Our own Mike Green, a former member of the roster and minor league reporter, contributes this pinch-hit. Parts 2 and 3 to follow.....
Seeing new places is the kind of mind-altering experience that the middle aged can tolerate with equanimity. So it was that my companion and I headed out through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and upstate New York on a baseball trip. First stop, Lansing, Michigan, for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games.
We stayed in Ann Arbor, a nice university town about one hour from Lansing, at a fine bed and breakfast. Shopping, an excellent city festival, a farmer’s market and a great deli with a large patio were all within walking distance. Ann Arbor bears a few scars from the recession. Houses are generally more run-down than one would expect and a few more stores than usual are boarded up. Nonetheless, the people are friendly and signs of tolerance are ubiquitous.
Lansing though has more than a few scars from the recent economic changes. The auto industry is essentially gone from Lansing, leaving Michigan State University and the state (Lansing is the capitol of Michigan) as the name employers. Even the ballpark reflects the changes, as GM no longer lends its name (or more accurately, is willing to pay for the naming rights) to Olds Park. Instead, fans have the slightly disquieting experience of entering Thomas M. Cooley Law School Park.
Once in the park, though, Lansing’s difficult adjustment to economic changes fades from the mind. The park is well-maintained and modern, and the game is put on with young children in mind. In a big league park, a cannon firing hot dogs into the stands to mostly overweight middle-aged adults between innings would not seem right, but at the low A level with a crowd skewing to the pre-teenage years, the carnival aspect of the event fits.
On this weekend, the Lugnuts faced the Dayton Dragons. The Dragons featured two players who caught my eye. Ryan Lamarre, a 2nd round 2010 pick, is a 21 year old centerfielder out of the University of Michigan from nearby Jackson; the Lamarre name is big in the area and he seemed to have a whole section of the crowd rooting from him. Lamarre had decent range and a solid swing. Henry Rodriguez is a switch-hitting 20 year old second baseman from Venezuela, with a great swing and some pop, who twice picked up extra bases on the paths alertly. He is listed at 5’9”, 150 lbs on the program, if that is right, he is an awfully sturdy 150. I wouldn’t be happy to see him charging the mound at Tim Collins. Anyways, I like him a lot.
The player that I most wanted to see from the Lugnuts, A.J. Jimenez, suffered an injury shortly before our arrival and was restricted to occasional first base coaching duties. The Lugnuts are rotating Kevin Ahrens, Justin Jackson and Ryan Goins through the third base, shortstop and DH slots. On Saturday night, Ahrens DHed with Jackson at third and Goins at shortstop; on Sunday afternoon, Ahrens took the field at third, Jackson moved over to shortstop and Goins DHed. Ahrens looks capable in the field, but lost at the plate. Jackson came as advertised, a fine defensive player with good lateral movement and arm. At the plate, he only went fishing on the off-speed stuff down and away once, and did make solid contact regularly. He did make a poor decision to try for a double play on one occasion, which led to a Dragon run.
The focus of my attention in the absence of Jimenez was on centerfielder Kenny Wilson. Wilson plays a medium deep centerfield. He was slow to react to balls in front of him, and I thought that one dropped in that should have been caught with his speed. There was one ball hit over his head; he took a step in, raced back, eased up and then lunged back to make the catch. At the plate, he looked better than I expected, especially from the left side. Wilson has taken up switch-hitting this year, and it would not surprise me if he ends up as a better hitter from the left than the right. On the basepaths, he had great difficulty in getting a reasonable lead. Once in motion though, he flies. Left-fielder Eric Eiland is a work-in-progress, strong and fast, but still learning to hit.
Saturday night’s game was all Lugnuts, as Ryan Tepera shut down the Dragons. We arrived at the park early on Sunday afternoon with menacing clouds just to the west and the tarp already on the field. It poured for an hour and three quarters but stopped abruptly and did not return. Ryan Shropshire kept the Dragons off-balance all afternoon and carried a 4-0 lead to the top of the ninth. He was obviously tiring and hit two batters and gave up a hit to Rodriguez to load the bases. With Steve Turnbull warming up, Manager Sal Fasano decided to leave Shropshire in to give him a chance at the shutout. Cameron Satterwhite had other ideas and smacked a two-out grand slam to tie the game. Turnbull came on to get the final out and the game moved into extras. In the top of the 11th, the Dragons had runners on first and third with nobody out, but a short fly ball, pop-up and ground-out later, the Lugnuts emerged unscathed. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Dayton reliever Mike Konstanty (any relation to Jim?) in his 4th inning hit Kevin Nolan, Eric Eiland reached on a bunt. After a passed ball and an intentional walk, Chris Hopkins came to the plate and ended the game by taking a 3-2 pitch down. The kids then took to the field to run the bases.
The only unpleasant aspect of the afternoon was a casual comment made in the middle innings by a fan behind me: “the just has to learn to…”; I believe that the comment was referring to Kenny Wilson or Justin Jackson. The crowd was almost all white, and it was pretty much impossible to put a benign interpretation on the comment. I was to learn more than once on this trip that progress on the racial tolerance front is more uneven than I thought, and perhaps affected by the adverse economic conditions.
Sitting next to us at the game was a young couple with a six year old boy celebrating his birthday. It was the boy’s first baseball game, and he had many questions about the game. The couple came from 25 miles outside of Lansing and seemed to be of modest means. After the game, while walking back to our car, we ran into the family. The boy was on cloud nine having received an autograph from an unknown Lugnut after running the bases. I handed the couple my program, and we headed off for Cleveland.
If I lived in southwestern Ontario, the prospect of a regular weekend in Michigan to see a couple of Lugnut games and enjoy better deli (by far) than I can get in Toronto would be awfully tempting. And the price of roughly $250 for two for the weekend would not be a deterrent. My companion thoroughly enjoyed the games, and has not always felt the same way about the major league experience.
------------------------
Thanks Mike, we are looking forward to the next two episodes.
