Today started at 4:30am, because we had to make it from Syracuse, NY to Manchester, NH by 10:30am. The good news is that we hustled and got to Merchantsauto.com Stadium (officially the worst name of a corporate naming ballpark) in time to set up and get settled in the stadium. Unfortunately, the majority of the crowd was filled with kids coming from various local camps, so there was no raffle. The ballpark is only two years old, and features a nice retro manually operated scoreboard. I spent a few innings behind the scoreboard with Dean Lima, who operates the scoreboard and takes photos during the game. Let me just say working a scoreboard is A LOT of work, and those who cannot watch every minute of a baseball game need not apply. I shot a video of Dean in action right after a Fischer Cats player hit a homerun—to which Dean responded by waving a towel out of his window, and then scurried around to update the scoreboard.

Just down the road on the way to Boston are the Lowell Spinners—the Rookie league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. In case you didn’t know that Red Sox Nation are made up of a bunch of Red Sox obsessed fans—let me present to you the scene at LeLacheur Park around 4:00pm on Monday night. When I arrived, there were probably 300 or so people in line waiting for the gates to open at 5:30pm, with some of the first people rumored to be there since lunchtime. They were all in line for a Mike Lowell bobblehead—quite fitting due to the team’s name. I got in line around 5:45pm, with the line now stretching down the road and around the side of the park, but 10 minutes later I was inside (and yes I did get a bobblehead).

Before the game started there was a group of kids getting autographs from some Spinners in a more interesting way. Kids would throw their pens and items down from the stands and the players would catch, sign and then throw it back. This system was installed probably due to this warning sign, which is one of my favorites so far.The system ran like clockwork as the video will show:

I also ran into Mike Adams of the radio show Planet Mikey on WEEI—which is the number one radio sports show in the country. He was nice enough to have me on during the game for a half inning to talk about the Tour for the Cure. WEEI will also be hosting the Jimmy Fund radio-telethon on August 16th. Last year the telethon raised almost $3 million for the Jimmy Fund, so if you live in the New England area be sure to tune in.

Today’s game brought the Tour to Alliance Bank Park, home of the Sky Chiefs, Triple-A affiliate of the Blue Jays. Like the Blue Jays, the Sky Chiefs play their games on artificial turf, making it only the 3rd or 4th game we’ve seen so far where the team plays on turf. Good news for fans of grass—the turf is scheduled to be replaced with natural grass after the 2007 season. Tonight’s game featured an interesting promotion—a “Sal-ute to Moustaches” featuring a contest for “Syracuse’s Best Moustache”—in honor of Sal Fasano, the legendary backup catcher (formerly of the Phillies, Yankees, Orioles, Royals, Oakland As, Rockies, and Angels) who is probably better known for his Fu Manchu moustache than his playing abilities. Sal spent the pre-game signing autographs (see picture above) for fans of all ages. I even spotted one guy wearing a “Sal’s Pals” t-shirt from his Citizen Bank Park days. For $1, kids were able to get their own moustache drawn on their face with a face paint marker—with all of the money being donated to Sal’s favorite charity. Good times were had by all, even if the crowd was a bit sparse for a Sunday night game.

In the 8th inning, the Sky Chiefs crowned the finest moustache—the prize went to an older gentleman who had an out of control moustache that probably only is good to have if you are entering these kinds of contests on a regular basis. The winner received a bat autographed by Sal Fasano, a “Sal’s Pals” t-shirt, a beard & moustache trimmer, and a $50 gift certificate to NAPA. No word if the winner would actually use the beard and moustache trimmer to trim his facial hair. For all of those wondering, the word “moustache” was used nine times during this post—a new record for the TFTC.

The Tour for the Cure left Scranton very early on Tuesday morning and headed to see the Oneonta Tigers take on the Aberdeen Ironbirds at Doubleday Field. The Tigers normally play their games about 30 minutes away at Damaschke Field but today they were scheduled to play Cal Ripken’s minor league team so the game was moved to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. By 10:30am, the town was buzzing and parking was scarce. I ended up parking in someone’s backyard for $20, relatively cheap compared to the $40 and $50 parking fees charged in order to park in someone else’s front yard closer to the center of town. It was reported that this year was to be Cooperstown’s biggest year yet, drawing some 60,000 fans over the course of a weekend to see Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn get inducted to the Hall of Fame.

What you might not know is that this weekend is also huge for former HOF players and other baseball legends—for signing autographs. There were over 40 HOFers on hand to sign autographs for fans coming from all over the country. Most of the prices for autographs started at $50 for a ball, and could be as much as $150 to $200 for a signed bat (which you had to provide yourself.) Some of the players I saw included: Yogi Berra, Al Kaline, Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Rollie Fingers, Willie Mays (charging $125 for a ball), Mike Schmidt and even Pete Rose. Yes, even though Pete Rose is banned from the HOF, he will still sign autographs a block away for $60 a pop. In order to get autographs, you had to buy a ticket from the store where the player was, and then wait in line for sometimes as long as two hours just to actually get the autograph. Crazy.

As for the game, the stadium was packed with Orioles fans (no shock there) and Cal Ripken and his family made a special guest appearance to throw out the first pitch. Here is the video of Cal and his family at Doubleday Field:

After leaving Cooperstown, the Tour for the Cure headed up to Troy to see the Tri-City Valley Cats. In case you were wondering, the three cities that comprise of the “tri-” are: Albany, Schenectady and Troy. The Valley Cats play at Joseph L. Bruno stadium, which is named after the New York Senate majority leader who secured the funding that was needed for the construction of the ballpark. Tomorrow—another doubleheader in New York state.

The SWB Yankees used to be affiliated with the Phillies up until last year, but this year the Yankees took over the team when the Phillies temporarily moved up to Ottawa. I had some more family join me today—but unfortunately the rain struck again and there really wasn’t much we could do in Scranton—except eat some crazy local pizza that is made with American Cheese! Seriously, this pizza is like none other that I’ve had before—it’s kinda like home-made Ellios pizza squares that taste a lot better. Not sure if I could eat it everyday, but it was a nice treat.

Last September, when the team announced that it would be moving its Triple-A team to Scranton, 47,000 tickets were sold that same day for the 2007 season. Unreal! In somewhat related television news, the show The Office is said to have some ties to the former Phillies team that played here. The temp character “Ryan” is rumored to be named after Phillies MVP slugger Ryan Howard, who played in Scranton at the start of the show in 2004. Also, the character Dwight Shrute has a bobblehead of Mike Lieberthal on his desk. In honor of this Office connection, here is a clip from The Office with both Dwight testing Ryan with brainteasers.

We left Williamsport early today and headed up to Rochester for our first game, at 11am. It was a camp day, and probably the biggest one so far—approximately 6,000 kids had been shuttled in from various day camps to check out the game. Due to the young crowd, we didn’t have a chance to do a raffle but did get a very sweet Cal Ripken Red Wings jersey for our online auction at the end of the year. Did you know the Rochester Red Wings are publicly owned by the Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. which is comprised of fans of the team as shareholders.


An hour later we were back on the road to head down to Buffalo for a 1pm Bisons game, who play at Dunn Tire Park. Interesting note about the ballpark—it was apparently designed as HOK’s first take at a retro ballpark—which would then be used four years later to help construct Camden Yards. There was a time where the park did not have a company that owned the naming rights, so for about half a season the stadium was just referred to as the “Downtown Ballpark.” We had a good solid raffle today, thanks to Brad for getting us some great items. I got my Mom to throw out the first pitch. My thought was that if I had a video of her throwing a first pitch, suddenly my first pitches would look a lot better. Check it out below:


After the Bisons game, we had a 90-minute drive down to Jamestown to see the Jammers. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, torrential rainstorms came down right before the game and delayed the game indefinitely. After much delay, the skies cleared up and the Jamestown Jammers mustered a thrilling come from behind victory against the Lowell Spinners. The recorded attendance was just 700, but it was safe to say there were not that many people who braved the rain delay to see the Jammers walk-off win. Perhaps next year the Tour for the Cure will be able to see a rain-free Jammers game.

Today’s game in Harrisburg was a family affair—I was joined by my mom, sister, and two uncles. The crowd was mostly made up of camp kids, so the fundraising was a bit limited. Thanks to Mark for getting us some great prizes—they have been some of the best we have received so far. The Harrisburg Senators were bought by the city of Harrisburg in 1995 for $6.7 million, just six months after the previous owner had paid $4.1 million. The mayor at the time wanted to keep the team in the city as part of a downtown revitalization project. In 2006 however, the team was put up for sale in order to combat a city budget deficit and was sold for $13.25 million with a clause saying that the team had to stay in Harrisburg for 29 years. Commerce Bank Park is set to undergo a major renovation project over the next couple of years that will include skyboxes, and tons of new seating. If you live in Harrisburg, you should get excited for the next season when you will start seeing such improvements.

My Uncle Patrick, who thinks of himself as quite the golfer, when in fact he is not quite a golfer, tried to show off his skills at a mini-putt set up inside the ballpark. The embarrassing result can be seen in the video taken here.

Afterwards my Mom started her three day journey with the Tour, and we headed to Williamsport to see the Crosscutters. Williamsport is more well known for the Little League World Series, but the Minor League baseball has been playing in the town since the 1920s. Thanks to Gabe for helping us out tonight and getting us an item for our raffle!

After we left I found out (thanks to Wikipedia) that Bowman Field played host to one of the more bizarre yet entertaining events in Minor League baseball—”The Potato Incident.” Back in 1987, the two worst teams in the league happened to be the Williamsport Bills and the Reading Phillies, and they were playing a meaningless game in late August. A catcher for the Bills, Dave Bresnahan, decided to play a joke/trick on the Phillies. The following is taken from Wikipedia: With a runner on third base, Bresnahan switched catcher’s mitts and put on a glove in which he had secreted a shaved-down potato. When the pitch came in, Bresnahan fired the potato down the third-base line, enticing the runner to sprint home. Bresnahan then tagged the runner with the baseball, prompting the umpire to award the runner home plate for Bresnahan’s deception.The president of the Eastern League took offense to what it perceived as Bresnahan’s affront to the game, banning the grandnephew of Hall of Famer Roger Bresnahan from its league.

That has to be one of the best pranks ever, simply because it took place during the game on the field.

Whoa! The Renegades fans definitely have the most fun when they come to the ballpark. For a Tuesday night, the place was pretty packed. The team has some of the best promotions and games in between each inning, and the whole crowd gets into it. During the 6th inning, all of the kids formed a huge conga line on the main concourse walkway, which filled up the whole entire walking area. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to get this on video.

Another interesting thing about the ballpark is the announcer. While most stadiums just announce the player’s name and stuff in between innings, the Renegades announcer actually does a running commentary throughout the game during each at bat and play. And for the most part it’s pretty humorous.

And finally, although Dutchess Stadium is primarily used for the Renegades baseball games, it recently it hosted K-Fest with Akon as the main act. He caused a controversy by throwing a fan off of the stage. According to witnesses, after throwing the fan off the stage, Akon made his “sweet escape” through the backstage area and headed into the night apparently screaming WOOO-HOOO, YEEE-OOO!

Rained out. Worst weather of the trip to date.

The Tour for the Cure said goodbye to special guests Mike and Suresh today, and headed back across Canada for Auburn, NY for a Sunday evening Doubledays game. The drive was scheduled to be about 6 and 1/2 hours, so I left pretty early from Detroit. What I didn’t factor into the drive was the fact that I’d be crossing back into the States at Niagra Falls on a Sunday afternoon. So for two hours, I sat at the border with a million other cars waiting to get across the border. This huge delay also caused me to be arrive at the game a full hour after it started, marking the first time we missed the beginning of a game. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Tonight’s promotion was free General Admission seating, so it appeared as if the whole town of Auburn showed up for the game. It also helped that they were giving away $1,000 to a fan who entered a special drawing.

The Doubledays are of course named after the famous Civil War general, Abner Doubleday, who is not famous to most people for his duties in the Civil War but rather for inventing the game of baseball. This claim is highly disputed, as many baseball historians have cast some serious doubt over this fact. As for the Civil War, Doubleday apparently played a very important role in the early stages of the battle of Gettysburg. I suppose this would make Doubleday a Yankees fan.

In addition to our presenting sponsor Louisville Slugger, we have received a lot of help from StubHub.com, which is the largest ticket marketplace in the world, based on sales. They have been around for a few years, and recently became a member of the Ebay-family. So how does StubHub help us? Sometimes MLB teams can’t offer us any help (promotion and ticket-wise) when we visit their stadiums, or only offer us one ticket when we need two or three tickets for a game. When this happens, the lovely people at StubHub (namely, Joellen) come to rescue and get us tickets for the game. Their contributions to the trip have saved us a bunch of money on spending money on tickets, and have allowed the Tour for the Cure Team to enjoy a bunch of Major League games.

For all those not too familiar with StubHub, here is how it works:

If you are looking for a ticket—any sporting event, concert, even Broadway, you search for your team/musical act/play by date and location, and all of the tickets that other people are selling show up. There are usually a bunch of tickets for any given event, and the more popular the event, the more tickets there are available. For example, August 4th the Tour for the Cure will be at Yankee Stadium, and there are currently almost 2,500 (!) tickets available ranging from $5 to $600 a piece—quite the selection. Once you find tickets you want, you just place your order and the tickets are yours.

There are three different ways you can get your tickets:

1. In the mail via FedEx — this is super quick, and in my experience you receive your tickets within 48 hours of placing your order. StubHub was able to order us tickets on a Wednesday, and they arrived at our hotel on Thursday (!) for a Saturday afternoon game.

2. Email tickets — the fastest way possible — as soon as you order, boom, your tickets arrive in your inbox. Simply print them out and bring them to the event. This is how we got tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates game, and it was the simplest way to handle tickets.

3. StubHub Last Minute Service Center — if you order your tickets last minute, you have the option of picking up your tickets at a StubHub office located very close to the event. We arrived 15 minutes before the start of the Tigers game, picked up our tickets and headed across the street into Comerica Park. It’s just like will call at any ticket office.

Hands down, this is the best ticket service out there and the smoothest ticket buying experience I’ve ever had. Before the Tour I’ve used this service to get “sold out” tickets, and have been able to pay reasonable prices for some good seats. I highly recommend this service, not only because it’s awesome but because they have been more than generous in helping us out this year on the 2007 Tour for the Cure.