Why is a cooler important to this story?
Well, it set the stage for more conversation than you can believe about a styrofoam cooler, but more on that later as we sped to Charleston and landed there early enough to wait a while, but too late to work on players entering Appalachian Power Park on the Greenville Drive and the homestanding Power.
Charleston and the Power has been a favorite stop since our first trip here and I like going here on multiple levels-the autographing is relatively easy, the staff is nice, actually helps you do things and they keep the on-field ridiculousness to a minimum, which often is a refreshing change.
It's a cozy ballpark with a reasonably wide concourse and I love the ease of entrance into the park with a loud whistle to signal the gates opening (Think the Flintstones opening with Fred getting off work!).
The Greenville Drive will not make an appearance in Hagerstown this season, so this was a key game to have any chance to work on the Boston Red Sox affiliate for the collection.
The parent club has lost much of their depth in the farm system and isn't as high in the talent rankings as they usually are, so the Drive lacks the talent-laden teams of the past.
I was able to have the team's top two position prospects sign in C.J. Chatham and Cole Brannen, but when I was pulling cards, I missed the team's top overall prospect in pitcher Alex Scherff's Bowman and had nothing for him.
The West Virginia Power didn't have the Pirates first-rounder Shane Baz on the roster yet and the team's top position prospect in outfielder Lolo Sanchez doesn't have any cards as of now.
I did nab (with help from Fred Landucci, so I could do some extra work on the Drive) both of the Pirates players in the New York-Penn league top prospect set from 2016 in Dylan Busby and Deon Stafford to sign.
Fred and Michael enjoyed talking to Stafford as he is a Harrisburg native, with some rival high school talk as Stafford and Michael graduated from the same high school.
Second round selection Cal Mitchell signed his Bowman (and hit a long home run in the game) and was very nice.
I still don't have a card for infielder O'Neil Cruz, who is being converted to shortstop after being acquired from the Dodgers last season in a trade for pitcher Tony Watson.
The Power had canceled the previous day's game and therefore scheduled a doubleheader with the Drive not returning.
We watched game one (with the highlight being the Mitchell homer) and with the game tied through seven innings, we were treated to the new rule for extra innings!
Do you sense my excitement for this?
The batter that made the final out of the previous inning starts on second base in the extra stanza in an attempt to add, ahem- excitement and speed the game along.
Well, I've seen two extra innings so far this season and in each case, the team at bat sent its first batter up and sacrificed the runner to third.
Considering that so many fans and supporters of the designated hitter use the talking point of "no one comes to see a pitcher hit or sacrifice bunt", this experiment features the sacrifice bunt.
It's very sound baseball strategy, but I fail to see where the excitement builds.
I'll never understand why pro sports leagues hire commissioners (baseball with Rob Manfred and hockey with Gary Bettman notably) that seem to dislike the sport they run and have contempt for the people that enjoy the game.
I would wager that this trial run will be at least tweaked for next season, if not given up completely as it has been overwhelmingly met with a negative response.
After adding a few more players between games, we were off for an early dinner before the ride home and we had a few ideas, but the "Toastman" Rod Blackstone had recommended Adelphia Sports Bar and Grill and in the eyes of Fred and Michael-if the Toastman says it-it's as good as gold.
Derreck was dubious of Adelphia when it was touted as "Greek Food", Doug and I lacked a strong opinion, so we were Adelphia bound.
It wasn't the worst place that I've been, but far from the best as well.
A dry undercooked burger, less than great fries and a waitress that was nice, but misplaced Derreck's credit card and delayed our leaving for ten minutes.
Now its time to talk cooler.
Derreck was in the back of a Nissan Pathfinder that was supposed to seat seven, but the fifth person (Derreck) was mildly tight in his seat.
This was passable on the way down, but Michael had bought some chocolate bourbon balls for his boss and he was afraid that they would melt in the sun.
Therefore a small cooler was needed to keep them intact and the only space available was next to Derreck, which took almost all of his leg room and led to many complaints and gripes to Michael for both the cooler and his lack of space.
Generally, this was quite hilarious, but Derreck's insistence on keeping the trip moving meant we made just one stop between Charleston and Hagerstown.
When we arrived home, my knees were killing me and I can only imagine how Derreck was feeling!
It was a great start to the new season and I always enjoy traveling with my friends.
I cannot ask for better friends than the guys in that vehicle and I'm hoping that next year, perhaps we can make a two-vehicle trip somewhere for a few days and add some of my other friends that I enjoy their company such as Bill Cover, Lefty Koch, and Kendall Morris.
Now that would be a really fun trip to take!
I'll be back later with the Devils against the Lightning as they try to tie that series, a quick boxing challenge, why something that happened yesterday poured cold water on a post that I wanted to write and my inbox is loaded-I'm going to have to do something about that soon!!
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