Hickory Crawdads Win Big

It was a great night for baseball in Hickory.  I could almost hear Harry Caray calling muffled from somewhere deep in my memories “It’s a BEAUTIFUL baseball night here in Hickory!  Come on DOWN to LP Frans Stadium!”   And it WAS a beautifully cool evening with nice breezes blowing wonderful smells and familiar sounds across the stadium.

We took two teen-age granddaughters with us and I was GIVEN 4 free tickets for “my service” to my country (the guy selling me the tickets spotted my military ID card which was partially visible in my wallet).  “Thank you for your service.” He said as he handed me the tickets.  I was amazed, stunned, astonished. 

The Hickory team is nicknamed the “Crawdads” and casually called “Dads”.   And they have a VERY rhythmic person inside a dramatically friendly costume who plays the role of "Counsellor Crawdad" .  The “Dad” was a big hit with the kids, and played significant roles in between inning events. 

Game ended in the bottom of 9th inning with two outs when  Lewis Brinson, batting with a runner on base, hit a 3-2 pitch for a walk-off home run.  He could barely get to the plate because of his ecstatic teammates. 

The between-innings distractions from the loud speakers and impromptu performances by enthusiastic volunteers that I had found annoying last time seem to be developing their own kitschistic persona.  The crowd obviously recognized and joyfully participated in the joyous nonsense.

One of the side effects is that there are loud-speakered comments between pitches, which shut down before the next pitch.  .  .  BUT the crowd learns to do that too!  Even when the home team is putting on a late-game rally!  Last night the crowd finally broke through and started carying on the cheering  and shouting as Nomar Mazara (the batter before Brinson) hit his long fly ball to center field.  

Yea!  Yea!