I saw Tommy Hanson, and it was awesome.

Last night, I made my first trip to the LEHIGH VALLEY IRON PIGS Coca Cola Stadium in Allentown to see YOUUUUUUUUUUR Gwinnett Braves come to town for the only time all year to take on THE PIGS. First thing you notice when you walk into the park...this team has a weird complex going on. There are pig related puns everywhere...yet, they serve pork at several stands throughout the stadium. Why would you wanna eat your team mascot? Their mascot is a giant gray pig named Ferrous...the puns. OHHHHHHHHH THE PUNS. So cute. Now, pic time...

Theres a nice shof of the scoreboard...pretty nice for AAA, right? And yeah, they have lawn seating. 6 bucks! Pretty cool...our tickets were the row right behind the Braves dugout, for the bank breaking price of 14 bucks a piece. Considering I didn't pay for my ticket, I spent less than 30 bucks on concessions which is some sort of record for me...hot dogs were TWO BUCKS! And they were great. Draft beers? FIVE DOLLARS, and they had Shock Top! Awwwwwwwwwwwwesome. God bless Allentown.

I kept shouting that he could outproduce Francoeur. I hope he appreciated it. Dude delievered tonight, going 2/4 with a 2 run double and a run scored. What does he have left to prove in AAA? I have no idea.

Tommy Hanson was pitching, and as you all know, Tommy Hanson is completely awesome. I felt he was working too deep into some counts, but he still only threw 90 pitches in 7 innings...4 baserunners all night...one on a 3-2 walk, one on a broken bat flair, one on a fly ball inexplicably dropped by Gregor, and a solid single by Lou Marson. At least the legitimate hit was by an actual prospect and not one of the 30 year olds LV was trotting out all night. Seriously...I was looking at Mike Cervanek and thought "wow, 23...maybe this kid can be something", then I realized I did my math wrong and figured out he was 33. Whoops. And Andy Tracy! I saw him win the MVP in Harrisburg TEN YEARS AGO...when he was 25 . He's 35 now, and still motoring along. Poor guy. Regardless, Tommy made them all look absolutely foolish, and it was fantastic.

This is for all of you who didn't believe me. Completely serious promotion. It doesn't look like I'll be able to make it, since I work until 5 on Monday, and the promotion is for the first 2,000 adults...we got there around 6:15 last night, and the place was jammed pretty nicely, I'd say. I dunno what attendance would be like on a Monday night while school is in session, but I doubt I could get there early enough to snag one. A shame really. In an absolutely hilarious moment, they did one of those lets make a deal things with the small box and the BOX ON THE FIELD...in the box on the field, which the guy chose...a dude in a Superman costume popped out WAVING AROUND THE PLUNGER. Oh god, I died. Absolutely hilarious. God bless minor league promotions. By the way, their "racing mascots" gimmick? A ham bone, a strip of bacon, and something equally as ridiculous that I completely forget. They're doing the Washington thing by having a lovable loser who never wins, in this case, it was the ham bone. Poor thing.

So the 8th inning rolls around, I know Hanson is coming out and I had no idea who was coming in...I nearly wet myself when I saw a midget with a straight bill run in from left field. He looked a little rough for the few pitches he was in the game, allowing a solid single, balking him over to second, wild pitching him over to third, and letting him score on a ground out. Then the torrential downpour started and we eventually got home. It was a pretty good night in a real nice park...I'd like to go again, maybe when a prospect worth a damn rolls around. Maybe Norfolk will be in town soon...

Full album can be found here