The Crack of the Bat

Last week, while it was surprisingly warm here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio, HHBL and I went to Florida where it was even warmer and sunnier and all together jolly and happy……

Well all except for the no hot water the last two days in the hotel.

But that is for another blog post.

Today lets talk baseball. Because that is why HHBL was in Florida after all. To play some baseball.

Mildred she’s talking about baseball again!

I think now is the time for me to go and take care of my toe lint.

Wait, wait! Don’t go. It will be fun I promise. And I have lots of pictures to show you.

Oh it was sunny.

Oh it was warm…..

OK fine. It was warm AFTER the first day. But of course the day that there was a double header there was also a stiff wind blowing in from the Arctic. I actually had to have HHBL stop at Target before going to the ball fields so that I could buy an extra sweat shirt. When I took this self portrait I was wearing a shirt, a sweater, a sweat shirt, jeans and a hat. But after the first day it warmed up just fine.

These are all the things that you need to be happy while watching baseball in Florida. Well these and a cold beer. But I had to settle for luke warm water.

Life is hard sometimes.

Well this also makes me happy. But you can’t have this. Only I can.

There was a great deal of chain link fencing in my life this week. I understand the need for it. No one wants to take a foul tip in the head. But it is hard with the picture taking.

HHBL pitches and plays left field. I must say the the Mud Hens have a great outfield.

Oh yes. 

The Mud Hens played a total of 6 games in 5 days. That is a lot of games to play, even if you are of a younger calendar age than these guys are.

That also means that I sat through 6 games of baseball in 5 days. That is a lot of innings. I was actually going to count them all up but I am just too lazy.

Sorry, I was momentarily obsessed with peoples feet again. I can’t seem to get over the obsession.

And then for one game I thought I had been transported to West Virginia when this guy got up to bat.

Is that the theme from Deliverance that I hear?

This is Tarzan, our mascot and good luck charm. Tarzan needs a swift kick in his loin cloth because the Mud Hens didn’t have as great a World Series of Baseball as they had for the regular season where…..THEY WERE THE CHAMPIONS. I have my suspicions that Tarzan was out late partying with Jane and Cheeta.

Sometimes the fans get bored and need to do something fun…

Like a wave

Good job. Great play.

Actually it looks like they are playing some crazy party game.

You never know what you might see at the ball park.
The last game that the Mud Hens played I spent a fair amount of time watching for this little mouse who seems to live under the tarp at one of the stadiums. He would appear, run out and grab a sunflower seed and then skeedadle. 

Excuse me subcanine being. I believe that you have some crackers and I am hungry so you must give them to me.

Now.

And finally all the games were done. And all the hands were shaken. And all the umpires went home.

And the Mud Hens went out to the parking lot to indulge in the after game ritual of libation.

And about that time the sun came out…

And shown down on Stevie’s shoe laces and momentarily blinded me.

And just as an aside…

If you have a name that can have a “y” or and “ie” added to the end of it and you play baseball then that is what is going to happen to your name. Stevie, Tommy, Denny, Scotty, Danny, Donny, Ronny, “Romy” (Jerome), Jimmy, Kenny, Benny. And if you have a name that doesn’t lend itself to that then they will find something else to call you. Like “Beaner” (that would be Mike) or "Captain” (that would be Karl who is a pilot). Sometimes you just have a name that is a name. Ted. Pat. Bob. Dave. If I missed any of your names I apologize profusely. 

It was a great week.

Thank goodness I love baseball because otherwise it might have been really bad.

But I love baseball.