Father's Day in Peoria

It was a busy weekend at my house. My wife had a partial knee replacement on Thursday. She was discharged on Friday but spent most of the weekend in pain or sleeping. I will give her major props, though, for giving me and my son her blessing to make our annual Father's Day trip to a baseball game.  Since my daughter went out of town for a wedding, my in-laws spent the day helping her out.  

With the Cardinals being out of town playing the Cubs, we made a trip to Peoria to see their Singe A teams face off.  I was not expecting much of a crowd with temps in the low 90s.  Announced attendance was a little over 2,000, but actual attendance was closer to 500.  We managed to sit in the shade for most of the game.  The Chiefs beat the Cubs in 11 innings on a walk-off balk.  First time I ever saw that happen.  

Any trip to Peoria also involves autographs.  Sunday was another team autograph day after the game.  We attended one in April where most of the team signed.  Yesterday is was mostly pitchers with a few position players.  

Mautz and Hansen signed for us in April.

Baez also signed for us in  April.

Everyone else we wanted autographs from did not come out.  I had some pictures I took from the April game I wanted to be signed along with 1 other item, so we made our way to the player entrance in hopes of tracking down the players.  We had never done this before, so I did not know what to expect.  Within 15 minutes, all 3 players came out and signed for us.  

Won Bin Cho did not play in the game but held onto a stuffed rally monkey during most of it. He did not look too thrilled to sign, but he did anyway.

Zach Levenson was up to bat when the balk was called.  He was happy to sign and a little surprised we recognized him.

Leonardo Bernal almost won the game in the bottom of the 10th, but his line drive was caught in right field.  He loved this picture of him hitting his second home run of the season.

I bought this locker room name plate at Busch Stadium a few weeks ago knowing we would be seeing Peoria play again this year.  Pretty nice collectible for less than the price of a blaster.

I took about 50 pictures during the game.  With the small crowd, it was easy to move around to get some good angles.  

Starting pitcher Quinn Mathews pitched a great game going 6 2/3 innings with 3 earned runs, 11 strike outs, and no walks.

Mathews and Bernal after the end of an inning.

Baez connecting on a pop up.

Baez and Bernal scoring after a home run from Chris Rotondo.

Levenson after he touched first base following the balk.  Peoria is one of the last minor league teams without the netting extending down the foul lines.  That will change after this season.  Then there will be no more photos without little black lines.