Clippers, Mud Hens unite to enjoy a strange land play

Clement, a Rochester native, looked startled at the inline ball and strode toward the start, even though Dustin Garneau was on top and brandishing Clement outside.

The play seemed to stun everyone, including the broadcast team.

“Clement, by the time he resolved himself… it didn’t even happen… Are you kidding me?” The announcer of the theater team said while watching the play. “As we look at the replay here, the ball didn’t bounce at all. It was buried in the dirt ground. A third of that ball is submerged!”

Columbus Clippers announcer Ryan Mitchell said a lot of fans at the game probably didn’t realize what was going on right now. He noted that depending on how much water the ground crew watered in the area around the house board, the balls could be chipped right into the dirt and not moved around much.

“It’s certainly not unprecedented but it is very unusual,” he said.

“For me, the best part about baseball is that you can come to the field every day, all season after season and season and there is a really good chance that you will see something on a field that you have never seen before,” Mitchell said. And the reactions online, most of them never saw what happened in Huntington Park tonight.”

The Mud Hens, a Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, beat the Clippers, the Cleveland Guardians’ top team in the minor league, 4-0.