Bring me home from the ball game...

`


There were a dozen of us up at Haddlock Field last night, to watch the Sea Dogs take on the "baby Yankees" from Trenton. A fairly uninspiring game, actually -- Sea Dogs were trailing 1-0 after the bottom of the eighth, but we still left early to avoid the traffic, and especially trying to navigate out of the ballpark with my wheelchair.

I told everyone that we could read about it in the paper, and what a ninth inning we missed! -- Trenton scored 4 more runs in the top of the ninth (which should have sent everyone running for the exits), but the Sea Dogs rallied to come back by scoring three runs of their own. But it was too little, too late, and the inning eventually ended with the batter representing the potentially-tying run striking out. So there is no joy in Mudville...just like in the original "Casey at the Bat."

What what bothered me more though was that earlier in the game, with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, rather than bunting or putting on SOME sort of play, the Dogs simply sent the next three batters to the plate to fly out (twice) and hit a weak ground ball. I mean, come on! This is double A ball, for crissakes - get the base runners moving and make people field their positions!

And then in the 6th inning another exciting (but to my mind upsetting) play, when our third base coach sent a runner home (from 1st) after a bobbled ball in left field; but the left fielder made a terrific throw, and the baserunner (Bubba Bell, who seemed to run out of gas rounding 3rd, and would later strike out to end the game), a former Texas High School football player, simply lowered his shoulder and collided with the catcher hard enough to knock him off his feet.

A real Pete Rose play - some people like it and others (including me) don't - but the catcher was able to hold on to the ball, and Bubba was out...although the poor catcher (Jesus Montero, a 19-year-old $1.6 million bonus baby from Venezuela) left the game in the next inning, and was sent up to Maine Med for "precautionary tests." But I fully expect someone from Trenton to throw a 90 MPH fastball behind Bubba's head tonight. Just to remind him that playing for keeps works both ways....

For my own part, I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the company, and I even got photographed with Slugger the Sea Dog (who also gave me a baseball).! So who am I to complain about leaving early? The only way I could have had a BETTER time is if I were still 12 years old....