I don’t know if this was an unintended consequence of the division realignment, but for whatever reason, most of the good parks in the NECBL are in the Northern Division. Now take that with a grain of salt, as I say that most, not all of the good parks are in the North.

Holyoke, no wait, excuse me, Valley, plays at Mackenzie Stadium. And while Mackenzie Stadium is a big stadium, there’s just something… off about it.

If you’re wondering what that is, it’s the fact that the stands are all focused to the first base side. I’m not obsessive compulsive, but when there’s a glaring lack of seating symmetry in a ballpark, it just throws me off. That being said, what Holyoke… um, Valley, lacks in symmetry, they make up for in the carnival atmosphere on the third base side.

I think Valley may be the only team that is permitted to sell beer at the park, If you’re wondering why I say that, it’s because of the Yuengling Beer advertising. Yuengling which is the oldest brewery in the US, is in Pennsylvania, but it’s one of the most popular beers in the US. I regret the fact that I will not be able to have my first drink at an NECBL game, unless somehow Danbury pulls a magical run and makes the final spot all the way to the championship, a la the Average Joes from Dodgeball, I’m going to have to have my first ballpark beer at a Mets game.

Moving on, the arrangement of the broadcast booth was interesting, as it was a two room cinderblock hut. With the broadcast team concentrated to the first room, I was told I would get the second room all to myself. This was an excellent arrangement. I could barely hear any of the chatter from where I was, and there was no outlets to share with other equipment, with the exception of other players’ cell phones.

Today was a special day, however, as Valley was hosting the Basketball Hall of Fame, located in nearby Springfield. I had found out about this before the season had started, and was eager to see how things would be. While there were no players making special appearances (Darn,) the Hall had brought some interesting artifacts to display on a table.

They included some shoes, jerseys from the NBA Finals, including LeBron’s, which coincidentally, this was the day that the moving trucks, fans. and camera crews started to convene on his house in Akron, (When I talked with the Blue Sox’ play by play man, as well as the Hall of Fame people, they said that they expected a big announcement today.) and of course, the big daddy of them all, the Larry O’Brien Trophy. This was the second time I was photographed with a Big Four sports trophy, I’ve taken pictures with the Commissioner’s Trophy (MLB’s championship trophy, but granted, that’s a bit different and far more commonplace than the Larry O’Brien trophy), so you can imagine how in awe I was.

I had to show some of the guys, they wouldn’t have believed be if I hadn’t, so I brought a couple over for photo ops. Zach Lavy and Chris DelDebbio posed for a shot with the trophy, and then Lavy took a picture with O’Neal’s shoe. That thing is about the size of my forearm.

I took shots of pre game BP, not to mention a shot of Holyoke… uh, Valley’s interesting Beach Blanket look. As I would remark to the guys, “It looks like an intrasquad game between the White Sox of the 80’s and today’s White Sox”. Although it’s hard to see, the Blue Sox’s uniform has an ad patch on the front of the jersey, instead of the side.

Because the WiFi was weak, I ended up doing almost nothing except getting exercise by running up and down the Mackenzie Stadium stairs, serving as a phone jockey, and just chewing the fat with our bullpen. The idiot that I was forgot to bring adequate snacks, so I was forced to go to the bullpen and ask Dan Rankin for gummy worms. I’m putting this in because his price for three gummy worms is to have me mention him on the blog for consecutive posts. So now my end of the bargain is fulfilled.

I really can’t say much about the game, it was so hot and sunny I could not focus at all even while I was legitimately trying to watch the game. Like I said before, to make use of the time, I just did a lot of running up and down stairs like Rocky Balboa in Philadelphia. All I can tell you is that the game was over before it started, as we fell 9-1. and it was an uneventful night ride home, one that was a lot faster than usual.

Now I mentioned that in the previous post, Vimael Machin became our new active home run leader, leaving Joe Burns, one of our three catchers to dangle off a cliff. To explain what happened to him, he was cut. It wasn’t performance related, rather, another pitcher is expected to come back, and it’s a familiar face, someone who was on the team early this year, but has been sidelined since the end of the college baseball season. Details to come in two posts.