The Pastime

It was such a beautiful night on Tuesday that I just had to catch a game. Thankfully, this is Arizona in spring, so there’s a ballgame going on almost all the time.

I headed down to Arizona State’s campus in Tempe to see Kansas State take on the Sun Devils at home. Packard Stadium is a nice old ballpark, with the charm of an American Legion field. In a stroke of luck, a kind lady gave two tickets to my brother and I as we approached the stadium.

The game was a typical college contest, with too many sacrifice attempts, baserunning mistakes, and misplayed balls in play. Oddly enough, those are some of the things I love about the college game, though. Some of the players are talented, some are hard-working, and all love to play the game.

My brother Erik and I spent a good inning or two trying to figure out the third-base coache’s signs. I think we got the steal, hit and run, take, swing away, and bunt signs down. I’ve got to give most of the credit to Erik; he played baseball through high school, while I stopped in 8th grade and now write about it from the outside looking in.

Next time you find yourself watching a game in which you don’t have a particular rooting interest, I’d recommend watching the signs and trying to decode them. It can be more fun than it sounds, really.

One of the things I liked about Packard was the hedgerow behind the outfield fence. Combined with the palm trees, it lends a lush feel to the desert park.

On the outfield walls, Arizona State has listed notable alumni that continued on in baseball. The big names are Reggie Jackson, Barry Bonds, Sal Bando, Rick Monday and Paul LoDuca. I’m really not sure why they list Barry Bonds, as he’s virtually ignored his alma mater since the day he left campus.

The best part of the game occurred at about 8:15. Kansas State’s pitcher was warming up before the bottom of the 4th inning when the sprinkler system kicked on. It ran for 30 seconds or so before someone managed to shut it down.

There’s an old saying about always seeing something new at the park when you go, but I’m not sure this is what was intended.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 1:33 am and is filed under NCAA Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.