Weekly Correspondent-August 13, 2009
Big Bend at Bay Area-August 13, 2009
I just happened to check the Toros website on Thursday just to find out the scores from last weekend's away series and discovered that there was a game that night! There hadn't been a game scheduled previously, so it was quite a surprise and I'm glad I checked! I think it was probably a make up game for one that got rained out in Alpine (where the Big Bend Cowboys play). It was actually raining pretty hard where I live about twenty minutes before I was going to leave, so I almost decided not to go because I didn't want to drive twenty minutes there to find the game rained out. But the rain stopped and I decided I might as well go. Good thing, too, because there wasn't any rain in Texas City and the game was on.
There was someone taking tickets again today... there hadn't been in a while. I chatted with him for a bit, remarking that I was glad I checked the site to find out there was a game tonight. I asked him why the Thursday games were eliminated and he told me it was for financial reasons; they didn't have to put up the other team in a hotel for as long. That makes sense. Still not fond of the baseball in the heat, though! But after the 2007 Fresno State game, I can definitely say I've been through much worse! He also told me that the ballpark was going to get some big renovations next year because some bond passed. The way he was telling it, it sounds like it's going to be a great place. New entrance, press box, bathrooms, and dugouts. Maybe some facilities for the visitors. They're going to redo the field, too. He said the new scoreboard was part of it. So that'll be neat to show up next year to a completely different park. He also told me that Kevin Cooper (one of our starting pitchers) was gone to some league in the Pacific. Said it was a move up, so good for him, but we'll miss him especially with the end of the season and the championship games coming up.
During the game, some kids were playing with baseballs, rolling them around up and down the ramps to the stadium. I sit next to a ramp, so every now and then a baseball would come rolling up into the stands. A few seconds later, a little boy would come up and get it, roll it down the ramp, then follow it. So a baseball came rolling up, and an older boy-I assume a brother of the kid-picked it up and dropped it into an area between the stands and the net where it would have fallen into the dark, muddy area underneath the stadium. But he missed his mark and the ball bounced back into the stands and his little brother got it and went to roll it down the ramp again. I'm telling you this, because I would sometimes yell the pitcher's name just to try to throw him off. Not all the time, just at odd moments. "LANCE!" And that's all. Just his name right before he threw a pitch. So the kid (the one who tried to lose his brother's ball) asked me why I was doing that. I told him it was the pitcher's name and I was trying to distract him. A little later on, I yelled "Lance" again, and again the kid asked me why. I told him once more that it was the pitcher's name.
"So? That's being a bad sport."
"No... it's called heckling."
"No, it's called being a bad sport."
He went away for a bit, the Cowboys changed pitchers, and I was waving goodbye to Lance. Wasn't saying a thing... just waving. Then the kid came back and told me that I was a bad sport. I told him that heckling is an integral part of the game of baseball. It's fun! I probably should have told him that being a bad sport is trying to throw your brother's ball under the stands where he can't get to it. Really. Hypocritical much? During this exchange, the Cowboys' new pitcher was warming up and the kid told me that was his uncle pitching out there. "So don't you do it to him." Lol. That was pretty cute, so I said OK. And I didn't yell Uncle Marcus's name one time. But I think I need to print up this quote on an index card and give it to him if he's there again tonight:
What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability.
George Bernard Shaw
When the game was over, we'd won 4-2 and they played "How 'Bout Them Cowgirls" by George Strait. Since we were playing the Cowboys, I wondered if it was intentional.
Scorecard 01
Scorecard 02
I just happened to check the Toros website on Thursday just to find out the scores from last weekend's away series and discovered that there was a game that night! There hadn't been a game scheduled previously, so it was quite a surprise and I'm glad I checked! I think it was probably a make up game for one that got rained out in Alpine (where the Big Bend Cowboys play). It was actually raining pretty hard where I live about twenty minutes before I was going to leave, so I almost decided not to go because I didn't want to drive twenty minutes there to find the game rained out. But the rain stopped and I decided I might as well go. Good thing, too, because there wasn't any rain in Texas City and the game was on.
There was someone taking tickets again today... there hadn't been in a while. I chatted with him for a bit, remarking that I was glad I checked the site to find out there was a game tonight. I asked him why the Thursday games were eliminated and he told me it was for financial reasons; they didn't have to put up the other team in a hotel for as long. That makes sense. Still not fond of the baseball in the heat, though! But after the 2007 Fresno State game, I can definitely say I've been through much worse! He also told me that the ballpark was going to get some big renovations next year because some bond passed. The way he was telling it, it sounds like it's going to be a great place. New entrance, press box, bathrooms, and dugouts. Maybe some facilities for the visitors. They're going to redo the field, too. He said the new scoreboard was part of it. So that'll be neat to show up next year to a completely different park. He also told me that Kevin Cooper (one of our starting pitchers) was gone to some league in the Pacific. Said it was a move up, so good for him, but we'll miss him especially with the end of the season and the championship games coming up.
During the game, some kids were playing with baseballs, rolling them around up and down the ramps to the stadium. I sit next to a ramp, so every now and then a baseball would come rolling up into the stands. A few seconds later, a little boy would come up and get it, roll it down the ramp, then follow it. So a baseball came rolling up, and an older boy-I assume a brother of the kid-picked it up and dropped it into an area between the stands and the net where it would have fallen into the dark, muddy area underneath the stadium. But he missed his mark and the ball bounced back into the stands and his little brother got it and went to roll it down the ramp again. I'm telling you this, because I would sometimes yell the pitcher's name just to try to throw him off. Not all the time, just at odd moments. "LANCE!" And that's all. Just his name right before he threw a pitch. So the kid (the one who tried to lose his brother's ball) asked me why I was doing that. I told him it was the pitcher's name and I was trying to distract him. A little later on, I yelled "Lance" again, and again the kid asked me why. I told him once more that it was the pitcher's name.
"So? That's being a bad sport."
"No... it's called heckling."
"No, it's called being a bad sport."
He went away for a bit, the Cowboys changed pitchers, and I was waving goodbye to Lance. Wasn't saying a thing... just waving. Then the kid came back and told me that I was a bad sport. I told him that heckling is an integral part of the game of baseball. It's fun! I probably should have told him that being a bad sport is trying to throw your brother's ball under the stands where he can't get to it. Really. Hypocritical much? During this exchange, the Cowboys' new pitcher was warming up and the kid told me that was his uncle pitching out there. "So don't you do it to him." Lol. That was pretty cute, so I said OK. And I didn't yell Uncle Marcus's name one time. But I think I need to print up this quote on an index card and give it to him if he's there again tonight:
What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability.
George Bernard Shaw
When the game was over, we'd won 4-2 and they played "How 'Bout Them Cowgirls" by George Strait. Since we were playing the Cowboys, I wondered if it was intentional.
Scorecard 01
Scorecard 02
