My first visit to the ball park tonight. Heretofore, if I wanted to go, I went to the Smets website on my home computer, clicked on "get tickets", selected my seat for a map, (good practice for SU), pressed the button to pay for it, got an E-Mail with a link back to the website to press a print button and got a paper ticket. Then to the car and off I go. Today, I got referred to the MiLB app on my phone. I had to look up the password, which the app did not accept. I then clicked on "forgot your password? (no- you forgot it!), and set up a new password. I had to type it and my E-mail address, (multiple times), on the tiny keyboard on my phone rather than on the full-size keyboard on my home computer. I then tried to download the ticket to the phone and got a message "This ticket cannot be viewed or printed in this application. Please go to the box office or contact customer service for more information." I drove to the ballpark without a ticket, even though I'd paid for it. At the ticket window, the lady there didn't believe that I couldn't print out the ticket at home. Her supervisor said that, (in mid-season), they'd decided not allow that any more. He couldn't believe my phone app couldn't download it. He gave me an old-fashioned paper ticket and I went through security and was allowed into the stadium.
Despite the hassles, It's always a big moment of the year when I settle into my seat at the ball park with a coke and one of those chicken tender baskets for the first time each year. Winter is finally over!
I wondered about an ad on a section of the right field fence that was a couple feet high and just said WET BASEMENTS! without telling us what to do about them. There were a couple of tiny, unreadable logos to either side of it. The top 75% of the section was empty: maybe they didn't have enough money to pay for a full-size ad due to their wet basements. It was fun watching the kids play, tumbling down the fake lawns on either side of the field and to walk around the park, seeing the game from various angles.
The Smets got clobbered 4-10 but it was a fun game to watch anyway. It was Syracuse bloopers vs. Iowa ropes and homers. Brennan Davis of the Cubs hit a ball off the top of the scoreboard that was estimated at 430 feet. BJ Murray hit two shots to right field. There was a play in the second inning that confused me. David Bote of the Cubs hit a screaming triple to right. Syracuse's Ben Gamel slammed into the wall trying to catch it and was on the ground for several seconds. A Syracuse player ran into the area, grabbed the ball and uncorked a 300+ foot strike to home plate that drew oohs and aahs and held a runner on third. I had the transistor radio on and I thought they said this was Acuna, who I therefore thought was in center field. But he was our second baseman. Trace Thompson was our center fielder. Their names are not similar. It could be that Acuna ran to right field from second base to make that play.
Acuna's not hitting much, (.226: he'd fit in well with the big league club, where everyone is hitting that). They say he's a sucker for the low and outside pitch, (how often are you going to hit that hard and fair?) But he's Flash on the basepaths. He stole second and a hurried throw wound up in center field and Acuna wound up at third. He beat out a ground ball, forcing a wild throw late in the game. The radio guy said that he turns the other team into a T-ball defense with his speed. He's an exciting guy with great genes who still has to learn to hit.