I'm not living here in Allentown

Last Thursday,we made our first trip to a Triple A Park and visited Allentown Pa and the brand new Lehigh Valley Ironpigs.
Of course,the real reason that we visited there was the visiting Indianapolis Indians,as this is the closest visit that the AAA Pirate affiliate gets to us this season.
Last season,we saw every Pirate farm team play except Indianapolis and we hope to change that this season.
The ballpark was terrific and not overly difficult to find.
Coca Cola is the sponsor of the park and their logo is literally all over the place.
Our tickets were comps as a friend of ours is friends with a member of the Lehigh Valley front office and they were terrific!
We were in the first row behind only the luxury area and we were close enough to umpire the game!
Lehigh Valley has the area directly behind home plate sold to businesses and high spenders much like you would see on television from the major league parks and you know what?
I think I liked our seats even better as we did not have to worry about seeing over anyone for the course of the game.
Upon entering the park,Kurt Landis (current GM and former GM of the Hagerstown Suns) walked up to me and complimented me on my Bernie Kosar jersey and as he got close,he must have recognized me from somewhere as he said "you look familiar".
I told him that he knew me from Hagerstown and then he nodded his head like "that's it".
Lehigh Valley is like a huge Hagerstown facility with all the modern comforts.
I guess a better way to say it is this-If you saw Hagerstown with Landis as the boss,you can see his fingerprints all over Lehigh Valley.
It was amazing to see what can happen when a team cleans up the stale acts (Sunsations),has some money to spend on promos (t-shirts,soft baseballs and other gimmicks tossed out often between innings throughout the game),hires a professional sounding person to run the between innings mic work and keeps the mascot to appearances without overkill.
It would be somewhat unfair to the Hagerstown Suns to totally compare them to the Ironpigs,the budget and facilities are completely divergent,but the Suns could take a few lessons from the old boss.
One more note to the Suns-when Lehigh Valley throws things into the crowd,they cover the entire facility,not just one narrow strip of the park because the less than hustling Sunsation only feels like walking by one grandstand.
The worst part of the in game experience is all the pig stuff going on,the name is bad enough,but the pig calls and miscellaneous things referring to the name got real old real fast.
Suns and Keys may be dull names,but they are not awful ones.

Now onto the reason that we went-the Indianapolis Indians.
We brought things to sign,but we remembered the words of a collector that told us that"AAA is the hardest place to get things signed because most of the guys there are miserable".
We did Ok,but not great and now if asked about AAA,I would add this-"The younger guys are still Ok,but the veterans are usually unhappy".
We managed to get all the prospects there except for Andrew McCutchen and I saw him signing for others down the right field line,so it wasn't an attitude issue.
Neil Walker signed and I told him that he signed in Hagerstown for me a few years back and he groaned "Hagerstown".
I then said "it is pretty bad ,isn't it"? and he replied "easily the worst".
I can see it now-Hagerstown "Easily the worst"!
Walker is always terrific and so was the newest Indian Brian Bixler,who signed everything and kept his uniquely legible signature as well.
Steve Pearce came from the other end of the dugout to sign and so did Nyjer Morgan,who I had never gotten before and both were very gracious.
The only former big leaguers that signed were Matt Kata (for others,I had nothing) and Josh Wilson (I had none,Ryan had one for someone else).
Craig Wilson showed no interest (that sucked,I really wanted my fave Buc from the years he was there) and a group of former big timers walked by as well that included John Van Benschoten,Jonah Bayliss and T.J.Beam.
Beam was too bad for Ryan,he had a refractor card of Beam that was numbered 1 of 200.
Bayliss completely ignored fans like they had leprosy.
But Bayliss (and his 6+ ERA) continued to have bad karma as he came into the game to pitch the ninth and allowed the tie to be broken by allowing three runs and picking up the L.
But Van Benschoten was not finished as he was in the stands charting and I had been told by a local collector that the previous day Bryan Bullington (called up that day) and Ty Taubenheim were charting and both signed late in the game without any trouble.
JVB was sitting about a row behind us and one section down,so we knew where he was and between the ninth inning,Battlin Bob did me a favor (he was closer to the aisle) and said he would get him.
JVB refused,acted poorly to the Battler and refused to sign.
I was not there,so you can read Battlin Bob's take on this here,but I would like to apologize to Bob for the ridiculous actions of the pitcher.
That would have been me,if you hadn't volunteered and I am sorry that you were treated so poorly.
One thing that I forgot about until the game started was the northeast fans.
I had forgotten just how annoying the Philly/New York fans are.
Loud,obnoxious know it alls that have zero concern for anyone else there except them.
The Southern fans might not be as knowledgeable,but they sure are easier to get along with!
As far as the game goes,Lehigh Valley scored 3 runs in the 8th to win 8-5.
Craig Wilson drilled a pinch hit homer in the top of the 8th to tie the game and then Jonah Bayliss blew it.
Neil Walker had 2 hits and so did Brian Bixler.
Andrew McCutchen had 1 and Steve Pearce did not play.
The I-Tribe has too many guys for the outfield/first base spots with McCutchen,Pearce,Morgan,Kevin Thompson,Adam Boeve and Wilson to give them all the PT that they need.
We will be back next year for the I-Tribes visit,but we will avoid the town of Allentown.
What a bad city to drive in.
Nothing but one way streets that seem to connect you to nowhere.
Awful.
But this trip is not bad,if you go straight to the park and out and don't try to shortcut your way out of the park.
We did and paid the price going almost 20 miles out of the way until we got back on track.
A for the Ballpark,A for the game management crew,F for finding your way around.

Back tomorrow with Pirates-Cardinals and a special pic as well.

Photo Credits-Ryan Heimberger