Drillers Baseball, Take 2

Our bank was giving away free general admission tickets to a couple of Tulsa Drillers baseball games last week. Hey, we don't even like baseball but we had fun at the last game, so why not?

This time the game wasn't quite as fun as last time, even though many of the same elements were in place. Same home team, same pointless mascot race, even a similar traumatic injury to a fan.

In both games, a fly ball went into the exact same area of the stands and hammered some poor fan. This time, two guys next to the injured fan ripped off their shirts and starting making crude tourniquets. Ouch.

We got kicked out of an unmarked reserved seating section, which was fun. We honestly weren't trying to hijack seats, so I didn't think it was necessary for the guard to throw me over the little fence and into a hot dog vendor. I got spicy mustard in my eye. Plus, all he did to my wife was wink and kiss her on the cheek. I sense a double-standard.

Speaking of a double, we saw one of the rarest occurrences in all of baseball. The Phantom Double Play.

Here's how it works: A runner was on first, with a guy up to bat. He hit the ball directly to the Driller's shortstop, who casually flipped the ball to second base. So, the runner from first base is out, right? Yeah, except that the second baseman wasn't touching his base. He threw the ball to the first basemen just before the batter made it over there. But the first basemen wasn't touching his base, either.

At first glance it was a perfectly executed double play... except that neither runner got tagged out. That takes a very special kind of incompetence. I was honored to have seen it.

Finally, there was the obligatory swag. Somebody wandered through the stands handing out Whataburger coupons. Not only do we not like Whataburger much, there's not one near where I live or work. Oh well... useless coupons are far better souvenir than a fastball to the face.