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Gibbons Can't Stop The Revolution
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York, PA - Just moments after listening to George Sherrill give up a walk off two run home run to the Nationals’ Ronnie Belliard, I was on my way into the York Revolution’s Sovereign Bank arena to see former Oriole Jay Gibbons.
Most of you know Jay’s story already. He played for the Orioles from 2001-2007, had a few promising season, got sidelined by injuries, was named in the Mitchell Report for HGH use, and got cut from the roster just before opening day three months ago. At one time he was a rising star on the O’s roster, but today he was just the number five hitter for the visiting Long Island Ducks.
And my friend and I were just a couple of guys sitting on lawn chairs. Tickets to see the former big leaguer were only six dollars apiece, but we had to carry them in to the grassy area beyond the outfield.
We settled into a seat near the Downtown Playground, an amusement area in the stadium that features a carousel, moon bounce, and other kids’ activities. Gibbons, looking slender but still athletic, came up with one on in the first inning. Likely the Ducks’ only multimillionaire player, Gibbons hit his first Atlantic League home run just as we had battled past the swarms of sugar-high children, a hooking shot to the opposite field that benefited from a short outfield and possibly a generous umpire’s fair call. Gibbons’ two run homer gave the Ducks an early lead.
When the visiting team took their places in the field at the bottom of the inning, Gibbons’ came on to play right field. My friend and I promptly moved our lawn chairs across the arena, prompting dozens of parents to give a sigh of relief as
Gibbons’ home run wouldn’t be enough for the Ducks. Flashing some defensive prowess, Gibbons made a nice move towards center to nab a line drive, but he couldn’t prevent the Revolution from taking the lead
Marketing The Revolution
After a small smattering of “steroids” chants, very few Revolution fans were interested in heckling Jay Gibbons. In fact, only two men shouted vague insults at Gibbons throughout the game. With the home team in the lead, our attention turned to the Revolution’s stadium and its family-friendly entertainment. Here is a partial list of the non-baseball related activities that we got for our six bucks.
- Speaker-driven sounds effects and cheers. The Revolution’s most popular chant features a disembodied speaker voice yelling, “revolution!” to which the crowd responded in kind with “revolution!” This recurred with maddening regularity.
- Clapping video screen hands that look a lot like the isolated bird hands at Camden Yards
- A sumo fight in the middle of the 4th, with children in sumo suits.
- An appearance by Roofman after the 5th inning. Roofman is a superhero who looks a lot like Batman. His only discernable superhero power is the ability to grab foul balls off the stadium roof and throw them to happy fans.
- A potato sack race before the seventh
- A seventh inning stretch featuring the chicken dance. This was the most popular non-baseball related stadium activity program of the day
Gibbons ended the day 1 for 3, including the aforementioned home run, two strikeouts--O’s fans will remember Jay’s long swinging Ks—and a walk. Neither he nor his teammate, former National Nook Logan, could lead the Ducks past the Revolution, who won the game 6-3. The home crowd went home happy, and Jay Gibbons was on his way back to
Gibbons, who will apparently grant interviews to credentialed reporters but not to random dudes in the outfield, told The Sun that he wants to continue playing baseball “in this country or another.” If that is the case, he’s going to have to bring up his average a little more (.280 as of Sunday, according to the scoreboard), and cut down on his Ks. With only a few weeks of indy league baseball under his belt, Gibbons has time to adjust. Until then, there will be more chicken dances, more moon bounces, and best of all, more Roofman.
As my friend Mike said, “It’s a long independent league season…I think.”
