Welcome to Cardinal Park

Welcome to the interactive online home of the 2009 Tennessee Tornado, your online ticket to Cardinal Park!  Feel free to post your comments during every Tornado broadcast and I’ll answer your questions, announce your comments and put in a good word for your favorite player live on the Tornado Teamline Network!

Simply click on today’s gameday forum in the right-hand column of this page (it updates 15 minutes before every game, U.S. Eastern Daylight Time), then scroll down to the “Leave a Reply” section to post a comment.  Visiting team fans can feel free to chime in as well, as we love to hear from all of our listeners!  Just tell us who you are and where you’re listening!

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And now, just a bit about our lovely Johnson City venue, Cardinal Park …

Established in 1956, Cardinal Park’s historic sandlot feel and unique topography make it a fun place to watch, call and play a summer ballgame.  It’s 325 feet down the line in left field, 320 down the right-field line, 375 to the power alleys and a hefty 430 to the deepest part of center field.

Indeed, the center-field wall juts out at the batter’s eye similar to the deepest reaches of Fenway Park in Boston.  But the real anomaly here is the right-field wall, bowed slightly toward the infield and propped up on a 12-foot grass mound that stretches the entire length from the 430-foot mark in deep right-center-field to the Howard Johnson Field sign in foul territory.  Rising up from the warning track at a rough 45-degree angle to the 12-foot wall above, ”the hill” baffles right-fielders for visiting and home teams alike.

Howard Johnson Field has been home to the Johnson City Phillies, Yankees and Cardinals in the Appalachian League since 1957, as well as the East Tennessee State  University Buccaneers in the Atlantic Sun Conference and of course the Tennessee Tornado in the SCBL.

• To get to Cardinal Park from Interstate 26 West (coming from North Carolina), take Exit 24 toward Elizabethton.  Take the immediate Legion Street/Milligan Hwy. exit and turn left onto Legion Street.  Follow Legion Street until you see the ballpark on your right.
• To get to Cardinal Park from Interstate 26 East (coming from Virginia), take Exit 23 for Market Street.  Go straight from the off-ramp, crossing Market Street and turning left on Main Street (you will pass McDonald’s on the left).  Stay in your right lane and go straight through the traffic light at State of Franklin Rd.  You will see the ballpark on your left past the Recreation Department building.

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The Southern Collegiate Baseball League celebrates its 10th annual season this year.

The Tornado currently compete with six teams from the Carolinas: the Lake Norman Copperheads (Huntersville, N.C.), Morganton (N.C.) Aggies, Spartanburg (S.C.) Blue Eagles, Carolina Stingers (Fort Mill, S.C.), Carolina Chaos (Clemson, S.C.) and Asheville (N.C.) Redbirds.

Teams’ schedules comprise mostly double-headers, seven innings a game, as well as the occasional classic nine-inning contest.  The league championship is a double-elimination tournament for the four top teams in late July.  Also, the top players in the league convene for the annual All-Star Game in mid-July.

SCBL teams are allowed an extra hitter in their lineups, which sometimes sees teams batting 10 players instead of nine.  Also, pitchers throw no more than 85 pitches per game in order to preserve their arms after an already rigorous spring in their respective collegiate conferences.  Like other summer collegiate leagues, the SCBL uses wooden bats for a big-league feel.

Under the guidance of Commissioner Bill Capps, Jr., the SCBL belongs to the National Association of Collegiate Summer Baseball (NACSB).  For more information on the SCBL, visit www.scbl.org.

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As the Voice of the Tornado in my second year, allow me to introduce myself to our new fans …

I’m John Stevens, a professional mass communications specialist and student at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., majoring in mass communications with a concentration in broadcasting.  I served five years in the Navy, four years aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) in Norfolk, Va., and finished my enlistment as a Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class.

In addition to the Tornado during the summer, I work for ETSU’s Buccaneer Sports Network in video production and sports broadcasting.

It’s my pleasure to take a vacation from the grind of being a student broadcaster to bring you Tornado baseball for two glorious months at the height of the Tennessee summer.  Thanks fans, and enjoy the defending SCBL champion Tennessee Tornado live all season on Teamline!

Best Regards,

John Stevens