During what always seems to be the eternity known as the off-season, what better way to get a quick baseball fix than visiting one of your favorite ballparks? Mix in a few holiday festivities and you're all set!
This past Saturday we made the short jaunt down to Rhode Island to attend the annual Pawtucket Red Sox Christmas Party at McCoy Stadium.
The invitation we received via e-mail indicated that there would be a couple of special guests to greet fans: former Paw Sox (and Red Sox) player Lou Merloni and current Paw Sox Jeff Natale. Sounded good to us!
We had seen Natale a lot with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs and he became one of our favorites. He had been called up to Triple-A last season but suffered a broken arm, naturally limiting his playing time quite a bit.
While rehabbing, one of his stops was the short-season Single-A Lowell Spinners, another of our regular teams. We had the good fortune to attend one of the games that Natale appeared in for the Spinners. It's always fun to see a familiar player mixed in with the youngsters just starting their careers. Jeff himself started his trek through the Red Sox system as a Spinner in 2005.
That particular game was marked by a heavy rainstorm, but in order to keep it from going into extra innings and making it an even longer night, Mr. Natale did everyone a solid by hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. We knew he was good!
So, after having followed his career for a few years now, we were looking forward to meeting Jeff. We weren't disappointed, as he's a really nice guy. We chatted with him a bit, including mentioning how we had seen him in that Spinners game. He got a big kick out of that.
We also enjoyed meeting Lou Merloni, who's been on the scene for a while now. He was well-known to Sox fans for being a local product (from Framingham, Mass.) as well as a good buddy of a certain superstar shortstop back in the day. He was also known for being sent up and down from Boston to Pawtucket many times. "The Merloni Shuttle," as some called it.
Lou's back in the area these days, doing baseball analysis for NESN on TV and WEEI on radio. He does a good job, so we were sure to tell him so!
Both gentleman were even gracious enough to pose for a photo with us!
We also got the chance to see "Santa Paws," the Paw Sox mascot usually known as Paws, but decked out for the holiday season. We always enjoy hanging out with mascots and we go way back with Paws!
Tickets for the 2009 season also went on sale that day, offering the opportunity to get some great seats. Throw in a hot dog and we had a blast!
It's still going to be a long winter, but opening day is less than four months away!
This past Saturday we made the short jaunt down to Rhode Island to attend the annual Pawtucket Red Sox Christmas Party at McCoy Stadium.
The invitation we received via e-mail indicated that there would be a couple of special guests to greet fans: former Paw Sox (and Red Sox) player Lou Merloni and current Paw Sox Jeff Natale. Sounded good to us!
We had seen Natale a lot with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs and he became one of our favorites. He had been called up to Triple-A last season but suffered a broken arm, naturally limiting his playing time quite a bit.
While rehabbing, one of his stops was the short-season Single-A Lowell Spinners, another of our regular teams. We had the good fortune to attend one of the games that Natale appeared in for the Spinners. It's always fun to see a familiar player mixed in with the youngsters just starting their careers. Jeff himself started his trek through the Red Sox system as a Spinner in 2005.
That particular game was marked by a heavy rainstorm, but in order to keep it from going into extra innings and making it an even longer night, Mr. Natale did everyone a solid by hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. We knew he was good!
So, after having followed his career for a few years now, we were looking forward to meeting Jeff. We weren't disappointed, as he's a really nice guy. We chatted with him a bit, including mentioning how we had seen him in that Spinners game. He got a big kick out of that.
We also enjoyed meeting Lou Merloni, who's been on the scene for a while now. He was well-known to Sox fans for being a local product (from Framingham, Mass.) as well as a good buddy of a certain superstar shortstop back in the day. He was also known for being sent up and down from Boston to Pawtucket many times. "The Merloni Shuttle," as some called it.
Lou's back in the area these days, doing baseball analysis for NESN on TV and WEEI on radio. He does a good job, so we were sure to tell him so!
Both gentleman were even gracious enough to pose for a photo with us!
We also got the chance to see "Santa Paws," the Paw Sox mascot usually known as Paws, but decked out for the holiday season. We always enjoy hanging out with mascots and we go way back with Paws!
Tickets for the 2009 season also went on sale that day, offering the opportunity to get some great seats. Throw in a hot dog and we had a blast!
It's still going to be a long winter, but opening day is less than four months away!
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