Confirmed this morning with the International League office that….

There has not been a decision made in regards to where the 2012 SWB Yankees will play their home games.

While many think it would be a great idea to have the Yankees in the Lehigh Valley… there are a few questions and concerns I have with the idea.

1. 72 additional games played at the park.

Wear and tear on the park. Imagine field conditions if there would be a game played there every single day. Imagine the food stands, the seating area the fatigue on game day employees. A potential for new jobs? A potential for more hours for exisiting workers?

2. Front offices.
We’ve got one, they’ve got one. From promotions to giveways to ticketing to rain outs to parking to fireworks. (Get ready Allentown hotels) Imagine the marketing nightmare if there are conflicting team sponsors. Will there be an office sharing plan, a trailer park set up in the parking lot or will they move into an empty office building in the area?

3. Ticketing / Scheduling

Scheduling would be difficult, even as the schedule is most likely in place at this point. Scheduling SWB games on IronPig away dates isn’t a problem but figure travel into that. These schedules are made to minimize travel costs and fatigue. Think about the July 4th weekend rule that says every team must have a home game over that weekend. We end up with one home game on Friday, an away game on Saturday and a home game on Sunday.. all against the same team.

4. SWB Fans

I’ve met many great SWB fans in our trips to Moosic. How many of them would be willing to drive the hour south for every home game? I would not be happy as a season ticket holder.

5. Revenue from Coca Cola Park

Who gets the cash? Ticket sales, concessions, parking.. team store. Who gets the money? Will there be a section of our team store filled with SWB Yankees gear? Could there even be, gasp, Yankee signage in our beloved CCP?

With any scenario I can run through my head, I can’t see the SWB Yankees making a dime in 2012 if they play their home games at CCP. I think it’s more likely that the Yankees will split time between several fields. Even if it turns out to be a local college field or a few games in their other minor league parks, (Trenton/Staten Island) they could create a barnstorming-like tour of their system to prove more profitable than just squatting in the IronPig’s backyard.

My apologies for looking at this from the business perspective rather than a fan’s outlook, but I felt it more appropriate to address this as business reasons will be the factors for the final decision.

How soon should we expect a decision? Well, the league is gathering in New Mexico this week for league meetings. The AAA Championship game is happening on Tuesday. I would think we should know soon after all the details are worked out.

OinK

It’s taken me a while to think back over this 2011 IronPig season. Watching them walk off the field defeated Friday night left me with mixed feelings.

I was happy to have had the 2011 IronPigs, each and every one of them.

I was happy to see Ryne Sandberg leading the team all summer.

I was happy to see how a team of players came together, unlike the previous years.

I was happy for a break. Really, this blogging every day stuff wears you out. Rushing home after the home games to write up game notes, listening intently to every pitch announced by Matt Provence and Jon Schaffer, getting to the games early to check out that day’s promotions or special events. It’s a lot of effort.

I was sad we didn’t win the championship.

I am mostly sad that this season and this team is over. Get ready for 2012 and the reset switch will be pressed.

There’s a movie released a few years back, Adam Sandler was in it, where his girlfriend would go to sleep and forget whatever happened the day before and started that new day fresh. The same seems to go that way in minor league baseball. We may see some familiar faces back next year.. mostly the younger players. We were lucky in the past to keep Andy Tracy for 3 years and Rich Thompson for 4 years. How many faces have we seen come and go over the past 4 years or even this season. We said goodbye to guys like Brian Gordon, Jason Grilli, Drew Carpenter, Brian Bocock… to name a few. Imagine what the team will look like next year.

Will the 2012 team have the same sense of humor, the same chemistry and/or the same relationship with the fans? It’s hard to tell. Some guys have chosen retirement. I’ve heard that Jason Anderson has retired. Andy Tracy, while not officially announced to my knowledge, is likely to retire soon. Some of these guys have been playing pro ball for 10 + years in the minor leagues. I hope we get a good friendly team back in.

On that same note, I am sad to see this group of professionals depart. It was a great season not only because of finishing with a winning record or that the Pigs made the playoffs or that they made it to the finals. It was great because this year the players actually joined in all the fun at CCP that we haven’t seen much before.

Tagg Bozied and his Dos Piggies “Most Interesting Man in Baseball” skits.

Brandon Moss putting the playball kids up to something before each game.

The bullpen changing the lottery numbers posted.

Delwyn Young and Doug Heater holding an interview while riding tricycles.

Scott Mathieson bringing his dog to the bullpen on dog day.

Kids being invited to join the players in the bullpen for an inning.

There are so many more… these come to my mind first. Feel free to add your own memories in the comments.

While the relief of the season’s end is among us, we have a whole off-season to refresh and get ready for next year.

My only hope for the off season…. that we have a team next year that comes close to the team we had this year. (And the Seahawks winning the SuperBowl, but I think I have a better chance at the former happening)

Over the next few weeks Decal, Kram, DiPro & I will keep the blog going through the Championship Series and World Series. Then begins the fun stuff of transactions, trades, moves and planning begins for 2012. It was a memorable season and I’m seeing this offseason as being a crazy time as well.

One last thing I’d like to say.

The first month I logged into the Noise Nation Horn & Bells blog was January 2010. That month the blog had 70 hits for the entire month. We finished the year out with over 37,000 views. In 2011, as of this writing, we have had 56,799 views this year. That number is thanks to you the reader.

I never in my wildest dreams thought anyone would want to read what I wrote (I’d imagine my 7th grade English teacher would agree with me) but I want to again take a moment and thank you for reading, for commenting, for participating in our blog.

I would also like to take a second to thank those who supported the Noise Nation this season. Look at all the icons on the right side and you will see those generous folks who made our cook book fundraiser a success. Please do your best to support these local businesses.

Many, many thanks go out to Bert and his Philly Pretzel crew! They have always gone above and beyond on their support of the Noise Nation and we thank you!

What the Noise Nation did in 2011:

Charity Cookbook – Raised almost $3,500 for the National Brain Tumor Society

IronPig Camp – Sponsored a deserving child to attend the IronPigs baseball camp.

Group trip to Scranton to see the Pigs face the SWB Yankees

Group trip to Pawtucket. (More on this trip here.)

While we will be taking a short break to relax this week, stay tuned to the blog for more info on upcoming events and activities.

We will be checking out the LV Roller Girls Roller Derby team, an authentic Russian Dinner “Kiev Night” at the Black Forrest Deli in Bethlehem and also look to get ready for the LV Steelhawks season in the spring. Anyone else interested in taking a road trip to see the Phantoms before they move to Allentown?

I’ll leave it at that for tonight.

OinK.

Pigs lost. Not much to say tonight.

Will write more tomorrow and in the coming days.

Below are the contenders. Voting will continue until 12:00 noon EDST on Wednesday September 21st. You may vote as often as you’d like, but I believe WordPress cuts you off at a certain point.

Vote for the funniest caption!

1. Teaching Di Pro how to start a fire….in the woods of RHODE ISLAND!!!

2. I wanna see someone steal home now

3. Crud! Spontaneous combustion. We go through shortstops like Spinal Tap goes through drummers.

4. Moss…. Initiating new members into the ground hog club.

5. Alright, start sending the smoke signals…”HELP US WE’RE STUCK IN THE WOODS IN THE MIDDLE OF RHODE ISLAND!!!!”

6. Either you’re in or you’re out, Mazone. Don’t make us do to you what we did to Tracy!

7. “Sandberg said we had to light a fire under our asses if we want to win the Governor’s Cup. Who wants to go first?”

8. That’s how to set the bats on fire. Next……

9. When playing rock, paper, scissors, I’m pretty sure fire trumps all the rest.

10. “I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean hot corner in the literal sense.”

11. After other teams were caught stealing the Iron Pigs signs, the team decided to try smoke signals instead.

This will be a rare post for me. I’m angry. Yes, I probably should be waiting until the morning to write this and will try to keep it as non-judgemental as I can but the Pigs were, well, they were hosed.

The Columbus Clippers, led by the efforts of home plate umpire FRAN BURKE, defeated the IronPigs by a final score of 6-2 tonight.

It was cool tonight. Temps in the low 50’s but fans were a lot hotter than that after viewing officiating that rivaled Andy Vincent of a few years back. Before I get into it, let’s look at some game facts.

IronPig Pitchers:

Bush – 94 pitches 54 for strikes
Feierabend – 47 pitches for 32 strikes
Perez – 25 pitches for 10 strikes
Zagurski – 5 pitches for 3 strikes

Add those up and you get 171 pitches for 99 strikes. Keeping in mind balls swung at are considered strikes thrown. That means the IronPigs tossed 72 pitches that were called balls. 42% of the pitches thrown were called balls.

Clipper Pitching:
Martinez – 98 pitches for 65 strikes
Lee – 31 pitches for 16 strikes
Burns – 11 pitches for 7 strikes

140 pitches total for 88 strikes. That works out to 37% of pitches called balls.

Now this may seem insignificant but to those who viewed this game can tell you. The Clippers were getting the close strikes, the Pigs were not.

This type of “bias” causes things to happen.

When close pitches are called balls, batters become more selective. They choose their pitches to hit and swing less. The pitcher then needs to groove pitches in the middle of the strike zone and are more easily hit.

When close pitches are called strikes, batters are forced to hit defensively swinging at anything near the plate. Pitchers become aware of this early and throw more borderline pitches resulting in more poorly hit balls and outs.

15 IronPig batters went down on strikes tonight, and 4 walked.

10 Clippers struck out, 10 walked. (5 in the 9th inning)

Now you can call me a sore loser, you can call me someone second guessing an umpire. If you were at the game tonight you would understand.

Home plate umpire FRAN BURKE was awful tonight. I can accept bad umpiring. If someone can’t perform or has a bad day.. it happens. What I don’t like is when that poor umpiring is leaning heavily towards one team. Longtime IronPig fans can remember the days when former umpire Andy Vincent seemed to make every call against the umpire. The days when even the other team shook their heads in amazement at the poor calls. Tonight reminded me A LOT of those days. Someone commented near me that if they were Ryne Sandberg they would have been ejected by then.

So who is FRAN BURKE?

From the IL Website:

FRAN BURKE..Age 31, 5’9″, 175 lbs., resides Ridgewood, NJ. 2000-01, Gulf Coast Lg.; 2001, Appalachian Lg.; 2002, S. Atlantic Lg.; 2003-05, Carolina Lg.; 2005-07, Eastern Lg.; 2006, Arizona Instruc. Lg.; 2007, Southern Lg. & Venezuelan Lg.; 2008-10, International Lg.; 2010, Arizona Fall Lg. -4th yr. in Triple-A-

Earlier this season we had the infamous “Pull the Tarp” game in Buffalo. In response to my email, IL President Randy Mobley reminded us that AAA umpires are being evaluated just as the players and their goal was to make the big leagues. I’m sure Mr. Burke has a family and friends who love him and care about him and I don’t doubt he is likely a good person, but tonight he was an awful umpire. Be firm but be fair. Tonight’s calls were by far not fair. I hope those who evaluate AAA umpires take notice to this game.

I’m usually not a fan of booing anyone.. folks are out there doing their best… tomorrow umpire FRAN BURKE has earned the booing I’m sure will result.

Add your comments and feelings below..

***

On other notes, why is Domonic Brown still in the lineup? Regular season… sure, let him play out and work on his swing. In what is essentially the World Series for AAA… play the lineup that can win.

On that same note, why.. Why.. WHY did we go with Perez and Chapman in the 9th inning tonight? Is it strategy to accept the loss going into the 9th inning with only a 1 run deficit? Let the strength of the bullpen rest for the long haul of what we hope will now go 5 games?

So many questions. Again, I believe I made my feelings on tonight’s game clear. What are yours?

The rain will most likely pass for tonight’s Game 3 of the IL Championship Series but it’s going to be a cool night reaching as low as 50 degrees.

50 degrees isn’t too bad but keeping in mind we’ve been 70 or above since May it will feel significantly cooler and if there is any wind expect tonight to feel cold.

So bring your coats, maybe a warm hat and if you’re sitting on the lawn I might suggest some waterproof material as the ground has absorbed a lot of rain lately.

Otherwise, cheer on the Pigs to victory!!!

OinK!

I found a voicemail on my phone this afternoon telling me that Pig Fest had been cancelled.

😦

Billed as a Bean Bag Toss tournament and Cow flop contest, cash prizes were to be awarded to winners and proceeds to charity.

I was really, really, really looking forward to this and it’s a shame. My only guess would be lack of participation. Suppose groundskeeper Bill may have objected to the cow flop contest too. Perhaps they heard of Team Dan & Jimmy T in the bean bag tournament and got scared.. The biggest loss is that this was for IronPigs Charities.

As I learned this past year, charity projects are a lot of hard work and truly depend on the generosity of others. Not an easy task by any means. Great idea and wish the Lehigh Valley had embraced it.

For those who did sign up, the voicemail went on to say refunds would be issued.