Sanford Advances

Second baseman Sam Dexter's single to center scored Sam Balzano in the 10th inning to defeat the Keene Swamp Bats, 4-3 at Goodall Field.

Sanford advances to the next round, facing the Vermont Mountaineers in Montpelier Thursday night.

Sanford 3, Keene 0

Severino throws first pitch.

Keene starting pitcher Dominic Severino and his Sanford counterpart, Richard Vrana were in a pitcher’s duel through 4 innings Tuesday.

 In the top of the fifth, 2^nd baseman Sam Dexter singled and catcher Kendall Patrick pushed Dexter to 2^nd base while retired on a 6-3 groundout. Then 1^st baseman Matt Harris crashed a two- run home run and the Sanford Mainers went on to defeat the Swamp Bats 3-0 Tuesday night.

Sanford pitcher Richard Vrana
photo by Doc Gordon

Bret Dennis broke up Richard Vrana’s bid for a no-hitter in the bottom of the 7^th with a strongly-hit single.

Perhaps the most dazzling feat of the night was the catch made by Swamp Bats pitcher Michael Dunnigan. 

Coaching first base, Dunnigan made a nifty, if not pins-and-needles, sympathy pain- inducing, two-handed grab of a foul ball.

The deciding game of this three game series takes place at Sanford’s Goodall Park @ 6:30 pm Wednesday. 

Playoffs: Keene 4, Sanford 1

Matt Blandino gave up only one run in five innings and Matt Clancy and Ben Criscuolo shut down the Sanford Mainers the rest of the way as the Keene Swamp Bats won the playoff opener on the road.

Brady Sheetz started the game with a double and scored on catcher Rob Coman’s SAC fly to center. 

Zach Lauricella, Dominic Severino and Matt Blandio
before the Swamp Bats game v Sanford July 19.

Zach Lauricella doubled in the 4^th and scored on Ryan Summers’ ground out. Lauricella doubled again in the 5^th to drive in two runs.

The next game is Tuesday at 6:30 at Alumni Field.

I'm Batman

Batman's driver is Swamp Bats volunteer Jean Goodell and this photo was taken by the lovely Kim Goodell.

Batmobile prize tonight

C'mon, it's only a buck!

One of the more fun promotions at Alumni Field  is the Batmobile tennis ball toss. This kind of thing is pretty common in the NECBL and minor league baseball.

Every night, people are invited to purchase the right to throw a tennis ball at the Batmobile. Buy a ball for a buck, the ball has a number, give your name and number when you buy the ball.  Of that dollar, half goes to the team.  Of those tennis balls that make it into the car, one ball gets 25% of that night’s pot. The numbered ball is taken from the bunch that make it into the Batmobile, cross referenced with who bought it and...We have a winner!

 Some nights, the winner gets 10 bucks or as much as $50.00.

I wasn't there but Vicki says it looked like this.
Photo NOT  by Doc Gordon.

Dan Moylan played on the Memphis Redbirds, one of his teammates was named Skip Schumaker*.

Skip bought a junker of a car to get around and for laughs, would sometimes drive it on to the field and encourage fans to throw numbered tennis balls at the car. If your tennis ball made it, it got put into the season-long list of winners. From that list, a champion tennis ball was chosen and the car was awarded to the lucky tennis ball tosser.

After Vicki Bacon, Dan’s Mom, saw this in Memphis and returned to Keene, she told Kevin Watterson and a promotion was born. KeeneAuto Body helped in a big way with a donated car.  

Tonight’s the night for the season draw, the lucky winner will walk away with about $500.00

The view from inside the Batmobile.

*Skip is now with the Cincinnati Reds.

Swamp Bats webcasts

The W2XBS camera. Check out the sweet NBC dish antanae.

The first baseball game to be televised was a match-up of two college teams, Princeton and Columbia at Columbia’s Baker Field on May 17, 1939. Two mobile units were used to support the telecast; one filled with the electronics to transmit the game, the other to haul the camera and gear.

RCA, the corporate owner of NBC, produced the game and carried on its broadcast station W2XBS (now WNBC) to about 400 televisions in New York City.

 Some of those TV’s were display models at the RCA exhibit at the World’s Fair and others were located at RCA’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. The rest of the audience was rich people in Manhattan who owned a TV.

The account of the telecast in the next day’s New York Times reported “It was impossible for the single camera to include both the pitcher’s box and home plate at the same time. The ‘eye’ was focused on the mound for the wind up and quickly followed the ball to the batter and catcher.”

The camera. There was only one and it was as maneuverable as your refrigerator.

How times have changed.

Fans who can’t make it to Alumni Field can watch the Swamp Bats online. Folks can go to TEAMLINE to watch the game on their laptop or, if you prefer the big screen treatment, you can connect the feed to your flat screen television. On most nights, the telecasts from Alumni Field are managed by Adam Chabot and Joshua Durisseau.

Five cameras capture the action. There are cameras in the press box pointed at various spots on the field, a camera along the grandstand and one in center field to provide the classic shot from behind the pitcher.  

Adam chooses the shot you see. Unless Josh does. “It’s a team effort,” Adam says. Because there’s only so much room in the press box, Adam has the bird’s eye view while, from where he sits, Josh has the image of each camera on computer monitor. By computer keyboard, Josh feeds the image to the viewer.

Adam Chabot and Joshua Durisseau

 Adam is senior member of the video crew; he’s been doing webcasts since 2010. Josh attends Keene High and found his way to the press box through school connections.

There’s no immediate way to determine how many people have dialed up the game. One night, eight people were watching. However, the important thing to Adam and Josh was that the eight were getting a good webcast, that the pictures were going out. 

Swamp Bats profiles: The Interns

Thursday is Fan Appreciation night. The Bats resume Monday’s suspended game with North Adams at 2pm and play a make-up game versus Ocean State at 6:30.  Fans will be admitted at no charge. There will be games and events and raffles and spinning contests and the Score’s toss and more.

Sarah Pelkey, Ellie Marshall, Erin MacLean, Greg Englehart and Harrison Durfee

And none of it could happen without the interns, those young people in the purple shirts who make a Swamp Bats game a community event.

“We could not do this without them. They are the glue that allows us to put on a great show every night,” says Swamp Bats president Kevin Watterson.  “They do the hard jobs, the dirty jobs that no one wants to do. They come in early. They set up. They stay late.”

Video scoreboards with fireworks and replays, out of town highlights and prompts to clap and cheer have been around forty years but, there is a human element to these games that’s missing on the MLB level. “We get kids active, get fans involved,” says Sarah Pelkey.  

Move It
photo by Doc Gordon

A big part of fan involvement is the Move It dance. It’s called Instant Recess”, explains operations management intern Ellie Marshall. “It’s based on Vision 20/20, a program to raise exercise awareness with Cheshire Medical to make the Monadnock region the healthiest in the country by the year 20/20.”

Sarah often leads the Instant Recess as fellow interns Ellie and Harrison Durfee join in. But every night, Sarah’s dance partner is the most famous of the Swamp Bats, Ribby. 

“Adults love Ribby, not just kids,” Sarah says. "Ribby’s known through the region, not just the ballpark.” With appearances at Pumpkinfest, senior centers, area events and, Reading with Ribby, Sarah has a good point. 

Ribby
photo by Doc Gordon

 Harrison Durfee supervises the Bat kids and Greg Englehart coordinates Swamp Bats baseball camps.

The interns also assist sponsors. “The sponsors come in and the interns set them up. Where should we put our table? Do they need a power source? Any time you are impressed with what’s going in, it’s because of our interns,”  Watterson says. Supervising the interns is Operations manager Erin MacLean. “She’s a great leader, great communicator and an ambassador for the organization,” says Watterson.

Even Ribby reports to Erin.