The "Storming Through The Night" Story

Busy night at the turnstile.

It was an ordinary day.  Enjoying a baseball game at Clipper Magazine Stadium on Prince St. in the city of Lancaster, PA.  Great place to watch a ballgame with my son Tad, daughter-in-law Barb and grandson Caden.  Tad works for LPN Printing Company which has a third base box in the upper-deck of the stadium.  

My son Tad sitting with a few of his friends in the LNP box.

Seating inside if you care, but tonight everyone was sitting in the 18 seats located outside the enclosed box.  Free drinks, snacks and cookies are provided by the owner for the duration of the game with a myriad of food stands a few minutes away.  Parking was included in the tickets my son got so we were able to park about 50 yards from the entrance to the stadium.  

Getting the field ready for play.

Clipper Stadium was built in 2005 and is home to the Barn- stormers who are currently in first place in the Freedom Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs after in the second half of the season after a disastrous first half where they ended up in last place.  Their 8-2 second-half start has been season saver at the ticket box with a season high crowd of 6,845 fans tonight.  

Close play in front of our box show Barnstormer's
player sliding in safe at third base.

The Barn- stormer's opponent tonight is the Somerset Patriots who call Bridgewater Township, New Jersey home and are currently in 2nd place in the Liberty Division.  I read the paper daily and follow the Barnstormers in that manner, but know very few of the players who are either former major leaguers, released high level minor leaguers or local talent that may have had a stay in professional baseball in the past.  

Goat races between innings keep the fans interested.

Barnstormers got off to a rocky start when they went behind 2-0 after two batters.  Tied the game in the bottom of the first, but then found themselves on the short end of a 7-2 game going into the 7th where they scored 2 and then scored two more in the 8th, but lost when they failed to score any more in the 9th.  

Shot from behind home plate.

Games are always fun with something going on during the changing of sides in each inning.  Tonight there were goat races, hot dog and t-shirt give-aways, and a variety of other forgettable nonsense.  After my grandson ate his chicken tenders and fries, we took a photo walk around the stadium.  

This was a cake featured in the gift shop.  It came from a
local bakery and looked very lifelike.

Had a great time for the next two innings as we looked at the game from a variety of other locations until we ended up in dead center behind the center fielder from the Patriots.  We were standing against the wall when I yelled to the center fielder after a Barmstormers out and managed to get his attention.  He turned, I waved and gave him a thumbs-up and he returned the wave before he turned around to watch the action in front of him.  Great time with family and friends while watching my favorite game and passion.  Even had the chance to explain the little nuisances of the game to my daughter-in-law.  Priceless!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.