Kids' Stuff

Baseball 2009, Game 87: Wilson Tobs 2, Florence RedWolves 1

Wilson Sloppiness: 3
Florence Sloppiness: 3
Most batters in one inning: 6
Hitter of the Game: Justin Vazquez, Wilson (rating: 46)
Pitcher of the Game: John Taylor, Florence (rating: 81)
Time of Game: 2:23
Mid-game temperature: 81 degrees
Attendance: 1,585 (Level III sporting event)

These days baseball teams try to find ways to keep fans in the seats and attendance numbers up. The Florence RedWolves seem to do this by handing out free tickets to every youth baseball team in Florence and Darlington County. Every night as I drive up to American Legion Field I see a team of young kids outside the gate ready to go in. Like many other parks, at least one team joins the RedWolves as they take the field. But often many other teams besides those featured show up. As a result, much of the crowds of well over 1,000 at Florence are children, particularly boys around the ages of 6-12. This usually creates more money for the RedWolves, as while the players are given free tickets their parents and siblings have to pay to get in. As a result long lines are often seen outside the park of families buying tickets so they can be with their kids.

Florence seems to depend on children more than Columbia. One reason perhaps is that there are more places at American Legion Field to run around behind the grandstand, including a playground down the LF line. One girl who last year went to Columbia from Florence for a RedWolves game was disappointed by the lack of amenities the Blowfish have for children (although the Blowfish usually try to keep an inflatable water slide going). Capital City Stadium is however not as spacious as Florence. It is nice to see the kids run around on the grass, but games can be unpleasant at Florence when they are climbing over the bleachers or blowing foghorns at each other as mentioned in the "Loud Noises" post here. Getting the kids to actually watch the game is often a futile effort by their parents and coaches. For one, youth baseball is very much a social activity for them, and many today question how much the players actually care about the sport compared to their parents.

But Tuesday night the kids were mostly under control. On this night the RedWolves celebrated their masot Homer's 7th birthday, somthing most of the kids who are about that age can relate to. I assume that Homer must have been intoduced as the new team mascot on June 23, 2002 then. In the 4th inning the kids got free cake and ice cream, thus driving most of them out of the grandstand and to the playground area for the middle portion of the game.

As it turns out, the kids could have coached the home team just as well as what happened. Florence manager Wes Davis seemed to overmanage the game at times, as his team couldn't get any powerful hits. A botched suicide squeeze in the 8th and another botched hit-and-run in the 9th contributed to Florence's lack of execution at the plate, as the Wolves only had one run on eight hits.

But where Davis lost the game was in the top of the 8th. Bryant Lopez led off with a single and stole second. Aaron Watkins bunted him to 3rd, and Watkins would reach 1st after pitcher John Taylor would botch his opportunity get either Lopez or Watkins out. Watkins then attempted to steal second, and the RedWolves appeared to have caught him when Herman Petzold had trouble applying the tag. Lopez then attempted to steal home, and in the confusion the RedWolves ultimately got nobody out as Watkins would get back to first and Lopez would tie the game. Davis would go out to argue three times during this inning. While two of the times were justified, there is a point where the umpire isn't going to listen to you any more. What Davis should have been concerned about was Taylor tiring after pitching the whole game. After Bobby Leeper grounded into a double play, Belmont Abbey's Justin Vazquez returned to the plate. Vazquez was the only Tob to have given Taylor any trouble early in the game. In the first Vazquez hit a double and in the 4th ran up Taylor's pitch count with several straight two-strike foul balls before he was finally walked. Taylor was left in to face the one batter he hadn't gotten out, and Vazquez hit a line drive over the right field wall to give the Tobs the lead.

John Taylor had pitched a great game. He pitched in the 9th and got all three batters to ground out. But having your pitcher throw a complete game in a developmental league is always risky. Tobs' starter Jeff Brown by contrast was removed in the 6th inning. Despite the 15 point penalty for getting the loss, Taylor was Pitcher of the Game. In the 282 baseball games that I have been to since May 30, 2007, Taylor became only the second pitcher (and the first starter) to have been credited with the loss and yet still get Pitcher of the Game honors in my database game log.

The RedWolves have been on a slide lately, and seem to have blown their chances for the first half South Division title in the CPL. The RedWolves after Tuesday night have lost 5 of 6 games, the lone win being the game against the Blowfish where they were aided by two bad balk calls in the 7th inning against Tyler Christman. Yet unlike Tim Medlin, Wes Davis has had success in the CPL. Over his career at both UT-Tyler and the RedWolves Davis has been instrumental in getting the most out of players who aren't especially talented for the small college level. Hopefully Davis will get things turned around again soon for the Florence RedWolves.