“You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.” That’s what Joe DiMaggio said about Opening Day. Thursday night in Lakewood is our Opening Day. The game starts at 6:35, but that’s almost secondary to whatever else will be going on that day.

Here are some of the pre-game festivities that we’ll have.

• Ceremonial Opening of the Gates: We open the season with an opening of the gates at 5:30. BlueClaws players will be there to greet and interact with fans prior to the start of the season’s first home game.
• Player Intros: We’ll have full introductions for both teams prior to the game. Players will be called out to line up along each line, reserves, coaches, and starters.
• National Anthem: Obviously this is not exclusive to Opening Day, but the great Evolution will be singing the anthem.
• Flyover: This is exclusive to Opening Day – a flyover thanks to the 108th Air Refueling Wing of the NJ Air National Guard out of McGuire Air Force Base, under the command of Wing Commander Colonel Kevin Keehn.
• Ceremonial First Pour: In the Coors Light WRAT Trap with representatives from Shore Point Distributing and 95.9 WRAT.

You never want to miss Opening Day. Tickets here.

With Opening Day coming up just 16 days from now (which is unrelated to the title of this post), we wanted to share with you the prizes we are giving out as part of the 12-12-12 promotion leading into the start of our 12th season.

For those that do not know, you can just email radio@blueclaws.com to be entered. Include your name, phone number, and age bracket (child [under-12], adult, senior). We’ll pick the winners, 12 of them, next Thursday, April 5th. What do the winners win? One of the following prizes:

• First Tacos from Surf Taco
• First Pizza from Charlie’s Pizza
• Participation in “Mini Manager”
• Announcing “Play Ball” over the PA
• Being the Honorary Bat Boy
• Ceremonial First Pitch
• Press Box Suite for Game
• FREE BlueClaws Jersey
• Unlock the Gates With Buster, Players
• Appearance on the Radio
• PA Announcer for a Half-Inning
• Announce Attendance and How Close Team is to 5-Million Fans

12 prizes. April 12th. Starting our 12th season. 12-12-12.

More here.

Eleven years ago today – March 13, 2001, the BlueClaws front office staff members moved into FirstEnergy Park for the first time after working on Airport Road for the previous few months.

Move-in day was quite hectic, according to BlueClaws Asst GM Brandon Marano, who is still here in his role 12 years later.

“It was about a three or four day process because we had to keep our business operations going at our location in the industrial park…We were all hands on deck, loading the truck, unpacking the truck…It was basically moving our entire office over.”

The picture you see on the right was taken four months prior to move-in day, on November 10th, of 2000. Obviously shortly after that photo a lot of grass was laid down and the path was paved leading up to the gate as it is today.

How close did they cut it, before the first game? Marano’s first fan complaint:

“A woman walked up to the gates 15 minutes before we opened to look inside and had nothing but green paint on her jacket because it was still wet.”

Listen to the podcast below or click here to download the file to your computer (right click, save link as, you can bring it into your iTunes to listen to later if you want).

Note: later, we’re coming back with a little 5-million announcement, which was part of the reasoning for taping this podcast.

On Monday, the BlueClaws announced for the first time that beginning this year, all FirstEnergy Park crowds will be capped at 8,000.

Many fans had questions and comments mostly via Facebook but also via Twitter and we wanted Geoff to address some of them. So, we decided to bring him onto the podcast.

Click here to download the file to your computer (right click, save link as, you can bring it into your iTunes to listen to later if you want).

If you have any further comments, you can leave them below or email radio at blueclaws.com. Thanks everyone.

We’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to BlueClaws head groundskeeper Ryan Radcliffe, who today turns eight.

A tweet from us this morning awknowleding this returned two responses, both pretty good:

@1tomato2 That’s why there are always crayons on the infield.

And the more classy @OhHeyItsKevin He ages gracefully.

We appreciate both responses of course.

But regarding the first one, sometimes crayons are very good, especially when they do this:

In this case, “crayons” shares a meaning with “stencil” and “spray-paint,” but you get the point.

In looking up some famous people who share a Leap Day birthday, we found John “Pepper” Martin (born 1904), who played for the Gashouse Gang Cardinals of the 1930s and three times led the National League in steals. He also managed an International League franchise named the, of all names, Miami Marlins.

The Phillies announced the coaching staffs today for their minor league affiliates and Lakewood will have a new manager in 2012: Mickey Morandini.

Morandini managed Williamsport last year to a 45-33 record in his first year in the system. Lakewood’s manager from 2011, Chris Truby, will head to Clearwater.

Below is the full release.

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LAKEWOOD, NJ – Former Phillies second baseman Mickey Morandini will manage the BlueClaws in 2012, it was announced by the Phillies on Monday. Morandini is joined on the staff by hitting coach Greg Legg and pitching coach Les Lancaster.

Morandini hit .268 over 11 big league seasons, nine of them with Philadelphia. He was the starting second baseman on the club that advanced to the 1993 World Series and an All-Star in 1995.

Most recently, Morandini managed Williamsport in 2011, leading the Crosscutters to a record of 43-33 with a number of players that should be with the BlueClaws in 2012. Morandini had been an instructor at spring training the two previous years and served as the head baseball coach at Valparaiso High School in Indiana.

He becomes the 10th manager in BlueClaws history, replacing Chris Truby, who will move up to manage Hi-A Clearwater in 2012.

Legg returns for his sixth season with Lakewood and fifth consecutive after serving as the first manager in team history in 2001. Legg has been Lakewood’s hitting coach since 2008. Last year, he was the winner of the John Vukovich Award, presented by the Phillies in honor of his 30 years of service to the Philadelphia organization.

Lancaster went 41-28 over seven Major League seasons, five with the Cubs, from 1987-1993. He served as a pitching coach for the Gulf Coast League Phillies in 2011, his first season in the organization.

Ryne Sandberg returns for his second season with Triple- A Leghigh Valley.

(more…)

Many of you will soon be receiving the BlueClaws 2012 ticket brochure in the mail. Many of you will get one here at the park or elsewhere. If you want to get a copy, you can certainly get one. But if you want to read one right from your home computer, you can do that too.

The BlueClaws 2012 Ticket & Group Brochure is available for you to view online by clicking here.

Note – we don’t have the same cool background music that we have for the media guide (click here).

This is also the debut of our new slogan – Sand, Sun, & Serious Fun.

The brochure includes information about ticket packages, group outings, using the ballpark, and much more. It’s a good read.

Just updated the all-time BlueClaws roster for the homepage (click here to view).

Food-for-thought: 376 players have worn the BlueClaws jersey not including rehab-only players. (For example, Brad Lidge, who did not come through Lakewood on the way to the big leagues but rehabbed here this year is a rehab-only player; he is not counted in this list. However, Ryan Howard, who rehabbed here twice, did come through Lakewood, so he is counted in the 376).

That means more than 10% (38) have gone From the Shore to the Show, with Michael Taylor from 2008 being the most recent.

If we don’t count the 2009, 2010, and 2011 teams, then instead of 376, we bring it down 112 players (remembering not to double-count) to 264. That means that 38 of the 264 players that played in Lakewood between 2001 and 2008 (and thus have had enough time to reach the big leagues after leaving Lakewood, is 14.4%.

(Double-counting is why it seems odd that in 11 years there have been 376 players, or just 34.1 per year. This year alone, Lakewood had 47 players play for them, not including rehabs. But note that many had of course already been with the BlueClaws the year before, or two years before).

14.4% by the way means that on each 25 man roster, there are 3.6 (3-4) big leaguers.

Only 206 days until Opening Day! Get psyched. Let’s do a little breakdown on the schedule for next year, which you can look at by clicking here, looking at promotional days, opponents, and more.

By Days of the Week
Kids Eat Free Sunday and Monday: 19 (ten Sundays and ten Mondays)
Senior Day Tuesday: 10
Dollar Dog Wednesday: 9
Thirsty Thursday: 10 (including Opening Day)
Fireworks Friday: 11 (plus fireworks shows on May 27, July 3, September 2)
Saturday: 11

By opponent?

• Asheville (Rockies) come to Lakewood April 24-27, their first visit since 2007. The BlueClaws have made trips to Asheville each of the last four years and got no-hit there in 2008. You may remember the 2010 opener when Lakewood scored eight runs in the first inning of the first game in Asheville.
• Greenville (Red Sox) come in for a three game series (April 28-30), a re-match of the 2009 and 2010 Championship Series, each won by the BlueClaws. Also, Lakewood will open the season in Greenville (April 5-8), their only visit to the Sally League’s mini-Fenway.
• Charleston (Yankees) do not make a visit in to Lakewood next year and the BlueClaws will play just three games against the RiverDogs, in Charleston between May 2 and 4.
• Savannah (Mets) come to Lakewood between May 14-17 and again between July 14 and 17 and the BlueClaws will play four games down there, May 5-8.
• The BlueClaws make their first visit to Augusta since 2007 between August 13-15 (three days in 107 degree heat is better than four?)
• Lexington (Astros) makes a 12 hour ride for a three-game series between June 5-7.
• Yes, they’re in our division: that goes to Hickory – the BlueClaws and Crawdads played four times in the regular season in 2010, eight in 2011, and will play eight times in 2012, four in each park.

Old Reliables

• Delmarva: 22 (9 home/13 road)
• Greensboro: 22 (11 home/road)
• Hagerstown: 25 (13 home/12 road – with the last meeting on July 26th, so 25 of the first 104 games of the year are against the Suns)
• West Virginia: 19 (12 home/7 road)

So there we go, a breakdown of the 2012 schedule.

BlueClaws manager Chris Truby wanted to write this thank you letter to all BlueClaws fans out there for their great support here in 2011.

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BlueClaws fans,

I just wanted to write this as a thank you to all of the great fans in Lakewood that we saw at the park this year.

Our players, coaches, our friends and our families are very grateful for all of the support we received throughout the year from the fans and the BlueClaws front office. I’ve been in professional baseball for almost 20 years and this is truly right there with any place I’ve ever played or coached.

The support that the fans gave to our team was phenomenal, from those cold nasty days in April right through the last game of the year on a perfect August evening.

Getting off the bus tired and then having 7,000 fans and a great ballpark atmosphere that night is not something that every player gets to experience in their minor league careers. I told our players throughout the season to be sure to enjoy that and remember it as they continue up the ladder.

I had a wonderful time this summer here in Lakewood, and as I said earlier, this was one of my most enjoyable seasons in baseball. I hope to see you again, whether it be in spring training or again here in 2012.

Thanks again for a great summer and thanks for your tremendous support.

See you at the ballpark,

Chris Truby

Manager, Lakewood BlueClaws

Fox 29 and their anchor John Anderson are spending the summer doing ballpark tours around some of the area’s minor league parks and they came to Lakewood a few weeks back. Here is the piece:

Minor League Baseball Tour Hits Lakewood: MyFoxPHILLY.com

We’ve made an addition to our website with the launch of the new BlueClaws Female Fan Zone, with special offers and programs for women all located in one spot on BlueClaws.com.

Click here to visit the Female Fan Zone.

There’s information there now on two baseball camps for women, one a Baseball 101 session on July 7th and another a Baseball For All event with Justine Siegal, the first woman ever to throw batting practice to a Major League team. Read about that here in the NY Times.

Also at the link is information about Ladies Night in August and some other stuff too. We hope you like it!

We’re putting together a BlueClaws female fan zone for BlueClaws.com and basically using this as a quick landing page for a test-drive. If you arrived here via our email newsletter, you’re good. If not and you would like to be added to a female BlueClaws distribution list, send an email to ccoppinger@blueclaws.com.

Thanks. We’ll keep you posted when it’s ready, which should be within a week.

A couple of BlueClaws stories in today’s Asbury Park Press that are definitely worth reading. Steve Edelson writes on the team starting their 11th season:

“Every year the story becomes more common, where parents come up to me and say, “my kid grew up at your ballpark.’‚” said BlueClaws GM Geoff Brown. “And I’m like, “What do mean? We just got here.” But the kid was 8 and now he’s in college, so you forget. They were here from the time they first started following baseball. You don’t realize it’s been that long.”

And Tony Graham’s game story which included this from Jim Murphy (who homered):

“My goal going into spring training after a down season (.239, 6 HR, 43 RBI) last year) was just to play another one wherever it was,” Murphy said.

“So they (Phillies) said, “We need you in Lakewood, we want you to go down there and play well, get yourself back right, and take it as an opportunity.’ That’s how I’m going to take it.”

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Good pitching matchup today between Phillies 7th round pick David Buchanan and White Sox 2nd round pick Jake Petricka.

Jesse Biddle throws tomorrow in his BlueClaws debut.