A Leftover Photo from Dayton

I forgot to post this after Saturday's game in Dayton.  They shot off streamers in celebration of their 815th consecutive sellout, and some of them got caught on the backstop net.  This photo doesn't do it justice, because this was a full half inning after they shot them off and quite a few fell off.  Anyhow, it made broadcasting for a few innings somewhat interesting.

Big Day in the Office

There is so much going on in the office today since we are only a week and a half from our home opener. 

For me, my big thing today is doing a test of all the equipment (some new, some old) that I need to broadcast our games online this year.  Again, if you missed it earlier, we will only be online at http://www.silverhawks.com/ and http://www.sportsjuice.com/.  Unfortunately, there will be no local radio station carrying our games, so make sure you have a computer close this season.

Aside from that, there is furniture being moved into the new suite, and some of the final touches are being put on the videoboard in right field.  They are also still working on the field, while the updated dugouts have been finished.  Check out the pictures below.

Latest Field Photos

We've been posting these pictures on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.southbendtribune.com/thecove, but for those of you who don't regularly check those areas, I wanted to provide the latest field photos.  These are pretty cool if you ask me:

 New sliding windows in the Upper Deck.

 The new field down the right field line.

The tiered picnic garden in left field.

Field Photo

You can tell it's close to the start of the season because I'm blogging like crazy lately.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off the field work today.

Very slowly it is starting to look like a baseball field today.  More photos can be found at http://www.southbendtribune.com/, which also has a newly designed web page today!

Where'd All The Grass Go?

Photo Gallery of the Construction

As you all know, Coveleski Stadium is undergoing a facelift.  While the original plans have been scaled back, there is still a lot of construction being done around the field. 

I am still taking photos of the construction on a daily basis, and the best ones are now being published on the South Bend Tribune's website.  The gallery has been set up, and will be updated frequently with new photos.

I recommend bookmarking this address and checking back often for the latest updates:  www.southbendtribune.com/thecove. 

Digging Out from the Snow

For those of you not in this area, consider yourself blessed.  South Bend and the surrounding communities got blasted with roughly two feet of snow over the weekend.  Below are a couple of pictures of the stadium taken today (the construction crews took a day off from their work it appears.  I can't blame them...they can barely find their equipment).

I don't have a whole lot else for you today.  However, if you want to read about former Silver Hawk Clay Zavada returning to the Diamondbacks, may I recommend Nick Piecoro's latest blog entry at the Arizona Republic.

Photos from West Michigan

Here's a link to the photos I took in West Michigan last season, so you can check out the surroundings here at Fifth Third Ballpark.

http://owensbaseballblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Fifth%20Third%20Ballpark

This is the place last season where a foul ball came flying in the window of the radio booth and smacked off my hand. I'm horribly ashamed I didn't catch it.

Game time tonight at 6:35 PM. Notes and Lineups will be posted a bit later on.

Halfway to Halloween Photos

A few shots from last night's Halfway To Halloweeen celebration:

The Grand Prize winner showing off his free airline tickets from Allegiant Air. Arrrrggggghhhhh you happy he won?

A few of the finalists posing together on the concourse.



Elvis won the kid's prize, including a Silver Hawks t-shirt and a few other gift bag items.



The kids in costume all lined up on the field for the voting by the fans.

Pete's Report -- Day Two

Another update from Pete Yarbro at the Diamondbacks spring training camp...this time, with pictures (at the end).

This will be my seventh season as official scorer for the Silver Hawks. I've been coming to spring training since my second year. I think I've only missed the trip once. So, even though I usually come down here on my own, I always see a lot of people I know.

There's a couple sportswriters around the press box I see every year. Of, course I always see Mark Haley. And the coaches who have come through South Bend, like 2004 Silver Hawks manager Tony Perezchica. Diamondbacks VP and special assistant to the General Manager, Bob Gebhart --- a regular in South Bend the last few years --- was hard at work at the minor league complex, despite a minor heart attack at the beginning of spring training. Though I noticed he was without his trademark cigar.

When I saw Hawks hitting coach Francisco Morales, the first thing he asked me about was the weather back home. When I told him that it had been in the 60s last week, he seemed encouraged, but I promised him that it would be plenty cold by the time he got to town.

The first thing Haley asked me when I saw him was whether I was reading his blog in the South Bend Tribune. I assured him that I was, but warned him that he had competition now in the local spring training blog market. He tells me he has a good one on the way. I'm sure he'll step up his game now that we're going head to head.

And there's always a few people you don't expect to see. When I wandered into the media dinning room for lunch at Tucson Electric Park I saw someone I knew I recognized from somewhere. I figured he must be a scout or someone like that. I quickly realized I didn't recognize him from the Coveleski press box, but from every documentary about the golden age Yankees I have seen on ESPN Classic and HBO. It was Jerry Coleman. On top of playing second base and shortstop for the Yankees from 1949-1957 --- after flying combat missions in the Pacific as a Marine Corps pilot in World War II --- Coleman is the radio broadcaster for the San Diego Padres, today's opponent. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a broadcaster in 2005. The chicken parmigiana was pretty good too.

Before lunch, I spent some time at the minor league complex watching the players run drills. For the entire month of spring training, the minor league players spend every morning running drills. They'll spend half and hour or so practicing the same play again and again. Every type of play you can imagine, everything you see in a game all summer, these guys have spent several mornings during spring training doing it over and over.

One of the things I watched this morning was catchers handling pop-ups. Using a modified pitching machine, a coach will shoot balls straight up in the air. As you can imagine they go way up there. And in Tucson you're fighting the sun. A few guys were having trouble pulling the balls in, and I don't blame them. Just watching the balls go up into the sun from my seat on the bleachers, I was starting to get sunscreen running in my eyes. And I wasn't moving around or wearing all that catcher's gear.

In the major league game today there were a couple of odd situations. In the bottom of the sixth inning Mark Reynolds (SB '04-05) came up to bat with men on second and third, two outs, and the score tied 0-0. The Padres intentionally walked him. Now maybe its the right strategic move, but in a spring training game? The Padres and Diamondbacks are going to face each other plenty this season. If you're the manager, don't you want to see how your guys respond against a power hitter with runners in scoring position? Well, maybe it was the right call. The next guy grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning.

I thought that was strange. But I hadn't seen nothing yet. In the bottom of the ninth the D'Backs were down 4-2, but tied the game with two home runs. In the bottom of the tenth --- which would have been the last inning no matter what happened --- Arizona managed to get runners on first and third. When Ollie Linton (SB '08) came to bat San Diego moved their right fielder into the infield. They tried to put him on the line, but that would have put the first baseman at the second base position. And you can't play second base with a first baseman's mitt. So they put the right fielder just to the left side of second base, and moved the shortstop over to the right side of second base.

Perhaps distracted by the view of five infielders, Linton struck out. Linton's a left handed batter. The next batter, Jake Wald is right handed. So the right fielder switched places with the shortstop. Right on cue, Wald hit a looping fly ball into right field. The center fielder made a good effort getting to the ball and diving, but it was just off his glove, and the runner scored from third. The Diamondbacks beat the Padres 5-4 in 10 innings.

Most importantly, the game time temperature was 78 degrees with just a few clouds in the sky.

In other news, my quest for Mexican food and margaritas was stymied yesterday. Los Betos, the carryout by the stadium, closes early on Sunday. And the bar in the hotel was out of limes, a key margarita ingredient. Too tired to go anywhere else, I settled for a rum & coke and the hotel's enchilada. It was good, but a lot like the enchilada you could get at a hotel in Mishawaka. There was talk around the pressbox today that one of the best places for Mexican food in Tucson is a place called El Charro. If baseball writers know anything --- other than baseball and writing, of course --- its food. So if you need me tonight, that's where I'll be.


Marc Krauss waiting for his turn in the cage.


Mark Haley doing what he does best -- standing around while looking pretty (HA!).


A.J. Pollock taking his cuts in the cage.


Look at that view!

Another Sunny Day = Less Snow on the Field

I posted some pictures of the field yesterday, showing how the snow is melting rapidly with the amount of sun we've had this week. Today is another beautiful day in South Bend, so you can now see even more of the grass and dirt around the infield.

We're supposed to have a nice weekend in South Bend, although it might get a bit rainy on Sunday followed by thunderstorms on Monday. Even still, I'll take the warmer temperatures even if I have to deal with a little rain right now.

Anyhow, here's the field as of 2:20 on Thursday afternoon. You can always click on the pictures for larger views.

What a Difference the Sun Makes

There's been this big, yellow thing in the sky the last few days. I've heard rumors that it's something called "the sun", but it had been so long since I had seen it, that I can't be 100% sure if that's what it is or not.

In all seriousness, the weather has been really nice so far this week, with the sun shining brightly and the temperatures creeping closer to 40 degrees. In addition to putting everyone in a better mood and getting people to think about the summer months and baseball, the sun serves one other very important purpose: it melts the snow!

Below are two pictures from this week. The first is Monday around lunchtime, after groundskeeper Joel Reinebold went out with the snowblower around the basepaths. The second is from today (Wednesday) around 3:30 PM. Wow, what a difference!



Monday.


Today.

We're getting there folks. I'll try to post more pictures as we get closer and closer to Opening Day.

Notre Dame vs. Michigan State

I realize this is a baseball blog, but I got to do something on Saturday for the first time in my life: attend a Notre Dame football game. I grew up Irish Catholic, so obviously, it's in my DNA to be a Notre Dame fan, but I had never had a chance to make it to a game until this weekend. And boy, what a game it turned out to be. Notre Dame defeated Michigan State by 3 points, quieting the "Fire Charlie Weis" talks for the next few days.

I didn't have my camera with me (I didn't think I was going to the game until I happened into a ticket on Saturday morning), but I was able to snap a few photos with my camera phone. I apologize for the quality, but this gives you an idea of the environment and where I was sitting at Notre Dame Stadium.



This is at the end of the game, when the players gathered in front of the student section for the Notre Dame anthem.


It's my stated goal in life to watch a Notre Dame football game from the press box. Can you tell I'm a media dork?


I went into the stadium about an hour before game time. This is the view as people started to make their way to their seats.



Same basic shot as above, only with a full stadium this time.

Photos from Cedar Rapids - Part Five

The view from the Silver Hawks dugout. You can't tell from this picture, but the dugouts here are the biggest in the league. Not only are they deep, but they also are long. I like how they have benches for the players to stand on, so they can lean over the rails and watch the game.


Mr. Shucks is the mascot of the Kernels. They are giving away a Mr. Shucks Soap Dispenser for today's game.


The field from the right field line, beyond the bleachers.


Another shot back towards home plate from the right field bleachers.


The field from the first base concourse.

Hope you enjoyed this ballpark tour. South Bend has now visited every park in the league. Perhaps I'll do a ranking of all the stadiums later tonight since I'll have a lot of time to fill between today's game and tomorrow night's finale.

Photos from Cedar Rapids - Part Four

No, we are not at a grocery store. They actually have these little kids rides down the first base concourse.


Trevor Hoffman was with the Cedar Rapids Reds in 1991. That's right, the Cincinnati Reds had Hoffman in their farm system. The Reds left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and the Florida Marlins ended up with him. He then went to San Diego for Gary Sheffield, and the rest is history.


Eric Davis is one of my all-time favorite Reds. He played in Cedar Rapids in 1982. By the way, these stars are all around the floor on the concourse. As you walk around and look down, you see a number of former players who made it to the majors after playing in CR.


The field from the concourse behind home plate.


Just a general view of how the seats and suites are aligned.

Photos from Cedar Rapids - Part Three

A grill area on the third base concourse, covered by a white tent. This serves two purposes: It allows the concession workers to be safe from foul balls, and it also allows the fans in line to still watch the game.


The left field lawn section. I could really enjoy watching a game from here.


Scoreboard. Not huge, but it serves the purpose.


If you are in the group outing area beyond the left field wall, you can look straight down onto the warning track. This would be a great place to heckle the left fielder, if you were so inclined.


The view back to the field from the group outing area beyond the left field fence.

Photos from Cedar Rapids - Part Two

The view of the outfield from the wooden picnic area down the left field line. You can't tell from this angle, but the picnic area actually juts in from the rest of the seats, giving a nice view of home plate.


More picnic tables on the concourse down the left field line. This is just above the lawn section, and should not be confused with the picnic area I showed in the picture above this one.


A play area off in the corner down the left field line.


A general shot back towards the concourse from the left field corner. Decent amount of walking room for the fans.


The stadium from the concourse behind the third base dugout.

Photos from Cedar Rapids - Part One

One of the suites.


The Cedar Rapids ballclub used to be affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds (my favorite team growing up). These cards are enclosed in a glass case on the suite level, and feature Lenny Harris, Kurt Stillwell, and Joe Oliver. I was a big fan of Harris and Oliver; Stillwell was the shortstop of the future until Barry Larkin came along and took his job.


This is the above mentioned case on the suite level, featuring a lot of artifacts from former Kernels.


My view from the press box. Not bad at all. This is arguably my favorite stadium in the Western Division.


Just a nice touch by the media relations department here in Cedar Rapids. Andy Pantini and John Rodgers are two of the nicest guys in the league. We call John the "Dean of the Midwest League", since he has been broadcasting in the league the longest. He is perhaps the nicest guy I have ever met in my entire life.