6/22/07

6/10 - USA Military All-Stars vs. Cape Cod League Select Team @ Eldredge Park in Orleans, MA

The Cape Cod League season started a little early this season, with a team of players from around the League kicking things off against a squad of the best baseball players from around the US Armed Forces, who go around barnstorming amateur teams around the world and who are, apparently, very good - they had a gaudy record of something like 14-0 coming into the two-game set on the Cape.

The first game was played Saturday night (6/9) in Chatham, but I wasn't able to go because I was in Lowell that night. The Cape League team won the game 3-1.

The second game, the one I did attend, was held at Eldredge Park, home to the Cape Cod League's Orleans Cardinals.

Of all the Cape Cod League's parks, Eldredge Park may very well be the most distinguishable, unless you count Wareham with its pitch black infield. Eldredge Park has four very unique characteristics.

First is the giant hill just out of play on the first base/right field line. This is where the majority of the fans who attend games in Orleans sit, in leiu of bleachers. They usually bring beach chairs (a Cape League standard at almost every park), but sometimes they sit out on a blanket. If you want to have a picnic and watch baseball, Eldredge Park is the place to do it. In addition to having your picnic on the grass on a blanket, there are also some picnic tables out beyone the outfield fence. But the hill is definately the place to be, if you arrive early enough to get a choice spot.

The second feature is Route 28, one of the Cape's two major highways (Interstate 6 is the other) that run from one end of the Cape to the other. 28 also runs right down the third base/left field line, a fact that your reminded of everytime a passing motorist decides to blare his horn when he sees the crowd gathered (this is just as annoying as it reads), or whenever a fould ball is hit over the road, and the PA announcer reminds the spectators that it isn't worth it to try and cross the highway to get yourself a $4-5 ball (in a Darwinian sense, perhaps this is better left unsaid, but I guess the League has some legal obligations there).

The third feature is the giant bandstand right beyond the right-centerfield wall. It's a good 10 feet behind the barrier, which makes the home run that new Oriole #1 pick Matt Weiters hit off of it last summer a fairly impressive shot. If you can't get a spot on the hill, the bandstand isn't a bad place to set up your beach chair, either. You aren't quite as close to the action, but sitting a good 15 feet up looking out over the outfield fence gives you a more than decent view. Especially if you bring the binos.

The fourth distinguishing feature is the field itself, or rather, the shape of the field. Eldredge Park is part of a larger recreational facility that hosts all matter of sporting events, including, apparently, youth soccer games, which take place in right field when the Cardinals aren't using it. In order to make enough room for the soccer field, but to keep the outfield walls within reasonable distance of home plate, the outfield walls run in a straight line from the left and right foul poles to meet in what can only be described as the centerfield corner. The result of this odd shape is that the left and right field corners are very shallow - 300 and 304' feet, respectively - the power alleys are of moderate depth - 358' and 360' - and the centerfield corner is a preposterous 434' from the plate.

The game itself wasn't much to write home about. The US military team kept trying to give the game away early, making 4 errors in the first 3 innings, but the Cape team wasn't having any of it. A ridiculous rally that included an infield hit, a walk, a hit batter, and a bloop single that had no business falling in put the Cape team up 2-1 in the fifth, after the military had jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Dad and I were starting to get a little chilly around the 7th inning, and the game didn't exactly have us riveted, so we took off, apparently just missing the fireworks. Indeed, the 8th inning was a big one for the Cape League, who put 6 runs on the board in that frame, while we were busy having dinner at a delicious clam bar in Orleans called Land Ho!. That was all the scoring, as the Cape team won the game 8-1 to sweep the two-game series.

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I wanted to write a little bit about the Orioles. Recently, the Orioles finally gave the boot to Sam Perlozzo, a month after Mother's Day, but better late than never. More importantly, perhaps, though, was the appointment of Andy MacPhail to the position of "Chief Operations Officer" of the team. This title puts him in charge of the club's baseball operations, and means that in all probability the Flannaquette experiment is over. It also hopefully means that Angelos is willing to loosen his death grip on the franchise and let some basbell people do their jobs. Time will tell, and sooner rather than later. With the trading deadline just over a month away, we should start to see some Orioles on the move in short order, and who is deciding just who goes and where should give us an indication of who is pulling the strings on a larger level.

Much more publicized in the national media, though, was the team's apparently fruitless pursuit of 2006 NL Manager of the Year and current Yankee broadcaster Joe Girardi. The two flirted for some time before Girardi finally withdrew, citing issues of timing.

The narrative that has developed is that the Orioles are such a horrible team, no respectable managerial candidate would dare consider the post.

Except that Girardi did consider it. But it made no sense for him to accept the job at this time, regardless of his level of interest. Even if he was/is interested in the job, it makes much more sense for him to wait until the offseason, when the Orioles job will still be up for grabs, in all probability, and he'd have other options to consider as well, as opposed to right now, when the O's are the only team in the manager market.

As for the Orioles, going after Girardi was the right thing to do - just because it didn't make sense for Girardi to sign now doesn't mean you don't try and see if you can get him to, and from all accounts they almost did. Now the thing to do is wait. There is no hurry to go and get any of the other candidates on their list - they are all going to be around for a while. Watch Trombley, see how he does, let him worry about managing the team through the latter half of this season, when some of the better players on the roster (Tejada? Hernandez? Trachsel?) will be gone. And, hell, maybe this offseason Girardi might be more ready to accept the job. If not, Davey Johnson should be just as available then as he is now. No reason to rush, anymore. Priority #1 for the O's at this moment needs to be getting Weiters signed, and getting him to Frederick or Bowie.

I'm going to be in Maryland this weekend, which means my next post on any blog would be, at the earliest, this blog on Tuesday. I'm hoping to have a recap of the Frederick Keys vs. the Wilmington Blue Rocks, but we'll see...till then...