At the baseball game

I’m loving Gary Burghoff as Charlie Brown …

We are baseball fans. We root for the hapless New York Mets.

Fortunately we also root for the Long Island Ducks, who play in the independent Atlantic League. And so last night we ventured to the ballpark in Central Islip for our first Ducks game of the season.

It was 54° at game time. Jeans and jackets weather. Coffee during the 5th inning.

The Ducks played the Lexington Legends. And Trevor Bauer was the starting pitcher for the Ducks!

To quote Wikipedia:

“Trevor Andrew Bauer (born January 17, 1991) is an American professional baseballpitcher for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Bauer has also played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and in the Mexican League (LMB) for Diablos Rojos del México.”

Unfortunately Mr. Bauer has had some …er …personal issues. A lengthy suspension due to conduct off the field.

He hasn’t pitched for a Major League team since the suspension. Bauer is hoping his experience with the Ducks will lead him back to the majors. On April 26 Bauer threw a 7 inning no hitter. (It was part of a double header. When the Atlantic League has a double header, both games are reduced to 7 innings.) it was the third no hitter in Ducks history. So of course we were excited to see him pitch.

It was also Frank Boulton Appreciation Night. Boulton was the founder of the Atlantic League, and until a few months ago was the owner of the Ducks.

And it was fireworks night. That meant short bursts of fireworks during the national anthem (. Red fireworks when we sang “the rockets red glare”), the 7th inning stretch, and whenever a Ducks player hit a home run. There were three Ducks home runs!

It was an exciting game. Bauer pitched well, the Ducks bats were hot, and our manager Lee Ford got thrown out of the game after arguing with the umpire.