From the Bus
Apirl 4, 2013
Altoona , Pa. to Erie, Pa. – 202 miles
Movies watched: 0
Time slept: 1:15
Welcome to the first edition of what I sincerely hope will be a series of blogs that will all be written on our bus trips throughout the season in an effort to better keep up this blog during the season. Without too much more banter, let’s get right into it:
Opening Day
While all major league teams have opened their 2013 campaign already, Thursday marks the official first day of baseball for MiLB with all full-season teams opening up their seasons across the continental United States. For us with the Curve, we’re opening the season in Erie for the second time in three years and for the fourth straight year with Erie overall.
The team is 6-8 in games all time played on Opening Day and, maybe interesting or not, an Altoona starting pitcher has only been credited with a win on Opening Night just once since the 2004 season. Who did it? Mike Crotta won on Opening Night in 2010 when the Curve bested the Harrisburg Senators at then-known Blair County Ballpark.
Today, Brandon Cumpton gets the starting nod for Altoona after making 27 starts with the Curve in 2012. The Augusta, Ga. native won 12 games for the Curve in 2012, which was the second-highest total in the Eastern League last season and was also 4-2 against the SeaWolves including two wins in Erie.
Pirates-Curve
Now that the team is officially on to open its season in Erie we can take a look back at just how special the Pirates-Curve Exhibition game on Saturday was. There was a franchise-record 10,116 people in attendance at the game and we have a whole bunch of photos to sort through from the day before we post them on the web. If you’re looking for a very nice, in-depth recap of the day with pictures from inside and outside the action, check out Ben Hill’s Ben’s Biz Blog. Hill is a writer for MiLB.com and was gracious enough to visit Curve, Pa. for the exhibition game last Saturday and he detailed his experiences in the fullest in a two-part blog.
While Hill exclusively talks about his time in Altoona in this blog, fans should get it out in general on a weekly basis to see some of the best promotions and stories from around the game of Minor League Baseball.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
With the 25-man roster now set, we can breakdown the roster by geographic region to see just how global a game baseball is. If we look at the Curve 25-man roster and coaching staff to start the season, here’s what we get:
From the United States (by state):
Arizona
Tim Alderson
Drew Maggi
Arkansas
Austin McClune
California
Charlie Cutler
Alex Dickerson
Jeff Inman
Andrew Lambo
Tyler Waldron
Ricky White
Georgia
Brandon Cumpton
Jason Townsend
Illinois
Ethan Hollingsworth
Stan Kyles
Indiana
Mel Rojas, Jr.
New York
Adalberto Santos
Oklahoma
Casey Sadler
Pennsylvania
Mike Zalno
Tennessee
Nate Baker
Texas
Matt Curry
Justin Howard
Kenn Kasparek
Ryan Long
Jameson Taillon
Washington
Jarek Cunningham
From the Dominican Republic:
Carlos Paulino
Stolmy Pimentel
Andy Vasquez
From South Africa:
Gift Ngoepe
From Australia:
Stefan Welch
From Venezuela:
Luis Sanz
Carlos Garcia
That’s all for now, tune in to tonight’s game with pregame at 6:05 p.m.
— Mike
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