My child has always loved baseball. It could have been all that time at the ball park watching Oneonta play, it could be The Sandlot (one of the greatest movies ever made) that has seemingly been on repeat everyday this week, or it could just be that he loves it!
Check out this windup!
Just a few miles up the road in Charleston is the Minor League baseball team the West Virginia Power. Yesterday on a whim we decided to go to the game. We ordered the tickets online and went for the best available (at only $8.oo a ticket - wow) and ended up in the presence of Minor League Baseball Royalty!
Here is Davis at our seats in "section 107 - next to heaven"
Matt went on the adventure of finding supper and Davis and I got to know the family beside us. You know, if I am going to be sitting beside someone for that amount of time, we might as well be friends. I found out they were from Parkersburg and the guy next to me (their son-in-law) was visiting from Pittsburg.
Here is Davis saying "batter up!"
A few minutes before the game began a man came in to sit in the row in front of us. He had a wrought iron side table, a bag FULL of bread and signs and was welcoming us to "section 107 - next to heaven." We all just smiled and he introduced himself as "the toast man" The guy beside me from Pittsburg went CRAZY!!!! "I have heard of this guy! This is SO awesome"
Here is a picture of his bag:
Here is the story of "the toast man" He has season tickets to the West Virginia Power games and never misses one. He does "homework" every night on the opposing team and knows where they went to college, their era, their batting average and what games they have choked in and he is not afraid to use these things.
But you may be asking: Why is he called "the Toast Man" Well - here goes. He brings a TOASTER to the game and when an opposing player strikes out he yells "T-O-A-S-T! You are toast!" and throws toast into the crowd!
He has cheers for every WV Power player by playing off their name like:
I say Captain you say Morgan: Captain Morgan
I say Shake 'Em you Say Baker: Shake 'Em Baker
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is on the loose (that would be the spanish form of the word, not the Christian)
Jose can You'll See (like the Star Spangled Banner)
But the best part was what he would say to the other team. The Savannah Sand Gnats (the opposing team) had two players with the last name Harris. Every time either came up to bat he had the whole place shouting "The other Harris is better, the other Harris is better" or "If I choked in a game against Greenville like you did I would really try to put that out of my mind"
In other words, we were in the presence of a full time heckler and he was GOOD at what he did! Here is a picture of "THE Toast Man"
Here is a picture of Davis with his toast. After "the toast man" threw toast into the crowd he would chant "Don't eat the toast, you don't know where its been"
We had a great time, we won the game and on the way home we decided we have to go back to "section 107 next to heaven" very soon
When I got home I googled "the toast man" and was SHOCKED at what I found: he is on Wikipedia, Facebook and Youtube! He is a star! But my most AMAZING find: he is the assistant mayor of the city of Charleston, WV!
So Friday night, we are going back to "section 107 next to heaven" for some baseball, fireworks and toast!
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