Great essay about a guy in the stands at a minor league game.
That was a great story, thanks for posting. The other night I was at a playoff game of the Bulls (coincidentally, one level up from Montgomery in the Rays' system) here in Durham. The pitcher for Scranton was dominating them - only allowed one hit in 7 IP, FB hitting 97, sitting 94-96, mixing in a lot of sliders and changeups and making everyone look bad.
A Bulls OF named Patrick Leonard strikes out at one point, and I hear this guy a few rows back yell (we're easily close enough to the plate for him to hear) "You're not gonna make it to Tampa Bay" or some shit like that. I turned around and looked; it was some old fat guy, maybe even had a cane. I resisted the urge to go over and confront him, but I wanted to say Are you fucking kidding me? You're a fucking Bulls fan, and you're dissing this kid, on the Bulls, for striking out once against a dominant pitcher? These kids work their asses off, most of them, for shit pay for a long time just trying to make it to the majors. I just think it's a stupid, shitty thing to yell at some guy who's made it all the way to AAA, in that situation.
As the guy in the essay said “Them boys need someone to believe in them."
