Smokies Stadium

#76
#76
preacherman20 said:
I can guarantee you that TV had a plan when he scheduled game. He went to Western Carolina last year to be in a hostile environment. I don’t know exactly what his plan was for last night but the fact that we played in front of that many people in a neutral stadium was good. I have a feeling we are going to look back on last night and say it was a pivotal point in the season. Great wake up call for guys.
Click to expand...

Seems to me that playing in a park like that is really good experience to prepare for Hoover and Omaha.

Maybe TV has some vision.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Jax_Vol, GenRRN, chuckiepoo and 3 others
#78
#78
golfballs said:
We may have, especially w that kind of plate discipline. Who's to say though. Moreso it's the combination of the two. An exhibition game played in the middle of the season. Also, a loss to any mid-week team is going to hurt us more at home, that's not really an argument IMO to play more of them at neutral sites. And one 20 min away. I don't mind at all playing teams at their own parks like we did w WCU last year. If we want to play in front of fans in the tri-cities area then play a game at ETSU. And not w wood bats. Lol
Click to expand...
I think you’re just in the minority on this one. It gave fans who couldn’t get to sold-out LNS this season a chance to see the #1 team play. I think TT is a sneaky good midweek team, one that we were in a close one with back in February before rain canceled it if I’m not mistaken. It’s fine to get a change of scenery for 1 game a year.
But I don’t think you should change to wooden bats in the middle of a season. That can totally throw off the rhythm IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: taylorvol, chuckiepoo, b-ball fan and 3 others
#79
#79
wtmvol said:
I think you’re just in the minority on this one. It gave fans who couldn’t get to sold-out LNS this season a chance to see the #1 team play. I think TT is a sneaky good midweek team, one that we were in a close one with back in February before rain canceled it if I’m not mistaken. It’s fine to get a change of scenery for 1 game a year.
But I don’t think you should change to wooden bats in the middle of a season. That can totally throw off the rhythm IMO.
Click to expand...
I’m clearly in minority but I’m ok with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jax_Vol, chuckiepoo and txbo
#80
#80
wtmvol said:
I think you’re just in the minority on this one. It gave fans who couldn’t get to sold-out LNS this season a chance to see the #1 team play. I think TT is a sneaky good midweek team, one that we were in a close one with back in February before rain canceled it if I’m not mistaken. It’s fine to get a change of scenery for 1 game a year.
But I don’t think you should change to wooden bats in the middle of a season. That can totally throw off the rhythm IMO.
Click to expand...
Didnt TTU say they didn’t have any more pitchers to go in that one?
 
#84
#84
golfballs said:
Uhh… that is textbook conflict of interest! And the fact that this game shouldnt be played in the middle of the season. If we played Virginia tech in a mid week game in Bristol or something then fine. Not TTU 20 min away from our own ball park
Click to expand...

You've got a point about conflict of interest, I agree. Wonder why the News Sentinel isn't screaming about it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: GenRRN
#87
#87
Ned Land said:
All these replies and nobody has touched on my only complaint of the night- the parking! I should say, the lack of it. This must have been a significantly larger crowd than they've ever had up there. Took well into the 3rd for the stadium to fill up due to people waiting in line to get in the parking lot. Buddy of mine had to come late and had to walk one mile to get to the stadium :D

As for the game itself, we played it like we wanted to get the pitchers some work. Blade looked like the Blade of last year and he goes to the showers after the first inning. If we were going to win it would need to be with the bats and it just didn't happen. If V is happy with the work the pitchers got I guess that's what matters in the long run. Dread the panic if Alabama beats us this weekend. They are playing really well right now, I bet they get one of them.
Click to expand...

There's no excuse for the jams and the parking snafus. Pure incompetence on the part of the Smokies not to have planned that out and gotten permission to alter traffic patterns before and after the game, and to get people parked quickly as they arrived. The stadium is surrounded by a sea of parking, what was their problem?
 
#88
#88
golfballs said:
We may have, especially w that kind of plate discipline. Who's to say though. Moreso it's the combination of the two. An exhibition game played in the middle of the season. Also, a loss to any mid-week team is going to hurt us more at home, that's not really an argument IMO to play more of them at neutral sites. And one 20 min away. I don't mind at all playing teams at their own parks like we did w WCU last year. If we want to play in front of fans in the tri-cities area then play a game at ETSU. And not w wood bats. Lol
Click to expand...

Conflict of interest aside, I think it's OK to play there in a mid week game for reasons I gave earlier, just not in the conference part of the schedule. It would make more sense to play ETSU or Western Carolina there for their fans sake and Vols fans east of the city. I would also get rid of the "exhibition" game vibe - wooden bats and all that. Remember it's hard on our players to travel very far for a mid-week game. Going to the tri cities or western carolina takes a toll on them. Kodak, not so much. And, again, once we start conference play, I don't want us distracted from our mission - win the conference. So, I'd be in favor of a mid-week game or weekend series there when students are off campus and the right opponent is scheduled at the right point on our schedule. Assuming the conflict of interest could be resolved.
 
#89
#89
golfballs said:
I’ll admit it’s small beans. I’m just overly-cynical about that sort of thing
Click to expand...

I don't think one can be overly concerned about that sort of thing. The President of the University owns the Smokies, for goodness sakes. I wonder if he took any mitigating kind of action to avoid a conflict?
 
#90
#90
youcancallmeAl said:
There's no excuse for the jams and the parking snafus. Pure incompetence on the part of the Smokies not to have planned that out and gotten permission to alter traffic patterns before and after the game, and to get people parked quickly as they arrived. The stadium is surrounded by a sea of parking, what was their problem?
Click to expand...

Chris Allen, the CFO of the Smokies, was on with Tony Basilio just now. Re: parking problems last night - he said all the rain flooded their overflow grass parking areas so they had to scramble to find alternative areas - fortunately they had area businesses allow use of their lots. He couldn’t quite figure out why there were traffic jams other than an earlier game time start - 6:30 pm vs their usual 7pm start. He was apologetic and promised to working on improvements for the future. He also praised the fans for their record turn out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: taylorvol, youcancallmeAl and VFFL@THE BEACH
#91
#91
No. TV will never go to Western Carolina again. We only had about 12 fans there. Not a good ballpark and terrible umpires. I don't see it happening that he will agree to play at anyone's field in a midweek.
The field complaints and not having full control is why I don't think he will ever agree to move for a renovation. The players thought it was a nightmare not to be in a normal routine at all. Not an excuse for bad swings but it did throw off the entire day. I think you will see it again next year but I don't think you will see wood bats even though I don't think it made a difference. They did not seem focused as hitters. Pitchers seemed to do good. Take away one pitch and the game is totally different so you can't get into why didn't Blade more and this and that. I thought it was good that they sent Ben back out there the next inning after the homerun to see how he responded.
Personally, it was good for my kid. He threw well in front of a lot of scouts and did his job. He will never light up the radar gun on a regular basis because that is not who he is as a pitcher. Hit 93 this fall in front of scouts but his fastball got really flat and straight. FA said I want you 86-89 with lots of movement. So that is what he is. Has hit 94 in the fall both years and was 93 in HS. Someone suggested he did not have confidence on Monday and I did not respond immediately but the last thing my kid has lost is confidence. His era is half of last years and he has been used in some big places and been ready to be used in others if they had transpired. These guys as a team will refocus and be ready to go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iVolSoHard, youcancallmeAl, vol66 and 7 others
#92
#92
preacherman20 said:
No. TV will never go to Western Carolina again. We only had about 12 fans there. Not a good ballpark and terrible umpires. I don't see it happening that he will agree to play at anyone's field in a midweek.
The field complaints and not having full control is why I don't think he will ever agree to move for a renovation. The players thought it was a nightmare not to be in a normal routine at all. Not an excuse for bad swings but it did throw off the entire day. I think you will see it again next year but I don't think you will see wood bats even though I don't think it made a difference. They did not seem focused as hitters. Pitchers seemed to do good. Take away one pitch and the game is totally different so you can't get into why didn't Blade more and this and that. I thought it was good that they sent Ben back out there the next inning after the homerun to see how he responded.
Personally, it was good for my kid. He threw well in front of a lot of scouts and did his job. He will never light up the radar gun on a regular basis because that is not who he is as a pitcher. Hit 93 this fall in front of scouts but his fastball got really flat and straight. FA said I want you 86-89 with lots of movement. So that is what he is. Has hit 94 in the fall both years and was 93 in HS. Someone suggested he did not have confidence on Monday and I did not respond immediately but the last thing my kid has lost is confidence. His era is half of last years and he has been used in some big places and been ready to be used in others if they had transpired. These guys as a team will refocus and be ready to go.
Click to expand...

Kirby's having a great year.

His outting at Baylor was as good of a performance as anything I've seen this year....from anybody.
 
  • Like
Reactions: youcancallmeAl, vol66, OldTimer and 5 others
#94
#94
youcancallmeAl said:
There's no excuse for the jams and the parking snafus. Pure incompetence on the part of the Smokies not to have planned that out and gotten permission to alter traffic patterns before and after the game, and to get people parked quickly as they arrived. The stadium is surrounded by a sea of parking, what was their problem?
Click to expand...
Was there not a shuttle from Bass Pro? A staff member said the average game is 4500 fans. So when there’s 8000+ fans, I’m sure there’s gonna be limited parking. Luckily, I was off yesterday and was able to get to the game 2 hours early.
 
  • Like
Reactions: youcancallmeAl and chuckiepoo
#95
#95
youcancallmeAl said:
You've got a point about conflict of interest, I agree. Wonder why the News Sentinel isn't screaming about it?
Click to expand...
No story here. It’s common to play annually at a minor league park. See Ga vs Ga Tech and FL v FL St. See Vandy vs Lipscomb. All play once a year at minor league parks. Not a story. Plus it’s inconsequential to Boyd Sports and outweighed by benefits to UT baseball program in terms of exposure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#97
#97
youcancallmeAl said:
You've got a point about conflict of interest, I agree. Wonder why the News Sentinel isn't screaming about it?
Click to expand...

Since he's the system president and not directly over UTK and the UTAD, I imagine its not that big of an issue. Its not something he would sign off on.

Add to that its not like he passed over bunch of other parks to use "his" field.

Edit to add: I forgot its not even "his" park. The city/county own it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: txbo, taylorvol, Volfan1000 and 1 other person
#98
#98
WallyBalls said:
Since he's the system president and not directly over UTK and the UTAD, I imagine its not that big of an issue. Its not something he would sign off on.

Add to that its not like he passed over bunch of other parks to use "his" field.
Click to expand...
The board of directors has a written policy about conflict of interest. And it covers situations where even the appearance of one might exist. I was more sensitive about this issue when the were some grumblings about UT sharing a park with the Smokies. Glad that’s not happening
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volfan1000 and chuckiepoo
#100
#100
youcancallmeAl said:
There's no excuse for the jams and the parking snafus. Pure incompetence on the part of the Smokies not to have planned that out and gotten permission to alter traffic patterns before and after the game, and to get people parked quickly as they arrived. The stadium is surrounded by a sea of parking, what was their problem?
Click to expand...
Problem was their overflow lots were flooded due to all the rain. Bass Pro didn’t grant access to their lots bc they were still open for business.
 
  • Like
Reactions: youcancallmeAl and chuckiepoo
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top