Beloit, IL 6/19 to 6/20 2014 - SNAPPERS Ahhh. Gotta love the Midwest. Another rain out, another old park, another group of great fans. Thanks to Seth Flolid, Director of Operations, for greeting us and giving us a warm welcome. It is always crazy for the staff on a rain day – mostly because every single one of them is on tarp duty! It takes a whole lot of arms and feet to pull those tarps on and off the field, and this day was no exception for Seth. This is an old park, but that just means that access to players is great and all the seats are as close to the field as you can get and still have a net for protection. There are lots of picnic areas to be had here and a beautiful deck that looks just like someone’s backyard with its planter seating and greenery. A large tree shades the area and a nice little beer shack sits right behind it. All of these areas have clear views of the action on the field. The Kid Zone here is small with a pitch speed booth, a bounce-the-ball-into-a-hole thingy (oh, just look at the pics!) and a hardscape playground. Activities on the field, however, are every half inning. Player access for autographs is right at the door of the locker room just behind the grand stands. The kids find plenty to keep themselves busy as they chase foul balls all over the place! On field games included a Mascot Race, Rollin in the Dough, Bean Bag Toss, Keg Race, Chicken Catch and a Hog Call. They also do a 50/50 raffle and in-stand giveaways. One game even had a fan shooting a three man sling shot for a chance to win a sofa. Mascot, Snappy, was at the gate both nights to greet fans as they arrived. He could also be seen in every on field game and hanging with the kids in the stands. Also greeting you at the gate was an army of volunteer ticket takers. The workings of this park are a little different than your big fancy parks, allowing the heart of the fans to shine through. We did meet some great fans here. Because IL has so many teams close together, many of these fans split their time between 3 or 4 ballparks. John got to talk to the President of the team and some of the fans and expects to have some great stuff for the book out of that. On a personal note, we had a flat tire on the RV as we were coming into Beloit. Roadside assistance came out of Madison, WI quickly and the guy was great. We were a bit late getting into our RV park and then headed to the game only to be rained out….. the weather these past few weeks has been the Midwest at its worst. There is so much flooding out here with continued forecasts for more and more rain. I’m not complaining, mind you. The green fields and amazing skies are the things that I love about this part of the country. We are leaving the RV set, traveling in a different direction from the park to the park ;) to visit another one of those IL parks I was talking about. Love this stuff!
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 20:18:52 +0000
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