"Gimme That Brooooom!"--The New Spirit Cult Member, Part Three

Note: See Joe's Full Game Recap, Below My Post
Front Row, Section Nine, Slightly-Louder Hell-Hole ("Historic") Yale Field, West Haven, CT-- Wow. Let me just say it one more time: WOW. What an absolutely unbelievably fantastic experience.

So how should I start off the recap of my third and final day but from the beginning? Joe and I made a point of it to bring brooms to the game tonight in hopes of a first-ever Spirit sweep in the house of the Cutters. I brought an actual full-sized broom, and had Joe put a mini-broom-thing in his pocket for a backup.

So we get to the park and a park attendant outside says to us 'they won't let you bring that broom in', referring to mine, because they couldn't see Joe's.

'That's okay, I might as well try anyway'

'You might as well bring it back now, theres no way'

'Well, I'll try'.

And we ended up getting it in. Granted, we hid it a bit, but we got it in. We got to our seats and took a few pictures, and about 5 minutes before game time, the same attendant comes in and was looking for us and says 'Ok, I'll take the broom now'.

wtf?

'I told you that you can't bring it in'...'No, no one told me that'...'I did'...'No you didnt, you said you didnt think we'd get in with it'...'well, they shouldnt have let you in'. And he took it. I could get it after the game, he said.

"It's ok, I understand" I said. "...you bastihd" I added as he walked off.

So we were left with the mini-broom, or, as the drunk Cuttahs fans referred to it, 'the paintbrush'. But, it served its purpose.

It's unbelieveable to me what 'Dollar Beer Night' or, as the Cuttahs promote it, 'Thursty Thursdays', can do to a small* (*See: nonexistant) crowd. The Cuttah fans were actually out in force tonight. Whoda Thunk It?

Joe, Dave, and I were quite rowdy tonight, but why not be? We paraded Dave's massive Spirit flag around the stadium yelling 'SWEEP!!! SWEEP!!!' late in the game as we had the lead, much to the ire of the aforementioned drunk fans. But hey, forget 'em.

Joe was right, however, nearly all of the personnel, with the exception of the one moron who looked for us in the park, were extremely respectful of us, and we tried to return the favor by being, yes, vocal, but keeping it from crossing the line with profanity and such. Good for us, I think.

We did find out later that the personnel were actually told to keep an eye out because 'there were vocal Spirit fans, and lots of drunk Cutters fans'. We think they had someone on us most of the time just to keep a sharp eye, but we don't really know that.

On a more game-related note, Joe (as I remember it), neglected to mention the, by far, most important and influential play of the day. In the fifth inning, with a run already in and the Spirit clinging to a 2-1 lead, the Cuttahs loaded the bases with two outs. Derrick "Balco" Gibson was at the plate, which was, clearly, not an enviable position for us to be in. He LACED an extremely hard shot to Ryan Bethel at third base that Bethal made, really, a fantastic play on, especially with the sub-par* (See: Just ridiculously poor quality) infield grass. It took a low hop on the last (and, I believe, only) bounce that could have easily ate Ryan up, but he put his whole body down on that ball to keep it in front of him and stepped on the bag at third base to end the inning. It was a huge play that easily could have not only given the Cuttahs a 3-2 lead, but would have changed the tone of the game dramatically and could have potentially opened the flood gates in the inning. Bethel also had a textbook sac bunt, a line drive double to right field, and had a run scored, ending the day 1-4, including no strikeouts and a base reached on an error. So, contrary to what Joe says, I think that Bethel, mostly for the fantastic play at third, but also for the double to leadoff the 6th which led to 2 Spirit insurance runs, was the definitive Star of the Game.

Also, 'New Guy' Ricardo Cordova looks like an all-around solid player. He almost seemed like he tried to put every facet of his game on display today. He can DEFINATELY play defense, he hit very well, going 2-4 with a HBP, and stealing a base. You heard it here first: He will be an impact player for the spirit. At the outset, it looks like a great move on the Spirit's part.

As for the title of this blog, it actually has a small story behind it. As we left the park, I had picked up my broom and we were talking about a Spirit sweep, and a Cuttah fan comes up to us and says 'Gimme that brooom..." and grabs it from Joe, who holds on saying, 'no way, whattre you doing?' 'Gimme that broooom..." Dave tells him 'It's his broom, lay off!" and the guy says "Oh, it's yours? Oh okay okay"...etc. Dave adds a 'Thanks for being an ass hole, thank you!' or something of the like, and we walk off, as the wife/mother/friend/something of the guy says, "Don't come back, thank you!"

Like we'd want to...take a quick peek at Joe's pictures when he puts them up. I'm sure you'd understand.

So to sum, I'm a definite member of the cult we call the Spirit now. The players were very nice, would talk to you, etc. And my personal favorite player, Jon DeVries, cracks me up. He's a good dude. And yes, he ran 'em out today. Sure, he had two strikeouts, but he ran out a single and ran out a groundout to short. Gotta love the guy.

I'll be back to as many games as I possibly can. It probably won't be until the playoffs, but I'll be to as many as I can get to. And next year, if Joe's mom lets me, I'll stay at his place for a while and go to a bunch. Who knows?

But I'm addicted. I really am.

The experience was more intoxicating than those dollar beers (I don't drink, I'm just saying. lol)

I shall return!!!

-Grant Salzano