Your illustrious 12innings.com staff met for a brain storming session two weeks ago, and through a myriad of brilliance and crushingly poor ideas, we did manage to serve up one idea that would actually benefit you, the reader.  “Let’s go to an ACTUAL baseball game!”, we all cried in unison. So, the 12innings.com Guys Night out at the Ballpark was born.  Since most of the group here is based in the DFW area in Texas, we first pondered the notion of going to a Texas Rangers game.  This was to be the original plan, buying cheap seats and moving up, as is the tradition at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.  For a moment, we all forgot that we live in an area with many more options than Tom Hicks’ one-trick pony.  We could go to a Frisco Rough Riders’ game, or even the Fort Worth Cats!  The allure of going to a minor league game was too much, but the Cats seemed old, and tired.  The new kid on the block was the Grand Prairie AirHogs, located just minutes away from beautiful Lone Star Park, where Norm Hitzges and Randy Galloway spend the few remaining coherent years betting on the ponies.

The AirHogs are in (what I believe to be) their inagural season, with the enigmatic Pete Incaviglia (I didn’t even have to look up how to spell that) at the managerial helm.  Other than that, I challenge you to name one other person (or even remember) on the roster.  This is very typical of independent league teams, as they typically fill their roster with people who couldn’t quite make the minors.  This does not affect the product on the field, though.  Actually, it makes the game SO much more interesting!  The game was held at QuikTrip park, which was a very nice stadium for an independent team.

The game got off to a great start, with Billy Munoz smashing a three run shot into the right center bleachers.  This was dangerously close to the pool located in right field.  I can’t verify whether or not the ball was in the water, but it was close.  At this point is where independent league baseball takes a MAJOR detour from the product that we see in MLB ballparks across the nation.  A woman, approximately 843 years old, paraded down the aisles with a small box with a homemade sign that said “Home Run Donations” on it as people put dollar bills into the box.  I was never able to verify why they did this, but she did have a nametag on, confirmin my suspicions that she worked for the AirHogs.

Since it was dollar beer night, my compadres and I went to the concession stand for another round of frosty brews.  I use the term frosty lightly.  Let’s just say that if there are any PR guys working for stadiums out there reading this blog, you might want to get someone besides the local junior high spirit squad to run the concession stand ON DOLLAR BEER NIGHT!!!!  We were officially in line for three innings.  Yes, you heard me right, three innings.  By the time we got our two 8 ounce beers, it was 3-3 in the bottom of the 4th.  Not only that, but the poor women who were manning the beer taps were wasting 5x more beer than was actually being consumed, as they couldn’t figure out how to pour the beer without getting foam everywhere.  I really felt sorry for them.

Anyway, back to the game.  Remember earlier when I said that the lower quality of athlete actually enhances the game?  This is where it got really fun.  Booted grounders, very questionable umpiring, and (I am not making this up) delaying the start of an inning while grown men dressed like hamburgers raced to see who could put fake lettuce and tomatoes on themselves.  Speaking of umpires, most of these guys looked pretty young.  Inky (Incaviglia, for those of you who didn’t grow up here) came out on three separate occsions to argue calls.  To his credit, he never lost his cool.  He was very calm, had a brief but frank discussion with the umpire, and returned to the dugout.  It actually looked like he might have had a few of the dollar beers himself, he was so restrained.

Our seats were in the 4th row behind home plate (twelve dollars, by the way. Try pulling that off in Yankee Stadium), which allowed us a great vantage point in seeing just how minor league this was.  Pants had holes, some guys didn’t have their names on their jerseys (they were iron-on letters anyway), and the game just seemed to be in slow motion.  The stadium was beautiful, and very well positioned (the entire crowd was in the shade by game time, which was a brilliant decision).  Oddly enough, I don’t remember any roaming vendors, but maybe I spent too much time in line waiting for Suzy Sprit’s mom to empty the bucket of beer that she had spilled.

The game was very interesting.  The Hogs held the lead, but made it very close in the top of the ninth, but closer James Morrison pulled off his 15th save of the year in typical closer fasion (by walking everyone in sight then striking out the last guy).  The exit from the ballpark was fast, clean, and a very enjoyable experience.  Overall, I would say that the 12innings.com trip to the ballpark was a rousing success.  Let’s see if we can get another one together.  Our goal for the next one is to actually have a reader join us (doesn’t count if they are related).

Tags: 12 Innings, airhogs, ballpark