Blue Rocks: On The Road No. 5

The Blue Rocks are taking BP right now, where the outfield backdrop offers another majestic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Salem's stadium has a professional look and feel, seating 6,300 but certainly looking like it seats more, since the upper level is so high (17 rows) and the press box height is similar to those at pro parks.

As for the hot dogs here, well... they get a D. It looked tasty but was served a bit cold, never good for a "hot" dog. After the first bite, my reaction was to grade the dog with a low C, since the bun was not that fresh either. But once I finished my fries (grade: B) before I finished the hot dog, and ultimately didn't even finish eating the hot dog, the dog's D status was sealed. I'd only give an F to a hot dog that I threw away after the first bite (which I've done).

Anyway, the buses are able to pull in underneath the stadium, dropping off the players just a few feet from the clubhouse door. The clubhouse has an enclosed connection to the dugout, an unusual feature for minor league stadiums, especially at this level so if you didn't know any different, the Royals and Astros could be taking the field tonight.

Blue Rocks manager John Mizerock has been a player and manager at the big league level, but he had his days in the minors, too.

"It's no fun riding the bus," Mizerock said today. "But you know you have to be on it, so you make the most of it."

Mizerock said that the bus rides, early in the season, are good for the players to form friendships, saying that you eventually talk to the person sitting next to you, and that you learn about their story and background.

As for his own earlier days riding the bus, Mizerock, 46, said his buses didn't have TVs hanging from the ceiling.

"I'm not coming from the dinosaur age," he said, "but all of this stuff is fairly new. Computers. Laptops. Those games, I don't even know what it is they play. But everybody has something to do back there, and it's a relative short amount of time. The normal trip is five or six hours. That's not that bad. When you get into the nine and 10 hours, that's a different story. But it's not bad, and these guys find ways to occupy their time. More often than not it's not a whole lot of talking. They have their earphones on. But that's OK."

On the bus ride from the hotel to the park today, the coaches were talking briefly about Mike Coolbaugh, the 35-year-old minor league first base coach who died Sunday after a line drive struck him in the head. Coolbaugh only joined the team, the Tulsa Drillers, an affiliate of Colorado, on July 3. Last year, Coolbaugh was a third baseman with the Royals' AAA team, the Omaha Royals, with Mizerock a roving instructor for Kansas City in 2006.

Mizerock also coaches third base for the Blue Rocks.

"That's spooky," Mizerock said about how Coolbaugh died. "I've never heard of anything like that. You hear about guys, from back in the old days, a couple guys got killed with pitches. Guys [today] still get hit in the head, but you get a little woozy or whatever. You see some freak injuries, but nothing like that. . . . Everybody gets hit. But I've never heard of anything like that."

A moment of silence for Coolbaugh is scheduled to take place before tonight's game. Salem was a Colorado affiliate before switching its affiliation to Houston in 2003, and Coolbaugh also once played in the Houston minor league system.