BASEBALL

We won an auction prize at a charity raffle that gave us six Mud Hen tickets and a chance to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.  We left early enough to have dinner in Toledo.  There is a Pizza Papalis on the actual block with Fifth-Third Field.  It is steps from the left field gate.  Wednesday was kids day at Pizza Papalis and since three people in our group ordered off the kids menu and because Pizza Papalis had dollar domestic drafts the entire bill to feed six people including tax and tip was under $50.  They also will put any boxed, leftover food in a cooler they have until after the game when you can pick it up.

We let the 12-year old throw the first pitch.  Her grand aunt went out on the field as her escort.  They let you throw from the mound in Toledo.  Charlie Furbush was the catcher for her pitch.

The seats were seven row behind the Mud Hens dugout.  The children in our party were able to sit right behind the Hens dugout due to the low attendance.  This enabled them to get balls from Gonzalez right before the game and from Strieby after the top half of the first.

The game itself was not particularly memorable except that somehow the Hens had 13 hits including a Thorman home run and only scored 1 run.  Weber had early control problems and allowed a lot of runs.  Ni allowed some inherited runners to score.  The umpire wasn’t giving a knee high strike and Ni wouldn’t stop trying to get it.  I had actually hoped to see some of Iorg’s defense.  Not many balls were hit where he could make an extraordinary play on them.

Timo Perez seems to enjoy playing baseball.  The former major league player waved at a long line drive to left to try to push it foul.  When Dirks tossed a ball he caught for the third out to some kids near the dugout Timo feigned that he was going to catch it.