Halfway home

From September 3rd to April 3rd there are 213 days. If you don’t grasp the significance of those dates, you’re probably not a Delmarva Shorebirds fan. By my public school math, today is the 107th day between the dates, thus we’ve reached the halfway point between last year’s home finale and next year’s home opener against the Hagerstown Suns. And spring training’s not all that far away, starting up just after the NFL playoffs conclude.

Surprisingly, I’ve found since I started going to Shorebirds Fan Club meetings that the work really doesn’t slow down after the season concludes. Sure, the field may be covered up and all the large signs that cover the wall during the summer may be down but the front office and staff still has a lot to do over the offseason like baseball’s winter meetings and securing those 2008 advertisers, new and returning season ticket holders, and promotions that will entertain you between innings next summer. This time around, Shorebirds GM Chris Bitters has the advantage of seeing what worked and what didn’t during the 2007 season in planning for 2008. (I know he’s trying hard to get those Thickburgers to return. I swear I had seven or eight of those coupons at one time.)

And I know that Chris would like input from fans as to what they liked and disliked as well. Last Friday the club had its Christmas Party and I managed to get a 2008 pocket schedule, so I can tell you that we’ll have 17 fireworks nights next season, the Bucket Boys and Zooperstars are scheduled to be back, and we’ll have several different promotions that certainly will be worth a look-see. Now if we can get the bands back on Thirsty Thursdays like we had my first season here in 2005 the summer will be good to go.

Who am I kidding? I’m ready for April 3rd tomorrow. But the Hot Stove Banquet is Saturday, January 26th at Perdue Stadium’s Executive Club, that may have to do in the interim.

By the way, one method of keeping that baseball spirit alive is to join the Shorebirds Fan Club. It’s a relatively informal group of fans who just want to do nice things for the players. (If I’m involved in it, chances are it’s pretty informal.) That’s the purpose of our sale table during the summer prior to games. We meet at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday each month during the off-season in the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame located at Perdue Stadium. Thus our next get-together is January 15, 2008. Hope to see you there!

One other offseason Shorebirds note. We won’t have Gary Kendall back as manager next year, the O’s have reassigned him to manage the Aberdeen IronBirds. Instead, we’ll have second-year manager Ramon Sambo, who managed the rookies in the Gulf Coast League last season. Pitching coach Kennie Steenstra is staying put but there’s no word on field coach, so it’s not certain if Kimera Bartee will be returning yet.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.