BASEBALL
We think of baseball as being a quintessential American sport, although it it played very well in the Caribbean and in Japan. The rest of the world plays cricket which is a little like baseball with a ball and a bat but even slower, an all day affair.
Asheville has an AAA team, the Asheville Tourists, which points to Asheville‘s biggest attraction, tourism. AAA is a professional team with the players hoping to rise to the AA league and then the A level league and finally hoping to ascend to the major league level. Few players do. But Asheville has had a number of future major leaguers over the years.
But baseball is only a side show at McCormick Field. The stadium is a beautiful stadium with a green view up the mountain. The game I attended with my son‘s family a couple of days ago was in the cool of the evening after a hot day. The stadium was three quarters full with many entire families including a great number of kids, even babies, who had no interest in the game.
Primarily this was a family outing with many booths selling hot dogs, hamburgers, beer, popcorn, peanuts, nachos loaded with cheese and French fries. Mostly people walked around and looked at other people walking by.
When Asheville would hit a home run out to the park, which they did several times, the few people who were watching would stand up and cheer and wave their arms and do a little dance. In the breaks between innings there was entertainment for the children. There was race between nine year olds bouncing on rubber ducks and another race between two little electric cars, one of which a little girl could only drive in circles while the little boy rode straight to victory.
Wandering through the stadium was Mr. Moon, with a giant moon head. Children hugged him and got their photographs taken with him. Everyone cheered and munched on popcorn and had a great time and when they had had enough with the game only half over packed up and carrying pillows and half eaten food went home.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 