Memorial Day with the Lansing Lugnuts

So many years ago, I cannot count them all, I used to go to the baseball game with my dad and brother.  In those days, Los Angeles only had minor league Triple A baseball teams.  I always rooted for the Los Angeles Angels (a farm team of the Chicago Cubs) and my brother rooted for the Hollywood Stars (a farm team of the Pittsburg Pirates).  My brother went on to play catcher on his High School baseball team and went out for baseball his freshman year at Cal.  So baseball is a family thing for me.  Today, we took the girls to minor league baseball game between the hometown Lansing Lugnuts and the Lake County Captains.  It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70’s and the Cooley Stadium stands were one third full.  Our 4th row seats behind 3rd base gave us a really good view of the action.   And there was action right away, the Lugnuts scored 2 runs in the 1st Inning.  Then slowly over the next 3 Innings, the Captains tied it and then went ahead 3-2.  The sun beat down, the game slowed down as baseball does and we strolled the deck where we bought popcorn and cotton candy.  The pitchers changed often, I counted 6 different pitchers for the Lugnuts.  Finally in the bottom of the 8th Inning, the Lugnuts surged and scored 2 runs.  They were ahead, 5-3.  We cheered!  In the top of the 9th, one batter struck out, then the next batter got on base with a walk and scored when the next batter hit a single.  It looked bad.  The runner on first base, stole a base and was on 2nd.  Then he stole another base and was on 3rd, right in front of us in a position to tie the game.  Oh no!  The drama was high!  Then the new pitcher struck out the last two batters and the Lugnuts won!  It was about as exciting as it gets in baseball.   But that’s not all:  walking out a tall craggy gentleman walking along fell in with our group and asked if the girls would like a baseball as a souvenir.  He’d caught it up on the upper deck.  They were pleased and then he told us, he’d been a baseball player, playing for the Yankees.  Bob chatted with him all the way to the car.  Oh, here in the Midwest, they really do Americana well.  Before the game started one singer sang “America the Beautiful,” then a lanky guitarist played the National Anthem.  And in the 7th Inning stretch before “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” another singer belted out “God Bless America.”  We all thought it was a great way to spend Memorial Day.