Super Saturday Night

Another baseball Saturday night, another strange sight. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, every time I think I've seen it all, some new and different pops up. I arrived on City Island Sat. evening and there directing traffic at the Walnut Street bridge was not my old buddy Chuck, but Batman. That caused a double-take, for sure. It didn't get any better as I made my way towards home plate to prep for pre-game. I saw Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Zorro, A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Supergirl, and a Power Ranger. And a couple of guys in orange shirts. (the real super heroes). In attendance, Doug, Knute and myself. So, short-handed tonight. The pre-game routine went surprising smooth and relatively problem free. When I say relatively, the incident was a small chalker issue. As I was proceeding down the 1st base line, I waited too long to stop an redistribute the chalk in the hopper. As a result, I got a rapid, large drop of chalk all at once, creating a rather thick line. Actually we began referring to it as the chalk wall. Good for bunters tonight. Other than that, smooth as silk. We took up our usual positions in the cubby and the discussion for the evening was the impending "skit" that would take place during the drag. we found out that we would have 2 office staff employees joining us and would be performing "YMCA" at 2nd base in the middle of the drag. Wow! Something that's never been done before at a baseball game. ( Unless you don't count every major and minor league ballpark in the friggin' country) Well we griped and moaned about it, but we did it, and now everybody in Central PA will be wondering " What will that crazy grounds crew do next? I gotta be there to see it!" (Not really...) So we talked about it some more while we ate and came up with a few more ideas that might work and possibly even be fun. After that, Doug and I decided to take a stroll on the boardwalk. We thought that we would start from the left field side and check out the views the whole way around. They installed a set of stairs across from the visitors bullpen so access was easy. They view from the left field corner is commanding! I liked it a lot. We made our way around , stopping to talk to Irene, one of the SportService concession employees who took very good care of us when she worked at the 1st base grill. Alas, she's been shuffled around to different areas around the ballpark, so we've kind of lost track of her. It was good to talk to her, and she said she kind of liked being out there, where it was fairly busy, within view of the field so she could at least see some of the game from time to time. As we made our way around we paused to check out the views, all very good. We even sat for a second in the right field seats, very, very nice! The boys, in the meantime, has dug themselves into an 8-0 hole. They spent the rest of the game clawing back, making it 8-4 going into the 9th. We parked by fence in the new, as yet to be completed bullpen to watch the remainder of the game, and watched Leonard Davis launch one out over our heads to make it 8-6, but that's the closest they would come. We did get the snail's eye view of the scoreboard fireworks, though. Not bad. Afterwards, the were the usual post-game festivities, launch-a-ball and base race, so getting out at a decent hour was out of the question. We did finally get finished and camped out for a few minutes by the first-aid station to have an adult beverage and chit-chat. Bob Henley, a former Senators catcher from the championship years and is now a roving instructor, was there too. We listened to a few stories and caught up on all of the gossip and rumors, before packing it in for the night. I won't be back in until Monday night, so more then.