Category Archives: On the Road

Each road series we hope to bring you a blog from a different Smokies player to hear their thoughts on the season and life On the Road. With the Smokies in contention for 1^st place in the Southern League North Division, Smokies left fielder Ty Wright gives us his thoughts on team leadership, clubhouse life and winning the Southern League’s player of the week award.

On Leadership in the Clubhouse

We don’t really (have a leader in the clubhouse), right now, we haven’t had to face any adversity for someone to stand up and be a leader.  If something is going on, or if I don’t like something, I’ll be sure to say something to them.  “Hey, don’t worry about it, or anything like that.”   Right now, the vibe in the clubhouse is good.  We’re just showing up and playing baseball, kind of like spring training.  We’re not concerned about wins or losses; we are just showing up, doing our jobs.  At the end of the day, more times than not, we’re on the winning side.  I think it’s a good vibe to have in the clubhouse.

We call (Jake) Muyco sergeant because he is big into the Navy Seals and stuff like that.  He wants to be a Seal one day.  I guess he can be the jokester that way.  (Russ) Canzler is kind of the big, goofy, class-clown jokester-type guy, I would say.  That would be my vote.  It’s been all fun and everything.  We all have fun. We all have a little jokester in us.  Nobody on the team, luckily, takes it too serious when they get mad or want to fight or anything.  Everybody’s good about it.  Everyone wants to get everybody back…no hard feelings.

During Rainouts

Because of the bus trips, a lot of us rest.  With our apartments, we like to go to the movies, and check out a movie because it is right there.  You don’t need a car.  You can just walk over to the mall over there and watch a movie.  It is either a movie, or we will get together and play some video games or something like that.  A lot of us don’t have cars and some of us that do have cars don’t really venture out too much. We’ll go to Knoxville every once in a while and grab something to eat.  Other than that, we pretty much stay local at the apartments…hang out together, or go to the movies.

Life On the Road

If there is a Best Buy close, that is always being hit up.  You can walk around…look at movies, video games, DVDs, all that stuff.  There were some restaurants that were in walking distance so we just stayed close to the hotel.  I bought Star Wars because Russ Canzler is a big Star Wars fan.   So we watched some Star Wars on the way home.  I think me and Russ were the only ones that were paying attention to it.  (Marco) Carrillo and the other guys were yelling at it, telling us to turn the movie off.

Thoughts on Being Named Southern League Hitter of the Week

It’s exciting, but you know, for me it’s more of a team deal.  Because a lot of those numbers came from guys being on base, and guys doing their job before I step in the box.  I think it’s more recognition for the Tennessee Smokies than it is for myself.

-Ty Wright

Each road series we hope to bring you a blog from a different Smokies player to hear their thoughts on the season and life On the Road. The first post in this series comes from Smokies centerfielder Tony Campana, who is hitting .382 in his first season in Double-A.

We have gotten off to a really good start.  We do everything really well.  I like the team because we have guys that can run. We have guys that can hit home runs.  We can pitch.  So, right now everything is working really well together.

Everybody, right now, is getting along really well.  We all kind of joke around.  There’s not really anybody on this team that is really serious, I don’t think.  (Jake) Muyco is probably the most intense, but he’s still not that serious.  All the older guys joke around like (Blake) Lalli and Ty Wright…all the guys that have been here.

The road trips have been fun, the first bus trip to Mississippi was a LONG one.  Being a first-year guy and being small, I had to double up on the way there and the way back.  Not getting a seat to myself stinks, but you are on a bus for a long time with all these guys for a long time and you get to know them and get to like them.

We’ll usually sleep in.  I room with Jake Opitz. We sleep in until 10:30, sometimes 11:00.  Some days, we’ll get a lift in, some days we won’t.  Then we go get lunch.  When we were in Mississippi, the only real place to get lunch was either at the hotel or by going to the stadium and getting something there.  And then we would go back, relax for a bit until we had to go to the field.  Mississippi was nice because we could walk to the park from the hotel. We could just go over there whenever we wanted.  Hang out before the game and get ready to play.

I am very excited to be in Double-A; that was my goal coming into Spring Training.  I actually got there early in January so I could train in the warm weather instead of being in Ohio, so that I would have a shot to start here.  Last year, I started in Peoria and I did pretty well and got moved up real quick, a few weeks, and went to Florida State League and it was fun down there.  I got to be in Florida and all those short bus trips, warm weather.  Had a pretty good year; better than my first year.  In my first profession game (in my first inning) at Boise I broke my hand… and I had to go to Rookie Ball to rehab and I played 19 games there.

Growing up Tennessee, I lived in Nashville for nine years.  I went to UNC-Asheville for two years and have been here a few times, so I kind of know what the area is like. I like the Smoky Mountains. I like all the people here; they are all really nice.  It’s Southern hospitality.

-Tony Campana