Tonight our game was at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, home of the Wichita Wranglers. Originally built in 1934, it has undergone some major renovations. The playing field has a very unique look—the infield is made out of turf but the outfield is grass. It’s kind of an odd combination. The stadium is also home to the National Baseball Congress, which is an organization of 15 amateur and semi-professional baseball leagues operating in the United States and Canada that has played here since 1935.

Unfortunately for fans of the Wranglers, they will be moving out of Wichita at the end of this year and moving down to Arkansas for the start of the 2008 season. The team’s new name will be the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Apparently the Wranglers do not draw very well in attendance and Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is not packed very often, so the team is switching up locations to try to expand their fan base.

One other note: I was a bit disappointed to see this sign on the gates before entering the ballpark. Prohibiting such things takes the fun out of baseball.

I’m not posting a picture with this post because I want to express the fact that there isn’t really anything to photograph as soon as you get past Denver, CO on the way to Kansas. I did get to see an old CFAR friend Holen Katz in Boulder before heading east to Wichita.

Today started off with a 6-hour drive from Montana to Utah, arriving in Ogden around 2pm. The weather in Ogden was pretty intense—it felt like it was pushing 100 degrees in the direct sun. Unfortunately for the Tour for the Cure the raffle was also fairly limited due to circumstances out of our control. Today’s game did not go so well for the Ogden Raptors as the visiting team jumped all over the starting pitcher in the 3rd inning, erupting for 7+ runs. there was one fan who refused to give up, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs for everyone else to keep cheering. He was highly entertaining and extremely energetic for his age and size. You can see him in action, trying to get the crowd back into the game.

Fans of the movie The Big Lebowski would be happy to know that Quintana has now stopped bowling and taken up the game of baseball.

Tonight’s game was threatened by the weather—before the game some nasty wind and rain came through and delayed the start of the game for about an hour, but eventually the weather held up and we were able to have the game AND the raffle. The Brewers were taking on the Billings Mustangs, and luckily it wasn’t another 3.5 hour game like the one previously on Thursday. The Brewers play their games at Kindrick Field, which has been around since 1939. The ballpark’s main seating area is a covered wooden grandstand, which hold a majority of the 2,000 or so seats in the park. Next to Visalia, this is one of the smallest parks we’ve been to yet on the trip. With such limited seating, it should come to no surprise that this is also the most lightly attended ballpark in the Pioneer League.

Thanks to Nick for helping us out tonight—and for the first time ever the last person who bought a raffle ticket actually won tonight.

Montana is really the best state to drive through.

It has been approaching 100 degrees here in Montana, and today it seemed like the hottest it’s been on the trip to date. The Mustangs play their games at Cobb Field, which is not named after Ty Cobb, but rather Bob Cobb, who was responsible for bringing professional baseball to the town of Billings. Seinfeld fans should not confuse the baseball world Bob Cobb with the character from the show. Bob Cobb is the actual name of “The Maestro”, a character who is a conductor for the Policeman’s Benevolent Association Orchestra. Sadly, this is the last year for the Mustangs at Cobb Field because the team is knocking it down and building a new ballpark on the same site. Cobb Field has been there since the late 1940s, and the original wood is still in place—making for a charming albeit very run-down looking park. With field boxes that have folding chairs, I’m sure most people will welcome a new stadium next season.

As for the game, neither team decided it would be a good idea to play any sort of defense for the first six innings. In the bottom of the sixth, the Helena Brewers were on top by a score of 13-12, making it the longest six innings of any baseball game I’ve seen in my life. Unfortunately the Mustangs were not able to pull out a win, losing to the Helena Brewers by a final score of 15-14 in just over three and a half hours. Thanks to Matt for helping us out tonight—the fans were very generous and helped us raise a lot of money tonight!

One more Seinfeld related fact—two former alumni of the Mustangs include Paul O’Neill and Danny Tartabull, who both had guest roles on the show.

I would have never thought last year that I would be spending the Fourth of July in Great Falls, Montana. But here I am at the Great Falls White Sox game doing just that. The crowd was a record setting 4,651—and the ballpark was packed. Thanks to Bob for helping me out with everything and letting us do a raffle. Bob and his staff are some of the nicest in all of Minor League Baseball. I was able to throw out a first pitch and I must say they are getting stronger each time (unfortunately I do not have video proof of this). The fireworks were of course the main highlight of the night, and driving through the town after the game you could see a bunch of different fireworks shows throughout the town.

Other notes: Before the team became an affiliate of the White Sox, they were affiliated with the Dodgers. Former players who once played in Great Falls include Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi and Pedro Martinez.

Today’s drive in Montana was one of the most scenic to date, and Montana is probably the best state to drive through. The first of four games in Montana featured the Missoula Osprey taking on the Billings Mustangs, and what a game it was. In the bottom of the ninth, the Osprey rallied from four runs behind to win after one of the Osprey players hit walk-off grand slam to cap off a five-run bottom of the ninth inning, to beat the Mustangs, 10-7. Thanks for Jeff for the help tonight. After the game, the record 3,400 fans in attendance got an earlier Fourth of July Fireworks celebration to cap off the exciting night.

The last stop in the state of Washington was in Spokane home of the Indians. The team’s home field, Avista Stadium, has been around since 1958 and is a fairly large park compared to those in the Northwest League. It has also been named “Northwest League Field of the Year” seven times since 1997. Tonight we raffled off a newly redesigned Spokane Indians baseball jersey. The new logos were designed after the Spokane tribe contacted the team gave the team the permission “subtle and tasteful imagery”, in order to keep in line with the team’s history and relationship with the tribe. Pretty interesting. As for the game, the Indians rallied in the 7th inning to come from behind against the Vancouver Canadians and pull out a victory. Thanks to Matt for getting us a great item for the raffle and to all the fans who were generous enough to help us raise a lot of money tonight! Tomorrow: Montana.

Just north of Seattle, the Everett AquaSox play Everett Memorial Stadium. Today we raffled off a Jay Buhner signed ball along with a team signed ball—thanks to Brian, Rick and Dwight Schrute for helping me out. They call this one intern Dwight Schrute (from the tv show The Office) because both the GM and the intern are named Brian, and to tell them apart everyone calls the intern Dwight because he is the assistant to the manager, much like the actual Dwight from the show. You get it?

These guys in the picture above are Paul and Marty. They have gone on a baseball roadtrip for the last five years, each lasting around two weeks or so. This year they are doing 15 games in 14 days up and down the West Coast. We first ran into them in Portland, then again in Salem-Keizer, Seattle, Vancouver, and Everett. Today was the last game where our schedules would overlap. Over the course of all of these games, these guys have bought a bunch of raffle tickets but never seemed to win any of the grand prizes. Good luck on the rest of your trip guys.