The main purpose of this road trip was to visit my parents in Canada, so we headed in that direction after spending four days Ohio (I saw another Reds game there), stopping in Jamestown on Sunday. In a shocking coincidence, there was a game that evening as the Tarp Skunks of the PGCBL were home at Diethrick Park, a venue that I had long wanted to visit.
There are a few lots around the ballpark and all are free obviously; I parked across the street to avoid any cracked windshields. Before entering, have a look at the heritage sign, a nice touch. The stadium is named for Russell E. Diethrick, Jr., a local leader heavily involved in the baseball scene in Jamestown.
Opened in 1941 and seating 3,000, Diethrick Park hosted minor league baseball as part of the NY-Penn League from its opening until 2014. The Montreal Expos were the parent club for many of those seasons and several future stars passed through, including the Big Unit, who was certainly not destined for greatness with 24 walks and 21 strikeouts in 27.1 IP in his pro debut in 1985. Johnson is one of four on the city's Baseball Mount Rushmore.
There are a couple of other posters hanging, including one that explains the origin of the name Tarp Skunks...
...and another that talks about that 1941 season, when the Falcons were the Class D affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
I brought my daughter and tickets were $8 for me and $7 for her for general admission. It was cloudy and drizzly so we sat under the roof for a while, enjoying some cheap concessions.
The bleachers down by first base were totally empty, so eventually we went over there in the vain hopes of getting a foul ball.
My daughter still enjoyed having all the space to herself, at least until the rains came.
The third base bleachers are behind the Jamestown dugout and hence had a few more fans there.
The starting lineups were posted; you might notice that there are 10 hitters. That is because this league uses the "extra hitter" rule, which means that there are essentially two designated hitters, which would be a mess for my scorecard if I still bothered with them.
The mascot is named Whiffy, a good combination of baseball terminology and skunks. In both cases, you want to avoid whiffing, but here, Whiffy was quite popular.
Overall, I was very happy to finally add Diethrick Park to my list as I had thought the chance lost after the minor league team left in 2014. Jamestown itself is a very nice place to visit (Lucille Ball was born here and there is a museum dedicated to her and Desi Arnaz, as well as a new comedy museum) so if you are in Western New York in the summer, stop by and see the Tarp Skunks.
The Game
The Niagara Falls Americans (so named to confirm that they are based on the American side of the Falls) were in town and at the bottom of the Western Division standings, while Jamestown was middle of the pack. Luke Blandino started for the visitors, while Peyton Ahlstrom made his first start for the Tarp Skunks.
The Americans got a run in the first on a walk and a double, and added another in the second with two singles, a walk, and a fielder's choice. In the bottom of the fourth, Connor Kiefer led off with a walk and then the Skunks added six singles, all of the very weakly hit variety. This resulted in four runs, but Blandino remained in the game, though he was obviously frustrated as it was just a bit of bad luck.
Fortunately, his offense supported him with three runs that chased Ahlstrom in the 6th, and they added another in the 8th off the bullpen. In the 9th, the rain was falling quite heavily and I thought they would possibly call the game as the first two Niagara Falls batters were hit by a pitch, with the first of those scoring their 7th run. But the rain tapered off and the game finished with the visitors winning 7-4.
Blandino tossed a solid seven stanzas, with that weird 4th inning his only blemish. Each team had 12 hits, with two doubles for Niagara Falls accounting for the only ones that went for extra bases.
Notes
This was my second venue in this league after seeing a game in Watertown last year. The baseball can be tough at times, but these old barns are fun to visit.
Best,
Sean
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