Beyond here be the lair of dragons...

My man Heater...

LWW

 

and his significant other Gem...

LWW

 

arrived Thursday night for opening day, doing a surfboard routine...

LWW

 

and of course Heater had to give his pre game analysis for those at home watching on TV...the only A ball level franchise with a TV contract...and to the 9,016 in paid attendance at a ballpark which seats 7,255...since it's 1st opening day in 2000 they have now had well over 400 consecutive sellouts.

LWW

 

And then the obligatory first pitch from the President of 5/3 bank which funded the building of the field.

Here in Dayton we were the largest city in America without a pro baseball team at some level, and the city stalled on building a stadium for decades convinced it would never work.

Locally 5/3 bank went from a tiny presence with a couple of local branchs to the dominant bank in town. They built in and people came.

LWW

 

And then the real thing.


LWW

 

The new video fire walls in the outfield are pretty cool also.

LWW

 

The Dragon Vision...




and some outside signage...



and one firework shot.

LWW

 

Being that we are next door to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base we get the honor guard in quite often, and they can put on a powerful and touching presentation in silence...



followed by the winner of a local contest who did a beautiful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.

LWW

 

Heater and Gem fire up the crowd before the 1st pitch.

LWW

 

The between innings limbo contest was funny also.

LWW

 

And the pitch on the way in...



and on the way back out.

LWW