Baseball groupies

Yep, that's us. We like to hang out around the clubhouse, waiting for players to come out so we can ask for an autograph. The kids have even claimed their own pens for such a purpose. We have signed mitts, signed programs, and signed balls. It's how we spend our free time. Even on an night like this:

Yesterday evening found us in Zebulon, NC at Five County Stadium. We were there to watch the Carolina Mudcats. Check them out here:

http://www.gomudcats.com/

After a 2 hour rain delay, we were finally able to sit in our (rather wet) seats and start watching the game at 8:30. Despite the soggy conditions, it was a beautiful night for a ballgame. Cool, but not cold. Great fireworks afterwards too. It all left us wishing to live even a little bit closer, in order to watch more games next season.

The highlight of the evening was our rainy-time talk with Andy Jenkins. He's one of the Mudcat's players, originally from Salem. He talked with us about Oregon, and Salem, and funny baseball things. He knew many people who Bill had played with or been coached by. He told us about his family back in Oregon and how his dad had been in NC to watch a few games and had just left the day before. I think he might have been a little homesick even! He and Bill had a nice time chatting. I think the kids were amazed that this real, live baseball guy 3000 miles from home was talking about things they were familiar with. Andy was very nice to the kids and happily autographed their paraphernalia. Bill also talked with the Mudcats coach, Matt Raleigh. It seems they had some shared acquaintances to gossip about. Visiting with these guys made the delay and rain much nicer to tolerate.

Despite getting home at 1:30 (that's AM people!), we had a great time.