The gang's all here...

I headed for City Island Thursday evening, thinking "Maybe we'll sneak one in without any rain"
It had been a mostly dry day and I was hopeful it would stay that way. I think this has been the longest 3 day home stand on record. It seemed like a week. As I arrived on City Island, late due to being hung up at work, I saw the tarp still rolled out on the field. Everything looked a lot wetter than I had anticipated, too. I found out why when I made it to the infield. They had gotten a heavy downpour around 3:00. Now I had been watching the weather outside my office and monitoring the radar most of the day, and we hadn't had any rain to speak of all day. This definitely has been the weirdest weather season I can remember. The sun was out now and it was a very pleasant evening, just a little humid. We knocked out pregame in our usual efficient manner, even watered the infield. The cast tonight was the same as the past 2 nights, Doug, Izzy, Knute, and myself. Alan is still on vacation, and Frank is dealing with some personal issues that I won't go into here. Tim had talked to him as we were finishing up pre game, trying to convince him to stop by, just to hang out and take his mind off other things. As the game started, we settled in to our usual spots. The usual comments and responses were flying back and forth. Around the end of the 2nd, i decided to head to the back and get my soda mug from my locker and get a drink. As I stepped outside the gate, lo and behold, there stood Frank. We talked for a few minutes, he seemed a little down, but happy to be here. He headed into the cubby between innings, as I headed back to the back. When I got back, we were all in our usual spots and we brought Frank up to speed on the events of the last 2 nights. Of course, it quickly degenerated in to the usual off-color humor and by the 4th inning, everyone's mood had improved greatly, especially Frank's. Frank is a good guy, a good friend, and its hard to see him have to deal the kind of thing he's going through right now. He headed out after the 6th inning and thanked us for helping to cheer him up. I hope things work out ok for him. As for the game, the boys had dug themselves a 6-0 hole. Didn't look like a sweep was happening tonight. But, in the bottom of the 6th, shazam. They put up 6 runs to tie it. That's good, but we were all grousing about the possibility of extra innings. Binghamton put up a couple of more runs in the 7th and 8th to make it 9-6, so it came to the bottom of the 9th. Earlier in the season, I would have said , this one's over, but its a different team with a different attitude now. Their lead off man got on base and they started stringing some hits together. They pulled to within 9-8 with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd. The next guy up, Edgardo Baez, stepped in, facing a former Senator from last year's team, Jim Ed Warden. Warden looked a little shaky and after a visit from the pitching coach settled in to throw. Unfortunately for him, good for us, he threw a big fat one that Baez crushed over the left field fence giving the Sens an 11-9 walk-off win. Pretty exciting stuff. And a sweep of the series, the first one all year. Gettin' further around that corner. We're out again for 7 days and I won't be back until June 29th, due to attending my youngest sister's wedding this coming Saturday. And speaking of weddings, I can officially announce that my son and grounds crew member Alan is engaged and will be getting married next summer. Talk about turning some corners. Later.