Sunday, May 17, 2009

Trenton Thunder vs. Portland Sea Dogs

Kind of like Yankees vs. Red Sox, but double-A.

On Wednesday evening my friend Karen and I headed out to a Trenton Thunder game! It was my first time at this park, and it was a lot of fun. It was a little chillier than we hoped, but it was still a nice evening. It was as much fun to watch the game as to watch the shenanigans between the innings. Between every inning they had some sort of game that involved bringing fans out onto the field. The best was the dizzy bat race where they had two adults put their nose on the top of a baseball bat and then spin around it for a minute and then attempt to race to the finish line. As soon as they were finished spinning, and started to head toward the finish line, both promptly fell over from extreme dizziness. I surprised they didn't throw-up. Other games included a ball toss, mini-golf challenge, and a mascot race around the bases. But the fan favorite was clearly the bat-dog. In the first inning the Thunder have a golden retriever trained to run out and get the bats once the batters are finished at the plate. I assumed this would continue after the first inning, so I missed my chance at a photo.

There were also some interesting folks in the stands. Like this guy who was tracking the speed of every pitch:

Here is a view of the little stadium. The two folks in front of us were die hard Thunder fans. They kept track of every pitch, they had hats that were signed by the players, people came up to them and chatted about not just baseball, but family things, too. It was obvious that they were season ticket holders and institutions in their own right.

We left after the 7th inning stretch since it was getting colder than we expected, but it was a fun evening. The Sea Dogs (the Red Sox AA team) was losing when we left. And even though I wore my Red Sox hat to the game, it was fun to see the home team winning for their fans.

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