How to Get a Big Crowd on a Wednesday Night

Baseball 2009, Game 88: Florence RedWolves 15, Columbia Blowfish 0

Florence Sloppiness: 6
Columbia Sloppiness: 11
Most batters in one inning: 9
Hitter of the Game: Austin Smetana, Florence (rating: 48)
Pitcher of the Game: Barrett Kleinknecht, Florence (rating: 111)
Time of Game: 2:54
Mid-game temperature: 81 degrees
Attendance: 2,159 (Level III sporting event)

The Blowfish have recently aside from Fort Jackson night drawn very poorly, with last week's four games getting no more than 750 fans with an average of around 500, which is very bad by Columbia and the CPL's standards.

But last night was dollar beer night, drawing any many fans from the bar. In addition, the Blowfish took a page from the RedWolves' book and invited the Dentsville and Pineview All-Star teams, as well as the entire Blythewood Baseball League. The RedWolves often call such promotions "Little League Night", but that is often not correct since most youth baseball teams are not affiliated with Little League Baseball. And this can be a good thing, as much of the organizations associated with Little League hold tryouts to limit their rosters as requied by the parent organization and divide kids into separate leagues at an early age. Not really what is best for developing all kids of all abilities and having fun. But these leagues in Columbia tonight were affiliated with Dixie Youth Baseball, a league that split from Little League purely for racist reasons. In the late 1950s in segregated South Carolina, the white teams in the state split off to avoid playing a team from Charleston with black players. Today Dixie Youth Baseball serves 11 states, which are the exact same as those of the old Confederacy. Dixie Youth Baseball is a way to take South Carolinians back in time to the Civil War era, with many Southerners too stupid to realize that this was a dark time for the South.

Anyway, mixing children and heavy beer drinking ensures the great family-fun crowd that the Blowfish are striving for. The stat from the game that the Blowfish organization cares most about is "Attendance: 2,159", their best attendance since Fort Jackson Night. The baseball teams and other kids' groups tended to pack the 1st base side, whereas the beer drinkers mostly sat behind home plate. That is where I sat, and listening to their half-drunken conversations makes you realize that people in general aren't that bright. On the lesser attended 3rd base side was a fairly large group from the USC School of Music's Summer Camp.

Most of these fans left early however, as they weren't coming for the game. And those who did come for the game didn't see much of any good baseball. The Blowfish played their worst game of the season (which is saying something) in a 15-0 loss. The Blowfish did get several hits, but couldn't manage to bring anybody around as typical. But what wasn't typical was the poor pitching by Columbia's pitching staff. 13 of the 15 runs allowed were given up by USC pitchers Patrick Sullivan and Brandon Miller. The Blowfish may in the future want to consider not taking players from USC since Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner usually does not send any of his better players there. The Blowfish have often been a holding spot for players who don't get much playing time at Carolina Stadium, and this in my view weakens the quality of play at Capital City Stadium. The RedWolves couldn't seem to stop scoring runs, as with 1 out in the 9th and already three across that inning Austin Smetana (who didn't start for Florence) hit a three-run homer to center to make the final score 15-0. Smetana and Pitcher of the Game Barrett Kleinknecht have been representing Florence well for a long time now, as they have been teammates at West Florence High School, Florence Post 1, and currently Francis Marion University and the RedWolves.

Today I will depart South Carolina and hope to report on games from the Mid-Atlantic in the near future.