Feels Weird, Yet Normal

 Yesterday I went to my first baseball game since 2019.

Yep, I decided to check out the Hudson Valley Renegades, the former New York-Penn League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays which has now become a high-A level affiliate for the New York Yankees in the High-A East League. A lot has changed since 2019, the Staten Island Yankees have ceased to be and their once-division rival are now the team the Baby Bombers call home.

Hudson Valley is, geographically speaking, closer to me than Staten Island but I'd never previously gone there because going from my neck of New York to the more northern parts beyond Metro-North's reach has never been particularly worth it to me. The trip requires driving in a car for over an hour, something I'd rather not do when I have a slightly-more time consuming but a trillion times more convenient route at my disposal in the form of the NY Subway and the Staten Island Ferry. Or at least I did anyway.

But as times change we must adapt or be left in the past. Plus I thought it'd be remiss if I didn't at least attend one game for the new Baby Bombers. I got in my car and headed north. As I drove on the various parkways the GPS told me to go on, it kinda dawned on me that this is normal in the context of America as a whole. By that I mean the notion of traveling for miles through land that's mostly only been developed in terms of paving a road, in order to do something mundane like catch a minor league baseball game in the middle of nowhere. In New York City everything is bunched up enough that we can get to various points with the subway or bus and not have to care about being behind the wheel. But NYC is an anomaly in a country whose very infrastructure is tailor-made for transportation via cars (note, it has fantastic cross-state train transit but for whatever reason that's only limited to freight). Outside NYC though, roads. Lots of roads. "Oh gawd, is this what people like Tom or Nick have to do to catch a minor league game? Doesn't feel worth it" went through my mind.

Eventually I did make it to the stadium, it felt weird to pay for parking and have to worry about my car getting towed for whatever reason after years of not having to care since I didn't have to drive home.

The stadium itself is nice and cozy. I remember other autograph collectors saying it was ideal for gathering autographs since the clubhouses are pretty much in the same place and the players enter through the same right field entrance, something that suits the post-game parking lot brigade more than the pre-game autograph hunters I'm sure. The layout of it is interesting and while I appreciate that it was indeed in the middle of nowhere/in the middle of a forest, I missed the Hudson River backdrop in Staten Island (and even the Coney Island Boardwalk backdrop in Brooklyn). Those forests/trees beyond the outfield fence just reminded me that I was responsible for driving myself home. That feeling sucked.

Also speaking of feeling odd, this is my first game since the COVID-19 outbreak landed in the states. By this time New York state's requirements for social distancing and whatnot had been scaled back as most people were vaccinated (including me as I got my second dose two weeks ago). Still, hearing yahoos in the stands (mostly retired boomers) made it feel like baseball crowds picked up where they left off in 2019. Although I got tired of it real quick, I can only take so much cowbell ringing.

I only got one IP autograph at this game, from Josh Breaux. Breaux was the Yankees' second round pick back in 2018 out of McLennan Community College and although his climb has been a bit slowed by injuries he did look great in 2019 and is poised for an interesting 2021 to show where he's at.

Maybe with better preparation I could've gotten more autographs but my focus was on getting two specific players. The other was Anthony Seigler who didn't have time before the game, understandable. Unfortunately Seigler had to leave the game early out of precaution after getting HBP on the head, incredibly unlucky given that he had been on an incredible run up until then (he hit a walk off grand slam the night before). Fingers crossed he's back in action soon.

I stuck around for a few innings but I eventually left. With Seigler likely being preoccupied with other things after the game I had no reason to stick around. Even moreso when I looked at the clock and saw that the game had been going on for nearly 2 hours but wasn't even in the sixth inning, both starters struggled and the game was a slog because of it. Granted it had a lot of runs as the 14-8 final score (BOX) shows, but I'm impatient and my "pure love the game" is one where if I wanted to watch the game I'd just watch it on MiLB TV virtually like always, seeing things live isn't as appealing to me as it is to most. That's also why this post is more about my rambles about traveling over autographs or the actual game BTW. I did manage to pass on a bag of Hi-Chews to a familiar face in the bullpen so mission accomplished there, and I took that as my cue to leave.

All in all I am glad that I was able to attend the new Baby Bombers home game for once. It was a unique experience in a unique time that I'm sure is entirely normal to most people at any other point in time. But I'm not eager to repeat it. I'd rather ride the subway and spend 3 hours navigating the MTA than drive to a stadium and learn its quirks.

Anyway, big thanks to Josh for the autograph and here's to a speedy recovery for Anthony. And better luck to the team going forward, they're still first in the division so they've been firing on all cylinders. But the true test is how they fare now that a big chunk of their key contributors early in the season have all been promoted.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

2021 IP Auto Count: 1