Monthly Archives: June 2011

The IronPigs jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning and all seemed well in hand but the Indianapolis Indians hit the ball more efficiently and beat the Pigs by a score of 5 to 10.

Home Runs by John Mayberry and Tagg Bozied got the Pigs on the board early. Collectively the Pigs had 14 hits but weren’t able to push the runs across. There was a lot of running going on too. Moss and Thompson both had 2 stolen bases and Orr added one with Moss caught stealing once. The Indians also had 5 stolen bases on the night.

***
The bigger news was that the Phillie Phanatic was hit by a foul ball tonight. While seated with fans behind the 1st base dugout, a quick foul ball beelined into him and in true Phanatic phashion, he played it off well.. arms waving and spinning around. Sadly, word is the Phanatic really did take a hit and was taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure. Wishing a quick recovery to our beloved Phillie mascot. If the Phanatic does hit the DL, I think a nice gesture would be to offer the services of Ferrous the Pig to follow in the footsteps of other IronPigs who went to the Bigs.

***
Just saw from Mike Lore’ of LehighValleyLive.com that Juan Perez will be heading to Philadelphia tomorrow. Congrats to Perez! Perhaps Ferrous could catch a ride there with him…

***

Tonight was game #72. That’s halfway for the 144 game AAA season for our Pigs. Riding a 43 win 29 loss record at the halfway point is a great feeling and hope they can get back to business as tomorrow is another day. While the season is flying by, our early season stacked schedule of home games has the halfway portion of our season happening a couple home stands ago. Is it time to start thinking about playoffs yet?

***

A lot of stuff to cover tonight.. tomorrow! TOMORROW! It’s finally time for the Noise Nation spotlight feature portion of the PBS 39 IronPig’s documentary. Come out to the game tomorrow and join us behind the bullpens and join in the fun!

OinK!

Many Major League teams hold fantasy camps. Retired and current players get together with a bunch of 30+ fans and spend the day on the ball field with past and present. Have some fun and play baseball.

Personally, I haven’t played a baseball game since my last American Legion game in 1994. I gave up my last year of eligibility to enlist in the Marines at 17 and I have to say I really miss playing ball. It’s been many years since that game and while my body wouldn’t be able to handle the rigors of catching a double-header in 100 degree weather anymore, I would love the opportunity to toss on the glove for a day, even if it was a friendly game amongst friends. (Note – Pinch runner needed in every possible situation)

What do you all think?

I can admit when I goof. The Hockey jersey was not the result of Mathieson’s bet with Schwimer on the Twitter thing.. it was via the Stanley cup finals bet with groundskeeper Bill Butler. Part of the wager included a water delivery during the game. Photo below:

My sincerest apologies to anyone I may have offended.

Photo by Heather Mastropieri

Pigs lost 0-2 tonight to the Indians. A sleeper of a game and just a few great catches from the Indians outfield kept me from falling asleep.

Tomorrow is another day.

OinK!

The bet was.. Could Mike Stutes reach 1,000 Twitter followers in the first 24 hours?

Michael Schwimer thought so, Scott Mathieson did not. Twitter followers came through and below is the results:

This photo will be Scott's Facebook Profile photo for one week.

OinK!

The IronPigs opened up the 8 game home stand with a thrilling come from behind win to defeat the Indianapolis Indians by a final score of 4 to 3.

The Indians got off to an early start with brand new IronPig Tim Redding allowing runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings. Indy’s starter, Garrett Olson held the Pigs hitless until the 6th inning when our Pigs pushed a run across with a walk, double and sac fly.

Then came the 8th. Pete Orr and Josh Barfield singled and Orr scored on an errant pickoff throw to first. Moss Hogg was intentionally walked and Young singled scoring Barfield and Mayberry to give the Pigs the lead.

Tim Redding didn’t do all too bad tonight. He lasted 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits.. walking 1 and striking out 1. Drew Carpenter took home the win, (I thought you were at the whole game Jimmy T… haha) and our very own, Michael “Phear the Phro” Schwimer took care of the 9th with his 3rd save of the season.

See you tomorrow!

OinK!

The good folks at PBS Channel 39 are creating a documentary about what makes baseball so magical here in the Lehigh Valley.You many have seen them around The Coke this season conducting interviews, following our own Jimmy T and capturing what makes IronPig’s baseball so special.

What’s the scoop, you ask?

Here it is:

When: Thursday, June 23rd
Where: Coca Cola Park
More specifically where: Behind the bullpens
What time: 6:00pm to End of game

The documentary crew will be focusing on fans on Thursday and will be hanging out with the Noise Nation; so come on out, join us for the game and become part of IronPig history!

OinK!

The Pigs set out today to avoid a sweep. With Scott Mathieson making his first start since the last Tommy John surgery there was hope to escape a series sweep in Pawtucket this afternoon.

Scott Mathieson was held on a short leash and only pitched 3.2 innings but wow what a 3.2 innings it was. Scott struck out 7 and walked one, allowing only 1 hit and no runs. His pitch count was at 62 pitches, 40 of those for strikes.

Jason Grilli came on in relief and went 1.1 scoreless innings. Mike Zagurski and Michael “Phear the Phro” Schwimer came on to close out the game.

For the hitters, Cody Overbeck hit his first career HR at AAA putting the Pigs up 1-0 in the 3rd inning. Rich Thompson followed with a double and scored on a Jeff Larish single.

The bullpen held and the Pigs took the game by a final score of 2-0.

The Pigs return home tomorrow for the start of an 8 game homestand facing first the Indianapolis Indians and then 4 games with the Charlotte Knights. This will be the only appearance at The Coke for both teams this season.

OinK!

Before today the Pigs held a 5 game lead on SWB in the IL North Division. While Pawtucket has gained some ground on them, it’s not a huge loss other than for pride.

Pawtucket beat the Pigs down this series winning the first three games by scores of 5-6, 3-8 and 1-8.

Tonights game didn’t have many good things happen. I won’t make note of the bad stuff.

Nothing to worry about…. yet.

Note – as of this post, @mikestutes has 2,007 followers on Twitter!

OinK!

Follow @mikestutes on Twitter and help Michael Schwimer @mschwimer win a Gentleman’s bet with Scott Mathieson.

The Bet? Stutes needs 1,000 twitter followers before midnight tonight. Follow @mikestutes and spread
the word!