Welcome to the annual Independence Eve celebration in Dunn Tire Park, where the Bisons' game against the Rochester Red Wings forms a sort of odd preliminary to the BPO concert and fireworks show that follows. With still a half-hour before the 6:05 first pitch, you can already see folks sitting in the distant reaches in both left and right field and the usual full house -- or close to it -- is certain.
The Bisons will crack the 250,000 mark in attendance for these events, which began in 1995. And it's strange to watch how the place fills up as the game moves along. "USA" is mowed into the outfield grass. There are red, white and blue stars in foul territory and bunting on the facing of the upper deck (although I remember a lot more of that in previous years).
Cohort David Briggs and I will be filing live updates in this space all night. We'll put our initials after each one (MH or DB) so you know who's blabbing along.
---Mike Harrington
11:58 p.m. -- The fireworks are over and the video board in center reads, "See you July, 3, 2009." The fans have begun the firedrill procession to the exits, which looks like a good cue to start packing up. Hope everyone enjoyed the blog. Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday. -- DB
11:40 p.m. -- Accompanied by the strains of "Rockin' in the USA," "American Pie" and Bruce Springsteen's, "Born in the USA," the fireworks are underway. I'd describe the scene, but what can I say? (The lustrous explosives are splashing brilliantly against the evening sky?) The fireworks look like, well, fireworks. Only tonight, the show lasts about 20 minutes. -- DB
11:35 p.m. -- Say what you will about the Bisons' disappointing season -- Lovullo said he's never been part of a season more frustrating -- but the Herd is not mailing this thing in. Despite being 15 1/2 games behind first-place Pawtucket and painfully dropping the last four games, Buffalo's effort can't be questioned. Just look at Thursday. Under different circumstances, the Bisons go quietly in the ninth, lose by four runs and give the crowd an early fireworks show. Not here. Lovullo simply commands too much respect from his players, and it shows. -- DB
11:30 p.m. -- We now have the longest game of the season and the franchise's latest recitation of the pledge of allegiance. It's nearly midnight and the crowd, led by military personnel in the infield, is on its feet displaying their patriotism. Almost nobody in the stadium has left and the orchestra is still in full swing. The fireworks should be starting in a few minutes. -- DB
10:59 p.m: Torey Lovullo just told the media that Jensen Lewis and Brian Slocum have been called up to Cleveland. No word on who will fill their spots in the Buffalo bullpen, which is now going to be wildly short-handed heading into the two weekend games in Rochester. A couple good starts and a couple reinforcements from Akron are going to be needed.
10:38 p.m: The Bisons go down quietly in a 1-2-3 13th and it's finally over. A 7-6 loss in 4 hours, 29 minutes -- the longest game of the season in both time and innings. That's four tough losses in a row for the Herd.
The 25 innings over two straight nights are the second-most in the ballpark's history (Buffalo split games against Scranton in August, 1998 by winning in 12 and losing in 14 the next day). And the 4-hour, 29-minute affair is the sixth-longest in the ballpark's history.
I'd say at least 90 percent of the crowd is still here for the BPO and fireworks. Amazing. -- MH
10:25 p.m.: Buzachero is out with two outs in the 13th and Rich Rundles is in. Great awareness by the crowd to give Buzachero a big hand as he went to the dugout after his career-high five innings. He threw 77 pitches and his eight strikeouts are the most by a Bisons reliever since Hyang-Nam Choi fanned nine Syracuse batters on May 20, 2006. -- MH
10:23 p.m.: Trevor Plouffe makes up for his gaffe in the 9th with a solo home run to left on a 3-2 pitch from Buzachero. The Wings take a 7-6 lead on the towering drive, which I thought might be too high. But it just carried and carried. (Where's our man Briggs been, you ask? Hey folks, somebody has to write the story for tomorrow's paper!) -- MH
10:22 p.m.: Thumbs up to the fans. On a normal night, this place would be pretty empty in the 13th inning. Tonight, it's still almost fully packed. People in Buffalo want their BPO and their fireworks. -- MH
10:17 p.m.: Cabrera strikes out with two on in the 12th and we're on to the 13th. Buzachero is back out for his fifth inning. That means the Herd has used two pitchers -- yes, two -- in 13 innings. Rich Rundles is warming up in the bullpen. Torey Lovullo warned me before the game that he has a thin bullpen. I think it means Jensen Lewis, Brian Slocum and Jeff Stevens are all candidates to go up to Cleveland tomorrow. -- MH
10:09 p.m.: Jason Cooper is up with two on and one out in the 12th. Dave Ricci of Metro Community News, a king of press box one-liners, just threw one out: "Let's see if he can take out the oboe player." -- MH
10:02 p.m.: Bubbie Buzachero has struck out six in four innings and we're going to the bottom of the 12th still tied at 6-6. Frankly, I think a lot of the crowd has had their fill of baseball and would let to get to some music and fireworks. Still no word about any curfew or suspension. Bet we get more on that if the Herd doesn't score in the bottom of the 12th. Wow, a long extra-inning game gives you one LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG live blog! -- MH
9:55 p.m.: The Herd put two on in the 11th but Jordan Brown ended the inning with a fly ball to left. I have a record of every game of at least 13 innings played in the ballpark's 21-year history. We're now going to the 12th for the second straight night. I don't know if that's ever happened but I doubt it.
9:39 p.m. -- Mr. Jennie Finch, aka Casey Daigle, is in for Rochester after Buzachero retired the Wings in the 11th. -- MH
9:31 p.m. -- It's on to the 11th but Jason Cooper gave the crowd a charge with a two-out drive in the 10th that died on the warning track in front of the party deck where the BPO is slated to play. Which brings us to a new point: There's always been the rumor of a 9:45ish curfew on these games because of another rumor that the BPO's union contract prevents them from playing past 11 p.m. Looks like we'll find out if that's a fish story or not. It takes a good half-hour to set up on-field speakers for the BPO's show. This is getting interesting. -- MH
9:25 p.m. -- Bubbie Buzachero gets out of the Rochester 10th and does his standard hop and step over the first-base line as he gets back into the dugout. Still tied at 6-6. -- MH
9:16 p.m. -- Hold off on the BPO and the fireworks. We've got bonus baseball. It's 6-6 through nine as Gimenez grounds out to the mound. -- MH
9:14 p.m. -- Trevor Plouffe had the goof for the Red Wings. Linden's chopper to Plouffe at second base should have been a game-ending double play. But Plouffe didn't wait to tag Aubrey coming to second and simply flipped to first to allow Cabrera to score the tying run to score. Did Plouffe think there were two outs instead of one? Jordan Brown is intentionally walked and the bases are loaded for Chris Gimenez in a 6-6 game. -- MH
9:11 p.m. -- Aubrey grounds into a force at home on a hard bouncer to Randy Ruiz at first, a couple pitches after he roped one foul down the right-field line -- bringing everyone on that side of the park to their feet. One out with Todd Linden up. -- MH
9:08 p.m -- Andy Gonzalez singles up the middle to make it 6-5 but Lovullo holds Cooper at third to the dismay of the crowd and some folks in here. I'm OK with that call. there's still no outs and the bases loaded. This should be a win. Michael Aubrey up. -- MH
9:03 p.m. -- You can see the Philharmonic musicians in the white tuxes on the grass berm in right field watching the end of this one. They're seeing quite a show. Jason Cooper's RBI single made it 6-3 and Asdrubal Cabrera walked on a full-count pitch to make it 6-4 with Andy Gonzalez up and the bags still loaded. Rochester will bring in closer Bobby Korecky, who has been the Herd's personal punching bag this season. He gave up the 6-0 ninth-inning lead the Red Wings blew here on June 4. -- MH
8:58 p.m. -- BIG error on the Herd interns. They suddenly hand out beach balls and they're bouncing around the crowd. Of course, a couple have already stopped the game by making it to the field. HEY, the bases are loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Who made that decision to hand those out? -- MH
8:56 p.m. -- Some joker is on the Bisons Big Board holding a small baby in a purple suit. His hand is under the little kid and he's holding her like a sack of potatoes. The wise-alecks in the press box had these gems: 1). "Dude, that's not cotton candy." 2). "What are you doing, delivering a pizza?" -- MH
8:54 p.m. -- No quit in this Herd. Chris Gimenez led off the bottom of the ninth by getting hit by a pitch near his face. Morgan Ensberg doubled him to third and Brad Snyder walked on a full-count pitch. Mariano Gomez comes in for Rochester to face Jason Cooper with the bases loaded. Cooper is the tying run at the plate. -- MH
8:40 p.m. -- Attendance is announced at 17,583, which is about 400 seats shy of a sellout. Guess that empty section near first base I talked about at the 6:57 p.m. post accounted for most of those. -- MH
8:39 p.m. -- Hey, what do you think Hank Steinbrenner is saying now? It's 6-0 for the Red Sox in the middle of the fifth in Yankee Stadium. Guess they overcame that whacking they took from the Rays quite nicely. -- MH
8:37 p.m. -- The carnage is growing as the Wings take a 6-2 lead in the ninth on catcher Chris Gimenez's throwing error on a sacrifice. There's still runners at second and third. Like I said, get the BPO out here so this crowd doesn't turn surly. -- MH
8:31 p.m. -- Here comes the Herd. Jordan Brown is up with the bases loaded after Torey Lovullo held Asdrubal Cabrera at third on a Todd Linden single. There goes the Herd. Brown fouls out to Tommy Watkins in left and Watkins guns down a sliding Cabrera at the plate (Cabrera walked away with nary a peep). Inning over. Probably game over. Let's get some darkness and get the BPO out here. -- MH
8:17 p.m. -- Middle of the eighth rendition of "Sweet Caroline." What a lousy tradition the Red Sox started. And just exactly what good times have never felt this good with the Herd six outs away from a fourth straight loss and a plummet to eight games under .500? -- MH
8:15 p.m. -- What a shame for Matt Ginter. Rochester's Matt Macri whacks a three-run homer to deep right-center with two out in the eighth to put the Wings up, 5-2. Here comes Torey Lovullo and Ginter is out after season-highs in innings (7 2/3) and pitches (103). With a lot of bullpen moves likely after this game, the Herd pen was thin and Lovullo had to push Ginter. Bubbie Buzachero is in.
The home run came two pitches after another web gem as Andy Gonzalez dives to his right to get a force at second base and prevent Garrett Jones from scoring. That's the third three-run homer in the sixth inning or later against the Herd the last four days. That's how you get on a losing streak, folks. -- MH
8:00 p.m. -- The Red Wings have tied it at 2-2 in the top of the seventh on Watkins' RBI single off Ginter, who has allowed only six hits through seven. Arin Dandes just sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. A familiar name? Yep, she's the daughter of Rich Baseball Operations President Jon Dandes and she's been a regular at the mic here for several years. -- MH
7:42 p.m. -- What a catch by Rochester left fielder Watkins to open the bottom of the sixth inning. Michael Aubrey led off with what looked to be a sure double, lofting a high fly ball down the left-field line. But Watkins got a great jump and made a sprinting, full-extension dive to catch the ball along the left-field foul line. We'll say the catch would have been between No. 3 and 5 on Sportscenter's Top 10 list is this were the bigs. -- DB
7:32 p.m. -- Why I continue to provide Cabrera updates is beyond me at this point. The guy is the Herd's best hitter, batting .333 with a homer and six RBIs. But here goes: Cabrera is now 0-for-3 after grounding out to second base in the bottom of the fifth. The Bisons remain ahead, 2-1. -- DB
7:25 p.m. -- Buffalo holds its 2-1 lead through four innings. "La Bamba" just roared through the loudspeakers. I think it was the original one and not that bogus 1989 one. Just finished chatting with another key visitor, Alden native Kate Wedge. As in Mrs. Eric Wedge.
First off, I expressed sympathy for hubby's plight with the woebegone Indians. Then we talked about a terrific promotion she's helping the Bisons run here July 11. It's called Mystery Ball Night. For 20 bucks, you get a ticket and you take it to the Washington Street gate, where you're given a gift-wrapped autographed baseball. There are about 500 of them and many are signed by big names. Cleveland Indians, Sabres, Bills, stars of MLB (including Hall of Famers like Ryne Sandberg and Harmon Killebrew), local icons like Patrick Kane and Dave Hollins. And there's a silent auction with even more great memorabilia. Check out my notebook in tomorrow's paper for full details -- MH
7:10 p.m. -- We have our night's first celebrity sighting. Jennie Finch, America's favorite Olymp
ic softball pitcher, is on hand to watch her beloved Bisons. Actually, she's married to Rochester pitcher Casey Daigle and following his team.
Don't think Finch is on vacation, though. She was spotted hours before the game throwing in one of the batting cages beneath the stadium.
(Photo: Finch and Daigle, Wireimage.com) -- DB
7:00 p.m: Niagara basketball radio voice Todd Callen, who has done some Bisons games in the past, just visited the press box and reported the Callen clan is here 26 strong in Section 215. Hope Joe Mihalich has a scorer to replace Charron Fisher next season for some of Callen's calls. -- MH
6:57 p.m. Ginter gets through the third and the Bisons still lead, 2-1. This place is just about packed except for top four rows of one section behind first base. Did some bus break down somewhere?
Anyway, was just perusing the Pacific Coast League all-star team that was announced today for the July 16 Triple-A game in Louisville and there were no ex-Bisons. That's hard to do. One name of note is Colorado Springs outfielder Seth Smith. His claim to fame? He made the last out of the World Series last year for the Rockies against Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon. -- MH
6:50 p.m. -- BREAKING NEWS ALERT: Cabrera swings bat, makes contact. We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to announced Cabrera just dribbled the ball about five feet in front of the plate to end the second inning. -- DB
6:43 p.m. -- Brad Snyder is still at it a night after hitting two home runs. The Bisons center fielder just blooped a run-scoring, two-out single into short left-field to give the Bisons a 2-1 lead. -- DB
6:36 p.m. -- Todd Linden just tied the game with a solo shot to left-center off Rochester's Kevin Mulvey. Linden served as Barry Bonds' back-up for parts of the last three seasons before he was traded midway through last season to Florida. In 502 career big league at-bats over five seasons, Linden hit .231 with eight homers. -- DB
6:24 p.m. -- Cabrera's apparently learned his lesson. After Matt Ginter gave up a run and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first, Cabrera took a called third strike to lead off the bottom of the first. This time, the Bisons shortstop quietly headed back to the first base dugout. -- DB
6:09 p.m. -- At first pitch, a Tommy Watkins fly out to deep center, the park is about two-thirds full. With the corners of the club level full, you can tell this is a sure sellout. We're guessing the park will be pretty full by the fourth inning. Then you'll get your final stragglers here just for the fireworks and orchestra waltz in around 8:30 p.m. -- DB
5:54 p.m. -- Props to first-year Herd groundskeeper Dan Blank for the field's cool design tonight. Looks great. Three giant letters spelling, "USA," have been mowed into the outfield, a star pattern takes over the grass infield and six red, white and blue stars line the infield in foul territory. A few other nice touches: red, white and blue coach's boxes and a similarly colored Bisons, "B," logo behind homeplate. -- DB
5:50 p.m: I talked to Torey Lovullo in the Bisons dugout within the hour and he has a little different view of the Asdrubal Cabrera situation from last night. First off, it looks like Cabrera will not be suspended. And I agree with Lovullo that plate umpire Jason Klein may have unjustly ejected Cabrera while the player was walking away but did do a good job not inflaming the situation further. Lovullo's view was that Cabrera was telling Klein, "I checked my swing, I didn't swing" but Klein said the pitch was a strike anyway.
I watched the replay for the first time this afternoon. With the naked eye, it looked like Cabrera's bat was higher over his head than it really was. But he did quickly turn in the direction of the umpire and the bat was up by his shoulder. That definitely could have been perceived as a menacing move. And he shouldn't have thrown his gloves and hit first-base umpire Justin Vogel either, whether intentional or not. Let's just say lesson learned for Cabrera. Looks like he's going to be lucky and get away with it this time. -- MH
