Abner Doubleday's Dismay

Saturday night Martha and I decided to do something different:  We went to a ball game!  We headed out to Municipal Stadium in Hagerstown for the first time this year for Abner Doubleday Bobble Head Night.  At first, I thought we were there on the wrong night and that a concert was taking place, there was such loud music being played constantly.  I soon realized that the music was played between innings and between batters and between pitches and between breaths, ostensibly to liven things up.  Perhaps there was a giant game of musical bleachers taking place, because as constant as the music was, it was accompanied by a steady stream of people heading off to concession stands everywhere.  The guy in front of us could not have seen more than 4 innings total.

I almost left my seat in the first inning to render aid to the public address announcer.  When he announced the Suns' leadoff batter, he did so with such painful straining that I thought that the poor man must be suffering from a sudden attack of stomach cramps.  Then I realized that this was his "style."

In the second inning, with the Suns now trailing 4-3, someone in the booth decided that it would be "clever" to insult the visiting Asheville Tourists by playing songs that compared their players to girls.  One batter walked to the plate to the accompaniment of "Dude Looks Like a Lady."  They tried this with cleanup hitter Kiel Roling who already had hit a 3-run homer in the first.  Striding to the plate to the tune of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely," Roling promptly lovlied one out of the deepest part of Municipal Stadium in left center, a shot that cleared the back wall which stands some 15' high.  It is the longest home run that I've ever seen hit there and while I didn't see it, I'm pretty sure that the ball took one bounce and landed in Pennsylvania.

Of course, only Martha, myself, and about three other people saw the home run as everyone else was either not supervising their kids in the playground or marching off to the concession stand.  I wanted to take a look at my Abner Doubleday Bobble Head while at the game, but I didn't want him to see what was going on at this concert/parade/eat-a-thon and so he stayed in his box until we got home where he bobbled his disapproval.

Abner Doubleday is obviously not happy with what has been done to his game.

Comments

[Anna Kipps]

Wow.. that sounds even worse than the worst of the between-inning hoopla I've seen lately. So sad! Did you at least get to see Nick Arata play?

[Melissa Dodge]

Well, I guess that's what they get for thinking that being compared to a woman is an insult. I think the Tourists may have been channeling Helen Reddy's "I am Woman" each time they stepped to the dish.

I have to agree with you, Martha, and Abner--- occasional sound bites may be tolerable but using every pause in the action to make a musical statement borders on the ridiculous. As Anna mentioned, this technique is being utilized to pathetic proportions in some of the VBL venues-making them seem more like schoolyards than ballyards.

[Austin]

Anna, Nick didn't play, but we did get to speak to him and I hope to post something about him next week.

[Becky]

Haha, while I totally agree with everything said, it is so obvious that you have been spoiled by the VBL all this summer.