Got a Beat Up Glove, A Homemade Bat and a Brand New Pair Of Shoes

Am back from watching the Frederick Keys lose 10-3 to the Kinston Indians. The Indians are top-ranked and have a winning percentage over .700. The Keys are in last place and let's not talk about their percentage, let alone the combined ERA. Here is my favorite player on the Indians, who has the second best batting average on the team and the most RBIs, but see if you can guess why he was my imaginary boyfriend for the afternoon:


First baseman Michael Aubrey.


Here, about to hit a home run (unfortunately not the only one by the Indians).


These were from our seats, about five feet from the field alongside first base, right beside the home team dugout.

One of the many nice things about minor league games is that the players will chat with fans and sign things for kids as they walk by, and all the foul balls end up tossed to people in the crowd. There are also all the usual local band and school performances, dopey contests, t-shirt tosses and the like. This stadium also has a carousel, giant slide and mini-arcade, as well as pretty decent grilled chicken sandwiches. Because of the rain yesterday, we ended up seeing the first half of a double header and the beginning of the second game, but the Keys were playing so badly and the kids were bored enough that we left partway through.

We did have perfect weather -- high 60s/low 70s, breezy, somewhat overcast. We were sitting in a block of seats with others from our synagogue, including one of the rabbis, who made predictions about the game that did not in fact come true. My mother got my kids every form of junk food in the stadium so tonight ought to be interesting.