The Old Ball Game

At some point during my four years in North Carolina, the local minor league baseball team in Salem changed owners. Way back in the day, they were the Salem Buccaneers, feeding into the Pirates. In the 90s, they were the Salem Avalanche, feeding into the Rockies. More recently, they fed into the Astros, but remained the Avalanche.

Now they're the Salem Red Sox. Guess who's in charge now. Yeah, Boston. I'm not sure how to take this. I'm a Yankees fan, like my father before me. It's how I was raised. It's what I know. And with that comes the knowledge that the Red Sox... well... basically... they're the bad guys. There, I said it. And I feel better now.

Despite my allegiance to the New York Yankees, I love going to a baseball game. So when Tree mentioned that Monday night would be dollar night at the stadium, I knew I was in. I mean, who's gonna turn down a baseball game that only costs a dollar to get into? The only thing better would be free baseball. And bonus, the hot dogs were a buck too.

I will say this, I wouldn't just show up at the baseball game by myself. It's only worth going to if I'm going with a group of people. An actual game itself is only so exciting. It's always more fun when you're hanging out with friends in the stands. There were six of us in our little group including me, Tree, Shay, her son, PJ, and Willis. PJ I had met last Friday downtown. Willis was new to me.

For the first couple innings, things seemed to be kind of exciting in the game. Salem scored a couple runs in the first, the Keys hit a home run in the second and took the lead. And then the game went scoreless until the 8th inning when the Keys extended their lead.

So we had to make our own fun. Tree leaned over to me and told me she needed me to find her a Joseph. I wasn't sure what she meant. I thought she wanted me to walk through the crowd and find someone named Joseph. It wasn't long before I realized she just wanted me to find someone that looked like a Joseph.

In all the people watching, we found a strange phenomenon. Two men dressed exactly alike, but not together in any way. The fact that they were both wearing shirts of the same shade of purple and shorts of the same shade of pink was purely coincidental. Or was it? They weren't sitting anywhere near each other. But at one point, one was walking directly behind the other. And I really don't think they noticed that they were wearing the same clothes.

At first, Willis and I were thinking that one was the Keymaster and the other was the Gatekeeper. We thought that if they would actually meet, the stadium would explode and usher in the coming of Gozer. But then we saw them walking in close proxemity with no ill effects. So our current working theory is that these two are actually the same man, but from different points in time. We almost had a paradox, but the universe is still here. Disaster averted.

All in all it was a pretty great time. The Sox lost, about which I feel neither good nor bad. It is what it is. I look forward to the next dollar Monday.

BTW... Stay tuned for an update on my Greenbrier Classic Contest. Details are forthcoming.