Early morning game = Education Day. Chris has been looking forward to coming to Asheville, ever since I told him the story about Joe Mikulik, the Asheville Tourists manager. (We’ll get to that story in a minute.) The Tourists play their games at McCormick Field, which is built on top and into the side of a hill, which makes for a very cozy and interesting ballpark. McCormick Field dates back to 1924, and since then it has gone under some modest improvements. The biggest change was made to the short right field wall, which sits just 297 feet from home plate. Originally the wall was around 10 feet high, and during rennovations that wall was more than tripled to stand at 36 feet in height—very similar to Fenway Park’s Green Monster. One thing you notice in the 4,000 seat ballpark is the absence of luxury boxes, which adds to its charm and originality. And if you take a look at the scoreboard, you will notice something interesting: the home team is named the “Tourists” and the other team is listed as “Visitors.”

Now back to the Joe Mikulik—if you remember last year, he was the manager who lost it one game due to poor umpiring during a game. The call that set him off involved Roger Clemens’ son—who was called safe on a close play at second. Mikulik stormed out to the umpire in the field, was promptly ejected, and then the real show began. He reenacted the play at second—sliding into the base, taking the base out of the ground and chucking it into the outfield. That was just the beginning. It was all caught on video, and thanks to the magic of the internet you can see the video below. I think my favorite part of this whole tirade is when he covers up home plate with dirt, cleans it off with a water bottle, shows the umpire how to call a strike, and then triumphantly slams the empty water bottle on home plate.

He was fined $1,000 and suspended for 7 games. He was quoted after the game by saying:

“I could get two mannequins at Sears and umpire better than what I saw this whole series…”

[in reference to the Minor League Umpire Strike] “I thought the strike was over. When will the real umpires show up? That’s what I want to know.”

Go back in time to 2006—and enjoy.

The first thing you realize when you get our of your car at Lewis-Gale Medical Center Field at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium (besides the fact that it takes you 15 seconds to say the name of the ballpark) is the fact that it’s windy. Really windy. So much so that you wonder how anyone plays baseball in this kind of wind. In fact, earlier this year one of the Salem Avalanche’s home games was canceled due to—you guessed it—excessive wind gusts! Why is it so windy? Probably because the stadium is situated on top of a hill. On the plus side, it does offer impressive views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was a special promotion for a Monday Night at the park—$1 beers. Normally that type of deal is saved for the well-known Thirsty Thursday $1 beer night, but I guess they like to spice things up in Salem on Monday nights. An average crowd saw the Avalanche crush the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Word on the street is that the Pelicans were tired from the “Meet and Greet” with the home town fans. For whatever reason, the Pelicans did not bring their A-game and the Avalanche took full advantage. Thanks to Jess for getting us a great item to raffle and for all the help!

The Durham Bulls, made famous by the movie Bull Durham and Kevin Costner (who seems to have been in every baseball movie with the exception of The Natural and The Sandlot), play their games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, better known as the “D-Bap”, located in downtown Durham. This place feels like a Major League Park, which was probably one of the reasons that we weren’t allowed to fundraise inside the stadium today. Everywhere you look there are Bull logos plastered, including the most infamous—“Hit Bull, Win Steak” sign. Just two weeks ago 50 MPH winds ripped off the bull’s head, but luckily the bull was fixed up and back to its old self in a few days. We also found some new activities inside the park which we haven’t come across yet—a rock-climbing wall down behind right field (2 climbs for $5), and a putting green contest (3 putts for $1.) Or if you wanted to keep it baseball related, you could try the standard speed pitch.

Interesting facts about the Durham Bulls:

The Blue Monster. Fenway Park and the Greenville Drive might have the Green Monster, but Durham has the Blue Monster in left field. The bull sign mentioned above sits atop of the Blue Monster.

The mascot. “Wool E. Bully” is named after the novelty song oldie, “Wooly Bully”. The “E” in his name supposedly stands for “education.” I think it actually stands for “Edward.”

Lucky, the park’s dog, is a special trained dog that can understand up to over 50 verbal commands and cues and has been taught to recognize and respond to 10 different hand signals and whistle commands. We saw it run the bases and then catch a tennis ball in its mouth.

In 1932, Durham began its first major league affiliation with the Philadelphia Phillies and since then has been affiliated with 10 different teams. They are currently the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The game itself was a nail-biter. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Bulls rallied to come from behind and take the game 2-1 from the Charlotte Knights. It was quite thrilling.

After an all-day drive from Virginia, we arrived in Hickory shortly before the game started. Edyta and Chris took over the bulk of the fundraising duties this evening, and they did a pretty good job—we had our 3rd highest fundraising night yet! A special thanks to Charlie for giving us such a great raffle prize and making sure we were well taken care of at the game. Here is a picture of us with some of our biggest fans in Hickory:

Tonight was “Adopt a Cat Night” at the stadium, where you could adopt a cat from the Catawba County Humane Society. In addition, fans received free fleece gloves for attending. The Crawdads did not disappoint, crushing the Greensboro Grasshoppers 9-1.

Today we were joined by a very special Tour for the Cure Team member, Edyta. Unfortunately we couldn’t do anything at the Norfolk Tides game due to their own policies regarding outside groups like ours, but a little birdie who will remain anonymous was able to get us three tickets to the game so we could enjoy a little bit of baseball on Friday night.

After the game, we headed to Dumar’s Cones and BBQ. It’s an old-school eatery where the waitresses bring you your food on a tray and you sit and eat it in your car. The owners of Doumar’s Cones and BBQ claim that their uncle, Abe Doumar, sold the first ice cream cones at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The food (burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc.) is cheap and pretty tasty, but the best thing about this place is the desserts (namely the ice cream). If you are ever in Norfolk, Dumar’s is highly recommended.

Tonight we were joined by our first honorary Tour for the Cure Team member, First Lieutenant James Mahoney of the one and only US Marines. In other circles, Jim is also known as Jimbo11824, J-Mo, Jim, Jimmy, Swimmy Jimmy, and the infamous, Bubbles Mahoney. He brought the muscle and discipline to the fundraising effort—and with his help, we were able to have a very successful night. The fact that it was also “Thirsty Thursday” at the ballpark ($1 beers) might have played a small role in our success. Thanks to Jessie for getting us an item to raffle off and allowing us to setup inside the park. The Kinston Indians came out on top against the Lynchburg Hillcats, 10-6.

Jim also allowed us to become “Marines for a night” and set up camp at his house. He woke us up at 4:30 in the morning with a drill whistle. Shortly after we headed out towards our next stop—Norfolk, Virginia.

Early morning game, another Education Day. This felt like the busiest Education Day yet, with over 3,500 kids piling into Ernie Shore Field. Built in 1956, the stadium underwent some modest improvements in the early 1990s. As of December 2006, tentative agreements have been put into place to sell Ernie Shore field to Wake Forest University (which is located right next door) after a new stadium is built in downtown Winston Salem for the Warthogs. Did you know… Ernie Shore Field was used in the movie Mr. Destiny with Jim Belushi? Put that one in your back pocket and use it sparingly at cocktail parties when your conversations involve Jim Belushi and baseball. It’s bound to happen at some point in your life.

Later in the evening, we ventured down to Greensboro to see the Grasshoppers. Thanks to Doug, a kind Grasshoppers fan for giving us great seats behind the third-base dugout. The Grasshoppers play their games at First Horizon Park, which was built just two years ago and seats 8,000. It has a nice mix of seats, picnic and bar areas, along with two grassy hills where fans can sit and watch the game. The on-field promotions are also non-stop, and we saw a new one tonight: throwing toilet seats around a pole in what is supposed to be some kind of horse-shoe-toilet-seat game.

The main attraction is Babe, the GM’s dog. Babe has been trained to carry out a basket with baseballs to the umpire in between innings. In addition, he competes with the bat boy—they take turns grabbing bats off of the field after a batter gets a hit. That’s right—the dog trots out onto the field and puts the handle of the bat in his mouth and marches right back into the dugout. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to a baseball show dog. I wondered how the bat boy feels having to share his job with a canine, but he unfortunately wasn’t available for comment.

Our first stop today was to see the Charlotte Knights—and being a morning game, you know what that means—Education Day. More kids. More buses. The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song blasting over the ballpark speakers. Today, there was a wide range of grades attending the game. One of the older classes actually had an assignment during the game—they had to keep a box score. Before the game a group of 75 kids huddled in front of the starting lineups board posting to make sure their box scores were filled in correctly. Although Education Days are great for the kids, they aren’t the best venues for fundraising money. Thanks to Tim O’Reilly (no relation, of course) for trying his best for trying to accommodate us at the park. Did you know… the Charlotte Knights are named for the city of Charlotte, NC but play their games in Fort Mill, SC, which is just a few minutes across the state border of North and South Carolina.

Later that night, we arrived in Greenville. The Greenville stadium was built last year and is a replica of Fenway Park, complete with the Green Monster and Pesky’s Pole. The only difference with this Green Monster is that it measures 30 feet in height, as compared to Fenway Park’s, which stands at 37 feet tall. New condos are being built behind left and center field, and you can buy one with a balcony that essentially gives you a perfect view of the whole stadium. If there are any Greenville Drive die hard fans out there, you might want to consider it. As for the game, the Asheville Tourists starting pitcher had a no hitter working until the 7th inning. I thought he was going to pull it out, and I would witness my first no-hitter. (The closest I’ve come to seeing a no-hitter was Eric Milton falling short of a complete game no-hitter by two outs.) After a few questionable calls, the Greenville Drive manager Gabe Kapler (formerly of the Boston Red Sox) decided he had enough of the umpires and was promptly thrown out of the game. Chris and I thought for sure that the first manager to snap would be Joe Mikulik of the Asheville Tourists. Does that name ring a bell? If it doesn’t check back next week after we visit the Asheville Tourists in their home ballpark.

First quasi-celebrity sighting at a baseball game—Chris, the curly-haired American Idol contestant from this season who wanted “to make David Hasselholf cry” was spotted taking in the game from a suite behind home plate. No sign of Sanjaya anywhere.

Whoa! We raised the most amount so far in Myrtle Beach! Most of it was due in part to the “Awesome Premium Pelicans Prize Pack” (our name for it, not theirs) that Jackie put together for our raffle, featuring a Pelicans bobblehead, t-shirt, foam hand, four tickets to a game, and a team signed ball!

It was “Wear Your Pajamas to the Ballpark” night, so a few fans were dressed more casually than normal. The stadium is a fan-friendly environment, complete with a beach section down the third base line. If you get a large group together, you can sit in beach chairs and sink your toes into the sand. There are even a few lifeguard stands scattered about as well. Some of the more obscure facts about Coastal Federal Field include:

Did you know in 2004, Baseball America rated Coastal Federal Field as the #2 Class-A level ballpark in the United States? It’s true.

The first World Record Broken at the stadium involved the “Most People Wearing Groucho Marx Glasses at the Same Time” - 1,827 funny looking Pelicans fans, on June 7, 2005.

In August of 2000, a car had veered off of 21st Avenue North and crashed into the left field wall. Nobody was injured.

The Pelicans staff treated us so well—making sure that we were able to raise as much money as possible. I also had a chance to go on the Salem Avalanche (visiting team) radio, and talk a little bit more about the Tour. However, the best part of the night featured Chris and I dressing up in yet another costume. This time it was sumo wrestling, and we battled it out against one another in front of the crowd. Chris got a few cheap shots in before we even started, but once we started to rumble I was all business. In the words of Johnny Drama, I achieved VICTORY!