sittin' in willie's seat for bananas

Mister Willie had called earlier in the day.
He'd had to leave early during Thursday's game
and would not be going tonight.
I resolved to "take notes" -
i.e., more photos! -
to document the game for him.
May as well start with the musicians!

Those high schoolers have now become
the Official Bananas Band!
Good for them - love me some tuba!
Here we have the readying for the game's start,
with the National Anthem as the Savannah Bananas
and the visiting Lexington Blowfish stand
at attention with boy scout troupes.

Play ball!
I snapped this as the first pitch
was being hurled down from the mound.
I love the sense of an-ti-ci-----pa-tion
at game's start!
(smile!)

This is a fun promotion!
They call it "The World's Slowest Race".
No one is upright for it, so look close to the ground...
See that green and yellow creature on all fours?
That's the tortoise, racing a baby, as the child tries to reach his mom (or dad) in time.
The "time" here refers to the 120-seconds between the halves of an inning.
That leaves about 60 seconds of actual "race".
(ps The baby always wins!)

Here's one of my favorites!
Dancing Bananas!!!
These young men really know
how to shake a tail feather,
if you know what I mean!
(smile)
I wish I could dance with them,
instead of up here in the stands!
Maybe one of these days...
a girl can dream, right?
(smile!)

Speaking of dreaming girls...
the young woman went on the field
to play "Golden Banana",
in which she was blindfolded and
had to find the banana on the ground...
at the foot of her kneeling boyfriend...
who proposed right there on the spot!
What a jubilant embrace they had
as her dreams came true!
Hooray!

Here's one of my other favorites -
the boys in yellow
saluting and giving thanks
to those boys - and girls! -
who have served the USA in its military.
John and Natalie, on the bench
beside me, were flanked by me
and their Air Force son-in-law.
Hooray!

And what do we have here? What's going on??
The bases are full of Bananas, that's what!
This has been quite an exciting inning, let me tell you!
The game had been pretty tight, with the Blowfish breaking the 3-3 tie in the 6th inning.
But then they made a critical error: they changed pitchers.
After the Bananas scored four runs on that one, the beleaguered Blowfish swapped him out for another fresh arm on the mound.
That was to no avail, as the boys in yellow scored another three runs on him!
I tell you, the bases were full of Bananas over and over and over in the bottom of the eighth!
Seven runs total in that one inning!
Go, Bananas!

And one of my favorite players finally managed
to cross home plate.
After a solid hitting record all night...
after stealing bases multiple times during his time at play, even getting two of them during one inning...
after being stranded on third for two innings...
he made it home.
And what did he do?

After crossing the plate, he bent over
to pick up the bat used
by the man who brought him in...
and then handed the
instrument of baseball
to the Bananas' batboy.
Christian Hollie, # 3,
is one class act.
What a blessing to watch him play!

As for the grand finale...
no game would be complete without
watching the boys
stream onto the field, victorious!
Good game, y'all!
I've bought my ticket for Wednesday,
so I'll see you then!
Hopefully, not in Willie's seat...
because he will be in it!
(smile)