SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - The story would have been even more dramatic if the Lewis and Clark Park scoreboard had been wrecked by a line-drive homer from Rene Tosoni to give the Sioux City Explorers a win in extra innings.
Even though it was a lightning strike that damaged the stadium scoreboard, fans at the ballpark are nonetheless getting a flavor of old-school - or Wrigley Field in Chicago - scoring. Workers now manually hang up numerals to summarize the score, since the electronics won’t work, the Sioux City Journal (https://bit.ly/1XQ4SWh ) reported.
That style of scorekeeping was on display again a recent Wednesday night, when the Explorers began the 2015 playoffs by hosting the Saint Paul Saints in Game 1 of a best-of-five American Association playoff series. The X’s are fresh off a season when they raced to a new league record of 75 regular season wins.
The lightning strike took place Aug. 16 during a night game with Kansas City that was ultimately postponed, as Explorers General Manager Shane Tritz watched from the press box.
“You saw a bunch of scoreboard items going sporadic everywhere. After that, we couldn’t get anything on the scoreboard,” Tritz said.
The Daktronics scoreboard dates to 1993, when the stadium opened. With something that old, replacement parts could not be found.
So X’s officials quickly built scaffolding and put hooks on the scoreboard. Now two people hang numbers over the existing scoreboard categories, such as the runs per inning, balls and strikes count for the batter and number of outs.
“You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do to ride out the season,” Tritz noted, while adding that a more modern scoreboard will replace the existing one in time for the 2016 season.
Team officials did not immediately have a cost estimate.
Ryan Miller and Mike Peck were the two workers hanging numbers through the regular season conclusion. Miller said it takes close watching, in observing from more than 300 feet away, to immediately know if the umpire called a ball or strike.
The duo quickly became able to read an ump’s gestures or fan reactions to pitches. The fallback is another X’s worker in the press box relaying the ball or strike outcome via walkie-talkie.
Miller was an X’s bat boy as a second-grader and later moved on to clubhouse duties and playing music up in the press box. He likes the new scoreboard gig.
“We have fun with it out there. Mike and I dance around up there. It is a great view for the game,” Miller said.
Peck agreed with the awesome vantage point to watch the game.
“I’m not a big fan of heights, so would I want to do it all the time? No. I’m OK with doing it for now,” Peck said.
Still, he hopes the 2015 campaign goes longer, meaning the Explorers get past the Saints and into the championship round.
“This could be the year,” Peck said.
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Information from: Sioux City Journal, https://www.siouxcityjournal.com
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