“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!

“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.

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!

That being the Buffalo Bisons, who are in Buffalo for a couple days to get settled, hold practices, and then hit the road to open the regular season this Thursday. The Bisons will play four at Norfolk and then four more at Richmond before their home opener on Friday, April 11 at 6:05PM at Dunn Tire Park against the Toledo Mud Hens.

Aaron Laffey has been named the Opening Day starter by Manager Torey Lovullo. And why not? Laffey was 6-0 for the Herd last season with a 0.87 ERA before his call up to Cleveland, and on most teams he would already be on a major league roster. Lovullo is still tweaking his hitting lineup in preparation for Thursday, but the deep outfield will include last year’s MVP Ben Francisco, Jason Cooper returning, and also newcomer Jason Tyner, who was with the Bisons in 2004 for their championship run.

The popular Fridaynightbash parties will be moved to the plaza in front of Dunn Tire Park this season, so that even fans without a ticket can take part in the festivities, reports Brad Bisbing, PR Director for the team. (Side note here - that it took so long for the Bisons upper management to recognize Brad and give him the appropriate job title for the hard work he does is outrageous. Better late than never I guess.)

Brad and other Bisons front office staffers spent a few days in the new home for Rich Baseball’s AA baseball affiliate, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, who have moved from Wichita and are opening a new ballpark there. “The new ballpark is awesome” said Bisbing. “The community there is so pumped about their new team.”

It was such a neat feeling just being back at the ballpark, seeing the players do their warmups, reconnecting with the team and seeing fellow media guys who also took part in the happenings. Dave Ricci who reports for Sports and Leisure and MLB.com, among other assignments, will be covering the team, and Jon Splett at our sister site Buffalo Baseball Blog here at WNYMedia, will be doing his excellent season long coverage. Both guys were there tonight and are primed for the season.

Pete and I will be doing our regular column for Artvoice, “Play Ball”, which debuted in last week’s edition, and will be at the ballpark all season long. If you’re at a Bisons game this season, you know where to find us!!

No we did not park in (Cleveland Indians Media Director) Bart Swain’s space. And rather than Bart being Bart, the Indians media office was actually very nice to us, welcoming us to Winter Haven and writing us media passes on the spot even though Geoff Kelly’s fax from the Artvoice office was nowhere to be found.

Today we headed to Winter Haven, home of the Cleveland Indians, to have one more look at a ballpark and training complex thatwill soon be no more. The Indians are moving to Arizona after this season, and looks now that this facility will be razed and condos and shopping will take its place. In a way that’s too bad, because this is one of the last throwback ballparks down here in Florida, but one by one places like this are giving way to glitzy and glamorous new ballparks with all the bells and whistles.

We ran into Jim Rosenhaus, former Bisons play by play guy who now is part of the Indians broadcast crew. Rosie was his usual nice self and hung out with us for a while to talk about the final days here in Winter Haven, and asked about a lot of people back in Buffalo. Man we miss this guy! But we are happy he is doing so well in his job here in Cleveland.

On to the game we saw… Jake Westbrook was on the mound for the Tribe, and was absolutely filthy, throwing six perfect innings on only 65 pitches. The perfect game was finally broken up in the 7th when reliever Jorge Julio gave up a rope double to Atlanta’s Chipper Jones with two outs. By then it was 7-0 Cleveland and they would go on to win 8-0.

So a question… had the Indians gone on to record a combined no-hitter or perfect game, would this have counted towards Peter’s quest to see a no-hitter in person, a yet unfulfilled dream? We text messaged the Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington, who is the ultimate authority on these things, and Mike quickly responded with an emphatic “NO!”. At the end of the day, practice baseball is still practice baseball.

We booked out of Winter Haven after the 7th inning stretch (thankfully just Take Me Out To The Ballgame and none of that Dead Fat Woman’s Song,) and made the 15 mile drive west to Lakeland. Why, you wonder? The Bisons were there to play the Toledo Mud Hens, and we arrived just in time to see the Herd record their final two outs in a 6-2 win. So we chatted a bit with Manager Torey Lovullo (interesting how the team takes the bus back to camp but Torey drives in his own car), got a few comments which will be part of a special “Play Ball” column in this week’s Artvoice, and headed back to Orlando.

Tomorrow it’s Brighthouse Networks Field in Clearwater, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, as the USRT Florida adventure continues.

The main walkway outside Chain of Lakes Park

A full house on hand… just two more games to go for this ballpark after this one

The Bisons, meanwhile, play their games on a practice field, with just a handful of die hards looking on… this pic taken at the Tigers facility in Lakeland

Talking baseball with Bisons skipper Torey Lovullo down in Lakeland

Last week’s announcement by the Buffalo Bisons that Torey Lovullo would be returning in 2008 for his third season as the Herd’s Manager made me very happy, but also came the realization that his time in Buffalo might soon be coming to an end.

Make no mistake, Torey is a great guy, and covering the team in the media becomes so much easier because this man always welcomes you into his office as on old friend, readily makes himself available for interviews and comments, and his love for the game and his role in it rubs off on anyone who gets the chance to get close to him. If there is one annoying thing about him, it is that he too joyous and positive. He never rebukes or calls out one of his players publicly after a subpar performance. He will always put a positive spin on the worst scenarios. I can only guess that he’s got be the world’s greatest dad, greatest husband and someone’s greatest best friend.

Take a look at Torey’s managerial statistics; he has enjoyed success at every level of the Cleveland chain, and has won championships at the A and AA level. His name was even kicked about this year for the Manager’s position in Pittsburgh.

Lovullo’s Managerial Statistics
2002 Columbus 79-60
2003 Kinston 73-66
2004 Kinston 88-50
2005 Akron 84-58
2006 Buffalo 73-68
2007 Buffalo 75-67
Total 472-369 (.561)

But while he produced winning seasons in Buffalo, both in 2006 and 2007 the team failed to make the International League playoffs, a dubious streak unprecedented in the Buffalo-Cleveland relationship. During both seasons weird things happened in terms of injuries, callups, orders from the parent to play certain players, etc. which conspired to sabotage the team’s fortunes, but realize too that every AAA team that the Bisons face have quirky parent clubs and their own issues. When push came to shove, Buffalo didn’t get it done, and Dunn Tire Park has been dark post Labor Day now two years running.

So what will 2008 bring? Swirling around in the background is the possibility that this will be Cleveland’s last year with the Herd. Now under construction in downtown Columbus’ Arena District is the Columbus Clippers new ballpark, Huntington Park, set to open in 2009. Cleveland already has minor league affiliates in Akron and Lake County, and would covet the sizable Columbus market and the fan base they could grow there, as well as the buildout of a regional sports cable channel.

I’m assuming that the Bisons will make a full press to keep the Indians here… right from the Bob Richs on down the team has worked hard to cement personal relationships with the parent team, and have been proactive in spending on capital improvements to player facilities at the ballpark to keep the Indians happy.

We should get an indication early on what the Indian’s intentions are… if the team sucks and nobody gives a damn, you’ll know they are out of here (think 1994 with the Pirates, the worst stinkeroo season ever at the downtown ballpark).

Meanwhile, we all wish Torey Lovullo well - he has always been a fan favorite both as player in the 90s and as a manager. I am hoping he holds HIMSELF up to the highest standard in what could be an awkward and difficult year in Buffalo.