Seventh inning hits...

26 August 2016: Friday evening was all kinds of awesome. Let me list some reasons...

First, I finally got around to using some free tickets I had for a Hagerstown Suns game, tickets I got last spring for volunteering to help with the "Brain Games" fundraiser. So yeah...free baseball game.

I had four tickets and my friend Amy had two. Amy couldn't go, but my friends Emily and Carrie could, along with Carrie's husband and their two kids. These are some of my favorite people, so that rocked.

Third, the Suns were playing my old hometown team, the Greensboro Grasshoppers. (Here's a post from when I last saw them play in 2009). I was a bit torn as to who to root for, but in the end, I cheered for the Suns. A bit of drama, right?

Fourth, this game was great...the Grasshopper's pitcher went six innings without a hit and had a 1-0 lead in the seventh. Then the Suns got their only two hits that inning, enough to put them ahead and ultimately win. This was Carrie's kids first baseball game ever and (understandably) they might have been a bit bored until that point. After all, the quiet tension of a close, low-offense game might be lost on a baseball novice. But when those hits came in the seventh, we all stood up and cheered our heads off.

The cherry on top? Fireworks when the game was over. A lovely evening.

Right before the big hit that brought in two runs.

Greensboro visit: Grasshoppers' Game

Memorial Day Weekend found me visiting friends in Greensboro. Lots of fun stuff: a Grasshoppers' Game, stops at some of my favorite restaurants, and a great graduation party for Aaron.

Some pictures...first from the baseball game.


Vogel and Lauren.


Sunset over the field.


Another nice evening shot.

Like any minor league game, a Grasshoppers' Game is about more than just baseball--it's also about the wacky stuff that's also going during the game. You know--dizzy bat racing and sumo wrestling between innings. That kind of stuff. But what we really love about the Hoppers are Yogi Berra and Babe Ruth, the two dogs who retrieve bats and do other stunts during inning breaks. You can read about their more...interesting stunts here and here. Vogel, who loves dogs more than she loves people (it's not even close) goes crazy for these dogs, so I took a couple of videos for her (and you all, of course.)





Something I wasn't able to get decent video of, though, was the Waffle House strikeout. I am not sure if other teams do this, but it's one of my favorite things about going to a Hopppers' game. They pick some poor guy from the other team and designate him the Waffle House Strikeout Victim. If he strikes out at any point in the game, everyone in attendance gets a coupon for a free waffle. So every time he comes up, they play the Waffle song (more about that in a bit) and people yell "Waaaa-fuulll! Waaa-fuulll!" It's totally silly, a little bit mean (but harmless), and a ton of fun. And in the 8th inning it happened--he struck out. Free waffles for everyone! Yay! I tried to get video of the jumbo-tron and the song, but it didn't come out. Here's a clip of it from youtube, though. I just love it and it totally gets stuck in my head. Even now, I think I'll probably be singing it all day.




Here's Vogel with her free waffle coupon. Doesn't she look happy? Who wouldn't be? And now I have incentive to come back to Greensboro before October 31 (the coupon's expiration date) to put that sucker to good use!