The second half of 2023 began on a typical Saturday with Jenny for lunch, there was little else on the schedule until Tuesday when the nation celebrated its birthday. At the ballpark on North Prince Street the Barnstormers returned home for the start of a six-day homestand, the Long Island Ducks were the opponent. The Ducks are the most frequent visitor on the Stormers' home schedule, they play fifteen games in Lancaster spread out over five series. The game started at 6:00, one half-hour earlier than usual because a huge postgame holiday fireworks spectacular was scheduled and since it was a weeknight they didn't want to risk disturbing the neighborhood in the very late evening hours. Just about all of the in-game pyrotechnics belonged to Long Island, the Ducks led 3-0 after a half-inning and went never seriously challenged. The Stormers scored single runs in the first on an Ariel Sandoval RBI single and in the third on a Melvin Mercedes home run, the Ducks replied with a run in the fourth to go up 4-2. From there the visitors tallied ten runs unanswered, the Stormers got a run in the ninth on Trace Loehr's RBI hit but it was nowhere near enough as the Ducks won it going away 14-3. Brandyn Sittinger worked into the fifth inning on a ninety-degree night and took the loss, Bret Clarke and Mike Adams pitched in relief. The game ended around 8:50 or so, as the crowd of better than 6400 hung around for the fireworks I headed for my car to crank up the AC and go home. I worked in the industry for thirty-five years, over that time I hyped up more fireworks shows than I care to remember with each one being the "Most Outstanding, Tremendous, Super-Sensational Spectacular" in the history of most outstanding, tremendous, super-sensational spectaculars. I always took advantage of the opportunity to beat the traffic because fireworks shows are like hockey pucks: if you've seen one you've seen them all. I've always said that there is only one way to watch fireworks and that is In The Rearview Mirror. Take care, thanks for reading.
