DESPITE MOTHER NATURE

That did not ruin the wonderful festives of the 2007 Eastern League All Star game that was hosted at Dodd Stadium this year. Lou Dibella, Charlie Dowd and the rest of the Connecticut Defenders crew worked extremely hard to create a fun filled day of events for all of the fans attending this years game. To start off the day, beginning at 2:30 was the Bank of America fan fest. This fan fest included thing for all ages. There was a dunk tank, which included on field personality Johnny Gill spending some time in there, there were the well known inflatable games available for nonstop use by all children, and one of the things that was enjoyed by many fans was direct connection to the baseball hall of fame while listening to an amazing Jackie Robinson re-enactor. During the fan fest for Eastern league officials and season ticket holders was an amazing happy hour where we were served with unlimited appetizers and drinks, it was very professionally done. And I must say, the food was great. Also on the concourse was filled with some great stands including a stand making Eastern League All Star shirts for $15.00 printed right there on the spot, and also a man selling key chains that had amazing 3-d looking holograms in them. A friend of mine got the memorable Eastern League All Star Bottle opener hologram, which the bottle opener had a hologram of a bat, ball and glove. And I got a leather key chain with a cat in it. He also displayed a full sized hologram of a football players head. I must say it was pretty creepy.

By ten of 5:00 everyone was ready for the autograph session. As a full season ticket holder I was able to go down immediately in the VIP line. (Now I am sure all readers are calling the Defenders for 2008 Full Season Tickets!) It was great except for the fact that it began to rain, so all of the guys pens were dying. There were a few angry fans for the fact that the autograph ended "on time" and were unable to get autographs. But of course they don't listen that during the game, when the players were pulled out of the game, they were going to be around in the picnic area for autographs.

By 6:00 it was time for the home run derby...kind of. In the first base side concession stand, they had a lot of heat and steam start because of a spill, which ended up starting off the sprinklers, and the fire/evacuation alarm. Poor Johnny Gill continued to try and keep the home run derby going because there was no fire, and every time he went to speak, the alarm would come back on, which shut off his microphone. A good twenty minutes later and we had a foggy home run derby. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats own Sergio Santos won the home run derby with 6 home runs in the finals.

7:30 rolls around and the game begins, but not for long. During the second inning because of the fog I nearly got hit (AGAIN) with a foul ball but ended up catching it. By the end of the first half of the third inning the game was called due to fog. The outfielders agreed it was a great call, because it was very dangerous, they couldn't see the fly ball out there. Routine fly balls were turning into triples. But fans were still dedicated enough to the team despite the cancellation of the game. There were reports that hundreds of fans remained in the concourse for over an hour after the game was called. Now THATS dedication. I probably would have stayed but I was too darn tired.

IN OTHER NEWS: Connecticut's own Tyler Von Schell made Eastern League Player of the Week, batting .400. He has done great during his first full week back.

CHECK IT OUT: I am running a new thing for the CT Defenders as well. On myspace I run the Connecticut Defenders Fan Club Myspace Profile. Please add me and leave some comments! Here is the think: myspace.com/connecticutdefendersfans

I'M BACK: As you can see I am back blogging again, I will attempt to post daily, or bi-daily. And if I miss a bunch of days during the week, I'll do a week post and do a week wrap up, but I plan to at least do bi-daily.