Reflections/Photo Post: Fire @ Miners, 6-14-2010

Miners reliever James Allen closed the door on
the Fire last night, striking out two in 1.1 IP.

What a wild one at Hermon Brothers Field last night! Both the game and the weather. Despite morning sun and temperatures hovering around 70 degrees early in the day, by game time things had taken a turn for the worse. The wind was blowing in hard from left field (which could have robbed at least one homer) and a thick blanket of clouds had rolled in, blocking out the sun and casting a chill over the Mat-Su valley. But baseball fans, myself included, must have found enough wooden items to knock on, because not a drop of rain fell on the field and we got 8 1/2 innings of exciting baseball in.

But enough about the weather, what about the game? This match-up between the AIA Fire and the Mat-Su Miners was quite the contest. But before I go into the details, let me just clarify something: last night I came to the ball park (late, no less) with the #1 goal of snapping as many photos as possible. For my first round of games for the season, that will probably be my main concern, so I can get a backlog of "stock" face photos and whatnot to use for my later articles. With that as my primary goal, I didn't have time to keep score, and my thoughts for the evening are specific things about a few players and events, not a recap of the game with notes on the players who performed the best. If any readers want to share their thoughts on the night, you're always welcome to leave a comment. So, moving along...

Miners RHP James Allen stood out to me for the way he closed out the game. He came on to pitch in the middle of the eighth with runners on first and second, with the Fire threatening to tie the game up, and pretty much shut the door on them. He wasn't perfect -- he walked the first batter he faced to load the bases -- but I really appreciate the fact that he faced some high-pressure situations and seemed to relish the challenge. He ended the Fire rally in the 8th with a strikeout of Aaron Parnell, and when Cody Terry got a lead-off single in the 9th, Allen responded by striking out Will Watson and making a pick-off throw that led to Terry being tagged out in a pickle. One more fly-ball out was all it took to get James Allen his first save of the season.


I ran the stopwatch on some runners, taking home-to-first times, and while I don't want to get into any numbers based on the very small sample that I have, I will note that Aaron Parnell of the Fire appears to have at least average, possibly better, foot speed. He stole ten bases with UNC Pembroke during the college season, so yeah, that seems to jive with my data and suggest that he's definitely not a slowpoke. Nothing conclusive, but more of a "note to self" to keep watching his legs.

And now for a little scouting report on the folks on the other side of the fence: the infamous Bleacher Creatures of Palmer were out in force last night, as always, proving once again to be one of the most spirited crowds in the league. During the eighth inning I talked briefly with Fire outfielder Charles DiBella from Alabama Birmingham. I was leaning against their dug-out taking photos when he struck up a conversation with me about the Mat-Su Miners' fans, a loud throng of which had positioned themselves nearby. "I love y'alls fans," DiBella remarked, "The thing is, when you're the visiting team, you're supposed to catch hell."

Below you'll find a collection of the photos out of the set that I took that I thought were the best; or you can view the complete set of 103 photos that turned out. The cloud cover resulted in them coming out a little gloomy but there's still some good ones in here. If you're reading this because you would like to use these photos on your own blog or whatever, feel free to do so; all I ask is that you credit them to 49thstatehardball.com. I only "borrow" photos for this blog if I have permission to do so, and I always credit the source, so please have some courtesy and return the favor. I've managed to tag most of the ones in the gallery but a few players' names escape me, so if anyone has a lead there, I'd appreciate it.