8/18/14, 10am - Agenda-free Monday meant there was no hurry to be out of the hotel. Once we did finally get rolling, we set out for a quick walking tour of the French Quarter. Although the sample size was only a few blocks, the boys were not so impressed with New Orleans, which is understandable, as it is hardly kid-friendly.
At high Noon, the Quarter had attracted only a fraction of tourists that would be here at midnight, so all that remained was the sketchy, dispossessed permanent population, with behaviors ranging from bizarre to outright disturbing. We even saw a guy try to steal a case of beer from the side well of a Budweiser delivery truck, only to be chased down and violently tackled by the pissed- off route salesman. Hey, “this Bud’s
not for you.” To add to the discomfort, the day was hot as hell and it did not smell very good. The scent of the Paris Metro comes to mind...
Because we have no rental car, getting back-and-forth from Zephyr Field would require a round-trip taxi trip, which would end up costing 3X what I paid for the game tickets themselves.
When we walked though the gates one hour before the game, our first thought was, “where is everyone?” The park was almost empty, maybe a few hundred people scattered throughout the entire facility. The game would be the mostly lightly-attended of the trip.
With a fresh Zephyr’s team baseball and sharpie in hand, the boys set up shop at the entrance to the home team dugout and proceeded to get a bunch of autographs. There were no other kids or adults asking for autographs, so it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Peter even asked for a selfie with Juan Diaz, the Zephyrs tall 3rd baseman. Juan was happy to take the picture.
Our game was home team no-hitter through seven innings, but ended up tied 2-2 after nine. In the bottom of the 11th, Brian Bogusevic hit a long drive to the left field wall which bounced off the fielder’s glove and over the fence. Walk off homer! Zephyrs win! Right after the game, Peter sought after a broken bat but was delighted to be handed the lineup card instead.
BBT home team win loss record is 3-2, so we hit .600 for the series.