May 5, 2018
On a Saturday and on Cinco de Mayo my
dad and I headed to Greeley for my first University of Northern Colorado and
Division I college baseball game. The UNC Bears were playing the University of
Texas Rio Grande Valley. The day was in the 70s and was hot in the sun, but a
bit chilly when it was cloudy and a little breezy. We arrived a little bit
early for a 2 o’clock game to a basically empty parking lot and we parked. They
have free admission so we went through the gate
and we found a table that had a
pile of roster/stat sheets which were under a rock. Then we found a place for me to park with room
next to me for dad and his lawn chair. The
only problem was there was a bar on the fence that was in the wrong spot but I
could line it up with the catcher’s knees.
If I couldn’t see the ball or if it was under the bar it had to be a
ball. We were also near the UNC dugout and it was interesting watching the
coaches, all four of them send signs in and signal various things. A lot of the
time it was to the catcher on just about every pitch then the catcher would
read his wristband and give signs to the pitcher. I figured out I’m not very
good at stealing signs apparently but enjoyed watching all that. The game started out not so good for the Bears
as they went down three to nothing quick but scored two in the bottom of the
first. Then an odd thing happened when a UNC player broke his metal bat down by
the handle. The umpires grabbed the bat and then got together to discuss it. Then one of them took the bat off the field
and the UNC coach pointed somewhere near the dugout and put the bat there to
keep it for later. Eventually UNC tied it up and in the fifth inning took a 6
to 3 lead. In the seventh-inning the
catcher from Texas was called for catcher interference and probably broke his
hand while doing it as he got hit by the bat and had to leave the game. In the eighth the University of Texas had the
bases-loaded when the UNC coach went to the mound and talked to the pitcher and
then the pitcher struck out the next batter and kept the lead. In the ninth-inning
UNC was still ahead 6 to 4. The first batter struck out making it five
strikeouts so all the fans (all 120 of them) got a coupon for five free wings. Then we had dinner plans. After two more outs the UNC Bears won the game
6 to 4! Then we headed to our favorite wing place Wing Shack for our free
wings.
This was a great day as we had fun
at the game and then went and got chicken wings. You can’t do much better than
that for a great day.
