When I was a youth the Giants actually played doubleheaders on most Sundays, along with various other days throughout the week. My Dad and I would have to leave Sacramento, or I should say, I forced him to leave Sacramento by 8:30am to get to Candlestick no later than 10:30am. Back in those days teams actually opened the gates to the ballpark two hours early, but they didn’t play the game at 10:30am I just wanted to get there at 10:30am!

Well as most of you know the minor leagues love playing early games early in the season for their various school programs. So here I sit in the radio booth at Canal Park in Downtown Akron for this mornings 10:30am game. This after not getting to sleep until about 2am because of various work that had to get done before this morning.

Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t mind these games after they are done. And neither do the players. But given they are always scheduled after a night game means there is always a quick turnaround. Last night was a three-hour game which meant that most of us arrived back at the hotel at around 11:30pm. The 6:45am alarm this morning came way too soon.

These games in the morning are always fun because of the different level of excitement in the crowd. When I was seven, eight, nine years old making those trips to the ‘Stick, I would yell and scream everytime Willie McCovey or Bobby Bonds hit a popup, just like the kids this morning will do.

There’s a shrill instead of a humm at these games, which is fun and different too. These games are certainly different though from when I was a youngster.

Back then, men were still wearing Fedora’s to the ballpark and smoking cigars and cigarettes and there wasn’t any sound except for the booming public address announcer and organ. Oh yes, I forgot, on those Sunday games there was a four-piece dixieland style band playing music at different times throughout the day.

Well the gates are open here and the kids are streaming in by the hundreds if not thousands. I need to get ready for the game and broadcast! The Sens need to use some of the energy here to snap their long losing streak!

I’ll write more tomorrow when we’re finally back home at Metro Bank Park!

Okay, I know it has been a long time but it has been a very busy month.

The team is off to a tough start so luckily (at this point) there are still over 120 games left to turn things around. A couple of years ago Trenton started something like 0-11 and 4-20, something like that and they went on to win the Eastern League Championship. The moral of the story is that it’s not too late to get things turned around, but things need to start turning quickly.

On a positive note, the new video and sound system at Metro Bank Park have been very well received by the fans. The new boardwalk isn’t ready just quite yet, but should be ready sometime in early to mid May, which should create quite the buzz. There are updated pics here.

We finally get back to town this weekend after the longest road trip of the season, eight days and seven games. And there are some big doings this weekend but none bigger than the 23rd annual UCP/Senators Sports Memorabilia auction. This auction has raised over $1,000,000 during its first 22 years! Come on on out this Saturday, there’s bound to be something you’ll find interesting!

Back to baseball, not a whole lot has gone right which means once it finally does, things are going to go wild for a couple of weeks. This team is too talented to play like this for very long. 

How about Jordan Zimmermann? Two starts in the big leagues for the former Senator and two wins. He is going to be sensational in the Bigs.

Well I’m about 15 minutes from airtime tonight in Akron so I better get going. Lets hope for a “W” tonight, eh?

Terry