This past weekend we met up with a group of friends at one of the local semi-pro baseball teams – the Somerset Patriots, part of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. I LOVE going to watch the Patriots play baseball. It’s good baseball, a great venue, and oh what a spectacle! The Patriots aim to make the entire family happy. Between every inning there is some game or contest or event to amuse the crowd.
There were 10 of us. Seven of us have done this before – we’ve come for several years now, although we missed last year. This was the first time, however, for T & J and their son Greg, age 7. They didn’t know what to expect but we assured them that all 3 of them would have a good time.
I wandered over to my neighbor’s to discuss coordination for getting and meeting there. We agreed that we were excited about the FOOD!!! One of the BEST parts of going to the game is that we allow ourselves to eat all the unhealthy food we usually avoid. Two of us mentioned the hot dogs, I wanted the peanuts, and someone else wanted the french fries. 🙂 It says a lot about us, doesn’t it, that we get so excited about such food.
The weather was perfect – it was in the mid-70s and clear. We’ve been there and been uncomfortably hot, we’ve been there and been cold. Had we ordered up the weather, it couldn’t have been better. Sometime after dark when a light breeze began, I did switch seats with my husband so that he was on the end of our arrangement and I was sheltered between him and our friend. Our seats were along the 3rd base line, close to home, and close to the field. We were sitting 5 and 5 to make it easier to chat. Although the seats were good, I like sitting on the 1st base line because that is the home team dugout, and all the silliness is aimed that way. Even so, because of the venue, our seats were good. I loved the opposing team’s uniforms! The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs have a real old-time look.
We all got food and drink as soon as we got into the stadium. 🙂 Once we were seated we made an attempt at taking selfies with all of us in view. We did get a few, but mostly we failed. *grin* Two women sitting next to us offered to help us out so we passed our phones to them and got our group shots. What would we do without our cell phones???? We ate, we laughed, we cheered (SOMERSET!!! Patrioooootttsss!!), we took photographs and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It WOULD have been better had the home team WON but, alas, it was not to be. The Crabs had 5 runs on 10 hits and we had 1 run on 5 hits. It was just not happening.
The between inning silliness was great. I don’t know how they pick fans from the stands to participate, I assume you volunteer in advance and get picked somehow. There was a very young girl who was trying to “grill” chicken by tossing rubber chickens onto a grill, while she was cheered on by a cow. 🙂 There was a race between 2 men wearing inflatable rings, that were both donuts and ducks (the decoration on the yellow rings was definitely donuts but they had duck heads as well. I learned that race was backed by one of the sponsors, Duck Donuts. Well of course. There were some “cans’ that had some sort of contest to cleanup mess and put it in the recycle bins. I tuned into that one midway so all I really know is that there were 3 cans: Hair Spray, Shaving Cream and Insect Repellent. I believe Insect Repellent won.
The other inflatable race had fans riding inflated horses. It’s apparently not as easy as you might think, as we witnessed a wipeout near the turn for home. 🙂
There was the traditional throw-rolled-up-tee-shirts-into-the crowd, accompanied by a dancing dinosaur, for reasons I know not.
We also watched the healthy foods race. 🙂 Blueberry won, which is NO surprise to me. Blueberry is my favorite out of the represented foods.
There was the traditional race around the bases where the mascot Sparkee races a (very) young fan. In all the years I’ve been going to the games, I have NEVER seen Sparkee win a race. *grin* By the way, Sparkee is the mascot because the team’s first manager, and current manager emeritus, is Sparky Lyle.
The team has two mascots, Sparkee and Slider. I’m not sure why they added Slider but it could have been because there was way too much love for Sparkee to handle on his own. There used to be a third mascot, General Admission (yes, dressed in old-fashioned uniform), but I haven’t seen him in ages. I DO have a picture of him with my son, however, which is why I know he existed.
The Somerset Patriots host fireworks after many of the home games. They post the fireworks schedule on their website and it is a key factor in which games we go to see. I didn’t remember the fireworks as being anything very special in prior years, but this year was great. I don’t know if it’s me, or if fireworks have gotten better, or what, but there is no question that the fireworks I’ve been observing this summer have been much higher quality than my memories of prior shows. As usual, despite saying there’s no point in taking pictures of fireworks, I did it anyway. I took a video so you can enjoy the show too!
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