I went to a baseball game at Buddy Lowe Field, Pat Thomas Stadium for a Florida Collegiate Summer League (FCSL) game. The Winter park Diamond Dawgs were playing the Leesbug Lightning.
I sat in the back row of the stadium so I could capture the crowd in my sketch. As I blocked in the sketch the stadium filled up.
My Prius was parked just past the home run fence at the end of the first base foul line. I started to fear that it might be in line for getting hit by a foul ball. Any time there was a foul ball the announcer would play the sound of breaking glass.
I had parked my Prius next to a red pick up truck and a woman who might have been the boys mom was sitting in a lawn chair. Her distant first base line view of the game was unique. Admission free. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t go into the stadium.
Between innings there were small playful games between kids on the field. One such game had two young black boys put on large inflatable balls. The goal of the game was for them to run at each other gladiator style and the one who fell down the most would win. One boy was smaller than the other and he rolled around on his back most of the time. Any time he stood back up he was immediately was knocked back down again. I looked around the stands and saw that there were absolutely no black fans. The white fans were hooting and hollering. For me the moment took on a dark undertone. This was a twilight zone moment.
Another one of these between inning moments had the announcer shouting, here come the lightning bugs! Children of all ages and sizes ran around the bases. I am not sure if the two black boys were among the kids running the bases.
At the bottom of the 7th inning I felt my sketch was done. I decided to get a hot dog. You had to have a 9th inning hot dog. I went out to the concession stand and they were cleaning up the grill. A hot dog was not an option. The Leesburg Lighting was clearly going to win the game. People were filing out of the stadium. I decided to walk back to my Prius. final score of the game was 14-6. It was a clear blowout.