Part of the charm of a day game — especially the first half of a doubleheader — is that the stadium is so quite and empty that you can hear every heckle. You sit where you want, tear open a bag of peanuts, and enjoy the organ music while thinking of verbal barbs to hurl at the nearest opposing player.
The first half of yesterday’s old-school Tribe doubleheader began that way, but quickly ended. As is the case with Cavs playoff basketball, the plaza between the Prog and the Q was home to a fanfest of sorts – lots of games for kids, the Cavs cheerleaders, and loud music. Around the 4th or 5th inning, anyone sitting in the bleachers or the left field seats to watch baseball enjoyed not the crack of the bat nor the quiet of a park filled with roughly 37 people, but rather the pounding bass and loud music you would expect standing just outside the door of a club on West 6th on a Saturday night. It just didn’t mesh, and had I not been watching a day baseball game in the middle of a workday, it really would have pissed me off. …
This article appears in May 7-13, 2008.