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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!

It’s History time on the Horn & Bell!

The All Star game, love it, hate it.. it’s the halfway point of the season and you can look at it as the season is halfway over or that you still have half a season left. Either way it means voting for who you feel deserves to be on the All Star team for the league of your choice. For us IronPig fans it means the AAA All Star game between our beloved International League and the Pacific Coast League.

As usual, Major League baseball rules on everything filter down and AAA follows their All Star voting rules as well.

To begin, the first Major League All Star game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1933. The American League defeated the National League by a score of 4 to 2.

For AAA, the first All Star game was held on July 23, 1956. From 1956 to 1978, the IL All Star team faced a Major League team. (No idea how either team was selected) There was no All Star game again until 1983 and 1984 with the same format. The All Star game then returned in 1988 with the format of American League affiliates vs. National League affiliates as there were 3 leagues in AAA at that time. (The American Association folded in 1997) Since 1998 the current format of IL vs PCL was established and has been played every year since.

So the whole voting thing. I will use Major League baseball criteria.. well as I stated before AAA follows on the heels of the big leagues. Up until 1946 the managers of each All Star team picked their teams. That was until 1947 when fans were given the opportunity to vote. Ha Ha HA! Let us pick! Big smiles! This lasted almost 10 years until 1957 when Cincinnatti Red fans got an idea. The Cincinnatti Enquirer printed pre-filled ballots to the Red’s favor and sent them out with every paper making it easier for fans to vote. And boy did they vote. Red fans elected just about the entire team, the only non-Red to be voted on that team was Stan Musial. Commissioner Ford Frick was not happy and appointed Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to replace two of the Red’s players and immediately decided to remove the fan vote. From there on to 1969, Managers, Coaches and Players selected the teams. In 1969 the league sent out equal amounts of ballots to each team to prevent ballot box stuffing.. the number is said to have been about 400,000 total. With the dawn of online voting, it seems that everyone has a chance to vote, as we all do… but computers monitor how many submissions are made and to avoid fans drowing the ballot.. Managers and Media have more pull than us.

Could you imagine the viewing audience of an entire team of IronPigs playing in the AAA All Star game? Remembering it’s a business, these leagues sell advertising and want folks from every city to watch the game and thus, somehow, at least one player from each team is selected.

Even though our votes don’t really count for much in the All Star voting, it is a source of pride for us fans. If we can vote our team to lead “Fan Voting” it tells these guys we are behind them, so make sure to vote for our IronPigs before the deadline, June 24th.

OinK!

Pacific Coast League:
Manager – Lorenzo Bundy (Albuquerque)
Coach – Tommy Gregg (Omaha)
Coach – Rich Gale (Omaha)

International League:
Manager – Mike Sarbaugh (Columbus)
Coach – Dean Traynor (Indianapolis)
Coach – Rich Dotson (Charlotte)

Current voting leaders for the IL. (Keep voting IronPig Fans!)

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

FIRST BASE
1) Lars Anderson, Pawtucket
2) Jeff Larish, Lehigh Valley
3) Ryan Strieby, Toledo
4) Chris Marrero, Syracuse
5) Jorge Vazquez, Scranton/WB

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) Cale Iorg, Toledo
4) Zack Cozart, Louisville
5) Chris McConnell, Syracuse

THIRD BASE
1) Lonnie Chisenhall, Columbus
2) Ronnie Belliard, Lehigh Valley
3) Brian Friday, Indianapolis
4) Todd Frazier, Louisville
5) Argenis Diaz, Toledo

DESIGNATED HITTER
1) Michael Aubrey, Syracuse
2) Andy Marte, Indianapolis
3) Chris Carter, Durham
4) Cord Phelps, Columbus
5) Scott Thorman, Toledo

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

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

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

Ironpig slayer Shelley Duncan was recently signed by the Cleveland Indians. When he ends up at AAA the Pigs could face him again via Columbus.

Also, the Phillies signed the below draft picks:
RHP Ian Durham
C John Hill
C Logan Moore

Catcher Joel Naughton (who spent some time with the Pigs) was also released and Posednik to the Disabled List (7 Day)

The Blue Jays have released outfielder DeWayne Wise. Wise opted out of his Ironpig contract early last season for Toronto.

The Jays also sent former Phillie prospect Kyle Drabek down to AAA.

Cleveland activated former Pig Jason Donald from the DL. Donald has split time with AA Akron and AAA Columbus and is not listed on either team’s online roster as of tonight.

Noticed that the Reno Aces now list Andy Tracy as on the 7 day DL as well.

OinK!

I’m going to start off with Brian Gordon’s big day with the NY Yankees. Although leaving the game a run down and earning a no-decision, I felt he did great. Here’s his first start in the Majors, in Yankee stadium.. facing your old team, heck I was nervous for him. Born in NY, raised in Texas.. the best Hollywood writers couldn’t dream up this day.

Gordon went 5.1 innings allowing 2 runs on 7 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 3. Gordon’s curveball didn’t seem to work consistantly and the 2nd of the two runs came on a bases loaded hit batsman with 2 outs on an 0-2 count. It was frustrating to watch the bases load as a hit and run turned a routine double play into a first and second with no outs situation. Gordon seemed to be destined to end that inning but the curveball ended up hitting Beltre to push a run across.

Great job Brian! Make us proud!

***

The Ironpig’s opened up a 4 game set in Pawtucket tonight which, though it’s still early, could help distance themselves from Pawtucket in the standings. The PawSox are 8.5 games behind the IronPigs as of today. (SWB is 5 games back facing red hot Columbus this weekend)

For the Pigs… Bozied, Moss Hogg and Thompson had home runs.

In his first game as an IronPig Cody Overbeck went for .

Brian Bass got the start tonight and lasted 6 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits. The Pigs were up 5-3 before Mike Zagurski allowed 2 runs to tie the game.

Rich Thompson was finally caught stealing this season getting thrown out at 2nd base in the top of the 9th inning.

The score remained 5-5 until the 10th when the PawSox won on a walk off single and the Pigs lose the opener 5-6.

Tomorrow is another day…

OinK!

Per @PigsRadio, again.. @PigRadio (that was for you Jimmy T)

RHP Scott Mathieson is moving to the rotation. He’ll start Sunday — his 1st since 8/22/07 w/ Clearwater.

Many thanks to Michael LoRe (@michaellore) and Tommy V (@Rphils) for keeping us posted via Twitter.

Joe Savery, Justin Friend and Chance Chapman to Reading.

Cody Overbeck, Phillippe Aumont, Justin De Fratus, and Ryan Edell promoted to Lehigh Valley.

Also, the Phillies have signed Tim Redding to a minor league deal.

Edell is 5-1 with a 3.50 ERA in 12 starts*. Count him in the rotation.

Aumont is 1-5 in 15 appearances but does hold a 2.32 ERA.*

DeFratus is 4-0 in 23 appearances with a 2.10 ERA.*

Overbeck is hitting .275 with 18 HR and 46 RBI.*

*For the Reading Phillies

Tim Redding was 2-7 with the Albuquerque Isotopes (Makes me think of the Simpsons every time) with a 6.59 ERA. Not a prospect but he can eat up some innings and may turn out to be a diamond in the rough.

OinK!