Red-hot Tourists deserving of a big crowd
When a baseball team is as hot as the Asheville Tourists, everything in life for those involved with the team is extra special.
Food tastes better. Rest comes easier. Bus rides are a lot more fun. Players can’t wait to get to the ballpark.
It’s good for the fans, too. Get to the ballpark early enough to watch players warm up and you’ll see guys with an extra spring in their step. They may even sign a few more autographs. The atmosphere is festive.
The Tourists are the best thing going in minor-league ball. They have an 11-game winning streak, the longest in pro ball, MLB included. Even more impressive is a 16-game road winning streak that goes back to June 11.
Asheville will try and extend the streak to 12 with a game against Greensboro at McCormick Field Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.
The Tourists have the best second-half record (26-6, .812 winning percentage) of all teams that play two halves and they also have the best overall record (67-34, .663 of the 120 teams in the minors.
Here are some highlights of the streak:
• The Tourists have outscored their opponents 65-29 and have won five games by three or more runs.
• Three of the games went extra innings including an 8-7 win over Savannah in 14 innings last Thursday when the Tourists scored three runs after two were out in the bottom of the 14th. Correlle Prime delivered the game-winning hit with a two-run double. They also had a 7-5 win over Kannapolis in a 15-inning game.
• Pitcher Antonio Senzatela is 2-0 and hasn’t allowed a run in 19 innings (three starts).
• David Dahl is 16-for-41 (.390) during the streak with three games of three hits each and another with four.
• Michael Benjamin has six multi-hit games and is 15-for 43 (.349) with an eight-game hitting streak.
In some towns, restaurants get behind the local team and will give away a free hot dog or hamburger when a team reaches a certain streak. Usually it’s for people with a ticket stub to the game in which the streak was achieved.
Sometimes, anyone can get something free because of what the local team did.
In Milwaukee there was a hamburger place with franchises throughout the city. A free burger was promised to anyone with a coupon from the paper if the Brewers won 12 straight games.
Well, in 1987, Milwaukee opened the season with a 13-game winning streak that tied the major-league record set by atlanta in 1982. The hamburger place set aside three days for fans to come and get a burger on the house and more than 168,000 folks received a sandwich.
Maybe a local food joint in town will read this and decide if the Tourists’ streak reaches 13, 14 or 15, a free something could be in order.
What would be nice is to see more fans come out and enjoy the streak. The Tourists have averaged 1,890 fans over seven Wednesday home games this season. The last game on a Wednesday attracted 2,988 fans.
Double-digit winning streaks don’t happen very often. The ballpark is a much livelier place when the team is playing well and most of the seats are full.
This is a rarity for me, but I’m going to be a cheerleader for a moment. Instead of staying home and watching a game on TV, take the family to McCormick Field and watch the hottest team in baseball. See if the Tourists can push the winning streak to a dozen. Let’s see if the old park can be filled to capacity.
Who knows? Maybe there will be a freebie offered if the team keeps the streak going.
This is the opinion of Bob Berghaus. Reach him at 232-5866 or bberghau@citizen-times.com
Longest current winning streaks in BASEBALL
11: Asheville Tourists (Class A)
7: Mobile BayBears (Class AA)
6: Pawtucket Red Sox (Class AAA)
6: Visalia Rawhide (Class A)
5: Boston Red Sox (MLB)
5: Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
5: Erie SeaWolves (Class AA)