We launched the "Name the Team" contest at 12:01 Monday morning, and the entries keep rolling in. So far, we have nearly 500 entries, and over 200 unique names.
But here's the weird part... since we've launched the contest, we have received entries in 51 of the 61 hours the contest has been up. Yesterday morning, we had one entry at 4:27 a.m. Just this morning, we had an entry at 1:40...
And yet, nobody has submitted "Red Eyes" or "Sheep Counters" yet. Odd.
Fan Forum member johnnyv22 brought to our attention that the Vegas jealousy continues, this time from Ed Graney of the Review-Journal...
"A new facility is the key and what would really get people excited," Logan said. "But we're not counting on (Mayor Oscar Goodman) because we can't count on him. If a stadium deal was going to happen with Oscar, it would already have been done."
Of course, but why would Goodman and his cohorts be interested in a project that would create jobs and additional tax revenue? Reno, by the way, will have done both with its new state-of-the-art ballpark in 2009.
Which makes it official: They not only have better college football coaches up there, but also smarter politicians.
At least Ed doesn't resort to any flannel stereotypes.
For those of you following Sidewinders starter Max Scherzer's exploits, he's getting even more national attention. Scherzer's fantastic start (1.17 ERA, 38 strikeouts in 23 innings) earns him nothing but praise in today's Yahoo! Fantasy Sports article.
With the start he's having, it's unlikely that Scherzer will still be at the Triple-A level when the Sidewinders franchise is in Reno in 2009. Still, there are quite a few prospects in the organization that could be wowing fans in Downtown Reno next season, including...
Jarrod Parker- Single-A South Bend...1.86 ERA, 11 K's in 9 innings of work
Cesar Nicolas- Double-A Mobile... .360 batting average, .443 on-base percentage
Emilio Bonifacio- Triple-A Tucson... leading the PCL with 9 stolen bases
Looking forward to seeing some quality baseball on the river next year!
UPDATE: Scherzer was called up for Arizona's game against San Diego on Sunday. Good luck Max!
I know that the A's and Red Sox officially opened up the baseball season last week, when the Red Sox and A's split a two-game series in Tokyo. But it's hard to get that "baseball is back" feeling when the games take place in the middle of the night in another hemisphere, and the other 28 teams are still playing Spring Training games.
Not to mention the fact that both teams came back stateside and continued playing pre-season exhibitions... the A's against the Giants, and the Red Sox against the Dodgers.
But now that the Nats and Braves got things started last night with the first game in North America, and most of the other teams start today, it really feels like the season is getting underway. Our parent club, the Arizona Diamondbacks, will begin defending their NL West title in Cincinnati today, if it stops raining.
Looking at their Opening Day roster, you can see just how talented the Diamondbacks' system
is. Of the 25 players on the roster, eight
played for the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders last year, and 13 played there in the past
two years. And four of the starters made their way through Tucson, including starting pitcher Brandon Webb.
Meanwhile, Randy Johnson is slated
to be the Opening Day starter for the Sidewinders as their season opens up
Thursday, as he works his way off the Disabled List.
Long story short: in just over a
year, Reno is in for some exciting, high-level baseball.
In a completely unofficial capacity, I'm heading to the Wolf Pack baseball game this afternoon at 2... I'll be sitting in Section 1, wearing a blue shirt and a San Francisco Seals cap. Andrei will be there too, looking far too overdressed for a ballgame.
If you're there, stop by and say hey, and let's talk baseball.
Interesting quote from Ron Kantowski's column in the Las Vegas Sun regarding Reno's new ballpark...
Reno is getting a new $50 million Triple-A baseball stadium.
Las Vegas is not.
Next, they’ll be giving us the flannel shirt off their back.
Wait, really? Is that the Reno stereotype, that we all wear flannel? Meaning that we're grunge musicians? Lumberjacks? Neil Young fans?
I'm not sure I was aware of that.
Our groundbreaking was a big success! Thanks to the hundreds of fans who came out to see us get started, and for those of you who couldn't make it downtown on Monday morning, we hope to see you out at the ballyard a little over a year from now.
We have an image gallery of the festivities posted at BaseballReno.com, which includes a large version of the new conceptual rendering. Take a look!
Just a few short days until we break ground on the ballpark... Monday at 11 a.m. at the northeast corner of 2nd and Evans. Representatives of the Diamondbacks will be on hand, and the latest renderings of the ballpark will be released.
If you're still on the fence, one last item to consider: there will be peanuts and kettle corn.
As for the weather, so far it's looking like we'll be back to relatively warm temperatures and we'll miss the effects of the weekend storm. We should have known what we were getting ourselves into when we scheduled the groundbreaking right after the Wolf Pack baseball home opener, which virtually guarantees a snowstorm will hit.
Welcome Reno fans! I hope you're as excited as I am about Triple-A baseball coming to Northern Nevada.
Everyone here with SK Baseball is working hard to get things ready to play ball at 2nd and Evans in April 2009, a little over a year from now. There's a lot to be done, from building the ballpark, to creating the team identity, to developing ways to become a true community asset.
We're getting started with Step #1 on Monday, February 25 at 11:00 a.m., when we break ground on the ballpark. Please join us at the free event, and try to imagine the crack of the bat and the smell of hot dogs on Reno summer nights. It will be here sooner than we think!
In the meantime, you can stay in touch with us here on the blog, or on the Fan Forum at BaseballReno.com. See you there!
-Brett
