The Coastal Plain League

Baseball 2009, Game 70: Columbia Blowfish 10, Fayetteville SwampDogs 0

Columbia Sloppiness: 9
Fayetteville Sloppiness: 10
Most batters in one inning: 7
Hitter of the Game: (tie) Jason Coker and Gabe Grammer, Columbia (rating: 40)
Pitcher of the Game: Justin Hopper, Columbia (rating: 91)
Time of Game: 2:41
Mid-game temperature: 81 degrees
Attendance: 1,173 (Level III sporting event)

Don't worry about those stats just yet, I'll explain them tomorrow.

This time of year is in the heart of baseball season. However, most colleges have finished their school year, and school baseball teams try to schedule around the school calendar. As a result, players not on college teams that made the NCAA Tournament as of last week had to find a new team to continue playing their game, which is essential to both their life and the development of their talent. The really good Freshmen and Sophomore players can go play in international events conducted by USA Baseball and their training complex in Cary, North Carolina. The very good Juniors and Seniors are waiting for next week to see if they will be selected by a major league team in the draft, which could put them on a minor league squad for the summer. The best of the rest go to the Cape Cod League, where future draft picks congregate each Summer in Massachusetts playing at a level often higher than their respective college teams play at, but at a developmental level.

As far as the other players, they go where they are needed and where their coaches can send them off to. About 30 leagues exist now for this development of active college players who will be returning next Spring, all of which vary in the quality of its talent. One of these is the Coastal Plain League, a league that started in 1997 with its base in eastern North Carolina. The CPL has since grown to 14 teams (the most of any of these summer leagues) located throughout the Carolinas and Virginia, located mostly in stadiums that have been abandoned by the minor leagues. There seem to be three types of Coastal Plain League players:

1. Player who for most of his career has been a reserve for a team in a powerful Division I conference,
2. Player who has been a solid contributor, but not a standout star player, for a school at the smaller (mid-major) level within Division I,
3. Player who is among his team's leaders at a school below the level of NCAA Division I.

Talent as a result in the Coastal Plain League as a result is comparable to the middle of the pack in Division I. Yet while the smaller Division I schools usually average around 500 fans per game, Coastal Plain League games usually average twice that figure. This is a result of the teams often being marketed as a hometown event for the Summer. Smaller Division I schools tend to have more apathetic fans and less of a crowd, yet there are probably at least as many diehard followers of those colleges as there are of the CPL teams. CPL fans tend to follow their team more casually.

Most CPL stadiums have hosted minor league ball in the past. That was the case with the location of tonight's game, Capital City Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. Capital City Stadium, which seats 6K, hosted the Class A Capital City Bombers for many years. The facility was not built up to date when the grandstand was replaced in 1990, and the stadium's poor drainage at a low elevation made the field often times difficult to play on for the pro players. When the University of South Carolina, coming off of years of success that made its own stadium out-dated, wanted a new stadium, the city of Columbia suggested that the minor league team share the new park with the college team. USC, with a history of not being supportive of other local sports, refused to share its new facility which finally opened just this year. As a result, the New York Mets opted out of their affiliation agreement, and with a new MLB affilate in the Red Sox, the Bombers left for Greenville in 2004 (which had just lost their AA team) to become the Greenville Drive. Capital City Stadium, which was also home to Division II Benedict College, began to fall into disrepair and became a haven for vandals. The City of Columbia wanted to desperately find a replacement for the Bombers, and former Bombers owner Bill Shanahan agreed to start an expansion team in the Coastal Plain League beginning in 2006.

Many Columbia residents who had attended Bombers games viewed the new CPL team, the Blowfish, as a replacement for the Bombers. Many Columbia baseball fans, which did not always go to Bomber games to watch baseball, still thought that they were seeing Minor League Baseball, which the Coastal Plain League most certainly is not. I have been asked by casual fans before what level the Blowfish are at, and when I tell them about the CPL, they seem to be confused and surprised.

The Blowfish very much operate like a minor league team. Parking costs three dollars, and there is a heavy emphasis on its mascot, Blowie. Blowie dances on the dugout with two other mascots (in the past kids have joined him but not so much so far three games into 2009), and in the 4th inning lets the kids chase him across the outfield. And of course he races a kid in each game where he finds some way to lose each time, with varying degress of difficulty in pulling off the loss depending on the age of the kid. After the 6th inning, Blowie performs the dance to the Sugar Hill Gang song "Apache" (Jump On It) with "Blowie Jr", who is played by a 4-year old. You can usually tell who in the crowd has never been to a Blowfish game before based on their reaction to watching the 4-year old mimic the dance moves of the mascot. Never mind that the song "Apache" is mildy racist towards Native Americans in the same way that Chief Wahoo is, this is a crowd favorite.

Tonight was another promotion that is borrowed from the Minor Leagues: "Wet Wednesday", where beer costs one dollar. Soft drinks are often one dollar, but a good number of the fans are coming for the beer. Florence's CPL team 90 minutes northeast of Columbia also sells beer, but their fans do not drink heavily. Columbia on the other hand, in the state's largest city and with a major university, does have some heavy drinking fans. This allows for some of the fans in their 20s and 30s to yell and taunt opposing players and the umpires in a game that they would otherwise not care about. It also allows for you to carefully watch other cars in the parking lot coming out. Tonight and on other dollar beer nights I have seen fans carry back stacks of fresh beers for them and their friends. Last year I saw one game where a huge pile of beer cans was strewn across one section of bleachers. Two years ago in a game against an alumni team from USC fans were drinking beer straight from the pitcher. Dollar beer night is certainly the Blowfish's most popular promotion, I heard one young woman on the way out tonight say, "That was fun, we should go every Wednesday". As far as people who come for family entertainment, the weekends still exist for them.

The fact that the Coastal Plain League promotes itself often as minor league-like baseball helps prepare the top players for that level, as well as the wooden bats that the players aren't used to. Batting averages often drop as many as 100 points among the college players when they are using wood as opposed to the aluminum bats they are used to.

As far as tonight's game, the Blowfish had an easy time with the Fayetteville Swampdogs, winning 10-0 in a game that they gradually had put away by the end. USC reserve pitchers Justin Hopper and Patrick Sullivan combined for nine shutout innings, and good performances at the plate from Presbyterian's Gabe Grammer (4 for 4) and UNC Pembroke's Jason Coker (2 for 4 with a HR) helped the home team put a 10 spot up in the run column, which isn't very common in the wood bat league.

One odd abnormality I spotted tonight: in the 9th inning, it appears that the SwampDogs batted out of order. 6th place hitter Airlon Vinson was taken out for a pinch hitter, who struck out. While it appeared that 7th place hitter Austin Lasprilla was next to bat, 8th place hitter Eric Grabe stepped to the plate and walked. 9th place hitter Michael Niemann struck out, and leadoff man Brendan Rowland grounded out to second to end the game. The official play-by-play for the 9th on the CPL website was out of whack, with it having Delatte (the pinch-hitter) striking out as he did, Lasprilla batting and grounding out to the catcher, Grabe walking with two out (as opposed to with one out which is what actually happened), and the inning ending with Niemann striking out and Rowland never having batted in the 9th. Fayetteville's manager was ejected in the 2nd inning, and his assistant must not have been able to track the lineup well late in the game. Neither apparently did the umpires, but it wasn't necessary with Fayetteville down 10 in the 9th. Still, that is something that makes sports, especially Small Time Sports, enjoyable every day: something unique happens in each game.