Robbie Thomas
First Professional Baseball Game In a While
For those who don’t know and are visiting this site living outside of Detroit, we have our own baseball league called the USPBL. Or United Shore Professional Baseball League. A stadium was built and finished at 2016. It started with three teams and later a fourth team was added. I’m personally a fan of the Eastside Diamond Hoppers, although I probably should be a fan of the Utica Unicorns, since I’m next door to Utica.
This is just from my crude mind but in the 90s, if you made a all-male team called the Unicorns, you would end up with a lot of ridicule. But in these days, that is acceptable. Not trying to shit on what the USPBL has to offer, I like the league, the stadium and all it provides. It’s good entertainment and an cheaper alternative to going downtown to see the Tigers. Also, I like the idea that you can enter Jimmy John’s Stadium without having to go through a metal detector. Hopefully, no dumb fuck with a legal firearm screws it up (sadly, that’ll likely happen).
For one thing, I thought this place would be packed. But that wasn’t the case. I’d guess that it was 60% full. There was quite a few empty seats. I was the only one sitting in my row (I went solo). There wasn’t much restrictions and I only saw one person wearing a mask, it was a staffer. You could not pay cash, you had to use your card to buy food, drinks and items. I bought a daquiri when I stepped in (just after the anthem was done). I was going to get a second daquiri at the 4th inning, but I was told that they do 7 innings instead of 9 here. Is that’s a restriction? Or are people that bored of 9 innings? I was kinda disappointed by that shortage of innings.
In the end, the Utica Unicorns beat the Westside Wooly Mammoths 5-1. The USPBL is ran by Andy Appleby, a former Detroit Pistons executive. I met him in 2016 before the league started, he lead a tour of the stadium. He also had ambitions to make another stadium somewhere in Oakland County, a county next door to Macomb. It wasn’t the first and last time I’ve seen Mr. Appleby, he has been present at the games I’ve attended, personally thanking most people for attending the games before they exit the stadium. In this game, I didn’t see Mr. Appleby. Perhaps he was at another exit or he wasn’t at the game.
This was the first pro baseball game I have been to since Labor Day Weekend 2019, where myself, my best friend and my ex-gf went to a Tigers game. We didn’t get to the game until the 3rd inning and sat in the upper rows of a lower section. Later, the ushers let us move closer to the Tigers bullpen. The Tigers were seriously fucking up, so I suppose the ushers couldn’t care less. Sadly, this was one of the last times I saw my ex-gf. She sadly passed away in August 2020.
A month before that, I did attend a baseball game but it wasn’t pro. I went to see a mid 1850s style baseball game to see the Regulars BBC. Not trying to say bad things about the Regulars, I’ve been seeing these folks for the most part since 2012. And I like how they play the game. The league the Regulars belong to, like other leagues, shuttered their schedules when Covid-19 came to town. Then, most teams later agreed on a few games and I attended one. The Regulars are playing on 26 June 2021, I’m interested in that. hopefully I can go!
When or if I get motivated this week, I’ll be talking about the Existential Crisis I dealt with on Monday. Been having some troubles with my mental health lately. Having some bad mental health days in recent times and it’s dealing a blow to my motivation in the creative category. Including my not posting about the big blunder I ran into in early June 2007. I mentioned that in my previous post.