What would the town of the world famous Louisville Slugger bat be without a baseball team?  It would seem a little unfair wouldn't it?  Well let me put all of your worried minds to rest.  After years of pondering this question I will quench the thirst of your parched minds.  The Louisville Bats proudly represent the town of... well... Louisville.  They are a Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. 

I won some tickets at work.  So Tracey, me, Casey and his friend Michael went last Monday night (04/13/2009).  It had been raining all that day.  It even hailed for a while.  So we all figured there was slim to no chance of the game happening.  But the Lord blessed us and at 5 the sun came out and it looked like a gorgeous spring day.  So we finally got everyone together and went over.

I'm used to going to Braves games.  I usually went to a couple every year.  This was no Braves game.  It was 1 x 10¹⁰⁰⁰ times better!  I'm no fan of crowds.  I get antsy at the Walmart.  Braves games are always crowded.  Then there's the whole "getting there" hassle.  A 3 hour baseball game suddenly becomes an 8 hour event as you slowly navigate traffic and search for $10 parking if you're lucky.  Even if you take MARTA it may be less stressful but it's not any faster really in most cases.  Because usually they are singe tracking on the way back.  That's a frustration that deserves it's own blog so I won't bore you with it now.  Plus you have to be "bused" over like some poor urban child.  I just don't find enough joy in baseball to endure all that hassle.  Especially in the nose bleed seats I usually have.

Monday we drove 10 minutes to the ball park.  We got to go in the season ticket holder entrance.  While searching for that we passed two $5 parking lots and found street parking.  50 feet later we were at the gate showing our tickets.  SWEET!

It is a gorgeous ball park, especially for a minor league team.  The crowd was lite because of the rain.  I'll let the pictures describe how great our seats were.  For the first time in my life I bought a hotdog at a game because I wasn't going to have to take out a loan to buy one.  Me and Trace even bought snazzy Bats hats. There is a local lady from some where in Africa.  I know Casey can probably give you the exact location.  She has created a great cookie company here in town.  She was walking through the stands with a huge bowl of cookies on her head.  Very impressive.  I wished we had got a picture of her.  I left the camera and Tracey had to make due with her cellphone.  She still got some fun shots.  So we bought some cookies from her.  They were great. 

The game was fun. The Hens jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and dominated most of the game.  It was great not having "ever how many" thousands of people all screaming at the same time.  We had one vocal guy on our side and a set of them on the other.  They all did well with their comic relief.  Casey even helped out some on our side.  It's nice not having to listen to the hum of idiots where 30,000 try to speak as one.  It was nice hearing the smack of velocity against leather and the crack of wood on hard core.  Listening to articulate Average Joe explain to his team how they are not preforming to their maximum potential. It is a beautiful thing to go watch what you intended to watch. Not being in an environment where you have to have all this extra junk to "help" keep you entertained.  At the risk of sounding like an arrogant purist I think I'll be doing minor league stuff from now on.  It was a nice relaxing day at the ball park and not a stressful, rushed, 100 mph exercise in craziness.  

Me and Casey put on the rally caps in the bottom of the ninth, but to no avail.  They scored two runs but lost 6-5.  It was nice watching guys play before they could afford good steroids.  When the last guy grounded out the bottom fell out again.  The Lord had held off the rain but was making up for it now.  We had come prepared and it only took us a few minutes to make it back to the car.  What a great game!  I'll definitely be putting in for more tickets.  I might even just go buy my own. You can get great seats for like $10.  When we have visitors I would suggest you add a ball game to your agenda.

I'll leave you with pictures.

Great seats.

Buddy Bat

Hoping the rally cap will work.

Casey rallying the troups.  Michael is sleeping I think.