With threatening skies and rain all around yesterday, the Baseball Gods made sure we had warm and dry conditions when we took the field on historic Doubleday field for our annual trip to the mecca of baseball. As we were warming up the crowd starting filing in and it was obvious that we were in for a treat as a busload of summer campers filled the seats behind the home dugout, and these kids were loud! Not sure if it was his Yankee uniform or his boyish good looks, but the campers adopted Paul Cerone as their favorite player and each time Paul stepped to the plate the crowd went wild! Cheers of Home Run Hitter and Paul, Paul, Paul echoed throughout the stadium. Paul obliged his adoring fans by signing autographs and throwing baseballs to the crowd and was even interviewed by the media. When Paul ripped a base hit down the leftfield line in the fifth inning the crowd exploded and sadly, shortly thereafter it was time for the campers to go home as they all waved and shouted goodbye to their new favorite Yankee.

 

As far as the game went it was a close affair until McQs team had a big eighth inning and salted this one away to go on to the 14-5 victory. As with most of our games, this one was not about the outcome but more about the experience and sharing the field together, especially in Cooperstown! Another highlight of this game was playing with CDMSBL legend Tom Maney in his last game of the year. As I write this Tom is having season-ending back surgery to hopefully get him back feeling like his old self. In typical Maney fashion, in his last at bat he smoked a line-drive base hit in the left centerfield gap which everyone was so glad to see.

 

Once the game was over, after having a quick beer in the parking lot a bunch of us walked down to the Doubleday Café and had a nice dinner to wrap up a great day!



-- Edited by jmcquade on Thursday 18th of July 2024 12:30:57 PM