Here are some of the pictures that did not make the game post for last night’s Railcats game:
American Idol contestant Chris Medina sings to his girlfriend in a suite before the game
Former big leaguer Barry Lyons giving some advice to Wally Backman Jr. before the game
Chris Medina signing a baseball for me
Last night I attended my second Railcats game in as many days. As hot as it was during the day I knew that it would be a beautiful night for a ballgame. The promotion for the night was solo night. They had a cup stacking champ on hand as well as a kid dressed as a solo cup. They even had American Idol contestant Chris Medina on hand to sing a solo. I went to the game solo only to find out that it was buy one ticket get one free night. That really didn’t jive with the whole solo theme. Before the game I had Medina sign a baseball for me. I collect baseballs so I have anyone famous sign one. He laughed when I gave it to him and said that he had never signed a ball before. It is not easy to do, and he did a great job for his first time. He sang before the game, and I guess was going to leave shortly afterwards and head to Norway to perform. His current single is at #1 there. It must be quite a change to go from Gary, Indiana to Norway but that is the life of someone in the public eye. Continue reading
Thanks to the wonder of Twitter I learned earlier in the week that the Gary Railcats were headed to the American Association to join a group of teams that used to play under the Northern League banner. Three other teams left the Northern League with Gary to go back to the American Association. They are the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, Kansas City T-Bones and Winnipeg Goldeyes. This leaves a cupboard that was already sparse pretty bare. Is the Northern League done? Four of the eight teams have jumped ship. Two teams the Lake County Fielders and the Rockford River Hawks left the Frontier League last season to come to the Northern League. I would think that the Frontier League might just absorb the four remaining teams into their fold. I have yet to see what will happen there. Continue reading
“Fun is Good.” The final score was not very fun though as the Saints dropped the game 10-5. The Saints are one of the best Independent League teams at drawing fans. They have all kinds of entertainment before, during, and after the game. They do everything possible to make sure you have a good time at the stadium. Unfortunately the baseball team did not get the message. They had a bad night making three errors. They made numerous other bad plays that could have been scored an error. The center fielder for instance ran to his left to catch a fly ball, only to watch it pop out of his mitt. Another sad story of the game was the pitching of Reed Dickert. He was not helped by the defense, but he gave up five runs on five hits in 2/3 of an inning. Dickert was signed by the Brewers last year and sent to high A ball. He was demoted to low A after just one start when he gave up three runs in two innings. Every pitcher has a bad night, and his bad night was the difference in the game. His inning started with another blunder by a Saints outfielder that left him with a man on second instead of nobody on and one out. Towards the end of the game we also had a couple of instances where the rain really came down. Both times though it quit almost as quick as it started, and the game was never stopped. The rain will not be a factor the next two nights. 
Confessions of a Sports Junkie 