American Association Sunday Insider: Somewhere I Belong

There were times while doing This Week in the Association where I wished we'd take an occasional Monday off. It is quite a commitment to dedicate yourself to doing something on a weekly basis on top of everyday life. But when it's gone, you don't realize how much you miss it.

It's been a tough start of the season. Sitting at home watching the games, not really feeling like doing anything else. Other than the occasional Townball game, I've felt detached from the outside world. Although I said my time was going to be limited on the road this season due to other commitments, I was feeling stir crazy.

Then I discovered I could do a road trip where I was only gone for four days, I could see five games in three cities, checking out seven of the 12 teams in the league in the process. More importantly though, it was about seeing friends, old and new from around the league. Saturday and Sunday in Sioux Falls for the Canaries vs. Kane County Cougars, Monday night in Lincoln for the Saltdogs vs. Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, Tuesday morning for the Saltdogs vs. Milwaukee Milkmen (didn't discover that one till checking out the schedule on Monday afternoon), then to Sioux City for a night game on Tuesday as the Explorers take on Lake Country.

I began the drive out to Sioux Falls around 11:30 am on Saturday. It's around three hours plus for me, depending on where I stop. Casey's off of I-35 North of Albert Lea and the I-90 exit seems to be the go to stop for me. Fueling up there, I loaded a Minnesota Twins broadcast from 1977 to keep me entertained the rest of the way to Sioux Falls. 

Sioux Falls Saturday night energized me. It's the closest feel to a St. Paul Saints game for me. Kane County being in town was the perfect formula. Kane County skipper George Tsamis joined Tanner Hoops and myself for some pregame in the parking lot. Or as I call it, a Green Onion Brat feast. We did them every for every Saturday night home game at Midway Stadium and CHS Field for years, with Tsamis often joining the festivities. We had an interesting discussion in the parking lot pertaining to the American Association Hall of Fame. There are lots of players currently in the league that will be arguably first ballot hall of famers when their careers are done. Max Murphy, Jabari Henry, Josh Allen were among those brought up. All three played for Tsamis at one time. 

I did color with Hoops for the Sioux Falls win on Saturday night. It felt great to be back on the air again, though I did feel a bit rusty and at times I was letting my mind wander. I'm never going to be one of those color guys who played the game and can discuss the physics of pitching and hitting, but I hope my years of following the league and knowledge of its history brings something to the table. 

I splurged and stayed at the Sheraton. I've vowed that there will be no more hotels on the cheap on the road again. No longer having to crash on Dan Vaughan's couch because I didn't want to pay the hotel rates for that particular evening. Though the late night baseball and life conversations before crashing on the couch at Casa Vaughan were always a highlight. But I digress. I tuned in the only game going on at the time, Winnipeg vs. Kansas City where there was a no hitter until too many of us spread the word around and jinxed it. 

With the WiFi being less than stellar on Sunday, I ended up writing the Sunday Insider in the lobby of the Sheraton. I had a late breakfast at my usual spot in Sioux Falls, Marlin's. I feel sorry for people that have to work on weekends, especially in the food industry. I had my steak omelet with pancakes and left a healthy tip to my server. Anything to try to make their day go better. 

From there it was back to the Birdcage to do color for the Sunday afternoon game. It's tough to do color when it's two teams you really like, but you're doing color for only of the teams. I'd like to think that I do a good job of toeing the line. It would've sucked for Kane County to end a six game road trip being swept in Sioux Falls, but the Canaries were also needing a sweep in their quest to recover from a slow start. It was a Birdcage kind of day with the wind blowing out. Four home runs went to dead center field, as if there was a specific jet stream carrying balls out of the park. The Cougars prevailed in a back and forth affair.

Usually I'm on the road right after the Sunday game. I did contemplate at one time at least driving to Sioux City on Sunday and heading the rest of the way to Lincoln on Monday, but decided to have a full day where I didn't have to drive. I ate at the Boston's across from the Sheraton. I recommend it. Boss's Chicken was good, but I think having Boston's there is an upgrade. 

I left around noon for Lincoln after picking up some Flyboy Donuts for the trip which I never did finish. It's getting to be a trend for me to have eyes bigger than my stomach on trips. My appetite is spotty, which is a shame as I'd like to check out the local hot spots to eat at on the road, but I'm never too hungry. I chose to take a different way to Lincoln that consisted of lots of country highways. But knowing I had the time, I wanted to try something different instead of taking all interstate. Knowing Fargo-Moorhead was going to be the guest that night, I listened to the latest downloadable Jack Michaels show. It was an interesting one as the topic, top four all time movie lines from a sports movie was a fun one. Though they never mentioned any lines from two of my most quotable movies, Semi Pro and Slap Shot. After getting to Lincoln and checking into the Holiday Inn, I made my way to Haymarket Park. 

I met the new voice of the Saltdogs, Rich Ray and had a chance to talk to him for a bit. Then talked to Michaels. It was the first time seeing Jack since his mother Marge passed away. We had some common ground to talk about as I told him about my Dad's recent passing. I ended up sitting in the spacious booth with Michaels for the game. One in which Lincoln got a great five innings from former Goldeyes pitcher Jhon Vargas en route to a Saltdogs victory. 

With the quick game, I was able to knock out a goal of mine. I saw all these Runza restaurants the last time in Lincoln. I stopped at the Omaha Storm Chasers ballpark where there Runza sandwich caps were sold from when they had a game where they were rebranded as the Runza Sandwich. It was really good. I wasn't all that hungry at the time and could've skipped the onion rings, but the Runzas were very good. It's seasoned ground beef and cabbage in a fresh bread pocket. Very easy to enjoy while driving. 

As I should've learned from going to an early start doubleheader in Kane County then hoping to get to Miwaukee in time for a night game, things don't always go as planned. The 11 am game at Haymarket Park dragged on for three hours and 37 minutes. The Milwaukee Milkmen defeated Lincoln 17-8. This ended up in me having to change my plans for checking into my hotel in Sioux City before the game, instead of having to go to straight to the ballpark. Granted the trip to Sioux City got derailed outside of Omaha for another stop at Runza.

It was great to be back in Sioux City. The promotion was Pack the Park. It didn't completely fill the park, but it was a great crowd on a Tuesday night. I truly believe Sioux City is a baseball town, they just need some prodding to get out to the ballpark. Having a stadium that seats over 4000 and having a track record of averaging 1000 fans makes it tough to build the thing up. Why buy season tickets when you know you can show up whenever it's convenient and you know you can get a good seat? But boy was the atmosphere good when you have over 2000 on hand there. Those on hand saw a pretty good ballgame between Lake Country and the X's with the Explorers pulling away late to get the W.

After the game I did the nightly recaps from the Press Box waiting for Dan Vaughan to get a wrap on his stuff. We ended up chatting and as usual when I'm on hand, we were among the last to leave the ballpark. Unfortunately with not having the time to check in, and having an early drive home the next morning, I didn't get to go back to Casa Vaughan and catch up with Gay Marie who had just arrived in town during the ballgame. 

It was another different route home the next morning. Instead of the usual route, I was making a stop in Holstein, Iowa and Tiefenthaler. Tiefenthaler is the maker of Bratzilla available at Lewis and Clark Park. My former manager at work has become a good mate of mine. He is from the Sioux City area, so I got a shopping list from him, and of course bought a bunch of brats for myself and brought them back to Minnesota. Folks, when you go to an establishment that is a sponsor of your ball club, always let them know you saw their ad at the ballpark and that's what brought you there. It lets them know that advertising with the team works and they'll keep on advertising. I made sure to let the people working the counter that I found out about them through the Sioux City Explorers. They asked if I wanted free tickets, I played the "I'm media" card but thanked them for the offer. 

Thankfully an 11 am first pitch in Kansas City between the Monarchs and RedHawks on Wednesday morning provided me with a soundtrack to get me home as I was given a three hours testimony about Iowa being 85% farmland. 

It was nice to get home. I had to get back to take care of the four dogs while my wife went to Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days. My Townball team went to nearby Dundas for a game on Wednesday night. I wanted to sleep instead, but I'm glad I went. Malt O Meal was the sponsor and they had more than enough big bags of cereal to take home. You never know what you'll get for a promotional item. Plus Faribault beat Dundas for the first time in my lifetime. A long game led to a late night doing the daily recaps, but it was worth it. It also led to an interesting stat of seeing six games in four states in five days. Safe to say it was maintenance days the next two days. 

I hope to hit Sioux City and Sioux Falls more sooner than later as I felt like my time there was rushed. And of course I'll get to Fargo for the All Star Game. Any food suggestions for Fargo will be welcomed, I just hope to have an appetite.