Trenton Thunder 9/1/15

Last September I went to three minor league baseball games in the span of 8 days, with two being first-time
visits (and the other being the Camden Riversharks, who have since moved out of the area). I started with the Trenton Thunder, and what did I find when I left the light rail stop nearest the ballpark? The New Jersey State Prison!

Thanks, Google! Good to know they're open 24-7.
Wouldn't want crooks waiting outside all night to get in.
And 3.8 stars!

Along the wall of the prison there's a mural...

I noticed that structurally all three parks sort of look the same. Did minor league parks go through a cookie-cutter phase like, for example, the Vet, Three Rivers in Pittsburgh and Riverfront in Cincinnati?

My Sports Tees And Miscellaneous Caps, Part 5

Two more caps, then four t-shirts -- one from each team, in part for reasons explained below.

On the left is a Camden Riversharks hat I bought last week at a game for $5. They may not be in Camden next year. The cap on the right is pretty self-explanatory.

Also self-explanatory. Took me a while to find one for sale at a good price, though.

Because the NFL has returned, I resume my wearing of an Eagles shirt on game days (I've had this particular shirt for quite a few years). Didn't work out so well last night. That was a really pathetic performance in so many ways, in a game that was very winnable.

A giveaway that's become a regular thing, The home opener (barring unusual circumstances such as a world championship) is a 3:05 pm start on a weekday. After a day off (in case it rains on Opening Day) the next game is often designated "Opening Night" and a t-shirt is given out. Of course, they aren't commemorating pennants now...

One of the few 76ers items I own, bought from the clearance rack at Modells some time ago. Sadly, Moses Malone just passed away. What a rare feat: he was acquired to put the Sixers over the top and win a championship, and he did it in his first season. Even Pete Rose's first Phillies team, in 1979, missed the playoffs before winning it all in 1980. Rest in peace, Moses, and thank you.

Pete Happy

In September my friend Kurt got another chance to sing the national anthem before the Camden Riversharks again. (Video below.) And guess who also showed up?

None other than Pedro Feliz (above, left). He's spent most of the last two seasons with the Riversharks. He'll be 38 in April. I don't know how long he's going to keep playing but, needless to say, he'll always be fondly remembered for driving in the game-winning run the night the Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

The Soul And The Riversharks

A couple of things from a week or so ago that I didn't get around to posting previously...

A week ago Thursday, the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Market Street in Center City were closed to traffic so that the Philadelphia Soul, the Arena Football League team once owned by Jon Bon Jovi, could hold an outdoor practice. Here's a video with a portion of the practice. The speaker is head coach Mike Hohensee. Some photos follow (click on the photos to see full-size versions).

Former mayor and former PA governor Ed Rendell

This wasn't the most intense practice. It was more a publicity stunt to sell tickets. In 2008, the last year of the Soul's existence before the league temporarily shut down, they sold out half of their games and averaged over 16,000 per game. Whether it's due to the two years without a team or the economy or other factors, but their home opener this year drew just 12,000 or so, and attendance dropped to 8,000 for home game 2 and 7,500 for their most recent game on Friday.

Hot Dog!

On Monday, as my friend Kurt -- that singing fool :) -- was off getting ready to go onto the field to compete in a singing contest at the Camden Riversharks' Country Music Night, I was standing on the concourse at Campbell's Field with a couple of his friends when one of the team employees came up to us and asked if anyone would like to participate in a hot dog-eating contest.

Now, we've had the Wing Bowl here in Philly for almost 20 years now, and I've always wondered what it would be like to be part of something like that. We were laughing about it, and I hemmed and hawed, and she said, "You can just eat one or two and have a free meal," and finally I said, "What the hell, why not?" and signed up. I am a sucker for a free meal.

Our National Anthem (And Why YouTube Blows)

Back on the 4th of this month my friend Kurt sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch at the Camden Riversharks game. Today, before the game, he sang our national anthem. Both times I used the camcorder on my phone to record his performance. Both times I uploaded it to YouTube, seemingly successfully -- except that the video has no sound when played in YouTube. The sound exists, and you can hear it, but for some reason when it's on YouTube it doesn't work. This was not a problem with the previous videos I posted on YouTube -- the ones from the Riversharks' Gay Community Night and my report on the feeding habits of local ants. Suddenly the videos I upload to YouTube don't include the sound, I have no idea why -- and there seems to be no way to contact any kind of tech support at YouTube.

This is truly pathetic. If you have a website, you should have a way for people to submit reports of problems. I've searched and searched and can't find anything. YouTube has support staff of some kind -- they're certainly quick to pull videos because of copyright issues. I want to be able to upload videos to YouTube with audio included!

So here's the video, uploaded to Facebook -- with audio...

God Bless America

On the same day that California's Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional and equality won, it's entirely appropriate and fabulous that my friend Kurt got to sing "God Bless America" at the Camden Riversharks game. Enjoy! And celebrate -- for now, because the bigots and teabaggers and other assorted scumbags will keep fighting against same-sex marriage, so we'll have to keep fighting all the harder.
(YouTube is having issues, so I had to post it to Facebook. Also, that's me screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" at the end.)

A Ben Davis Sighting

I told you I had a baseball-related followup to my post on the Gay Community Night at the Riversharks game last week, and here it is: it seems that former major leaguer Ben Davis is a Riversharks player. He's a local boy (well, not so much a boy as he's 33 now), born in West Chester and a graduate of Malvern Prep, and was considered such a prospect as a catcher that he was the second pick overall in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. But he never turned into a star, and is mostly known for breaking an unwritten rule of baseball by bunting for a hit to ruin a Curt Schilling perfect game. (That's something I completely support, by the way, because the score was only 2-0 at the time and because Schilling is obnoxious.)

Now Davis, who hasn't been in a major league game since 2004, is no longer catching. He's spent the last two years trying to make a comeback as a pitcher. In last week's game he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks (plus the hit batter from the video I posted) in 3 2/3 innings. I had no idea he was the starting pitcher that night until I read the game recap at the Riversharks' website a little while ago. This year Davis is 2-5 with a 6.61 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .337 against him with an on-base percentage of .390. Ouch.

Camden Riversharks' Gay Community Night

It's becoming commonplace for teams, particularly in baseball, to welcome groups of fans from the LGBT community. For sure, the teams are interested in selling tickets. However, the fact that they treat gay and lesbian groups no differently than other groups of fans -- Boy Scouts, church groups, colleges and universities, whatever -- is important.

The Phillies are one of the forerunners in this area, as this year's Gay Community Night at the Phillies will be the 8th. (Information on the event is available here.) Just within the last 10 days the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins held similar events, and it's not limited to major league baseball. NBA and NHL teams, including the Flyers and 76ers this past season, have also held events. However, it's spreading even beyond the four major pro leagues. The organizers of the Phillies, Flyers and 76ers events put together two more events, which were held on back-to-back nights last week: Out with the Philadelphia Freedoms (the World Team Tennis) and one that strikes me as more significant, the first Gay Community Night at the Camden Riversharks. I was at the latter. More, including some video, after the jump...