Talking to myself
Sometimes a reporter accumulates an abundance of notes that are too small to make into a story, and sometimes he/she has a opinion or two that are not worth an entire column in print. So what's a reporter to do?
Well, if you have a blog about an independent baseball team and league, then you put those notes and thoughts there and you try to do it in an entertaining manner.
Today, I'll try something different. I'll talk to myself. Or, in other words, I'll interview myself.
Hey, at least it's different.
Here goes:
Q: Chris, do you have any idea if the Frontier League Greys will have a home next year?
Chris: The rumor circulating around the league is that the Greys are headed for Kokomo, Ind. A new ballpark is planned to open in Kokomo in 2015. There is some question as to whether it will be up to Frontier League standards. The capacity is supposed to be 4,000 with 2,350 seats and the rest of the capacity being berm seating. The question is who will own the team? The league runs the Greys, so another owner is needed. I hear current Frontier League owners have a period of time in which they can purchase the Greys at a bargain-basement price, otherwise is will be put on the open market. It seems odd that Kokomo would build a ballpark with a price tag of more than $11 million and not have a professional team as a tenant. Otherwise, that's an expensive high school and American Legion field. Kokomo would fit nicely in the East Division.
Q: Carter Bell has played some spectacular defense at third base for the Wild Things. How does he rank defensively among all Washington third basemen?
Chris: I've said this to several people: Carter Bell is the best defensive third baseman to play for the Wild Things. You don't have to see him play an entire season to come up with that evaluation. He has the strongest arm of anybody has who played the position in Washington and maybe the best hands. The only player who might have come close to Bell's defensive prowess was Pat Peavey, who came to Washington from Double-A ball in 2006. Peavey, however, was a small cut below Bell defensively.
Q: Who would be on your All-Wild Things Defensive Team?
Chris: Some positions are easy, others are very difficult to select only one player. Here goes:
Outfielders -- Chris Sidick, Stewart Ijames and Matt Sutton.
Third base -- Carter Bell.
Shortstop -- Tough call here because Washington has been fortunate to have some very good shortstops. To me, it comes down to A.J. Nunziato or the 2006 version of Brett Grandstrand. Nunziato was so solid that if he briefly bobbled a ball you were surprised. Grandstrand made plays that no other Washington shortstop could make, especially in 2006, when his range was off the charts. He made plays that year that Nunziato would have had no chance of making. But, Nunziato made only 10 errors in two years. Grandstrand committed 18 errors in 2006, so I'll give a slight lean to Nunziato.
Second base -- The 2002 version of Ryan Ellis. Best range of an Washington second baseman and had only five errors.
First base -- Bill Greenwell. Best glove of all Wild Things first basemen and much more athletic than you might recall.
Catcher -- Another tough call as the Wild Things have had at least a half dozen top-shelf defensive catchers. The top two were Shaun Argento (2002) and Randy McGarvey (2004-05). You can make a case, based on the number of no-hitters he caught, that Argento was the best in league history at calling a game. He definitely had the best pickoff throw to first base of all Washington catchers. But for all-around defense, I'll go with McGarvey. He was terrific at blocking balls in the dirt (remember that dirt stuff?) and had the best throwing arm of any Wild Things catcher. He shut down the opponent's running game. So McGarvey gets the nod.
Pitcher -- Justin Hall. When it comes to fielding his position in a game, Hall was an entire level above every other Washington pitcher. When he released a pitch, Hall was always in perfect position to field a ball hit back at him.
Q: Did you think you'd ever see the day that a former Wild Things pitcher beat the Boston Red Sox?
Chris: I guess you're referring to Vidal Nuno getting the win Friday night in the New York Yankees' 6-0 victory over Boston. Nuno started that game and pitched 5 2/3 innings. You probably could have gotten some good odds back in 2002, when Washington joined the Frontier League, on a Wild Things pitcher throwing 5 2/3 shutout innings and getting a win in a Yankees-Red Sox game. It was probably even more stunning that a former Wild Things pitcher was starting a game that had Bob Costas doing the television play-by-play. You had to think that if Bob Costas ever mentioned the Washington Wild Things it was going to be because of an in-game promotion gone horribly wrong.
Q: Are there any former major leaguers currently in the Frontier League?
Chris: Yes, there is. Josh Spence, a left-handed pitcher who was born in Australia and pitched in 51 games for the San Diego Padres over two seasons (2011 and 2012) is trying to rebuild his career by playing for the Windy City ThunderBolts. Spence started this year in Class AAA but is now on his second independent league team. It hasn't been going well in Crestwood, Ill., as Spence has an 0-2 record an 8.31 ERA in two starts.
The MLB-to-Frontier League is a road very seldom traveled. Spence is the sixth player who played in the major leagues and later appeared in a Frontier League game. The others are pitchers Corey Thurman, Billy Petrick, Scott Sobkowiak and Ben Diggins and former AL Rookie of the Year and Wild Things hitting coach Joe Charboneau, who was permitted to take one at-bat in a game with Canton in 2000.
Thurman pitched in 49 major-league games before starting six games for Florence in 2005. One of his starts was a win over the Wild Things. Billy Petrick, who pitched in eight games for the Chicago Cubs in 2007, played for Joliet and beat the Wild Things and Nuno in the 2010 season opener. Sobkowiak pitched the final inning of the final game for Atlanta in 2001 for his only big-league appearance. He pitched for Rockford in 2004.
Q: What do you think of the Frontier League's new playoff format?
Chris: I can give you a three-word answer: I hate it. Just because the major leagues do something doesn't mean it will work in independent ball. The one-game playoff idea is ridiculous. Baseball playoffs are meant to be played as a series, in which a team has to use a variety of starting pitchers. One-game playoffs are high schoolish. Another problem with the four wild cards is they set up scenarios in which teams could go from, for example, Washington to St. Louis multiple times and play only one game in each city each time. Either keep the playoff format at four teams or expand all the way to eight teams.
Well, if you have a blog about an independent baseball team and league, then you put those notes and thoughts there and you try to do it in an entertaining manner.
Today, I'll try something different. I'll talk to myself. Or, in other words, I'll interview myself.
Hey, at least it's different.
Here goes:
Q: Chris, do you have any idea if the Frontier League Greys will have a home next year?
Chris: The rumor circulating around the league is that the Greys are headed for Kokomo, Ind. A new ballpark is planned to open in Kokomo in 2015. There is some question as to whether it will be up to Frontier League standards. The capacity is supposed to be 4,000 with 2,350 seats and the rest of the capacity being berm seating. The question is who will own the team? The league runs the Greys, so another owner is needed. I hear current Frontier League owners have a period of time in which they can purchase the Greys at a bargain-basement price, otherwise is will be put on the open market. It seems odd that Kokomo would build a ballpark with a price tag of more than $11 million and not have a professional team as a tenant. Otherwise, that's an expensive high school and American Legion field. Kokomo would fit nicely in the East Division.
Q: Carter Bell has played some spectacular defense at third base for the Wild Things. How does he rank defensively among all Washington third basemen?
Chris: I've said this to several people: Carter Bell is the best defensive third baseman to play for the Wild Things. You don't have to see him play an entire season to come up with that evaluation. He has the strongest arm of anybody has who played the position in Washington and maybe the best hands. The only player who might have come close to Bell's defensive prowess was Pat Peavey, who came to Washington from Double-A ball in 2006. Peavey, however, was a small cut below Bell defensively.
Q: Who would be on your All-Wild Things Defensive Team?
Chris: Some positions are easy, others are very difficult to select only one player. Here goes:
Outfielders -- Chris Sidick, Stewart Ijames and Matt Sutton.
Third base -- Carter Bell.
Shortstop -- Tough call here because Washington has been fortunate to have some very good shortstops. To me, it comes down to A.J. Nunziato or the 2006 version of Brett Grandstrand. Nunziato was so solid that if he briefly bobbled a ball you were surprised. Grandstrand made plays that no other Washington shortstop could make, especially in 2006, when his range was off the charts. He made plays that year that Nunziato would have had no chance of making. But, Nunziato made only 10 errors in two years. Grandstrand committed 18 errors in 2006, so I'll give a slight lean to Nunziato.
Second base -- The 2002 version of Ryan Ellis. Best range of an Washington second baseman and had only five errors.
First base -- Bill Greenwell. Best glove of all Wild Things first basemen and much more athletic than you might recall.
Catcher -- Another tough call as the Wild Things have had at least a half dozen top-shelf defensive catchers. The top two were Shaun Argento (2002) and Randy McGarvey (2004-05). You can make a case, based on the number of no-hitters he caught, that Argento was the best in league history at calling a game. He definitely had the best pickoff throw to first base of all Washington catchers. But for all-around defense, I'll go with McGarvey. He was terrific at blocking balls in the dirt (remember that dirt stuff?) and had the best throwing arm of any Wild Things catcher. He shut down the opponent's running game. So McGarvey gets the nod.
Pitcher -- Justin Hall. When it comes to fielding his position in a game, Hall was an entire level above every other Washington pitcher. When he released a pitch, Hall was always in perfect position to field a ball hit back at him.
Q: Did you think you'd ever see the day that a former Wild Things pitcher beat the Boston Red Sox?
Chris: I guess you're referring to Vidal Nuno getting the win Friday night in the New York Yankees' 6-0 victory over Boston. Nuno started that game and pitched 5 2/3 innings. You probably could have gotten some good odds back in 2002, when Washington joined the Frontier League, on a Wild Things pitcher throwing 5 2/3 shutout innings and getting a win in a Yankees-Red Sox game. It was probably even more stunning that a former Wild Things pitcher was starting a game that had Bob Costas doing the television play-by-play. You had to think that if Bob Costas ever mentioned the Washington Wild Things it was going to be because of an in-game promotion gone horribly wrong.
Q: Are there any former major leaguers currently in the Frontier League?
Chris: Yes, there is. Josh Spence, a left-handed pitcher who was born in Australia and pitched in 51 games for the San Diego Padres over two seasons (2011 and 2012) is trying to rebuild his career by playing for the Windy City ThunderBolts. Spence started this year in Class AAA but is now on his second independent league team. It hasn't been going well in Crestwood, Ill., as Spence has an 0-2 record an 8.31 ERA in two starts.
The MLB-to-Frontier League is a road very seldom traveled. Spence is the sixth player who played in the major leagues and later appeared in a Frontier League game. The others are pitchers Corey Thurman, Billy Petrick, Scott Sobkowiak and Ben Diggins and former AL Rookie of the Year and Wild Things hitting coach Joe Charboneau, who was permitted to take one at-bat in a game with Canton in 2000.
Thurman pitched in 49 major-league games before starting six games for Florence in 2005. One of his starts was a win over the Wild Things. Billy Petrick, who pitched in eight games for the Chicago Cubs in 2007, played for Joliet and beat the Wild Things and Nuno in the 2010 season opener. Sobkowiak pitched the final inning of the final game for Atlanta in 2001 for his only big-league appearance. He pitched for Rockford in 2004.
Q: What do you think of the Frontier League's new playoff format?
Chris: I can give you a three-word answer: I hate it. Just because the major leagues do something doesn't mean it will work in independent ball. The one-game playoff idea is ridiculous. Baseball playoffs are meant to be played as a series, in which a team has to use a variety of starting pitchers. One-game playoffs are high schoolish. Another problem with the four wild cards is they set up scenarios in which teams could go from, for example, Washington to St. Louis multiple times and play only one game in each city each time. Either keep the playoff format at four teams or expand all the way to eight teams.
posted by Chris Dugan at
7:44 AM
14 Comments:
Once again Chris, thanks for your time and energy for supplying the Wild Things fans with insight and info.
Very nice Chris however, I give Brett Grandstrand the higher ranking at shortstop and he's a great kid....still!
Disa Pointed talking to himself.
Q-How long do you think the Wild Things will remain in Washington?
Disa Pointed-Although they average 1913/game, the actual attendence is closer to 1000. Even if the ticket sales revenue is 1913, they are only getting half the total revenue including parking, concessions and other sales which makes it easier to conclude they may only be in Washington another year or two.
Q-What has lead to the attendence decline of over 50% over the first 4 or 5 years in the league.
Disa Pointed-The newer management (Mr. and Mrs. Stew and Steve) are not nearly visible and interact with the fans like John and Ross did. Also the winning by the Pirates has led to the decline.
Q-Isn't the price of attending a Wild Things game much more economical than a Pirates game?
Disa Pointed-Yes it is cheaper to attend a Wild Things game, but if you compare the quality of play, the price of attending a Pirates game is a bargain compared to attending a Wild Things game.
Apparently, Disa Pointed hasn't paid to go to a Pirates game since they were in Forbes Field. he probably hasn't seen the $12 to $33 parking lots, the $40+ box seat tickets and the $12 burgers, the $9 milkshakes, and $9 draft beers.
The problem with the Wild Things attendance must be in the tickets office. I bet all the people who sold tickets, brought in large groups and filled the place years ago are long gone and off to better jobs.
Apparently annonymous has a lot of money to spend at Pirate games getting the best of everything.
I don't buy milkshakes, beer and do not get box seats.
Yes, I have attended Pirate games at Forbes Field, Three Rivers, and PNC park. Note, I do not park in the stadium lots!
I also do not purchase the most expensive seats, beer, or other pricy items at Stu' stadium.
Also in the past, at times you had trouble getting a Wild Things ticket. Now I can't give one away!
In any case, the Pirates are a better value for your money.
PNC Park is worth the ticket price itself even if you don't pay attention to the game.
Prices in everything have gone up at the WT from tix to food as many have said here. And I have paid for $5 parking in Downtown for a pirates game, but im expected to pay that at the WT?...Yes i can still buy a $5 tix at the WT but im not going to overpay for food cooked 3 hour ago and stored in a warmer, but thats not helping getting first time customers back.
The beginning group went through the honeymoon period when everyone wanted to go. Those kids in the ticket office make phone calls all day every day plus work weekends and game..they try to pitch to large groups but if the people they call go to kennywood, or the pirates because they are good now, or don't have $ to provide their clients entertainment, what can the ticket reps do? If there is no marketing to get the word out or keep the WT relevant it makes their jobs harder to sell because people don't realize they are still there....so i wouldnt blame the ticket office i'd blame the ownership in their overall strategy and management of all the multiple working parts that go into making good organizations run for 15 + seasons
As usual, Jeff can always be counted on to do some sucking up.
Most people I talk to are not willing to attend a game for two reasons. Concession prices are too high and the arrogance of Steve Z and the Williams family. That fact by itself has driven away more than a few season ticket holders. Also, consider the number od season ticket holders that only show up once every week, or so. That speaks volumes all by itself
The price of a bottle of cold water at $3.50 exceeds the cost of an entire case of 24 bottles at any local supermarket. I know all about the concession prices at MLB ballparks but, as Chris stated, you are at least watching good quality baseball. No matter how much the WT unofficial apologist Jeff tries to convince us otherwise, Frontier League baseball, the WT in particular, is NOT good quality baseball. Combine these three things, 1. Poor quality baseball, 2. Too high prices for concessions, and 3. The arrogant, self righteous attitude of Steve Z and Stu Williams and it all adds up to a massive collapse of this organization. They alone are responsible for their own demise. They are now starting to reap exactly what they have sown.
BTW: I've felt for some time that Stu is just using the WT as some sort of a tax write-off. You never can tell what an attorney is up to.
Seriously? Have you even been to a Pirates game?
Do they even serve milkshakes at the Pirates games? If they do, why is that your first option? Why do you need a milkshake and a beer to wash down a burger? I know nothing goes better with sitting in the sun for three hours and not moving like a milkshake. Mmmmm.
$40+ for a ticket? I mean, yes if you want to sit right behind home plate and high five Bob Nutting. Personally, I'd get seats on the outfield wall or sit in the best upper deck in baseball. It's not your TV, but you're still very close to the action.
Also, is the demand at PNC Park so high that the market for milkshakes and beer is the same? Was it like that at Forbes Field? I was never there, but then again I'm also under the age of 44... which is how many years ago the Pirates actually played there.
Parking downtown is $5. Five bucks! Get there early and grab a nice dinner somewhere. Walk across the bridge. Enjoy the night.
If you need any other tips on getting out of your house and actually doing something, please let me know. You can thank me later, Gilmore. *Single pistol*
Shooter McGavin
Oh the problem with the Wild Things is 1000% Stu and Steve. Pair of clowns. Take it easy ya'll.
Went to the double header Wednesday night. The attendance was pathetic. Announced figure was 1099 but I doubt if there was more than 900 people in the house.
I also doubt that the 4th of July vacation week has much to do with such a poor showing. With the team playing fairly well, what can the problem be? Stu Williams just has to be losing his shirt. I can't see how he can even afford to turn on the lights.
Can't help but notice that Ross Vecchio has been in the park several times recently. Could it be that Ross will be called in to save the Wild Things before they go belly-up?
If anybody could do it, it would be Ross. What the Wild Things are doing now sure isn't working too well, is it? So, what could they possibly lose by rehiring him?
Anybody have any thoughts about what's wrong at CEP?
Ima Fraid
If you're complaining about parking prices, park at Pappy's Pub and walk to the park. It's free and a much shorter walk from downtown Pittsburgh to PNC Park.
No, Ross was working as a scout for the Seattle Mariners.
If I were employed by the Wild Things, I'd be earnestly seeking a new job before the place just plain falls down of it's own weight. Steve Z has absolutely no clue, that is as obvious as the nose on your face. Stu really screwed up when he placed his faith in this man. What the hell was he thinking? I heard Stu gave Steve a piece of the action. Well, a piece of nothing is still nothing.
Nobody shows up for a double header? How can that be?
Giving away ticket vouchers to people leaving the ballpark? What the hell is that all about? How about the people that have season tickets? Are they just chopped liver? That's just not morally right to screw them over by giving tickets away to people that really don't care about the team.
Somebody said something about paying five bucks to watch the Wild Things? Why? Is that the GA price? It doesn't make any difference how much you pay for a ticket because you can still sit anywhere you damn well please, even the best box seats. Nobody ever questions you about it. Last year I paid for GA about ten times and sat in a good box seat - nobody cared. Why don't the Wild Things just sell all seats for same price and seating could be on a first come basis. So, somebody might get punched in the nose. The team is screwing people that pay for box seats and still allowing GA ticket buyers to sit in a box seat so why not just let seating just be a free for all sort of thing.
Time to get out the life rafts on the good ship USS Stu and Steve because this ship is damaged beyond repair.
I remember that this same thing about people sitting wherever they wanted to was discussed on this blog last year. It doesn't do any good to rehash it now, at least IMHO.
On another subject; I swear that there were more employees than fans at last nights game. The place was nothing short of being almost empty. You could just feel the emptiness. It was a feeling I've never experienced at a baseball game.
Ima Fraid
Pretty funny how the talk now is no longer about the performance of the team by a couple of so called fans, and now shifted to food, ticket prices, parking, ownership, etc. there is no denying that this is a very solid team this 2014 season, and a playoff
contender! Go Wild!!!!
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