Live blogging the 2010 Midnight Sun Game

Panners' Jesse Sikorski, whose bat helped sink
the Heroes last night, will hope for a repeat
tonight -- or early tomorrow morning.

If you're like me, and stuck in the Anchorage area (or outside of Alaska all together) on this summer solstice, you're kicking yourself that you'll miss the 105th Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, Alaska; one of ESPN's Top 10 for 2010 baseball sights to see in the US of A.

If you understand what I'm talking about, and you're not going to make it to the game, fear not. I'm going to be watching the whole thing (or at least as much as I can catch in between wiping baby noses and butts) on PannerVision. That's right, PannerVision, which broadcasts every Goldpanners game which isn't interrupted by the technological wonkiness of a place like Alaska, and has been doing so since MLB.tv was just a sparkle in some baseball/tech geek's eye. Here's the link again for full video of the game and the festivities leading up to it, and that link works all season long for every Goldpanners game. And if you ARE in Fairbanks and you or someone you love aren't on a deathbed, get on down to Growden Park. I've been assured that tickets are still available and that they will cram as many souls into the park as are willing to pay the price of admission. The gates will open at 8 PM for the festivities and preliminary action.

But for those of us who just can't make it out to the park, PannerVision will come in a close second and definitely beats the hell out of not watching it at all. And while I was hoping to do it straight from the ballpark this year, I still hope to add to the excitement by LIVE BLOGGING this event the whole night through. If you're watching from home -- or if you can't catch it and just want to grab some quick updates at work or on your Blackberry or whatever -- you can refresh this page, see what's going on, read my scouting notes as they occur to me, and leave your own comments. It'll be almost like a live chat if you want to leave some comments and participate. So why not check it out?

It's quite a while until the first pitch, so I'll shoot you the details and you can check back in later. First pitch is at 10:30 PM; the location is Growden Park in Fairbanks where the Goldpanners will take on the Heroes of the Diamond. They'll play through the "night", where at one point it will probably get slightly dusky before "dawn" shortly thereafter when it becomes broad daylight again. If you're not familiar with what the game is, check out its great history on Goldpanners.com.

The updates are "below the fold". You have to click the "read more" link right down yonder or go straight to the full page by clicking HERE to read the updates.


7:50 p.m.: The gates at the ballpark will open in about ten minutes; the Goldpanners are already on the field taking BP in the cage and tossing the ball around. You can watch them on Pannervision and listen to some groovy tunes. It might be a good idea to get on soon and try it out. There's going to be a lot of people on there tonight. If you follow Todd Dennis on Facebook, he's "the man" in Goldpanner land and can take all your technical difficulty reports if such a thing is necessary. But I've run into a couple times where I've lost the feed and had to refresh the window before it would work again, so I'd suggest that if such a thing happens to you that you go through all the standard steps (stop and restart, refresh the window, give it two minutes, stuff like that) before you get too excited. But then again, maybe I'm more laid back about that stuff than most.

8:05 p.m.: The gates are open and the first fans are trickling in. Johnny Thornton is playing on the PA. But don't let that scare you, head on down!

8:50 p.m.: A band (not sure who...anyone know?) has set up behind home plate and is playing some tunes while the Heroes of the Diamond do their warm-ups. I'm not disparaging the band at all when I say that the trumpet, organ, and stand-up bass music is a far cry from the rap-rock stuff they were warming up to on Thursday in Anchorage. I don't k now if that was intentional or not, but it never hurts to throw the opposition out of their element a little bit...

I checked the weather forecast and it's a beautiful night/morning for a ball game. It's about 75 degrees right now, with the temp dipping down to around 50 degrees by the end of the game. The sun will set late in the game, about 1 am, but it will only get "dusky" -- not fully dark -- before rising again around 3. As always, artificial lighting is strictly forbidden!

9:50 p.m.: The flood gates are fully open and the place is getting packed. If you were waiting to scoot down to the park, and you're reading this from home, and you have any hopes of finding a place to put your butt, you'd better get down there pronto. I was assured that it wouldn't be sold out but that doesn't mean it won't be standing room only.

The Pannervision feed went down for a while but it's back up now...if you tried to get on and were unsuccessful, try again, it might have been them and not you.

9:52 p.m.: Here's a screencap from the game cam. If you aren't in line to get in yet....uh....I hope you have some comfortable shoes?

10:25 p.m.: The national anthem is being sung, the teams are ready to go, and the first pitch is coming soon. If you're not watching the game, get to the park or pull up Pannervision now!

10:40 p.m.: Ryan Cabral, the right-hander out of Southern California, is getting the start on the mound for the Goldpanners tonight. What an honor for a young pitcher to be a part of this long and storied baseball tradition. This is Hall of Fame worthy stuff; Sean Timmons has his jersey from winning the 100th MSG hanging in Cooperstown. And now Cabral is getting the start for the home team in #105. This will be a moment he will cherish his entire life.

11:05 p.m.: The feed went down for a while. Goldpanners acting GM Todd Dennis: "nobody knows the problem except for Murphy". Someone needs to punch that Murphy and his law right in the face! After two innings it's still 0-0, though, so at least we didn't miss much.

11:15 p.m.: Is my image choice prophetic or what? #25 Jesse Sikorski drives in the first run of the game to make it 1-0 Panners. I love that this guy is finding success in this league. He's a DIII guy and it's easy to assume that he would be overmatched, but he was EPIC for John's Hopkins and it just goes to show you how deep the prospects run in baseball.


11:39 p.m.: The feed keeps cutting in and out so I'll try to cobble this together...Cabral got a little wild in the fourth, walked at least one guy, gave up a ground rule double I believe (?) and now it's 1-1. That's all I know. More to follow.

11:52 p.m.: OK, the feed is gone. This sucks. Word from acting GM/Goldpanners Tech Guru/General awesome guy Todd Dennis: "Network absolutely swamped. Rebroadcast to follow immediately." So I don't know if that means the live stream is being canned, or if it's worth it to try again in a little bit. That leaves me scratching my head...do I call it a night? Do I wait up and see? How long? Anyway, I'll finish this beer while I figure it out so I'll be on at least that long, and there's some buzz in the twitosphere about this event. It's convenient that all the baseball fans in my timeline who are still awake are in Alaska and most of them actually at the game, so I can relay some of their thoughts to you while we're waiting to see what happens. And I guess I wouldn't feel too embarassed if I was the Panners; I guess if there was ever a silver lining, having way too many people demanding coverage of your event to handle is a pretty good one.

So here's what I know. Heroes threatened in the bottom of the fourth (?) but one was caught stealing to end the inning. On to the top of the fifth. Goldpanners drive in a run some way, some how, and last I heard it's 2-1 Panners.

Midnight: It's midnight! There's still sun...err, well, some sun. Here's one of those twitter people I was talking about. Phil Ackley, Fairbanks resident and game spectator on Twitter: "Tourist guy behind me is complaining because they haven't turned on the ball field lights yet." Alaskans love to roll their eyes at tourists so let's all point and laugh! But seriously, I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is the Midnight Sun Game. The whole concept is that artificial lights are not necessary. They might be nice, and Growden is equipped with lighting, but they're not necessary and they are also strictly forbidden. This is a tradition that dates back to long before any ball field in the world had stadium lights. It just doesn't happen, that's the whole point. Not everyone gets it. I think the Taiwanese national team forfeit the game one year because of it.

12:17 a.m.: Bottom of the sixth, Panners up 2-1.  Since I can't tell you anything about tonight's game right now, what about some previous Goldpanners games? Derrick Chung looks like he's got some pop in his bat. I haven't seen him hit a homer yet but I've seen him drive the ball long and hard either just foul (last night), to the deepest part of the park to be nabbed by the CF at the track, etc. Looking at last year's stats (just to make sure that this isn't just a fluke) he was second on the Panners in slugging percentage and had a couple homers. So I guess it's probably true that he's got some power in his swing.

12:29 a.m.: Still 2-1, bottom of the 7th. Phil Ackley, on Twitter: "Midnight and the game is interrupted for the Alaska Flag Song, bewildering the visiting team as per usually." Video evidence.

12:38 a.m.: Twitter feed dying down, game still off. I hear the Heroes have tied it 2-2 but I don't know how so I'm going to bed. I'll catch up on the game tomorrow and see if I can't have anything more profound to say than what's already been said. 

7:24 a.m.: Rolled out of bed and followed Todd's updates on Facebook and...I'm not sure if I should be glad that I went to bed instead of waiting up to find out the conclusion of the game which went until 3:30 a.m., or angry that I missed such a tremendously epic baseball game. The Goldpanners won it again, 4-3, in the 15th inning. I'm looking at the throng of parents and far-flung Pannerfans mobbing Dennis' Facebook page last night and realize that THIS is why I love baseball in Alaska. It's like the old story of the Goldpanners' first NBC tournament in Wichita where they pushed wheelbarrows around the Fairbanks bars, collecting dollar bills to wire to the team and keep them playing for one more day (and then another...and then another...). It's not always pretty, and things don't always come off the way they should. Sometimes it seems like we're flying by the seat of our pants. But if you want to talk about die hard dedication to the game I defy you to find me a more hardcore league than this one anywhere in the world. Anywhere. 

I'm pulling up the local paper -- the Fairbanks News-Miner -- to get the report. Apparently they had to stop writing the details in the 12th inning to get them to press in time for the daily. The Heroes went up 3-2 in the top of the 15th and threatened to send the Goldpanners to defeat in their own marquee event, something that rarely happens anymore, but the Panners scored two in the bottom to earn a walk-off victory somewhere around 3:30. Crazy. Just freaking crazy. Once I get a more detailed account I'll pass along who the heroes of the game were.