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Editor’s Note: Local teacher Ben Fawbush is sharing his adventures through the Reds organization via a Lilly grant with WZBD. Follow along with each post as he takes an inside look at professional baseball in America.
By BEN FAWBUSH
Special Report for WZBD
Day Air Ballpark. Home of the Dayton Dragons, the High-A minor league baseball affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.
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One word sums up this stadium: beautiful.
Around my area we are lucky to have such an amazing minor league ballpark in Fort Wayne, Indiana known as Parkview Field. Parkview Field was built in 2009 and Day Air Ballpark (formerly Fifth Third Field) was built in 2000. Even though Day Air is nine years older than Parkview Field, you would never know it by walking around the concourse, being upstairs in the suites and press box area, or being down under the field in the tunnels leading to the clubhouses and playing field.
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This stadium was top notch; I would go one step further (as would my son Ryne, who accompanied me this afternoon) to say that this stadium is as nice as the one up North in Fort Wayne. You can tell by the feel and vibe of the downtown area, the fans, the employees, and the players that much pride is taken into keeping this stadium well maintained.
Ryne and I began the journey at 9am heading from Decatur to Dayton. Once we arrived we checked into the front desk and received our media credentials. The entrance lobby for the media is pretty sweet. There are showcases of Dragon memorabilia, plaques of former Dragons who have reached the big leagues, and one awesome plaque showcase displaying and bragging about (and rightfully so) their 815 home sellout streak. This sellout streak is the longest in any college or professional sport! The streak started in 2000 when the Dragons first opened up in Dayton and continued for 11.5 years, breaking the Portland Trail Blazers previous streak of 814 games.
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After reading and hearing about the streak we checked out an interactive display that shows all of the former Dayton Dragons. Ryne scrolled through until he found his favorite Reds player, Joey Votto. Â
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Once we were finished in the lobby, we headed up the elevator to the suite area and the press box area. Once in the press box area we met Tom Nichols, Director of Media Relations & Broadcasting. Tom was the first “voice of the Wizards” when Fort Wayne started playing professional baseball back in the 90s. Tom gave us a tour of the press box area that included the scoreboard production room, the television production room – since today was one of 25 home games being televised, the radio broadcasting booth, the television broadcasting booth, and what I call “the analytics booth.” Ryne and I spend most of our time in the analytics booth. Here we watched the two men in charge of the pitch clock start, stop, reset, and chart the clock with every pitch, hit, balk, or change of inning. We also got to watch the man in charge of putting everything you watch on the app into the computer for viewers to see. This part was pretty cool as their is a device behind home plate, hanging from the rafters of the upper press box area, that monitors every pitch speed and location, every angle of a swing, the velocity of the ball leaving the bat (exit velocity) and approximate distance the ball travels. The distance is all calculated by some mathematical formula in the computer, but it doesn’t account for wind speed and direction. So, a ball may barely go over the 402 foot marker in centerfield, but the computer says it only went 396 feet. This guy didn’t do all that much as it was a lot of the computer doing the work for him, but he still had to update lineups, runs, outs, and such as the game went on.
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Tom then took us down to the lower level where the hallway was lined with canvases for all of the Midwest League Ballparks that Dayton will play at – sidenote: We are lucky to have 3 amazing stadiums within 2 hours of our city – South Bend, Dayton, and Ft Wayne…the other stadiums didn’t look half as good as these three.
Once at the end of that hallway we turned left and headed towards the Dragons clubhouse, batting cage and weight room. We then took a right and made the long walk to the dugout and out to the playing field. The weather was perfect for an afternoon baseball game.
The view from the field was amazing; it looked like a brand new stadium. After we left the field and dugout we were on our own, media passes around our neck and we went anywhere and everywhere we could; multiple times! We thought about eating some of the food in the press box that was for the media, but instead we went down to the concourse and ordered our cheeseburger baskets and drinks. I guess the media gets a discount on their meals and I wasn’t complaining one bit!
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After we ate, we went back up to the analytics booth and watched the game for 80% of the time. We watched Dayton struggle yet again, losing 4-0. None of my guys played today. Sal Stewart had the day off as did Hayden Jones (who got nailed in the back by a foul ball while catching a bullpen session in about the 4th inning).
For all of you baseball fans out there, have you ever seen a catcher interference call on a batted ball when the ball traveled almost 400 feet to centerfield? I never have until today. Â
I will be back in two weeks as the Midwest League wraps up its regular season on September 9 and 10. It just so happens that the Dragons will be hosting our own TinCaps to finish up the year.
At that time, I will be talking to Sal Stewart again, Hayden Jones, and some others.Â
Thanks for following me on my journey.
I can’t wait for it to continue.
Follow more of Ben’s blog on WZBD.com using the tag #lillyblog or by clicking here.