Road Trips 2016: New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Red Sox Nation Invasion Part II: Manchester, New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H.

Just because...

August 6, 2016

Erie Sea Wolves

vs.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats

This means you!

Thanks guys!

Hotel and views from

THE PATIO

Hotel Lobby

Manchester Baseball History

(left) Manchester Baseball Team 1914

(right) Amoskeag Textile Baseball Team 1913

Three Smith Brothers of Amoskeag

Textile Field

Extra Innings:

Travis d'Arnaud won the  2011 Eastern League MVP with Fisher Cats.

AA Affiliate of 

the Toronto Blue Jays

Next Stop ~ Portland, Maine.

ICYMI: PART ONE 

Pawtucket Red Sox 

Lowell Spinners 

Boston ~ Cy Young

Road Trips 2016: Bridgeport Bluefish

Red Sox Nation Invasion Part II: First Stop ... Bridgeport, Connecticut

The Ballpark at Habor Yard

HOME of the BLUEFISH

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Just as I hit the New York City line, the idea struck me.  Don't waste Friday.  Maximize it.

I thought to myself ... what cooler way of kicking off the second leg of my great Red Sox Nation Invasion than by making a convenient pit stop at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard?

I've been there before.  But the decision was a natural.  It was on the way, and I could make up time by driving through Hartford instead of sticking with I-95 then I-93 through Boston.

So I did just that, kicking back with a lemonade and some peanuts ... then hitting the road again by 9:30 pm.

Besides, Bridgeport was hosting the Long Island Ducks.  If you follow this blog, you know I'm an Atlantic League fan.  The Ducks and Fish just so happened to be engaged in a tightly contested race for the second half Liberty Division flag.

Ten days later Somerset has reemerged to make it a three team race.  But with a first half pennant already in hand, Long Island is looking to sweep the division.

The biggest reason for my last minute decision, though, was knowing Roger Clemens would be in the house patrolling Bridgeport's first base line.

August 5, 2016

The Bridgeport Bluefish are charter members

of the Atlantic League of Independent Baseball

Final 

Ducks 6 

Fish    2 

boxscore

Roger Clemens coaching first base for Bluefish

Next Stop:

Manchester, New Hampshire

ICYMI: PART ONE 

Pawtucket Red Sox 

Lowell Spinners 

Boston ~ Cy Young

N.Y. Mets: Bartolo Colon's Big Sexy Numbers

Here's my latest for 

RisingApple.com

Bartolo Colon Set To Make 

500th Major League Appearance

Mike

senior staff writer/Rising Apple

L.I. Ducks: Let Idle Bridgeport Off the Hook

From the desk of:  THE WEBBED SPIKES NINE

Ducks lead series 2-1

I - LID 8; SOM 6

II - LID 6; SOM 5*

III - SOM 7; LID 4

IV - SOM @ LID

*12 innings

Long Island Ducks: Fail to increase lead over Fish with loss to Patriots.

Roger Clemens manned the first base line in Bridgeport last week, 

and my only thought was how the mighty have fallen.

Mother Nature delayed Atlantic League baseball along both sides of the Long Island Sound Wednesday evening, but only elected to postpone one.

The visiting Sugar Land Skeeters game against the Bridgeport Bluefish at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard was rained out.  On the other side of the Sound, however, baseball ultimately got underway where Long Island hosted the Somerset Patriots.

With Bridgeport declared idle, the opportunity arose for Long Island taking a full two game lead over the Fish.  Yet, after winning the first two games of their four game set against Somerset, the Ducks failed to seize the day, bowing to the Patriots in Game Three by a 7-4 margin.  As of close of business Wednesday, then, the Ducks hold a paper thin one game lead over the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Liberty Division standings.

With their victory, the Patriots closed to within three games of the Ducks.

Both literally and figuratively, the dog days of summer are in full effect.

Man, it's been hot out there!

Nine exhaustive games into their stretch of 20 consecutive scheduled games, the Ducks are clinging to a 5-4 record in August with eleven more games to play before their first day off on Aug. 22.  After which, they'll close out the month with another stretch of ten games in nine days.

Once the Ducks conclude their present series against the Patriots, it's on to play Freedom Division competition - Lancaster Barnstormers, New Britain Bees, and the Sugar Land Skeeters.

Ducks @ Bluefish

8/5/2016

I dropped in for the Ducks @ Bluefish game last Friday night at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard, thinking it a cool way of kicking off my long weekend trip deep into the heart of New England and Red Sox Nation.

But I also swung by to get a glimpse of Roger Clemens ... yes, that Roger Clemens.

There he was ... coaching along the first base line for the Bridgeport Bluefish, and looking inconsequential as ever.

Now 54 years old, the man posted a 354-184 major league W/L record, with 4,672 strikeouts.  Yet, no one really seemed to care.

N.Y. Yankees: Girardi Whiffs Alex with Screwball

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 1-0

I - BOS 5; NYY 3

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

Fenway Park

New York Yankees: Actions speak louder than words...

Back during Alex Rodriguez' more "loosey-goosey days" when he first got outed for using PED's, he told a packed press room at Yankee Stadium and all the fans tuning in, "Judge me from this moment forward."

Remember that?

Then what happened...?

He was outed a second time with the discovery of his involvement with BioGenesis.

How did Alex handle this newest white hot controversy?

After playing the young and dumb card last time, he this time employed a full blown scorched earth policy.  Denials, lies, and false accusations at the ready, Alex threatened the Yankees, the team trainer and doctors, the Player's Association, and whoever else opposed him with lawsuits.

Only problem was that Alex could never follow through because he would then be made to testify, effectively causing him to out himself.  Knowing this, Alex had no choice but to drop the curtain on his absurd charade, and obediently serve his one year (2014) suspension from baseball -(conveniently during the same season Derek Jeter enjoyed his farewell tour - the very Derek Jeter Alex criticized in GQ magazine while en route to joining the Yankees during the 2014 off-season).

Alex returned from suspension last season to post very productive numbers through the first half of the schedule, but tailed off considerably after the all-star break.  This season has been no different.  

With the exception of May in which he only played six games, Alex Rodriguez was a starter on Opening Day and continued playing through July 31st, during which time he only slashed .205/.253/.358, with just six doubles, nine home runs, and 29 RBI though 215 at-bats.

As the non-waiver trade deadline loomed, Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner decided it was time to break from the Yankees traditional business model, and so together inaugurated a rebuilding process with haste, evidenced by their transactions during the days and hours leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.

There's little debating the Yankees then decided they had no more use for Alex Rodriguez.

He has one at-bat for the month of August, when used as a pinch hitter on Aug. 2nd. Otherwise, ARod has yet to participate in any capacity.

Hal Steinbrenner said Alex would be free to play in his four remaining games as a uniformed player of the Yankees.  Joe Girardi echoed those same words.

It was with great anticipation Alex thought he was going to do just that, until he failed to read his name on Tuesday's line-up card.

Lets call that for what it is ... vindictive, passive or otherwise.  I'm not saying whether that was right or wrong of the Yankees (Girardi), justified, earned, etc.  Im just calling it like I see it.

The issue is clear in my eyes - the Yankees do not want Alex hitting his potential 700th career home run in their uniform.  Or, maybe they they're staunchly opposed to Alex going the same company as Babe Ruth.

You get the gist...

Meanwhile, during the latter innings of Tuesday's series opener between the Yanks and Red Sox in Boston, fans started chanting, "We want ARod! We want ARod!"

If you read my last article, there's every chance Boston fans genuinely wanted to acknowledge Alex in a respectful way.

The Yankees just aren't having it.  They let him have his fun for nine seasons previous to his suspension.  Now they're declaring his party officially over ... on their terms.

After all those hundreds of million dollars spent, the Yankees behavior is exacting a tax meant to humble Alex.

Outwardly, the Yankees appeared to let Alex bow out somewhat gracefully ... a noble effort considering they affixed their stamp upon his dishonorable discharge papers in hot wax back on July 31.

With regards to all parties involved, and particular emphasis on Girardi for not playing ARod Tuesday night, actions have always spoken louder than words.

N.Y. Yankees: Beware a Fateful Fenway ARod Farewell

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Boston Bracing for Alex Rodriguez'

Fenway Park Finale

New York Yankees: If ARod knew what I knew, he wouldn't play against the Red Sox.

Put it this way...

If you've been following my recent Tweets, you know I just spent a long weekend road-tripping minor league baseball games throughout New England.

I drove a lot of miles, and naturally listened to a lot of Boston sports radio along the way.  As you could imagine, Red Sox Nation has their own ideas as to what constitutes a proper send off with regards to Alex Rodriguez (regardless whether he plays or not).

I won't name the station(s) or several talk hosts, but offer this: fans calling in were easily more rational, reasonable, and responsible in offering their opinions than were their respective radio show hosts.

In most instances, hosts had no interest in celebrating ARod, but are not content with simply ignoring him.  They want to mock him.  Their leading idea was to have former catcher and old ARod nemesis Jason Varitek make a surprise appearance as an opening act.

For this, they were admonished by various callers.  One gentleman denounced this suggestion outright, calling it disrespectful.  The caller pointed out any attempt to acknowledge him, would indeed be a veiled attempt to humiliate him.  And so the conversation devolved into what would, or would not be respectful towards Alex Rodriguez.  Fans, however, voiced no interest in taking part in such underhandedness.

Some hosts nevertheless insisted on missing the mark on many levels.  That said, another fan called out the Red Sox for their distasteful treatment of Mariano Rivera, noting the organization made sure to (video) highlight all Mariano's failures against the Red Sox.  Although he believed their send-off was otherwise very respectful, he thought that particular tribute was uncalled for.

The hosts continued reveling in past glories, such as when fans wore blond-haired girl masks at Fenway Park, and once brought posters of needles to the game, both in tribute to ARod during his more comically troubled times with the Yankees.  The 2004 post-season hamburger helper purse slap didn't escape them either.   In fact, they remained quite vicious throughout ... mostly in jest of course.

Otherwise, good job by the New England fans for their sensibility, fairness and pragmatism.  They would be content to just let ARod come and go without incident, opting to ignore his questionable accomplishments ... but nothing more.  Sounds fair enough, but the hosts then questioned whether ignoring him was in of itself disrespectful - to which I disagree.

They strongly believed Alex Rodriguez is linked to their own recent 14 year stretch of history, due to how close he came to becoming a member of the Red Sox, and for the subsequent role he played with the Yankees against them.

Monday, as a guest on a New York talk show, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said Alex could play in all three games against Boston if he wanted to.

I think if Boston fans call him out of the dugout for a tip of the cap and he receives a reciprocal ovation, all parties should consider themselves lucky.

Ignoring him should be considered in kind.