Minor League Baseball. This is the story of Fans, Freebies, Photos and a Foul to the Face. In fact, I wanted to give that as the title, but knew it was way too long. This is how it goes.
Last Sunday night, a man from our church came in and said that he had come into a large clump of tickets for the Springfield Cardinals game on Tuesday. So a bunch of us got together and headed to the game. (Springfield is the AA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals)
Before the game, they were giving out packs of team cards, and the boys and I even got several of our favorite players to sign them.
In addition to the signed card, I even got a photo op with one of my favorites, Jim Rapoport.
Louie the mascot even got in on the autograph session.
Things were good until about the seventh inning. That’s when the visiting team hit a foul ball, right into our section. Our youngest had been begging to catch a fly ball all night. And he did. Right in the face.
Well, as you can see, the damage was very minimal, other than a little bloody nose and a very minor bruise and swelling. We did have a couple of scary moments there, though, as he first got hit and started screaming, holding his face. The stadium staff was quick to respond; a medic showed up, checked him out, packed him in ice, and all was well. He was fine in no time, and in fact was first in line to run the bases after the game.
After the game, Kenaniah wanted to have his ball signed by the visiting player who hit it. We couldn't find him, but a semi-local guy who plays for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals was kind enough to do the signing. (Buddy Baumann is from Billings, MO. Great picture of his face, huh?)
To top it all off, one of the aforementioned players, Zach Cox, hit one of his two home runs in the “designated inning” and we all got to have a $1 sundae from Andy’s Frozen Custard on the way home. All in all a pretty good night at the game.
