No rain out this time

The last time we tried to do this we had lousy weather. In fact they never got the tarp off of the field.

That was July 24^th when my dad, V, M and I tried to attend a Nashua Pride baseball game. That day torrential downpours, thunder and lightning were the order of the day.

Tonight the weather was about as opposite as you could possibly get. Blue sky, puffy clouds, bright sun and warm temperatures. Perfect baseball weather.

The Nashua Pride play in the Can-Am league, which is an eight team independent league that is not affiliated with any major league teams. Even though the Pride lost to the Sussex (NJ) Skyhawks 7-5, we had a good time. More importantly, V and M passed the test I had set for them - with flying colors.

That test, of course, was to see if they could handle sitting through a live baseball game. If they could, which they did, I told them I'd try to get ticketses for us to see the Red Sox at Fenway Park in 2009, which are much, much, much more expensive.

We got to the stadium about 10 minutes before the gates opened at 16:05. We knew from the last time that our seats would be in the front row, just to the left of home plate. Awesome seats. V and M brought their baseball gloves but because of where our seats were behind the screen, they would have no chance to catch a foul ball.

Before the game, which started at 17:05, we were walking around the stadium checking things out. Tori wanted to see if she could get someone to give her a baseball and she was able to talk to one of the bat girls about it. The bat girl told her that she would see if she could but wasn't sure. When the game ended, V asked again and was rewarded for being persistent. The best souvenir for me is happy kiddoes.

These minor league games are great because they give away promotional items as you come into the stadium before every game. The promotion/give-away for the rain out game was Delta Dental toothbrush night. Tonight was Pride backpack night. They also do things between innings, like have kids (and some adults) participate in contests, toss tee shirts into the stands and other stuff.

When the game was over they had one final contest, which was to try and throw some foam baseballs into a small orange bucket at home plate (from the stands) to win a prize. I have no idea what the prize was but no one won it anyway. I did manage to "win" a great consolation prize. As I was walking past some seats on my way out, there was a real official Can-Am league baseball on the ground next to some of those foam balls, which I was able to handily grab and stash in my backpack.