Rochester Red Wings at Empire State Yankees | 17 Apr 12

Tsuyoshi Nishioka 3-4, R, RBI, reached base in all 5 plate appearances
Francisco Cervelli 3-5, R 

This is what it looks like when I’m not scoring a game from my moderately comfortable living room chair. First things first, the scorebook is the excellent Eephus League Official Scorebook, designed by the wonderfully talented Bethany Heck. I only use this book for live games. The book has room for 20 games and I hope to fill it up this season.

I live in Rochester, NY - home to the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, the Red Wings. They play their home games at Frontier Field. If you took a look at the pictures, you may have noticed something odd, then: the Wings are listed as the road team. We’re very privileged baseball fans in Rochester this year to be hosting another team for a large chunk of games this season. The Scranton/Wilkes Barre (PA) Yankees are undergoing stadium renovations and have been uprooted for 2012 into Western New York. So instead of the usual IL slate of 70 home games, Rochester will be hosting 109. There’s going to be baseball almost every day this summer.

My friend Lee and I ended up at this game almost by accident. My wife is out of town on business and he stopped over to play some Xbox baseball. After we had finished a game I thought why not go see one in person? He thought it was a great idea and off we went. We walked up to the ticket window and were able to get first row seats behind the home “away” dugout. The announced crowd was 1,451 but in reality it was closer to 300, so we had no problems with space. It was clear but cold, falling into the mid 30’s by the end of the game.

Quick note for those wondering what the hell I ate: A garbage plate, shown in the last picture there, is a local specialty consisting of home fries, mac salad, two cheesburgers, meat hot sauce, onions, ketchup, and mustard on one plate. At $7.50, it’s the best deal going. A Blue is a Labatt Blue, the regional swill.

As for the game, it was actually pretty good. Tsuyoshi Nishioka was fantastic, as you can see from his line. Ben Revere played some awesome left field, making two outstanding diving catches. He was with the Twins less than 24 hours before this game, so I don’t think he was as thrilled about it all as we were. Francisco Cervelli played reasonably well for the Yanks, and the Wings pitching was solid.

If you’re unfamiliar with minor league baseball, you might be confused with just what the heck is going on with Jack Cust. Often a team will choose a K-Man, sponsored by Taco Bell. If that person strikes out, your ticket stub is good for a free taco. This, of course, engorges the fans with malice for the designated taco man, and the chants of “TACO” and “WE WANT A TACO!” rain down from the stands. Cust was no exception. So when Cust got the old “TACO LOOKING” on the scoresheet, he struck out and sent the fans home happy and with taco.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact I took home my first ever ball from a baseball game, at the ripe old age of 28. It was thrown to me by a coach after the stadium had all but cleared out (less than 50 people at the end of the game, and no kiddos whatsoever). I was pretty thrilled about that.

All-in-all, a wonderful night at the park, one of many to come this summer. Next live game should be next Tuesday, as the Syracuse Chiefs (the Nationals farm team) are in town and we want to see Bryce Harper before he goes up.