Results tagged ‘ Clinton LumberKings ’
Baseball Economics, 50 Years From Now, Zzzzzzzip!
Today is a 12:30 central time first pitch here in Clinton, and it’s a school day. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of school children will file into Ashford University Field for this afternoon’s game. Some of them are peering into my booth as I write this. Good morning, children.
Fort Wayne lost yesterday 5-3 in game two of this three-game series. Both games the TinCaps have played here in Clinton have taken the same path. They’ve jumped out to a 3-0 lead, only to see it evaporate over the course of the evening. Yesterday, it was a 3-2 lead heading into the eighth inning, but Colin Rea surrendered a solo home run and a two-run home run in the inning, and the LumberKings picked up the win. Now the TinCaps will look to salvage the set before returning home for six games.
Of note in yesterday’s game was pitcher Joe Ross’ performance. He walked the first two batters of the game, but went on to strike out seven, a new career-high, and didn’t allow an earned run.
In today’s TinCaps report podcast, I chat with catcher Matt Colantonio. Not only has he filled in superbly for Austin Hedges, but he’s also got not one, but two degrees from an Ivy League institution. He’ll tell us about how he got Joe Ross to pitch “backwards” to success in last night’s game, and why he’s more of an analytical guy than a theoretical one:
Iowa, The Black Keys, A Taxonomy of Office Chairs
Hello from Clinton, Iowa home of the LumberKings, and Flava Flav’s fried chicken restaurant, Flav’s Fried Chicken. Apparently much has been written about this establishment, I must go visit during my three days here.
Here’s my view for the next few games:
Clinton's Ashford University Field
As I’m typing this, a very loud train is rumbling by in the background. That makes it two straight parks with trains that run nearby.
Before the TinCaps arrived here in Clinton, though, they took two of three from the Kane County Cougars. Although the Cougars have the league’s most prolific offense, they’ve also committed the league’s most errors. Those two don’t always mix well. Fort Wayne dropped game one of the series, but outscored Kane County 19-3 over the last two games. The TinCaps have now won back-to-back games for the first time all year and that was also their first series victory in five tries.
Frank Garces came out throwing strikes on Saturday and turned in easily the best starting pitching performance we’ve seen all year. In eight innings, he allowed just two runs and four hits. Two of the hits and both of the runs happened to score in the eighth, by the way. The lefty also retired stretches of six, and eight, consecutive batters during his outing.
Take a listen to today’s TinCaps Report Podcast to hear the highlights of yesterday’s action:
IF YOU’VE NEVER LISTENED TO THE BLACK KEYS, YOU’RE MISSING OUT
That basically sums up my entire thought process on what I needed to say here. However, if you’d like more information, please, I implore you to watch this profile that CBS Sunday Morning did on the two-man group from Akron, Ohio. The Black Keys are a stellar rock group, and as the story says, if you haven’t heard of them, you’ve surely heard their music, as it’s been used in over 300 commercials and movies.
Here’s one of my favorite songs from their latest album, El Camino:
Click here to watch the story from CBS.
If you’ve ever got any musical suggestions for the blog, or for long bus rides (we may or may not have a few this season), please do share!
A TAXONOMY OF OFFICE CHAIRS
Everyone’s had an office chair that they’ve strongly disliked. Whether you’ve had one you love is a different story. But we’ve all got an office chair story, that’s for sure. Here’s my broadcast throne for this three-game set:
I dub thee Blue Thunder.
I remember when, the summer after high school, I interned for the city court in my hometown. I, being the intern, got the lowliest of office chairs. Not only did it have several mysterious and inexplicable stains on it, but the armrest part (you know, that’s supposed to be soft and cushy?) looked like it had been gnawed away by a hungry rabbit. I do not miss that chair.
Author Jonathan Olivares has written “A Taxonomy of Office Chairs” which serves as a thorough documentation of office chairs throughout the years. The Los Angeles Review of Books did what they do…and reviewed the book.
“The chair also came to confer and confirm hierarchy. After all, the workplace conditions us to covet minor status symbols: an additional window, a few more cubic feet of space, a personal stapler; why not an ornate, hand-carved headrest (or, if you worked at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a dodecagon base)? In the 1950s and ’60s, the distinctions between rank found blunt expression in chair design, naming and price point; Knoll, for example, produced “Executive,” “Advanced Management,” and “Basic Operational” chairs in the late 1970s. Recall the archetypal scenes where the boss, back to the door, protected by an exaggerated, double-spine headrest, slowly swivels around to meet the eyes of his waiting subordinate, impotent in a stationary four-legger.”
I find this to be a fascinatingly exhaustive review of an object that can appear so mundane, but when you think about it–we spend nearly33% of our time in our office chair.
MUSICAL GUEST
It had to be The Black Keys:
If you’d like to get in touch, you can reach me at Couzens@TinCaps.com or on Twitter @MikeCouzens.
