A Sit Down Chat With Ryan Cordell

Pics Courtesy Of The Spokane Indians Facebook Page

Had a chance to sit down and chat with Ryan Cordell before Monday nights 2-1 Indians win against Eugene.

Download or stream the interview here (great for smartphones)

Hallelujah

@SeanTWidmer your man Jamie Jarmon had a game yesterday, he must have seen the post!
— Brandon (@brandonarose) July 8, 2013

I earned this tweet. I hope to earn a WHOLE lot more of them. In fact I hope that at some point Jamie Jarmon himself tweets me something that I can't post on this blog because it is just too scalding. At the beginning of the season I was riding high on #17 and then after recording only 1 hit over his first six games before getting injured I, like the petty fan that I am in a a "what have you done for me lately" world, had switched my loyalties elsewhere on the team. So I feel that the following message is in order:


Dear Jamie Jarmon,
You went 3 for 4 last night with 3 RBI's and a walk. Keep it up. Make me eat crow. Make me eat crow with a hint of regret and embarrassment. I'm sorry I'm a moron.

Yours until you go on a slump,
Sean Widmer

PS. I still think you have the coolest look on the team.

Pic courtesy of the Spokane Indians Facebook page

The Indians wrap up their series against Eugene tonight at 6:30. Andy and I will be there. Will you? And if so where will you be so we can bum some money off you for nachos and kettle corn.

Oh, and we missed yesterday's game thanks to co-ed slowpitch softball... (yeah, I'm embarrassed too) So can we pretend like yesterday is today and boo the umpires until they start taking things personally again?

...And We Left Early

Tonight is on us.

This is not the kind of text message conversation that is fun to have in any way, shape, or form. The Spokane Indians were riding a smooth 6 game winning streak into tonight's game at home against Eugene (AT HOME). A six game winning streak that had started last Sunday in Everett. A 10-9 win off a ninth inning home run from Ryan "Stretch" Cordell. A winning streak in which the Indians had come from behind in 4 of the 6 games. A winning streak that included an extra innings walk off double by Brandon "Vegas" Garcia on Yoke's Dollar Feast night. A winning streak that had the Indians on 3 games back of first place in the division and 2 games over .500. Why in the world would you ever let a text message conversation like this take place during a magical winning streak like the one Indians fans were enjoying? The terribly disappointing answer in just a minute.

First of all, I have to say that it's great to have the Indians back home. They were only gone 6 days after the 8 game home stand  but it felt like 3 weeks. It didn't hurt to have them come back with a bang... OF FIREWORKS (it's late, let this one slide. Thanks).

If you've never been to an Indians game on the 4th of July then go get your tickets for the next one right now, unless they're already sold out. A packed house, fireworks, smiling faces because people had the day off work, and special 4th of July jerseys make for a "must go" trip to Avista Stadium.

Plus the Indians came back from a 3 run deficit to score 10 runs over the 6th, 7th and 8th to get a win that made the fireworks much more enjoyable. Then the very next night (a packed Dollar Feast Night) the Indians rallied again to win in extra innings. Two nights back at home and the Indians had given each person in attendance their moneys worth. Saturday night was sure to be more of the same right???

Let's get back to that opening picture of the text messages between Andy and me. It's the bottom of the 5th inning, the score is 8-4 Eugene, we're hungry, we're tired (because we had such a loooong day that included eating lunch at The Elk...), and the Emeralds are spanking our bottoms. This is when the conversation starts.

"Well, what do you think? Time to call it a night?"

"Oh man, Jack in the Box is sounding good."

"You can't come back every night. Maybe we should head towards the parking lot."

"It's 9pm, I'm old and grumpy and tired. This one's over. Plus we can always just listen in the car."

Yeah, we left. Just like the Miami Heat fans before us we left early. Not because we had anything good to do. Because we are old and are poor losers. And just like that the Indians tried to punish us. Next thing we know it's 9-4 and the bottom of the ninth rolls around. By this time we'd both enjoyed our free tacos from Jack in the Box, we've both driven to our respective homes, the Indians have gone 3 up 3 down in the 6th, 7th and 8th, and Mike Boyle is just ready to get done with the post game show.

Did I mention that the Indians were riding a 6 game winning streak and that the word "comeback" is part of their everyday diet?

-Chris Garia singles and Gabe Roa hits him in with a double. 9-5.

All good, I've got my seat reclined pretty far back and am ready to get out of the car, head inside and find a movie on Netflix to put me to sleep.

-Ryan Cordell singles and Barrett Serrato walks (bases loaded) with no outs.

Not worried, tonight just isn't the Indians night. Man I'm glad I'm not their to see them blow this oppurtunity.

-Triunfel grounds out into a double pla.... Oh wait. Another Emeralds throwing error?? Roa scores, Cordell scores, Triunfel is safe at first... 9-7 Eugene. Only one out.

What am I doing in my car right now? Why am I in the car and not in my seat at Avista? Sean, you're an idiot. It's ok though, the magic has to be gone now. 9-7 final...

-Kevin Torres doubles. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. Marcus Greene doubles! The game is tie... NO IT'S not. All game long Tim Hullet has been making weird baserunning decisions. He's tried to steal bases at the worst times with the weirdest guys and all of these have failed (I believe they had 3 guys caught stealing when the Indians were threatening). So instead of sending pinch runner Saquan "Say what" Johnson home on this double he holds him at third base. 9-8 Eugene with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out but when you mess with the magic Tim Hullet you get burned. Janluis strikeout, 2 down. Chris Garia flyout, game over. And instead of running home for the game tying run, Saquan Johnson just walks across it to get his stuff and head to the locker room.

I knew we should've left early. Phew.

PS. This is the last time we leave a game early this season.


FANTASY TEAM UPDATE:

Team Andy:

Alex Gonzalez- He's the 2 million dollar man still, rocks sweet watches and woo's the ladies with his smile when he's walking around Avista stadium. But so far I haven't been overly impressed with Chi-Chi. He did finally get to pitch a whole 3 innings on Friday and did ok only allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run (dropping his ERA in his five games to 5.91)

Joe Jackson- Still injured.

Cam Schiller- We posted our interview with Cam a couple of weeks ago and he talked about being a notorious slow starter. He's going to need to become a notoriously fast mid-season guy though. Despite getting looks at first base, second base and third base and playing them all well he is struggling at the plate. He's batting .179 for the season and only .139 over the last 10 games. That's slower than a slow start. His hair is still phenomenal though.

Alex De La Cruz- First of all you need to get down with the Instagramming fiend Alex De La Cruz. Second, he's doing pretty well for himself. 7 appearances in relief, 1 win, 11 strikeouts and THIS

.

Brandon Garcia- He's hitting .312 in July and his nickname is "Vegas. That doesn't suck. Wouldn't mind seeing the RBI number sail up though. Only 1 so far this season.

Team Sean:

Yohander Mendez- "Man's Game" Mendez is doing alright for himself boasting the 2nd best ERA in the Northwest League (1.02 over the first 4 games he's started this season). He's also only given up 14 hits which matches his 14 strikeouts. Yohander is dialed in right now.

Gabe Roa- Ouch. Gabe Roa made me look good by picking my opening pitch out of the dirt but hasn't quite done the same for himself. Outside of playing a really solid second base he isn't really hitting the ball... at all. Roa is hitting .160 on the season and .143 over the past 10 games. 

Jamie Jarmon- Who?

Alberto Truinfel- Love him. Had a monster HR on Friday night to force extra innings, is hitting .277 in July, and has been pretty solid over at shortstop.

Richard Alvarez- He's only made 5 appearances this season and the first four weren't good. In fact they were bad. His last outing was the exact opposite throwing 3 scoreless innings in Tri-cities. It's going to be harder and harder for me to get all the way on the Alvarez band wagon though until he gets an Instagram that rivals De La Cruz's.

Sunday is a day game for the Indians. 3:30 first pitch from YOHANDER. We won't be there so please cheer loudly and obnoxiously for us.

Meeting Nate The Great

Creating that atmosphere, it's kind of a big deal. It's more than just the players on the field that bring people to Avista stadium. It's the food, it's the view, it's the award winning field, it's the section leaders, it's the kids singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", it's Otto and Doris taking pictures, and yeah, it's Nate The Great. The Spokane Indians got a new "on field host" this season. If you've been to a game this year you've seen him walking the walkway, dancing on the dugout, and cheering on mid-inning contests all while sporting a bow tie. Andy and I figured we needed to sit down and chat with the newest addition to the Spokane Indians family and see what it is that makes Nate The Great tick and find out how the new gig is going. Yes, we realize, it's 25 minutes long of banter with Nate but when you sit down with the man with the golden pipes you don't really want to cut him short. Sit back, relax and get to know your new on field host for the Spokane Indians, Nate The Great:

Download or stream the interview here (great for smartphones)

The Name Game

So here's the deal…

The Indians have been on the road for a few days now, and while this weekend I was preoccupied with Hoopfest, that has now come to a very disappointing end, We are back to all Indians all the time.

During our off time I got to thinking...We are now far enough along in the season where it is not good enough to know the players' names  numbers, positions or even hometowns. No, we are now to the point of the season we start calling players by nicknames. That's right, we were now to the point where we cheer for our club with a little more creativity and personality.  The problem is we don't have or know Indians nicknames. There may be some clubhouse names floating around but unfortunately we are not privileged to those little gems. So Sean and I are taking it upon ourselves to hand out nicknames to our current Indian players the way we see fit and we reserve the right to be completely random. Some players will get obvious ones, some players it's is completely made up. So let's play the Name Game…

Alex "Chi Chi" Gonzalez - Surprise surprise our Golden Boy 1st Rounder already came pre-packaged with a great childhood nickname.  As if Chi Chi didn't already come with a the makings of a great pitcher, he came with a alias perfect for the mound. I probably would've just gone with the simple and subtle old fashioned "AG" but hey Chi Chi seems to be working alright for him.  Thanks for making this one easy.

"Cam the Man" Schiller - Cam has got a lot of love from from us on this Blog but for good reason…HE'S THE MAN!  He is all over the place, all the time. Cam does it all for the Indians 1st Base, 2nd Base, 3rd Base, consistent base knocks, post game interviews with dorks writing a blog…What doesn't this guy do?

Saquan "Say What?" Johnson - Not so much a nickname, but more of a chant.  Sean and I have both thought from Opening Day that Saquan seems like the jokester of the team and the guy that keep things light in dugout.  So what better way than to have a little fun than every time the Avista announcer Scotty Lewis says Saquan the crowd roars back "Say What?"  I envision this repeating about 3 or 4 times "Saqaun…Say What? Saqaun…Say Who? Saqaun…Say What? Saqaun…Say Who?"  This name idea is stole from DToms but I happily take all the credit.

"Big Z" Mike Zouzalik Not to be confused with the surfing penguin Big Z played by the legendary Jeff Bridges.  Our Big Z from the gets his name for no other reason than the fact that he's tall, standing at 6'3", and his last name begins with a Z. 

Brandon "Vegas" Gracia - Brandon may get the coolest nickname, and for no other reason than he is from Las Vegas, NV. That simple.

Chris Garia "CG3" - Oh man, where do I start with this one.  Much like Clippers (Ca-Ching!) PG Chris "CP3" Paul, our CG3 rocks jersey #3 and is a man of many talents.  Great in the field, hell of a bat, and quick as snot. CG3 fits him perfectly…and he's got 3 dingers on the season. 

Alex De La Cruz "Cosa Salvaje" - In our draft post I blindly compared De La Cruz the Charlie Sheen's character in the movie Major League "Wild Thing" Ricky Vaughn, and labeled him the latin Wild Thing "Cosa Salvaje".  Little did I know that I was dead on in my comparison. Its not a physical comparison but more of a character trait comparison.  Straight faced, focused, with just enough edge to make batters wish they were on his team so they didn't have to bat against him.  He has a wild side to him on the mound, but damn if he doesn't throw with some gusto! 

Roberto Duran "The Little Big Hurt" I know its hard to compare a guy that has yet to jack one out, to one of the games best power hitters, Frank Thomas, but Duran may fit the bill as far as the Indians are concerned.  Every time  steps to the plate he tries to take the cover off the ball…Boasting a modest 5'11" 190lb frame and bearing the #35 we can't help but deny the similarities.

Yohander "Tre-Mendez" Mendez - Yohander is Sean's boy so I'll leave this one for him to name.
-Andy, I hi-jacked your post to say that I struggled with this one a lot. "Of Mice And Mendez" got stuck in my head and I couldn't get it out. Then I went to "The Human K Card". Then "Yo Mendez brings all the girls to the yard". Then "Roca y Fuego" because it's a direct translation of "Rock and Fire" but the translation makes no sense to anyone who speaks Spanish. I settled with Tre-Mendez because so far he has been, well, tremendous. 

Kevin"Killa Kev" Torres - Killa Kev has an intimidating stone cold look to him. Every time he approaches the plate he looks like he wants just destroy the ball (in which he did a few days ago getting his first HR of the season). I think even the umps are a little afraid of him.

Ryan "Stretch" Cordell - I envision Ol' Stretch robbing players of home runs hit 20' over the right field fence by not even leaving the ground. He just raises his glove in the sky and shoots arm out like Inspector Gadget.  

Indians are back home on the Fourth of July so we'll get our first chance to start using these sweet nicknames.  For now I'll be practicing nicknames listening to the radio broadcast in my car.  

Nicknames still to come:
Barrett Seratto, Ryane Slack, Kyle Castro, Janluis Castro, Jamie Jarmon

The Walk-Up Music Playlist. Spokane Indians Style

It's something I've always been captivated by, walk-up music. Walk up music is the music that is going to take you as a batter from "minding your own business while taking a few hacks in the on deck circle" to "let's destroy a pitchers composure and totally destroy a baseball" mode. It's something as a kid you would do in the sandlot. Walk to the plate humming your favorite song mentally pumping yourself up for what was sure to be the hardest pine cone ever hit (Yeah, I grew up in a third world country. We hit unopened pine cones with sticks and I've got the scar to prove it). Nothing sets the tone for any event better than music. Try me here. You have a meeting with the boss today? Bust out the headphones and listen to you favorite song while walking towards his office, you'll walk in with more confidence. On a drive to propose to your girlfriend (Andy, this means you)? Throw on your favorite jam and you'll be ready to knock the proposal out of the park! Music, it's a game changer.

That said, over the past few games I've compiled a list of songs that the Indians play for their walk up music. Now as of right now I don't think the players are choosing what music they walk up to individually. I'm hoping that this will change in the next few weeks and that each Indian gets to choose the song that they walk up to (like they do in the pro's), but as of now the walk up music is just kind of random for each team.

If you don't have Spotify, download it. Now. Get the app, get it on your PC, get it everywhere because it's awesome. Once you have it you can subscribe to the playlist below and prep yourself on your drive to the games by getting familiar with the songs you'll hear snippets of later that night.

Also, I know I'm missing a bunch of the songs so if you know some I'm missing let me know so I can add them to the playlist:

Hot Diggity Dogs And A Walk Off To Boot

When the party was nice, the party was jumpin' (Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo)
And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yippie Yi Yo)
I tell the fellas "start the name callin'" (Yippie Yi Yo)
And the girls report to the call
The poor dog show down
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)

-Baha Men

That was the very first thing I heard as Solomon pulled me through the 3rd base entrance of Avista Stadium last night. The first ever "Bark In The Park" was underway and I was already in way over my head. Let's get things set straight right off the bat, I'm not a pet guy. Really, I'm not an animal guy. Never been my thing. My sister had pets growing up but I never really latched onto them or cared that we had them. Most of  that stems from the fact that all cats and most dogs make my eyes swell up to the size of softballs and the rest comes from the fact that pets can't play video games with me or break down the X's and O's of an NBA game. Solomon and Charlie (Andy and Jaelyn's dogs) are my boys though and they deserved a trip to the ballpark.

Now like I was saying earlier I'm not a pet guy. I've never owned my own pet. So when Andy handed me the leash to Solomon I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Do I walk and Solomon just follows me? Does he take off sprinting and I just have to keep up? Do I whistle like Iron Will and Solomon's brain and my brain become one and we work as a team ("team" in my brain is more like a Megazord than a team)? I ended up utilizing more of a hold on tight and pray that Solomon doesn't jump on anyone. 

After the first five minutes of getting the hang of how to work the leash we were in the ballpark making our way towards the left field bleachers which were dedicated to the dogs. This was when I had my "Hey everyone, I have no idea what I'm doing and all of America hates me now" moment. As we got to the end of the left field entrance and the Baha Men were wrapping up on the sound system the following announcement was made, "Please rise and remove your hats for the singing of the National Anthem". Normally this is a favorite moment of mine in the ballpark. It's not so great though, when you've got a dog that is excited to be in a new environment AND is surrounded by a million other dogs that need to be sniffed. It's even worse when the gal singing the anthem decides to hold every note of Francis Scott Key's 1814 smash hit. There were probably between 50 and 70 dogs at the ballpark last night and only ONE decided to sing along... Solomon. Like I've said over and over, I don't own a dog. I've never owned a dog. I'm not a dog whisperer. I don't know the words you say to dogs so that they listen to you. So for what felt like 30 minutes the entire stadium stared at the knucklehead in left field that couldn't get his dog under control. Just like that I was hated by the non-dog owners for being disrespectful and hated by the dog owners for not being a good pet owner. Immediately I was the outcast of the night and Solomon gave me the look of "got ya sucker".

Once that was done though things settled down out in left field for Andy and me. Well, besides the constant "woof woof woof" from section leader Tommy The Tank (I truly believe his goal last night was to insight a dog riot that would lead out onto the field so that he could film what would turn into an amazing viral video), and the one foul ball that landed in the middle of the largest section of dogs. A foul BALL that caused every dog in the section to go into a "Who the heck threw this and how do I return it so they can throw it again" uproar. We made it to the 4th inning before taking the dogs back out to Andy's rig where he has turned the back into a palacial estate for the dogs. Next year I hope they do it again because it really seemed fun for the dog owners and ended up being smooth sailing from what we saw. And next year I hope Jaelyn takes her dog with Andy so that I can sit in the right field bleachers, as far away as possible from a night of gripping a leash so tight that the muscles in my hand are still sore today.

PS. A magical baseball game happened last night too. For more on that (with some special video) click the "Read More" or just keep scrolling down.



Magical stuff happens on weird nights. Once we had the dogs put away, Andy and I were able to head back into Avista and enjoy what ended up being an amazing ending to a very successful series against the Boise Hawks (spoiler, the Indians won increasing the winning streak to 4 games). The weather wasn't really co-operating. A misty rain was the story all night and it got pretty thick from about the 7th inning on. Between the cold wet "rain" and the fact that it was Monday night, Avista stadium was pretty dead by the 7th inning.

A 2-2 game going into the 8th with just a couple hundred die hards fighting the cold, the wet and sleep to see  if the Indians could keep the win streak alive (spoiler, they do). The Indians scored on a throwing error by JOSE DORE (more on him in a bit) to take a 3-2 lead into the top of the ninth. A four game win streak was in sight as was bedtime. That's when one of the Indians employees, Nick, who had been at the stadium since early that morning and was showing signs of fatigue, decided to tempt fate. "We've got this one." NICK! Have you learned nothing about baseball??? Those words are notoriously famous last words. Sure enough after a couple basehits and a ground out by Shawon Dunston Jr drove in the game tying run we were all trying to figure out if this rainy late Monday night was going to turn into an even more miserable, more rainy, more tired early Tuesday morning.

Before we get to the walk off homerun by Chris Garia, a walk off blast so monstrous that it will have an actual monster named after it in the next "Monsters Inc/University" movie, let's talk about the greatest person to heckle at an Indians game... the first base coach for the opposing team. The first base coach isn't a guy from the managerial staff, no it's just a player that I assume no one wants to hang out with in the dugout because he loves brown nosing the manager. This series that guy was our new friend, Jose Dore. All weekend we yelled at Jose Dore. About his cleats, about his stance, about his wrist tape that he wore while coaching first base..., about his jogging style, about anything and everything Jose Dore had to offer. And you know what, when the skipper subbed him into the game on Monday night in a 2-2 game we were in his head. So much so that Jose Dore threw a routine toss to first into right field giving the Indians a 3-2 lead. SO much so that in the bottom of the 10th Jose Dore "First base coach extraordinaire" turned back into Jose Dore "Third baseman extraordi-ERROR":

The moral of that long story. Heckle the third base coach. (Thanks to some ACTUAL good fielding the Hawks got out of that inning with a double play. Dore was not involved in that)

An empty-ish ballpark is a weird place. When the 11th inning rolled around it was almost 10:30pm and with the rain going on hour 4 the crowd consisted of anxious Indians employees ready to get off work, Andy, me and a handful of die hard fans that apparently had Tuesday off. When a ballpark is empty like that you really feel like you're part of the game. If you yell something, "NO WAY JOSE!! NOT ANOTHER ERROR!", the entire stadium hears it. Players and all. So in the bottom of the 11th with a man on base and Chris Garia, the man who hit two home runs on Sunday, stepped up to the plate he most definitely heard each and every fan say "Please for the love of all that is humane in this world send us to our cars!" and Chris Garia responded. Unfortunately I didn't take video of Chris Garia hitting a home run ball over the lights in left field (I was too busy rewatching Dore's error on a loop), but you don't get a celebration like this at home plate unless you put a ball into the Fairgrounds parking lot:

Looks like it's going to be a rain out tonight (the storm has hit Spokane while I'm writing this at noon) and Chi-Chi "The 2.1 million dollar man" Gonzalez will have to wait until tomorrow to get his second start in Spokane. Until then I'd suggest Chris Garia work on a bat flip for him homers. He doesn't have one yet and apparently he's going to need one.



PS. I forgot to mention I had a Bruchi Steak Cheesesteak last night at the game. In my attempt to eat one of everything I'm currently at: 
- Said Cheesesteak
- Normal Hotdog
- Slice of Pepperoni Pizza

PPS. The cheesesteak was delicious.