"Bottom of the 33rd" by Dan Barry

So, have you had the chance to swing by Pawtucket on any of your baseball pilgrimages?  This is one of my favorite areas.  I love New England, though it is very different from my home state.

Anyway, if you HAVE been to McCoy Stadium, you know that they have a ton of pride in the fact that the longest game was played there.  To be honest, I wasn't very aware of the the game until my stop there just under a decade ago.

The circumstances surrounding the longest game are very fascinating.  In case you don't know, on April 14th, 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox hosted the Rochester Red Wings in a game that got started late, and that was still going on the next morning.  32 innings were played to a 2-2 tie!  Two months later, the teams got together again to finish the game.  The 33rd and final inning took 18 minutes.

Dan Barry writes a great book about the players, the history of the field, baseball in Pawtucket, and he lets you know about what happened to the players after the game.  If you know anything about this game, you know that a future Hall of Famer participated with each team.  You know that less than a couple dozen fans were still at the park for the 32nd inning.

Mr. Barry gets in to some of the more foggy facts about the game, and inaccurate legends surrounding it (one pitcher tells a story about a particular strike out in the game that never happened).

The game has a very Twilight Zone feel to it, with several odd factors and events affecting the game- including a paragraph missing form the rule book, a missed phone call, and bot teams scoring in the 18th inning.

There are several guys I remember from my days following the 1986 Mets and Red Sox (as a kid, that was the first year I really followed baseball).  Its great reading about these players BEFORE that great season.

AND, it was great fun reading about some of the other players.  Dave Koza, the star of the game and a Pawtucket legend, really becomes the focus of the book towards the end.  In fact, his personal journey after the game is just as interesting as the game that made him famous.

Steve Stewart- Kansas City Royals Radio Ntwork

Steve Stewart has been in baseball for over 20 years!  He has worked with the Red, Cardinals and the Royals during that time!

Steve was kind enough to send me a note recently about some of his thoughts on baseball.....

I asked Steve about his favorite players and he mentions Sean Casey, Brandon Phillips, and Bronson Arroyo.  He says Adam Dunn is a favorite too, and he is a funny guy.

"For the Royals...my favorite current players would probably be Alex Gordon...and among the young guys Salvador Perez and Eric Hosmer are both a lot of fun to watch.  Favorite former player...just in terms of being a great guy...is Jeff Francoeur."

He says that, other than Kansas City, Chicago is his favorite road city.  He went there a lot with the Reds, and now with the Royals.  Steve describes Chicago to be like a second home to him.

He says that he feels Detroit is the best sports city in America.  This might sound a little odd at first, but Steve Stewart makes a good argument, noting that they have all of the major sports team (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) AND major college sports.  All of those teams draw good crowds.  PLUS, Detroit has a NASCAR race each year and golf majors from time to time.

Concerning the Royals, Steve says that the Royals fans are the best and most loyal in baseball.  He says that the town was electric this past summer as the Royals were fighting for a playoff spot.  He says the Chiefs broke the decibel record last Sunday when they beat Oakland.  He also talks about how huge college sports are here.

Check out his blog!

http://stevestewart.mlblogs.com/

Trustmark Park- Mississippi Braves

On a recent road trip we had a moment to BRIEFLY stop by Trustmark Park, home of the Mississippi Braves.

You KNOW I was miserable as I stood outside looking in, on a non-game day, as the place was closed.

I could tell Trustmark MUST be a great place to be when the M-Braves are in town.  The place looked amazing as I stood outside looking in.

Sometimes you plan a road trip through a minor league baseball town even though you know you won't be able to time things out for a game day.  Its a double edged sword- you KNOW you will get to see a park, BUT you won't get to see the park in all of it's glory- with two teams on the field. 

Sweet Right Brothers

http://www.sweetrightent.com/

We didn't see as many acts at the park this year as usual.  We DID catch the Sweet Right Brothers.

I love all of these acts and hope we see plenty next season!