farewell fireworks for mason miller

What a beautiful evening for a baseball game!
Earlier had boasted dark clouds and thunder, but
that cleared in plenty of time.
I was there with Mister Willie and Steve and we
were excited to watch the Savannah Bananas take
on the Macon Bacon!
However, the home team had placed Jack Conlon on
the mound to pitch...
seriously?

Had they forgotten how he was responsible for last week's losing game against the Blowfish?
To my surprise, he only allowed the visitors one run in that first inning.
They scored no runs in the second inning, after the cancer survivors' walk around the bases.
Looking good, right?
Then, in the third, Calvin Estrada hit a homerun with
a man on... and Conlon came unraveled.

He gave up five more hits and three more runs before
he was taken off the mound.
The home team tried to rally in the bottom of that fateful third inning, even getting the bases loaded
with Bananas.
That was for naught.
Our boys of summer didn't score until the 7th.

A bad break caused Ethan Baucom to get sidelined, with a new guy coming in his stead at first base.
That fresh player was what the Bananas needed to keep from having a shut-out in front of the home town crowd.
Many had already left, though, as the slow game had dragged out the clock to almost 10 PM.
So, they missed seeing Langston Provitt's double in his first at-bat, and they missed him racing across home plate on Austin Schultz's double.

In the eighth inning, the boys were still trying to gain traction and score, but to no avail.
Then, Mason Miller came up and hit a long ball... that was caught by a Bacon outfielder.
Mason had made it to second base, but he circled off, still running, waving his cap to the fans, all the way to the waiting arms of his teammates.
That was his final at-bat with the team, as he was leaving for school.

But it was not his last, but his penultimate!
When Austin Schultz hit his next double, this time
in the ninth, Austin Thompson and Langston Provitt came on home, bringing the score to three runs.
It looked like a rally was in progress!
The six pitchers the Bananas had burned through
after Conlon to contain the damage had not been
in vain after all!

Mike Williams didn't make it onto base.
Logan Foster didn't fare any better.
It looked as if Austin Schultz might still be stranded
on the yellow second-base bag at game's end.
Then, along came...
Mason Miller!
This truly would be his last at-bat for the Bananas.

Seconds later, his bat made contact!
It was a righteous single and he was safe on first!
Austin was safe at home for that fourth run!
And the boys still had one out left in the game!

Within the next two minutes of that ninth inning,
Mason managed to first steal second base, then
to steal third base.
Wow!!!
Each steal had prompted the "Mama Shark, Daddy
Shark" verses of the popular children's song,
clapped along with gleefully by the remaining
folks in the stands.

And here Mason is, running toward home!
Wow!!!
But, alas, Bill LeRoy's hit ended in an out, so
Mason's final run was not a scoring one.
Nonetheless, what a thrilling finish for his last
game of the summer!

As for we few who had stayed for the entire game -
all three hours and thirty-seven minutes of it -
the fireworks were our reward.
True, the Bacon had topped our Bananas (little joke
to soften the score) by twice as many runs, but the fireworks show still went on for the home folks...
and for Mason Miller, too.
Good luck to you, young man!