I am so sick of beef jerky and granola bars. Seriously, you have no idea.
- Two common billboards that adorn the highway in New Mexico are those that sell fireworks and those that preach abstinence. There is a joke here somewhere.
- The aunt of Khalil Greene’s wife works at a bank in Amarillo. She was very helpful.
- Oklahoma is nice, but how many Arapaho words for “flat” do you suppose there are?
Day 1 of the Ducksnorts World Tour got off to a shaky start. I forgot that Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings, got caught in a few nasty thunderstorms between Phoenix and Winslow, and then spent 40 minutes driving around parts of Albuquerque that — although quite “interesting” — did not contain a baseball stadium.
I eventually found the stadium — it was less than a mile from my hotel room (guess I should’ve gone there first) — but by then the game was nearly over and, after 16 hours of driving, I was in no mood to do anything. Still, I managed to catch a few innings of an Arizona League game that morning in Surprise, so all was not lost.
Day 2 went much better. I fired up some Jimmy Eat World and followed my very simple driving directions for the day — get on I-40 east and drive 542 miles till I’m in Oklahoma City and I see a ballpark.
Watched most of the game between the Oklahoma RedHawks and Portland Beavers. Saw many familiar faces on both teams — Freddy Guzman plays for the RedHawks. Couldn’t tell you much about the game itself; I know the Beavers gave up a few homers, but mostly I was just looking around at stuff and taking in the atmosphere (everybody sang Rodgers and Hammerstein in the middle of the fifth — very odd).
More to tell, but time is limited. Wednesday’s drive, to Knoxville, Tenn., is brought to you by current or former Padres who were born in those fine cities:
- Dusty Allen
- Joe Carter
- Bubba Trammell
Should be fun, just me and 870 miles of highway. And beef jerky and granola bars…
Mickey Mantle is one of many Oklahoma natives honored at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.
Padres Prospect Report
You will not see the Padres at the bottom of an organizational ranking list. Last year’s number one (Cedric Hunter) is struggling yet we barely notice because of the talent doing well…
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
AAA
No significant performances…
AA
Postponed…
High-A
Robert Perry: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 0 RBI; 2B, BB
Kyle Blanks: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR
Low-A
Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO – .270/.327/.341
Short Season-A
Yefri Carvajal: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR, 2 SO – Eugene debut
Mat Latos: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR
Rookie
Brad Chalk: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
Felix Carrasco: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2 BB, SO
Commentary:
Nothing to say…
Oh man! I can’t wait to get to Cooperstown!!
I’m glad you got to see the Bricktown Ballpark last night, Geoff. What did you think about the place? I’m heading there tonight, myself.
And yes, western Oklahoma is flat. You’re not going to find much of interest on I-40 west of Oklahoma City. Or east of Oklahoma City. Or if you went North of Oklahoma City……you get the picture.
And the state song, it’s truly loved by most Oklahomans around here. It may seem odd to someone not from the area to hear a Broadway song played at a Baseball game, but once you’ve been to a few Oklahoma sporting events including an OU football game, you’ll get used to it.
That’s so random that you met Khalil’s wife’s aunt. Very bizarre.
And, for those that are interested. Here’s my proposal for a group meeting at Cooperstown:
Ok, so here’s the plan:
We have three of the frighteningly awful orange beach towels from 2005 that have all of the different jerseys from over the years on it. Once we’re in the region, we’ll go to Walmart and either pick up PVC or some kind of posts. We’ll figure out a way to get these suckers up, but essentially, we’ll have three bright orange beach towels to mark off our spot. I think we’ll stake off territory about halfway up the hill. This will give us a good vantage point and it should also provide us some decent gathering space.
So there’s the plan. We’re still gonna get there around 6. My entire family will be wearing the retro TG visors they gave out on Friday nite. I’ll be wearing a white “Tribute to Tony” shirt. Feel free to stop by and say hey at any point. I’ll see if I can snag some of our Ducksnorts buttons to put them on the towels.
Jimmy Eat World? How many teenage girls do you have in your car?
4: Oh man, you’re trying to ATTRACT people with those towels? Good luck with that.