Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Lee Smith visits Indy


Today, the Indianapolis Indians hosted their annual Hot Stove Luncheon, a hoity-toity event with all of the hobnobbing one would expect from an event where (nearly) everyone is dressed to the nines.

As part of the goings-on, Indians general manager Cal Burleson recognized the team's and the city's efforts in making the week-plus-long Super Bowl celebration an experience where fun was had by all and field manager Dean Treanor gave his report on the team, which is beginning to take shape at the Pittsburgh Pirates' spring training facility in Bradenton, Fla.

The highlight of the event, however, was former Major League Baseball career saves leader Lee Smith serving as the keynote speaker. Smith played for eight teams in his 17-year major league career, racking up 478 saves while serving as the bridge from the era of the multiple-inning closer to the era of the ninth-inning specialist. He served admirably in both roles despite taking a short hiatus from baseball to play college basketball because he did not want to be a relief pitcher.

Smith is a big man, standing about 6-6 and towering over nearly everyone in attendance. It is not hard to see how he could be an intimidating presence on the mound even before chucking a mid-90s fastball past a batter.

Off the field, though, Smith is as amiable as they come, shaking hands, greeting fans and taking time to interview with every media outlet that requested his time.

He's so friendly, in fact, that many of the interviews ran over the allotted time simply because Smith loves talking to people.

I did not do a one-on-one interview with Smith, but I did spend enough time with him to see that he is undoubtedly a good guy, very down-to-earth, a great representative for the sport of baseball.

"I enjoy getting back and seeing that enthusiasm in the face of guys talking about the Chicago Cubs. I did see a lot of Cardinals fans and a lot of other people that were Boston Red Sox fans," Smith said during his keynote address, singling out three of the teams he played for while emphasizing the wide-spread fanbase of a city without a Major League Baseball team.

Smith said he's always enjoyed interacting with fans, even in his time as a player. "I would always be into going out after the game, not to party, but just to see the fans together and share the love that you have for the game because, I tell you, I feel it in here," Smith said, tapping his chest above his heart. "It’s unbelievable."

After his playing days, Smith figured he could quit the game for good, but he was wrong. "I got back into the game because I just can’t get it out of my system, you know? I thought once I retired from playing baseball, 'You know what, I’m just going to go home and retire and just relax,'" Smith said. "But as anyone who has ever played the game of baseball [will tell you], you can’t just relax as a ballplayer, you find everything you do in life sort of brings you back around to baseball."

Smith's return to the game has come in the role of coach. He is currently a roving pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants organization, a position he said he has held for 13 years, working with players in every level, from the Single-A minor leaguers to seasoned MLB veterans.

In addition to his role with the Giants, Smith enjoys working overseas, spreading the game of baseball across the globe. "I coach international baseball a little bit. I do it in South Africa," Smith said.

"I’m thinking, 'At least if we go to Africa we’re going to have some brothers that can run.' But you’re looking at the only black guy on the team," Smith said, referring to himself. "The whole team was blonde hair, blue eyes."

In terms of global talent in areas where baseball hasn't always been prevalent, Smith believes it's out there; it just has to be refined. "It’s unbelievable. I was actually just in the midst of trying to teach my pitchers … how to stand on the mound and how to throw the ball," Smith said of working with the South Africans.

"If they could play cricket or something, if I could get that guy to run from second and throw it, we’d have a chance," Smith said with a laugh, referring to the way bowlers (the cricket versions of pitchers) take a running start. "I don't think Cuba could hit that."

Smith is seemingly very happy in his position with the Giants, but he apparently wouldn't be opposed to working in Indy someday. "I really like to see that look on Dean’s face about pitchers, just to see that excitement in that look on his face," Smith said. "He’s got a pitching coach now who was a teammate of mine, Tom Filer. I was hoping to see Filer here, because I’m going to leave my résumé here in case Filer doesn’t get it right."

 
Michael Raines writes for indyindians.com. Follow him on Twitter or contact him via email at therainesdelay@gmail.com.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The coolest thing ever?

I'm not a fan of hyperbole.

Nothing drives me crazier than listening to commentators and sportscasters call every halfway-decent play "the play of the decade" or every young star "the next big thing."

That being said, there have been two occasions in the past couple of weeks where I've ventured dangerously close to hyperbolic territory. The first was when I told my dad that the Super Bowl village was "Literally the most incredible thing I've ever seen."

And it was. For anyone who spent time in downtown Indianapolis, you know what I mean. Gigantic roman numerals acting as video screens in Monument Circle, an enormous tent in Victory Field's outfield, possibly the largest replication ever of the Lombardi Trophy adhered to the side of the normally-hideous JW Marriott hotel and hundreds of thousands of people milling about taking it all in. It was completely unbelievable.

For anyone who missed it, I'm sorry.

Anyway, that was my first near-miss with hyperbole. The second was when I saw this:

Holy crap.

That's a concept drawing of renovations to Bush Stadium, where the Indianapolis Indians played their home games prior to moving to Victory Field during the 1996 season. The building behind center field and the building that used to be the grandstands are being transformed into apartments, with the playing surface left intact.

Yeah.

That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. As a lifelong baseball fan, former baseball player and current baseball writer, there is nowhere that I can imagine that would be cooler to live than a former baseball stadium, especially the way this one is being laid out and preserved.

Bush Stadium is on the National Register of Historic Places and, in addition to serving as the home of the Indians for several decades, was the site of the baseball games when Indianapolis hosted the Pan Am games in 1987. It also served as a stand-in for both Comiskey Park and Crosley Field during the filming of Eight Men Out, a fictionalized retelling of the 1919 "Black Sox " scandal, when the Chicago White Sox allegedly threw the World Series.

Since the Indians moved out, the stadium was used as a dirt track (the "16th Street Speedway") for midget auto racing for two years and then served as a parking lot for the Cash for Clunkers program. In recent years it has sat vacant and in disrepair until, in 2011, the proposal was made to turn the structure into apartments. The project could take several years and upwards of $10 million (asbestos and lead paint have to be removed), but it's awesome to see Bush Stadium will live on in the city.

You can bet that if I'm still working in Indianapolis in a few years when the project is done, I'll be one of the first ones in line to see about moving in.

The only question is, would I want to live in the former grandstands, surrounded by history and looking out the window at the same thing I see at work, or  would I want to live in the outfield, looking in at home plate like I did as a high school- and collegiate outfielder?

Michael Raines writes for the Indianapolis Indians at Victory Field and could someday live at Bush Stadium (and so could you). He can be reached at therainesdelay@gmail.com.








Monday, February 6, 2012

Back to reality

Suddenly, it's all over.

No more spending my mornings photographing the Dan Patrick Show. No more city-wide party at night.

This week is going to be boring.

Last week was a blur of activity. From 9 a.m. to 12 noon Monday through Thursday, I took pictures of celebrities and sports personalities. Most afternoons, I wrote about my experiences. At night, I walked around downtown, seeing the sights, mingling with friends and strangers and catching parts of concerts by DJ Pauly D, Darius Rucker and O.A.R. I spent the better part of Saturday working at the Celebrity Beach Bowl, sneaking peeks at the game while acting as security for the VIPs.

This week, there will be none of that (except for the writing part, obviously).

As the media relations intern for the Indianapolis Indians, one of my jobs is to catalog ANY mention of the Indians or Victory Field in the national or local media. Today, I documented over 35 mentions from news outlets as far away as Boston and Seattle.

They all served as unwelcome reminders of what is missing this week.

But all is not lost. I bookended the Super Bowl festivities with an Indiana Ice hockey game on Friday, Jan. 27, and an Indiana Pacers basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 4. I had a blast at both of them (despite the Pacers' lackluster performance in a loss against the Orlando Magic), and those experiences help me remember that -- despite the end of the Super Bowl -- I still live in a great city with a lot of things to do.

Because of the timing of the beginning of my job, I got thrown headlong into the Super Bowl fanfare. And it was amazing. But now that I will have more free time, I'm looking forward to experiencing all the permanent entertainment fixtures this city holds.

There may be no more Super Bowl Village concerts and no more Dan Patrick Show live in Victory Field, but there will be more Pacers games and more Ice games, there will be more concerts at other venues and there are high school and college sports, museums and other attractions that help make Indianapolis a first-rate city.

And in a couple months, Indians games will start and I'll be doing my favorite thing: getting paid to watch baseball.

So, yeah, this week is going to be a time of transition, a snap back to reality. But when you think about it, reality isn't all that bad.

Michael Raines writes for the Indianapolis Indians and loves everything about the city. He can be reached at therainesdelay@gmail.com.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The wrecks get real

As I mentioned yesterday, my favorite part of the Dan Patrick Show's insane setup in Victory Field's PNC Plaza is the go-kart track, where a couple of wrecks have taken place (boys will be boys, after all).

Those wrecks had so far resulted in nothing more than humorous antics: In one, a member of the Danettes racked himself on his kart's steering column, in the other, a Danette got spun around and ended up driving the opposite direction of the other drivers.

Today, the fans (and a certain intrepid photog) watching the go-kart races got a little more than they were expecting.

After the Dan Patrick Show goes off the air, it is followed by The Box Score, an online recap featuring the Danettes and, sometimes, a guest or two. The Box Score's guest today happened to be Tony "Goose" Siragusa, a former defensive tackle who started his twelve-year NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts and now serves as a sideline analyst for the NFL on FOX broadcasts.

Siragusa took one look at the go-kart track and decided he had to try it out. And who can blame him? It looks like a blast:

Woo-hoo!

So Siragusa folded himself into one of the go-karts and a couple of DIRECTV staffers manned the other karts to race him. After a couple of laps, they begin bumping each other (again, boys will be boys -- even when they're grown men.)

One of the staffers seemed to be having a little trouble controlling his kart -- he had already hit the wall once, forcing it back into the intrepid photog from earlier (hint: it was me). I took a step back to avoid the errant driver's wall-rubbing, and on the next lap all hay broke loose:

Get it?

That wall used to be straight. This is what changed it:

Crunch.

Yes, that's the same staffer who had already bumped the wall once. This time, however, it wasn't all his fault. As he came around the corner in the inside lane, Siragusa forced him outside and, subsequently, into the fence. Thankfully, it was in an area removed from the majority of the crowd:

The space between the crowd and the wreck? That's where I was standing.

Siragusa thought it was hilarious:

Laugh it up.

The higher-ups at DIRECTV and the Dan Patrick Show were not so amused. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, although another DTV staffer did get ran into pretty hard by the barrier. He complained of knee and ankle pain but refused medical treatment. He did happily accepted a ride back to DTV's headquarters in the parking lot:

He's the one not driving.

Siragusa made up for wrecking (no pun intended) the go-kart fun by climbing over the now-sideways barrier and signing autographs for several fans before heading on set to appear on the Box Score:

"Yeah, it was pretty sweet until we almost killed that dude."

And as for me? Well, thanks to dumb luck or fate or both, I'll live to photograph another day.

Michael Raines defies death as a Media Relations intern for the Indianapolis Indians. He can be reached at therainesdelay@gmail.com