Longbow Playing at Tiger Town!

Unfortunately, we weren’t playing baseball, actually that was probably quite fortunate, since none of the family has even a modicum of skill at the sport (which suddenly strikes me as ironic since our family actually has enough children to make our own baseball team).

Instead of playing the sport, we were playing music, which for me was actually far more fun, so i’d like to extend a big thanks to the Kiwanis Club having us out yesterday!  We had a stupendous time and the Lakeland Flying Tigers were kind enough to video one of our songs and live stream it on their Facebook page!  You should really check out the video on their page, Lakeland Flying Tigers Baseball, not for my sake…well kind of for my sake, but also to show support for the Kiwanis Club and The Home of the Flying Tigers!

After our performance we watched Kathryn Koch and some other skilled dancers from Care to Dance. We had a great time clapping and stamping to the music.  They even let us join in the last dance!

Then we walked around the newly refurbished Joker Marchant Stadium.  It was truly a beautiful ballpark.  I’ve only been to a baseball game two or three times in my life (I know, I’m a terrible American), but this magnificent park made me nostalgic for the unique experience of baseball, the cheer of the crowd, the thrill of the game, and the taste of warm hot dog, an experience I’ve never had.  Here’s a picture Nicholas took of the park.

Nicholas also took a picture of us at the stadium (Veronica’s hiding behind the railing).

and one of us in the bleachers. 

Finally, here is one of the little four in the big sports chairs…I don’t really get the big chair thing.

In case you can’t tell from the above four paragraphs, we had a lot of fun and hope to come back soon to watch and maybe play there again some time, maybe we can play a game against the Tigers!…the team, not the real kind.

Hey Batboy!

As promised I will tell more tales of the Five Golden (Baseball) Rings, but not all of them…yet. What can I say, I like suspense.

This is the story of Joe McDonald’s first negotiation in baseball. When Mr. McDonald was fourteen he worked as a batboy at Ebbets Field. This was back before the Dodgers stopped playing there and made Terrence Mann sad (Field of Dreams reference!!). The opposing team on this particular day was the Cardinals. And they had no batboy.

Now the Cardinals manager at this time had a bit of a reputation for being, shall we say, a bit uncouth. In other words he was a hothead that preferred strong language. He swore a lot. Yeah that’s what I’m tryin’ to say.

Mr. McDonald called the manager up and asked how much a batboy for the Cardinals made per game. “Three dollars” was the reply. “Well I’m making six dollars right now” was Mr. McDonald’s reply. “CLICK!” was the manager’s enraged reply. So Mr. McDonald waited…

About a half-hour later the Card’s manager called back (after striking out trying to get another batboy). “I’ll pay ya five in cash. It’s the same since you won’t be paying taxes.” Mr. McDonald considered it and agreed provided he threw in two baseballs. With a harrumph the manager grudgingly agreed.

Mr. McDonald ended the story saying that even though as a general manager he’s negotiated multi-million dollar deals with ball players, he still recalls his first negotiation.

And this is a 1982 Cardinals World Series ring. Mr. McDonald earned one of these as the general manager for the 1982 Cardinals.

1982-World-Series-Ring