Hitting the Road-Lake County

 After we left Akron,we drove roughly 45 minutes to Eastlake-home of the Lake County Captains.

The Captains were hosting the Fort Wayne Tincaps,who are an affiliate of the San Diego Padres,so that was a big deal for Doug Hopkins and myself because the Padres are one of just three teams (Also the Angels and Dodgers) that I have no access to between my travels and traders.
We arrived in the fourth inning because the game was high scoring (Lake County would eventually win 14-6) and were able to watch a bit.
After a quick stop in the Cargo Hold (gift shop) for a team set,we moved to the left field bleachers,where there were few people sitting,but there was a decent amount of children in a play area with bounce houses,inflatable slides,etc,so the noise was louder than one would expect for such a small amount of people in the area.

Classic Park is a park that I've seen games and visited before,but this time made me think of a park that might need a little TLC for a park that is just 13 years old.
It's hard to think sometimes that these parks that seem new are reaching their teenage years and need to be kept up.
Classic Park looked a little drearier than in past visits and I'd hate to see it fall into the trap of not being kept up.

Classic Park does earn points for selling Minute Maid frozen lemonades for three bucks,which for a ballpark is reasonable enough and Doug grabbed me one.
These are pretty sizable and are the same ones that you can buy at Dollar Tree.
I wish the Suns would buy a bunch of these for a dollar there and then sell them for three at their games!
After the end of a long game,the Captains put on a fireworks night and allow me a few lines on fireworks.
I have nothing against fireworks and they can be quite entertaining,but anymore for teams,it has become overkill.
Way too many fireworks nights doesn't make it special and as a result,fireworks aren't the draw that they once were.
If fireworks nights were fewer in number,the number of people showing up for them would improve.

We went to the back and graphed a bit,
Had the lighting been better (lights turned off for fireworks) and there been other graphers around (it was just us) we could have done both teams,but instead we concentrated on the Tin Caps and got a few prospects.
I was happiest to get Austin Smith to sign a Stars and Stripes insert card that were only made 25 of,but also got Michael Gettys and a few others..

After driving to our hotel and waiting behind an obnoxious woman,we finally were able to relax in the room when David Sloan called to talk to his friend Doug.
Always nice to see two guys chat that rarely are able to do so...
Finally,at one o'clcok,I was able to hit the bed with a long and fun day at its end...

Back later with some words on Muhammad Ali,so part three of this trip will be in a few days...