Box Score: http://www.milb.com/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_08_15_binaax_nbraax_1&mode=gameday
When we were walking into this game a band was playing outside because of Rock n Roll Saturdays and the singer said not only that he wanted to pitch for the Rock Cats and they wouldn't let him but also that they had t-shirts for sale and they were $10 each or for the game the special deal of 2 for $20. I don't know why I found that to be so funny but I did. Once into the game there was a table set up for Pro Wrestling Ambition and they had some wrestlers there who were kind enough to sign an 8x10 for us. Later on in the night, Quentin and I would come back down and see them again. Quentin had a game of catch and then also took a picture with "Supreme Machine" Sean Burke. What's funny is that when I was looking up Sean Burke to tag him on Twitter in the picture I found out via Cage Match that he is in fact also a part of CHIKARA as Flex Rumblecrunch, one half of the Devastation Corporation who have this Legion of Doom/Demolition sort of gimmick and, yes, I've seen them in that one CHIKARA event I reviewed once. Needless to say, we will be at that Pro Wrestling Ambition show in November.
We got to this game early enough that there was about 50 minutes on the clock until the start time. Quentin and I went down along side one other boy who was waiting for autographs and Rainy Lara and Gabriel Ynoa were the first two in the dug out and the first ones to sign. I didn't think I'd get as many pitchers as I did, but I did get a lot of pitchers to sign somehow. In fact, most everyone on the B-Mets was nice and friendly enough to sign and so by the end of this first "autograph session" I had all of the players sign except for four and all of the pitchers sign except for two. The only two pitchers I didn't get to sign were Tyler Pill and Seth Lugo and I think it's because I just plain didn't see them. I think that Seth Lugo was in the dug out at point- not in uniform- and so I just didn't recognize him, but who knows. The other players were quite funny in why they wouldn't sign and who they are.
Both Josh Rodriguez and Jonathan Galvez completely ignored us. When I first called to Jonathan Galvez he said something that sounded like "Hold on" but I'm not sure what he said and he never did come over to sign. Josh Rodriguez went and sat on the other side of the dug out, completely ignoring everyone and not signing at all before the game. Gavin Cecchini is always the tricky one as the last time around he told us after the game (which we didn't stick around for, but hey, Nimmo and Conforto were our top choices last time, though we never did get a Conforto autograph, sadly). This time Cecchini said he'd come over to sign but then changed his mind to "after the game". The fourth one I missed was Joe Benson who said he'd sign after he stretched but by the time he was done stretching the umpires were on the field and he wasn't even back in the dug out so we missed him altogether. I wasn't too worried though because I knew we still had the next game and having only these six players left was not bad at all.
This was an interesting game for the Rock Cats because they had Chad Bettis as the starting pitcher and he came down from the Colorado Rockies on a rehab assignment. When I first read about him going on a rehab assignment the article said he would be in New Britain on the previous Monday to pitch a simulated game and then he'd pitch the following Saturday. I wasn't sure if that meant he was pitching that Saturday in New Britain or not because for all I knew they could have sent him to Triple A to pitch at that point. Still, I looked him up on eBay and made sure I didn't have any of his cards in our personal collection (I didn't, but I don't have a lot of modern cards anyway-- this might be the year though we buy the complete Topps set) and when I saw that I didn't I just couldn't be bothered to try and get him to sign. I might have bought one of his cards on eBay or had him sign a ball or something if it wasn't the B-Mets weekend, but alas, I just couldn't really be bothered.
And to some degree, that is the problem with having the Colorado Rockies Double A affiliate in Connecticut. How many people in Connecticut actually care about a team from Colorado? We're mostly Red Sox, Yankees and Mets fans here. But whatever. Baseball is baseball so when it doesn't cost a week's pay to see a game (Take that, major leagues!) then I'll take whatever I can get. Though when the New York Mets play the Colorado Rockies I still will cheer the Mets.
Chad Bettis didn't pitch for very long but he did pitch rather well. This meant quite a few Rock Cats relievers had to come in as well and it makes me think that Bettis is going to see at least one more start in New Britain before he goes back up to the Rockies but who knows. For me personally, I would much rather see the every day starters these last seven games and not want to waste a spot on someone like Bettis but it is what it is. (I can actually handle having Jeff Hoffman start because a) Bryan Evans is out with an injury so he kind of took his spot and b) He was traded so it's not like he's really trying to steal anyone's thunder this late in the season)
The Rock Cats strung together their offense well and managed to maintain a win with only scoring three runs. This is the type of loss that the New York Mets would have taken. Seriously though, pitchers should give up maybe three or four runs at most but the offense really has to be there to back them up as well and so that's on the B-Mets here, which again makes me think of the NY Mets. So the Rock Cats did get kind of lucky, but had the B-Mets come back and tied the game then the Rock Cats might have been able to score again as well, who knows. We felt it was a comfortable enough lead to leave in the top of the 9th inning and then they were all retired there in a quick manner. People were staying after for Launch-A-Ball but there were quite a few fans leaving in the 7th and 8th as they figured the lead was sticking and the win was certain. It is nice though when the crowd leaves a little bit at a time so you don't have to fight as much traffic.
When we got up though during the 8th it had started heavy raining and lightning in the distance. It wasn't a downpour there were just huge drops of rain coming down. It stopped after a few minutes, which was also odd, but we left because we knew there were only three outs to go and the Rock Cats had this. We also had a busy day (especially Quentin) and knew we'd be back the next day (early afternoon) for the final game of the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment