Dreaming of a day at the ballpark

Some years back, my son in Old Town took his parents to a minor league ball game played at the University of Maine stadium. The local team, the Bangor Blue Ox, comprised players either on the way up or down from the majors, but these men made up in enthusiasm for what they lacked in expertise. Watching them on the field was fun and an inexpensive way to celebrate our national pastime.

We still have the T-shirts we bought at that game, and several times they have provoked conversations with strangers who remember the Blue Ox as fondly as do we. At a cafe in Nova Scotia, a man approached my husband and asked him how long ago he had bought his shirt. They both laughed when my husband sheepishly admitted how old it was. There followed a lively discussion about the good old times the Ox provided for the fans of central and eastern Maine. The gentleman was a professor at one of the campuses of the UM system.

Bangor’s minor league team is a distant memory, but recently my husband and I were able to retrieve some of the nostalgia when we were invited to attend a game at Campbell’s Field in Camden, N.J., as guests of the Rutgers University Alumni Association in its executive suite. The Riversharks are the resident team, and they too play minor league baseball. As tempting as it was to escape the heat in the suite, we opted to watch from the seats outside the air-conditioned box because the field affords a spectacular view of the Delaware and the Philadelphia skyline across the river. Thanks to as cooperative effort on the part of Campbell’s Soup Co., Rutgers University, Cooper University Hospital and a number of corporate sponsors, the facility is a first-class venue.

What impressed us most, as it did in Orono, was not so much the professionalism of the players as the energy they expended playing the game they loved. That day was Camp Day, when a special starting time of 11:05 accommodated groups of young day campers from all over the Delaware Valley. Each group wore colorful T-shirts in unique hues, and the children could be spotted by their attire from anywhere in the stadium. They participated wholeheartedly in all the activities designed to involve and entertain them. I was reminded of the children in Maine who also rose from the stands to catch hot dogs catapulted into the crowd. They competed in races and games between innings, and there were winners but no losers among them.

Corporate sponsors make it possible for the Riversharks to operate and to be able to provide a wholesome day of fun for children of all ages and economic circumstances. It has long been our hope that some day another angel will emerge to provide the capital and the facility for minor league baseball to return to other towns where many children will otherwise not have the opportunity to be part of the atmosphere where dreams of future glory are available at a price anyone can afford to pay. Babe, is there any chance of an encore? There are those who would welcome you back, and those who would welcome you for the first time. We’ll be up that way soon, and we’d love to see you again. Maybe in my dreams!

Ann Dow is a resident of West Deptford, N.J.