Week Six

Nearing the halfway point of the busiest month of the Power baseball season, we are getting by one day at a time. That's what you have to do in baseball. Some players get injured and are listed as "Day-to-day." Well, we all are day-to-day. 

Sunday I adventured around the city and beyond. I walked for a few miles on train tracks, something I've always wanted to do. This past week was hot nearly every day and Sunday was no exception. 

We had the homestand meeting Monday ahead of a seven-game homestand. Seven days, seven games. The true test of a minor league baseball employee. After a fairly simple work day, I had to come back in the evening for a 7:00 tarp pull ahead of overnight storms. While we were at the tarp pull, I chatted with our new Japanese intern. We call him, "K." He brought us all Japanese Kit-Kats that are green tea flavored. It was a new, yet familiar taste. It was strange, but delicious. I can't describe it anymore than that. 

My dad was in the area again for work and I met up with him and my grandfather for dinner at Five Guys. 

It was great seeing them both after not seeing my grandfather in some time. It was nice to catch up with them both as my grandfather told me how proud he was of me. They talked about possibly coming to the game Tuesday night. 

The fam

A few hours before game time Tuesday, my dad texted me and told me that they would come to the game. I was able to reserve the two of them tickets and met up with them before first pitch, just as one of my videos was playing on the video board. While I stood with them, three more of my videos played on the board and my grandfather seemed impressed and proud. It was a cool moment. 

And of course, I put them on the video board during the game. Multiple times.

Another cool moment happened after the game. I have written before about how much I enjoy watching Cole Tucker play and how nice of a kid he is. The Pirate's 2014 first round draft pick wasn't in the lineup Tuesday through Thursday night because of general soreness he told me after Wednesday's game. 

It's hard to miss my dad's yellow shirt in the crowd
from my spot in the dugout.

After Tuesday's game, I was up on the concourse talking with my dad and grandfather about the game, surprised that they stayed for the duration. Then a man and a young boy approached us. The man said, "hey, you're the Power Minute guy!" 

I was happy that I was recognized for one thing, and in front of my family for another. What came next was better. 

The Power's shortstop and Pirate's 2014
first round draft pick, Cole Tucker.

"You do a great job with those highlights," he said. "You keep us up to date all the way in Arizona."

"Oh, you guys are from Arizona?" I replied. 

"Yeah, we're Cole Tucker's family," he said. 

"Oh, that's awesome! Cole's a good guy. Good kid."

"Well thank you. He's not bad for an 18-year-old," he said as he walked away and I told him to have a good night. 

After he left, my dad asked who he was again. When I told them that it was the Pirates' number one draft pick's father, my dad and grandfather both seemed surprised and amused. It was awesome. 

Cole Tucker's mother, father, little brother and grandmother are all in town for this homestand. Starting Wednesday, Tucker's little brother dressed in full uniform and stood on the field and in the dugout with the team during the game as his family watched from the stands. I've had a couple other exchanges with his father since Tuesday night, along with the rest of his family. Great people. I actually ran into them at Outback Steakhouse Saturday night while out with some friends. Crazy. 

Also after the game Tuesday night, I saw someone wearing the pirate's 1970's free t-shirt Friday shirt given out earlier this year, sponsored by Point Park University. I guess Point Park has found its way to Charleston in more than one capacity. 

I somehow obtained a streak of three nights in a row where I returned to the apartment before midnight. A lot has to do with the team losing each game and there not being a lot of highlights to cut, but I was still happy with going home "early." 


Friday was a different story because of post game fireworks. After I finished cutting the highlights, I began to walk out of the stadium when Jay asked me if I wanted to fill in as the Public Address announcer for Saturday night's game. I was thrilled. The only question was, would we actually have a game? There was a lot of rain in the forecast for Saturday, but it was possible. 

Reporting time was noon Saturday. I showed up at 11:45. At 11:50, it started to sprinkle. There was nothing on the radar in our area. Two minutes later, it started to rain harder. Then the sky opened up to a vicious downpour. I quickly changed into my tarp clothes and sprinted down to the field to meet the few front office staff that was already there to begin putting the tarp on the field. 

I was already drenched when I got to the tarp. When we began pushing it into the outfield to roll it out, the rain was coming down so hard that I couldn't open my eyes to see. When I did, I couldn't see the center field wall from right field. When we rolled it out into the field, we spread out and grabbed a strap and began running with the tarp to the infield. Not even a minute later, there was so much rain on the tarp that it was too heavy to pull anymore. We barely made it to first and second base, so the rest of the infield was completely exposed. We missed it by a couple minutes and a couple of bodies. There weren't that many of us because the downpour occurred before the noon reporting time. By the time that we began leaving the field to get out of the rain at around 12:00, most of the staff had arrived, except our head groundskeeper, ironically. 

By 12:15, the rain had stopped completely. We began pushing as much water off the tarp onto the outfield grass and warning track so we could pull the tarp across the field and dump the rest of the water off so we could actually cover the infield. This took until after 1:00 when we finally went back inside with the infield covered. I dried off and tried to recover from the craziness that was the first hour of the Saturday work day. At around 4:30, we took the tarp off the field after the rain appeared to have stopped for at least a few hours. 

Not even an hour later, an ASAP tarp pull call went out and we ran down to quickly tarp the field once again. Another pop-up storm came out of nowhere and began another downpour on the field. As of 5:30, the game was still on and we were in our production meeting going over notes and information for the game. I was going over the PA script and was anxious to get the game underway. The rain looked like it would stop around 6:30 or 7:30 for the rest of the night and it looked like we were going to get the game in. 

Then, at 5:45, they called off the game. I was upset that I didn't get to do PA, but I did go to Outback with a lot of the game day and press box staff for a late sit down meal. Not only did we run into the Tucker family there, but we also saw half the coaching staff. Keoni De Renne, the Power hitting coach, has always been a cool guy to talk to in the dugout and he came over and said hey to us at our table. He followed up with me the next day about the meal. 

Sunday is a double header to make up Saturday night's game and Monday concludes the homestand. Then the team has three road games before a weekend homestand. 

This is fun, organized chaos. It's baseball, man. Baseball.

Because, why not?
Josh

Our mascot, Chuck.
The non-inflatable version.

Hours June 7-13

6-7 Sunday: Off
6-8 Monday: 9:30-4 (6.5)
6-9 Tuesday: 10-11:15 (13.25)
6-10 Wednesday: 10-11:45 (13.75)
6-11 Thursday: 10-11:45 (13.75)
6-12 Friday: 10-12:45 (12.75)
6-13 Saturday: 12-6  (6)

Total: 66