Monthly Archives: November 2010

Again, my opinion..

Ivan Pavlov lived from September 14, 1849 to February 27, 1936. His legacy, or research to say, lives on…

For those who aren’t familiar with Ivan Pavlov, he was a Russian Physiologist who is famous for his work in the subject of conditional reflex. The story of how he trained his dogs with a bell, making them hungry upon a ring, can show us fans of how the sports world controls us.

Let’s look deeper…

Listen to the below clip:

So, did you find yourself clapping along and yelling out “HEY!” at the appropriate moment?

Let’s try this one:

Now myself, I don’t stand up and stomp.. but I see those that do and I see those who don’t.. but there are very few who don’t clap when the announcer yells out, “EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!”

Yeah, just like the dog salivating over the ring of a bell. The popular show, “The Office”, also shows a character training a co-worker to ask for a mint each time he reboots his computer.

My point. Well, the PA announcer holds control over you. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sporting events are supposed to be fun and being led in cheers is a good time and leads to crowd noise (Which I highly approve of). At least we don’t have cheerleaders. Yeah I said it. I don’t like cheerleaders. At least not what cheerleading has become. How many cheerleaders lead cheers anymore? Very few. Can the voice of 15-20 young women at the sideline be heard by 60,000 people in a stadium with blaring music? Nope. That PA announcer can be heard though.

If you want a real thrill, attend an Ironpig’s Education day where the majority of the crowd are children. They jump. They dance. They yell on demand. They can sing the commercials and they can explain to you things that you wouldn’t believe. Last summer a 12 yr old explained to me what “Supermanning a Ho” meant. (Yes, this song was played regularly at the Coke) If you don’t have a child to explain it to you.. I would try google-ing it.

So with the control aspect of this it seems the fans lose creative thought. How many home made signs have you seen lately? Not as many as you saw in 2008. How many foam fingers do you see? A lot. How many jet balloons did you see released all at the same time? How many chants and cheers are started by fans? Not many.

Late in the game during the last home game of 2010 the Noise Nation attempted to get a cheer going to encourage Andy Tracy to enter the game. We placed people in every section of the park. We were the only ones cheering. Responses we got:

“He’s not in the game” (Yeah, we know.. we want him in the game)

“If they wanted us to chant it they would have it on the loudspeaker”

“Are we allowed to do our own cheers?”

Soon into our chant, the PA started off with more music and we dissolved back into the K korner in centerfield.. disappointed.

Where has the originality gone?

Where have the cheers gone?

Well, I guess we can try to overcome the Pavlov response to the PA system.. or we can just concede and become another drone.

Just my opinion… what’s yours?

Last winter my pal Joe and I made a trip to the Ironpig’s Phillies Caravan charity event. We had a ball!

The event raises money for Ironpig’s Charities which in turn benefits the youth of the local area. Tickets and grants to youth organizations go a long way to help kids enjoy sports and much needed exercise.

One thing that they do support is the Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley. There is a beautiful park out in Schnecksville where kids can play on crutches and wheelchairs and have fun. I volunteered there once last summer and plan to help out more in the 2011 season. Very rewarding from many aspects. If you wonder where the charity money from Ironpig’s charities goes… take an afternoon and check out one of these games and you will see it is well worth it.

So about the Phillies Caravan. Last year we were treated to Charlie Manuel stories, speeches by Andy Tracy, Matt Provence, Ricky Bottalico and many others. There was an auction and although I couldn’t come close to any of the bids, just seeing some of the stuff being sold was amazing.

I won’t go on too much about this event. The food was great, booze was included and tickets were $80 a person. There is a discount for a table of 10.. details can be found on the Ironpig’s website. Anyone want to buy a table and invite me along? 🙂

Really, if you get a chance to go.. go. You won’t regret it.

OinK!

Well the Ironpigs now have a new manager in Ryne Sandberg and a couple days ago we found out that Hitting coach Greg Gross was replaced by Sal Rende.

My first thought was.. Who is Sal Rende? Minor league fans often find themselves asking these questions in the off season and thanks to baseball reference online I found some answers.

From baseball-reference.com

Infielder Sal Rende was drafted in the 28th round of the 1977 amateur draft by the Cleveland Indians. He played seven seasons in the minors, mostly with the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Rende was a manager in the minors for twelve seasons between 1984 and 1996. His teams finished with the best record four times and won four league titles in his first seven seasons. His teams finished no higher than 4th in his last five seasons. In 1999-2001 he was a coach for the Calgary Cannons. He was a coach for the Columbus Clippers in 2003, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons in 2004-2006 and the Ottawa Lynx in 2007. In 2008-2010, Rende was the Minor League Hitting Coordinator for the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2011, he will be the hitting coach for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Rende has been involved in some personality conflicts of note. Carl Everett had a confrontation with Rende that led to Everett being ousted from the Florida Marlins organization. In 2003 Bucky Dent wanted to fire Rende from the Clippers over the handling of Drew Henson and Dent had to be talked out of quitting when the Columbus GM wouldn’t get rid of Rende.

Rende most recently managed in the Edmonton Trappers(Pacific Coast League) in 1993-94 and the Charlotte Knights in 1995-96. Only one of those teams finished with a winning record.

Looking at notes around the web it looks like Rende might bring a fire to the bench at The Coke that Greg Gross didn’t appear to.

Here’s to 2011!

OinK!

From multiple sources we’ve heard that Rich Thompson has re-signed with the Ironpigs. Rich is the only one to return for the 4th season of the team’s existance. Good to have him back. Also re-signed Nate Bump and Tagg Bozied (Reading).

Both Joe Bisenius and DeWayne Wise have filed for free agency.

Special from Dennis:

“On June 10th, 2010 the Toledo Mud Hens hit 3 solo homeruns in the first inning off Joe Savery at Coca-Cola Park . The third homer was hit by Jeff Larish. Larish was signed by the Phillies today. He is 28 years old and splits his time between playing first and third base. He bats lefthanded and throws righthanded. Here’s a picture of him crossing homeplate after hitting his first inning homer.”

Looks like the organization is working on building us a team again this year. Let’s hope that there aren’t any opt out clauses….

Also of note from our friend Dean – Mickey Morandini will be managing the Williamsport Crosscutters this season. I wonder how Jorge Valendia is doing out there…

OinK!

The nation found out on Monday that Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg was hired to be the Lehigh Valley Ironpig’s new manager.

Their next thought was, “Who the heck are the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs?”

If Sandberg was hired by the Durham Bulls or Toledo Mudhens… they would have blinked and moved on to something else. My search notes in the blog stats shows that people have been looking for more information on us Pigs.

For those who don’t know…

The Ironpig’s brought baseball back to the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania in 2008. The area hosted many teams in the early 20th century until the last team pulled out in the early 60’s and the ballfield was plowed over to build a mall. For a short time we had an independant league team called the Ambassadors but they left after a few years. We also had a National Pro Fastpitch team until last year called the Philly Force. (I still wish it had been associated with the local area and not Philadelphia)

The home field of the Ironpigs is called Coca Cola Park. Just another park named for its corporate sponsor. Glad to have the park and thankful to Coca Cola for helping us build it. The park is located in Allentown, PA in a location that is easily accessable by highway and from the city itself. Kind of hoping that a certain minor league hockey team finds a new home in that same area soon too.

Most folks, not from Pennsylvania, know of Allentown only for the song by Billy Joel called, well.. “Allentown”. All the factories haven’t closed down yet and some of the old have been turned into a casino. (Yes, I know that is located in Bethlehem) My dad retired from Bethlehem steel after many years and the entire site of the plant was turned into a casino recently. This is part of the naming contest held prior to our team’s arrival. Iron and Pigs. There are some pig farms around. You can just sniff if you’d like to find one but the Pig referred to in Iron Pig is to the Pig Iron involved with producing steel.

So the Ironpigs. That’s what the team became.

The Lehigh Valley is made of of a region centered by three cities. Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.

So we have the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs. Easy enough right? So enough history.. about the team.

The Ironpig’s record has been awful posting 3 losing seasons. Not once has the team’s record been over .500. Keep in mind winning the first game of the season would put the team at 1.000. In fact, it took about 3 weeks for the 2008 team to earn its first win. We are not yet acustomed to winning.

On a more positive note.. The Lehigh Valley fans and Ironpig staff have combined for a more impressive achievement. In 2008 the Ironpigs finished 3rd in attendance for all of minor league baseball. In 2009 we finished 2nd and in 2010 we drew more fans per game than any other minor league team.

It’s a good show despite good baseball. We do see good baseball, I shouldn’t say that… but in the past it has been the visiting team putting on the show for us.

We have seen many major league stars in rehab appearances. Dice K has been here twice. We’ve seen Dontrell Willis, Shane Victorino, Brad Lidge, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Madsen among others. Not to mention we had JA Happ (Now in Houston’s rotation) for a full season in 2008. We’ve seen many future stars as well.. Domonic Brown in the Phillies organization and many others with visiting teams.

So baseball doesn’t seem to be a huge draw.. but this park is pretty. The fun and happy atmosphere and family friendly environment just builds the fun. I can’t count how many times I heard, “I never knew this was so much fun.. I will be back!” Some say that with an Arnold accent while others think back to McArthur returning to the Phillipines. Either way, people come back.

I realize I am rambling on about the team and park and area that I love. There is so much else to say and to see.. I will leave it up to you to visit us and find out and discover for yourself.

Who are the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs? Well, the Noise Nation invites you to stop by next summer and find out for yourself.

OinK!

From a fan’s viewpoint.. Ryne Sandberg’s arrival means a lot. Sure, the probabilty of the team having a winning season after 3 consecutive losing seasons is better… flip a coin, it doesn’t always land tails side up… but there is much more that will be impacted.

Sandberg will bring an energy to The Coke that hasn’t been seen there yet. Huppert did his best. I don’t fault him for much but I think I only saw him fired up once in 3 years and that resulted in Andy Tracy throwing 2/3 innings of relief in a blowout game. Frequent reader ‘Saturn’ brings up a good point adding that a renewed running game should show itself under Sandberg. Think Rich Thompson. Get on base. Run. Run. Run! More thrills should be here in 2011.

I would have to say the happiest folks in town right now are those of Ironpig’s Charities. Looking back over those jersey auctions where people pushed, shoved and kicked to bid a few hundred dollars on Dave Huppert and Rod Nichols game used jerseys. What will a Ryne Sandberg jersey bring? I’m sure he will also be involved with the Phillies caravan night and other charity events such as the Hackers and Homers golf tournament. Imagine what a bid to golf with Ryne Sandberg would draw? This charity program will thrive with the arrival of Sandberg.

At the end of this past season all the talk was about how the Ironpig’s would top the last 3 years. The first 2 years had a new team and new stadium. Year 3 brought us the AAA All Star game. How were the Ironpig’s to match their previous totals in tickets? They brought in Ryne Sandberg!

To Ryne Sandberg.. WELCOME! To the Phillies organization.. THANK YOU!

OinK!

Just moments ago it was confirmed that Ryne Sandberg will be the Ironpig’s manager in 2011!

So I can officially eat my words what I wrote a few days ago. Think this might help us get a better batch of free agents this year?

What else could this team want? OINK!