Big League In Town
I got an email press release this morning from the Hickory Crawdads indicating that Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman, Adam LaRoche, would be playing in Hickory with the Crawdads tonight. I sorta found that to be just a little odd. I checked my calender, and it's not April 1st, so I figured it must be true. My next question was why? I showed up at the park about 90 minutes before game time, because I knew I was going to need a couple photos off Mr. LaRoche for the team. I went straight to Mike Janela's desk to find out why Adam was in Hickory instead of Indy, Altoona, or Lynchburg. It just doesn't seem right to rehab a major league player in low-A ball. It turns out that Indianapolis is on a road series, Altoona has the night off, and Lynchburg is on the road as well. The Pirates wanted Adam to play some rehab baseball in a home-field environment, and the Hickory Crawdads were the only option.
Adam had a decent showing at the plate tonight. He played seven innings and went two for three at the plate plus a walk. His second trip to the plate produced a monster home run over the high right field wall that would have been an upper deck homer in a major league park with no trouble at all. Adam will be playing in Hickory again on Tuesday night, but beyond that, I don't know.
Hopefully he'll be a nice influence on our current team :)