The "Most Unlucky, Luckiest Guy in the World" Story

It was an ordinary day. We were leaving the ballgame between Williamsport and State College. The State College Spikes are a minor league "A" team that plays in the New York-Penn League. The Spikes name is for the young white-tailed deer. They were originally associated with the St. Louis Cardinals when the baseball stadium in State College first opened, but eventually became associated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I love baseball and when I heard they were building a new stadium in Stage College, I told our friends Jerry and Sue, who moved to State College in 1999, that when they opened, I wanted to go to a game. The stadium is called Medlar Field at Lubrano Park and is a 5,406 seat stadium that is shared by the Spikes and the Penn State Nittany Lions college baseball team. The field is beautiful with real turf and features an unobstructed view of Mount Nittany in the outfield. An alumni and former baseball player at Penn State, Anthony Lubrano, donated $2.5 million to the University to upgrade the baseball facilities and in 2005 they broke ground on the ballpark. There was quite a bit of controversy about the ballpark, since it was built next to the football stadium and took up quite a bit of stadium parking. The tailgaters weren't happy with losing all the parking. It is called Medlar Field in honor of "Chuck" Medlar who was an athletic trainer at Penn State for 35 years and was the head baseball coach for 18 years. Today's game is a give-away. All women entering get a baseball cap in pink with the Spikes Logo on it. Pretty neat hat, if you're a girl. I bought a program as we entered and as I looked through it saw that tonight they are giving away a trip for two to the Bahamas. Travel agency in town donated the prize. Wow, would I love to win it! Then as the game was about to start, the announcer gave the starting line-up for the Spikes as they took the field. As each player ran onto the field, he threw a ball into the crowd. I grabbed the ball the firstbaseman threw and after all players were on the field, the announcer said that all guests who had caught a ball should report to the field office to see if they won the trip. Wow again!! I hurried from my seat, telling Carol to start packing. When I got to the office I saw several others there already. They were picking from a hat. By the time I got to pick, no one had won. I drew a piece of paper, opened it slowly as all watched and found I had won ....... a hat. Yep, just a hat! I went to claim the hat and it wasn't even a Spikes hat. It was from a heating and cooling company in State College. Gave it to the first kid I passed on my way back to my seat. Never did find out who won the trip, but it wasn't me. Did enjoy my hot dog, drink, soft pretzel and ice cream cone. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.