Yesterdays ball park adventure was a bit more relaxed, in a way.
We went at noon, to have lunch with Rey. We took cupcakes (surprised him) and sandwiches, bananas, veggies and humus. After that he went back to work. Ashlan & Carl played catch on the concourse and I looked at maps for an interesting way back to Atlanta.
Ashlan & I finally left to go back to the apartment and hang for a bit. A shower for me – the first thing I would do here is cut my hair. [Note that Rey has very short hair now.] Ashlan worked to straighten her hair, again. It is a losing battle, and her hair looks more like mine here – kind of. We did some sleuthing for things to do the next day as well.
While we were gone, Carl just hung out at the ballpark, watching it come alive as the afternoon progressed. First he was writing letters, and then when they were doing batting practice he went out beyond the outfield and shagged balls for the visiting team. The home team did not take batting practice. One of their coaches tossed him a “nice” ball, and he ended up with two others for his efforts. He also chatted with various other Smokies’ workers.
Ashlan and I arrived back as the gates opened and went inside to find Carl. It was the 66th anniversary of D-Day and they had quite a celebration of our military services planned. They had motorcycle riding vets on the field (non-grass areas), flags – American and all the military branches, a trumpet band, Blue Star mothers, and Gold Star mothers that were presented with roses by the players. They did a medley of all of the military branches theme songs and had folks in those branches (past and present) stand and be acknowledged as their song played. They acknowledged over the loudspeaker and on the big board the servicemen and women that were represented by the Blue Star and Gold Star families. This was followed by a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps by two buglers (kind of a call and return version – very well done and moving).
The only planned portion that did not happen was the flyover. I am not sure what type of aircraft it was meant to be, but it had to be scratched. Actually, the whole show was almost scratched. It was starting at 4:15 (5:00 game), and the rain started coming down hard at about 4:16. The stands self-evacuated and they announced the program delay. The sun finally came out, again, and the festivities did resume about an hour late. This was a brief, but intense storm. The game eventually started at 6:15. The Smokies lost 8-6 to the Stars.
One of the new and exciting things we got to see was the tarp pulled on and off of the infield. Rey (and most of the workers not involved in the concourse work) was part of the tarp crew. They got in on in fairly short order. I did take some video, but again, have no way of sharing. The more impressive sight is pulling the tarp off. It balloons up as a big orange sheet, the color of the infield dirt, as it is towed out to left field in one big pull. Then they set about folding it just so, so it will be available next time it is needed. They also squeegee the field itself to spread the puddles, and blow dry parts with a landscape blower.
“No, look at the scoreboard. It is 0 outs still.”
“How many outs will there be?”
“3. Don’t you play baseball?”
“It’s only my first year.” We decided they batted around and did not count outs yet.
Back home to a Papa John’s pizza, and off to bed.
Now it is time to get ourselves ready for today’s adventure.
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