When the party was nice, the party was jumpin' (Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo)
And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yippie Yi Yo)
I tell the fellas "start the name callin'" (Yippie Yi Yo)
And the girls report to the call
The poor dog show down
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
And everybody havin' a ball (Hah, ho, Yippie Yi Yo)
I tell the fellas "start the name callin'" (Yippie Yi Yo)
And the girls report to the call
The poor dog show down
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)
-Baha Men
That was the very first thing I heard as Solomon pulled me through the 3rd base entrance of Avista Stadium last night. The first ever "Bark In The Park" was underway and I was already in way over my head. Let's get things set straight right off the bat, I'm not a pet guy. Really, I'm not an animal guy. Never been my thing. My sister had pets growing up but I never really latched onto them or cared that we had them. Most of that stems from the fact that all cats and most dogs make my eyes swell up to the size of softballs and the rest comes from the fact that pets can't play video games with me or break down the X's and O's of an NBA game. Solomon and Charlie (Andy and Jaelyn's dogs) are my boys though and they deserved a trip to the ballpark.
Now like I was saying earlier I'm not a pet guy. I've never owned my own pet. So when Andy handed me the leash to Solomon I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Do I walk and Solomon just follows me? Does he take off sprinting and I just have to keep up? Do I whistle like Iron Will and Solomon's brain and my brain become one and we work as a team ("team" in my brain is more like a Megazord than a team)? I ended up utilizing more of a hold on tight and pray that Solomon doesn't jump on anyone.
After the first five minutes of getting the hang of how to work the leash we were in the ballpark making our way towards the left field bleachers which were dedicated to the dogs. This was when I had my "Hey everyone, I have no idea what I'm doing and all of America hates me now" moment. As we got to the end of the left field entrance and the Baha Men were wrapping up on the sound system the following announcement was made, "Please rise and remove your hats for the singing of the National Anthem". Normally this is a favorite moment of mine in the ballpark. It's not so great though, when you've got a dog that is excited to be in a new environment AND is surrounded by a million other dogs that need to be sniffed. It's even worse when the gal singing the anthem decides to hold every note of Francis Scott Key's 1814 smash hit. There were probably between 50 and 70 dogs at the ballpark last night and only ONE decided to sing along... Solomon. Like I've said over and over, I don't own a dog. I've never owned a dog. I'm not a dog whisperer. I don't know the words you say to dogs so that they listen to you. So for what felt like 30 minutes the entire stadium stared at the knucklehead in left field that couldn't get his dog under control. Just like that I was hated by the non-dog owners for being disrespectful and hated by the dog owners for not being a good pet owner. Immediately I was the outcast of the night and Solomon gave me the look of "got ya sucker".
Once that was done though things settled down out in left field for Andy and me. Well, besides the constant "woof woof woof" from section leader Tommy The Tank (I truly believe his goal last night was to insight a dog riot that would lead out onto the field so that he could film what would turn into an amazing viral video), and the one foul ball that landed in the middle of the largest section of dogs. A foul BALL that caused every dog in the section to go into a "Who the heck threw this and how do I return it so they can throw it again" uproar. We made it to the 4th inning before taking the dogs back out to Andy's rig where he has turned the back into a palacial estate for the dogs. Next year I hope they do it again because it really seemed fun for the dog owners and ended up being smooth sailing from what we saw. And next year I hope Jaelyn takes her dog with Andy so that I can sit in the right field bleachers, as far away as possible from a night of gripping a leash so tight that the muscles in my hand are still sore today.
PS. A magical baseball game happened last night too. For more on that (with some special video) click the "Read More" or just keep scrolling down.
Magical stuff happens on weird nights. Once we had the dogs put away, Andy and I were able to head back into Avista and enjoy what ended up being an amazing ending to a very successful series against the Boise Hawks (spoiler, the Indians won increasing the winning streak to 4 games). The weather wasn't really co-operating. A misty rain was the story all night and it got pretty thick from about the 7th inning on. Between the cold wet "rain" and the fact that it was Monday night, Avista stadium was pretty dead by the 7th inning.
A 2-2 game going into the 8th with just a couple hundred die hards fighting the cold, the wet and sleep to see if the Indians could keep the win streak alive (spoiler, they do). The Indians scored on a throwing error by JOSE DORE (more on him in a bit) to take a 3-2 lead into the top of the ninth. A four game win streak was in sight as was bedtime. That's when one of the Indians employees, Nick, who had been at the stadium since early that morning and was showing signs of fatigue, decided to tempt fate. "We've got this one." NICK! Have you learned nothing about baseball??? Those words are notoriously famous last words. Sure enough after a couple basehits and a ground out by Shawon Dunston Jr drove in the game tying run we were all trying to figure out if this rainy late Monday night was going to turn into an even more miserable, more rainy, more tired early Tuesday morning.
Before we get to the walk off homerun by Chris Garia, a walk off blast so monstrous that it will have an actual monster named after it in the next "Monsters Inc/University" movie, let's talk about the greatest person to heckle at an Indians game... the first base coach for the opposing team. The first base coach isn't a guy from the managerial staff, no it's just a player that I assume no one wants to hang out with in the dugout because he loves brown nosing the manager. This series that guy was our new friend, Jose Dore. All weekend we yelled at Jose Dore. About his cleats, about his stance, about his wrist tape that he wore while coaching first base..., about his jogging style, about anything and everything Jose Dore had to offer. And you know what, when the skipper subbed him into the game on Monday night in a 2-2 game we were in his head. So much so that Jose Dore threw a routine toss to first into right field giving the Indians a 3-2 lead. SO much so that in the bottom of the 10th Jose Dore "First base coach extraordinaire" turned back into Jose Dore "Third baseman extraordi-ERROR":
Once that was done though things settled down out in left field for Andy and me. Well, besides the constant "woof woof woof" from section leader Tommy The Tank (I truly believe his goal last night was to insight a dog riot that would lead out onto the field so that he could film what would turn into an amazing viral video), and the one foul ball that landed in the middle of the largest section of dogs. A foul BALL that caused every dog in the section to go into a "Who the heck threw this and how do I return it so they can throw it again" uproar. We made it to the 4th inning before taking the dogs back out to Andy's rig where he has turned the back into a palacial estate for the dogs. Next year I hope they do it again because it really seemed fun for the dog owners and ended up being smooth sailing from what we saw. And next year I hope Jaelyn takes her dog with Andy so that I can sit in the right field bleachers, as far away as possible from a night of gripping a leash so tight that the muscles in my hand are still sore today.
PS. A magical baseball game happened last night too. For more on that (with some special video) click the "Read More" or just keep scrolling down.
Magical stuff happens on weird nights. Once we had the dogs put away, Andy and I were able to head back into Avista and enjoy what ended up being an amazing ending to a very successful series against the Boise Hawks (spoiler, the Indians won increasing the winning streak to 4 games). The weather wasn't really co-operating. A misty rain was the story all night and it got pretty thick from about the 7th inning on. Between the cold wet "rain" and the fact that it was Monday night, Avista stadium was pretty dead by the 7th inning.
Before we get to the walk off homerun by Chris Garia, a walk off blast so monstrous that it will have an actual monster named after it in the next "Monsters Inc/University" movie, let's talk about the greatest person to heckle at an Indians game... the first base coach for the opposing team. The first base coach isn't a guy from the managerial staff, no it's just a player that I assume no one wants to hang out with in the dugout because he loves brown nosing the manager. This series that guy was our new friend, Jose Dore. All weekend we yelled at Jose Dore. About his cleats, about his stance, about his wrist tape that he wore while coaching first base..., about his jogging style, about anything and everything Jose Dore had to offer. And you know what, when the skipper subbed him into the game on Monday night in a 2-2 game we were in his head. So much so that Jose Dore threw a routine toss to first into right field giving the Indians a 3-2 lead. SO much so that in the bottom of the 10th Jose Dore "First base coach extraordinaire" turned back into Jose Dore "Third baseman extraordi-ERROR":
The moral of that long story. Heckle the third base coach. (Thanks to some ACTUAL good fielding the Hawks got out of that inning with a double play. Dore was not involved in that)
An empty-ish ballpark is a weird place. When the 11th inning rolled around it was almost 10:30pm and with the rain going on hour 4 the crowd consisted of anxious Indians employees ready to get off work, Andy, me and a handful of die hard fans that apparently had Tuesday off. When a ballpark is empty like that you really feel like you're part of the game. If you yell something, "NO WAY JOSE!! NOT ANOTHER ERROR!", the entire stadium hears it. Players and all. So in the bottom of the 11th with a man on base and Chris Garia, the man who hit two home runs on Sunday, stepped up to the plate he most definitely heard each and every fan say "Please for the love of all that is humane in this world send us to our cars!" and Chris Garia responded. Unfortunately I didn't take video of Chris Garia hitting a home run ball over the lights in left field (I was too busy rewatching Dore's error on a loop), but you don't get a celebration like this at home plate unless you put a ball into the Fairgrounds parking lot:
Looks like it's going to be a rain out tonight (the storm has hit Spokane while I'm writing this at noon) and Chi-Chi "The 2.1 million dollar man" Gonzalez will have to wait until tomorrow to get his second start in Spokane. Until then I'd suggest Chris Garia work on a bat flip for him homers. He doesn't have one yet and apparently he's going to need one.
PS. I forgot to mention I had a Bruchi Steak Cheesesteak last night at the game. In my attempt to eat one of everything I'm currently at:
- Said Cheesesteak
- Normal Hotdog
- Slice of Pepperoni Pizza
PPS. The cheesesteak was delicious.
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