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I wanted to share this all with you. A couple weeks ago the Noise Nation made a road trip up to Scranton to see the Ironpigs take on the Scranton Yankees in Moosic, PA.

This afternoon I opened up my mailbox and noticed a card. I thought to myself, oh no another birthday, another wedding, another tupperwear or candle party that I need to make an excuse to get out of.. but it wasn’t.

It was a hand written, yes hand written, thank you note from the group representative saying how much he appreciated our visiting their stadium and wishing us a welcome return. What a class act that Scranton organization is! I have given many gifts and gotten generic thank you cards, if any thank you’s at all. I am hard to impress and I am very impressed by this! I realize this is part of a marketing department trying to get us to return, but to hand write a unique card to us was great.

Thank you Scranton Yankees! Thank you!

On a side note.. frequent reader “RD” was able to locate the Columbus Clippers Ring your bell song. Enjoy!

http://clippersbaseball.com.ismmedia.com/ISM2//MultimediaManager/1558.mp3

The Ironpig’s scored all 5 of their runs on homeruns tonight and unfortunately the pitching staff allowed the Clippers to cross the plate 10 times. At one point, down 10 to 5, the Pigs had the bases loaded with one out but they hit into a double play ending the rally and their best chance to get back into the game.

Good’s
Andy Tracy doubled, tripled and walked. The triple was a hard hit ball to left field that Columbus’ left fielder tried to make an aggressive catch on and it scooted under his glove and rolled to the wall. Tracy did leg out the triple but as easily as it could have been a single, it could have been an inside the park homerun if any other Pig had been on the basepaths.

John Mayberry and Cody Ransom both homered. Chris Duffy hit 2. Ransom’s 7th home run is leading the team and ties his mark for errors at 7.

DeWayne Wise gunned down top prospect Carlos Santana at 3rd base trying to stretch a double into a triple.

Jerry “The King” Lawler was on hand tonight and signed free autographs for all fans willing to wait in line. He was a good sport and also assisted Hambone in his first win of the 2010 Pork Races by clotheslining the showboating Chris P. Bacon and Diggity.

Not so Good’s
Both teams had 11 hits and only Columbus made the most of them.

Pig’s pitchers issued 8 walks and seemed a little wild tonight. Combined they threw 155 pitches and only 87 of them for strikes. Gordon alone issued 4 walks.

Clutch hitting remains a problem for the Pigs. They stranded 6 runners on base.

A few days ago I was talking to a co-worker from Columbus and he mentioned that the Columbus Clippers had a promotion for many years in their old stadium involving cowbells. They had bell giveaways and even a song played over the PA system when everyone in the stadium would ring their bells. (Attempts to obtain the audio file have been unsuccessful, see lyrics below:

Columbus Clippers, our team is number one!

Columbus Clippers, our fans are half the fun!

No matter who they’re playing, they’ll always play ’em well

Columbus Clippers ring your bell!

This slowly died off in Columbus when the Yankees affiliation ended and the Nationals took over in 2006 and was finally discontinued when they built their new stadium last season. Some fans feel they lost a tradition.

Looking at attendance over the weekend against the Indians proved to be a success! 3 capacity crowds of 10,000 vaulted the Ironpigs to the top of the AAA class with an average of 8,480 fans a game.

Last season the Lehigh Valley finished 3rd behind Columbus and Sacramento. Columbus was riding the high of a new stadium and with colder weather early is a good bit behind in 2010 at 7,127 a game. That sophomore year trend that we were warned about (yet didn’t happen here in the Valley) might turn true for the Clippers.

Sacramento is still pulling in a crowd consistantly though. Taking a look at what we are up against, let’s compare the competition to ourselves.

Coca Cola Park
Opened in 2008
Capacity 10,000
Estimated Population – 816,012

Sacramento’s Raley Field
Opened in 2000
Capacity 14,680
Estimated Population – 2,136,604

So we’re up against stiff competition for finishing first this year. Sacramento has more than a 2-1 advantage on us and the extra 4,680 seats per game can give them a clear edge for sellout crowds. I believe we can take this spot and keep it for the entire year but we have to keep Coca Cola Park full.

Ok, I can hear it now.. “What’s in it for us?” well anyone who has taken an economics class will say increase in demand increases price but I’m not falling for that one. I’m looking at economy to scale. If we keep filling this stadium.. I believe we will keep the prices level for tickets, food, etc. Over the past 3 years, prices across the board for everything have gone up. The price of tickets and food have remained the same since 2008 at CCP. So what’s in it for us it to keep this team here, keep it affordable and keep it fun. (If you don’t believe me try a Scranton game as an example. Low attendance = $13 tickets and $5 gristle burgers not to mention the 4-5 items offered at one concession stand compare to the incredible range of food offered at many stand here in CCP)

Last but not least, tomorrow we will be graced by wrestling royalty. Not only is Jerry “The King” Lawler a wrestling celebrity, he is also remembered for his infamous staged feud with comedian Andy Kauffman and if my research is correct, he is also an avid collector of Coca Cola Merchandise. Let’s get this guy into the team store..

A few things I’ve been wanting to comment on…

The PA announcer at Coca Cola Park, Tim Chorones does a great job. I’ve been to a few parks and the excitement and energy he puts into the stadium is far beyond the bland reading of the others. It significantly adds to the fun atmosphere in the park and wanted to take a moment and say it out loud.

Another complaint I heard a lot about was the slow moving tickets lines. I found out why this was, yes I said was, and it was due to a printing issue on the tickets. The barcodes were aligned with a line pattern on the paper ticket itself and threw off the bar code readers. While season ticket and group leaders were contacted and replacement tickets issued.. some clever ushers actually came up with a card’like device to “fix” the problem. Leave it to American inguenuity!

2 Weeks ago if anyone had said the Ironpigs would be short on outfielders we all would have collectively laughed at them. But as we have seen this week, 2 quick injuries placed the team into that spot. Injuries to Wise and Duffy at least gave Rich Thompson to prove he is lineup worthy. I wonder what happens when both return to the lineup. There is no way Mayberry sits so could there be some transactions forthcoming?

Speaking of transactions… With Bastardo’s arrival in Allentown, RHP Jason Anderson flew to Portland last night to join the Reading Phillies. While he was struggling, and deserving of the demotion this time, Anderson has been a strong work horse for the Pigs over the past few seasons and I hope he can return to form and come back home to CCP.

The Pigs nailed the finale of this series with a 3 to 1 win over the Indians today. Today was also Education Day with a 10:35 am start time. I love education days. Kids are always cheerful and cheer the loudest and strongest on these days. I would have done anything to get out of a day of school to go to a ballgame when I was a kid and with the weather today… it was a perfect day for it!

Great day for baseball and it was nice catching up with some old friends who made it to the park today! OINK!

Good’s
Cody Ransom drove in the Pig’s only 3 runs with a monster (yet wind assisted) home run. The outfielders had a lot of trouble with that wind blowing hard and changing direction constantly.

Indianapolis Left fielder Moss almost made the best catch in CCP history. (Still safe in my eyes TJ Bohn) Paul Hoover ended up with a triple when Moss leaned up against the fence, pulled the ball back from the top of the fence and popped the ball into the air. He reached out with his bare hand, popped it in the air once more only to have it hit his finger tips on his third touch of the ball for it to fall to the ground. As high as that ball was, Hoover was almost on 3rd base when the ball hit the ground and I would say he had a chance at an inside the park HR. Remember, the 1st and only inside the park HR at CCP was hit by Jovan Moran in 2008 in front of an early Education day crowd.

Hoover went 3-3 and was a HR short of the cycle when he came to bat in the 8th. He walked.

Drew Carpenter threw 93 pitches for 58 strikes allowing 3 hits and one run in 6 innings. The Ironpig’s bullpen took over and closed out the game.

Hearing rumors that DeWayne Wise should return to the outfield soon. I’m thinking with tomorrow’s rest day that he returns on Thursday.

Not so Good’s
Andy Tracy again dipped below the .200 mark with an 0-4 performance and left 5 runners on base. Only Brian Bocock is hitting worse… batting .154 stranding 6 on base today.

Tonight’s game was difficult to watch. The crowd wasn’t as large as it had been over the weekend but it was loud and enthusiastic. Unfortunately, the Ironpig bats didn’t hear the roar of the crowd until the 9th when an error allowed one run to cross the plate. The crowd actually let out a collective groan when they learned that Arby’s RBI guy of the game Paul Hoover would not be awarded an RBI (and us a free roast beef sandwich) due to the throwing error that could have ended the game in a double play.

Good’s
Rich Thompson robbed an extra base hit and saved a run in the first inning with a diving catch and followed that up by catching a foul ball over the rolled up infield tarp.

We got to see Bastardo return to the Ironpigs and pitch a scoreless hitless inning.

Brandon Duckworth seems to have transistioned smoothly into a relief role pitching 1.1 innings allowing no hits and striking out three.

Not so Good’s
Joe Savery gave up 3 runs on 8 hits. Ok, the guy seems to be able to get out of jams more often than not but to quote a nearby fan, “He wouldn’t have to get out of jams if he didn’t get into them.”

Cody Ransom collected his 7th error of the season allowing a slow rolling base hit to scoot under his extended glove. Again, I realize he isn’t an outfielder but everyone who has ever played ball knows to put your body in front of the ball, then field it. Ransom went at it lazily and showed himself true when he got into many arguments with the fans behind him. I’m trying really hard to be a fan of his but he’s making it difficult.

Savery and Wasserman both balked a runner to second base when the runner left too soon and they looked like a deer in the headlights falling off the mound. Do AAA players run pickoff drills? Basics! BASICS! In fact, after Wasserman’s balk (the runner got to first with a base on balls) he threw a questionable passed ball to advance the runner to third. He threw gas on the fire when he then nearly hit his third baseman in the head with an errant pickoff throw to allow the runner to score. Wasserman also hit two batters in his .2 innings pitched.

To the dedicated Ironpigs fan, Cody Ransom has become an anomoly. He hits homeruns, he argues with umpires and he leads the team in errors. So, as fans, we can only wonder what is going on in Cody Ransom’s world…

Ransom was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1995 but chose instead to attend South Mountain Community College. While at South Mountain, he survived a team van crash that killed two of his teammates. In 1997 he transferred to Mesa State and then to Grand Canyon University in 1998.

In 1998 Ransom was then drafted by the San Fransisco Giants. He made his major league debut in September 2001 against his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks. He spent the next 3 seasons with the AAA Fresno Grizzlies and in 2004 was granted free agency.

In 2005 he played for farm teams for both the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers.

Ransom spent 2006/2007 in the Astros organization, mainly with the AAA Round Rock Express.

Then the Yankees signed him to a contract in 2008. He homered in his first two Yankee at bats, being the first Yankee to do so. He started the 2009 season with the big team, as Alex Rodriguez was on the DL. Ransom also made the final out at the old Yankee stadium, fielding a ground ball and stepping on first base to end that era.

So back to my original thought.. how can we, as fans, help Cody Ransom? Well, he seemed to perform well in NY. He hit homeruns and could field a ground ball in NY. This made me think of the movie, “My Cousin Vinny” where Joe Pesci’s character (a lawyer from New York City in a small town in Alabama) can’t sleep because the small town was so quiet. He finally gets a good nights sleep when he is put in jail for the night and the noise there soothes him to sleep. Applying this to Ransom, let’s get the noise level going. Pretend to be a Yankees fan for a moment and let him know you are cheering for him. If he does good, let him know you appreciate it. If he does bad… well, let’s stick to the family environment on this one.. but let him know you didn’t appreciate that. Maybe we could soothe him into better play?

I do recommend you keep it clean, especially those fans in the Bud Light Trough. You may think that high wall protects you but as you can see by the below video clip.. Cody has a pretty high vertical leap!

The Ironpigs mounted a short comeback today but couldn’t quite get that tying run across the plate in front of the second consecutive capacity crowd sellout of 10,000 in CCP today. Even more impressive was the announced 2,500 folks who came out to walk for the MS charity this morning. Thanks go out to the organizers and the Ironpigs Charities who I am sure had a hand in organizing this great event.

We did get a surprise visitor today in former Ironpig Assistant General Manager (current AGM for the Charlotte Knights) Danny Tetzlaff. Danny stopped out to say hi to the Noise Nation and catch the afternoon game. It really exemplifies the family that has formed over the past few years at Coca Cola Park amongst both staff and fans.

Good’s
Rich Thompson went 3-4 with 2 RBI and 2 stolen bases (4 on the season)

Gordon, Zagurski and Mathieson combined for 4 innings of scoreless relief allowing only 1 hit apiece. This is a really good sign!

The Ironpigs pitching staff kept us busy and mowed down 13 batters at the plate.

Not so Good’s
Both John Mayberry and Andy Tracy came up with runners on base and an opportunity to drive in some runs and both failed. These guys need to start eating chicken before every game or something…

Losing pitcher Nate Bump was more like a speed bump today, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits. Nothing spectacular in doing so, but the Indians hit the ball where the Ironpigs weren’t. Not much you can do about it.

The Ironpigs came home to Coca Cola Park with a roar! I stopped in at Pitcher’s Sports Bar & Grill to catch the extended pregame show today and noticed the Sold Out sign already up. I hear tomorrow could be another sellout too (10,000 sellout). The weather was absolutely perfect for baseball tonight and the capacity crowd stayed the entire game to watch another great fireworks show.

Early on in the game it became evident, by home plate umpire Mark Lollo’s tight strike zone, that it would be a hit parade and it was. Pitchers were forced to throw strikes and those strikes found their way onto the neatly manicured CCP outfield.

Good’s
Both John Mayberry and Dane Sardinha homered.

Every position player had a hit tonight, minus one.

Ironpig pitching didn’t perform that great, but they did their job without imploding and blowing the game.

The Pigs kept their streak of win one, lose one going. Hopefully tomorrow will break that streak.

Also, kudos to the little boy who through the Indian’s home run back on to the field. Learning tradition early. He didn’t go home empty handed though.. a member of the Noise Nation replaced his ball from a foul ball obtained earlier.

Not so Good’s
Andy Tracy was the only position player to not get a hit. He went 0 for 4 with a walk.

The Nationals sent Stephen Strassburg to Syracuse. Unfortunately, the Chiefs won’t be back to CCP until July 1st/2nd and then again the last week of August. I don’t expect to see him this summer unless I drive to Philadelphia.

Villarreal gave up 2 runs in 2 innings relief. It’s acceptable when your team is up by 6 runs but need to play hard in the innings when you don’t have to, to be able to come through when you need to.

Cody Ransom took right field tonight and early on extended his team leading error count to 6. I understand he isn’t an outfielder but really.. it’s right field. Another ball he bobbled in the corner gave up an extra base and his throws missed the cutoff man more often than not. Basics and fundamentals seem to escape him. I wonder if it goes in hand with sportsmanship.

Andy Tracy hit his 50th HR (as an Ironpig) tonight as the Ironpigs got slaughtered in the last game of this road trip. It was ugly. Really ugly

Goods
Cody Ransom hit his 5th HR of the season.

Chris Duffy made two incredible catches, one robbing a homerun, before leaving the game as a precautionary measure. While making the second catch, Duffy hit the wall pretty hard.

Jason Anderson pitched 1.1 scoreless, hitless innings. Although his team was behind by 7 runs at the time this showing might reveal his true problem being related to pressure.

Not so Goods
Mazone allowed 7 hits for 5 runs in 5 innings. When the starters need relief before the 6th inning it usually spells problems. Also of note, he worked out of a few jams with spectacular defensive plays.

Wasserman promptly loaded the bases in relief and only lasted 1.1 innings.

Pig batters mustered only 6 hits and the first run of the game was compliments of the Redwings awful defense

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