Robbie Thomas
Baseball at Jimmy John’s Field (Too many BBs)
Wow, seven weeks without a blog post? Three weeks after Traverse City, I saw Night Ranger at SterlingFest but was too lazy to blog about it. One of the contributing factors is the heavy emphasis on my WIP with the working title Burn Down The Town. In addition, I have spent some time on those #writerslifts on Twitter and advertising this blog. I forgot to post, so here goes.
I went to Jimmy John’s Field for the second time this year to see my favorite of all four teams, the Eastside Diamond Hoppers going against the Westside Woolly Mammoths. The game was quite boring from the first to the seventh inning minus the solo home run from the Hoppers in the fifth. Another factor going for this slow boring game was a lot of base on balls, 9 from the Hoppers and 5 from the Mammoths, 14 altogether. I’ve never seen so many walks in person. However, with all these walks, there was never a walk while bases were loaded. It happened in the 8th with the Hoppers having the bases loaded but got the out.
This game presented me with the first seeing a position player to toe the slab on the pitcher’s mound. Drew Fleming, a Michigan native, played first base until the 9th inning. Then they sent him to the pitcher’s mound. The ninth inning took over 30 minutes to finish, and besides the traffic on M-59, there were points in the game where the crowd was quiet. But also, quite a few people left around the 7th inning.
At the end of it, I was happy to see my Diamond Hoppers win the close game, 4-3. The final out was a strikeout. Here’s the box score. I like Jimmy John’s Field, it’s a good alternative due to me not making the cash I made compared to last year. For 2024, I’ve been to Comerica Park once. I sat in the drink rail section, I almost bought a seat in the last row of section 107. A foul ball landed in that area, how unlucky…
On this day at Jimmy John’s, it was Blue Puppy Day (in reference to Bluey the Dog). I suppose the folks who own the trademark to Bluey didn’t want them to use Bluey Day. However, they had the Bluey mascot there and between innings, the field announcer did say Bluey. I don’t know much about Bluey but in this one commercial, I could hear that woman talk all day long.
I sat next to an older couple from Port Huron. I asked if they are fans of the Prowlers and they said yes. I said I’m a fan of their enemy, the Motor City Rockers. Before the game, I chowed down at Papa’s Shamarwa. They didn’t have AC and I was sweating a little while there. Good Chicken Shamarwa though. They had Vevo Country playing in the dining area and I saw this video that made me cringe: