Rainiers
Went to see the Tacoma Rainiers play the Iowa Cubs tonight. Rainiers won, 5-3.
You know how when you go to a minor league baseball game, you always come across a name the stuns you? It brings up one of two questions, either "Why's this guy in the minors?" or "This guy's still playing baseball?" This happened a couple years ago when Chile's Corner's Chile Hidalgo and I went to a Bridgeport Bluefish game and saw both Dwayne Hosey and Pork Chop Pough in action.
Anyway, last night's player of note was Cory Patterson of the I-Cubs. I remember reading about Patterson getting demoted, but it still really didn't register until I saw him step to the plate in Tacoma in front of about 1,000 people (the crowd was announced at 3,987, which was so laughable it doesn't even deserve its own snarky comment).
I ended up feeling bad for Patterson by the end of the night. He's hitting under .200 in the PCL and went 0-for-4 on the night. At one point, with runners on second and third and two outs, he hit into a first-pitch line out to end the inning; in the seventh, bases loaded and two outs and the team down by a run, he hits into a harmless groundout. Obvious he's pressing, something fierce.
Then Scott Williamson came on in the eighth with the Cubs trailing 4-3 (they had rallied from 4-0), got hit hard, and managed to escape having allowed only a run. I felt less bad for him, for some reason.
Cheney Stadium is one quirky ballpark. Built in the 1950s. They recently refurbrished the main grandstand, which is pretty nice. But there are big sections of aluminum bleachers on the left- and right-field lines, and nothing screams "small-time" like high-school type bleachers. Still, if you sit in the left-field bleachers, on a perfect night like Tuesday you get a breathtaking view of Mt. Rainier, which makes for one unique backdrop.
Then there's the fences. It is 325 at both foul poles, and the wall appears to be about 18 feet tall, which is reasonable. But dead center is 425, and for some reason, at the 425 mark, the wall extends up to what looks to be about 25 feet.
All in all, though, a pretty reasonable night out for a $5 general admission ticket.
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