Take me out to the ball park

Independence Day baseball

I went to the Buffalo Bisons game with my sister Diane and our friend Amy. The baseball stadium is located in downtown Buffalo, and it’s always fun to visit downtown Buffalo. We were excited about going into the stadium. When we first got to the stadium, I actually saw a guy named Andrew that I have known for some time, but hadn’t seen in a while. It was exciting to see someone that I knew, but, alas, we were sent outside to get actual tickets because something was wrong with the code on a printed page. I didn’t really understand what that was about but out we went. It didn’t matter so much. We were very early so, once our tickets worked, we sat in the stadium for quite some time before the game started. We saw a 100-year-old man, who had dreamed of being a baseball player before he joined the Navy during World War II, throw a ceremonial first pitch. At the age of 100, Roy Kinyon could still throw a baseball with a high degree of accuracy. I kind of got a picture of him, but his arm was up and I couldn’t see his face.

The game was entertaining and exciting, but, alas, the Bisons lost by one point to the Syracuse Mets, who used to be the Syracuse Sky Chiefs (4-3). I remember, as a kid in Syracuse, going to Sky Chiefs games with my sisters and my dad. They were great fun, and it was then that I developed what turned out to be a lifetime love of baseball. I never could play baseball because of issues with eye-hand coordination, but I have always loved the game.

There were all sorts of contests for the audience, too, including t-shirt tosses, soft ball tosses, and baseball trivia games, among others. There was, of course, the famous seventh inning stretch and the singing of Take Me Out to the Ballpark. Buster Bison had fun dancing on top of a dugout, and Conehead was busily selling and pouring beer.

After the game, we watched fireworks and listened to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, with special guest singer Joshua Vacanti singing. It was great fun, although the fireworks were very loud, which caused me to stuff my fingers in my ears. Next year, I will remember to bring a set of earplugs. There was also a tribute for the military and a salute to essential workers. All military and essential workers were invited to stand and were applauded. Honestly, I thought that there should have been a salute to people who were deemed nonessential. Many were laid off and they really struggled. Well, I was nonessential. It wasn’t a fun time. Isolation is very difficult, especially when you’re completely alone. In other words, I thought that we should have just all cheered for each other because we all had a challenging time during the worst of the pandemic.