Game 28

Salem Kaizer Volcanoes 1, Everett Aquasox 6

This was one heck of a ball game. A pitcher’s duel through 6, games like this remind me of just how much I love baseball.

Without all the bells and whistles, it’s all about rooting for the team. I admit, I know exactly three of the Everett players’ names. I’ve learned two of them in the last week, because they were real stars at these games.

Shawn Nottingham and Omar Falcon (fal-cone).

Mssrs. N and F were the battery on Saturday night when Mindy and I came, and they were every bit as good tonight. Strike, Strike, Strike. I can’t tell you how many strikeouts there were, as I honestly lost count. Also, at a small, rural ballpark like Everett Memorial, there are no nifty electronic displays to tell me all of the game’s stats. I had to pay attention, and the innings just went too fast for me.

Yay.

The Frogs loaded the bases 4 times in the bottom of the 6th. That was fun. So was shouting out the maniacal opening lines of Ozzy’s classic, “Crazy train.” Over, and over, and over again. No sound system to do it for us, or more exactly, no money to buy the tracks.

Frogs win. And then we watched the silly, but seminal film, “The Princess Bride.” Even more fun, especially for Delaina’s 1 1/2 daughters, who have probably never been to a drive-in movie. We old folks sat on the grass, a slowly dampening blanket beneath us, stale, outdoors flavored popcorn and too-hot coffee at our feet.

And wub, twoo wub, on a hastily inflated and synchronized big screen. Some things do change, and some do not.

Tomorrow night, Grease is the word at the Fremont Summer Movies. I’ll probably go, even though I don’t have a date. After all, it’s got groove, it’s got feeling.

M’s lose, BTW. Again.

Ichiro went three for four, after his fateful beaning Wednesday night. Yesterday’s rain out helped him in two respects; first, by resting him, and second, by postponing his AB until he returns to Safeco Field, where he is batting about a million.

Second best Ichiro quote of the year:

“In the first inning, when I ran down the line, I felt really dizzy, and I didn’t know if I could even run straight,” he said through a translator. “To me, it felt like having four beers. But as the innings changed, the next time it was three beers, then two beers. It didn’t go to zero beers, but maybe the last time was one beer.”

Ichiro = Cool