Terry’s Top 10: Reasons to Take In a Pelicans Game
By Terry Massey
Blindfold me, put a clothes pin on my nose and seal me inside a sound-proof booth. I'll bet you a dollar I can still tell when it's the start of baseball season. It's not just the bright ballpark lights, the aroma of hot dogs, the spring weather or the crack of the bat that tip me off that it's time for America's pastime.
It's just a feeling I and fellow fans get around this time of year, like a baseball biological clock with the alarm set for April and a broken snooze button.
Grand Strand fans are fortunate to have the Myrtle Beach Pelicans playing their 12th season at the corner of 21st Avenue North and Robert Grissom Parkway to get our baseball fixes. After a successful opening weekend that saw a record of more than 16,000 fans attend the first four games of the season at BB&T Coastal Field, and with the summer invasion of visitors only a few weeks away, here are the top 10 reasons to take yourself out to the ballgame before it's overtaken by crowds.
10) Deuce the Home Run Dog is now a full-grown pup and the slobbering image of his beloved predecessor, Dinger, who died at the end of last season. Deuce now runs the bases just like Dinger, delivers a basket of baseball to the umpire just like Dinger and begs for food in the stands just like Dinger.
9) On April 19, all kids ages 12 and under eat free. Shave, wear a SpongeBob T-shirt and walk around the ballpark on your knees and you just might be able to see how many ballpark hot dogs you can shove down your adult-sized neck. Of course, you won't be able to wash them down with a cold beer.
8) Seating at LandShark Landing, the recently added left-field bleachers, has become the hot ticket because it is the only place in the park where fans can sit in the late-afternoon sun before it sets. The section also has its own mascot, the Rally Shark, who dances onto the field every time the Pelicans score a run.
7) Plenty of Pelicans have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, and the best ones don't stick around very long. Jason Heyward started out here last season and now he's knocking balls out of the park in Atlanta. You'd better show up soon if you want to see them before they make it up to "the show."
6) Do the “YMCA” on the dance floor at a local club and people will look at you like the Village Idiot. But do it surrounded by 4,000 of your new best friends and you blend in to the baseball scenery. The Pelicans trot out this '70s disco classic at every home game, and it still never gets old to the fans.
5) You don't have to eat your weight in Cracker Jacks to try your hand at sumo wrestling. The Pelicans provide the padded suit, complete with color-coded mawashi (loin cloth) and chonmage (bun hairdo). Even if you aren't chosen to wrestle, it's hilarious to watch two fake fat people throw their weight around.
4) On April 29 and several other dates throughout the season, the Pelicans end their games with a bang on fireworks night, perhaps the best pyrotechnics display on the Grand Strand. After the final out of the night, the lights go out and fans stay in their seats to check out the loud, colorful, dry thunderstorm.
3) After every home game the kids get to run the bases, which may be more fun for the parents than the ankle-biters. The kids come back filthy after the dirt sticks to the ice cream and cotton candy all over their bodies, but they also come back tired and ready for bed. Just hose them off and tuck them in.
2) Are there any two words in the English language sweeter than “Free Candy?” That's right, sweet-toothed sports fans, every night at the start of the home half of the first inning, Pelicans manager Rocket Wheeler and a couple of members of the staff throw buckets of free bubble gum into the stands.
1) OK, these two words might be sweeter – “Thirsty Thursday,” when $1 draft beers are served and free live music is played from 6 to 8 p.m. It's become one of the happiest happy hours in town, a who's who of who likes cheap beer and baseball. In light of our dollar bet, you can buy me a beer on Thursday.
This sounds like a blast! It reminded me it has been too long since I saw a Pelicans game. Just bought some tickets.