Good for Nothing

BY KEVIN KERNAN

One of the great pleasures of being at the ballpark, any ballpark, is listening to the pure sounds of the game, the crack of the bat, a fastball slamming into the catcher’s mitt, the organ playing from the concourse, the hum of the crowd.

Yes, all of that is a bit of a cliché, but it is baseball’s cliché. And I am here for it. Always have been.

Like so much about baseball, though, a lot has changed.

At major league games now, the noise never stops. It is such a barrage of noise that you can’t hear yourself think and perhaps that is the plan. Chaos abounds. All that is part of the new fan experience.

I get that. This baseball generation needs constant stimulation, fans and players.

MAKE SOME NOISE!

This generation must be entertained every second. And in places like Yankee Stadium the ear-splitting noise is part of the experience. In Dodger Stadium they even have in-game hosts to make sure you don’t miss a thing; the video board is your master.

Life, across the board, has become much too noisy. Even when I take my walks on the beach where I live, I am amazed by the amount of people with headphones jammed into their ears or large round speakers perched on their heads. These people look like they are guiding a Boeing 737 to the gate instead of taking a walk in the sand listening to the waves.

The hitters somehow made it through the nine innings without their favorite walkup music.

I remember the days in Dodger Stadium when you could hear the simple sounds of the game, you could hear Vin Scully if you were close enough to the press box or through the fans’ radios.

In my high school years, at Yankee Stadium – the original Yankee Stadium – I was sitting with two friends in the front row of the overhang behind home plate, and we were razzing home plate umpire Nestor Chylak, back when umpires actually ran the game. Bless his heart, between innings Old Nestor turned around, looked directly up at us, and grabbed a part of his anatomy well below his chest protector. He let us know what he thought of our comments.

We cheered him and he smiled back at us. It would be much too loud for all that to happen today at Yankee Stadium.

I tell you all this because here at Baseball or Bust we want to congratulate the Louisville Bats, the AAA affiliate of the Reds for doing something so special on Tuesday night; something fans in my age bracket can appreciate.

The Bats played a game against the Indianapolis Indians at wonderful Louisville Slugger Field on Tuesday night where the only sounds were the real sounds of the game. Amazing.

The Bats called it “Nothing Night’’ and it was a glorious night of not only watching baseball but listening to the game. What a concept. And there was a lot to hear with Indianapolis coming away with the 10-8 victory. The 2,595 fans saw 10 home runs hit between the two teams and 25 hits. The hitters somehow made it through the nine innings without their favorite walkup music.

“We have a tendency to overdo it in this new day and age, we almost take it too far with all the noise and promotions,’’ team president Greg Galiette told BallNine on Wednesday.

Why not offer a promotion of baseball sights and sounds on a Tuesday night in May? After all, the Bats have plenty of other promotions coming up this season like all minor league teams. Stay tuned because there is one aspect of the in-game experience at Louisville Slugger Field that I will get to later that is a grand slam — a bourbon grand slam.

As for the genesis of “Nothing Night,’’ Galiette noted, “I think it strikes a chord with folks, especially my age, I’m 66, with folks that grew up loving the game. Maybe it’s kind of the way they remember it to a degree. We draw on that night a little bit older demographic, which we certainly did last night. I think it did its job.

“If you went back to the 1930s or 40s, this is what it would have been like, you would have walked into a ballpark and the only noise you would have heard would have been the ballpark organist playing,’’ Galiette told me. “There was no walk-up music, no in-game promotions on the field, the video board was quiet, except for just the line score.

“We did keep the miles per hour up to keep the coaches happy but everything else was pretty much stripped away and it was kind of baseball as we remember it back in the old days.

“I didn’t have to put on any relaxing jazz piano music, which I normally do in my office during the day, to keep things calm, it is such a rapid business that we are in,’’ Galiette said. “It was nice. It was different. It was almost like playing baseball in a library, but it was cool to hear the crack of the bat and stuff like that and the ball hitting the mitt, it takes you back.’’

It sure does. Baseball can sell itself. As the great sportswriter Red Smith, a man I knew, once wrote: “Baseball is dull only to dull minds.”

I’d love to see some major league teams do this once in a blue moon. And think about this. Say you are the Pirates, who do not draw a lot of fans but have the best pitcher on the planet in Paul Skenes.

Imagine a “Nothing Night’’ on a night Skenes is pitching. He will draw fans no matter what, but the Pirates can get creative and advertise the night this way.

“Come see – and hear – Paul Skenes pitch.’’

Fans can hear the whiz of Skenes’ fastball as it slams into the mitt. They also will be able to hear the wail of opposing hitters who get frustrated by Skenes. And on Nothing Night, you just may get a game where Skenes offers sound and fury and may pitch a no-hitter.

Just a thought for my friends at the Pirates.

Any team, of course, could do Nothing Night. One game a year is not too much to ask where you can sit comfortably as a fan and just enjoy the game and at the same time be able to carry on a conversation with other fans. And if your team plays well, you can cheer without being prompted to “MAKE SOME NOISE!”

Nothing Night will be on the Bats’ schedule again next year. “We’ve done it before and it keeps growing in popularity,’’ Galiette said. “Maybe not as much at the turnstile but getting out there in social media and garnering attention and it kind of fills a niche for us before we get into the big months of the summer. It’s a fun promotion.’’

Again, fantastic job Louisville Bats and Greg Galiette, who is a true baseball lifer, now in his 42nd year with the Louisville franchise. He has done every job at the ballpark including public address announcer and has the pipes for that. Galiette was named senior vice president in 2013 and team president after the 2020 season. He first joined the Louisville Redbirds in 1984. Long associated with the Cardinals, Louisville became the AAA affiliate of the Reds in 2000. Only 100 miles from Cincinnati, it is a good baseball fit.

As for enhancing the fan experience, how about this: Kentucky is bourbon country, of course, and the Bats have partnered with Whiskey Thief Distilling Company — and two of the ballpark’s signature club areas have turned into the Whiskey Thief Backstop and the Whiskey Thief Stadium Club.

“We just started this year a partnership with Whiskey Thief Distilling Company,’’ Galiette said. “They have a tasting room about three blocks from here over in what’s called NuLu, for New Louisville. They use barn paneling throughout their tasting room to make it look like their barn back in Frankfort, Kentucky where they have their distillery. I’ve been looking for three years to partner with a bourbon company to create a speakeasy concept in the basement, right up the tunnel from home plate as we have two theater style rows of seats right behind home plate. You are sitting closer to the batter almost than the pitcher is. So, we turned that whole space into a speakeasy with bourbon barrels serving as tables, barn paneling on the walls and we even went into the University of Louisville archives and found a photograph of Babe Ruth taken in downtown Louisville.”

The Whiskey Thief Stadium Club is also behind home plate on the second level of Louisville Slugger Field and features a bar / lounge with indoor seating, a panoramic view of the ballpark and of the East Waterfront area of downtown Louisville. Both areas feature premium products from Whiskey Thief and, to top it off, Whiskey Thief is the sponsor of Mashers Nights – the alternative ID of the team – featuring a whiskey barrel with a bat logo. Mash is the first step, like getting to first base in the bourbon-making process.

Great stuff and Good for Nothing Night, but I would imagine on those Mashers Nights — Mash & Bash — there is a bit more noise than there was Tuesday night.