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This
past weekend, I made my first baseball pilgrimage. Before
this trip, I had only seen games at two ballparks—Fenway
Park and McCoy Stadium (home of the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox
in Rhode Island). I was about to add The Sandcastle in Atlantic
City to my list.
Two
of my favorite players growing up were Pete Incaviglia and
Mitch Williams. Both were members of the Texas Rangers in
the late 1980s. I was just getting into baseball right about
then and chose to like the Texas Rangers for some unknown
reason. I just seemed to like some of their players, I suppose.
Before the 1993 season I noticed that it seemed the Philadelphia
Phillies were stockpiling many of my favorite players. Inky
and Mitch were included in this group. I then decided to
follow the Phillies. And as we all know, that was a magical
year.
This
season, Mitch Williams was named manager of the Atlantic
City Surf of the Independent Atlantic League. In the second
half of the season, the Surf hired Pete Incaviglia to be
the hitting coach and designated hitter. With two of my
favorite players together on the same team, I decided it
was time to head down to Atlantic City and seem take on
the Camden River Sharks. We decided to drive to this past
Saturday’s game, which would be the second to last
game of the season.
After
running some errands, my wife Erin and I left Fall River,
MA shortly after nine o’clock. We didn’t hit
much traffic at all and arrived in Atlantic City a mere
five and a half hours later. It was only 2:30 and game time
was 7:05, so we had some time to kill in Atlantic City.
We found a casino parking lot and dropped the car off for
two bucks. We headed down to the famed boardwalk.
Um,
why do people talk longingly about this place? The boardwalk
reminded me a great deal of the Carribbean Islands I’ve
been lucky enough to visit—nothing but 4 for $10 tee
shirts and 75 cent hot dogs. We ate at the Hard Rock Café
and decided to head back to the casino. The highlight of
the boardwalk stroll was the one-man-band starting to perform
as we left. Back at the casino, we did our best “big
spender” impressions before heading to the ballpark.
The
stadium of the Atlantic City Surf, the Sandcastle, was a
small, but great-looking park just off of Atlantic Ave.
The park was built before the Surf moved in before the 1998
season (that was the first season of the Atlantic League).
We had to wait until the doors opened at 6:05. Upon heading
into the stadium, we headed to the Surf Store. I picked
up a Mitch Williams bobblehead and a Surf t-shirt that said
“Wild Thing 99” on the back (for Mitch, of course).
We also received a free poster and water bottle at the door.
Before
the game, I waited by the clubhouse tunnel and saw the players
file in one-by one. Among the first to emerge was Mitch
Williams. He signed a few autographs but became visibly
annoyed when the same adults kept asking for his autograph.
He signed sporadically for kids here and there, but always
seemed to turn his back when he got to me. Either he was
not signing for adults at all, was miffed by my 1993 World
Series shirt (bad memories?), or is now blind in one eye.
My
main concern was the fact that Pete Incaviglia never came
out. Then the lineups were announced. Inky has been hitting
third and DH-ing. He was not announced. He had not played
the night before (right after the Surf clinched their playoff
berth), so I have the feeling he may have gone home before
the playoffs started. So, my number only reason to go was
to see Inky and Mitch… and both had resulted in varying
degrees of disappointment.
There
was some minor redemption as far as the lineups go…
batting cleanup and catching for the visiting River Cats
was former Red Sox catcher Creighton Gubanich. I was a fan
of Goober when he was with the Sox, so it was nice to see
him again.
As
far as the quality of play is concerned, yuck. I see four
major facets of baseball—hitting, pitching, fielding,
and intangibles. All these guys could do was hit. I saw
a few home runs, but many bad pitches, fielding mistakes
(and all-around-laziness), botched bunts, pickoffs, etc.
The most exciting player was Garry Lee Maddox, son of former
Phillie Gary Maddox. He was quick and could hit. He was
exciting to watch.
Well,
since there wasn’t too much else to watch the game
for, we left after five innings. The Surf had just taken
a 6–5 lead. We had a 5 1/2 hour ride ahead of us (which
turned into 6 1/2 due to some unexpected construction in
Connecticut). We got home at four o’clock Sunday morning
and collapsed in bed.
All
in all, it was a fun journey. It was good to see Mitch (I
took some pictures, too). It would have been much better
if Inky was there, but that’s life. The casino was
an experience, as well as the boardwalk. The game was entertaining
(they have crazy mascots in independent leagues!). But above
all, I’ve now been to a major league park, a minor
league park, and an independent league park. If Inky decides
to play next season, rest assured I’ll catch him again.
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