Looking ahead to April, 2009

Even though we have five more home dates remaining in the 2008 campaign, I’m looking ahead to next season. Last week the Shorebirds announced their preliminary schedule for 2009, and it’s pretty similar to 2008’s effort by the South Atlantic League. Once again they’ll see a lot of those three opponents most familiar to Shorebird fans – Hagerstown, Lakewood, and Lake County. 38 of their scheduled 70 home contests are against these three squads, which compares to 30 against that trio this season. And instead of seeing 11 of a possible 15 opponents inside Perdue Stadium, we’ll only see nine next season – only two from the eight which currently make up the league’s Southern Division (the Hickory Crawdads and the Columbus Catfish, who are relocating to Bowling Green, Kentucky for 2009.) It reverses the trend this year where we had more road games against our three most familiar division foes and saw just two teams exclusively on the road – next season we travel to Greenville, Asheville, Charleston (SC), and Savannah without a return trip here from those teams.

So the new schedule is somewhat reminescent of the 2007 schedule; fortunately we won’t have those really long stretches against just two teams as we did that year or spend 18 days on the road. We do, though, have a couple unusual five-game series with Lakewood (one there and one here) and also spend most of May playing a pair of 16-game stretches with just two opponents. The first will exclusively feature Greensboro and West Virginia, followed immediately by 16 against Hickory and Kannapolis. Moreover, most of June will be spent playing Lakewood, Lake County, and Hagerstown.

An unusual twist in the 2009 schedule is only having eight Sunday home games. However, there are 12 Friday games and 11 Wednesday games to complement nine Tuesday games and 10 on each of the other days – thus 10 Thirsty Thursdays, including the home opener on April 16th against the Lake County Captains. (Thirsty Thursday is definitely a Shorebird Pick, but I have a suggestion for next year on that.)

Returning to 2008, sadly the Shorebirds were eliminated from playoff contention with a loss at Lakewood Tuesday night. They still have a chance to finish with the best overall record in the Northern Division; alas, that and ten bucks will get you a ticket to the Northern Division playoffs between Lake County and most likely West Virginia. But we still have five days to watch some solid pitching and enjoy seeing some of our best players for the last time before they extend their journey to the Show up in Frederick or Bowie.

Over the next several weeks leading into the holidays, Shorebirds GM Chris Bitters and his staff will begin to flesh out the added attractions that make the games more fun to attend. As for myself, tonight I select my final Shorebird of the Week for 2008. After that, I’ll pick my Shorebird of the Year next Thursday and spend the following Thursday reviewing 2008 through a fan’s eyes with my Shorebird Picks and Pans. There may also be a special post to introduce the Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame, but that depends on what moves the Orioles organization makes in September. Just like the ball and glove, it will be time to put away baseball season for the most part and concentrate on other activities over a long Delmarva winter.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.