Mustangs Sweep Great Falls

Baseball Fans having a good time down the left field line. There is a large and wide concourse behind them, so the toilets and essential things like food and drink are very close to almost everyone. I don't know where the hookers sit in this new park. They used to sit just behind the Mustang's dugout in the old Cobb Field.

The Star Spangled Banner sounded good even without the sound system turned on.

Bullpen for the home team Mustangs down the left field line and very close to that line as well as the people down here. Maybe they planned it that way. I don't know but will ask someone who knows.


Thanks Heavens somebody put these cartoonish characters out of their misery. How much do we pay them to fart around on the tops of the dugouts. Why not just offer free beer for what they cost? I was just thinking how pleasant it is that for some reason Billings puts up with a lot less between innings shenanigans than most other minor league towns when these clowns walked on. Oh well, grumpy old men are not the desired demographic at Dehler Park I'm sure.


This lovely lady used to walk around Cobb Field nearly the whole game selling 50/50 chances and when she wasn't doing that she led the cheering, such as it was. We were not that good at either cheering or waving, thank Heavens.


Get your souvenirs here before they are gone. Fitted hats with a nice double horse shoe in the form of an M logo are $23!

Just like in Little League, except they don't shake the hands of the other team.

You can sit on the grass if you like. This is far right field and you can harass the bullpen if you like too I suppose.


At the base of the new scoreboard. Fairly nice for a rookie league I think. Now, if we could add some info on the players in addition to their pictures and maybe speed of pitches it would be even better.


Looking at home plate from the left field corner, which is 329 ft down the line. There is a beer stand at the end of it, called ironically enough, The 329 Club. The right field line is 350 ft and curiously enough the light poles in the outfield are not arranged symetrically, that is, the one in left field is noticeably closer to the line than the one in right field. I've not seen that before. I will try to find out the reason for my gentlereaders.

You can't tell who the players are without a scorecard.

The batters were not very vocal this evening. The game was won by the pitchers and some unlikely batting from some Caribbean infield guys. Miguel Rojas, batting < .200, hit a double to bring in one run in the 7th and then Jose Gualdron, also batting < .200, hit a home run in the 8th, his first as a Mustang. Sr. Rojas also made a dazzling stop at shortstop on a hit/run play to throw the guy out at first, the defensive gem of the night. The ninth inning looked a little worrying but the 2-1 advantage was maintained for the second time by closing pitcher, not very big right-hander Randall Linebaugh from Baylor. And all went home happy, well all the Mustangs' fans anyway. This sweep of the Great Falls Voyagers puts the Mustangs on top by a game in the northern division. In the three games at the new Dehler Park there have been 10,337 people coming through the gates. Things seem to work fairly well. The beer stands are selling well, including some micro-brews. The grills are cooking well, including some excellent Johnsonville bratwursts. 

 

This one shows a surprisingly popular left field standing room only type accommodation. There is a beer stand nearby and a few tables to set your beer down on too. We need more of these around the whole field.

The seats in the stands closer to the infield are more than a little cosy and everyone has to stand in order to let someone through. Maybe we need to remind each other that good manners would suggest that we confine our moves to the time between innings. Unfortunately, the announcer has the annoying habit of suggesting the 2nd coming for each home batter he announces. I much prefer the low key "Smith, #21, John Smith" and let it be the same for everybody.

The screens let a fair number of balls go toward Perkin's Restaurant and onto 27th St, and into the stands especially further down the lines where the sizzling foul balls tend to go. I guess that is what the fans like, especially if they haven't tried to stop a baseball in recent memory.

The bullpens appear to be an afterthought just outside the foul lines in mid left and right fields, but the good thing about this is that the players are very close to the fans so the kids can bother them for autographs just like in the bigs. I wonder if a 2nd baseman or a right fielder will have a problem running over the pitching mounds in the bullpen?