Scoreless through seven innings, I was ready to put my money on midnight striking before Pensacola and Mobile found a way to end their tightly played battle highlighted by pitching and great defense.
I opted to stroll around the ballpark for a bit and take in the atmosphere. I certainly had the time with the way the game was going.
The most prominent observation, of course, was the fans’ interaction with the players.
Every time a ball went soaring into foul territory, a young fan ran toward the area in the hopes a player would throw the ball his or her way.
At one point, sitting amid the empty seats near the visiting bullpen – weeknight games tend to draw a little less of a crowd, especially this time of the year – I watched a cool scene play out.
A girl walked down to where the Mobile relief pitchers were sitting and asked if they had a ball she could have. One pitcher told her that when he gets a foul ball again, she can have it.
Maybe 10 minutes later, a foul ball bounced into the area where the relievers were sitting, and that same girl came back down to the wall near the bullpen. A pitcher flipped her the ball and the smile on her face said it all.
That ball, I imagine, meant more to her than the final score of the game. She probably didn’t leave that night excited to tell her friends the Blue Wahoos won – for the record, they did – but rather her excitement likely centered on telling her friends she came home with a free souvenir from a potential future Major League star.
Those moments occur often inside Blue Wahoos Stadium from April until September. As do the special moments after the game.
The media had just wrapped up interviewing Taylor Grzelakowski, who provided the game-winning hit in a 1-0 win, ensuring midnight would not strike first.
Grzelakowski had already signed plenty of autographs before the game but there was one more young fan who wanted his ball signed by the hero of the night.
He could have walked away, of course, and not signed the ball, especially with a seven-hour bus ride to Tennessee ahead for him and his teammates.
But he honored the fan’s request, and that was cool of him. It didn’t matter to the child that Grzelakowski went undrafted out of an NAIA school in Michigan or that he was playing independent baseball two years ago.
All that mattered was this Blue Wahoos player made his night.
The fact that Pensacola won a game April 24, 2019, won’t be remembered, but I’m willing to bet the child will still have that autographed ball in his possession 40 years from now.
And that’s special. Because in the end, as much as minor league baseball is about the game, it’s more about the experience the fans get out of it and the moments they remember long after the final score has faded from their memory.
