Sunday was my mom’s 72nd birthday. Back in the spring, her sister Nancy came up with a good way for us to spend it – she gave us four tickets and a parking pass to the Dayton Dragons game. This is a big deal – the Dragons have sold out every home game since their first one eleven years ago. This summer, they broke the professional sports record for consecutive sellouts (815 – now it’s in the 830s).
So off we went. Fifth Third Field is in downtown Dayton (and Fifth Third Bank apparently likes to buy naming rights – there is a Fifth Third Field in Toledo and a Fifth Third Ballpark in Grand Rapids, and I suppose there may be more). Our seats were in the first row of the second level, and we really enjoyed the extra legroom.
Since we got there early, we had time to ask an usher to take a family shot . . .
There are warehouse buildings along the street and behind the outfield walls. Longtime readers of this blog may have seen similar pictures before – I have announced a couple of high school baseball games here.
Nancy had arranged for a birthday greeting on the big scoreboard (look under the video board) and Mom was pleasantly surprised.
When a Dragon hits a home run, the dragons on either side of the scoreboard put on a show – their eyes flash red, and smokes comes out of their nostrils . . .
These two folks were playing “The Newlywed Game” on top of the dugout between innings. They were the second choice – the Dragons’ entertainment team had asked Mom & Dad first. Dad turned them down (Mom would have done it). And we got to see the team celebrate at the end of a 6-0 victory that clinched a postseason playoff berth.
When I got home, I made up a collage of photos from the day, printed it on photo paper, and dropped it off for Mom on Monday morning. She really enjoyed the memories of her day, and she’ll get a chance to see them again when she and Dad get back to Arizona (they read the blog when they’re out there, so they’ll spend some time catching up on what they missed while they were home this summer). Happy Birthday Mom!
It looks like she had a great birthday, surrounded by some favorite men in her life...and baseball!
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