Take me out to the Ballgame

I should start this post by saying I am fortunate to have a wife who enjoys a baseball game at the park. We don't usually go more than once or twice a year to our local team's games, but when we do, I know my wife will get right into it. She is an enthusiastic fan and likes all the stuff that comes with a baseball game.

She can be so into the game that seat selection has become an issue for me. See last year she chose the seats for the 4th of July game and we sat directly behind home plate and the umpire. She decided the guy was blind and spent 9 innings coming up with new and creative ways to let him know that. It was funny, but man at some point I actually felt sorry for the guy. The folks around us got a big kick out of Vicki's comments and of course it made me laugh, but truth be told I would have preferred a little less razzing of the ump.

So this year I chose the tickets and we sat many rows up and slightly off center from home plate. It worked out much better, though she assured me that the ump could still hear her and after a couple of comments I had to agree. The lucky thing for me was that we actually won this game; a record setting event for us. We have attended the last three fourth of July games and this was the first time we'd seen the Crawdads win. Oh, did I forget to mention that our team's name is the Hickory Crawdads? Our opponents this year for the Independence day game were the Columbus Catfish. Are you sensing a nautical theme here?

Yes, our crawdads defeated their catfish by a score of 8 to 4. I stand before you a proud (well at least happy) Crawdad fan who has at long last seen his team win a game. Hey, I look for sunshine in every corner, if you know what I mean.

Going out to the ballpark is such an American thing and such a great family event that Vic's people watching attributes are fully utilized. She enjoys nothing as much as seeing what some people will come out into public looking like and then letting me know her opinion. We enjoy seeing all the small kids and their parents as well. One guy paraded back and forth with his beautiful young son on his shoulders so much that I finally asked her if he was just showing off.

During the breaks between innings they have contests with kids as participants. One such contest was where hundreds of kids chase the team Mascot (Conrad the Crawdad) across the outfield. We later met the mother of one of the cutest and smallest kids chasing Conrad. The little boy was just slightly bigger than his ballcap and quite a character in the outfield. His dutiful mother (a sturdy woman) trailed behind to make sure he made it from side to side. As we talked with her while exiting the park she commented that despite their obvious size difference it was always the little boy who got the attention. Seems like that's the way it should be, doesn't it. We revere the cute and take for granted the parents that raise them.

The fireworks were really great this year. In fact, my ears are still feeling the effects of the concussion shots. I have never felt them as we did last night. It shook the stadium. The new displays and colors were fantastic and the OOHs and AHHs were many.

We even managed to get out of the parking lot with only a 20 minute wait or so. This was accomplished by 4-wheeling out of the lot to go in the opposite direction as the majority of traffic. By taking this way we saved over an hour of waiting and we didn't sit in the parking lot with our engine idling like thousands of others. I wanted to poke my head out my window and tell them all how stupid that was, but it wouldn't have done any good, would it?

So it was a great fourth and for us a very American one; grilling, a baseball game and fireworks, it really doesn't get too much more American than that does it?

The Daily Husband