Indy Baseball

By David Marasco

On a Saturday night last summer my friend Tom and I pointed the car in the direction of Indianapolis and caught a Toledo-Indy game.

The Indianapolis Indians, the AAA link in the Milwaukee farm system, play in Victory Field. This is a very nice stadium. It's on the south-west side of downtown. It is a double-decked affair with enough roof to protect from the sun and the elements. Like many new minor league ballparks it features a sunken-diamond layout with lawn seating beyond the outfield walls. In left and center field the skyline of Indianapolis is visible, and the RCA Dome looms over right. Behind the stadium on the first base side is a huge factory that seems to still be in operation. Also, a rail line runs between the stadium and the factory, so you can watch trains if things get too boring. The yard has all the earmarks of a new stadium, wide concourses and good bathrooms being the first noted. There is a wide selection of food, although you may have to walk from window to window to get the proper mix. The seats are angled to the diamond, so you won't hurt your neck watching the game. With $2 parking and the most expensive seat $10, it's not hard to see why the whole shebang was named the best minor league park in America by Baseball America a few years back.

There is one drawback. The stadium hosts the top team in the Brewers organization. As a result it is the home of a lot of scrubs and cast-offs rather than up-and-comers. One way to look at this is to look at the ages of the players. They trot out the rotting corpses of Bob Scanlon and Noberto Martin on a regular basis. I was born in July 1971. A quick look at the Indianapolis roster shows nine players older than me, and another three born within three months of my birth. When you are pushing 30 you should not be in AAA ball. To compare, the Toledo Mudhens had three players before or near my birth.

The matchup was Indianaoplis's Horacio Estrada vs. Brandon Villafuerte. Seeing as Estrada came in with a 3.25 ERA and Villafuerte had a robust 7.46, you could tell which way the wind was blowing. The Indians put a pair of runs on the board in the bottom of the fisrt, and would have had more if Lyle Mouton had run to third on a long hit to center. He decided to jog instead and was thrown out at third. He ended the night with three doubles, a single and a walk, but his lack of effort is a big clue as to why he is still in the minors.

I'm not too sure why Chris Wakeland is still in the minors. He had 24 homers before he unloaded one deep into the trees in center field in the second. That ball may have travelled 430 feet. The homer tied the game at two.

Toledo held firm for a while, but eventually Indianaopolis wore down the opposing pitcher. They sent nine men to the plate in the fifth and when it was all done it was 8-3 Indy. I was disappointed by the general lack of hustle shown by the two teams. Lyle Mouton's jogging out a triple seemed par for the course. Even the umps were in on it, one of the worst phantom double-plays I've ever seen was called late in the game. The middle infielder received the ball and relayed it to first without coming within three feet of the bag at second, and yet the out was recorded. You would think that being a step away from the major leagues would be motivation for this people, but I guess not.

With the elimination of Indianapolis, I believe I've seen every major league or AAA franchise within a reasonable driving distance of Chicago. Time to start working on the Midwest League...