Game 70: Durham Bulls (Rays) 2; Indianapolis Indians (Pirates) 0
Season: 42-28, Last 10: 6-4
Wrap, Box
As mentioned earlier, the naming of minor league teams is a puzzle to me. For example, why would the Pittsburgh Pirates would want to name their Indianapolis Triple-A team after a North Carolina-based motorcycle company? Nevertheless, it gives me the chance to treat everyone to some neat photos.
Very impressive bit of pitching last night. Really wish that I’d been there to see it. Brian Baker had a 5-inning no-hitter. Mike Ekstrom let one guy on base with the Indians only hit. And R.J. Swindle had a two-inning save.
In the middle part of the game Alvin Colina hit into a double play, but Joe Dillon, who was on third, scored. A home run by Matt Joyce (difficult to do in Indianapolis’ park) in the 6th was the scoring.
Baker got the start because Hernandez was out with a quad strain. Here’s hoping he’ll be back soon, because his year has been looking up.
Speaking of quad strains, I’d missed this podcast with Elliot Johnson. Worth a listen since it discusses an injury of his I’d not heard of before.
An interesting post over at Rays Prospects where Jim Donten takes a look at offensive numbers for the entire Rays organization. Several Bulls at or near the top.
Down in St. Petersburg Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has seriously roiled the waters. He wants a new stadium for the Rays and he doesn’t want it to be in St. Petersburg. One newspaper clip here. Expect this to be a multi-year affair. In the meantime, hard to see how it would have an effect on the Bulls, even if the Rays were moved to, say, Charlotte.
Posts
Wow, the Rays in Charlotte; wouldn't that be something! I know it's highly unlikely, but one can hope ...
ReplyDeleteThink it might be fun to start a completely unsubstantiated rumor about Rays going to Charlotte, just to see what happened. There's some history there, I think, because efforts to built a downtown home for the Knights have never come off. Not sure why, but somebody probably knows. Maybe because someone is holding out for a major league team??
ReplyDeleteIt would certainly be interesting to have the Rays in the state here, though I don't see it happening any time soon. It took a lot time for the Expos to move, and I expect it would be a similar process. So, maybe they will be the Charlotte Rays sometime in the 2020's.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like your thoughts on why the Knights never got a downtown home is correct:
ReplyDelete"Jerry Reeves, a lawyer and developer in Charlotte, may be the biggest proponent of baseball in the Queen City. For years, he has proposed a huge real estate project in Charlotte called the Brooklyn Renaissance Project, which would feature a retractable-roof stadium as its centerpiece.
He's so eager to lure a Major League Baseball team that he sued to block the Charlotte Knights, a minor-league baseball team, from moving from a Charlotte suburb into the city's core."
From: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jun/25/could-these-cities-be-leverage-rays-stadium-deal/sports-rays/
Interesting that a Tampa Bay paper would chase that guy down. Shows that the whole issue is taking up a lot of space down there. But from the tone of his remarks he doesn't sound very enthusiastic about getting on board an effort to bring the team there.
ReplyDeleteNote: Much the same could be said about Jim Goodman. Absolutely no doubt he'd lead an effort for Major League team. How about a rumor on that??