This blog began as a way to record my musings about preparations and travels to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada February 16-27, 2010. From that amazing experience came this ongoing story of becoming a sports fan. You can follow my tales of awe, agony, and all the emotions in between as well as view pics from seasons of Phillies baseball. Along the way is a little Eagles football thrown in for fun, and even some astronomy and weather related tales. I feel lucky to have witnessed some historic games, some heartbreaking losses, but all wonderful when told from this new fan's point of view.

Blog Archives postings:
Dec 2009-Feb 2010
Olympics
March 2010-Dec 2011
Baseball and more
2011 The Phillies do again, winning the Eastern Championship for the 5th straight year.
April 2012-Sept 27 2012 Not the best season for the Phillies
2013-We wait and see!

Monday, June 18, 2012

The Silver Spring Thunderbolts

This is the time for aspiring college players to form summer leagues throughout the country. The local Silver Spring team the Silver Spring Thunderbolts plays blocks from my brother's house at Montgomery Blair High school,  the alma mater of me,my brothers, and my niece. (though my niece is the only one who graduated from this version of the school). So, it is a nice homecoming, and a pleasant way to spend a summer evening.
After a full afternoon watching the Yankees complete a sweep of the Washington Nationals and going through notebooks full of my mother's estate papers for 4 hours, we finished up a delicious meal outside and took the short ride to the ball field.


Marc, Barbara and I arrived rather late, and found out that after the 5th inning there is no charge. There were plenty of seats, real seats not bleachers,with all of them behind home plate, the best way to watch a game. In the 6th inning, the Thunderbolts were losing 5-3, and never recovered from the deficit. One of the players tried to score but got caught in the hopping game of tag with the opposing  catcher who tagged him out.

An unusual  incident occurred when we all thought that the opposing pitcher had 'balked' by raising his leg and then stopping the pitch. It seems that calling a balk is quite a complicated skill. When asked after the game by my brother who caught up to the umpires as they left the ball park, one of the umps told  him that the pitcher had  taken a step BACK off of the rubber first, so it did not count as a balk.  Who knew how complex pitching could be?  Check out this 6 minute video Balk Rules

As with any game, there were fun games and diversions.  An interesting trivia question, a ball toss, and OMG,  the players tossed hot dogs into the stands. Barbara caught one, but the wrapping came apart and the hot dog fell on the ground. We couldn't stop laughing for how silly and unexpected it was.
The final score 6-3