You know how sometimes, when you create your own fandom of a team, there’s a certain team that for whatever reason you harbor a strong dislike, although they aren’t exactly your team’s biggest rival? Like a Mets fan suddenly hating the Padres, or a Yankees fan hating the Rangers? The point I’m trying to get across here is that for whatever reason, I hate the Newport Gulls. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that we had to face them three times in two weeks (later three weeks, as a rain delay moved our road trip to Newport to the next week.

This isn’t to say that I dislike anyone who works for the Gulls or plays for them, but perhaps it’s the Groundhog Day routine of having to face this team that leaves me reaching for a Tylenol.

Pointless diatribe aside, it was a special night for the team, as an actual minor league ball club, the Hudson Valley Renegades (Single-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays) were our honored guests.

Also making a special appearance were two late arrivals, Nebraska pitcher Max Knutson, fresh off of being eliminated in the NCAA Regionals. I asked him what took so long, and he said, “We had a regional.”

Our other late arrival was outfielder Josh Palacios, from San Jacinto College North. Josh’s reason for reporting late was that he was waiting until after the draft. It wasn’t for nothing, as he was picked in the 31st round by the Cincinnati Reds. Josh also was the second Westerner on this year’s team with a major league pedigree, following Brandon Bonilla. His dad, Rey, was a catcher for the Kansas City Royals in the late 1980’s.

With those two arriving, it left Brennan as our only absentee.

The music selection for the Westerners was pretty much a mish mash of pop and rock, no surprises, and no complaints. I did get a few requests for songs, and when I had to run to get something, I left my computer in the more than capable hands of our scorekeeper…

Until he forgot to change the track and ended up blasting a Japanese pop song that I wanted to keep as far away from being played over the speakers as possible. At first, I didn’t recognize the song, but as soon as the singer came on, I made a beeline for the booth and immediately switched the song.

However, accidents often inspire innovations, and so was born song trolling, in the form of blasting Korean pop, or K-pop, as it is popularly known, (think PSY’s Gangnam Style, if you need reference) over the speakers while the opposing team hit. While it does have a beat, there’s a lot going on in K-pop, which leads to a highly distracting batting practice song. As I’ve mentioned to several players, my reason for k-pop instead of something like folk or opera is because it’s “our pop on steroids”

I had downloaded a song for the sake of using it as a means to get revenge on a certain player who had pranked me on the bus, but given my newfound dislike of the Gulls, I felt now was more than appropriate to debut my auditory weapon of mass distraction.

This is the song, if anybody is brave enough to listen.

I’ll be showing the music videos for all my other troll songs in future posts, and posting a poll when they’re all finished, to determine which is the most annoying.

Back the the ballgame, or at least the pre game activities:

Westy wasn’t the only mascot at the game, as the Renegades’ mascot joined him on the field as they participated in the on-field entertainment.

Starting the game was Kevin Torres, a late addition from Western Oklahoma State College. Torres had actually made his debut in the previous game, and had done well to start the inning before somehow inexplicably melting down.

I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, Newport has Danbury’s number, as for the second straight game, Newport tagged the Westerners for nine runs. Instead of learning from past mistakes, however, the Westerners could only plate one run. I don’t know, maybe it’s the adjustment from aluminum BBCOR bats to wood, but then again, the other 11 teams in the league also use wood, so what’s the excuse?

During the game, I finally figured out how to use the panoramic feature on my phone, allowing me to take a picture of Rogers Park.

And when I got home from working the game, I found out that I had made Twitter a few days prior in the form of a hashtag from Joey Arena.

Game tonight 6:30 let's get this dub #InAlexWeTrust — Joey Arena (@JoeyBats31) June 10, 2014

Hopefully things look up after our little fall on the snide, it’s only the first four games, anything can happen.