Designated for Assignment, Part II: Frederick Keys

Our journey to all (or most) of the minor league ballparks in the DelMarVa region continued last Saturday to the lovely provincial town of Frederick, MD. The Frederick Keys, the Orioles' single-A affiliate, have been playing at Harry Grove (ha) Stadium for as long as I've been alive, and from the looks of the stadium, for as long as anyone in the organization has been alive. It is the first of the ballparks that we're going to that I have actually been to before, but it was when I was but a wee boy, so I don't remember much of my original trip.

The night didn't get off to a great start - although we found the stadium with no problem and parked in the Keys' spacious (and free) parking lot, as soon as we got out of the car it started raining. I immediately threw a fit as I was sure that things were not going to go my way that night (this happens more than you would think), but luckily the rain stopped by the time we got to the entrance and never came back.

My happiness with that development was quickly tempered when, as we were approaching the entrance, we saw men in their 40s clutching stacks of 5-6 Matt Wieters bobblehead packages. It was Matt Wieters bobblehead night, and while I knew that and was excited about the prospect of picking one up, it seemed a little bit too good to be true. I mean, baseball in Frederick, MD, fireworks night, and a bobblehead? Well, I suppose it was too good to be true, because the 40-year-old comic book guys got there early and snapped up all the bobbleheads, leaving hundreds of little kids in tears right there at the entrance.

Not to be deterred by this minor setback, my girlfriend and I set out to find the official Keys merchandise store which was, conveniently, right next to the entrance. After considerable internal debate and struggle, I got myself a flex-fit fitted batting practice hat, and my girlfriend got a very stylish Keys t-shirt.

Harry Grove stadium, like I said earlier, is old. It's not without it's charm, though - it is extremely utilitarian. Entrance. Merch booth. Bathrooms. Hot dog place. Popcorn. Field. There was a fairly large covered seating area behind the left field seats where anyone could go to eat at picnic tables, which was a very nice touch. I chowed down on my footlong corn dog which I could dip in my choice of BBQ sauce or Ranch dressing. Yeah, I said Ranch dressing.

The field is pretty small with rediculously high walls. In fact, I think the walls were at least as high as the York Revolution's "Arch Nemisis" which claims to be the largest wall in professional baseball. You know, if you can't trust independant league baseball promoters, who can you trust?


As you can see, we sat right behind home plate. They were fantastic seats, and the fact that we are able to get incredible seats for about the same price as any other seat at these games is quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of this minor league excursion. The seats were so good, in fact, that we were sitting right next to the major league scouts, which were easily identifiable due to their Hawaiian shirts and "too cool to be at this game" shades.

The game was a good one between the Keys and the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a Royals affiliate out of Delaware whose stadium we'll be going to next Saturday. I got to see players that I actually knew and had heard about, like Billy Rowell, the O's prospect who I swear to god swung at every single pitch he saw that night, and Mike Moustakas, who has a funny name.


Both teams' uniforms pretty much sucked aside from the fact that they followed the contemporary minor league convention of wearing their socks pulled up with no stirrups. The socks aren't the older white sanitary socks like players used to wear under their stirrups, but rather a one-color sock that's more like a soccer sock than a baseball sock. Everybody wore those stupid things. Everybody, that is, except for the Blue Rocks' manager:


I mean, c'mon - doesn't he look classier than everyone else out there? Its no contest! It's even as though they're all standing around in awe of his awesome hosiery. Yeah, I said hosiery.

The highlight (or lowlight, depending on your point of view) of the trip came when we broke down and bowed to our craving: Chili Cheese Boardwalk Fries, served in a novelty helmet. Take a look at this beautiful specimen:
Is that American or what? Please note that the chili cheese fries could not be stuffed into a standard small novelty batting helmet - they had to make a larger non-Keys branded helmet to accommodate the full glory of the mixture.

The game came down to the last inning, and the Keys won it on a bases-loaded single up the middle by some guy who won't make it to the bigs, and then there were fireworks. They let the kids run around the bases afterwards, but the line to do it literally looked like the line to get on the Sidewinder rollercoaster at Hershey Park the summer that it opened, so I passed on that opportunity.

Good times in Frederick - next week, Delaware. Hey. We're in Delaware. *yawn*

And now, the Keyote and a chubby kid: