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Friday night was the home opener. It was a pretty big deal for the local TV stations, with at least three trucks with big masts beaming live broadcasts back to the studio. There was lots of entertainment in the parking lot pregame, including this band that was walking about. They served as the backdrop for Dave Dahl’s first appearance on the KSTP news for the evening, and he and his cameraman stuck around near us.
The Band 1600x1200(410k) 640x480(41k)
Our group served as Dave’s backdrop for his other appearances on-air. Apparently we're more photogenic than I thought, but it probably didn’t hurt that we had a foosball table to go with all the yummy bits we were grilling up.
Dave Dahl, doing the weather 1200x1600(338k) 480x640(33k)
The Saints won the Home Opener, but it left me with a bit of an uneasy feeling. While they came into the 8th with a 9-0 lead, they gave up a run in the top of the 8th, and then another four runs in the top of the ninth. It’s nice to see them being an offensive powerhouse, but I’d also like to see them hold a lead, rather than letting the other team have a bit of hope again late in the game.
Dave Dahl, wrapping up 1200x1600(338k) 480x640(32k)
In other changes, the
The new scoreboard 640x480(59k) Potential Breeders
bit has now changed toFirst Base Singles
, and it’s much improved. But there are still some who complain about thedark tone
of the entertainment. It’ll be interesting to see how the bits evolve, and hopefully enough edge will be retained to keep me happy, while still not upsetting the folks who are there for morefamily fare
. I think it’s going to be a tricky tightrope for Eric to walk. There’s also the new scoreboard, which is nice in that you can see it from the parking lot, and which offers replays and other graphics during the game. It feels like whoever’s running it is still figuring out what all it can do, so maybe there are even more cool features awaiting.
After the game, we broke out the log and played some hammerschlager. Jody stopped out for one game, but needed to run off to get some food, so we didn’t make much of an evening of it.
The season’s first hammerschlagen game 1600x1200(358k) 640x480(27k)
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The Saints won again on Saturday night after giving up three runs in the first, their offense got busy, and the defense buckled down. Eddie Pearson figured in the game again, going three for four, and scoring three runs. The fireworks show after the game was good as always, and I’m starting to think we might have a pretty good team here, though the defense still worries me a bit.
fireworks 1600x1200(179k) 640x480(14k) -
There were multiple false-finales in the fireworks display, but when they were nearly done I captured this movie (3.6MB). Sadly, my timing was a bit off, so I couldn’t quite capture everything to the end in one go. Here’s the very end of the Fireworks Finale (2.2MB). The still photos were tricky, since there’s nearly a one-second lag between pressing the shutter and having the camera take the picture, but I got a couple pictures that please me, which is probably pretty good, since this was the first time I tried taking pictures of fireworks with a digital camera.
more fireworks 1600x1200(216k) 640x480(18k) -
The Sunday game of the opening weekend wasn’t a win, but it was an okay showing from the boys. The pitching was pretty good, but the KC pitching was better, holding the Saints to two runs on eight hits. It was a beautiful day, and I wasn’t the only one in the stands getting sun-baked.
a swing and a miss 1600x1200(431k) 640x480(41k)
The St. Paul Sieve 1600x1200(437k) 640x480(44k)
One of the other changes in the on-field entertainment is a new St. Paul Sieve. The new guy’s got a somewhat unorthodox style of defending the net, but I like it, and he’s making an effort to talk to the fans.
The St. Paul Sieve 1600x1200(440k) 640x480(43k)
Post-game we hung in the parking lot (almost three hours after the end of the game) and spent some time talking with Jody (#14) (pdf), Jon (#41), and Chris (#10), all relief pitchers from Florida, who were all a little tired form the autograph session on the field. Being bat-day, there were a lot of kids in attendance and they spent about an hour signing bats after the game. Jon was the one who gave up the four runs on Friday night (getting a save), and Chris shut down the T-Bones last night. 2-1 on the weekend is a pretty good home stand, and now the boys hit the road for a ten-game road-trip to Sioux City, Winnipeg, and Fargo before returning home on June 6th.
The St. Paul Sieve 1600x1200(408k) 640x480(39k) 
kids lining up for autographs 1600x1200(382k) 640x480(34k)
