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Ballpark Digest is coming to West End Field!

We're coming to Greenville on Tuesday! NEW!

Posted April 24, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)

To all the kind Greenville folks who took the time to write us with invitations and travel suggestions, here an update: we'll be in Greenville on Tuesday to take in the new West End Stadium, the home of the Greenville Drive (Class A; Sally League) Feel free to drop us a line about the visit; if enough people respond we'll try to set up some sort of meeting at the ballpark.

http://www.ballparkdigest.com/

For those that don't know, Ballpark Digest visiting your ballpark is the equivalent of a New York Times book reviewer reading your book or restaurant reviewer coming to your restaurant.

It's an incredible website devoted to all major, minor and major college baseball parks. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you could lose hours on their site just checking it out.

The address of the guy coming to the Drive game is: [email protected]

Drop him a line and tell him some things to look for. Or better yet, if you're planning on going to the game, try to set up a meeting. I can't go Tuesday night, but I'm sure someone here will be able to make it.

Edited by whitehourseview
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Ballpark Digest is coming to West End Field!

For those that don't know, Ballpark Digest visiting your ballpark is the equivalent of a New York Times book reviewer reading your book or restaurant reviewer coming to your restaurant.

It's an incredible website devoted to all major, minor and major college baseball parks. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you could lose hours on their site just checking it out.

The address of the guy coming to the Drive game is: [email protected]

Drop him a line and tell him some things to look for. Or better yet, if you're planning on going to the game, try to set up a meeting. I can't go Tuesday night, but I'm sure someone here will be able to make it.

Awesome! Thanks for pointing this out! :thumbsup: I'm one of the ones that had previously written to them. I don't know if I'll be able to go two nights in a row (have to ask permission from my wife), but I may try to make it.

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But you also have to look at the commits at the bottom of the page. Some are good , but alot are really bad. Looks like that article got under the skin of some of our brothers and sister down in Columbia. :whistling:

I noticed those. You'd think instead of saying "enough about Greenville", a place would want to learn what makes another city tick. I remember living in Birmingham in the 80's when Charlotte was really starting it's boom and Birmingham people couldn't stand to hear about Charotte (the feeling was that Birmingham should have been the Souths second city after Atlanta, but here was Charlotte and Nashville taking that away). One of the city council persons sugggested a trip to Charlotte and most of the members declined. I never understood that. If somebody is doing something better than me, then I want to see it. "Keep your friends close and keep those that challenge you even closer".

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I'm big enough into the Clemson fan community to keep my eye on the USC scene. Ron Morris is hated by a lot of Gamecock supporters.

Nothing wrong with the article, especially since the Drive/Bombers used to be in Columbia. It's always interesting to me to see the regional pride and jealousies that immediately pop up in South Carolina.

As a 19th century senator once said, South Carolina is too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum.

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I'm big enough into the Clemson fan community to keep my eye on the USC scene. Ron Morris is hated by a lot of Gamecock supporters.

Nothing wrong with the article, especially since the Drive/Bombers used to be in Columbia. It's always interesting to me to see the regional pride and jealousies that immediately pop up in South Carolina.

As a 19th century senator once said, South Carolina is too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum.

I like that. :rofl:

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Reading quickly through the comments, I get a chuckle from the people who look down their nose at the fact that it's JUST a single A team. If they are such connoisseurs of baseball, I suppose they only watch games in Atlanta or on cable. Otherwise, if they watch anything less, aren't they compromising?

I would love to suit up a AA team roster -- or a AAA roster for that matter -- in the uniforms of the Drive and their opponents for just one night and see how many of these people would even notice the difference.

I'm sure it's gratifying to one's own ego to tell other people that you won't settle for anything as low quality as single A baseball, but very, very few of these braggards would even be able to tell the difference over the course of a single night's game. In fact, I know some real experts who are confident enough to admit that it would be tough to tell the difference in a single game.

Single A players through AAA players have two things in common. First, all of them are not playing Major League Baseball. Second, all of them have the potential to play Major League Baseball. That latter point doesn't hold true for college ball. Even if you want to make the case that all Gamecock or Clemson starters have such potential, you can't say that of their opponents throughout the season, resulting in some lopsided exhibitions of baseball that would surely be a big bummer to someone who contends that a mere single A team's schedule isn't worthy of his patronage.

Frankly, one of the positive differences between A and AAA is that the big league players tend to have spent more time a single A (specifically low A, like the Sally League) than at any other level. Instead of 25 games (about 14 home games) with Andruw Jones (which was about the time he played AA ball here), you're more likely to see a future star for most of a season watching a single A team. It may be an extra year between that player's tenure with the Drive and his debut appearance on a Major League lineup card (Andruw was called up later the same year he played for the G-Braves, making it more likely that fans recalled his brief stint as a G-Brave), but an A-level assignment is often longer than any other for future big leaguers, meaning we're more likely to be the ones to give them their nicknames.

For me, it's just good baseball. A, AA or AAA. The reason more fans attend AAA games than A games is NOT because it's better baseball. It's because they're in bigger markets -- and bigger baseball markets at that. Duh.

The ground ball to short is still amazingly enough a close play at all levels of baseball -- which is one big reason why the game is just as interesting and just as competitive and -- most importantly -- just as magical across all minor league levels.

One day I'll explain how Greenville came close to getting a AAA team...and why it didn't (and, once cooler heads prevailed, it turned out to be not so close after all). And does it really matter? Well, it would have been a status thing, but in terms of what we've got baseball/entertainment-wise, it didn't make any difference. And, after you factor in the difference in ticket prices, it's actually a good thing we didn't -- if you're a baseball fan on any sort of budget.

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They're just jealous that we have Reedy Rip'it and they don't.

135187155_8832f5f49c.jpg

:rofl:

That is great, RT! :rofl:

I think Reedy Rip'It looks like the frog on the Kellogg's Smacks cereal box:

T92735.jpg

You know, Greenville, you may have hit upon something that's more like: :stop:

than like: :rofl:

If Kellogg's is "take it to the Supreme Court" serious about the Exxon tiger (which hawks gasoline) infringing on its Tony the Tiger (who hawks Frosted Flakes) trademark (see: http://www.uslaw.com/library/article/carel...tml?area_id=43), then it's not so far-fetched to think that they may not take a shining to Reedy Rip'it.

tony_arms_cross.jpg versus tiger_esso.gif

Edited by Fiddlestix
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That is great, RT! :rofl:

I think Reedy Rip'It looks like the frog on the Kellogg's Smacks cereal box:

T92735.jpg

I actually think he looks more like Rib-it from Sticky Fingers.

ribit.gif

RT - did you meet the Ballpark Digest guy?

No - I didn't get a reply to my e-mail before last night's game, so I didn't meet him, nor did I see him anywhere (not that I have any idea what he looks like), but it's all good. There were a group of guys over in Section 107 that look like they were visiting, taking notes, taking pictures...so maybe that was the Ballpark Digest gang? I really can't say for sure though.

It was a close game throughout, but we ended up on the short end 10-8. :(

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Good comments Fiddlestix...

By and large, players spend about twice as much time playing A as they do playing AA. AA is the league that is most often skipped. I actually prefer single-A to double-AA for this reason.

With that being said, there are two reasons that I think may have some validity in terms of why AA may be considered more attractive to some.

1. Patience - It sometimes takes several years from when a single-A player makes their presence known at the major league level. There is some joy in saying, "Hey, I saw [inssert name of player] play in the minors." Watching single-A ball instead of double-AA, we may have to wait an extra year or two for players that we watched become major league talent.

2. Reputation - When you watch AA talent, players have a longer track record... i.e., you know what players to "watch." We still have a certain amount of that (high draftpicks and players who did well in the rookie league), but not as much as we would if it was a double AA team.

With that being said, I still prefer to watch single-A, especially when attending games regularly, as you get to see players develop. While in Hickory a few years back, I got to watch players like Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee, Joe Crede, Chad Bradford, Aaron Rowand, and Jon Garland develop. If you are interested in knowing which players are considered most watchable, you can check here.

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If you are interested in knowing which players are considered most watchable, you can check here.

Thanks for that link, breed! I have to say that there's at least one player every night that turns in a great performance for the Drive. I've not been disappointed with the level of play yet. To me, it seems that the pitching is what needs to be developed the most at this level. These kids in the field seem to have better fundamental skills at times than their counterparts in the Major Leagues. I've been very impressed by the glove work in both the infield and outfield.

The players I have the most fun watching are Jay Johnson and Jeff Natale. Jeff has a great eye when he's at bat and knows what pitches to take and which ones to hit. Jay is the best Right Fielder I've seen in Greenville since I've lived here. I'm surprised neither of them are listed at that site. :huh:

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The players I have the most fun watching are Jay Johnson and Jeff Natale. Jeff has a great eye when he's at bat and knows what pitches to take and which ones to hit. Jay is the best Right Fielder I've seen in Greenville since I've lived here. I'm surprised neither of them are listed at that site. :huh:

Actually, if you click on "More Prospects" at the top, Jeff Natale is #23. You can get bios for every player by clicking on "Team Rosters" and then following the links to each player.

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Actually, if you click on "More Prospects" at the top, Jeff Natale is #23. You can get bios for every player by clicking on "Team Rosters" and then following the links to each player.

Thanks! Good deal! :) I see Adam Stern (many of you may remember him from the Bombers last year) just got sent to Pawtucket, too. He's moving up the ranks.

Edit: Adam Stern was with the Braves 2 years ago. Too many teams in too short of a period of time. I can't keep up. :lol:

Edited by RestedTraveler
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