Open for business

 

When a Renegades game ends, I press the refresh key on the computer for the box score from the game just completed.

For me, that's a nice luxury but it's also different to have someone else tallying numbers and info. 

I'm sort of use to serving as my officially unofficial official scorer.

So, last night at the conclusion of a doubleheader, I kept refreshing until official scorer Mike Ferraro completed his duties.

Then they appeared: winning pitcher, losing pitcher, save (if there was one), time of the game, and attendance. Most of these I can do on my own but I prefer to get Mike's official certification. The guy is great at what he does and I respect his work.

But attendance mattered the most last night to me in the postgame.

Two-thousand, eight-hundred-seventy-nine.

I just loved the atmosphere in the ballpark. Sure, they were there for baseball and fireworks, but they were there. There were no zip ties or pod seating. There were some masks but they were optional.

There was a legitimate roar of the crowd. There was a buzz. There was energy.

As Vin Scully said, he was fascinated by the sound of the fans as he listened from underneath the big radio in his family apartment in Washington Heights. 

That's what it is for me. The crowd says so much -- whether it's no fans, 20, 100, 1000, 5000...or 2,879.

So when that last out was recorded, I couldn't wait to see what the total was.

I wrote the numbers down on my scorecard as we came back from the commercial break.

I read them, feeling myself getting emotional. Like Celine Dion in the middle of "My Heart Will Go On," I punctuated as I read it out loud.

I pounded the table.

Fireworks lit up the sky not long after I went off the air. I sat in the booth, my computer serving as the only light as I began to write my game story for Saturday...don't ask me why I thought it was Saturday.

(Actually, our last doubleheader was on a Saturday so that's my guess).

For the first time since late 2019, there would be heavy traffic leaving Dutchess Stadium. We actually needed to wait before leaving. So I kept writing.

Soon, Sean finished and left. I walked out a few minutes after him and went home to finish everything up and post it to the website.

Fans are back. Players are stopping by and talking. We can fit more fans in the stadium.

It's progress and it's pretty sweet.

2,879.

Those numbers looked awfully good.