Wednesday I drove up to Rome to watch the Emperors 12 pm game. The Hot Stove guys were driving over from Cumming, so I met them there. On the way I stopped by Whataburger for a 2 for 1 breakfast sandwich deal.
For some reason my GPS routed me on a winding country road out of Cartersville. It was a beautiful morning, and it was a nice drive - through Kingston GA. No stop signs. Pulled in the stadium parking lot just after 11 am.
A couple of weeks ago Rome played a day game, and over 3000 school kids attended. Yesterday they were all taking year end tests, and there were less than 200 people at the game. Wasn't hard to find Johnny, Hugh, and Old Tom Curran (left) down the third base line. Hugh was sitting up in the handicapped area, so I spent most of my time talking to him.
Rome has installed a full artificial turf field, including the infield and base paths. Only the mound and home plate area have real dirt. Whenever a baserunner slid into second or third, the slide sounded funny. One player slid too early, and barely made it to the base.
Before the game I had my picture taken with Julius, the Emperor penguin mascot. The team was charging $2 to spin the wheel and win a prize. The prizes looked good, so I plucked down two George Washingtons and took a spin. Won a golden Julius mascot bobblehead worth $30.00. Want to buy it?
The national anthem was played by the organ. The PA announcer had a nice deep voice, and announced the game from the stands.
In the top of the first a Bowling Green batter fouled a pitch off to our right. It landed in an unattended grassy area. With no one nearby, I started after it. Before I got there, a young dad beat me to the ball. He's been seated in front of Johnny and Tom. Before the game the dad had told us that it was his young son's first baseball game, no it was nice that he got a foul ball.
Later in the first inning another pitch was fouled into the same spot. I started after it - but the little boy had been a quick learner. He ran over and grabbed the ball for himself. After that, whenever a lefty came up to bat, I was at the ready to chase a foul ball - but not one was hit over there again.
A high scoring game. Rome jumped out to a lead with a 3 run home run. Bowling Green kept chipping away at the lead, but then Rome would score more. Saw one old guy in the stands near us by himself, diligently keeping score.
I had expected partly cloudy weather, but there were few clouds to be seen. I pulled up my pants legs to get a little sun on my lily white shins. My Braves tomahawk cap helped, but I got a nice sunburn on my arms. Since it was so sunny, I was unable to use the downtime to catch up on things on my phone. No big deal.
When Bowling Green popped out to end the top of the 7th inning, next to me Hugh stood up and waved for the Rome leftfielder to toss him the ball. The would require the player to toss the ball over the high protective net that separated the field from the stands. I wasn't paying much attention to this until Hugh exclaimed "Here it comes!". Hugh is in his mid-80's. By the time I saw the ball, it was too late to move to catch it in the air. When it bounced, I was afraid it would bounce down and roll under the fence into the parking lot. But the ball hit a rail, and I was able to snatch it. I tried to give the ball to Hugh, but he told me to give it to my grandkids.
On the way out of the park I was able to meet up with Julius again.
After the game I made four stops in downtown Rome. Stopped by The Varsity for a chili dog and large chocolate shake. Stopped by Dollar Tree for a Coke and other items. At the game I had scored a free carwash deal, so I ran my car through the wash.
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