If you’re like me and are jonesing to get out to Perdue Stadium and watch our hometown team play, I’m sorry but we’re still 20 days away from the opener on April 3rd. (Coincidentally, that date will also mark the return of my Shorebird of the Week.)
But you will get a chance to come out to the stadium and get a little more excited about our chances for the 2008 season on Saturday morning. That’s when the Shorebirds are hosting their 5th annual Family Fun Fest beginning at 9 a.m. Not only can you purchase your individual game tickets for the 2008 season, the kids will get a chance to hunt for Easter eggs while the parents can check out all of the summer camps and activities geared toward entertaining the little crumb-crunchers while they’re out of school. (Is anyone else like me and in favor of year-round school?)
They’ll also have an American Idol of sorts – well, it may sound like the first rounds of that program but the real idea is to solicit volunteers to come out prior to the games and sing the Star-Spangled Banner. Those tryouts will be held in between the Easter Egg hunts. We had some pretty good singers last season so hopefully they’ll come back and new talent will be found. (I’m still waiting for the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix to show up and jam that out though. Maybe Saturday.)
And if that’s not enough, you’ll find me someplace working the event. Many of us in the Shorebirds Fan Club help out with the rides and games, and being that this will be the first time I go behind the scenes to help out, we’ll see what kind of experience it is for me. As I recall, one thing we’ll do is the Cake Walk – rest assured I did not bake a cake so you can be fairly confident the cakes will be really good.
So no sleeping in Saturday for this guy. I would tend to believe we’ll have something in place to sign up new Fan Club members while we’re at it. A particular need is for those willing to be host families for the players, since most of them didn’t come into the Orioles organization with six- or seven-figure bonus checks and would really appreciate a place to live during the season.
Hopefully the rain that’s predicted for Saturday afternoon will hold off until after the close of festivities at 1 p.m. and all that will be left is to enjoy the predicted mild weather for that morning. I look forward to seeing a lot of folks there as we get ready for another summer of watching baseball!
