Architect's Error Leads to Mustang Loss

Off to a strong start in the 2nd half, it seems a little surprising when the Mustangs lose. They took on the Casper Ghosts tonight, and committed 4 errors in the first two or three innings, two of them owing to the sun blinding the first baseman and then later the right fielder in the same inning. Even the 1st base umpire had some difficulties for an inning or so. This was a regular happening at the old Cobb Field of course, but was supposed to be fixed in the new Dehler Park. Maybe the earth has shifted in its orbit around the sun because of global warming, or maybe the reductions thought necessary to get the public to vote for the park led to the problem, I'm not sure, but the problem is still there.

Final score was 8-7, not bad considering we spotted them 7 runs to start.

I hope someone is thinking about how to fix this problem. I would guess some sort of sky boxes built above and behind the current seats might remedy the sun problem, as well as provide some relief to the fans trying to get some shade or stay out of the rain.

Then if we can get someone to tell the cheerleader/announcer to turn his volume down and maybe even just be quiet between at least some innings we might have an enjoyable place to watch a ballgame. Is it a necessity that minor league fans be tortured by high school exaggeration of names during the game, and loud crappy music, and/or advertisements for this and that between innings? I am hoping a trip to Radio Shack for a small radio, or maybe an iPod, together with some good earphones will cut down on the noise.

I just checked with our friendly search engine to see what's up with the Ghosts. Turns out that the name is just a way of selling caps and other gear. The logo actually glows in the dark, groan. Hmm. They are the former Butte Copper Kings, now moved to Casper, and called the Rockies for the first 6 or 7 years there.

Voyagers v. Mustangs Musings

Here are some fans eager to see some good baseball. They look kind of familiar: Of course, I knew I had seen them before. Jerry and Joyce Hartnett and Carol Mueller.



A good crowd tonight to watch the Mustangs flail around at the plate fairly ineffectively. As you can see the left and center field crowd and the overflow folks on the grass down the left field line turned out in good numbers tonight. The little girls are watching the big girls strut their stuff and practicing their moves when the time comes.

Mr Hudson of the Great Falls Voyagers struck out 10 in 6 innings, made a lot of others look bad, and allowed one unearned run on two dink hits and a big error. Perhaps it was just as well that they called it in the top of the 9th because of lightning. It looked even worse to the north and west. Turns out they started play again after 90 minutes. The gazette said they were down to forty fans at the end. My guess is that they were all employees of the Mustangs or girl friends of the players.


Turns out there are more things going on at these games than just watching, beer drinking and brat eating. On the left is some sort of jump around thing for kids. Just behind it is a way of measuring how fast you can throw a baseball. It didn't seem very accurate when I watched.

I'm not sure who the guys above and below are working for. Their lenses suggest someone or something other than themselves. There are a surprising number of nice cameras at various places around the field, both still and video.

Speaking of girl friends and cameras, look what I found above. I don't know, maybe she was just a working girl. Sorry friends, the closer I examine this picture and the surrounding pictures, it looks like I have slipped in one from the night the Scottish play was performed at Dehler.

That big wide concourse all the way around the field is tempting. I imagine you could have a car show it is so wide you could have races on it probably. It makes up for some of the other deficiencies of the park, like no protection from the sun or rain. Maybe there is a plan to add to the basic park in later years. It looks like a 2nd deck could be built fairly easily with a number of deluxe sky boxes, incidentally providing at least some of the fans with protection from the elements. Maybe they could throw in a higher screen too. I notice the Legion teams are not even trying to get their baseballs back when they are fouled away.

A Merciful Ending To Long Night of Baseball

The last time the Royals and Scarlets played here at Dehler it was a pitcher's duel. This time it was a hitter's and fielder's duel, with a fair amount of loose play in the field and lots of extra-base hits, even a squeeze play somewhere in the middle innings, I forget exactly where or why: all brought to a merciful end by a 7 run 8th inning by the Scarlets. I think the pitchers were getting tired too. The fans certainly were.


Some of Billings' finest young men, wishing each other well after the game. I'm not sure what they said.

Shakespeare in the Park, Dehler Park, that is

I wasn't sure the sign was truthful when I saw it a few weeks ago. July 23, Macbeth by William Shakespeare was supposed to be performed at Dehler Park, courtesy of the good folks from MSUBozeman who bring us Shakespeare in the Park all over Montana in the summertime, every year that we have lived here, now going on 28 years, in the the hope that we will keep supporting the schools in the manner they have become accustomed to.

The Scottish Play began in the usual way at about 6:30pm between the pitcher's mound and 2nd base, which was a little far away but they had a pretty good sound system, which only failed when the largest planes took off from Logan International in the background. The three hags were not that bad looking actually but we all suspended disbelief anyway.

And bad things happened in the usual way because the natural order of things was ignored by someone or other. I guess it was because we read it in high school that so many speeches stick in the mind: "Is this a dagger I see before me?" "Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleeve of care." "Out, damn spot!" And so forth. I don't know why, but I never can suppress a tear or two when MacDuff finds out that his family has been slaughtered, and he keeps asking, "All?" more than once.

This was a good performance with good witches, dancing and singing etc and a strong Lady MacBeth, and a quick and just end. I had forgotten how the fight at the end between MacDuff and MacBeth goes on for some time. One has to stifle oneself to keep from yelling out "He was a C=section!" though how that comes out as not "born of a woman" I'm a little puzzled by. I always like Banquo's ghost and the interplay between him and MacBeth.

I like it when they go straight through and not fool around with different scenes and acts etc. "Git her done." They had a pretty good crowd, see above, almost as good as a baseball game, though more refined, of course.

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?

Thank Heaven!

The official text accompanying this picture is: "Work has started on the backing system to secure the padding on the outfield wall." See the Parks and Recreation website. Terrific.

Whew! I've been worrying about this for a long time. The outfield wall is stone! as you can see above, but they will put some sort of protective padding over the stone. Now we all need to pray that this protection will not encourage reckless behavior.