Playing with a Purpose

(Notice: this is not our Coach).

Bucks 1

Mallards 4

Yesterday was Bacon Appreciation Day. I was confused at first to what that meant exactly, and to be honest, I am still a little confused. But, from what I gathered, it was a night where the concession stand made everything (2 foot long brats, ice cream sundaes, etc.) with bacon in it and there were different promotions involving bacon. The first 500 fans received small Piggy Banks, something my host brother, Ryan, had been looking forward to for a long time. When he found out he had a baseball game last night, the thought even crossed his mind to miss his game and get the piggy bank. But he got the best of both worlds- he played the game and I got him a piggy bank. The only problem was that the piggy bank didn’t stay closed…tough break.

The promotions were pretty funny. My favorite one was when the dressed three of the interns up in pink pig costumes and had 20 kids run out in the outfield and chase them (“pin the tail on the pig”). There was a chef contest in between innings where one of the contestants melted M&M’s on the bacon to make it blue, red, and yellow. I was extremely happy when they played clips from my favorite comedian, Jim Gaffigan’s, “Bacon” skit. If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to it now- as well as the “Hot Pockets” skit.

The game was really good. Estevan Uriegas (Texas A&M) pitched extremely well and our relief pitchers did a great job too. Travis Parker (St. Louis University) is a two-way guy who plays third base and is also a side-arm pitcher. He hit in the 4-hole last night after not hitting live pitching for 2 weeks. He had a great game and drove in 2 runs, helping us win, 4-1.

Right before the team meeting in the outfield, we were so excited that Jordan Owen and Estevan dumped the water cooler on coach. He was freezing. If you are a sports fan, you know this usually happens when a team wins the championship of their sport, but the win last night only brought us to 2-6 in the second half. The game broke our six game losing streak and we had so much fun that we needed to do it. Summerball!

Shout out to Gary “Big Dog” Breneman for getting us Quench Gum in the dugout yesterday. We had been missing Quench Gum for over a week and it might have contributed to the “W.”

Heading to La Crosse now- watching “Miracle.” Really looking forward to the pregame meal at North Country Steak Buffet. I think the whole team is.  

aB