Alaska Goldpanners vs. Anchorage Glacier Pilots
July 13, 2006 Mulcahy Stadium, Anchorage, AK.
I still remember the words of the gentleman I met at the Mat-Su game: "You'll never catch me in Anchorage. I don't like the big city."
The third stop on my tour of the four Alaska Baseball League ballparks was in the "big city". Mulcahy Stadium is located in the center of town in a big area of forest and water called the Cooper Creek Complex. All the sports facilities in Anchorage are here: Anchorage Football Stadium (which is home to high school football), Ben Boehke Ice Arena (high school hockey), Sullivan Arena (Alaska Aces minor league hockey, University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves NCAA hockey, the Great Alaska Shootout college basketball tournament every Thanksgiving, concerts, etc.), and Mulcahy...the baseball stadium.
Mulcahy is home to the two Anchorage ABL teams: the Galcier Pilots and the Bucs. During the short ABL season, there's always a game there, in theory. Each team has a merchandise booth in the stadium but, naturally, the Bucs store was closed this evening. It also appeared that banners for both teams would be put up or put down on who was playing on which date (a huge banner by the concession stand proclaimed "The Glacier Pilots: Anchorage's First Nationally Recognized Team". Take that, Buc fans!). I couldn't really get a feel if there was a rivalry between the two clubs. Talking to fans in line for tickets (prices range from $5 - $7, but a guy in a Red Sox cap gave me a voucher for a ticket and I got in with no problems...thank you, sir, whoever you are), the general consensus is that people in Anchorage will root for both teams but never for the Goldpanners (boy, I came on the right night).
Mulcahy is a servicable ballpark with a wooden grandstand that extends from third to first base. Aluminum bleachers line the outfield lines, pretty much like all the small fields I've been to but Mulcahy has more capacity for more people. The grandstand seats are built in benches on the upper level with the lower level, being the "box seats" area, are a series of platforms with folding chairs acting as the box seats. Well, you could move them, I guess.
Now, I've seen box seats in Fairbanks and Palmer, but there was always something homespun about those two ballparks that made the experience unique. People talking to me, proud of their club and the feeling that they all had something to do with it, especially the Mat-Su club. Here in Anchorage, Mulcahy gave the experience of any minor league ballpark in the States. The anonymity of being at a ballpark was here. Baseball as entertainment being first, community after that. Not that it's a bad thing but I had become accustomed to seeing things in the state as something uniquely their own. The "professional" approach to baseball was here.
The PA announcer was pleasant but always selling something. I saw my only sighting of a mascot in the ABL at Mulcahy: a huge, friendly moose in a Pilot uniform and old fashioned pilot's gear atop its head. He silently went about hugging and playing with children, as to be expected. Two waitresses served beer and hot dogs to those sitting in box seats only, just like back at home. The ballpark did have the wonderful smell of burgers and onions on a grill, and thats what they had at the concession stands ($4 for the Onionburger, $2 for hot dogs). Beer was $3 - $4 for bottles and a few choice brews on tap. The radio broadcast of the game can be heard throughout the ballpark so you never missed a moment. The Pilots were the only team on my trip that I saw that had their names on the back of their jerseys. And just like back in the lower forty-eight, the bathrooms were not all that sanitary.
The game itself was a laugher. I had seen both teams before: the Panners on Sunday night in Fairbanks and the Pilots just two days before at Mat-Su. But where the Pilots relied on bunts and "small ball" on Tuesday, tonight they were just rocking Alaska pitching with solid hitting to take a 3-1 lead in the third. And where the Panners I saw four days ago had some good slugging and wonderful pitching, tonight they looked inept on defense and couldn't get anybody on base past the second inning. The Glacier Pilots ended up winning the game 5 - 1.
But the thing that really stuck with me from this night was the on-feild announcer for the Pilots. From the first inning on, I kept wondering who this very pretty blonde woman was walking around the ballpark with a microphone in her hand. She wore very short denim shorts and a glittery pink halter top with enough space to show the tattoo on her back. She talked to the scouts with the radar guns with a sauciness of a truck stop waitress and wherever she went she got whistles from most of the men of the 500 or so in attendance that night. "Crazy as a fox, the Pilots management..." I thought as I watched this lady strut onto the field for between-inning promotions where she encouraged young girls to hula hoop, led a kindergarten chorus for "Take Me out to the Ballgame", and read raffle ticket numbers. Sex appeal, baby.
The promotion that I couldn't stop laughing at was the "Pepsi Crawl", sponsored by Pepsi, naturally. Two tweener-aged boys were selected for this romp as oversized hats were placed over their heads, then spun around by the pretty woman's two assistants, and then the boys crawl up the baseline ten yards or so to where a twelve-pack box of Pepsi is waiting for the one who arrives first. The comedy I drew was not necessarily by the boys doing this summer picnic exercise, but in the blonde lady's commentary on the proceedings. When she was explaining the instructions of the game, she had the emotion of a football coach with stern pronunciations of each word and the feeling that she would bite your head off if you asked a question. The game began with her barking, "SPIN 'EM!" and her assistants obliged. The drill instructor kept muttering "Spin them more!" as the spinning went on a little longer than I thought it should. Finally she commanded her minions to stop and help the guinea pigs to their knees. When the boys were ready, the pink lady bellowed, "CRAWL!". The boys went about in their dizzines with the laughter from the stands as the soundtrack along with the lady's "getting in their face" shouts. "You're not even close! Where are you going?", were some of the nuggets heard. One of the boys got to the box first and polite applause and pats on the back were given to both of the young men. "Good job!" the lady smiled as she turned off her mic and walked off the field laughing, satisfied. I looked at a person sitting next to me with the look of someone who couldn't beleive what he just saw. "Man, she's tough." he said to me as I nodded.
I guess that's just life in the big city.
posted by paul shipp @ 9:26 AM
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