Danville is a baseball town. It always has been.
Mount Hermon, interestingly, is a baseball church. Without question, there are more baseball fans per capita in Mount Hermon Baptist Church than in any other church I’ve ever been associated with…which is kind of nice, since I’m a big baseball fan myself.
Why do I like baseball? Baseball is a metaphor for life. You win some, you lose some. You have ups and downs. You go through hot streaks and slumps. But the season is long, and there's always the hope for redemption. So, through it all, you hang in there and keep swinging for the fences because—as that great prophet Yogi Berra once said—“it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” And every spring, when a new season begins (around Easter time, interestingly), hope springs eternal, regardless of the failures of the past.
Mount Hermon, interestingly, is a baseball church. Without question, there are more baseball fans per capita in Mount Hermon Baptist Church than in any other church I’ve ever been associated with…which is kind of nice, since I’m a big baseball fan myself.
Why do I like baseball? Baseball is a metaphor for life. You win some, you lose some. You have ups and downs. You go through hot streaks and slumps. But the season is long, and there's always the hope for redemption. So, through it all, you hang in there and keep swinging for the fences because—as that great prophet Yogi Berra once said—“it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” And every spring, when a new season begins (around Easter time, interestingly), hope springs eternal, regardless of the failures of the past. Baseball is poetry in motion. It’s a beautiful ballet sequence choreographed across a diamond-shaped stage. It’s a picturesque, pastoral game played in a park on fields of green under skies of blue. It’s an intense chess game involving intricate moves and counter moves. Baseball combines elements of drama and artistry, suspense and strategy, comedy and tragedy. It’s storytelling at its best, the human drama portrayed in its most picturesque form.
OK, enough flowery platitudes. Baseball is simply fun. It’s fun to play, even more fun to watch, and mostly fun to discuss.
Sandy and I had not been to a baseball game all year, until this past week. But, suddenly, in a five-day span, we attended 3 minor league baseball games—two in Danville and one in Greensboro. Then, in the coming days—while we’re away on vacation—we’ll be taking in 3 major league games in an 8-day span…in 3 different cities—Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. So, we’re really getting caught up on our baseball.
Last Tuesday night we were out at Dan Daniel Park to watch the hometown Braves play. We’d been hoping to see the Atlanta rookie league affiliate all season. What motivated us to finally get to the park to see the D-Braves was the fact that Mount Hermon’s own Gentle Spirit was singing the National Anthem that night. Their harmonies were great, but the Braves’ sound system sure could use some help. The other motivation for attending the game was free tickets courtesy of Mount Hermon member & State Farm Insurance agent David Satterfield.
It was State Farm Insurance Night. My son—formerly a State Farm employee in Florida—would have loved it. Entertaining the crowd—in addition to the D-Braves regular mascot, Blooper—was the State Farm Good Neigh Bear. The fuzzy fellow gave out State Farm T-shirts and water bottles as a promo.
Before the game began, I told Gentle Spirit that I really only came to hear them sing. In fact, I threatened to leave right after The Star-Spangled Banner…even before the game’s first pitch.
But E. B. Cassada warned me that if I dared walk out of that 7:00 PM game at 7:05 PM then he most certainly would walk out of our 8:30 AM service the following Sunday at 8:35 AM. Not wanted to test him on this, I decided to stay put and watch the whole game until the last out of the 9th inning. The D-Braves won 4-3 over the Princeton Devil Rays.
On Friday night, Steve and Ann Cassada took us down to Greensboro to see the Class-A Grasshoppers play against the Columbus Catfish. What a game! The final score was 15-9. Greensboro lost. There were 6 home-runs—3 by each team! There also were 6 errors by the Grasshoppers (ouch!) Not to mention several exciting plays. On top of everything else, there was an inside-the-park homer by the first Grasshoppers hitter to come up to bat that night. It was a wild, wild game from start to finish.
Then, back in Danville on Saturday night, the Braves hosted “Faith Night.” Bobby Jones, our new church Brotherhood Director, had the idea for a churchwide outing to the ballgame. Nearly 90 Mount Hermon members wound up buying tickets! What great fun and fellowship we
enjoyed. It was a wonderful time for Mount Hermonites of all ages. The Braves even marked off a special section just for us. We definitely made our presence known. (Especially when my wife Sandy led us in the "Charge" cheer.) The Braves also graciously let one of our Mount Hermon members throw out the ceremonial first 
pitch. Little Eli Ashworth was chosen for the important task. At first, he was a little unsure of whether to throw a fastball or a slider. I think he opted for a change-up, however, so he wouldn’t run the risk of burning a hole in the catcher’s glove and injuring his hand.
Prior to the game, Bobby Jones also reserved a picnic shelter adjacent to the ballpark for a pre-game cookout. It was great. We had hotdogs galore! Mmm. Mmm. There’s nothing better than a good ol’ Mount Hermon hotdog! And the combination of hotdogs and baseball—you just can’t get much more American than that. (Bobby would have provided fresh-baked apple pie, too, but the weather was just too hot and humid.)
While we’re on the subject, I have to confess that I wound up having 7 hotdogs in one week. (Shhhhh! Please don’t tell Sandy!) I had 3 dogs
on Sunday night at the church reception following the youth Greece report; another one on Tuesday night at the D-Braves game; one more on Friday night at the Grasshoppers game; and two more just before Saturday night’s game! That’s 7 in 7 days! (Not to mention the big bratwurst that J. Landrum and I had in the Munich airport the week prior to that.) That’s a bunch of dogs! I think I’m going to turn into one. OK, go ahead. You can call me “Frank” for short.
7 dogs in 7 days—that’s an average of one per day! I’m so glad I wasn’t having a cholesterol test
that week. Anyway, at Saturday night's pregame picnic, I told funeral director Mack Stewart that there’s an old saying that “a hot dog a day keeps the undertaker away.” He just smiled as he gave me that sly look like he was sizing me up for a coffin.
Now, in addition to the game itself—which was a 9-2 Braves romp over the Burlington Royals—the ballpark offered the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch, as well as a couple of popular and physically-engaging musical numbers—the polka-like “Chicken Dance” and The Village People’s irrepressible and seemingly inescapable “YMCA”.
But the D-Braves have another musical tradition I’d never heard of before. During the 6th inning—on both Tuesday & Saturday nights—they
played Neil Diamond’s old 1960s pop hit “Sweet Caroline”. It was quite obvious that this was a regular nightly occurrence at the park. In fact, during the song, a bunch of guys that can’t sing all stood up, raised their arms and—acting as if spent a lot of time around Karaoke clubs—they chanted or shouted all the words to the tune, adding unique vocalizations that were certainly not part of the original recording. The crowd really got into it. I was curious as to how this unusual D-Braves tradition began, but nobody could really tell me.
Ironically, Neil Diamond has to be absolutely my wife’s all-time least favorite singer in the whole history of the human race. So, I’m sure she was really enjoying herself. Truth be known, if she had to choose between a root canal and listening to Neil Diamond, it would be root canal hands down!
Well, enough of that for now. It’s time for me to take a hiatus from blogging for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I think I’ll take in a few ballgames, enjoy a few more hotdogs, and see if I can find Neil Diamond on the radio somewhere. See you soon!
Pastor Danny
OK, enough flowery platitudes. Baseball is simply fun. It’s fun to play, even more fun to watch, and mostly fun to discuss.
Sandy and I had not been to a baseball game all year, until this past week. But, suddenly, in a five-day span, we attended 3 minor league baseball games—two in Danville and one in Greensboro. Then, in the coming days—while we’re away on vacation—we’ll be taking in 3 major league games in an 8-day span…in 3 different cities—Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. So, we’re really getting caught up on our baseball.
Last Tuesday night we were out at Dan Daniel Park to watch the hometown Braves play. We’d been hoping to see the Atlanta rookie league affiliate all season. What motivated us to finally get to the park to see the D-Braves was the fact that Mount Hermon’s own Gentle Spirit was singing the National Anthem that night. Their harmonies were great, but the Braves’ sound system sure could use some help. The other motivation for attending the game was free tickets courtesy of Mount Hermon member & State Farm Insurance agent David Satterfield.
It was State Farm Insurance Night. My son—formerly a State Farm employee in Florida—would have loved it. Entertaining the crowd—in addition to the D-Braves regular mascot, Blooper—was the State Farm Good Neigh Bear. The fuzzy fellow gave out State Farm T-shirts and water bottles as a promo.Before the game began, I told Gentle Spirit that I really only came to hear them sing. In fact, I threatened to leave right after The Star-Spangled Banner…even before the game’s first pitch.
But E. B. Cassada warned me that if I dared walk out of that 7:00 PM game at 7:05 PM then he most certainly would walk out of our 8:30 AM service the following Sunday at 8:35 AM. Not wanted to test him on this, I decided to stay put and watch the whole game until the last out of the 9th inning. The D-Braves won 4-3 over the Princeton Devil Rays.On Friday night, Steve and Ann Cassada took us down to Greensboro to see the Class-A Grasshoppers play against the Columbus Catfish. What a game! The final score was 15-9. Greensboro lost. There were 6 home-runs—3 by each team! There also were 6 errors by the Grasshoppers (ouch!) Not to mention several exciting plays. On top of everything else, there was an inside-the-park homer by the first Grasshoppers hitter to come up to bat that night. It was a wild, wild game from start to finish.
Then, back in Danville on Saturday night, the Braves hosted “Faith Night.” Bobby Jones, our new church Brotherhood Director, had the idea for a churchwide outing to the ballgame. Nearly 90 Mount Hermon members wound up buying tickets! What great fun and fellowship we
enjoyed. It was a wonderful time for Mount Hermonites of all ages. The Braves even marked off a special section just for us. We definitely made our presence known. (Especially when my wife Sandy led us in the "Charge" cheer.) The Braves also graciously let one of our Mount Hermon members throw out the ceremonial first 
pitch. Little Eli Ashworth was chosen for the important task. At first, he was a little unsure of whether to throw a fastball or a slider. I think he opted for a change-up, however, so he wouldn’t run the risk of burning a hole in the catcher’s glove and injuring his hand.
Prior to the game, Bobby Jones also reserved a picnic shelter adjacent to the ballpark for a pre-game cookout. It was great. We had hotdogs galore! Mmm. Mmm. There’s nothing better than a good ol’ Mount Hermon hotdog! And the combination of hotdogs and baseball—you just can’t get much more American than that. (Bobby would have provided fresh-baked apple pie, too, but the weather was just too hot and humid.)While we’re on the subject, I have to confess that I wound up having 7 hotdogs in one week. (Shhhhh! Please don’t tell Sandy!) I had 3 dogs
on Sunday night at the church reception following the youth Greece report; another one on Tuesday night at the D-Braves game; one more on Friday night at the Grasshoppers game; and two more just before Saturday night’s game! That’s 7 in 7 days! (Not to mention the big bratwurst that J. Landrum and I had in the Munich airport the week prior to that.) That’s a bunch of dogs! I think I’m going to turn into one. OK, go ahead. You can call me “Frank” for short.7 dogs in 7 days—that’s an average of one per day! I’m so glad I wasn’t having a cholesterol test
that week. Anyway, at Saturday night's pregame picnic, I told funeral director Mack Stewart that there’s an old saying that “a hot dog a day keeps the undertaker away.” He just smiled as he gave me that sly look like he was sizing me up for a coffin.Now, in addition to the game itself—which was a 9-2 Braves romp over the Burlington Royals—the ballpark offered the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch, as well as a couple of popular and physically-engaging musical numbers—the polka-like “Chicken Dance” and The Village People’s irrepressible and seemingly inescapable “YMCA”.
But the D-Braves have another musical tradition I’d never heard of before. During the 6th inning—on both Tuesday & Saturday nights—they
played Neil Diamond’s old 1960s pop hit “Sweet Caroline”. It was quite obvious that this was a regular nightly occurrence at the park. In fact, during the song, a bunch of guys that can’t sing all stood up, raised their arms and—acting as if spent a lot of time around Karaoke clubs—they chanted or shouted all the words to the tune, adding unique vocalizations that were certainly not part of the original recording. The crowd really got into it. I was curious as to how this unusual D-Braves tradition began, but nobody could really tell me.
Ironically, Neil Diamond has to be absolutely my wife’s all-time least favorite singer in the whole history of the human race. So, I’m sure she was really enjoying herself. Truth be known, if she had to choose between a root canal and listening to Neil Diamond, it would be root canal hands down!Well, enough of that for now. It’s time for me to take a hiatus from blogging for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I think I’ll take in a few ballgames, enjoy a few more hotdogs, and see if I can find Neil Diamond on the radio somewhere. See you soon!
Pastor Danny
