Family Memory (XXX): The Baseball Game, 7/24/93

July 24–that’s the day I got married, way back at the dawn of time (1993).

There were a couple of big things I remember from that day–one being that the air-conditioning in the church wasn’t working by the time the ceremony came around. That was warm.

Of course, I was already dehydrated because of the morning. Guys need about 30 minutes to be completely ready for a wedding–no matter if they are guest, groomsman, or groom. That leaves you with a lot of time. Rather than sit around, we got a whole bunch of people–mostly my friends, but I recall a couple of Julie’s friends tagged along (Dave Carmody for one)–and we went to a nearby grade school. This was partially because the school had a ball diamond.

It was also because the school was in left field and really close–probably 250 feet away. It was like having our very own Green Monster (except it was yellow-brown)…and they had to know the building would get hit by balls–because I don’t recall ANY windows on that side of the building (probably the school’s gym). We had 14-16 people and away we went…

I remember Brian Olsen cranking more than one over the school. I THINK Eric Canfield hit it once. (We were playing with a softball). Me? Nah–no chance. I bat left-handed and that was completely open–since the diamond also doubled for soccer/football/whatever. Rightfield there was like right-center at Yankee Stadium…a place fly balls go to die.

That was a hot day. I don’t even remember how many innings we played–but we were out there at least three hours. We probably would’ve stayed longer except for two things:

1 – A reminder from my friend Eric that I’d been out there and I could be completely red/sunburned and that Julie’s mom would kill me for that. (Fair point)

2 – Phil C. –his comment was “We don’t want to get anyone upset. Also, I’m not seeing well–everything’s kinda starting to go black.”

Yeah…heatstroke–that’s no bueno. It was time to leave.