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.

Baltimore Memorial Stadium

I have written a lot of about the stadiums and arenas in Cleveland here at the blog and despite being a diehard fan of Cleveland and Ohio teams,I still lived in Maryland.

With that in mind,I thought I would write about the stadium that I went to most as a child-Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.
We didn't have a presence in Washington,so the Orioles were all we had as a local baseball fan-even if I wasn't an Orioles fan.

I didn't mind the Orioles for most of the seventies,although I didn't root for them.
I even liked a few Orioles like junkballing Mike Cuellar,smooth fielding Paul Blair and my favorite Oriole Ken Singleton,so despite being a Rangers and then an Indians fan,I didn't have a real hatred for the Orioles at all.
They happened to be the team on TV and the team that I got to go to see once or twice a year.most notably this night in 1978.
That began to change during the 1979 World Series,but really didn't seem to kick in until 1982.
The Orioles made a late season charge that fell just short of catching the Milwaukee Brewers for the AL East title,but that season saw the arrival of a rookie named Cal Ripken Jr and the following years would see me become a passionate rooter for whoever played Baltimore and their local hero that I always felt was way overrated.

However,I always liked Memorial Stadium and my visits there,despite the less than dazzling neighborhood it was placed in.
I remember vividly on one of my first trips watching my dad give some kids some money to "watch" our car.
I asked why he'd do that and he said "I would rather not have to change tires before I drive home".
The big marquee on the stadium itself with the dedication to the men that lost their lives in war always loomed large as one walked up to the stadium.

I always liked being able to get things of my favorite teams that you could rarely get anywhere else.
I vividly remember saving money for a trip to an Orioles game and bought bobbleheads of the Indians and Pirates (I still have both-minus the original boxes),and stopped in the end of the game rush to use the rest of my money on a Texas Ranger bobble,only to be grabbed and chastised by my dad (He was right) for not staying with him as we left.
I never did get my Ranger bobble (I kind of remember him looking like the photo shown),although I still wouldn't mind having him at the right price...

I always liked the scoreboard in left center and the various Baltimore area sponsors like National Bohemian beer and Esskay hot dogs.
One of my favorite stories from my childhood came from Esskay hot dogs and I still smile thinking of it.
This guy that went hunting with my dad and grandfather stopped by our cabin (we went there a lot) and he used to ramble on and on about the only hot dog that he would eat was Esskay.
So,one day on a visit,my grandfather took some Briggs hot dogs and put them in an Esskay package and made sure he saw them come out of the wrapper.
I watched this guy continue to rave about the quality of Esskay as he happily wolfed down Briggs!!

I also liked the open centerfield area where you could see these planted "wooded areas" right in front of row houses!
It was a different look,but one that I enjoyed despite an aversion to the Orioles.
I seem to remember Brad Komminsk of the Indians jumping at the center field wall and tumbling over in a late 1980's game.(it was 1989) into the bullpens.
Listen to the Youtube below for the only good thing about Orioles games for me-a great announcing crew of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein...


A great part of Memorial was the PA announcer,Rex Barney,who was a former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher renowned for throwing hard and just as much for his lack of control!
Barney used two catch phrases still used today by fans my age and older-"Give that fan a contract!" when a fan would make a nice snag of a foul ball or his "Thank Youuuu" when he signed off with announcements over the sound system.
To this day,when I play Strat O Matic with teams of that era,I'll think of Rex Barney announcing them over the PA....

Another thing that I always connected with Memorial Stadium,despite few games on the network was this really annoying commercial for WMAR,who showed so many Orioles away games with Home Team Sports showing the home games.
"Hey Orioles" continues to be a song used and parodied by Oriole haters of the day even now!



Memorial Stadium wasn't a beautiful park and it certainly was not a park that was designed to be a 100 year field like Wrigley or Fenway.
It hosted three football teams-the Colts,the late CFL Colts,who are the only non-Canadian team to win the Grey Cup and I still wish I would have seen a CFL game there and the hated Ravens while their stadium was being built.
But despite the teams that played there usually being rooted against by me,I still have fond memories of the old gal on 33rd street and even though Oriole Park being a more beautiful facility than Memorial,I still think of the Orioles being at Memorial Stadium first...

I may not have the hatred for the Orioles that I did in the past,I once made the statement "Nothing good ever comes out of Baltimore except Mary Beth Marsden" speaking of the Baltimore anchorwoman that I was a fan of,but I look back at those teams and their stadium fondly as the first big league stadium that I ever visited along with the team I loved to hate....