Lake Erie Crushers!

There is a new team in town and they are the Lake Erie Crushers, located in Avon Ohio!

The Crushers are an expansion team in the Frontier League, an independent professional baseball league; they are not affiliated with Major League Baseball. They are playing in Avon Ohio in a brand new stadium named All Pro Freight Stadium.

Last night was opening day for the Crushers in their new stadium. Ron and I had tickets and we wanted to get there early to scope things out. This stadium is just awesome! It's a good sized stadium with straight away center at 400 feet and both poles at 325 feet. But all seats just seem so close to the action that it really has a small feel to it. The last seat in left field was about two feet away from the foul line. I'm telling you, you can't get any closer to the action without being a player.

By the time we got tickets for this inaugural game the only tickets left were general admission tickets. At $6 a ticket it was still a bargain. General admission tickets however were either standing or sitting on a hill in the grass. Since we weren't prepared for the wet grass, we chose to stand. That was ok with me, especially since we were allowed to stand right at the rail!

We chose our spot out in left field. We were standing right at the wall! Looking straight down, I was about seven feet up from the warning track. I'm telling you, it was a great place to watch the game and we met some great people standing at the wall with us. Best of all, I got to talk some smack to the left fielder of the Windy City ThunderBolts. Trust me, #5 was not the best left fielder I've ever seen and judging from the smack being thrown around by us left fielders, I wasn't the only one that thought that! Poor guy took a beating from us!

Let's go back. I said we got there early. We were able to walk all around the park as it goes in a circle. The general admission grass hill is at straight away center but you can stand against the wall all across the outfield. There are no seats down the right field line but there is a walkway to go straight over to the seats on the first base side. We visited the gift shop, found the food vendors and the bathrooms, and where all the exits are. We were all over every inch of the park! Best of all, we got a partial guided tour from one of the ushers, Matt. Being early does have its advantages.

There was a lot of hoopla before the game. Part of the hoopla was honoring the local Air Force Reservists. There were about 10 or so new recruits that had just taken their oath to join as well as a handful that are getting called to active duty. It was a nice little ceremony honoring both groups. Just before the national anthem, from over the hill in center field came two C130s (that's what Ron said they were!) with the USAF emblem on the wings! It was so awesome I can't even put it into words! They flew so low that I could almost see the looks on the pilot's faces! As they flew away from the stadium, the first plane dipped his wing to the right and the second plane dipped is wing to the left. What a sight!

As the National Anthem was sung, when they got to the "rocket's red glare" a few fire works were shot up. True rocket's red glare! It gave me goosebumps!

The game was extremely entertaining. The mascot, Stomper got the crowd going after the end of each half inning. My hands hurt from clapping all night long. Especially since the Crushers won, 5-2! Way to go, guys!

After the game were fireworks. Ron and I decided to stay to enjoy them. Since a lot of people had left before the fireworks, we were able to move over and sit down. We chose to sit up in the picnic area at a table. I don't think I'd want to watch a game from up there since you couldn't see all of the field, but it was great to watch the fireworks! I'm not usually a fan of fireworks but let me tell you, these were so worth waiting for! It was a breath taking display.

So, we had to stand during the game. Yes, my feet are sore, my legs are sore and my back hurts. But you know what? It was worth every ache and pain! We will definitely go back!

See you at the ball park!