The first 4000 fans walking through the gates at Dunn Tire Park next Wednesday at the Bisons game will receive one special souvenir - a replica statue of old Offermann Stadium, the neighborhood ballpark which served as the home of the Buffalo Bisons from 1924-1960.

This is the third in the series of Bisons’ stadium replicas - they did Dunn Tire Park in 2006, and The Old Rockpile last year. Both replicas were very well received by the fans and this years replica should be an especially coveted item.

So for this week in Artvoice, we did more than just the usual Play Ball. We actually compiled a feature story called “Memories of Offermann Stadium”, a retrospective on some of the great moments and history of that storied venue.

We want to thank associate editor Buck Quigley (who spelled our vacationing editor Geoff Kelly this past week and put up with our endless phone calls) and photographer Rose Mattrey for helping us out with the article.

We’ve been covering the Bisons since 2001, at first for the really awful and unwatchable Sportsblast TV, and since 2004 writing Play Ball for Artvoice. This piece represents our most comprehensive work on the Bisons and one we put a lot of effort into. We hope you enjoy the article!

“The Worst Bisons Team Ever?”

In this week’s Play Ball, we compare this year’s Bisons squad to some of the teams of yesteryear, and discover that things aren’t really all that dire.

Check it out!

“A Star Spangled Bisons Celebration”

This week’s Play Ball resets last week’s Independence Day eve festivities at Dunn Tire Park.

Check it out!

“This gets me one step closer to saying I have seen everything.”
-Torey Lovullo

An exasperated Torey Lovullo struggled to keep his composure tonight after one of the strangest nights ever in Dunn Tire Park history.

For the record, the game is suspended in the bottom of the 9th, with the game tied at 1 and the Bisons batting with 2 outs and nobody on base.

But what happened leading up to this outcome was absolutely outrageous.

The game was played in a persistent fog, with routine fly balls becoming an adventure in the outfield all night long. The postgame fireworks show was cancelled, with fans receiving a free ticket to their choice of games on July 6 or 7 and fireworks on those nights, that’s how bad the conditions were.

But as the game went to the 9th inning, the Bisons nursing a 1-0 lead on Dan Reichert’s great start, the fog got even worse.

The Bisons got the first out on a fly ball to Jason Cooper which was by no means easy. On the next at bat, another towering fly ball ended up being a ground rule double which nobody saw bounce off the warning track and over the fence, another play which would have been an easy out for outfielder Jason Tyner. Following a strikeout, the next batter hits another fly ball which should have ended the game, except outfielder Brad Snyder could not see the ball. Result? RBI… game tied at one.

In the bottom of the 9th, the umpires FINALLY call the game, to a chorus of boos by the huge crowd of fans who came down to the ballpark tonight. It’s a little late for that umps!!!!

“We can’t be any more frustrated right now” said Lovullo. “For about four or five innings we all couldn’t see the balls. Obviously the umpires saw it differently.”

When the umpires convened to call the game in the bottom of the 9th, Lovullo let the umpires hear it… “I was trying to voice my opinion. We were all frustrated. I wanted to continue the inning.”

“It was terrible from the third inning on. Any ball that was put in play could potentially drop” said right fielder Jason Cooper. Cooper repeatedly commented about the unsafe conditions which made things hazardous, especially for the outfielders. And he admitted that the bullpen guys were assisting him in calling out the location of the balls as they flew in the air. “There was really nothing we could do. The conditions were as bad during the middle of the game as they were at the end so why call it at that point? Just frustrating.’

Frustrating indeed.

My partner Jon Splett was covering tonight’s game as well and has his report at the main WNYMedia site so check it out.

UPDATE: I was cursing myself for not having camera in tow, but Ryan at the Goose’s Roost commented here and has his own excellent take on the game, along with plenty of photos.

“Bisons Warm Up To Lehigh Valley”

This week’s Play Ball. Check it out!

“Three New I.L. Ballparks on the Horizon”

This week’s Play Ball. And other Bisons stuff. Check it out!

The first leg of this USRT adventure is on the books, and an auspicious start it was.

We planted the flag at Allentown’s Coca Cola Park, the newest team in the International League, meaning that we have again attended a game in each of the league’s 14 venues. And basically, we give high marks to the entire Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs experience.

The stadium is a real gem – small and intimate, with a total capacity of just 10,000, counting berm seating and standing room. There is not a bad seat in the house, with all seating configured towards home plate. And there are awesome vantage points in terms of group seating – a left field picnic deck allows groups of 8 or more to enjoy their own table seating, and access to a buffet meal and beverages. There are party suites at each end of the club level. But we give the highest props to the dugout suites directly behind home plate. There are four suites, with a capacity of 30 in each, with an amazing view of the field, and just 53 feet away from home plate.

The LED scoreboard is massive – the largest we have seen in the minors. The field dimensions also offer a number of quirks, including a high right field wall, and the seating bowl jogs sharply into the field area down each baseline, opening the possibility of weird caroms to rope hits which would normally roll down to the outfield wall.

But the best part of the experience here are the fans – folks here really get into the game. They clap along to the music, shout their “oinks” to rally the team, and the crowds are really intense as they follow the balls and strikes.

In no particular order, here are our “cheers” and “jeers”…

Cheers – to the awesome scoreboard, crowned by a coca cola bottle which opens and shoots off a firework salute each time the home team plates a run.

Cheers – for the largest and best stocked team merchandise store we have seen anywhere. This place was massive!

Jeers – The pressbox is tiny and cramped, reminiscent of Indianapolis’ Victory Field. Room for only six writers, two phone booths for the broadcasters. What were they thinking!?

Cheers – All 72 home games are televised on the local cable system. Some fans have then asked “Why aren’t the road games on TV?”

Jeers – Media meal was the ultimate ballpark dreck, some awful doughy pizza. Hey – teams aren’t obligated to serve up food for the reporters, but in our travel experience we found that the newer the venue and the higher level of play, the nicer the food is. Not here!

Cheers – On a more positive note, the ballpark concession fare looked much better.

Jeers – For a new venue, the visitors clubhouse was somewhat cramped. Again what were they thinking? But the space was nicely appointed – carpeted and nice furnishings and plasma TV sets.

Cheers – The great memorabilia showcasing the community’s industrial heritage. Murals of foundries and steel plants, themed concession stands. All nice but not over the top.

Cheers – the club level is stunning. Step off the elevator and there is a huge bar, and floor to ceiling glass walls offer a great view of home plate from that spot. Nice seating and concession areas add to the ambience.

So that’s about it on Everything Coca Cola Park… now we point the car eastward towards the Big Apple, and tonight we give the final USRT to Shea Stadium and the New York Mets. We’re hooking up with our road trip buds Gary and The King and that is always a hoot!

In the midst of all our ballpark touring and exploring last night was that there was a pretty darned good baseball game on the field as well. And when it was all over, the Buffalo Bisons had themselves a 5-4 win over the Iron Pigs, after having dropped both games of a doubleheader the night before.

Much of Buffalo’s run production came via the long ball, a first inning two run shot by Todd Linden, then Buffalo got the lead for good in the 6th with a two run homer by Jason Cooper.

Matt Ginter got the win for the Herd, but got into a lot of trouble in the fifth inning, even giving up the lead before getting a much needed strikeout with the bases loaded to contain the damage. After the game, Manager Torey Lovullo said “It was that strikeout but it was a lot more tonight. It was that big first inning home run that set the tone, but certainly Matt (Ginter) came up with the big pitches when he needed to.”

With closer Rick Bauer now playing in the bigs, Lovullo is trying different combinations in the late innings to achieve success. Last night, Tom Mastny pitched the 8th with Jeff Stevens pitching the 9th to earn the save. Neither pitcher allowed a runner on base. Said Lovullo, “We’re trying to structure things. Jeff (Stevens) has a great track record as a closer. He’s going to get the bulk of that time in the 9th inning… We like what we see in that role, Mastny in the 8th and Stevens in the 9th.”

We spoke at length with Torey as well as a couple of players about their impressions of Coca Cola Park, and that will be the topic of our next Play Ball column in Artvoice.

It turned out to be an almost 6 hour drive… all of Pennsylvania’s highways are under construction, and rush hour traffic in Allentown is a bi-yutch! But we are at Coca Cola Park, home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and from our first glimpse this is one sweet ballpark!

The Bisons look for their first win against the ‘Pigs on this road trip and it will be Matt Ginter on the mound for the Herd tonight.

We got our creds, a warm welcome from PR guy Dann McGinn, said hi to Bisons voice Ben Wagner, tried the scary “media food” pizza, which just makes us want to light a candle, do a novena and say “thank you” to the chefs in the Dunn Tire Park press room, who we too often take for granted.

Gorgeous night for baseball…. we will have more photos and the full skinny up later.

Tom Griffin, son of the late Mayor James Griffin, throws out the first pitch tonight at Dunn Tire Park

It was a nice ceremony. Short. Poignant.

Tonight at Dunn Tire Park, the Buffalo Bisons honored the memory of Mayor Jimmy Griffin, in the house that he played such a huge part in bringing to fruition back in the 80s.

A short slide show sprinkled with video vignettes, a moment of silence, and then Jimmy’s son throwing out the first pitch. It was moving. It was appropriate. It was done with class.

R.I.P. JDG

“Things aren’t much better in Cleveland”

In this week’s Play Ball, we discuss what’s going wrong with the Bisons parent team. Also some musings on the late Mayor Jimmy Griffin.

Check it out!

Our buddy and fellow free lance sportswriter Mike Haim was covering the Bisons/PawSox game for the Providence Journal on Pawtucket’s recent visit to Dunn Tire Park. Wednesday night’s game, got rained out, and and the headline and byline got mashed together in their paper the next day.

So if Mike can order up rainouts, can locusts and other plagues of Egypt be far behind?

“We [don’t] Love This Team”

In this week’s Play Ball, we delve into the Bisons’ miserable April record.

Check it out!

“Don’t Ask… Don’t Tell”

This week’s “Play Ball”. Check it out!

On Opening Night this past Friday, it was “standing room only” in a packed, and I mean packed, pressbox as the Bisons opened their home season. By Saturday and today, things had settled down to the regulars… On the media side, Mike Harrington from the Buffalo News, Jon Splett from here at WNY Media, Dave Ricci and Mike Haim from Metro Source. In the upper tier… Kevin Lester the official scorer, Jon Dare doing the gamecast on milb.com and PR Director Brad Bisbing.

So as the game wears on, and todays was almost a three hour affair, the discussion in the box usually evolves into other things baseball and other stuff going on around the sports world. Today’s highlights…

–The Yankees have located and unearthed the Red Sox jersey encased in concrete in the new Yankee Stadium. It had been buried there by a construction worker and admitted Sox fan. Criminal charges might be filed against the renegade employee. The jersey will be auctioned and proceeds go to the Jimmy Fund.

–The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs are now 0-11 to start the season. Mike Harrington couldn’t be happier. The organization has made a real mess of things since moving the team from Ottawa after last season. Mike H says an 0-20 start would be a real lesson in humility.

–So when’s a no-hitter NOT a no-hitter. My partner Pete is still yearning to see his first no-no live, and in pressbox tradition, once both teams on the field record their first hits of the day the “see ‘ya tomorrow Farrell” refrain gets called out. So… Brian Slocum pitched five hitless innings for the Herd on Saturday before being pulled, since he was on a strict pitch limit. I’m texting Pete, who was working yesterday, letting him know that the Bisons are 4 innings away and he’s not in the building, at which point the posse chimes in. NO! Slocum is out and so is the no hitter. I argue back… but what about a combined no hitter by the Bisons pitching staff? “Doesn’t count” is the reply.

So I checked the IL information book, which we received with our media pack on Opening Night… the last IL no hitter was by Scranton/WB’s Jeremy Cummings on 9/3/06… Before that, Jason Hammel AND Juan Salas of the Durham Bulls no-hit Columbus on 7/16/06. How ’bout that!

I didn’t touch this one with a ten foot pole today. I will let Pete argue his case with the posse at his next ball game.

–Toreyisms… Win or lose, Manager Torey Lovullo always throws out positives, happy thoughts and sprinkles fairy dust in the air in his postgame comments. Today was no exception, after a 6-4 loss to Toledo, and now the Bisons have lost 5 of their last 6. Said Lovullo “All in all I’m pleased. We just need a break to go our way. We need to get the ball rolling on our side.” Funny thing is… Dave R and Mike H are wizards at nailing just what Torey is going to say before he says it. Today was no exception.

–Someone brought up the topic of serving beer in the pressbox. I think Jon S jumped on that idea (gee how shocking!) At that point I brought up that there was one location in our USRT travels where indeed a beer tap was available to the media in a working press situation: it was Ho-Ho-Kam Park, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs in Mesa Arizona, and yes, all you can drink draft beer was available in the media room, free of charge. “I’ll see what I can do about that here” quipped Brad B, rolling his eyes the whole time. Yeah I won’t hold my breath for that anytime soon, but a dessert tray would be nice (So where has Judy Kelly, wife of alternate Official Scorer Mike Kelly, been anyway? She frequently brought in fresh baked chocolate chip cookies last season.)

–Down in the clubhouse, Mike Haim pointed out that Torey Lovullo was wearing some sort of device that is purportedly recording his own press conferences. Perhaps to better improve his own speaking skills, we wondered? We’ll be paying closer attention to that one to be sure.

Just three home games into the year and already having a blast. Doing the media thing at Bisons games is an awesome environment… great camaraderie among the media folk and the team staff. It’s gonna be a fun summer for sure!