An alarming lack of middle infield depth on today's Birthday Team. Keith Miller starts at shortstop; he played two career innings at short and committed one error.

The backup middle infielder is...you guessed it, Joe Carter, who once played two innings at second base because I guess Pat Corrales had gone off his meds or something.

C: Red Wilson
1B: Ed Bouchee
2B: Jeff Kent
3B: Tex Wisterzil
SS: The Other Keith Miller
LF: Joe Carter
CF: Jimmie Hall
RF: Jeff Burroughs

SP: J.R. Richard
SP: Ed Willett
SP: Doc Scanlan
SP: Dave Danforth
SP: Jack Armstrong
RP: Mike Armstrong

What makes the fact that Carter and Brook Jacoby both played second base that day even more bizarre is that it was September.

Okay, sure, I can understand how you could run out of middle infielders, but it seems like once the rosters expand you'd want to have a spare 2B/SS hanging out on a "break glass in case of emergency" sort of basis. But this was the "Estate of Steve O'Neill" era of Tribe ownership, when the ghost of a dead man owned the team. Made it a bit tougher to get expenses approved.

Addition to the Birthday Team...

Fan: Me

Me too.
Happy birthday Andrew.

I assume Carter and Jacoby exchanged positions based on the batter / on-base situation.

Happy birthday, Mike and Andrew.

Re: Carter and Jacoby, it was more based on the on-base situation than batter handedness, though it still makes no sense to me.

Here's the seventh inning:

Joe Carter moves from LF to 2B  
George Vukovich moves from PH to LF  

OAK A. Griffin R. Thompson 0% 97% Groundout: 2B-1B
OAK T. Phillips R. Thompson 0% 97% Flyball: CF
OAK B. Bochte R. Thompson 0% 97% Double
OAK D. Kingman R. Thompson 0% 97% Walk

   Brook Jacoby moves from 3B to 2B  
   Joe Carter moves from 2B to 3B  

OAK M. Davis R. Thompson 1% 99% Double; Bochte Scores; Kingman to 3B

   Joe Carter moves from 3B to 2B  
   Brook Jacoby moves from 2B to 3B  

OAK J. Canseco R. Thompson 0% 99% Groundout: SS-1B

Carter starts the inning at second and stays there through both right-handed and left-handed batters until there's a man on first.

Well, sure, that makes sense - Jacoby would probably be better at the pivot on a double play. And even if there's no double play, you wouldn't want Joe Carter to get spiked trying to tag out a guy who's trying to steal second.

Except that there were two outs when Jacoby moved to second. And the guy on first was Dave Kingman, whose footspeed was glacial on a good day. And it was late in a 7-3 game. Nobody's stealing anything in the seventh inning of a 7-3 game in September between two bad teams.

Once there was nobody on first, Carter goes back to second base, where he finishes the game.

So I have absolutely no idea what Corrales was doing. I can't find a contemporary newspaper recap of the game online for free - if anyone can track one down, I'd love to read it.

Just came across an aerial image of Heritage Park, former home of the Albany-Colonie Yankees, and found its state of disrepair fascinating. I've seen pictures of Bush Stadium in Indianapolis and Atlantic City's Bernie Robbins Stadium before, but not Heritage Park.

Are there any other abandoned former minor league ballparks out there that are slowly falling apart?

I thought Bicentennial Park in Allentown would be one, but it appears to have still been in use through...2009? Not sure when Allentown's pro fastpitch softball franchise gave up the ghost.

Although its state of disrepair when the Allentown Ambassadors still existed was similar to its state now. Wotta dump!

this is from memory but... check out the old park in Old Orchard Beach, though I think they've fixed it up a bit since.

EDIT: they have. check out this (good) site for what i was thinking of: link

Add me to the birthday list for today (40th).

Happy Birthday to Andrew and Mike as well.

Yep, good call. Old Orchard Beach.

Most of the whole NY-Penn League circa 1989 was in cities that don't have teams anymore.

Let's see ... the Welland Pirates and St Catharines Blue Jays fields still look nice. So does the home of the Watertown Indians, though the stands are gone. I guess most of the cities that only had one ballpark are still using it for a college summer league team (Oneonta, Little Falls, etc).

Here's an interesting one - War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

Canton, Ohio hasn't had minor league ball for nearly ten years, but Thurman Munson Stadium is still presentable. (It was always a dump, even when it opened, so this is what it's always looked like. Building a ballpark in marshland, next to a river, is a pretty awful idea.)

They still play high school and college games there. I suspect that's why a lot of the ballparks in former minor league towns are still decent.

edit: Coke to Crispix for his comment about why these stadiums still look okay.

Niagara Falls stadium is used by Niagara University, St Catharines stadium is used by Brock University. I was hoping for some real decline in regions with harsh winters, but haven't found any.

Even Stade Amédée-Roy in Sherbrooke, Quebec is still in use.

I can't find an address for the old stadium in Thetford Mines. That one is probably a supermarket now.

Here's an interesting one - War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

In the 1980s, when the full stadium was still standing, it was the home park of the New York Knights in "The Natural." The film makers had looked long and hard for a stadium that could stand in for a 1930s style major-league park before they found that old warhorse.

Abandoned baseball stadiums.

Good link!

The ones in Chattanooga and Rockford are still used. Ned Skeldon Stadium in Toledo is neither used nor abandoned. The outline of the field seems to be fenced off? I don't quite understand.

Abandoned baseball stadiums.

They forgot the Kingdome.

Sadly, the Big O today.

First gravity tries to kill Brian Cashman and now a scorpion stings Doug Melvin.

That soccer picture of Olympic Stadium looks like an artist's rendering - or at least the scoreboard does. This is an actual photo, FWIW.

Ned Skeldon Stadium in Toledo is neither used nor abandoned. The outline of the field seems to be fenced off? I don't quite understand.

Yeah, that pointer isn't on the right spot. Skeldon Stadium is a couple hundred yards to the north of where Bing says it is - on the other side of the parking lot.

Looks like the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat parks are still in use for a summer college league.

Adrian Brown was a 48th round pick of the Pirates in 1992, and of such little concern that he was loaned to Lethbridge of the Pioneer League (which had no affiliation). You have to admire a guy who starts at that point and ends up with 1272 plate appearances in the majors.

chris sale and the pale hose have reportedly agreed on an extension

Rosters are finally ready for Birthday League III. There's a .pdf here.

I might play the first batch of games tonight, but also might play them tomorrow. Not sure.

I'm a bit concerned that February 28 Davidians catcher Gene McAuliffe (1-for-2 in his MLB career) will break the league because there are only two catchers on the roster and he's going to get a bunch of playing time, but hopefully the ineptitude of his backup Tom Walsh (0-for-1 in his MLB career) will counteract the McAuliffe effect.

Yeah, that pointer isn't on the right spot. Skeldon Stadium is a couple hundred yards to the north of where Bing says it is - on the other side of the parking lot.

What IS that thing the pointer is pointing to? A pony enclosure? The site of the annual show dog obstacle course?

Could be just about anything. That's the Lucas County Fairgrounds, so it could be some kid's 4H project for all we know.