7-9-11 Sky Sox Night

We got to the stadium over an hour before the game and it was already packed in the parking lot. As we walked up to the entrance we figured out why. It was Used Car Night. There were 12 vehicles parked in a row, each one donated/written off by a local car place for the publicity and each to be given away via drawings in the middle of each inning. 

It had come a storm for several hours earlier in the afternoon, plenty of black clouds and lightening,  and we still weren't sure whether it would move off enough to play, but we took our chances, wiped off our seats and found some dogs to munch on while people filed in.

Nick decided completely soggy french fries under chili and cheese was equivalent to mashed potato consistency and scarfed it down without any problem.

Meanwhile, the sky was still dark and the tarp stayed put. Delay of game for half an hour to see  . . .

We got one last blast of rain before the clouds finally moved off.

And then the tarp moved off and we had ourselves the start of a ballgame.

You can purchase the evening and catch the game from the right field hot tub, if you so desire, but be advised, at the National Anthem, you will be rather odd looking. One of the guys reminded me of the dude with the ice cream in Lilo and Stitch that she keeps taking pictures of because he's so large, white, and fascinating.

A local little league team was invited on the field during the National Anthem to stand with their position players and get autographs.

After the first inning, Sox 5, Salt Lake City Bees 1.

It was at this point that Sox the Fox made his appearance on visitor's dugout in front of us.

Dippin' Dots for dessert (with Sox in the background)

Now, in terms of used auto donations, there were some interesting choices. The first one that Nick wanted quite badly was this Mercury, circa 1987:

Churro!

The moon also made an appearance over the field once most of the clouds blew away.

We were at 11 runs at the end of the second inning.

After the Bees' starting pitcher let us get up to 11 runs, he was relieved by a serious side-armer.

And then, in the fifth inning, the holy grail of used cars. See the reaction?

Yes, indeed, a white 1986 Chrysler New Yorker made its way on the field, with only 15,000 miles in 25 years. But it was not to be.

Sox led us in a wave before we got to the seventh inning stretch, but after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", especially with Dad who likes his baseball games to last about two innings and Nick who was crashing from his round of pain meds, we headed for home at 11:00.

Turns out we didn't miss much -- no more runs after the 7th, final score of 11-6.

And the lightening show on the way home was pretty spectacular, too. It does lose some of the effect when you aren't watching the whole mountain range lighting up in front of you, but between the rain and driving, I thought it best to wait until we were back to the house to catch it on video :)