Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Baseball and fireworks reign on Indepence Day.

When is the third the fourth? When baseball teams have a home game on July 3 but not July 4. Check out the "Promotion of the Day" section of MinorLeagueDugout.com for the list of teams who are shooting off fireworks following their games.

While many teams are putting on shows on both days, the vast majority of teams on today's list don't have home games tomorrow. One notable exception of both – or neither depending on how you look at it – is Roger Dean Stadium, home of both the Palm Beach Cardinals and the Jupiter Hammerheads.

The Cardinals appear ready to drop the first game of today's doubleheader and hope to be able to play the second game before a line of thunderstorms reaches the park. The fireworks are scheduled to follow, although by the look of the red spots on the radar, nature may provide the lights in the sky tonight.

Palm Beach is on the road tomorrow, but the Hammerheads return to the park for a home stand. Jupiter gets its own celebration on the Fourth. At the start of the season, these displays were scheduled to be the third and fourth of the season. The South Florida drought, however, forced the cancellation of the first two fireworks shows. Wouldn't it be ironic if rain postponed the third and fourth shows?

Carpenter goes Outback: Chris Carpenter started the first game of the doubleheader for Palm Beach – his first of potentially four rehab starts before returning to the bigs. He got knocked around pretty good, giving up five runs – three of them earned – in less than two innings.

Carpenter was originally slated to start last night but the game was rained out. When the Cardinals returned to the clubhouse after yesterday's rainout, they found an Outback Steakhouse post-game meal waiting for them courtesy of Carpenter.

Gamel keeps rolling: Brevard County's Matt Gamel extended his hitting streak to 30 in the first game of the doubleheader against Palm Beach. Surprisingly, he is not in the second game's starting lineup.

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