Lightning Baseball on the Fourth

Published with permission from the Daily Commercial. To view the original online article please visit: http://www.dailycommercial.com/sports/article_5683b76c-c75b-5d45-89f5-ecee37b27cfa.html

Lightning offer up baseball, hot dogs, fireworks for the 4th

FRANK JOLLEY | Staff Writer frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com

Independence Day is a time to celebrate and an opportunity to take time to remember how our nation began.

Many of us will do both with hot dogs and fireworks.

 Square - in-story pal reality 7-2

If we're lucky, we'll partake in our favorite frankfurters and pyrotechnics at the ballpark as we take in nine innings of our national pastime.

Baseball, hot dogs, and fireworks.

Sounds like a perfect day to me!

Lake County residents can enjoy all three on Friday when the Leesburg Lightning host Winter Park at 6 p.m. at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field. It will mark the fourth time in team history the Lightning has hosted an FCSL opponent on the Fourth of July.

Leesburg played Sanford in 2012, losing 5-3 in front of 2,986 fans, believed to be a team record for a game against an FCSL opponent. Lightning attendance figures for individual games are not available for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons.

The team posted wins in 2007 (8-2 against Altamonte Springs) and 2009 (4-2 against DeLand).

In the past, the team, fittingly, has reserved that date for a variety of military all-star teams in what often turned out to be emotionally stirring contests. Tears mixed with sweat as the crowd sang along with the national anthem, often drowning out the rendition coming through the public-address system.

It's always the one time when crying is allowed in baseball, despite what Tom Hanks' character in "A League of Their Own" said.

This year will be no different.

Fans will pack the ballpark in record numbers, filling every available seat and wrapping around the outfield fence. Lines at the concession stand are going to stretch around the grandstands as fans look to satisfy their hankering for traditional ballpark fare, what has often been referred to as "quite possibly, America's finest ballpark food."

A Leesburg Lightning game on July Fourth has always been more than a game. It's a happening, an event that every sports fan in Lake County should take in at least once.

It's a living, breathing, three-dimensional Norman Rockwell painting.

Everyone seems to elevate their game for Independence Day. The fans certainly do as they stand a little more upright and stride with purpose around the ballpark, filled with American pride.

The players run a little faster and dive a little farther to make plays. Umpires make their calls with more inflection and crispness, and coaches who disagree with them often do so with a little more authority.

Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field looks the same on July Fourth as it does for every other home game, but it feels different. In Leesburg, the ballpark is THE place to be to celebrate what will be America's 238th birthday!

One of the things that make the Lightning's Independence Day celebration so special occurs after the final out is recorded and last hot dog is served.

That's when fans are invited to take lawn chairs and blankets on to the field and stretch out for the fireworks that will light up the sky behind the right-field fence. Fans and players often mingle during the show.

It's not uncommon for players from both teams to come together to watch the display. Many Lightning players often locate their host families among the masses and watch the celebration with them.

There are so many reasons for fans to head out to the ballpark for Leesburg Lightning games.

Independence Day offers a couple more!

Frank Jolley is a columnist for the Daily Commercial. Write to him at frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com.

Return to News