At Home in Hespeler

I haven’t spent a lot of time at baseball games the past ten or so years. Any parent will tell you, kids interests often become the parents interests. From a sports perspective, there’s been a bit of volleyball, the odd hockey season, but mostly basketball and football, neither of which has ever been a sport I like much. So this year for fathers day, I decided I wanted my son to take his dear old dad to a baseball game.

None of that overpriced professional stuff – $60 for a halfway decent seat? OR I can sit five miles away and be treated like shite? Gee thanks for the options Blue Jays – for me. Instead I got him to take me to the Kitchener Panthers of the Intercounty Baseball League.

It was a beautiful day. The Panthers play in take-whatever-seat-you-want stadium, had hot dogs and sausages off the BBQ, and Dad his son and his friend got in for a purple Sir John. The weather was baseball perfect, hot not roasting. The sun was bright and the snowbirds were flying overhead from the nearby Waterloo airshow. It was Bull Durham without the sex.

The opponents. My new favourite team name, The Ottawa Fat Cats. It’s not the Macon Whoopie, I acknowledge, but neither are they anymore.

The Ottawa Fat Cats, now that’s truth in advertising.

Anyway, thanks to the boy for the best fathers day, I’ll turn you into a baseball fan yet.

Baseball Baseball, Blue Jays, fathers day, INtercounty Baseball League, Kitchener Panthers, Macon Whoopie, Ottawa Fat Cats

“Mr. Baseball,” Bob Uecker is scheduled for heart surgery today to repair an aortic aneurysm. Uecker, 75, has been the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers for almost 40 years, as well as being nationally known for his Miller Lite commercials and acting roles.

Best wishes to Bob Eucker for a speedy recovery.

Baseball Baseball, Bob Eucker, Mr. Baseball

and the living is easy.

The signs are all around. The Masters is over and, thankfully, Tiger Woods didn’t win. The magnolias in bloom at Augusta always remind me that my own magnolia will bloom in the next week. The garden, in fact, is in half bloom this afternoon, the beginning of a summer of colour and flavour coming out of the very ground I own.

But summer really starts when those boys of summer get around to throwing a baseball in anger, hitting one with authority. Tonight, the 5-1, first place Toronto Blue Jays return to the Wok by the lake to begin the 2010 home season.

Go get em boys, and thanks for bringing summer with you.

Baseball Baseball, Blue Jays, Masters, Tiger Woods