Well, day one and stop number one is in the books, although we were worried for a bit that perhaps this game wouldn’t happen after all. Around 5:30 the skies darkened, thunder and lightning and torrential rain hit the Arlington area, and it didn’t let up for almost an hour. But the skies did clear and it was off the ballpark.

It was about a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel, and we fell in love with this place all over again. Really one of the most beautiful settings in all of baseball, with streams and ponds and parkland surrounding the venue, but the bustle of office buildings, an amusement park, hotels and of course the new Cowboys stadium all nearby. One of the cool things on the walk up was seeing the little league ballpark right next door, almost a mini version of the big boys place, with kelly green seats, retro design and even a scoreboard.

We got into the ballpark a good 45 minutes before first pitch, walked around and took a bunch of photos, and then settled into our seats in the club level. It was “Thirsty Thursday”, meaning $3 drafts and $1 sodas… of course we opted for the Coors Light!

The game itself was kind of a snooze… a 5-1 Texas win thanks to Sammy Sosa’s home run in the second and then four Chicago errors in the third. Two teams going nowhere really. From there on the only thing left to ponder was whether former Bisons Ramon Vasquez (Texas 3B) or Razor Shines, yes RAZOR SHINES (Chicago 3B coach) would make their mark in this game. Vasquez was three for four at the plate, and Shines threw two errant balls to kids in the stands.

We really enjoyed the Texas style event presentation, complete with country music bumps, and clapping along to “Deep in the Heart of Texas” in the middle of the 5th, done to a cool video.

All in all a great night in a spectacular ballpark that we were so pleased to come back and rediscover. So now it’s a good night sleep and off to Austin in the morning.

After the jump…

Like a castle in a meadow.

A panoramic view from high above home plate.

Another view of the new football stadium, taken from the 300 level concourse at the ballpark.

The entertainment and shopping area behind centerfield.

The club level concourse.

Here is the view right from our hotel room window. The new Texas Stadium will be a half mile west from the Ballpark in Arlington and judging from the renderings on the Dallas Cowboys web site, this will be one of the most breathtaking and opulent venues in the NFL.

We’re going to do a drive by tomorrow morning and check out the stadium site close up before pointing the car southwards towards Austin.

Yes we have arrived!

You only find these places in Texas and the Southwest, so we stopped by enroute to the hotel for lunch at Whataburger, Andrew grabbed the bacon ranch burger and I got the triple cheese and meat. Wash it all down with a Dr. Pepper of course!

Now relaxing at the Courtyard by Marriott right across the street from the Ballpark in Arlington (thank you Marriott PointSavers!). First pitch at 7:35 CDT.

Check out this week’s Play Ball column in Artvoice, Time To Pass Out The Hardware.

This year, and for the past eight years, we have handed out our own very official sounding “awards” to Bisons players for some dubious distinctions. Yes, the “Pat Listach” award and the “Jimmy Hamilton” award are given to the two players that we deem the worst hitter and pitcher on the Bisons roster for that year.

But how did all this get started? And do these awards really have any significance or meaning in the larger realm of things?

Well the answer to this is that these awards are just a crazy fan concoction that just got on a bigger stage as our roles in the media evolved.

Back in the late 90s, Chris Mach, Pete and I went to a lot of Bisons games together, and Chris is the kind of fella who takes his sports teams very seriously. So while many other fans attending Bisons games come for cotton candy, promotions and fireworks, we were there to follow players and watch the balls and strikes.

Back in ’98, we watched in frustration as infielder Pat Listach bumbled his way around the field, and were very happy to see him released towards the end of the season. So by 1999 we were comparing shoddy play on the field to the marker that Pat Listach had become, and by mid season the three of us decided to create an award for the player who best emulated Pat Listach.

By 2000, we had so much fun with this that we decided to add a worst pitcher award, and the guy we decided to pick on was poor Jimmy Hamilton, a single-A callup during the 1997 AAA World Series, who was way overmatched and promptly blew up right before our very eyes.

Interestingly, Hamilton only played in a Bison uniform for a grand total of 24+ innings, went on to other teams, mostly at the AA level, and quit baseball after 2001. Somewhere, we know he’d be smiling knowing that an award is named after him.

Another side story from 2000 – there was a great deal of controversy among the three of us as to who should get the Listach. Pete correctly argued that the designation should go to Jeff Manto, who after stellar seasons had a sub par final season in uniform; in fact it was so embarrassing that they woudn’t even put his stats and average on the scoreboard.

Chris and I argued that you can’t give the Listach to a team icon and a swell guy. We won that argument in a heated debate and gave the award to Jeff Patzke, but in deference to Pete, we created “The Jeff Manto Award”, to be awarded to “the Old Fart who stuck around one season too long”. Well that award didn’t make it too far because there was never really another viable candidate after Manto.

By 2001 news of the awards were growing, and we started engaging fans in the front rows of sec 112 above the dugout for their viewpoints. Yes props to former fans of the year Bob Maisano and Kathy Trader, the megaphone maniacs Bob Maue and Bill Siska, and our two baseball girlfriends Kathy and Marilee who joined in on the voting. And yes, by then we were in the media, on shitty Sportsblast on public access, and we actually announced the awards on the show each year to the dozens (?) of viewers who actually tuned in.

A funny story from 2003 – we filmed the awards announcement on the field in Rochester’s Frontier Field, and managed to get Chris Mach a single game credential. The Listach winner that year was Luis Garcia, and while we were recording, Garcia was tossing baseballs about 20 feet away from us. At one point Pete gestured towards Garcia to come over, and Chris thought he was going to come trotting over and throw a pie in his face or something. Chris’ look of fright was just priceless…it’s too bad nobody watched the show.

Since 2004, the unofficial Bisons awards have made it to Artvoice, and obviously that meant a much higher profile. Former PR Director Tom Burns early on put us on notice with a chuckle in his voice “We know about your crazy awards!” And yes, the media corps at the Bisons games have also become very much engaged in the selections, offering advice and their picks. In 2004 Luther Hackman pitched so consistently horribly, there even became a plea to us to rename the award the “Hamilton/Hackman” or “HH”. We have rebuffed such suggestions, figuring that the purists would howl.

This year our beloved founder Chris Mach was nowhere to be seen at Bisons games, so we gave his vote over to a composite team of pressbox members. Buffalo News beat writer Mike Harrington, Metro Source and MLB.com writer Dave Ricci, and rookie media member Jon Splett from here at WNYMedia.net combined to cast their votes for the two awards, and their selections became an indelible part of this year’s process.

Do the Bisons get offended at all this negative attention? We don’t think so because it is publicity after all, and we really do this as fans and supporters of the team who like to engage in the whole thing in a special way. We sent Brad Bisbing an email requesting head shots of the two winners, Hector Luna and Bubby Buzachero, for this week’s Artvoice piece. Brad responded, obviously knowing what was up, and while he sent the photos, he replied that he disagreed with the selection of Buzachero, and offered stats in defense of his argument. So yeah, I’m sure they are good natured about all this silliness.

Just a final memo to Chris Mach — did you ever realize that when you attended games back in 1998, sat in the stands with us and heckled Pat Listach, that it would all become THIS?

It appears that the Great WNYMedia Blackout of 2007 is behind us. For the past four or five days, the entire site has been down sporadically, meaning that the news tabs and the entire family of bloggers have been in the dark. We are up and running again, although it looks like a number of stories and posts from the down time have been lost in the technical upheaval.

This all sucks, but we keep in mind that all the honchos like Marc Odien and Chris Smith who run WNYMedia have day jobs, and tech wizard Nathan Strang (Buffawhat) is up to his eyeballs in fixing this, so we appreciate everything that these guys do for us. To make up for it, I am told that they are ready to roll out the new improved site pretty soon and we will be a part of that and you will like it so stay tuned!

OK… it has been soooooo long since Pete and I have packed our bags and gotten on a plane to do a meaningful road trip, but the day is finally upon us and I can’t wait! We fly to Dallas/Ft Worth tomorrow, and that begins a schedule of four sporting events in four nights. Here is the schedule:

Thurs - Chicago at Texas (MLB) - The Ballpark in Arlington
Fri - New Orleans at Round Rock (AAA) - Dell Diamond
Sat - Arkansas State at Texas (NCAA-f) - Texas Stadium
Sun - San Antonio at Corpus Christi (AA) - Whataburger Field

In addition to the games, we are planning to do some sightseeing around Austin and Corpus Christi. We got a hold of former Buffalonian Seamus Gallivan, whose dad works for the Bisons, and he now works for Round Rock and will be taking us around the Dell. Whataburger Field will be the 100th ballpark of the USRT, so that will certainly be a milestone worth celebrating. My friend Brian Magierski, whose mom is a Cheektowaga Council Member, lives in Austin and is joining us for the football game on Saturday. So all is good!

We will be posting DAILY updates and photos of our adventures right here so please check in and drop a line as well.

Another peer venue is getting the full state of the art scoreboard and electronic amenity upgrade, this time Washington, D.C.’s Verizon Center. From reading the specs it looks to me like this whole set up wll be amazing and breathtaking.

Meanwhile, here in Buffalo we soldier on with this tinkertoy at HSBC Arena, manufactured by Sony Jumbotron, a company which no longer even makes scoreboards. Yes, when the arena opened in 1996 our scoreboard earned oohs and aahs and accolades. Today it is just a quaint old relic, kind of like that 5 foot boxy big screen TV which you tucked into the basement years ago in favor of the snazzy new wall hung plasma.

I spoke to Sabres Managing Partner Larry Quinn early last season about plans for a replacement scoreboard, and he assured me that the thought process was well underway for not only a new video board but a complete overhaul of the arena’s sound system. 2008-09 seemed to be the target.

I’ll be seeing Larry around the arena once training camp gets underway. I will certainly share the news from D.C. with him at that time.

It has been one false start after another for a replacement stadium for the International League Richmond Braves, who play in The Diamond just outside of Richmond, a grey old style stadium with high seat pitches, atrocious press and player facilities and a neighborhood consisting of warehouses and a seedy looking bus station.

The latest development plan is for an area of Richmond known as “The Boulevard”, which would consist of a mixed use retail and residential development and a new ballpark for the R-Braves. The city is still seeking a lead developer for the project, and a three year lease extension gives the team and city some breathing room to do this right.

A franchise relocation for this team is not on the horizon. Says IL President Randy Mobley -

“There is absolutely no one else in the fray that is in a situation where they’re looking to go elsewhere.
It’s not as if there’s someone on deck waiting for another opportunity,” he said. “It’s just not there. There’s not much of a gray area on this one. It’s pretty darn solid.”

The complete story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

That is the report from the Rich Baseball owned Wichita Wranglers errr… Northwest Arkansas Naturals, the AA team in the Texas League that will be calling Springdale, Arkansas home come 2008.

In today’s Northwest Arkansas News, Naturals General Manager Eric Edelstein offers a terrific behind the scenes glimpse of what it’s like planning the construction of a new ballpark and starting a franchise anew in a brand new market. A really interesting read.

Up above is an artist rendition of their new stadium which is under construction and slated to open next April.

Also, the Naturals already have their own website set up HERE through minorleaguebaseball.com.

If you’ve picked up the Buffalo News at all this week, then you couldn’t help but see the outstanding array of articles and blog reports celebrating 20 seasons for the Buffalo Bisons at the downtown ballpark. One of the pieces which really caught my eye profiles Mike Harrington’s top twenty Bisons home games.

So this got me thinking, out of the 800 or so games I have been to these past 20 years, which one of these marquee games stands out in my mind as the absolute most memorable? I didn’t have to think long… for me the infamous 18 inning loss to the Nashville Sounds in 1990, a one game playoff for the division title, is the one that I remember most.

One has to put this game into context with everything else that was happening at the time. For the third straight season, the Bisons had topped 1-million in attendance, an accomplishment without precedent in minor league baseball. Anticipation was running high that a MLB expansion team announcement for Buffalo was imminent. The Bisons had started out at the new ballpark with mediocre seasons, and fans were chomping at the bit for playoff baseball and a championship run. And the 1990 Bisons put together an awesome season and were poised to contend for the American Association trophy.

Standing in their way were the Nashville Sounds. As the calendar flipped to August, the team got hot, posting a 24-8 record for the final month, but no matter how well they played, Nashville was equally as hot, keeping pace with the Bisons, and the team just couldn’t put any distance in the standings.

Buffalo sports fans were really paying attention that year; WGR radio was then the flagship station of the Bisons, and after our games were finished, Pete Weber would send it over to the Nashville Sounds radio network, and yes, their games were simulcast here in Buffalo. Night after night the ballpark was packed, the crowds were so into the unfolding pennant chase, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric.

On the last day of the season, the Bisons were in Indianapolis, in control of their destiny, needing only one win to clinch the division outright. But on that night a Bisons pitching castoff named Rich Sauveur had a score to settle with his old team, and insisted on starting for the Indians on two days rest. His manager obliged, and Sauveur shut the Bisons down. With Nashville winning their game that night, the teams were tied in the standings, and a one game playoff in Buffalo would settle the division title.

The team came home obviously dejected, but as the team bus pulled into downtown Buffalo that afternoon, the bus driver wisely drove around Swan and Washington before pulling into the back door, so the players could get a gander of what was unfolding. There, on the plaza, thousands of fans were lined up 50 deep at each of the ticket windows to buy tickets for that night. WGR radio had their remote on the plaza, and daytime personality Paul Lyle was exhorting Buffalonians to come down and buy tickets and pack the place. Entertainers were performing, food carts were selling hot dogs, it was a party atmosphere at the stadium, setting the stage for what was then going to be the biggest game in the history of this young ballpark.

And where was I? Well, I was a Cheektowaga Councilman in 1990, and since the previous night was Labor Day, this was the night of our Town Board meeting. (The last place I wanted to be). A kind soul named Paul Matuszewski who headed one of the taxpayers groups had a transistor radio and an earpiece and was signaling score updates from the audience. The other bit of good news was that our Supervisor Frank Swiatek was also a Bisons fan, and was anxious to get down to the ballpark as well. We just blew threw the meeting (”Mr. Clerk, just read the “resolved”…), bigmouth Councilman Tom Johnson kept his filibustering yap shut under threats of physical harm (kidding), and we were out of Town Hall by 7:45pm. I arrived in the top of the 5th, not knowing at the time that a long night waited ahead of me.

What I remember most about that game is how loud and boisterous the crowd was… Once the game went extra innings tied at three, I remember all the chances Buffalo had to win it. Tommy Shields with a lead off triple in the bottom of the 10th, I believe, and left stranded. Speedy John Cangelosi tagging from third in the 11th, and gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw from short center. By midnight the rains came, and they played through it. Then finally the Sounds breaking through in the top of the 18th with the go ahead run, and for the Bisons, the bench was depleted… no pinch hitters left and I think some pitcher named Hugh Kemp hit for the final out in the bottom of the 18th. Final score Nashville 4, Buffalo 3… it was 12:27AM.

I left the ballpark that night so heartbroken, so devastated. I had a hard time falling asleep that night, reliving in my mind all the near misses, all the chances. It took a while for me to shake off this game, and how this season ended so brutally.

That’s what made the 1991 season so sweet, when Buffalo finally vanquished those hated Sounds to win the American Association division. As silly as it seems, the pileon on the pitchers mound at the division clinching game was genuine, many of the guys still remembering the stinging defeat of the previous season.

I am really looking forward to Saturday night’s celebration of 20 years downtown. The Bisons have been such a big and enjoyable part of my life during all this time, and it will be great remembering, reminiscing and cheering on the Earl of Bud as he makes his return to a place that has given me so many good times and so much joy.

As we reported here earlier, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are planning to vacate Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg for new spring training digs in Port Charlotte, 70 miles to the south.

Here’s a glimpse of their new ballpark, which will open in 2009. The Devil Rays are hoping to regionalize their franchise and expand their fan base by making this move.

More from the Bradenton Herald.

At one time, Louisville was making noises to become an NBA city. Well by 2010 they sure won’t be lacking for a suitable facility, as they today unveiled plans for their magnificent new downtown arena, which will sport an amphitheatre style glass entrance and dancing fountains.

The $252-million facility will house the University of Louisville basketball programs as its primary tenant.

More from the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The USRT last visited Louisville in 2003… add the Louisville Slugger bat factory and museum, Churchill Downs, Louisville Slugger Field, a nice downtown, and now this venue… and you have a great sports road trip destination.

There has been nary a whiff of interest in returning Michael Peca into a Sabres uniform from Buffalo’s end, but here it is mid August and Peca remains unemployed.

But perhaps not for long, as today’s report in the Columbus Dispatch states that Peca’s agent Don Meehan is in talks with the Columbus Blue Jackets for a deal there.

The funniest quote from the piece?

The Blue Jackets are likely to offer a one-year contract laden with incentives, such as games played, goals scored and an additional sum if the team reaches the playoffs.

Playoffs? The ‘Jackets are the D-Rays of the NHL… If Peca’s presence and leadership takes this bunch to the promised land, the he really is worth every penny and then some.

A couple weeks ago we got an email from Jim Farrell, a journalist with the Hartford Courant. Jim and his teenage son Matt were planning a seven day trip of MLB venues across the northeast, and were soliciting the USRT for some advice and travel tips.

Well, their adventure is underway, and they already have some good stories to tell of their interaction with scalpers in New York and Boston, and even have a tale to share of a live mouse which dropped from the upper deck at Fenway park right near their seats.

Hilarious stuff!

They have a website at the Hartford Courant chronicling their journeys. Check it out a drop them a line!

The NCAA Board of Directors approved a proposal changing the seating configuration for the Final Four. Beginning in 2009, the floor will move from the football field’s end zone to the 50-yard line with new temporary seats filling in the vacancy around the court.

It also will raise seating capacity to about 70,000 at each Final Four site and allow the NCAA to do something it has long desired - put students near courtside for the games at a minimal cost. Student vouchers are expected to cost about $15 to $20 for each of the two days, and about 1,000 students from each school will be placed in the four corners of the arenas.

The first test will come at regional sites in Detroit and Houston next spring. Detroit will host the 2009 Final Four.