I could have lived in this place and the staff was friendly and helpful as well.
My only question is this -the pocket schedule of choice there was the Greensboro Grasshoppers, not the nearby Asheville Tourists or the Hickory Crawdads, who are closer to this stop than Greensboro. Kinda odd.
Finally pulling into McCormick Field, two things stand out.
One-the park is built into a mountainside.
Two-The parking is horrendous.
You need to park at the top of the "hill and walk down and around to reach McCormick Field.
Not the best place that I have ever seen to place your vehicle at for sure.
The Tourists (as did the Crawdads and Grasshoppers) open their gates 90 minutes before game time, unlike the local Suns and Keys which both open 60 mins before game time.
This could be helpful for autographs and I certainly would not argue with either of the local teams making a similar change.
However, Asheville was doomed to be a disappointment on the autograph front.
The visiting Lake County Captains enter the field from a clubhouse down the left field line and the access to them was very easy.
Only one problem, I only needed 3 Captains as they had been pretty much finished in their Hagerstown visits.
1st round pick Beau Mills signed a "top prospect" card, which basically looks like a 1959 Topps card without a picture, while newly recalled outfielder Lucas Montero signed his Lake County card and the newest Captain Ryan Morris signed his Bowman card.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Battlin Bob were struggling on the Asheville side.
Renovations to McCormick Field gave the Tourists a tunnel to their clubhouse from their dugout and that always means limited access and chances for signatures.
A poor day getting Tourists, although both of the players in the SAL prospect set-Hector Gomez and Daniel Mayora were gotten mainly because of someone else.
A lady asked a player to bring the "Dominican players" over to sign her ball, both players trotted over for that and we were able to get them as a result.
The Rockies top pick pitcher Casey Weathers signed for us, as the nights saving grace.
Casey talked briefly after we mentioned to him about
s
eeing his USA baseball teammate Ross Detwiler earlier in the week.Outside of that, a disappointing autograph night.
The game was not a lot more exciting.
The Captains pummelled the Tourists and gave an unusual scoreboard early on.
I asked Ryan to grab a quick pic of the scoreboard.
Lake County's emergency starter Kyle Collina(replacing the promoted Josh Tomlin) threw 4 perfect innings in retiring every batter he faced.
The neatest thing about the field is the HUGE right field wall that is made of the type of metal that you would use on a roof.
Ingles, which is a local grocery store, sponsors the wall and its log
o is all over it.The concourse has another nice feature, they have painted this mountain and set up a map of the SAL and has different teams painted on it.
Nice touch and a lot of work.
In the end, the Captains won a 10-4 decision paced by 4 homers, including one by nice guy
Nick Weglarz.
In closing, McCormick Field was a nice field, once you got into the door and easy to get the visitors for autographs.
But if you are looking to get the Tourists,I would recommend either taking 2 days or targeting a handful of players that you want the most.
After a long day, we drove back to our hotel at the Asheville airport, where the wors
t Days Inn known to man awaited us.A quick stop at Sonic Drive-in and off to sleep before the trip to Hickory.
A quick note of the passing of my aunt Mildred Easterday at the age 83.
"Aunt Wood" was one of the best people that I knew.
Her late husband "Uncle Robert" married Cherie and I 20 years ago (no pics available-LOL) and I always took pride in being the last family member to have that honor.
She was always terrific to me and lived a long and wonderful life and she will be dearly missed.
Back tomorrow with Day 2-Hickory
Photo Credits
Ryan Heimberger
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