$\"The$ <\/a>

The Snapper mascot attempted to quiet one of our touring fans. Good luck with that!<\/p><\/div>\n

The game? \u00a0The unusual Class A fare.\u00a0 The Peoria Chiefs jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first five innings, and then the Beloit Snappers (snapping turtle mascot) stormed back to win it 7-6 in ten innings. (Weather delay, extra innings and a couple hundred miles to Chicago post-game \u2026 not the ideal combination.)<\/p>\n

I might add that the Snappers walked their way to victory, Chiefs’ reliever Dewin Perez walked the bases full in the bottom of the tenth (around one out) and then gave up a walk-off sacrifice fly to Snappers’ CF\/Leadoff Mike Martin.\u00a0 In fact, during the contest, Peoria pitchers walked nine batters \u2013 four of whom scored. \u00a0(And, the tying run scored in the eighth on a wild pitch.)<\/p>\n

A few other highlights:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An announced crowd of 715 \u2013 which looked like about 300 fewer and sounded like 700 fewer. (It was disturbingly quiet when the stadium music wasn\u2019t blasting. Except, perhaps in our section.)<\/li>\n

Home runs by Peoria 1B Juan Yepez (his seventh) and Beloit 1B Miguel Mercedes (his 14^{th<\/sup>).<\/li>\n}

A couple very nifty backhand plays for Peoria 3B Danny Hudzina. (In fact, there were a half dozen fine fielding plays, sprinkled among a pair of errors by Beloit SS Eric Marinez.<\/li>\n

A four-for-four night by Snappers\u2019 number-nine hitter SS Kramer Robertson (makes up for those two errors), who came into the game hitting about .220 and left hitting .248.<\/li>\n

Several “final calls” on the 50-50 Raffle (the team\u2019s 50 percent was earmarked for new ballpark \u2013 which by all \u201cappearances\u201d would be a good idea.<\/li>\n

Some snapping-turtle-based heckling. (For example, as the Snapper fell behind, \u201cIt a turtle disaster\u201d<\/strong> <\/em>and, as they made their comeback \u201c<\/strong>You\u2019ve got \u2018em shell-shocked now.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n $\"Fieldler\"$ <\/a>Being from Minnesota, our group cheered loudest for Peoria RF Matt Fiedler, an Eagan, Minnesota native, who also played for the University of Minnesota \u2013 where he was the team\u2019s ace pitcher and one of its top hitters. As a Junior, in 2016, Fiedler was named Big Ten Player of the Year and was Academic All Big Ten. \u00a0on the mound, he went 7-4, 4.32 in 16 starts (4-0, 3.33 in the Big Ten). At the plate, he hit .366 with eight home runs.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
In 28 games for Peoria, Fiedler has hit .273-2-7 … but he’s been hot as of late, hitting .389 over his past ten games.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After Beloit, it was back on the bus for the run to Chicago – lights were outs and, thankfully, the eating had ceased.\u00a0 We checked into the Hotel Indigo in Chicago\u2019s Gold Coast at about 12:30 a.m. (I had aged a year during the day).\u00a0 Great hotel as always \u2013 thanks Ballpark Tours.\u00a0 Today \u2013 Wrigley and the World Champion Cubs.<\/p>\n
More to come.<\/p>\n
I tweet baseball @DavidBBRT<\/h3>\nFollow\/Like Baseball Roundtable\u2019s Facebook page, here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Member: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR); The Baseball Reliquary; The Negro League\u2019s Baseball Museum. Baseball Bloggers Alliance.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday morning August 3, 2017 and Ballpark Tours is on the road again – and so am I. Those who follow Baseball Roundtable may remember last year\u2019s Ballpark Tours (BPT) trek \u2013 ten days-ten ball games-seven cities; with Independent, A, AA, AAA and Major League ball and extra nights in Memphis, Nashville and Kansas City. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n