Kevin's Baseball Stadium Blog: Mirabito Stadium

Attendance: 4,976
Time of Game: 3 hours, 20 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Binghamton, NY
Opened: 1992
Capacity: 6,000
Level: Double A
League: Eastern

While Binghamton is a direct shot south of Syracuse on I-81, I decided to take a detour to Cooperstown to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where I had last been over 20 years prior. I could do a whole blog post covering my visit to Cooperstown, but I'll just make some quick comments here instead. It should be a bucket list item for any baseball fan. While the museum itself is awe inspiring, my favorite part of the experience was simply walking down main street in the quaint town. I think Cooperstown is the perfect location for the Hall of Fame. It is in the middle of nowhere, meaning the only people who go there are doing so specifically to visit the HoF. So when walking the streets, you know you are surrounded by nobody but fellow baseball enthusiasts. It is coincidental that I'm writing this on the day of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I imagine the town has a much different feel today than it did on the Friday afternoon in June in which I visited. After spending a good chunk of the morning and afternoon in Cooperstown, I hit the road again and drove to Binghamton for a Friday night game.

Mirabito Stadium opened in 1992. It is a bit of an old fashioned minor league ballpark in an old fashioned city. This is a pretty nondescript stadium. There is a closed concourse beneath a single level seating area. It lacks the frills of most of the other stadiums I've visited this year. Even though this is very much a city stadium, it is located in a spot that provides nice views of rolling hills beyond the outfield fence. Really diving into the old fashioned theme, for this game the Rumble Ponies wore special uniforms and took on the identity of the Creatures, a nod to the Twilight Zone TV series whose creator Rod Serling was a Binghamton native. The Twilight Zone was well before my time, so most of themes of this night flew over my head. They seem to have an affinity for all of it in Binghamton though. As for the team's usual name, Rumble Ponies is also a locally inspired identity. Apparently Binghamton considers itself the carousel capital of the world. Can't say I saw or rode any carousels on this visit though.

This game between the two New York MLB teams' AA affiliates was the first game I've attended this year that featured three of MLB.com's Top 100 prospects: Somerset outfielder (DH on this night) Spencer Jones, Binghamton first baseman Ryan Clifford and starting pitcher Brandon Sproat. I saw Sproat and Clifford playing for the Mets High A affiliate Brooklyn at Jersey Shore back in April as well. This was actually my third look at Clifford who was playing for Binghamton in the game I saw in Reading a few weeks earlier. All three of these guys played prominent roles in this game. Sproat got the start for the Rumble Ponies. He still seems to be on a pretty strict pitch count as he was pulled after 70 pitches and just 3 2/3 innings. He was quite impressive in that time though, striking out eight batters and allowing a single run. This was far more dominant of an outing than when I saw him in April at a level lower. The only run he allowed scored immediately after his departure on a single by J.C. Escarra during which the final out of the inning was recorded at third base, starting a stretch of three straight half innings featuring an outfield assist, not something you see every day. In the bottom of the fourth, Binghamton took a 2-1 lead on another run scoring play that featured an out on the bases. Jeremiah Jackson doubled down the left field line, scoring Clifford who had reached on his second walk of the game and sixth in the three games I've seen him play this year. But Jackson was thrown out at third in an ill advised attempt to stretch it into a triple. Nolan McLean immediately followed that with an opposite field solo home run to give the Rumble Ponies a two run lead which would not last long. The Patriots tied the game in the top of the fifth on a two run single by Jones, a 6'6" left handed hitting center fielder by trade who has been battling through strikeout issues most of this season. He was the DH in this game, but if I didn't know better, I would not have guessed his usual position was CF. That said, the Yankees are no strangers to tall dudes playing CF since Aaron Judge spends a lot of time out there as well. A couple batters later, Jones was thrown out trying to score on a flyout to right, but Matt Rudick made a perfect throw to nail him. The back and forth affair continued in the sixth. Somerset took a 5-3 lead in the top half, but Binghamton responded with three in the bottom half, highlighted by a two run homer by Jackson. Each team scored a run in the seventh thanks to pitcher wildness. Somerset got theirs on a wild pitch and Binghamton answered with a bases loaded hit by pitch taken by Clifford. Somerset reliever Luis Velasquez actually hit two batters in the inning, walked three and threw a pair of wild pitches in his wild outing. The Rumble Ponies took a one run lead into the 9th. But the Patriots tied the game on a solo home run by Alexander Vargas, his first home run of the season. Vargas had just come into the game on defense the previous inning. I'm not exactly sure why that move was made. You don't normally replace your cleanup hitter for defensive purposes in a tied game. Anyway, it certainly worked out. But it was all for naught. In the bottom of the 9th, Ryan Clifford polished off his incredible game with a no doubt, two run, walk-off homer to give the Ponies a 9-7 victory. What a game!

This brought an end to the New York part of my trip. It was back to Pennsylvania for the weekend for two final games.

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