Cleaning out the Inbox-Baseball Edition

The inbox polishing continues with an all baseball edition.

Some of these notes will be fairly old because they have been in the inbox for a while.

The picture to the left was taken by me during my trip to Augusta, Georgia last year to Lake Olmstead Stadium in its final season of minor league baseball.
The Augusta Greenjackets have a new stadium across the state line now in South Carolina, but what are the plans in Georgia for their old stadium?
Augusta University is currently using it for their games, but there is some talk of installing a stage and making Lake Olmstead a facility for concerts.
I would imagine that would take some dollars, but it would make sense to increase the financial viability of keeping the stadium around.
At just 23, it's surprising that Lake Olmstead has already been tossed aside, but there is going to be a movement in the majors and minors on stadiums that now are in or approaching their 20's from the last stadium boom, it'll be interesting to see the future for some of these stadiums and for baseball in these cities.

This ESPN article on Ichiro Suzuki might seem like it is a tribute to the outfielder, who retired recently, but it is actually from the off-season and it's a really interesting look at the Japanese star.
Ichiro's work ethic and attachment to the game is fanatical and what author Wright Thompson brings out shows the person behind the bat along with just why Ichiro might be one of those guys that attempts a comeback eventually, even if it is in the Japanese leagues, which would love the attention and ticket selling that would bring.
The star of the story is the lost relationship between Ichiro and his father, which I think many fathers and sons can relate to at some level.
This truly is worth your time...

Hardball Times writes of a 1980 showdown between Mike Norris of the Athletics and Jesse Jefferson of the Blue Jays at old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.
Norris, who would win 20 games in 1980, dueled with Jefferson, who at the time was a journeyman pitcher, who had once been a touted prospect with the Orioles, for eleven innings before a 1-0 decision in eleven innings.

Hardball Times also writes of the connection of baseball and the television show MASH with the various time's baseball was part of the show.
I agree with the author that the peak of the show was its early years when it was funnier than the often "heavy-handed" (to quote the author) episodes of later seasons.
I did love the episode with "Hawkeye" and "BJ" recreating an Indians-Yankees game as my favorite of the mentioned episodes.

One more from Hardball Times as they write about the battles for neutral ground from two nearby teams.
The neutral ground is Columbus in this article and it writes of the fight between Cleveland and Cincinnati for the hearts of the capital city.
The article also discusses the history of baseball in Columbus as well.

CBS Sports has a really good article on the Chicago White Sox "Ballpark that could have been", which writes about just how lousy a park "New Comiskey Park" is (Considering how "Old Comiskey was an awesome place to watch a game) and how the original plans could have been far different and better than the resulting facility.
New Comiskey is almost universally recognized as the last "new" ballpark (built in 1991, it is now 27 years old) that is terrible before Camden Yards came along and started a new era in how and what a baseball stadium is and looks like.
However, even though Camden Yards was the trendsetter in ballparks by HOK, the architects of both parks, I learned that HOK almost gave Camden Yards a look that was far more New Comiskey than an old-school ballpark, but the Orioles/Baltimore had a better field in mind.
Thank the lord for that.

SABR's Baseball Card Blog takes on an old mystery from 1969 on the baseball card of Wally Bunker.
Bunker, whose hat was airbrushed due to the expansion draft and Topps having to use old pictures after issues with the players association for the 1968 and 69 sets, is clearly at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, but the mystery is this- just what is the orange thing over Bunker's shoulder?
The author says it bothered him for years, but the great news is this- SABR members figured it out and solved it!
I'm not giving the answer away, but the answer is in the comments following the article.

SABR baseball gaming finishes this inbox with an article on realism in baseball board games and even a personal note as the author, Joe Pritchard, is a person that Ryan and I knew years ago and even played in the IFL for a while.
Joe writes of his baseball game background, including his time with MLB Showdown which I think is where Ryan met Joe in the first place.
I still get cards from that set signed to this day for Ryan, including Todd Pratt earlier this year.
Pratt was catching for the Mets on the cards and currently manages the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Marlins Low A affiliate.
Joe currently plays a game called History Maker baseball that has much customization than other baseball games.
Me? I'm still with ol' standby Strat O Matic, but I'm even thinking of giving Action baseball a try since I like their football and basketball games so much.
SOM makes you buy a brand new game every time you want to purchase the latest season, while Action doesn't, so I'm considering giving Action a try sometime, but not quitting SOM.

Road Trip:Augusta

Yet another TRS road trip recap begins as my friend Mike Oravec and I visited four parks for games and another two to visit without a game.

I'll be recapping those as the week goes along,but we'll be moving along to our first stop and my biggest target of the year-Lake Olmstead Stadium in Augusta,Georgia and the home of the Augusta Greenjackets.

The Greenjackets are moving across the lake next season to a new stadium in North Augusta South Carolina and I wanted to add Lake Olmstead to the stadium map before the team left Georgia.
I wondered why the Jackets were leaving a stadium that isn't quite 30 years old,but my answer came before we even pulled up to the stadium-the neighborhood.
Every building with a business located in it had metal bars in the windows-never a good sign and when I would ask around later at the park,it was told to me that a day or two before,a players car had been broken into and that fans cars have been broken into as well.
If that is the case and I believe it is,I bet that is why the Jackets don't draw well.
I remember a conversation years ago when Augusta visited Hagerstown and then-pitching coach (now with Richmond) Steve Kline told me that when his wife visited Lake Olmstead he refused to have her drive to the park because she would have to drive home at night.

Lake Olmstead isn't a great visual park when you enter,but it's not awful either.
The grandstand is covered as it should be (in most places,but especially the South),but there are some parks that have zero shade available as you will see later on the trip..
The grandstand reminds me of the Muni though-the OLD Muni as when the grandstand had all metal bleachers without backs.
The Muni grandstand has those and makes it a more comfortable seating experience,but Lake Olmstead did have an addition in each section that Hagerstown does not-Fans above the area that are moved by the wind and at least attempts to keep the air flowing around you.
I know the city of Hagerstown doesn't want to put any more money than they have to into the Muni,but this would help keep the air circulating and maybe help a few more people want to pay the extra cost to sit in the grandstand.

Mike went to the third base side to graph the visiting Asheville Tourists,while I did the home Greenjackets.
Asheville came from down the left field line,while the home team had a dugout tunnel to come out of.
I was sitting along with one of the Augusta superfans as I was the only person graphing Augusta (other than a young group of females with baseballs that were graphing in a different manner!).
Susan King was wearing an Augusta Pirates jersey from "back in the day"and it was fitting since it was supposed to be "Augusta Pirates Weekend,where Augusta was supposed to wear throwback jerseys that would be auctioned off at the series end on Sunday.
I asked Susan if she would mind taking a picture for me so I could use it here and she graciously complied.
As it turned out,Susan (and another season ticket holder) would grumble about the Augusta manager,who they claimed refused to allow the team to wear those in favor of a camo version,which the team must wear a lot for home games.
I really didn't like those because the numbers were hard to read and as a result,I missed some players that I might not have,if they had worn the Pirates throwbacks.

Mike did much better than I and was able to add Riley Pint on his top 100 and SAL prospect as the big Rockies addition along with multiple team set cards.
I didn't do as well as Mike,but I did get Kelvin Beltre on his SAL prospect card among a few others.
Was very difficult as the only grapher and those awful uniforms to see guys and get them stopped.
Mike and I hit the team store where the logo shown above rested next and I bought shirts for the ladies and Ryan.
With Augusta being a Giants farm club,I wanted to get those for them,while Ryan has done so much for us of late and I wanted to pick him something up.
I told him to pick the team of his choice of the four teams we would be seeing and he selected Augusta as well,so my shopping was finished on the first stop with the exception of team sets for others at Kannapolis.

We settled into our seats to watch some of the game and began to work on dividing up our cards.
Suddenly,it began to get very dark and very windy in the second inning and we had a feeling that things were about to get bad!
The Greenjackets rolled the tarp on the field in anticipation of the thunderstorm as that happened Mike and I quickly decided to get out of Dodge!
We figured there would be a lengthy delay and between the delay and what was likely to be VERY humid weather following the storm and that's exactly what happened on this 98 degree day!
We ran to the car and went to eat at Xaxby's for dinner.
By the time that we left there,the weather was oppressively humid,so with a two hour drive to suburban Charlotte ahead,I think the decision was the correct one.

After Xaxby's,we made the drive to friends of Mike's,the Parrish family.
The Parrish's were so gracious to allow me to stay with them after never meeting me before and we stayed up for hours talking with Bob,Laurie and their great children Tucker and Will.
Tucker in particular reminded me of myself at the same age with just tons of sports knowledge.
Tucker can hang with me or anyone on what he knows and it made me smile with the memories of my own experiences as a teenager.
Will is just plain funny and he loved hearing Mike and I's stories from the autographing circuit.
I'll write more about the Parrish's on the next day's post,but what a kind and wonderful family.

I stayed up until 4 am quietly in my room,working on the blog,playing Strat-o-Matic and relaxing as everyone slept before getting a few hours of sleep to end a long but fun day.
In the end,I was happy to put Lake Olmsted Stadium on the list.
It was nothing special,but it gave me my first stadium in the state of Georgia and it added a park that won't be around much longer.
Great day!

Back tomorrow with the day in Kannapolis unless there is breaking news...