Wappingers Falls might sound too small for a baseball team, but the suburb of Poughkeepsie is the home of the New York-Penn League's Hudson Valley Renegades.
The original plan for this day would have seen us in Morgantown WV for the West Virginia Black Bears and their meet the team day.
Last season, our trip there to a ballpark that you can do next to no autographing went very well and the plan was to try their event again, but the team's dawdling with their team set (it wasn't released until later in the week) gave us the idea to travel to Wappingers Falls instead.
The Renegades are an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and since the Rays do not have a team in any of the teams on our circuit, this was a chance to add a new stadium to my "passport" and work on a team that I usually could not.
I worked the previous night, so Fred Landucci and I were able to go after work.
The GPS kept trying to kick us over to another route that would have taken us around (but not into thank goodness) New York City rather than a route that I had found that was a few miles longer in length, but far shorter in time and much less in traffic that sent us up to Scranton PA (What?) and then east.
After a "breakfast" stop at Sonic on the way up, we arrived at Wappingers Falls on another one of these extra high heat index days that this summer has specialized in as it seems to consistently be in the '90s with heat indexes of ten degrees higher.
Yes, New York is farther north than rockin' MD, but it still was hot and Duchess Stadium didn't offer a lot of places to duck away from the sun.
Duchess Stadium opened in 1994 and has the 90s feel to it.
Other than a small spot away from the field and there is not any covering from the sun and the team shop is small as most stadiums from the time seem to have very small team shop spaces.The field is somewhat sunken and the stadium rises above it as you enter the stadium above field level.
Duchess reminded me most of Haley Toyota Field in Salem, Virginia with the reserved seats high in the air, but it also reminded me a little of Bowie's stadium with little skyline other than some trees and brush.
The autographing access is fairly good, both teams walk from the right-field clubhouses with the Renegades on the first base side and the visitors (Staten Island Yankees) in this case walking across the field to their third-base dugout.
I bought a Renegades team set and other than the two players in the NY-Penn Prospect set and a few players with Princeton cards left over from my 2018 trip to Pulaski, I didn't bring many cards.
I haven't been purchasing mainstream cards in the amount that I used to and for Tampa affiliates, I just don't have the amount to get signed as I once did.
I was able to get both of the players from the NY/Penn prospect set as John Dokasis signed two (he came out early to talk to some fans) but didn't sign the cards I had brought for others.
I soon discovered he was the starting pitcher, so in hindsight, I'm happy that I was able to land the two!
Fred was able to land the one player that he wanted in first-round shortstop Greg Jones, who signed all of my cards (I had two and I had the same two for others) and was very nice.
Jones is hitting .318 with 14 steals and the UNC-Wilmington product would likely move to low A already, if the season had more time remaining to make such a move worthwhile.
After sitting through two, Yes TWO, national anthems (It was a Jewish Night promotion, so the team also had someone sing the national anthem for Israel and it kinda sounded like Bill Murray from his SNL days singing it) and some game action, we moved to our recommended eating establishment, Leo's Pizzeria across the street from Duchess.
We would wind up meeting two guys from SportsGraphing and talking the hobby and even making some trade agreements!We had been tipped off about Leo's with two pieces of advice- Try the Stromboli and make sure you order the small!
We ordered one of those and a small calzone and they were monstrous!
Between the three of us, everyone had a piece of both and Fred took home as leftovers about half of each!
Not only were they huge, but they were also delicious and even though the restaurant is a little snug, if you visit Hudson Valley, you have to stop at Leo's!
The ride home had its moments, mainly driving through two severe thunderstorms, but all was well unless someone tired of all of my "The Office" related comments as we drove through the Scranton area!
I always enjoy these trips, not just because of seeing different places or even the graphing or baseball, but it's also hanging out, the stories and chats.
You get to know people best on car trips and you wind up telling people about yourself too as you kill so much time.
I still have the big trip to write about and this crazy final week of the minors season coming up.
I'll be writing about those soon when time permits around the upcoming football season, so be sure to keep an eye out for those, if you like the trip stories!
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