The Stretch

Katey in the summer of 1977

Note: The Atlanta Braves' AAA farm team, the Richmond Braves, played their first game at Parker Field on April 23, 1966. The R-Braves played their last game at The Diamond, which had replaced Parker Field on the same site for the 1985 season, on September 1, 2008. 

The piece that follows, set at a Braves home game at Parker Field, was first published by Style Weekly just after the conclusion of Major League Baseball's 1999 regular season.. 

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With the turning of the leaves, the Fan District of Richmond, Va., will again be transformed into a living impressionistic cityscape. As they always do, the season’s wistful breezes will facilitate reflection.

All of which leads to the fact that yet another baseball season has come and gone. After 6,783 games, the last game ever has been played at Detroit’s fabled Tiger Stadium. The Giants and the Astros will be playing in new parks next season, as well. 

 

The World Series, first played in 1903, will soon be upon us. Although baseball’s longstanding claim to be the National Pastime may no longer hold up, the colorful lore generated by the magic of events at baseball parks probably outweighs that of all the other sports, put together ... at least in this country.

In the mid-1950s I began going to the Richmond V's (short for Virginians) games at Parker Field with my grandfather. Saw my first game when I was about seven. Naturally, I eagerly drank in all I could of the atmosphere, especially the stories told about legendary players and discussions on various strategies of game situations. 

As I got older I began going to games with my friends. Like me, they played baseball. Hoping to catch a foul ball, we usually took our baseball gloves with us to the game. Sometimes, we would go early so we could watch the V’s warm up. As often as possible we talked with the players. If one of them remembered your name it was a source of pride. When we cheered the heroics we witnessed and rose for the seventh inning stretch and stayed until the last out, regardless of the score, it was tantamount to exercising religious rites.

A few seasons before they tore Parker Field down (it was dismantled in 1984 and in its place stands The Diamond), I experienced a thrill at the old ballpark that stands out in a special way. It took place when my daughter, Katey, was seven years old (that's my best guess).

The home team by then — as it is now — was the Braves. Katey, her mother, Valerie, and I were sitting in box seats as guests of neighbors who had gotten comps from a radio station (WGOE-AM). It was probably Katey’s first trip to Parker Field. The spectacle itself was interesting to her ... for a while. 

 

As it was a night game, the bright lights dazzled Katey. The roar of the crowd was exhilarating. Being old enough to go along on such an outing, instead of staying at home with a baby sitter, was a boost to her morale. Nonetheless, by the middle of the game Katey (pictured above at about her age in this story) was getting tired of sitting still and bored with baseball.

During the sixth inning it fell to me to entertain, or at least restrain her, so the others could enjoy the game. I tried telling her more about the object of baseball, which she knew little or nothing about, hoping that would help her understand the game and pay some attention to it.

That didn’t work for very long. She was soon climbing across seats, again. This time she knocked a man’s beer into his lap. With the visiting team at bat, in the top of the seventh, I got an idea and asked Katey if she wanted to see some magic. 

 

Of course she did.

Then I got her to promise to be good if I showed her a magic trick. She promptly agreed to the terms. Making sure she alone could hear me, I pulled her in close and whispered my instructions.

The gist of it was that she and I, using our combined powers of concentration, were going to make everyone in the ballpark stand up at the same time. Katey was thrilled at the mere prospect of such a feat. I told her to face the ongoing game, close her eyes, and begin thinking about making the crowd stand up.

After the visiting team made their third out, I cupped my hand to her ear and reminded her to think, “stand up, stand up…”

As baseball fans know, when the home team comes to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning everyone stands up, ostensibly to stretch their legs. It’s a longtime tradition called “the seventh inning stretch.” There’s a mention of the practice in a report about a Cincinnati Red Stockings (baseball’s first professional team) game that took place in 1869.

Tradition aside — when Katey turned around, opened her big blue eyes and saw thousands of people standing up — it was pure magic in her book.

No one in the group gave me away when Katey explained what we had just done. Of course she wanted to do it again, but I talked her out of it. Maybe next time. Nonetheless, as I remember it, she stayed true to her word and was well-behaved for the rest of the game.

 

About two years later, having learned from schoolmates how the trick worked, Katey suddenly confronted me. Fortunately, she thought it was funny. We still laugh about it.

Some sports fans today complain that baseball games are too slow and meandering; they prefer their spectator sports more action-packed. Sure, baseball has its lulls, as do most well-told stories. Nonetheless, there are textures and layers of information present at baseball parks that are just too subtle, too ephemeral for the lens of a TV camera to capture.

To appreciate them you have to be there. You also have to bother to notice. Sometimes there’s even a hint of magic in the air.

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Note: Here's a short list of some of the standout players who wore the uniform of the Richmond Braves (1966-2008): Tommy Aaron, Sandy Alomar, Steve Avery, Dusty Baker, Jim Beauchamp, Steve Bedrosian, Wilson Betemit, Jeff Blauser, Curt Blefary, Jim Breazeale, Tony Brizzolara, Brett Butler, Paul Byrd, Francisco Cabrera, Vinny Castilla, Bobby Cox, Mark DeRosa, Joey Devine, Jermaine Dye, Johnny Estrada, Darrell Evans, Ron Gant, Jesse Garcia, Ralph Garr, Marcus Giles, Tom Glavine, Tony Graffanino, Tommy Green, Johnny Grubb (who I played against in Little League), Albert Hall, Wes Helms, Mike Hessman, Glenn Hubbard, Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, David Justice, Ryan Klesko, Brad Komminsk, Javy Lopez, Adam LaRoche, Mark Lemke, Rick Mahler, Andy Marte, Kent Merker, Dale Murphy, Joe Niekro, Phil Niekro, Larry Owen, Gerald Perry, Chico Ruiz, Paul Runge, Harry Saferight, Jason Schmidt, Randall Simon, John Smoltz, Mark Wohlers, Brad Woodall, Tracy Woodson, Ned Yost and Paul Zuvella.  

-- Words and photo by F.T. Rea

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