Sharks Season Opener goes wah wah waahh
When I got home on Tuesday I could hear the music at Legion Stadium in the distance. It was sunny and warm outside, and nothing makes watering the garden more fun than the common 80’s montage you get with minor league baseball. O you know, a little Bon Jovi circa big-hair and Alan Jackson twanging “Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee”–just what tomatoes need on a fine day.
To put it more simply, I cracked a beer and happily accepted the mosquitoes for one reason: baseball season is upon us locally. The Wilmington Sharks were getting warmed up for their opener.
As I watered, excitement and anticipation crept upon me. I could taste the stale popcorn greasily wetting its red and white striped box and feel the slow dehydration the likes of which you only get from a keg of Miller at the ball park. Ah, the sounds and smells–the bat crack, old leather ball-gloves, the organ winding, the pitcher’s poise, the smack of a catcher’s mitt, the out-fielders spitting, the umps bad calls, the dry of the dirt and the green of the grass, the children playing their own game behind the bleachers, the moms and dads explaining the game to the kids… ahh baseball.
Alas, the more the sky darkened Wednesday afternoon, the more I was saddened. The big opening game turned out to be about as upsetting as having to listen to the songs above anywhere BUT a baseball diamond. So in the end, there is nothing to report except that the umps called a 90 minute rain delay and then eventually postponed the game til June 15.
But there is good news in all this, and sweet redemption for baseball fans: the make-up game will be a Sunday double-header! Two ball games on a Sunday afternoon… double the pop-corn and double the beer! There is a God indeed.
The Sharks next game will be Friday night against the Fayetteville Swamp-Dogs and then on Monday against the Columbia Blowfish. See you at the ball park!
Check ‘em out at wilmingtonsharks.com
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