months ago, they broke ground on the stadium. A year ago today, the site looked like this:
Six months later, things were taking shape:
Today we have this:
(ok – a slight lie – that’s an artist’s rendition but it does look exactly like it).
As hectic as building the stadium was, so was putting together a team. The plan wasn’t to put together a brand new team but rather to buy an existing franchise and move it to State College. Last summer was spent shopping around for the appropriate team and in December, it was announced that the group had bought the New Jersey Cardinals and would move the team from Augusta NJ to State College. The NJ ballclub is a St Louis Cardinals affiliate and the State College team will be also (at least it will be for one year, the duration of the contract that the team still has with the Cardinals – there is a substantial rumor going around that the Spikes will sign a new deal with the Pirates next year – that rumor is fueled in part by the fact that the Spike’s ball park dimensions are exactly the same as PNC Park, Pittsburgh’s home field – many think that’s no coincidence).
So by last winter we had a ballpark and its way and a team. Well, sort of a team – we had the rights to a team but really didn’t have any players. Short season teams are filled primarily with new players who have just been selected in Major League Baseball’s draft. This years draft was held Tuesday and Wednesday a week ago. Players were assigned to the team last week and started arriving in State College over the weekend. Stragglers are still coming in (example – tonight’s opening game starting pitcher arrived from California last night). The team’s actual roster wasn’t announced until Sunday night.
Everything culminates with opening night tonight and the town is abuzz. Tonight’s opener has been sold out for months (I have season tickets so I’m set) as have the next two weekends. The town definitely has baseball fever as witnessed by all these articles.
The excitement has been building, the tingling sense of anticipation turning central Pennsylvania baseball fans into kids on Christmas Eve.The State College Spikes open their inaugural season in a brand-new ballpark tonight.
League Absorbs Off Season Changes
The Renegades’ general manager, Dave Burke, said relocating the former Cardinals to the Keystone State will greatly benefit the league as a whole.”I think it was a fabulous move,” Burke said. “The hype in State College is unbelievable. They’re going to sell out most of their games.”
Pair of Spikes know how to adjust
Tulane baseball coach Rick Jones guarantees State College Spikes first baseman Mark Hamilton and outfielder Nathan Southard are prepared to handle the rigors of professional baseball.”There’s no question about it,” Jones said. “Baseball is a game of adjustments and these guys made the ultimate adjustment.”
Southard and Hamilton were forced to make the ultimate adjustment last August when Hurricane Katrina swept through Tulane’s New Orleans campus.
Spikes finally open season after whirlwind 13 months
Tickets were sold a month ago. Players arrived three days ago. The opponent will arrive sometime this afternoon.Yes, this professional baseball stuff in State College has finally become real.
Short season rosters constantly changing
The New Jersey Cardinals — the team the Spikes are replacing — used 51 players, including 27 pitchers, in 2005.Some players that appear in tonight’s opener against the Williamsport Crosscutters might not be here next week. Some players that are playing elsewhere this week could be here next week.
I’m hungry for baseball – even moreso after seeing the Spike’s concession menu. For dinner tonight I think I’m going to have a “Walking Taco” followed by a “Deep Fried Twinkie” for dessert. 🙂
What a great time! The Yankees beat the Red Sox, Elliot and Adam’s tickets were legit, and the crowd was very well-behaved… in my section.
Thanks for coming down, Shan & El. It was great to be together.
Holy cow!
For all you Chicago baseball fans, here’s Harry Carey’s play-by-play of the first game between the Bethlehem Braves and the Jerusalem Giants.
There is also a flash cartoon version of the first half of the clip here.
The White Sox World Series Trophy Tour was at work today. So I waited in line for about 10 – 15 minutes and they snapped a polaroid.
Here I am! Pretty cool except they move you out of there in about 5 seconds to get the next person in.
Some of you may remember my campaign last spring to name the new State College minor league baseball team the Sliders. My nominee had been one of seven (the others were Black Bears, Copperheads, Miners, Mountain Bats, Ridge Riders, and Stags) selected to be semifinalists. I put some serious effort into promoting my choice (I even handed out business cards promoting the name)
Let’s just say that my suggestion didn’t meet with universal acclaim (Click here to read a local writer’s opinion),
Evidently, team managemant felt the same as the above writer because they wound up throwing out all seven of the semifinalists and starting over with a new list of finalist. They were Anglers, Coalys, Furnace, Haymakers, and Spikes.
The grand announcement of the winner was today. And the winner is, drumroll please:
All I can say is “boring”.
I don’t get on the pc often at home. Nick is on it a lot. Not much new other than not being able to get White Sox tickets was a bummer.
Chris and I went to ISU today to register him for his first semester (spring 2006). He is now an official Redbird. He will be studying to be a teacher in Physical Education. I understad ISU has a very good program.
Thanks to all of you who sent your thoughts to Mary on her dad’s passing. Mary is never on the computer so I have passed those on to her.
Too bad about Penn State. The boys and I watched the game. They really got into it. As soon as it was over I decided to keep it in perspective as Larry says he does. Who would have thought they would be 6-1! Larry, I have a $100.00 bet that Penn State wins more games then ND. I didn’t think either one would be as good as they seem.
When the game was over the boys and I starting looking forward to the White Sox game. We are big fans. Chris REALLY gets into the games. He is not pleasant to be around when they lose. Fortunately, not something we have worried about lately.
Well, that’s about it around here. I’m going up to watch the Cardinals and Astros. For tonight’s game we will root for the Cardinals. We really don’t care who wins. We just want both of these teams to wear themselves out before Saturday.
Well Larry, let’s hope you have something to write about after today’s game. No recurrance of whooping cough is keeping you away I hope.
Must be the biggest Nittany Lion game in what a decade??? Expecting midnight photos of you and partying nieces at the Tavern.
ARE THERE ANY WHITE SOX FANS OUT THERE?
Kenny