High And Outside
By Mitch Berg
I got to throw out the first pitch at a Saints game last night.
OK – I got to throw out one of five or six first pitches; the Saints brought a guy who does a club-hopping show on the local CW affiliate, three Coon Rapids city councilpeople (the city was celebrating its fiftieth birthday last night) and me to the mound. For a guy who hasn’t thrown a ball in anger in probably eight years, I did OK; it would have been high and outside for a lefty, and a near-beaner for a right-handed batter, but I didn’t have to bowl the ball across the plate, and the catcher didn’t have to bolt for it like he was going for a foul, so I was pretty happy.
And as it turned out, one of the councilmen and I might have had a better outing than the Saints’ starter Adam Cox did.
We were followed by the usual Saints game events, and a woman singing the national anthem – one “Andrea”, a bartender from Somerset – who did a version that’d have sounded good, I kid you not, in a strip club. And I don’t mean that entirely as a bad thing. You had to be there.
I always love going to Saints games. Pretty much everyone there does. I saw a few people from the neighborhood, some Patriot fans (AM1280 is one of the Saints’ sponsors this season, again), and the usual Saints game crowd (although I didn’t see Bill Murray).
I’ll hope to make it again sometime this season.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Sweet! Betcha felt kinda like Kevin Kline in that scene from “Dave.”
June 11th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Hah!
That, and Alan Shepard just before launching in The Right Stuff…
June 11th, 2009 at 9:42 am
it would have been high and outside for a lefty, and a near-beaner for a right-handed batter
So you’re bringing the high heat to a righty, not a lefty? Deluge of Anti-Strib comments about you really being a pinko-liberal sympathizer in 3, 2, 1 ….
June 11th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Congrats, that must have been fun.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:32 am
“Deluge of Anti-Strib comments…”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Always a good way start to any joke, NW.
I would throw in a few LOLs but that would be considered “insensitive” by A-S “standards”.
Oh what the heck, let’s not let SitD jump the shark.
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
Bwwwaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha
June 11th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Pen,
Yep. Big fun. I think my dad got a kick out of it; he was a Saints fan when he was a kid and they were the closest “big” team to North Dakota (and part of the Cubs’ farm system; Dad has a Saints poster with a young Don Zimmer on the roster. From 1948. I’m probably the last of his kids he’d have expected to pitch in a single-A park!
Krod,
Shark is good eatin’.
Night,
Now you’ve done it.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:31 am
It’s a dangerous hobby, Mitch.
😉
June 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Impotence is nothing to laugh about.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Um…OK?
June 11th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I am on record as a big baseball fan. I can think of nothing further removed from “pinko-liberal sympathizer” than a major league ball team.
Just sayin.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Kermit, the Twins still play at the dome.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Not in March, not for long.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I had pizza for lunch.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Mitch,
I have a lose association to the Saints myself. I grew up a ChiSox fan, and LOVED Bill Veeck, who’s son Mike help to start up the Saints. Always felt Veeck had the right of it when he said:
“It’s not the price of stardome which is killing baseball, it’s the price of mediocrity”
– which I think is fair. When stars perform well, you draw, but having to pay some utility infielder 6 Million/year BECAUSE you pay the star, and because some other idiot paid HIS utility player $5.8 Mill, that really hurts the mid to small market teams. He also understood it’s entertainment, and feel Mike has shown a better grasp of that than the often-moribund Twins.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Gordo? Gordo, I have to urinate.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Since when are the Saints a Major League ball team?
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
June 11th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Pen,
Both Veecks were among the greats. Mike was also a great St. Paulite when he lived here, contributing a lot to the community.
Krod,
Again – huh?
June 12th, 2009 at 11:37 am
dangerous?