I was able to get out of work an hour early on Sunday morning thanks to a kind co-worker and with a waiting Mike Oravec outside work, we were on our way to meet Fred Landucci in Mechanicsburg Pa, where we would then move toward Lakewood New Jersey.
After meeting Fred, I would sleep much of the ride to Lakewood, so I missed seeing whatever was along the way!
The home of the Blue Claws, who we see here in Hagerstown seemingly every few weeks (Not quite true, but they come to Hagerstown four times this year and always are the team that visits most) is a very nice facility.
The Blue Claws, who didn't have a large number of fans on this day, but usually lead the South Atlantic League in attendance, were playing the Greensboro Grasshoppers on this day and since I had a grand total of one card for the Hoppers, I decided to work on a few Blue Claws stragglers for my sets and one that I am working on for Brian Bice, my trader in California.
I had to return to the car though as Lakewood doesn't allow backpacks etc.
That's becoming more and more normal at stadiums and with a nut like me that needs the feeling of organization, I miss that.
I always feel that I'm setting things down, afraid I'll forget them and even more afraid I'll knock something around and ding a card or worse screw up an IPad.
I should learn to get used to this because I think it's going to happen more and more.
We worked our way down the right-field stands where a few pitchers were working under the tutelage of their pitching coach Matt Hockenberry, who we talked to after he was finished working.
Turns out that Hockenberry is from Waynesboro. Pa which is where Mike lives.
I was able to get a few cards signed, most notably the Blue Claws teenage shortstop prospect Luis Garcia on his SAL prospect card.
I still have some cards left over, but with two more visits to Hagerstown on tap, I feel pretty good about getting those finished.
Lakewood isn't one of those "urban" parks that seem to be the current rage (and if Hagerstown ever receives a new stadium, it'll be one of those cramped on top of everyone without decent parking style parks), it's not out of town, but has plenty of space around the field and for parking.
I know the urban stadium looks tremendous on television and the visual effect can be really cool, but give me the easy to get to stadium outside the downtown area any day of the week.
The park that it reminded me of most that I have visited was the Tennessee Smokies Stadium in Sevierville, I asked Fred who has also been to Tennessee (Mike has not) if it reminded him of Tennessee and he agreed,
The view from the concourse was similar and the grassy area beyond the outfield wall made me think of Tennessee as well.
The team store was huge with lots to offer and lots of space, which many team stores lack.
We watched a little, I bought Fred a hot dog that he reported was crap, while I had some nachos that while they weren't awful, they did lack some zip to keep us going before we left for our next ballpark and what looks to be barring a surprise, my only new park of the season,
Lakewood's field has to rank at the top of the SAL fields that I have visited (I am missing the new Augusta stadium, Rome, Columbia, and Charleston) and I've read that when the stadium was built that it was built to AA standards in the event that an opportunity to move up arrived.
I doubt that happens as it would mean either the parent Phillies would have to give up their long-time AA affiliate in Reading or accept a new parent club and I'm not sure either of those things occurs.
We arrived at Trenton to catch a few innings at Arm and Hammer Park and add Trenton to the ballparks that I have visited (number 69 on the list).The home of the Thunder is literally about 2 miles off an exit directly on the route to and from Lakewood, so the small detour is next to nothing time-wise.
If you do visit the Thunder, there is a huge parking lot in the back of the stadium, but very little in the front and by what I saw, a big crowd might have their problems in post-game traffic.
After getting our tickets and climbing a sizable amount of stairs to reach the grandstand ( if you have issues with step climbing as Fred does, you may want to keep that in mind), Arm and Hammer Park has a feature that I've never seen before- a screened in concourse.
It wasn't really a distraction and it was unusual, but I was surprised to see it covering the concourse.
I'm not sure how I feel about it and it felt like overkill considering the net behind the backstop, but I suppose it doesn't hurt anyone to be a little safer.
Looking around the stadium, I really didn't see anything remarkable or that stood out, other than if you walked along the first base side and looked over the wall, you could see the Delaware River flowing rapidly.
Much like FNB Field in Harrisburg and the Susquehanna River that runs along with the stadium, the designers of the field might have missed the boat in not facing the field in the opposite direction and cost what could have been a beautiful view beyond the outfield fence.
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| Photo Credit: New Jersey Amateur Baseball League |
This picture shows the field and imagine if the home plate was located in either left or center and what the fans could have seen.
We watched a bit of the game but decided to leave before the game's conclusion.
There was still plenty to drive and the weather was hot, yet windy with the location being closer to the beach than we are used to.
I thought Trenton was a pretty average ballpark, nothing special for a AA level ballpark and although I didn't do any autographing to know how much access is available there, I'm not sure I'd make a special trip to return to Trenton.
I would definitely return to Lakewood though and if I was going there, I'd consider a short stop in Trenton.
In both Lakewood and Trenton, we asked around about a good place to eat on the way home outside of Trenton's traffic, but not far enough to wait too long to eat.
The name that we remembered was JB Dawson's in Langhorne, PA and when we saw Langhorne, looked it up on Trip Advisor and saw it was rated number one, it was the choice for us even though we had to immediately swerve to the next exit to get to JB Dawson's which we could see from the road!
JB Dawson's was a bit pricey in their steaks, which I really could have gone for, but I settled for a hamburger, which was good enough, but the winner was the appetizer-Philly cheesesteak stuffed into egg rolls!
These egg rolls were so delicious that they were gone so quickly between us that I didn't even have time to take a picture!
The drive home didn't seem to take very long as it was filled with good conversation ( that I took part in unlike the ride there) and before you know it, I was home and ready to get to bed shortly after.
I would definitely go back to Lakewood, where the graphing access is very good, although it does have a reputation for attracting graphers when big prospects come to town.
A fun day with new places to mark off on the list-Good times!
Back later with what will likely be the final inbox cleaning with some recent passings.
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