It was Summer of 2019. Having survived the major move in the spring, it was time to venture out and see what North Carolina had to offer. My new friend Sandy knew my love of sports, especially baseball. She had read all my blog posts starting with the baseball ones. Her husband had played minor league ball. “Carlotta, have you been to a Mudcats game?” I explained to Sandy that we had been to some Durham Bulls games when the Paw Sox were in town. However, the drive to the ball park was during afternoon work traffic leaving Raleigh and my nerves were shot by the time we got there. Parking was also challenging. After talking to Sandy, I pulled up the Mudcats schedule. As luck would have it, the Red Sox’s Advanced-A league would be playing the Mudcats in August!
It was a nice country drive over to Zebulon with the worst of the traffic leaving our town. Suddenly I spotted a huge baseball tower on the horizon. The parking attendant acknowledged Rick’s handicapped placard and directed us to parking closer to the stadium. Families were milling near the gate; kids with their gloves hoping to take home a souvenir fly ball. Our tickets were affordable and our seats were fantastic – front row next to the visiting dugout at the end where the players came out of the dugout to the on-deck circle. We could see the players waiting and lineup swings as the pitcher threw to the player batting. I smiled at the bat boy intent on his important job and wondered if years from now he would instead be in the on deck circle.
Game 1 los Pescados de Carolina (Carolina Mudcats) (it was Hispanic theme night) rallied to defeat the Salem Red Sox 6-4. The Salem Manager and a pitcher were ejected after the pitcher hit a Mudcats player. Game 2 ‘s pre-game, I had noticed fans gathered at the right field corner gate greeting players coming from the clubhouse into right field for warmups. I joined them and spotted one of the players I had talked to Game 1. I yelled to him that I had called his 7th inning home-run the night before. “Really? Why didn’t you do it sooner?” We both laughed.
Our tickets were behind home plate. Lots of action with a Mudcats player getting drilled again by a wild pitch — the game stopped while he was tended to. Then while going after a foul ball, the Sox catcher was down a few minutes after his shin guards jammed into the wall right in front of us! It was great seeing the pitches coming in and hearing the home plate umpire call balls and strikes, but I missed the seats by the dugout. Salem shut out the Mudcats 3 -0 putting series even at 1 each.
Game 3 was an afternoon game and when I first got the tickets, I got second level seats. When I realized our seats would be in the direct sun, I ventured back to the main level. It was still a few minutes before game time and I saw lines at the ticket booth outside. One of the workers must have spotted my dejected look. “May I help you?” When I explained how I wanted to upgrade the tickets, he told me that I didn’t need to go back outside and directed me to an area behind home plate. The exchange was quickly accomplished and we were in our seats before the first pitch. We were next to the dugout like the first night and even stayed in the shade until the 9th inning. There was excitement in the 7th when the manager and catcher for the Mudcats were thrown out of the game! The Salem Red Sox won 4 – 1.
It was a fun three days. On the way home, I made a mental note for my bucket list — already a washtub as Rick claims– to check into working there the following year – 2020. Well, as we know, that didn’t happen. With the COVID shutdown, the Minor Leagues were put on hiatus while the Majors played a limited season with only a taxi squad close to the team’s city so players could get there quickly and safely if they needed to replace players.
Thankfully, things are getting back to almost normal — the minor leagues are back and I did not forget my bucket list entry. When I was contacted about an interview, there was momentary panic as I remembered the jeans, T-shirts and athletic shoes filling my closet. I settled on flowered Capri pants, short-sleeved black top with lightweight cardigan and yellow-gold flats. All went very well and it looks like I’ll be one part of the Mudcats organization! Most of all, I am looking forward to a fun summer helping fans feel part of the experience and of course, checking off that bucket list item!
'lotta sports 