School Tripping at the Ballpark

Last week, I attended back-to back-to-back day games marketed to school groups. All three contests were entertaining but I am sure that many of the young people will remember nothing that happened on the field. My first professional baseball game was a trip to Shea Stadium and I do not recall a single thing about the day; who else went, the bus ride there and back, the game itself. I don't fault my younger self or any of the kids who had a similar experience last week. So much excitement and nobody said there would be a quiz later.

first pitch in Reading

The folks in group sales did their jobs but once the tickets were sold, only the Reading Fightin Phils took the promotion seriously, on this occasion, "STEM Day."

(I was eating a hamburger in the plaza but could hear someone asking young people questions. If the diameter of a circle of 12, what is the radius? What are the three states of matter?)

FirstEnergy Stadium (PDF) is an outstanding ballpark so I wasn't surprised that they made this meaningful. Last Tuesday was my third visit to the ballpark and maybe the three-hour drive explains why I haven't gone more often, despite always enjoying myself very much.

(Since today is Memorial Day, I will be sure to note that the field opened in 1951 as Municipal Memorial Stadium, one of the many structures built across America to honor those fallen in World War II while also serving a civic function.)

I went this year because the visiting team was the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the Double-A affiliate of the ("my," if you're that kind of fan) New York Mets. Brandon Sproat — a second round draft pick last year and the Mets #13 prospect — went seven innings and struck out nine while walking only one. Sproat also gave up three solo shots, including consecutive dingers in the fifth, the second on the first pitch. However, it looked like he was told to go deep because the bullpen was quiet when he took the mound in the sixth.

I saw four more Mets prospects; Ryan Clifford (MLB #77, Mets #4), Kevin Parada (Mets #9, one-for-three with two RBI), Alex Ramirez (#16, two-for four with an RBI), and as the DH, "two-way" player Nolan McLean (#19, also two-for four with an RBI). I saw McLean pitch in Brooklyn in mid-April and this was in his first game at Double-A. Called up at the same time was Omar De Los Santos, whose batting average has declined over his five years in the minors and may need to settle for a situational role as a pinch runner. He came in for McLean in the eighth, stole both second and third, but the Ponies couldn't capitalize on his speed.

Reading tied the game at five-apiece in the bottom of the eight but in the final frame, Binghamton catcher Wyatt Young got hit by a pitch, advanced on a walk and a wild pitch, then scored on a sac fly by Ramirez for the 6-5 victory.

As the previous three paragraphs reveal, a big motivation for my trip was seeing Mets farm hands. A second motivation, perhaps even the primary one, was vacuuming up Atlas Obscura sites for my "Been Here" list. I hit three locations on my way to Reading and another seven on the post-game drive to Scranton-Wilkes Barre, including an odd memorial to the 32nd president of the United States.

FDR was the 32nd president of the USA

In Scranton, I saw the SWB Railriders take on the Syracuse Mets, the Triple-A affiliates of New York City's major league ball clubs. If you find pitching duels boring, this was a game for you, with both teams enjoying a couple of big innings. Unfortunately for the Mets fans, the home team put up a four-spot in the bottom of the ninth, with one home run to tie the game and another for the walk-off win, 12-10.

Joey Lucchesi, who is 5-5 in 18 starts since coming to the Mets in 2021 (3.93 ERA, 1.287 WHIP), hasn't fared better back in the minors. In his eighth start this season, Lucchesi gave up 10 hits and seven earned runs in 4.2 innings. Luisangel Acuña was the only Mets prospect (MLB #79, Mets #5) to play on Wednesday. Acuña went two-for-five, scoring both times and earning an RBI in the four-run fifth inning, when the outcome seemed rosier.

A front row seat behind home plate, a score card and a collared shirt with the Mets logo was enough for several people to assume that I was associated with the organization. I was asked to account for veteran outfielder Ben Gamel — A: on the seven-day IL — and explain why the Mets haven't called up veteran shortstop Jose Iglesias when he is mashing it at Triple-A and Francisco Lindor — you know, the guy with the 10-year, $341 million contract — continues to struggle.

Before the game, I toured the Scranton Iron Furnaces —

looking down the length of the rear of the furnaces

... and the smaller (!) of the two Olde Good Things warehouses. I crashed out after the game — Tuesday's schedule was aggressive, as was the sun during Wednesday's game — but still had time to get to Nay Aug Park in the evening. Thirteen Atlas Obscura pins over three days wasn't a bounty but satisfying nonetheless. I put minimal planning into dining on this trip and City Pizza & Mexican Food, three weeks new, made me very happy and provided the ballast necessary for an indulgence with this year's Double Nugget from Trōegs.

It started to pour shortly after I got back to the motel and continued raining hard into the morning, making the first half of the drive to Philadelphia a test. Thursday's game against the Texas Rangers was "Weather Education Day" but whatever education was to be had required a special ticket and an early arrival. I found one of the souvenir rally towels and used it to keep my score card dry until the sun came out in the fourth inning.

weather education: if it rains hard all night, the start of the game will probably be delayed (40 minutes, to be precise) 

Former Met Zack Wheeler was the player of the game, earning his sixth win in 11 starts (three loses) with six innings of solid work and a bumpy seventh. In comparison, the Rangers called on four pitchers, none of whom lasted more than 3.1 innings. The 5-2 victory was the Phillies sixth win in a row and their seventh sweep of the season. It's still early in the season but "juggernaut," always a fun word, comes to mind.

During last week's games in Pennsylvania, I heard several kids proclaim that it was their first trip to a professional baseball game. I have tried to determine what game I saw at Shea back in the seventh grade, even writing to the current superintendent of schools.

(I was hoping that the minutes of the student government — I went to the game as my home room representative — had been archived. Or, since I am old enough to have had teachers who would threaten that some infraction would become a part of my "permanent record," I thought there just might be such a file, containing my parents' authorization to take a field trip. The date may be researchable but district office staff wasn't going to dig for it — it's hardly a priority — nor was the superintendent going to allow me to hunt through files myself.)

It would have been a weekday day game in either May or June and while several websites list game-by-game statistics, I have yet to find one that includes time of game, which would greatly narrow down the possibilities. (As I write this, another approach occurs to me; I haven't given up yet.) My first game came a couple of decades before the rise of the global internet. Should any of the students who attended their first professional baseball game last Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday want to look up when they went, who they saw and much, much more, they will find that information more readily available to them. They might even stumble across this.