The Baseball Trip 2015  Day 2

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

I think there was some tornadic action last night. Is tornadic a word?

The flag still stands.

So we took the bridge over to the Illinois side of the river and wound our way south and east to Collinsville, home of the Fairmount Racing Emporium. Here's what it looks like from the outside:

Pretty unassuming, huh?

The plan was to play 5 races and then shoot south again to catch the Independent League Southern Illinois Miners play the Frontier Grays. The Independent League is for players who have not caught on with any Major League affiliated minor league teams but who have not given up the ghost of one day playing in the Bigs.

I was down about 12 bucks after the first four races and decided to take a chance on a horse I thought had some speed. The opening odds were 7-1. After I placed my bet (10 bucks across), I looked at the board and saw the odds had risen to 12-1. Uh-oh, I'm in trouble. They were as high as 19-1 before the race and went off at 17-1. There's a waste of $30.00.

Damned if that horse didn't win. My payout was $299.60. My new favorite horse: Wildn'Wooly!

 Wildn'Wooly

In the winner's circle.

After the horses, we were on our way to Marian, Illinois, home of the Southern Illinois Miners.

But first, a chance to capture the glory that is The World's Largest Bottle of Ketchup!

Majestic, no?

Random observation from Randy: "You know you're in the south when you see gizzards advertised at the KFC."

Here's a look at the home plate gate at Rent One Stadium, home of the Miners:

I don't know what Rent One is.

Behind home plate.

From the third base line.

The Miners have two mascots. One is a chicken named 'Lucky.' The other is a dog named 'Grounder.' Usually, in my experience, teams with two mascots will match them up as mates. Also, what do a chicken and a dog have to do with coal mining? I think real coal miners would scare the hell out of the kids. Anyway, here's my obligatory shots with the both of these clowns:

 Lucky

Grounder

Notice the sky over the stadium...

Oh God, no, here it comes again!

Well, we lucked out...the game never stopped as the storm swirled past Rent One Stadium. But we weren't so lucky with the heat index again, and that storm was heading right for our state park campgrounds. So on to another motel. 

Random observation from Randy: "Buzz's Automotive. How do you suppose someone gets the name Buzz?"

Favorite sign: Home of The Ham Sandwich

Favorite Town name: Kaskaskia, IL

No signs of the apocalypse today...except for those clouds.

One last random observation from Randy: "Hey! A freight train with oil tankers. I hope it doesn't derail and burn us all."

By the way, The Frontier Grays have no home stadium. That's right, they play all their games on the road. True story.Where do they hold their meetings?

Tomorrow: The deep forest and Nashville.