A Day in The Season- 4/8

I am going to try a new segment from time to time this year called "A Day In The Season," to try to give everyone an idea of a typical day in minor league baseball. A look behind the curtain, if you will. I will try to make most of these a moment -by-moment account of what happens on a gameday. For Opening Day, though, I am just going to give you a quick recap.

I think you have a certain mentality to work in Minor League Baseball. Or maybe you just need to be mental. The bad: the WORST tarp pull ever. No joke, we somehow had half the folks pulling the wrong side, which twisted the tarp into a pretzel. Not fun in any situation, but especially during a wind-blown monsoon. We eventually got it on the field, but not before it almost pulled a few of our front office right off the ground.

The good: the great feeling of Opening Day. It's hard to describe unless you have worked in baseball, but there is just something special about it. It's the culmination of 7 months of planning, preparing, selling, ordering. To see someone walk out of the Team Store with a shirt or hat that I designed, or buy a pack of cards that I spent 2 months putting together, is a great feeling. Seeing the old faces, people I have seen hundreds of times since 2007, is also fun. But the highlight of my night?

Yes, I finally got a foul ball. Now, I have gotten plenty of baseballs here over the last few years, batting practice, parking lot bound, etc. But never one that came directly to me. I was standing in the field of play waiting to pull tarp, when a Salem player hit a shot just 2 feet from me. An intern ducked, I "caught" the ball with my foot, and 36 years of frustration came to a close. I still want my Major League foul, though.

So that's it for today. We've got a doubleheader at 5:30, then the first weekend games. Should be another fun season!