The Baseball Trip 2022

Day 1    Monday, June 27

The idea this year was to travel back to the west coast and pick up the major league parks we missed in 2018 -Seattle and Oakland. Gas prices put the kibosh on that. We settled for a Midwest/Lakes tour of the Northwoods League. According to Wikipedia (a trusted source), "The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college eligibility. Graduated senior pitchers are also eligible to play in the Northwoods League. Each team may have four of these players at a time." So yeah, big-time.

Along the way we like to count things to amuse ourselves amidst the corn and soybeans. In the past we have counted Confederate flags, women on riding mowers, Walmarts, war memorials with artillery, and other signs of the apocalypse. This year we are counting injury lawyer billboards and signs warning of the coming Rapture.

First stop is Kokomo, Indiana, which didn't much sound like the North Woods, but whatever. The Kokomo Jackrabbits were facing the Kalamazoo Growlers. The Growlers got off to a fast start, but the Rabbits kept fighting back. It wasn't enough, as the jackrabbits fell to the Growlers, 9-6.

Here are some pictures from the stadium:

Paid attendance: 507.

Behind home plate.

 

                                                             Me with the mascot, Jack.

                                                                    From left field berm.

                                                                  Behind home plate.

                                                                 Center field scoreboard

                                                  Weird wall jutting out toward the foul line.

By the way, the whole shtick of the mascot is to act like a real jackrabbit. Supposedly, jackrabbits will stand up on their hind legs and box you Like a rodent version of a kangaroo. Honest to God, all this guy did all game was punch people. And they all get the gag! They punch him back! It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. (At a ballgame).

Favorite signs: You are beautiful!

                           Quick and confidential STD testing

                           Redneck Pyros!

Favorite City: Toto, IN

Things we cannot hang around for: Ice Cream Social, Greentown, IN

Injury lawyers -2

Rapture messages - 1 Jesus is Coming!

Random Observation from Randy: We'll count that billboard, but they didn't put their pictures on it. I can't trust my injury lawyers if they won't put their pictures up there.

One last note: We saw a student driver semi. Never seen that before. Kinda scary.

Next: Battle Creek, MI