July 4, 2011

As mentioned by my esteemed colleague below, Part One of the Colleen and Chris reunion (and what the rest of the world refers to as The Fourth of July), began at our dear friend, and fellow reader, Lisa's house. Despite giving birth to her second child only days prior, Lisa graciously invited us over for lunch. Lisa gets 1,000 cool points for doing so. We were also joined by fellow reader Robin.

Inspired by a pseudo-viewing of Talladega Nights, on in between attempts to see the results of the hot dog eating contest on ESPN, Robin gets 1,000 points for coming up with a plan to make us all rich: sponsoring the Evian car. In an unprecented ruling, Robin loses 100 points for giving Colleen the team job of "bossing," but gains 75 points because that was actually pretty funny. Colleen gives herself points for coming up with the tagline for our marketing campaign, "H2Oh..Yeah."

After lunch and a group photo, Colleen and Chris parted ways for a few hours so Colleen and her husband Jon could go swimming at their hotel (and get the tickets for the evening outing - a Winston-Salem ... it pains Colleen to even type it ... Dash ... game).

Alas, when Colleen and Jon got out to the pool, it started clouding over, which turned into a serious rainstorm, resulting in an hour and 40 minute rain delay. (Negative 500 points for the recorded announcement at the statement which came on every half hour with the same exact words (hence, us thinking it was recorded) - telling us there would be an update on the weather situation in 30 minutes. Yes, that's what it said. Every time.)

Colleen and Chris (and Jon) soldiered on though, for this would be their first game at the (non historic) BB&T Ballpark. Fortunately, Jon and Colleen did a scouting mission before the initial meetup, so they were able to get a shot before it started pouring.

Our readers will recall that Colleen and Chris spent many an outing at Historic Ernie Shore Field (now Gene Hooks Field, after some guy who is not Ernie Shore) to see the Winston-Salem Warthogs during their time in Winston-Salem.

(A Wikipedia search shows that Ernie Shore was a right-handed pitcher, who, along with Babe Ruth, was sold by the Baltimore Orioles to the Boston Red Sox. As Forsyth County, NC sheriff, he led a charge to build a minor league park in the 1950s which was eventually named after him.
Gene Hooks is a former Wake Forest University athletic director; Wake Forest's baseball team now plays their games there.)Wally and Wilbur went off to storage in December 2008 when the Hogs became the Dash, who have a fuzzy mascot named Bolt with lightning bolts for ears and a logo that can only be described as an Angry Ball. This is the team's second season at BB&T Ballpark, right off Business 40 and Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem.

It's an impressive site to be sure, even in the rain. The green seats (with cup holders, natch) reminded Colleen of Coors Field, and the purple color scheme reminded her of the Rockies as well (who just so happened to be playing Chris' Atlanta Braves that night - the Braves won). Chris gave his BBQ an A, Colleen gave her hot dog four stars, and Jon gave his Domino's pizza (Colleen had a slice) 10 Reeses Cups.

What was particular curious though (other than the lack of WXII signage) was a lack of signage at ALL. Sure, all the seating areas were named after something and there was the giant HD video billboard which doubled as a showcase for the players' and Bolt's eyeballs, but other than that, there were about three signs in right field and that was it. I imagine someone had to pay for this fancy new stadium.

Just as curious was the fact none of the in-game promotions were sponsored. Sure, the taco sauce race at the Norfolk Tides game may have been a little excessive, but I miss the Sweetheart of the Game sponsored by the local flower shop, the free groceries from Lowes Foods, and the Papa John's Pizza Scream. Did we really need to see the kids compete to see who could make the best animal sound or the toddler crawl (for no prizes no less!)? And let's not forget the Winston-Salem Dash Mini-Dugout Dancers - did anyone else get a creepy Toddlers & Tiaras/Jon Benet Ramsey vibe?

Equally random, but a little more enjoyable, was the DJ, who, after exhausting what Colleen likes to call the "rain soundtrack" and Muppet videos, played everything from Carmina Burana to the Styx to Judas Priest (because of the late start, the game ended after midnight, so they played, "Living After Midnight.") Whereas most places play the home team player's "song" every time they come up to bat - this guy (or girl) played a DIFFERENT song every time the home team players AND the visitors came up to bat.

The evening ended at 12:26 a.m. with a fabulous fireworks show. The Dash lost, but a marriage proposal (not by anyone in our party) was accepted. A good time was had by all.

New stadium: A
Overall experience: B

-- POSTED BY COLLEEN