Dan Antion

News Sports and Weather

Well, sports and weather, I don’t think anyone comes here expecting to read the news. Sports, however, we have plenty.

Saturday night, our daughter Faith and I attended a minor league baseball game between the Hartford Yardgoats and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. I’m sorry to inform my buddy, Judy that Hartford won that game, 8-5. Of course, I’m not sorry they won, especially since the Yardgoats were playing as their alter ego, Los Chivos de Hartford, and it was the annual Roberto Clemente Celebration game.

Like many fans, Faith and I were wearing shirts honoring Clemente, the greatest right fielder the Pittsburgh Pirates ever had. He died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, at the age of 38 while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Dunkin’ Donuts Park, where the Yardgoats and Chivos de Hartford play, retired number 21 the year the stadium opened, as a gesture to the large Puerto Rican community in Hartford and in Connecticut.

I think the effort the Hartford Yardgoats organization makes to fit into their community is one of the best things any MLB ballclub does. As the scoreboard messages encouraged us to chant throughout the game – Vamos Chivos!

During the last three innings of the game, behind us on Trumbull Street, a seemingly endless parade of mobile cranes and bucket trucks were rolling into the city. They were staging for what many feared would be a catastrophic storm. Hurricane Henri was on his way to Hartford.

We had prepared as best we could for the storm. Items in the yard had been moved into the shed. Trash cans had been anchored. We decided to pass on the opportunity to purchase large quantities of bread, milk and peanut butter, but electronics and battery backup devices were charged.

By 11:00 am Sunday, it looked as if we might be in trouble. Our house was just over 2 mi (3 km) from the center of the storm track. Fortunately, Henri was losing strength and shrinking in size. Of course, slowing down means the storm, and its rain, will be hovering over us longer. Our area remains under a flood watch.

On the predictably crazy side of the storm, we’ve had more than our share of weatherfolk standing at the shore in the wind and rain. The local Fox affiliate preempted the entire Giants vs. Browns NFL preseason football game to bring us an endless loop of the same ten minutes worth of news. The electric utility is giving themselves 18-21 days to restore electricity to customers who lose it. Perhaps the best was when I searched for the storm track and Google presented me with a result where I could buy a book on Spiritual Direction.

  • Where we are relative to the storm track. I’m glad Henri didn’t live up to the hype.
  • By 2:30, Henri was heading to being a Tropical Depression.
  • A text from Faith on Sunday
  • Google would rather sell books than tell me where the hurricane is

I’m writing this before Henri is supposed to blow by us. I’m scheduling this for early Monday morning. I hope I don’t have to wake up early to make revisions.

Most of today’s gallery are photos taken from the ballgame Saturday night. I hope you enjoy them.

Maybe the River Cats weren’t comfortable playing as “Gatos Feroces de New Hampshire”
The baby chivos (goat) race is a regular feature around the 3rd inning.
Another way they get the community involved
Representing Roberto
Come on goats!
Roberto Clemente – I saw him play many times while growing up in Pittsburgh.
The grounds crew stops and performs YMCA
This was going to add two runs to Los Chivos’ lead.
I think this is what Maureen was talking about – https://oddments70.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/august-22-21-coping/
Junior Announcer – Among the cool things the Yardgoats do.
It was 8-1 until the 7th inning when NH led off with three base hit and a home run.
♫buy me a hot dog and tater tots…
Out if state line workers arrive ahead of the storm.
Ominous sky
Final score – Chivos 8 Gatos Feroces – 5
“What’s all the hubbub?”
“Dry my head!” — Maddie hates having a wet head.

58 comments

  1. Hi Dan – looking forward to your next post … hopefully all well, with no disasters for you – though the NE looks a little battered to put it mildly. Glad you were able to get to the Game and had a fun time … while poor Maddie looks a little disconsolate … expect she’s better now. Lovely pic of you and Faith – cheers Hilary

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  3. You had me at Yardgoats vs Fisher Cats. It appears to be the best baseball game ever. Your new lyrics to an old song got me — good thing I’d already swallowed my coffee. Thank you for the mention with that gorgeous sky; it does indeed look like that weird and beautiful light. The other sky is just plain scary. I won’t comment on the crazies; you said it well. I hope you and your family are safe and dry, but “dry” might be too much to hope for. You were already soaked there.

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    • We are wet, but all doing well. A couple of plants were bent over by the wind, but no significant damage. Maddie and I walked today, just little branches were down. All in all, last Thursday’s storm was much worse.

      The ballgame was great fun. It’s always once when the home team wins.

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  5. Congrats on your win! I love those names – Yardgoats and Fisher Cats. They have to make you smile. Looks like you had a good companion for a great evening of baseball and some yummy ballgame food. It doesn’t get much better than that. However, Maddie didn’t look too happy with the wet look. :-) Glad we got spared the worst of it.

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    • Maddie does not like to have her head wet. I think =, if we got her a hat, she’d stay out all day. The game was fun. Beer, ballpark food, a team that loves to makes its fans happy, it really doesn’t get any better.

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  7. I saw the weather guy in Hartford….that’s always a bad sign. I’m so glad Henri turned out not to be a hurricane but that was still a lot of wind and storm surge. Glad you are safe. “What’s all the hubbub?”–MuMu, you are so funny. Back to sleep, little girl.

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    • Cats are perfectly equipped to ride out a storm. We were very happy to see Henri grow smaller and weaker as he approached. The weatherfolk seem very disappointed. I can’t believe they preempted the entire game. Hundreds of thousands of people, more than half of them Giants fans, with nothing else to do, and they kept repeating the same stuff. They even showed a segment of “what we thought was going to happen as of 10:00 last night.”

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  8. Great pix, as always.

    I’d never been to a minor league game until I moved to Grand Rapids, and I got tickets to a West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers, Single A ) game from my employer.

    I had even more fun the next time when I paid for my own tickets and realized that I could see two starting pitchers throwing 95 mph for about 1/5 of what it would cost me at a Cubs, or Tigers, game.

    Drawback to taking kid there, was the fireworks. No kid is ever going to leave any venue until the fireworks are complete. On the western edge of the time zone, it’s pretty dang late when darkness arrives.

    Thus, after the game we had to sit through a lot of filler entertainment before the boom-boom started. Dad was pretty tired and cranky when it came time to negotiate parking lot traffic on the way home.

    Regarding RC: last week, I managed to annoy my wife, when, as always, I called out to a stranger in a Pirates’ cap, “I have picture of Clemente above my desk.:

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    • Minor league games are always fun. We did see some hot pitchers, and one who was having a bad day. Between Hartford and NH, I think we saw five home runs. We spent more on beer than tickets, and parking was a flat $5.

      We opted to take a pass on the fireworks. We had started early. There were other events in Hartford, and fearing traffic jams, the Yardgoats sent out an email saying they were going to open the park at 4:00 (for a 6:05 start) to let people get in before the traffic built. Five hours was enough, and after suffering two bouts of sudden hearing loss, I am no longer a fan of fireworks.

      Give RC a smile from me. Tell him we won the game being played in his honor. I joked to Faith when one of our guys scored. The batter had hit a line drive deep into right field. The RF caught it, and the runner started off from second. The RF threw to a cutoff man, and our guy scored. I told her, “Clemente would have thrown that to Home.”

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  9. Glad you and Faith had such a good time at the game. And your team winning was a bonus! What a great picture of the two of you. That black sky looks so ominous….glad Henri decided to peeter out. Who invited him anyway?!!

    Love the YMCA routine. That must’ve been fun.

    Lol at Maddie’s wet head. Murphy expects the towel on her head the minute she walks in the door! She wears a coat so the bulk of her stays dry, but after her head she makes sure I don’t neglect her bum/legs/feet and splash up on her belly!! MiMi couldn’t care less about the weather. No rain or wind in her cradle. Life is good.

    So happy you were spared the worst Henri had to offer. Just stopped raining here and there’s a tiny peek of sunshine! Be still my heart!
    Ginger

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    • The YMCA routine is so much fun to watch. Those guys really get into it. We try to go to this game every year. It’s fun to walk around Hartford and see a bunch of people wearing Pirates shirts.

      Maddie almost doesn’t care about the rest of her, but her head, OMG, you can;t dry that fast enough.

      I woke up during the night and saw the full moon shining in a clear sky. Buh-bye Henri. I’m glad he lost steam getting here.

      Take care, Ginger. I hope you have a nice week.

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  10. Hey Dan! I’m so happy to know the hurricane fizzled before it reached you. As for the rest, all I can say is, “Welcome to the seasonal bane of existence in the South.” You guys look great in your tees. 🙂

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  11. I completely missed the news over the weekend and this morning, when finally watching the news, I immediately thought of you and the rest of New England. I’m glad you and the Editor are safe and that Henri wasn’t all that he could be. My prayers this morning are with Waverly, TN, where they had 17″ of devastating rain in a short amount of time. The weather has been unreal and I wonder when it will settle down, or if it will ever settle down.

    What a fun night for you and Faith. Hot dogs/brats always taste better at the stadium with a team win. Have a great week, Dan!

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    • Thanks Mary. We had to dig for news about the poor people in TN. Meanwhile, our local news kept trying to make a story out of a hurricane that had lost interest in us. I only saw that much rain once in my life. While on vacation in Virginia when Hurricane Camille roared through. They registered 16″ at my aunt’s farm.

      Going to the ballpark is good, win or lose, but it’s always better when the home team wins. 8 to 5 was a good game. Lots of action, a late game threat to hold our interest, and some nice locally brewed craft beers. We were drinking a toasted lager from the Thomas Hooker brewery. Tater-tots and nachos – not the healthiest evening, but lots of fun.

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  14. Love going to the ball game but there are none around here. Wanted to see the Steelers play on Saturday but The Cowboys game was carried locally. Oh well. Glad the Yardgoats won. Glad also that you are all safe.

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  16. We’re always at risk of losing our power because of wildfires which means not buying anything perishable. Just stocking up on canned goods and dry spaghetti. Glad you seem to have ridden out the storm!

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    • We rarely lose power around here, but the utility company was hyping this storm as bad as the weatherfolk as it approached. They were telling us “69% of our customers are likely to lose power” and “outages could last up to 18-21 days!” Nothing like sending people out to buy batteries, bottle water and generators.

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  18. Dan, I’m glad you and yours are okay and that you didn’t have to revise the post. LOL, dear Maddie with her wet head. At least she wants to get dry and you don’t have to chase and hold her down. Glad you kept your sense of humor. Hugs on the wing!

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  19. Spiritual Direction… that was funny! Tomorrow we’ll put things back where they’re supposed to be and brace for the 90’s once again. Glad you got to enjoy a baseball game!

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  20. Glad you survived relatively unscathed, Dan. That’s an enormous Dunkin’ Donuts (doughnuts, folks!!) cup!! Not at all sure why that book deal came up but I think the same thing about reporters in storm situations.

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  21. YAY…fun time and a dwindling hurricane. My two CT kids checked in with messages that they (and their families) were fine, so I knew you and yours must be as well. Thank you for sharing the fun photos. It’s been quite a while since we’ve enjoyed a game or any group activity. I’m looking forward to group shouts and laughter. 😃

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  24. I saw about the storm through Bing. When I saw it, I thought about you, Chris (my boyfriend who lives in NJ), and another friend of mine who lives up north. I’m glad you are ok. Our state had some flooding from Fred.

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  25. The Yardgoats? Wow, what a name. Anyway, glad the storm wasn’t bad for you. It’s been 10 years since Irene blew up the east coast and left us without power for a week. Not fun. But seeing some baseball? That’s fun. Here’s a toast to Clemente …

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    • Apparently, a “yard goat” was what they called the little locomotive that moved cars around in a rail yard. The stadium is not very far from the old railroad yards. I’m glad the storm ran out of steam before getting here.

      Thanks for toasting Clemente!

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