No, no, my dear, those were absolutely a special surprise for me!
No, today was most definitely the fourteenth, not the seventeenth, but St. Patrick's Day in July had to come three days early at Grayson Stadium.
The Savannah Bananas didn't have a home game on the 17th... plus, they know I love kilts!
And what a treat it was, too, from the very start, with Coach Gillum on horseback, leading the men in their charge onto the diamond from the center field gate!
That's him in that last photo, too, spurring the boys on, in his lovely boots!
The center left is our first man up for the game against the Blowfish, taken from our cherry seats behind home plate.
The center right is my man, catcher Bill Leroy, taken from our new vantage point in the picnic area, after a bathroom break in the seventh inning.
What's up with the "we" and "our"?
Well, I already told you that Mister Willie was with me!
It's right there in the title of this post, silly rabbit!
The Man in the Yellow Tuxedo made extra sure the 4000+ fans in the house knew that this was a special occasion and who the honoree was.
In the first frame, he introduced Willie Smith, Jr., to the crowd...
in the next, Mister Willie is cheering him and his words, in humble gratitude...
with a culmination of Willie saying "Play ball!!!" as the crowd cheers him on!
i thank You, God!
This was Willie's first game in two years and it was better than any medicine anywhere.
As I told my first niece, I witnessed his love of baseball, and his love of being in this ballpark, dropping ten years from his face!
These folks are all Banana staff who wanted their photo taken with him.
That's Mark "the Shark" Ediss in the first one, greeting the man before going into his Pit.
The other folks are all new to me, but the young woman on the right, Dakota, is one who calls and talks to Mister Willie often.
As for Devon Ashton, the one who assisted us with setting up this game and our special early entry and the choice seats, I don't have a shot with her.
I'll have to see about rectifying that situation when we return for the July 28th game.
As for that leprechaun... I would swear he winked at me!
How magically delicious!
I had just said his name three times to Willie, wondering where this Man-Nana might be, when suddenly, like Beetlejuice, he was RIGHT THERE!
These two have spent games together since before I knew Bruce's name.
I think that may have come about during the summer of 2009, when I was attending solo.
That was also during the MLB Single-A Sand Gnats' reign.
When the Bananas came to town, the two were still up there at Mister Willie's seat, cheering and talking baseball.
How wonderful that they still can do so after a year of pandemic!
And how truly blessed am I to have been here for this moment in time!
Mister Willie had spoken to photographer Nick, not long after we got set up in the picnic area, and asked for a baseball.
The next thing we knew, Coach Tyler Gillum came striding up with a special gift: not just a baseball, but one autographed by the team!
Wow... that brought a tear to the old man's eye, not for the first time tonight.
For many of these years that I've been at games in his company, whether we're sitting together or apart, Mister Willie has known my camera would be out and snapping pictures.
He has asked me why I did that, and I've always responded that I take the photos for my enjoyment, as a keepsake of the game.
Of course, the true reason is to capture moments like this, with his hearty voice telling the batter to "Put the wood on it" or "Give me the long ball", to make those real and not illusion.
Documenting what has happened allows me to better relieve it again, as I have done here.
Thank you, Sam Johnson and Thomas Houston, for your encouragement of my entry into the blogosphere.
And, i thank You, God, for such a wonderful night, sharing the breath of baseball, one more time, with this man.
2 comments:
I evidently forgot to mention anything about the game itself - oops!
The Bananas lost to the Blowfish, 7 to 2.
http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=547916
I remember well the first time the boys of summer wore kilts: they took a real beating, mentally, from folks who said they were wearing skirts.
Consequently, they lost that night.
I had hoped that Bill Leroy, and others who have done this wearing of the kilt thing, might be able to assuage the new guys' concerns about their manhood.
Apparently not.
Not even having the Coach go all cowboy, a la Braveheart, in his leading of them onto the field could distract the new boys.
That's okay - it was still baseball, under the stars, and that's what Mister Willie had so missed.
Listen to what Bill Leroy had to say about the kilts!
“It felt so good. It feels so free. Honestly, I wish we could play every game in these,” said Leroy after the game. “They’re very freeing. They feel good, they feel loose so it was nice to get them back on.”
I totally get that.
As the catcher, he has the most gear on out there in the summer heat.
Wearing the kilt has got to be much cooler for him!
https://thesavannahbananas.com/savannah-bananas-kilts-recap-sold-out-crowd/
Post a Comment