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It seemed like we’ve seen this before. Down 3-5 in the 9th, same umpiring crew.. a rally starting, 2 runners on base and 1 out.

Then came the rain, and boy did it ever rain. Fortunately it stopped after a short time and the grounds crew went to work. If we look back at that infamous game in Buffalo where the game was called mid-rally resulting in a Buffalo win, many fans tonight were anticipating the same. Sadly enough, the Pigs couldn’t get the momentum back and the post delay portion of the game lasted only 5 pitches.

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The night started off well enough. It was Faith night at the park tonight with Jason Grilli and Rich Thompson both sharing their experiences with about a dozen fans in the outfield grass. Nice guys and great chat with them.

Rich Thompson did stop to try the Speed pitch..

He got a little ribbing from Grilli for the speed but I give him points on form.

Tomorrow is another day and another new team to see. Charlotte arrives for the 2nd half of this homestand.

OinK!

CATCHER
1) Erik Kratz, Lehigh Valley
2) Jesus Montero, Scranton/WB
3) Devin Mesoraco, Louisville
4) Jesus Flores, Syracuse
5) Michael McKenry, Pawtucket

FIRST BASE
1) Lars Anderson, Pawtucket
2) Jeff Larish, Lehigh Valley
3) Chris Marrero, Syracuse
4) Ryan Strieby, Toledo
5) Matt Hague, Indianapolis

SECOND BASE
1) Josh Barfield, Lehigh Valley
2) Jason Kipnis, Columbus
3) Will Rhymes, Toledo
4) Tony Thomas, Pawtucket
5) Chris Valaika, Louisville

SHORTSTOP
1) Jose Iglesias, Pawtucket
2) Chase d’Arnaud, Indianapolis
3) Zack Cozart, Louisville
4) Chris McConnell, Syracuse
5) Cale Iorg, Toledo

THIRD BASE
1) Lonnie Chisenhall, Columbus
2) Brian Friday, Indianapolis
3) Ronnie Belliard, Lehigh Valley
4) Todd Frazier, Louisville
5) Russ Canzler, Durham

DESIGNATED HITTER
1) Michael Aubrey, Syracuse
2) Andy Marte, Indianapolis
3) Chris Carter, Gwinnett
4) Cord Phelps, Columbus
5) Stefan Gartrell, Gwinnett

OUTFIELD
1) Jeremy Hermida, Louisville
2) Desmond Jennings, Durham
3) Yonder Alonso, Louisville
4) Brandon Moss, Lehigh Valley
5) Alex Presley, Indianapolis
6) Rich Thompson, Lehigh Valley
7) Daniel Nava, Pawtucket
8) Lucas Duda, Buffalo
9) Brandon Guyer, Durham
10) Benjamin Guez, Toledo

STARTING PITCHER
1) Brian Gordon, Lehigh Valley
2) Julio Teheran, Gwinnett
3) Adam Wilk, Toledo
4) Tom Milone, Syracuse
5) Dontrelle Willis, Louisville
6) Zach McAllister, Columbus
7) Brad Lincoln, Indianapolis
8) Duane Below, Toledo
9) Andrew Miller, Pawtucket
10) Ross Detwiler, Syracuse

RELIEF PITCHER
1) Jeff Mandel, Syracuse
2) Drew Carpenter, Lehigh Valley
3) Scott Mathieson, Lehigh Valley
4) Kevin Whelan, Scranton/WB
5) Tim Wood, Indianapolis
6) Mike Zagurski, Lehigh Valley
7) Michael Schwimer, Lehigh Valley
8) Justin Hampson, Buffalo
9) Zach Putnam, Columbus
10) Tony Pena, Pawtucket

Our friend Emily reminded me last night that today is the 27th anniversary of “The Sandberg game”

I’ve written about this before… (From my post dated 1/26/2011)

It was June 23, 1984. NBC had chosen to nationally televise a game between long time rivals the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley field. The Cubs were playing well this season, and as a team that had been pretty bad over the years, the league hadn’t really taken them seriously yet. That would change with this game. The Cardinals were ahead by one run enterering the bottom of the ninth inning and pitching was their ace closer, Bruce Sutter. To bat was a young Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg tied the game with a home run over the left field ivy to tie the game at 9. The Cardinals responded with two runs of their own in the top of the 10th inning. Sutter remained in the game with a 2 run lead and again faced Sandberg, this time with a runner on base. Sandberg again took Sutter deep to tie the game. The Cubs went on to win the game in the 11th inning.

Although St. Louis’ Willie McGee had already been named the NBC Player of the Game, it was Sandberg’s feat that played the ultimate role.

The Cubs would win the Division that year with a record of 96 wins – 65 losses. They went on to lose to the Padres in the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals would finish in third place, 12.5 games back.

In 1984 Sandberg would earn his 1st All Star game selection, his 2nd Gold Glove, his 1st Silver Slugger Award and was named the National League MVP. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 2005. He is currently the manager of our Lehigh Valley Ironpigs.

When you get to the game tonight, go and help Ryne Sandberg remember this great day and hope our IronPigs can pull out a win!

OinK!

Here is a video of what happened to the Phillie Phanatic last night as posted by The Fightins and compliments of those great folks at Service Electric 2.

The Fightins is a great site and I encourage you to visit often.

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.

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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.

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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…

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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?

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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!