Utterly insane

Edit/update: I don't want to bump this story from the top spot but I do want to mention tonight's CanAm game... the Cutters beat the Pride 5-4 on a walkoff wild pitch in the 10th. Jeeeeeeez.

In late July of 2005, when I hadn't received any of the merchandise and special opportunities with my season ticket package that I was supposed to get in April [some of which NEVER wound up coming], my mother urged me to contact the Better Business Bureau and press the issue. I didn't, however, because I thought (and still think) that the relationship between a sports team and a fan is different from a typical business-consumer relationship - it's one of mutual passion, respect and dedication. Unfortunately, I've come to learn over these five seasons that respect and dedication is not a two-way street with the Spirit organization.

I'm glad I wasn't at the game yesterday (which in and of itself speaks volumes -- I used to be pissed whenever I'd miss a game), because if I was, I would have been followed and harassed by Spirit staff solely because they know who I am and I am always there.

I will repeat what I said last night in the chat: If Nick and the Spirit want Fraser to be a morgue with no fan support, that's their decision and that's OK. It's a dumb decision, and one that's destined to fail, but it's theirs, so whatever.

But that is an entirely separate issue from following around and harrassing repeated paying customers and treating them like criminals or hooligans - especially since none of us have ever caused trouble at any game, at home or on the road.

What especially troubles me is that security was hovering around ERNIE.... ERNIE!!!!! Seriously, what would/could Ernie do? Is that how the Spirit treat an elder member of our community who has spent god knows how much money and time coming to see the Spirit over these past 5 seasons?

And all of this was done while Eddie "Triple Whopper" Lantigua and his band of Capitales got the VIP treatment that season ticket holders are supposed to get but never do.

The fact of the matter is that we are not the only people who are sick of the way the Spirit run their organization. If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say "I would have renewed my season tickets if I received even one call from the Spirit over the off-season," I would have... well... 40 cents, because I've heard that from four separate ex-season ticket holders. I'd imagine that they are not the only ones.

I have traveled on the road MANY times to see the Spirit play and not ONCE have I EVER been acknowledged or thanked by "The Big Boss," nor have we been acknowledged by the minions without going up and initiating conversation at them. I think the idea is that we are supposed to bow down and be thankful to the benevolent boss for bringing the team into existence, and that gratitude isn't a two way street.

The issue seems pretty clear to me. In the business world, "The Lopardo Way" 'was always successful. He never had to listen to anybody and he could hire mindless minions to do his work for him. But in this business you can't be cold and ruthless and impersonal. And in this business, 'the way things are done' has failed. The team has failed to win a Can Am title and attendance has never reached a solid level (and god knows where it would be this year without Slugger's reading freebies). The disrespect of the fans isn't helping things. And the jettisoning of quality employees like the Seguin brothers hasn't helped either, but I'm sure that they didn't fall in line and perhaps they forgot to Heil.

It's not just us. Last season someone was thrown out for not standing up during God Bless America, which is not, for the record, our national anthem. Again, if that's the way the Spirit want to run their organization, more power to them, but it's bound to fail. And in fact, if rumors are to be believed, it IS failing and Nick is bailing out before the season is even over. It seems to me like the only reason Nick didn't take his ball and go home after last season is that doing so would be admitting the failure of "his way or the highway." But it looks like it's about to be the highway (for them, not for us, because I can assure you, we will be in Worcester or Nashua next summer if/when the Spirit fold... there is no shortage of baseball in New England).

The Spirit have never been receptive toward ideas that could increase fan connection and passion. I emailed them before the 2005 season about sanctioning a semi-independent fan club, and I got an email back saying, basically, "not interested." I have gotten the same response when I've requested that the Spirit set up a message forum, or link to ours, or NEFANs, so that fans can develop a connection and talk about the games. Nope, not interested.

Why not? I'm guessing it's because someone might say something that's not 100% positive and worshipful. That's certainly part of the reason why we get the disrespect we do. Despite our constant displays of respect and dedication to the team, sometimes, on the blog, we call a spade a spade.

I'm calling a spade a spade here - the treatment received by fans yesterday was absolutely despicable.

Like I said, not wanting people to be vocal is one thing, but being the Fun Police is an entirely different issue. But beyond that, having actual security shadowing people who have not caused problems in 5 years is simply uncalled for.

Perhaps they should get security to surround the idiot parents who let their kids run amok through the aisles and constantly run in to people.

3 years ago a kid crawled on to the dugout and stayed up there for 5 minutes. Finally, despite the fact that I knew I would probably get kicked out for going on the dugout, I went up there and got the kid down.

I got no thank you from the moron parents or from the idiot usher despite the fact that I did his job.

But at Fraser Field, I'm used to being treated in an ungrateful way, so it didn't really bother me.

Grayed Out

Ouch! :O

The Skinny:
Grays beat Spirit 6-1 in 10 innings; Robinson with the L

Game Story:

The Spirit squandered an excellent pitching performance by Bryan Morse tonight on opening day at Fraser Field, as the traveling Grays exploded for five runs in the tenth inning to win 6-1. North Shore's bats were kept quiet all day, first by starter Beau Danemiller, and then by left handed submariner Tony O'Donnell, who shut down the Spirit in the 9th and 10th to earn the win. Dennis Robinson struggled greatly in the tenth inning to pick up the loss.

Robinson was a victim of some bad luck to start the 10th. Josh Colafamenia led it off with a Baltimore chop toward third base and picked up the infield hit. Then, Tyrone Pendegrass laid down a perfect bunt between the first and second basemen to leg out an infield hit of his own. A sac bunt by Gavin Monjaras set up runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.

After an intentional walk to Mayke Cabrera, Robinson plunked Ryan Baker with a 3-1 fastball, allowing the 2nd Grays run to score. Then, Spirit reject Chad Gabriel laced a single to center which made it 3-1 Grays.

Next came the most entertaining part of the game: Donny Langdon came in to pitch for the Spirit and struck out Grays OF Sean Gamble, but Gamble was livid, claiming that the ball hit him in the hands (true) and that he did not swing (not true). He was summarily ejected the game and tossed his helmet in the direction of home plate ump Don January, then proceeded to be a human rain delay, taking about 50 years to make the "Jimmy Hurst Memorial Walk of Shame" out to the clubhouse.

The Grays broke it open when JB Tucker ripped a bases-clearing double with 2 outs off of Donny Langdon to make it 6-1. The Spirit went down quietly in the bottom of the inning to drop to 3-2 on the young season.

The Spirit fell behind early as Bryan Morse was victimized by poor defense. The Spirit made three errors in the first 1 2/3 innings of the game - including two by Ricardo Cordova. In the 2nd inning, a wild pitch by Bryan Morse scored JB Tucker to give the Grays the 1-0 lead.

North Shore got the run back in the 4th. Ricardo Cordova smashed a leadoff double, then was moved to 3rd on a groundout by BJ Weed. Darren Blakely was then hit by a pitch. With 1 out, Carlos Rodriguez chopped the ball to the shortstop, who flipped it to 2nd base to try to start the DP but Blakely went in very hard, spiking him in the leg, forcing the ball free, and allowing the run to score. The Spirit could not capitalize on the opportunity however, as Brad Rea popped out to end the inning.

The Spirit never really threatened after that, going down very quietly to some excellent Grays pitching. The defense settled down and played a solid game the rest of the way but there was no offense to be found. Bryan Morse came out of the game after the 6th (6 IP 3 H 1 ER). Derek Drage and Kevin Fitzgerald pitched well after that, getting the game through the 9th until Robinson's meltdown in the 10th.

Commentary-
Well, this was a pretty poor performance by the defense early on. There were a few very ugly errors. But all in all, despite the fact that it's embarassing to lose to the Grays, there's nothing really to complain about --- the Grays had good pitching tonight, plain and simple. We know from track record that the Spirit have at least a decent line up and at best a good one -- but they were shut down. 'Nuff said.

Robinson's struggles were troubling, however --- that's his 2nd consecutive poor outing, and to hit someone with a pitch with the bases loaded in extra innings is not very encouraging. But it's way too early in the season to write him off, especially since he was so dominant last year.

It was great to see Fitzgerald back to his old dominating self. In fact, he had such a low pitch count, I wondered by he didn't come back out for the 11th... but then, we do want to use him at some point tomorrow, so that was probably a good move.

I found it odd that Vic went to Langdon with the bases loaded in the 10th and not Jamie Baker -- he hasn't shown much faith in Baker so far this year, I think he's only pitched once (?). Interesting, because the guy was money last year. Maybe this was Vic saying "whatever, why burn a good arm we need tomorrow when the Grays pitching is shutting us down"? Either way, interesting choice.

The Umps did a very good job tonight (for once). We complain when they suck, so we might as well give them props when they do well. I'm not sure it was necessary to toss Gamble, but since he appears to be a psychopath, he probably said a few not-nice words leading up to his ejection. Also, that was great entertainment, so I thank the ump for it.

My main complaints tonight were off-the-field.

It's good to see that the Spirit Press Box Mickey Mouse Operation is still going strong --- I proposed last year that we should keep a running tally of how often the scoreboard guy/gal butchers the scoreboard to the point where they need to reset it and start over, and so far the count is at "2" --- 2 games at home, 2 times they had to re-set it from screwing it up. Eric should do it, he never makes mistakes.

Also, the official scorer is incompetent and is probably the same person who runs the scoreboard. He called an error on Brad Rea when he dropped a ball in an attempt to finish a double play, after one out was already recorded. You can't assume a double play. Grrr. I'm sure it was fixed, but it was pretty embarassing that it was put up there to begin with.

In addition, the new PA announcer is terrrrrrrrrrrible..........get Spike to do it, ask Eric to do it, hell, get back Don Boyle... but puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeze get this 1510 the Zone Reject out of the press box. NOBODY that I talked to had a favorable opinion of him. His overly-aggressive-macho-voice-thing is really obnoxious-- he sounds like a crappy DJ at a prom or something. We've avoided that kind of foolishness in the past in favor of professionalism. It sounds especially dumb when they're having, say, the watermelon eating contest, and he screams in a full masculine roar, "COME ON, EAT THE WATERMELON ALEXANDRIA, EAT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Plus, when trying to rally the (pathetic) crowd, he said "put your rally caps on!!!" when it was a 1-1 tie game. In pre game, he called Vic "Rick Davilla" and pronounced Joey SY-ak's name as Joey "See-ack." Doesn't he go over this stuff before the game? When Kevin Fitzgerald came in he was introduced as "#40...... (really long pause).... Kevin Fitzgerald." Smoooth.

The crowd was "2,519" tonight, an inflated number to be sure, and even if it was 2,519, if we can't get 3,000 for opening night, there's no way we're averaging 3,000 for the season. Also, typical crap atmosphere, although I've come to expect that so it doesn't really bother me anymore.

I don't wanna sound like I'm complaining too much though --- it was great to be back and I had a good time watching tonight's game, even if the Spirit did have somewhat of a stinker.

Line Score

GRY 0 1 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 5 --- 6

NSS 0 0 0 - 1 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 --- 1

Win: O'Connell (1-0)
Loss: Robinson (0-1)
Save: None
HRs: None

Spirit Pitchers:
Morse: 6 IP, 1 ER
Drage: 2 IP, 0 ER
Fitzgerald: 1 IP, 0 ER
Robinson: 1/3 IP, 5 ER, LOSS
Langdon: 2/3 IP, 0 ER, allowed 3 inherited runs to score

Spirit RBI:
Carlos Rodriguez (1)

Spiritfans.Blogspot.Com Player of the Game:
Bryan Morse (1)


Game Notes:
Ryan Bicondoa was seen tonight coaching first base for the Spirit in his #31 uni with "Bicondoa" on the back................................ looks like it's official.

A little bird told me that Brockton could have had his rights, but they failed to tend him an offer in time. CELTICS!

Two weeks.

That's right - just 14 days until the Spirit take the field in exhibition play against the Rox. Nice.

To celebrate, let's talk about game day experience at Fraser Field. What simple, reasonable things can the Spirit do to improve the overall experience, atmosphere, etc. at Fraser Field and surrounding the North Shore Spirit in general? Make your suggestions in a comment.

Here are my simple ideas:

1. Out of town scores from the Can-Am League given over the PA. I have never been able to understand why this isn't done; perhaps it has something to do with Nick not wanting the boys to know the results of other games, I don't know - but either way, every other park does it, and it just simply makes sense to do. It is really convenient for the fans who want to know such information, and it helps foster an attitude that the league's results matter - the players aren't just there to provide a backdrop for Monkey Boy.

2. Free stat sheets given out without having to buy a new program. Every year I buy (or weasel my way into acquiring for free) numerous copies of the same old program because I want to get stats on the opposing team but I forgot to print them out at home. I understand that they do this for a reason, to milk the extra $2 each time someone wants to get the stat sheets, but I think it would be a good gesture to give these out to fans upon entry. Either that, or update the program with an extended insert for every homestand, to make it so that you're getting more than two pages of statistics each time you spend money to buy the same old program.

3. Better announcements over the PA of the situation during rain delays - for example, current forecast information, relevant league rules/policies, etc. It seems like we are generally just sitting around waiting for one of two announcements: 1) the game is called or, 2) we will play in fifteen minutes.

4. It would be really nice if they could put together some sort of weekly highlight package on the Spirit website whenever games are broadcast on Lynncam. Also, get a better announcer on Lynncam, for the love of God and all things holy.

5. Mix up the between innings entertainment. Regulars have seen the same 4 acts 200 times. I propose a sumo wrestling match between Willy and Jack but I don't think that's happening any time soon, unfortunately.

6. EVERY night - or at least every weeknight - should be buy one bleacher seat, get one half-price night --- getting people in the ballpark is always the key, and they have really gotten pretty silly with the ticket price increases. They're not prohibitive by any means, just... odd.

Public Address

So, the Spirit are once again looking for a new Public Address announcer.

I'm halfway-bandying about the idea of applying for the job. Just for kicks, y'know.

What do you think?

P.S. another reminder to check out the message board and post often. :)