As if #calledup isn’t enough baseball for a summer, I finally made it to a Trenton Thunder, AA affiliate of the New York Yankees, baseball game on a picturesque Sunday afternoon at Samuel J. Plumeri, Sr. Field at Arm & Hammer Park. My main motivator for attending today’s game was mostly geographic because I was going to be in the area to pick up my daughter. However, the Thunder were also playing the Richmond Flying Squirrels, AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, a team my daughter and I saw play in Richmond a few years ago. After spending 11 good years of my adult life in Williamsburg, VA prior to moving to the Lehigh Valley, naturally I was drawn to today’s match up.

The game didn’t disappoint with Trenton winning in the bottom of the 9th off a game-winning double. The most exciting part of the game for me though was watching Edwin Quirarte, sidearm reliever for Richmond, (featured in the banner photo) pitch for parts of the 7th and 8th innings. It reminded me of watching Kent Tekulve, relief pitcher for the Pirates, when I attended games at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh with my dad as a young boy in the 1980s. Watching a sidearm pitcher work is almost as special as watching a knuckleballer. Almost.

Random thoughts related to today’s game:

• Joe J. Plumeri II, co-owner of the Thunder, is a William and Mary grad (1966) where I used to work as well as where I earned my master’s degree. He funded Plumeri Park for the W&M baseball team, a beautiful facility in my opinion. Go Tribe!
• Plumeri is also co-owner of one of our #calledup teams, the Lakewood Blueclaws.
• When I lived in Williamsburg, Richmond was home to the Richmond Braves, AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, prior to moving the team to Gwinnett.
• I noticed when writing this post, the Trenton Thunder’s name is singular, which is an anomaly in team names as far as I know.