Good News for Senators Fans...

As you read below, the Senators are playing better now that the calendar changed. The GM pointed out they are 4-2 in May and it may be a good sign for this team. I think its a great sign and even though they have built themselves a huge hole in the division, they still have plenty of time to turn it around.

I have more great news for Senators fans. I was not at the double-header last night but I did listen to part of game two on the radio. I know the team lost the first game 9-6 and game two was going the same way for 5 innings. Going into the bottom of the sixth Erie was winning 6-0. But in the bottom of the sixth the guys exploded for 6 huge runs and then added another in the bottom of the seventh, which was the final inning since it was a double-header.

I definitely think that exploding for 6 runs and completing the comeback last night will be huge for this team. 6 runs is the most they have scored in any inning this year. This could definitely give these guys some momentum going into a big series this weekend against Akron.

Let's Go Senators!

Senators Have Winning Record.....in May

Hey its a start, right?

Since May 1st the Harrisburg Senators have a 4-2 record. That isn't too bad. What makes it even better is that the wins came against the teams in 2nd and 3rd in the division, Reading and Erie.

Now can they continue this play. Most people figured that eventually they would turn it around as this team is more talented then their record indicated but can they flip the season just like that?

Next up is a 3 game series against Akron that starts tonight. Akron is the best team in the Eastern League with a 19-5 record. They already have a 4 game lead over second place Reading.

The Senators....they are 13 games back.

Luuuuuuuuke!

Luke Montz is back! That's awesome for this team because Luke is a great catcher and a great hitter! I hope the guys get a nice boost from Luke coming back. They beat Reading last night and that is also a good sign. The season is still young and this team can work itself back into the race but it will be a long road.

Luke Montz, Welcome Back!

Let's Go Senators!

19 hits but...

The Senators had 19 hits last night but they also had 13 guys left on base and 2 errors. Oh, don't forget the base running errors as well that aren't accounted for. You and I would've both thought that when you read 19 hits you expect victory. Well those 19 hits turned into only 6 runs because of untimely strikeouts and mental errors. They lost the game 7-6.

This is probably the most frustrating loss of the season so far because this was the breakout game at the plate that the team really needed. They just made too many mental errors that cost them the game. 2 fielding errors and at least one caught stealing will cost you games no matter how many hits you get. I know when you are 2-15 and in the midst of a long losing streak these things, "just happen" but I am beginning to wonder if these things are habits and not accidents.

The physical errors and just not being good enough is something the coaches and fans alike should be able to deal with, but Mr. Stearns please do something about the mental errors that are costing this team. It's only April but we are 1o games out of the playoffs and with games like this one and mental mistakes like this, I don't see this getting any better anytime fast.

Oh by the way, we lost today 9-3. I don't mean to be so negative and I am honestly not trying to upset anyone, I am just speaking from my point of view. I will be at the games supporting the guys either way but I really hope they can turn this thing around because before this losing streak, I had thought this team had a chance to really compete!

Come On Senators!

Revolution and Barnstormer Update

Well the baseball season in Harrisburg isn't very good. Verb touched on how bad the Senators are yesterday so I won't go into that too much. Let's look instead at how the Barnstormers and Revolution are doing after their opening weekends.

Lancaster:

Things started off good for the Barnstormers as they welcomed over 8,000 fans to opening night against the Newark Bears. It got even better when they won 5-2 in that game. It was the fifth straight opening night that they have won and only allowed 2 runs.

Unfortunately for Lancaster the weekend would not finish as nicely as it started. After the opening night win they proceeded to lose the remaining 3 games of the series to fall to 1-3 to start the season.

After that first 5-2 victory the Barnstormers failed to score more than 3 in the other 3 games and could not hold Newark to less than 5 as they lost 9-3, 5-3, and 5-3 to finish the weekend.

The Long Island Ducks come in for a 3 game set Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before the Barnstormers and Revolution renew their rivalry this weekend in York.


York:

The Revolution started the season on the road with a big win opening night over the Bridgeport Bluefish. (what the hell is a bluefish anyway?) It was the first season opener win for York in their history.

They won the opener 8-4 but dropped the next two by a combined 17-10 before winning the 4th game of the series 3-2 on Sunday.

Their 7 game road trip to start the season continues on Tuesday in Southern Maryland (Waldorf to be exact) where they will play a 3 game series against the Blue Crabs.


So while the Senators are doing their best to be mirror images of their parent club, the Washington Nationals who are 4-13, with a 2-13 record the Revolution and Barnstormers are hopefully going to start a little bit better.

I have yet to be to a game this season at any of the parks and am not interested in heading over to City Island anytime soon. When the stadium is completely done next season the success of the team possibly won't matter as much but the seats still aren't very good and the team is horrible.

I am hoping to get to a Revolution game soon however as I live only 20 minutes from the stadium and it looks great. I walked around the perimeter of the stadium a few weeks ago and I am absolutely looking forward to seeing my first Revolution game this season.

Let's hope the Sens can turn their season around and hopefully the first series was just a slip up from Lancaster and not a sign of things to come.

Ummmm, Really?

Ok, so far the Senators are 2-13. That's not good! They have 3 games away until they come home Friday! I don't really know what to say about the team but hopefully manager John Stearns can get the guys going. Ian Desmond was placed on the DL so that hurts but hopefully the guys can get back on track so that when Ian comes back we have a little winning streak and he can help us get back in the fight for the division.

I don't really have a solution for the problem right now. I would say we need to hit and pitch better but that would be stupid because I'm not letting you in on anything you don't already know. I hope they figure it out soon or else it will be a long summer over at Metro Bank Park!

Let's Go Senators!

Here is What I Think So Far...

I went to Opening Night at the new Metro Bank Park and overall I was pretty impressed. The seats in left field aren't finished yet but I did notice that some seats in right field are done and I didn't even know they were putting any there. They look a lot like the red box seats that are one the first and third base lines. The boardwalk isn't finished yet so I didn't get a very close look but I know once everything is finished I am going to sit out there for a game because those may turn into my favorite seats in the park.

The new scoreboard is awesome! It is so big and with the mobile cameras they now have traveling around the park, the new features are definitely going to be a big hit. The two ribbon boards are pretty awesome too. My only complaint is that on opening night they were barely used for anything functional. They have a very small version of the score but mostly they were used for advertising purposes. I know this will bring in a lot of money for the team but from a fans point of view they are a bit useless. They look nice though!

The brand new grand entrance way is pretty nice and provides a much easier and much quicker way in and out of the stadium. I'm not really sure if they are done with it yet but if they are its definitely an upgrade and is ok with me. The wall right now is a chain fence with some billboard poster banner type things hanging on it. From what I remember this was not the plan but right now it looks fine. I hope they upgrade and put padding and stuff on it but I guess if they leave it the way it is, it will be fine. I know the players will be much more reluctant to run straight into it though.

They put an Appalachian Brewing Company stand in and that looks nice. I didn't eat there because I usually just get some hot dogs, fries and a drink. This is what I did on opening night and my experience wasn't very good. It took them a long time to get my fries to me and then they only had one stand for condiments. Needless to say, I waited in line for KETCHUP for about 5 minutes and then when I tried to get some onions they had been frozen and I honestly got more ice chunks on my hot dogs then I did onions. Hopefully, this is an isolated incident or else I may be walking out to the boardwalk to get food every time and that will get really old.

As for the team, 2-7 is not a very good start. They won opening night and then for the home opener but otherwise we aren't doing so well. They played great the night I went but obviously that was an aberration so far. I did get a nice greeting from my favorite Senator, Ofilio Castro as he threw me a practice ball and then shook my hand and signed it for me. They players seem to be much more outgoing this year. Again, I went to the home opener so I can't base everything off of one experience, but that was really nice of him. I don't see why their record is so bad. They seem to have a lot of good young talent, I just think they are struggling early in the season and if they can string a few wins together I am sure they will get back on the right track.

They do have a better record then the big league club. The Nats are 1-10, but I will say this, if the Senators don't get going and struggle all season, I suspect a lot of fans will stop going to games because the team isn't winning. I will let you know what I think of my next experience when I go and let's home the team gets on track and does it soon!

Now It's Metro Bank Park

By a show of hands, How many people want Riverside Stadium back?

Personally I am tired of all the corporate names on stadiums. I understand the business behind it but still it gets a little ridiculous.

For the past few years the ballpark on City Island was named Commerce Bank Park. But now that Commerce is merging with another bank and becoming Metro Bank they are changing the name to Metro Bank Park.

It isn't like the name is too long or doesn't sound right...in my opinion it sounds fine. But I liked Riverside Stadium better.

How many of you had their hands up? Let me know in the comments what you think of this.


I borrowed the image above from Will Bentzel, please visit his site for more.

The New Commerce Bank Park

I had been meaning to go over to City Island for awhile to see how far along their progress of the new stadium is and finally this past Sunday I was able to get there. I got mixed feelings about it after I was done looking around. First, I really think its going to look great when it's done. I can only talk about phase 1 of the project because that's all they are working on this year but it really looks like a major upgrade. Just the fact that they are going to have seats in the outfield is awesome but what they have up shows me that they are really going hard at this and really trying to put something awesome together. The new video board is up and that looks great. I can't wait until opening night because that's when we will get to see it in action.

Here are my bad feelings about the project. They only have about a half of a month to finish what they started. Opening night is April 16th and they have said that this will all be done by then. As of Sunday they were missing one huge part of the project. The Wall. That's right, as of Sunday they had not reconstructed the new wall. I really don't know anything about construction and I honestly don't know how many guys and vehicles they have over there so I don't know how long the wall will take but that's a pretty important piece of the puzzle. I really hope that on opening night, when I'm there they don't have some makeshift orange mesh temporary wall up because that will really put a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. They other thing they don't have as of yet are the actually seats in the outfield. They have the structure up to support them but the actually seats have not been placed yet. It was hard for me to picture where they are putting them but again, it seems like everything is going to look great.

I have read that Senators officials say that everything is going as planned and I guess they could continue working on the part of the project that is outside the stadium as the season progresses but I really hope the wall is finished by the 16th.

For some really good pictures and information about the Stadium and the plans go here. Will is a great writer and his pictures are superb!