Introduction

It was another Saturday afternoon in Dunedin, the sun was shining and the sky was clear, a perfect day for baseball. The high pitched squeak of my grandmother's Oldsmobile echoed through the air as we pulled into a parking spot at Jack Russell Stadium. My grandma and I got out of the car all decked out in our Clearwater Phillie's gear. We both always wore a red Phillie's shirt, but I liked to wear a hat too unlike my grandma who enjoyed having her dark brown perm uncovered. Once we had everything out of the car that we needed, we began our long journey across the parking lot. Once we reached the front gates at least three of the employees working the ticket both greeted her by her name. "Hello Jean", said one of the ladies working behind the counter. "Two Please", responded my grandma. As the woman handed us our tickets she let out a small smirk probably just because she had seen us there so many times before. We were what you would have liked to call the "usual's", since we were there at least once a week. After we got into the park the smell of fresh hot dogs and popcorn filled the air. Seeing as they were a local team, seats were not too hard to come by. So we decided to sit right down the first base line, which happened to be our favorite spot. Not long after we had just been given the chance to sit down, we had to stand and remove our caps (or at least I did) for the National Anthem. Then the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by some local celebrity. Finally it was time for my favorite part. The umpire stood up from behind home plate and shouted "Play Ball!" The game was finally underway.