My Time In the East

National Past Time

I had planned to spend most of the day working on my various courses. Which I did and was able to finish one module by around 1130am.

One thing that I noticed on one of the airline magazines on the flight in was that the Indianapolis minor league baseball stadium is one of the nicer minor league ballparks.

Lucky me, the Indianapolis Indians were in town and were playing. I hadn't been to a baseball game since 2003, so I figured I could get some local flavor and by entertained at the same time.

So, the Indianapolis Indians were playing the Durham Bulls. [NOTE: last minor league games I've been to were with the El Paso Diablos from 1999-2000 and were mildly entertaining.]

Game started off normally, the Bulls were retired in stride. The Indians were able to string a couple of hits, an error and a home run into four runs. After that initial push, it was a mostly standard game. However, I was sitting behind the 3rd base dugout, which today was amid a flurry of activity.

I think within a one section radius of where I was sitting there were two foul balls. But, the oddest part was that there were two bats that ended up within 10 seats of me. The first was a broken bat single - no injuries involved, but it was on a beeline towards my direction. The second was a thrown bat (batter had made his swing at the ball and just let go.) - that time the guy that got it had a bruise on his chest/neck.

Anyway, lots of foul balls, everywhere - more than I had seen ANYWHERE else.

The Bulls were able to eventually tie it up by the 8th inning (5-5). Both teams brought in their closers and the Bulls closer had some of the best stats. The Indians had managed to load the bases on a walk, a really bad error by the Bulls, an excellently placed bunt. Bases loaded, nobody out and the pitcher gets behind on the count. The batter winds up and tees off for a WALK OFF grand slam home run.

All round it was an enjoyable and entertaining afternoon - especially it was cheap!

posted by Unknown @ 6:25 PM