Join Helen for a day at the ballpark

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Join Helen for a day at the ballpark

Sports

Saturday, 13 March 2010 02:12

Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
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Wednesday was a gorgeous day at the ballpark for a Grapefruit League game. Believe it or not, the sun was shining, and no one was wearing parkas. Most of the Osceola County Stadium box seats were occupied, but plenty of reserved section seats, the $18 and $15 jobs, went unsold.
So, in general, there’s plenty of room for you (and a couple thousand of your closest friends) at the park.
If you’ve got any amount of sports in your blood, have you ever had a better excuse to play hooky from the real world for a day than this? Life is stressful enough. Baseball is a three-hour exercise in struggle, however pastoral-paced it is.
Surely, it can be worked in on your annual Ferris Bueller Day. And, as lousy as the weather’s been lately, we all could use a little work on our tans.
Sure, there’s guys wearing No. 80 in the lineup, but the Florida Marlins’ No. 80 this day, Mike Stanton, sent a Wandy Rodriguez fastball rocketing over the clubhouse building for a first-inning two-run homer. Left fielder Carlos Lee didn’t even move. Stanton then stole a double from Lance Berkman in the second inning with a diving grab in the right-field gap.
Rodriguez is being counted on as an Astros’ starting rotation constant. Stanton is counting on starting the year at Class AA Jacksonville. Houston, you have a problem.
Here’s hoping they get it straightened out next week, because it’ll be a busy week at the ol’ ball game. The Braves will be here tomorrow. Then the Bahhhstin Red Sox come in Tuesday for the first time in who-knows-how-long. On Wednesday, get there early and you’ll get a green cap.
And, next weekend, the Astros hit the Throgs Neck Bridge (Bronx to Queens) part of the schedule, with a rare N’Yawk back-to-back of the Yankees (Saturday) and Mets (Sunday).
One fan I can personally guarantee will be there is Helen Knowling, although she goes by many other names. Astros owner Drayton McLane once called her, “My Kissimmee Girlfriend.” Some players and coaches who have come through have known her as, “The Baking Lady,” for all the cookies and such she shared with athletes.
You’d know Knowling, 85, better as The Lady With the Cowbell. She and her bell have been a fixture at Osceola Stadium since pro ball arrived in 1985.
She never missed a game — spring training or Osceola Astros/Kissimmee Cobras Florida State League, from 1985 to 2000 — until a January 2007 car crash put her out of commission for two springs. She missed a couple of night games last year, but, she’ll be there next week, in her spot in the first row of the upper level near first base.
“All year I look forward to this,” said Knowling, who developed a love for the game as a girl in Middletown, N.J. She was honored with a plaque last year for 25 years of meritorious fandom, during which she’s gone as far as housing some minor-leaguers like former Astros reliever Todd Jones.
“I just love baseball better than anything else,” she said.
Well, she doesn’t love everything, based on her assessment of this year’s Astros.
“We just don’t have the pitching,” she said during Wednesday’s 16-4 loss.
Granted, there isn’t too much unpleasantness, as these games don’t count. Next week, college guys will be playing very, very meaningful games on the hardwood (but, only because CBS is there).
Some folks are saying there should be more kids playing those games, and want to bump the bracket field from 64 to 96. Changing the tournament that much is like throwing a brick at an ant on a window.
A few years ago the field did increase, from 64 all the way to 65. People grumbled, but it led to a way March Madness can gradually grow to 68, then 72 and such in manageable bites.
Add three more play-in games, sort of No. 16 vs. No. 17 seeds. If it works, add 15 vs. 18s, and so on. Sadly, that round will be full of teams like Fairfield, Weber State and Wofford, making room for 17-14 teams who went 6-10 in big-conference play to cash a check. The bright spot is that Weber State won’t homer off one of the Astros’ better pitchers.
...
For those suffering from football withdrawal, here’s a little methadone for your problem. Just heard Hollywood is making Vince Lombardi’s life story into a movie.
Cast as the lead? Robert DeNiro. Brilliant!
I just wonder about the rest of them. Adam Sandler as Bart Starr? Maybe not.
And, who’s gonna play the hungover hero of Super Bowl I, Max McGee? Bruce Willis, anyone? Yippee ki yay!