Mahoning Valley Scrappers vs. Auburn Doubledays (New York-Penn League)

Eastwood Field-Niles, Ohio: I was very excited about not only my first Scrappers game, but my first experience with the legendary New York-Penn League. As we usually do our baseball trip in May before the short season starts, we’ve just never had a chance to catch a New York-Penn League game. The ballpark is pretty unique, just in the fact that it’s located just behind a mall in Niles. What’s funny, is that they don’t just charge $2 for parking, but for fans that walk into the stadium. Hey, you don’t want fans parking at the mall to avoid that $2 do you? Such as things go, our first game didn’t go off smoothly, however. The same rain that washed us out of Columbus forced a cancellation here in Niles, also. They started a double-header and hour and a half earlier than the stated start time, and due to the drive from Toledo, we could only make the second half of game one. We had pretty good seats, though, and even another set of fans insisted that we were in the wrong seats. Of course we were right, and set camp right next to the Auburn Doubledays dugout. We were so close to the dugout, that you could probably just have put us on the roster. These amazing seats only cost me a whopping $5 a piece, another example of the minors being the best deal in pro sports. I tried to strike up a conversation with one of the Auburn players, but he no hablo ingles’. Because we’d already missed half of game one, I tried to snap as many pics as possible, too, to try to make up for lost time. Thier mascot is a bulldog named Scrappy, who we only saw a few times during some on-field activities, so I guess I was lucky to capture at least on photo of him. Personally, when I think of ‘Scrappy’, it’s that annoying puppy off Scooby-Doo…the only version of the show that Brian and I don’t watch.

What we saw of game one, was a good one, if you like pitching and defense, anyway. The teams only play a seven inning game when doing a double-header like this. The Scrappers were up 2-0 when we arrived, and saw them score another run in the fifth inning. The Mahoning Valley offense was led by first baseman Leo Castillo, who went 1-1 with two walks and a home run. Left fielder Jorge Martinez went 1-3 with two RBI’s, and center fielder Josh McAdams went 2-2. On the hill, Sean Brady threw four scoreless innings, but Justin Garcia earned the win, and Luis Gomez the save. Even though it was just half of a game, my first New York-Penn League experience was fun, and I expected a lot out of the next game. We took the time between games to get some $1 hot dogs and beers, and to visit the ‘Pet Shop’ gift store. I made a video during the second game, and I’ll have that posted on my next entry.  Final: Scrappers 3, Doubledays 0.

Photos property of Minoring In Baseball