Nashville Sounds 4 Round Rock Express 3, 11 innings

July 2, 2007
Monday night
With SHR
Greer Stadium, Nashville

After last season's amazing experience in Little Rock, I was excited to get to another crazy minor league park in the South. Hot Tub Eric has been telling me for years about the amazing guitar scoreboard in Nashville so I wanted to see it for myself.

But I've got to say that other than the truly impressive scoreboard, I wasn't enthralled with my experience. The ballpark seemed like a hodgepodge of renovations throughout the years. What was once a simple park had newer touches to keep up with the new parks - like picnic areas, glass skyboxes, and such. Sometimes a mix of styles can work but at this ballpark, everything just seemed kind of run down in a not so amazing way.

Maybe it was because the crowd was so sparse or because the game was fairly dull until the last few innings, but the whole thing seemed a little lackluster. But they did have Chick-fil-A on the menu.

And did I mention they have an amazing scoreboard? Even if it didn't work that well. The space under the Bud sign didn't work all night and the numbers were all screwy half of the time on the right side. Still, I hope they bring this with them to their new park.


Other non scoreboard related thoughts and happenings:

-My new favorite player? Easy one - Nashville second baseman Callix Crabbe. What a name.

-SHR and I were upset because we missed Korean national hero Chan Ho Park by one day - he had pitched for the Express the night before.

-We saw one of the most amazing catches I've ever seen by Tony Gwynn Jr. He saved at least a run with his running diving catch in deep center field. A few days later he was called back up to the Brewers.

- Nashville fans are so polite. They gave the Express pitcher (Juan Gutierrez) a nice hand when he departed in the 8th with a 1-0 lead.

- All the classics were played - Everybody Clap Your Hands or whatever that song is called, Cotton Eye Joe, and Sweet Caroline. Where is Frisbee when you need him? The fans even serenaded Jose Macias with the Jose chant. All parks play the same damn music!

-Speaking of Macias, he knocked in the tying run in the 8th to tie the score at 1.

- After the 9th inning, even the guy who had signs for every Sounds player left. He seemed sad that Gwynn couldn't drive in the winning run from 2nd. His sign for Gwynn was "It's in the genes."

- In the top of the 10th, the Express scored two runs to take a 3-1 lead. SHR and I decided to head out - the game was already over three hours long. As we were walking out, the Sounds tied it on a Joe Dillon two run homer. Interesting.

- Before Dillon's homer, the Sounds bullpen catcher caught a line drive foul without leaving his crouch as he warmed up the Sounds pitcher. I don't think I've ever seen that before. He was so nonchalant about the whole thing.

Right before the tying homerun.
We heard the Sounds win it in the bottom of the 11th on the radio as we drove through Nashville.

Even though we left early, SHR and I more than made up for it just five short nights later.

Posted: 7/19