Road Trip :Harrisburg and Fred's Buddy Roy?

I'm interrupting my road trip to New York to talk about an interesting night in Harrisburg with the Senators with good company,namely my lovely wife for the evening.
Of course,it wouldn't be Harrisburg without the appearance of the irrepressible Fred Landucci and the must for the evening was seeing the Akron Rubber Ducks for the first time this season.

I needed to make the trip to Harrisburg for the first time since June because the Rubber Ducks team set was out and I needed to work on that.
I always make doing Akron,Altoona and Richmond the must have team sets in the Eastern League,so this was a drive that I needed to make.
As usual,Fred Landucci was waiting for Cherie and I at the gate and as we descended down the steps to reach field level to do some pre-game graphing,a gentleman hollered out to Fred some words that I couldn't make out.
Fred responded "AH I don't have time for you,Roy!".
I asked Fred,if Roy was a friend of his and did was he friends with Roy?
The crisp and quick retort was no and just then the theme of the evening was set-Fred and his pal Roy!

There were few graphers in town.mainly because the Ducks and their two top prospects had been in town earlier in the season in Francisco Mejia and Bobby Bradley.
Fred had gotten Mejia's top 100 finished for me in Akron's previous visit,so now it was just my and Mike Oravec's team set cards.
Francisco was the first player that I was able to write off as he signed both cards for me and Fred helped with the final card to finish Mejia.
Bobby Bradley signed just one of two,so we'll see how Fred might do on Thursday with a little mop up...

One great story was when I asked Cameron Hill to sign.
Cameron came right over and signed my two cards and Fred said that we still needed to get Bobby Bradley and wondered if he would walk right over to us.
Cameron said  (paraphrased) "Probably not,these big prospects usually don't sign".
I haven't heard honesty from a player about a player like that since Ron Davenport ripped Jordan Schaefer in 2007.

All the while as the pregame went and we were joined by Dan and Bobby (Great guys,Harrisburg locals and how could they be bad as Xavier fans?),I continued to ask Fred about his friend Roy.
Roy apparently is a Senators season ticket holder that Fred dislikes because he pays for general admission seats and yet sits in the first row right beside the Senator dugout in seats far better than he pays for.
Fred says the Senators allow this for some reason and even though Fred has great seats that he pays for (he usually climbs the steps to sit with me when I come to Harrisburg),this rightfully angers him and the fact that Roy revels in this makes it even worse for Fred.

As the game was played and after I missed the only Akron run of the night  (a Mejia homer) while I waited in line for a cheeseburger (Cherie was nice enough to come with me right after work,so I felt I should get her something to eat!),we climbed to the top of the stadium.
There isn't a bad seat in the place,so I like to sit away from people,but who was right in our line of vision to the field?
Roy.
That meant more comments from me about Fred's new friend Roy and Fred offering his various complaints about Roy and his life!
Me: You sure know a lot about Roy,Is Roy coming to the GGG-Canelo party?
Fred:No,I wouldn't invite him-----------comments about Roy here....

Meanwhile on the field,the Senators and Rubber Ducks went into extra innings with Harrisburg blowing a chance to win it in the 9th.
As we looked at Roy in his seat as he cheered on the Senators with another grapher that Fred hates that is lovingly dubbed "Baseball Pants" in front of another fan that was quickly named Frank Howard since he was wearing a Nationals/Senators batting helmet and the guy had some resemblance to the 80 plus year old slugger.
Harrisburg had a chance to win in the 10th,but the runner was held at third with one out on a single and the next two "Favorites of Fred"-Khayan Norfork and Stephen Perez,long time Harrisburg journeymen each made outs to prolong the game.

Roy was having a good time,while I reminded Fred of Roy not paying for his seats.
Harrisburg again had a chance to win in the 12th as Dan Gamache led off the inning with a double.
Drew Ward then singled and as I gathered my belongings to prepare for postgame,left fielder Dorssys Paulino uncorked a throw for home.
It was long enough,but way high.
Gamache would have been safe easily,if he slides-but he doesn't and Paulino's throw hits the mitt of Francisco Mejia and right into the hip of Gamache for the out.
As the crowd groaned,Fred yelled at Roy to sit down.
Akron's Mitch Brown walked the next two batters (one intentionally,one not),up stepped Stephen Perez again to Fred's complaints and Roy's cheers.
This time,Perez singled to end the game and finally send Fred,Roy and the few remaining fans home with a rare Senators win (Harrisburg is racing to the finish with Richmond to avoid the cellar).

Fred helped me graph Akron postgame and got some more players for the team set (I was able to acquire most of the prospects I really needed except for Bobby Bradley for Mike and Greg Allen for both of us) and I was able to hang out with Dan and Bobby more as well.
I always have a good time in Harrisburg.
It's not the prettiest park to watch a game on the circuit and it's not the easiest to graph either,but it's close enough to the top on both lists to make it my favorite place to go on the local circuit.

Thanks to everyone and even Roy wherever you are for making my final trip of the year a fun night...

I still have two stops on the New York trip coming up soon,but I'll be working on football for the next few days!
Stay tuned!