Game 8 Recap: Took A Dozen Years, But We're Home!

Finally after 7 games on the road, but the Fireflies were at home. And it's been 12 years! The opponent was the Greenville Drive, whose organization was our former team back in 2004. Of course, the Drive are a Red Sox affiliate as the Mets hastened the move by pulling its affiliation with the Bombers due to not liking Capital City Stadium. And now the Fireflies are a Mets team, just like the Bombers were. Of course, we took Savannah's team. Who knows how long it will take Savannah to rise past the CPL level now. So to honor our franchise's heritage (and because I don't have a Fireflies shirt), I wore one of the two Sand Gnat shirts they gave out  during the last playoff stand in Savannah last September. When I wore my Sand Gnats shirt over at USC Sumter, my internship supervisor thought it was hilarious. He also asked if they had even printed Fireflies shirts, which they absolutely have. In fact, a very large chunk of the crowd was already wearing them yesterday. I might consider buying a Fireflies shirt someday, and in fact I was apparently spotted on WIS News looking at some. But they cost $20 and the line was stretched across the whole store.

I've driven over to look at stadium progress a few times the last several months, not being able to see much with the construction. They still have a ways to go as evidenced by this picture, but a stadium is now in the middle of it!

You can even see the batting cages on 3rd base side of stadium,similar to that of Carolina Stadium on 1st base side:

Here is the main entrance behind home plate, which has been shown a lot in local media lately. It's actually a bit unusual compared to other recently built stadiums to have the entrance behind the plate.

Here are the stadium rules, which are generally more basic than those posted at USC's stadiums:

Here is the stadium security people gearing up. It's quite a bit of security for a minor league stadium, though MLB parks obviously have a lot more. Security was a bit lax initially until the supervisor in the blue shirt on the right asked if my bag was a camera bag. It was and I just let him quickly inspect it which just had an envelope with my ticket for tonight (my camera was in my hand). Hopefully it's not like they did with the Colonial Life Arena this March and outlawing specifically camera bags when much larger bags and purses are being allowed in more quickly.

The Firefly emblem on the stadium gates looks nice:

Looking inside the scoreboard advertises what the meaning of tonight is, even though it's using MiLB's template for Opening Day:

Mayor Steven Benjamin didn't wait to get inside to mingle with others at the stadium he's been pushing for a long time:

Ticket area looks pretty nice:

Soldiers from Fort Jackson making their way over to get ready for the opening ceremonies:

Now here's the beginning of the Bull Street development that Mayor Benjamin is pushing to revitalize this area of Columbia. Not much here right now as there is planned to be:

Fans lining up for the gates to open. I parked at 4:30 and lined up at 5 for a 5:30 opening, but I was far from the first. Here you can see about 15 fans in front of me. Some of us got there before we could even pay for our parking passes, which somebody eventually came over to help out with. One of the cars in the lot had one of the most right-wing bumper stickers I have seen: a spoof on the "Coexist" bumper stickers that instead read "Capitalist", replacing religious emblems with right-wing ones.

Here is the band that performed as people waited to go in. They played at the appropriate pace without a lead singer trying to draw attention to himself like some other live performers do in this situation. So this band was pretty pleasant.

More than 15 minutes before the stadium opened, the line behind men started to lengthen:

And of course the line for ID wristbands on the opening Thirsty Thursday was even longer:

Here are the Somogyis, wearing appropriately enough Bombers jackets. They have stuck with Columbia sports since, and can be frequently seen at both Blowfish and USC soccer games. It's good to see them get a minor league team to follow again.

Now here is a look at a grassy area towards Colonial Drive. Over 10 years ago I played a GPS game called Geocaching and one cache required you to get clues from this ground near a star monument. I was chased off the ground and the cache owner had to redevelop the cache after I got approached by police from the State Mental Hospital, which was partially closed several years ago opening up the land for the ballpark. And now that area is ironically enough a parking lot.

Here is Fireflies owner Jason Freier talking with some kids outside the gate. Hope he treats Columbia better than he treated Savannah. Though to be fair perhaps he was feeling pressure from the Mets just like the owners of the Bombers did.

And now we're inside! The ticket scanner was very slow, and had a hard time with my ticket and others. I bought an online ticket back in late February that I printed out a couple weeks ago, and when one barcode didn't work I told her to try the other one. She let me in though it looked to me like the message on her scanner said "STOP". Maybe I misread that, but at least she made the best of the situation since I had a legitimate ticket, (On second thought, I looked up my Firefly ticket account which showed my ticket as having been scanned. Maybe STOP applied to the next person in line) Hopefully it's just an opening day problem, and my box office ticket will work better tonight.

Here is a look the outfield, which I'm sure many have seen already:

Here is what the 3rd base side looks like. Seating goes all the way around the to the berm in the outfield, though most seating past the infield are picnic tables. The 3rd base side picnic tables are either season ticket holders or can be had per game for $48, with a capacity of four people per table.The first base side picnic tables are mostly for corporate outings.

Here is what the infield seating bowl looks like from the outfield:

Here is a giant inflatable version of the Firefly mascot Mason, which are serves as a kids' bounce house. Are the kids in Mason's belly, or um, between the legs?

Here is the view down the RF line, in my mind the best view in the park. You have the new development past the 1B concourse and the old hospital grounds behind right field:

The front row of seats are actually below the field. It's almost like Vanderbilt's basketball arena Memorial Gymnasium:

In case you didn't know the meaning of this game:

For the first time ever, it's time to line up Spirit Communications Park:

Here is the main concessions menu at Spirit Communications Park. Decent selection and the prices aren't horrible. Still wish there was pizza though. There are more options elsewhere in the stadium, including a taco stand I might try tonight.

So here is what I had instead, chili and cheese nachos, which in some places is quite good particularly at SC State basketball until they changed vendors. That brown stuff, is I guess, chili? It was actually okay.

The Somogyis take their usual seats they had with the Blowfish, front row close to right behind home plate:

Here is Freier reading his opening statements, standing next to Benjamin. Not sure exactly what Mayor Benjamin was wearing over his jacket in this picture.

Here are the Fireflies waiting in the dugout. Looks like Joe Tuschak is telling somebody to be quiet:

And the Drive also have to sit through this as well:

After Benjamin threw out the ceremonial first pitch, so did those who came up with the name "Fireflies". Nobody did that well.

Each player and coach was introduced as was the case on Opening Day in Charleston. They did it in numerical rather than lineup order however. The Fireflies were not introduced until they took the field (with fireworks!) and the Drive were never introduced though there lineup was on the scoreboard frequently.

Here is the crowd during the national anthem. Due to issues that Columbia has with traffic control and the parking situation only just starting to take shape, many did not arrive until after 7:30. Of course, that's typical for Charleston anytime.

Here's everybody all lined up:

Here's the managers and umpires meeting. The base umpire Mike Carroll has an interesting look on his face:

Here comes the parachutists with the game ball:

Silly for them to jump out of a plane though, the umpires had already thrown the game ball out to the mound!

Here's Greenville starter Logan Boyd warming up, getting distracted by people dropping into the stadium:

And here's the landing. One of the parachutists said the traffic problems looked like the closing scene of Field of Dreams:

The first Firefly Ivan Wilson takes the field:

And now P.J. Conlon throws the first ever pitch at Spirit Communications Park! Conlon later apologized for the pitch, which was outside for a ball. But any pitch was worth it after a waiting for it to come over a decade.

Here's Conlon pitching. Another solid outing from him, going 6 innings with 5 strikeouts, no walks, and just 1 run. Did allow 8 hits though, surprised the Mets were okay with him going 84 pitches.

Here is Greenville's Michael Chavis getting Spirit Communication Park's first hit. It was misplayed by both David Thompson at third and Milton Ramos at short, and ruled an error on the scoreboard. But who actually made the error? Nobody, and according to MiLB Chavis got the hit.

Mason, the mascot of the Fireflies, made his debut at the first half inning break. He seems to like interrupting professional pitchers who are warming up:

Now here is a better look at Mason. It's hard to design an anthropomorphic Firefly:

Leadoff man Ivan Wilson, who has been struggling so far, got the first extra base hit in stadium history below (and also the first scored hit in the stadium by the scoreboard as well):

After Wilson went to third on a passed ball, Kevin Kaczmarski drove in the stadium's first ever run with the stadium's first ever triple (spoiler alert, there still hasn't been any home runs in the stadium's history yet):

The scoreboard frequently had issues tonight. The score never seemed to stay connected, and the balls and strikes count was a bit small on the main scoreboard and often got behind. Also the Fireflies often took the score off in general between innings. If that continues. Charles O'Reilly from Charlie's Baseball Parks is going to take a notch off the stadium's rating and rightfully so. O'Reilly has visited every pro baseball park in the country so you know he'll make his way over some time this summer. At the very least, the scoreboard needs to fit the name "Winningham".

After Vinny Siena drove in Kaczmarski on a sac fly to make it 2-0 Fireflies through 1, Conlon got smacked hard by Luis Alexander Basabe (not to be confused with Drive leadoff man Luis Alejandro Basabe) and Austin Rei. Fortunately Conlon chased down Basabe in a rundown as the Fireflies clinged to a 2-1 lead after 2.

Here is the crowd down the first base side once everybody filled in:

The Fireflies also did many promotions between half innings as they promoted for a long time. But if you've been to other games elsewhere, it gets old when you recognize most of them. Fortunately the kid racing the mascot seems to finally be retired throughout most of pro baseball. What we have more that has gotten pretty old though is the dancing grounds crew, shown below. Kiss Cam is also pretty old too. The family to my right had been out getting in the long concessions lines most of the game. To my left were two women who I thought might be a lesbian couple. When one of them left, I was worried they might put me with the other one on Kiss Cam. It was hard to see because it was zoomed out and I was trying to avoid paying attention and instead focused on tweeting, but it looked like they might have. Someday somebody needs to give Kiss Cam the finger, it would be far less inappropriate than Kiss Cam itself.

Then in the 7th inning stretch we did God Bless America. This is another overplayed recent baseball tradition that dates back to post-9/11 MLB games. Despite what Glenn Beck wants, I don't want to go back to the days after 9/11. It's a solemn song (it even includes those words in the leadup verse that isn't usually sung) and having the national anthem is good enough. Besides, what is the protocol for God Bless America? It's not the national anthem, but everybody stands for it. Do you have to take off your hat as well? It seems that many do, some don't. That's why it's probably best to take off your hat after the sun goes down like I do, and keep it off. Fortunately the singer was good and kept it short enough to get the players back on the field and for Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Now here is the official attendance, which seemed a bit high. If correct, the largest ever attendance for baseball in Columbia history! And we lead the SAL in attendance as well!

That 2-1 score held up until the 8th. Kaczmarski made an out, but then the big bats of Vinny Siena, David Thompson, and Dash Winningham all came up and got a double to make the score 4-1! Only one problem: remember when we also had a 4-1 lead after 8 on Opening Day in Charleston? Don't want a repeat of that. But Johnny Magliozzi did not have to make any off balanced throws to the plate this time and got through the order quickly. The 4-1 score held up, and we got this message on the side scoreboard!

So the Fireflies have won four straight, and are now 5-3! Most importantly, we don't have to wait for win the first win in Columbia is going to be, and if I will ever see the Fireflies win. That time has finally come. Now we can just worry about seeing these guys develop and hopefully become famous someday. Overall, it was a good night. Some things can still be improved upon by the Firefly organization, but nothing too bad and hopefully it will get better. The postgame fireworks will almost certainly get old, but they fit the mood this night:

Before we get to the all-time Firefly rundown, some roster notes: Vicente Lupo has been placed on the DL with Tucker Tharp activated and he played in this game, going 1 for 4 (his hit should have been scored an error though). Pitcher Witt Haggard has been placed on the DL as well, which might explain his two bad outings in Charleston. He has been replaced by Nicco Blank, a marginal JUCO prospect out of Arizona.

Player	Position	TB	R	RBI	BB/HBP	SB	CS	0 for 1	SO	Outs	K	R	ER	H	BB/HBP	W	S	L	Score
Chase Ingram	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	15	2	2	9	2	1	0	0	154
David Thompson	3B	17	6	9	5	0	0	18	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	133
Thomas McIlraith	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	6	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	132
Johnny Magliozzi	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	120
P.J. Conlon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	32	5	2	2	12	2	1	0	0	119
Joe Shaw	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	8	2	2	5	0	1	0	0	99
Vinny Siena	2B	12	7	2	7	0	0	14	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	93
Tyler Badamo	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	2	1	1	5	0	1	0	0	91
Tyler Bashlor	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	77
Seth Davis	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21	7	2	2	4	4	0	0	0	74
Alex Palsha	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	9	4	3	3	4	0	1	1	55
Kevin Kaczmarski	RF	9	5	3	4	0	1	22	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	40
Joe Tuschak	LF	7	2	3	2	0	1	12	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	36
Dash Winningham	1B	7	6	2	3	0	0	23	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	34
Craig Missigman	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	1	1	1	4	0	0	0	33
Kevin Canelon	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	6	2	2	5	2	0	0	0	27
Jeff Diehl	DH	4	2	1	4	0	0	13	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	15
Milton Ramos	SS	4	2	4	1	0	0	16	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13
J.C. Rodriguez	DH	3	1	1	4	1	0	16	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11
Vicente Lupo	LF	2	1	1	1	0	0	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Tyler Moore	C	3	2	1	2	0	1	13	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Ivan Wilson	CF	8	1	3	2	0	2	24	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-2
Tucker Tharp	RF	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-4
Jose Garcia	C	2	0	0	2	0	0	8	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-5
Christian Montgomery	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	2	2	3	0	0	0	-13
Witt Haggard	P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	3	3	3	3	0	0	2	-58