Cheney Game Report 4/19/07 -- With Photos

So, I've discovered that there are just not enough hours in the day. I took this afternoon off to come home and catch up on stuff, but left work at 2 p.m. instead of 12:30, as I'd intended. Ugh. Someone just needs to hire me to be a full-time photographer, and that way the other stuff would be less-likely to get in the way. Heh.

Anyway, I wanted to jot down a few quick notes from the game I attended on Thursday at Cheney. It was good to see Dan Rohn back in Cheney, and, for good measure, it only took him one Rainiers batter to get tossed from the game. See, Adam Jones lead off the bottom of the first by popping up towards Justin Leone, who, not so atypically dropped the ball. By that time, Adam Jones was rounding second, and headed towards third. Hard to tell by this angle, whether or not he was safe:



Much to Dan Rohn's chagrin, the umpire called him safe. Neither the Grizzly covering third on the play...



...nor Dan Rohn liked the call. But Adam Jones seemed to enjoy the umpire ejecting Rohn:



Later in the game, Justin Leone still was holding a grudge, even after hitting a home run. I don't think he was saying nice things about the umpire's mom:



He even showed the ump his "O" face:




Jim Morris Parque actually held his own in the game. He's got a funky delivery:



And he surrendered a HR to Justin Leone. But, other than that, he pitched decently, and seemed to get better as the game went on. It happened to be $1 hot dog/beer/pop/coffee/popsicle night, and I had my 5-year-old, so I don't know how crowded the beer garden was. I suspect that the other half of the crowd that didn't show up for that was probably in some way connected to Parque -- a Puyallup resident. Several of the kids he's coached were there, including the nice kid sitting next to us that put up with Joey throughout a good part of the game. I was glad to see him pitch effectively for the Rainiers, and get his first win in a long, long time. He had some control issues, but overall it wasn't a bad performance at all.

Prentice Redman, serving DH duties for the night, hit his first HR of the season:



But Wlad lead the club with two hits. It was the first time I've seen him in person. Looks like a good one.





Byron Embry came in to close the game out.



He reminded me in so many ways of a good Emiliano Fruto:



Similar in physique, similar in delivery (though Embry uses his legs a whole lot more than Fruto) -- had I not remembered that Fruto was pitching in the Nationals organization, I would've thought he was pitching last night.

It was a great game, and Joey had fun meeting Jason Churchill. Especially since Joey's a bit of a charmer and wound up schmoozing Jason out of the three baseballs he'd collected from the Cheney Stadium roof by the press box. Actually, it was the first time I'd met him in person, too. After the game was over, we went down by the R's dugout. Robby Johnson happened to come by to say hello to some friends, I suspect. Snapped this portrait of him:



Can't wait to get to more games up there. The full photo album is on my photography web site. There's even a bonus link to a Byron Embry pitching motion Flash file...
I'll try to get to Parque's tomorrow.Er, later today, when I wake up.