The battle of the Belt

 First, a geography lesson.

If you were on Staten Island (an outer borough of NYC ) and you’d like to visit Long Island, you’d drive over the Verrazano Bridge to Brooklyn, then drive east on the Belt Parkway through Brooklyn (past Coney Island) and Queens (JFK Airport).  As you approach the  Nassau County line, you can turn north on the   Cross Island Parkway, or you can continue east on the Southern State Parkway.  If your objective was to see a Long Island Ducks game, you’d stay on the Southern State until you reached exit 43A in Central Islip and then follow the signs to Fairfield Properties Ballpark.

The Staten Island Ferryhawks play baseball at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park, immediately adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry terminal that takes people to and from lower Manhattan.

It is 59 miles from the Ferryhawks’ ballpark to the  Ducks’ ballpark.  Over the bridge, down the Belt to the Southern State …

So a weekend matchup of the Ferryhawks and the Ducks is being promoted as “the Battle of the Belt”.  I think they’re trying to create a real rivalry.

Drew and I saw the first game of the series Friday night. And yes, the feathers were flying (forgive me, I couldn’t help myself).

We spent most of the game moaning and groaning about how poorly our team was playing.  Our manager actually pulled his starting pitcher in the second inning (score was 4 - 0 at that point), thereby losing his designated hitter and forcing his pitchers to come to bat. At the bottom of the 7th inning the Ducks were behind 7-3, but a three-run home run immediately followed by a single home run tied the game.

Bottom of the 9th, two outs, and Chance Sisko hit a two-run home run (his second home run of the game).  The Ducks won 9 - 7.

And now a word about foul balls.

Drew and I like to sit in the upper deck, immediately behind home plate.  It’s a small ballpark, the upper deck isn’t very high at all.  Foul balls seldom, if ever, reach our section.  But last night …

A foul ball came flying into our section and hit a group of empty seats. The little boy sitting in front of me jumped out of his seat and scrambled over to the empty seats and retrieved the ball.  He was ecstatic.

The next inning, another foul ball hit the same empty seats, and another child retrieved that ball.

And then …

Drew was sitting in seat 5, I was sitting in seat 6, and the rest of our row was empty.  A foul ball came flying … hit seat 7, and bounced off, falling to the lower deck. It came thisclose to hitting me!

The security guard came over to me to make sure I was OK.  Getting hit by a ball can be very, very serious.  I’ve seen the paramedics treat spectators more than once.  

But if you can get a foul ball …

Back in 2017, Drew fulfilled a boyhood ambition, he “caught” a foul ball.