Day 233

Mariners versus Townies.  (Mariners win 3-1, Mariners in blue, picture courtesy of Tim) .

Our Intertown Twilight League (ITL) Baseball tournament is over 80 years old, with teams from seven towns in the area, the oldest active amateur baseball league in the country, apparently.  Today we watched the Manchester Mariners (our team) play the Rockport Townies, and win the whole tournament!  The baseball diamond was in Rockport, a very old one called Evans Field, with a forest on one side, and a beautiful stone pavilion which houses the bleachers. 

Sitting there, getting excited about my team and cheering them on when they did something good, I felt as though I was sitting right in the middle of a little bit of Americana, or a scene straight out of a movie. 

Both teams have passionate supporters shouting suggestions to their own team and the other team too.  The spectators sit bickering in a friendly manner with one another.  It is a pleasant Saturday afternoon outing, and it's free.  So many people brought their dogs.  There was a man with a young German Shepherd dog, which complained, whimpering, about having to walk up the crazy benches. It walked gingerly, placing its enormous paws very carefully but not knowing really where to put them!  Another little bulldog won the heart of a beautiful little mixed-race girl, who had bright blond frizzy hair and toffee-coloured skin.  And a border collie lay obediently at the feet of its mistress in the row just below us.  An old man smoked a placid pipe sitting on his beach chair at the side of the field, and everyone was smiling and happy. 

No running today, and as I have finally succumbed to the Stieg Larsson trilogy, I am going to bed with my book, so here is a photograph for the portrait tonight, that Jess took on the way to the Harbor Islands the day before they left.  As you can see, I was still happy then!