A Closing Day

We love our Gateway Grizzlies - a little independent league team outside St. Louis. We saw our first game in 2001, we found them in the Baseball Directory and couldn't wait to see the new park. We followed the directions in the directory to get to our first game and wound up in the parking lot of a strip mall in Sauget IL, not the best neighborhood. After driving around a little, confident that there were no tell-tale stanchions anywhere in the vicinity, we called the box office number in our beloved Directory. Apparently, they didn't get around to building that park. Off we went to a small field in a public park where they sold beer from an igloo cooler and all the seats were bleachers. We saw our first "Cross town Clash" the new Gateway Grizzlies vs. the only slightly less new River City Rascals. It was a blast.

By the next season the park was built, it was shiny but not nearly as charming. Luckily, we've given them a couple of chances to win us back and they certainly have.

On one of our last visits we were there for the last game of the season, the Grizzlies hadn't made the playoffs, so it was a little bit of an end-of-season party, lots of shenanigans at the game followed by fireworks. Still very high on our list of promotions was the fact that you could buy a roll of toilet paper for something silly like a dollar and right after the final pitch of the game, we all toilet papered the park. There was a brief melee when we all tossed toilet paper at the field, the stands, each other and the dugouts, and then once the fireworks started each light explosion sillouetted Grizzlies on the field pitching rolls of toilet paper through the field or batting long trailing fouls.

Much pity for the person who was stuck with the mess, but it sure was a great way to celebrate the end of the season.