Some random pictures from the past two weeks.
The Lancaster Stormers fan fest…
Two weekends ago, the Lancaster Stormers held their annual Fan Fest and exhibition game, playing against the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars. York also held their fan fest the same day, and I preferred to go across the Susquehanna for Lancaster’s fan fest than go into downtown York.
Because it was an exhibition game, it didn’t play like a regular baseball game. If I remember correctly, both teams had 10 or 11 batters in the line-up, and one inning ended when the Hagerstown pitcher hit his pitch limit.
I stayed through seven innings.
It was perfectly cromulent.
Rising Floodwaters…
The office flooded earlier in April. A water line to a coffee pot burst over the weekend when no one was in the office, and when people came in on Monday morning thethere was water everywhere and the carpets were sopping wet.
It was so bad they had to take up the carpet and dry it out.
I’m not sure when everything is getting put back. I know they were waiting to do it over a weekend, so maybe when I’m in the office on Monday things will be back to normal.
A Tuesday night baseball game…
I went to a Harrisburg Senators game the following Tuesday. CJ Abrams, the Nationals’ shortstop, was making a rehab start in Harrisburg. I swapped out one of the tickets in my plan later in the season for this.
Abrams came out a little later to warm up with the Senators than the other players.
There was a small group of fans along the screen on the first base side waiting for Abrams to emerge from the dugout for warmups. They called out to him, hoping for autographs, but he paid them no mind. Eventually, an usher made them move along.
The Senators were playing the Erie Seawolves. The Senators opened their 2025 season in Erie against the Seawolves and left the shores of Lake Erie winless. The futility against Detroit’s AA farm club continued.
There were, however, lovely skies at sunset.
Visiting Lynchburg…
I drove down to Lynchburg last weekend to visit my parents. I hadn’t been down since New Years. It was a lovely trip, though it rained for much of the first three hours, and the view from Afton Mountain was spectacular.
What’s this? What’s this! A cloud that looks just like Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Lancaster Stormers Opening Day…
The Lancaster Stormers opened their 2025 season at home yesterday against Gastonia after a week on the road. It was a perfect night for baseball — May 2nd, and it was about 80 degrees at game time.
Penn Medicine was packed–a little shy of 7,200 fans. There were Little League teams, there were dance teams, there were kids, kids, kids everywhere.
This was not the most elaborate Opening Day I’ve seen in Lancaster — that one involved the players coming in by car parade — but this one still had a nice community feel, with many of the Little Leaguers on the field to welcome the Lancaster Nine. (Lancaster has more than nine players — every baseball team has more than nine players — but I like the archaic phrasing.) Lancaster does Opening Day well.
Lancaster built early leads, and Gastonia kept eating into them, especially when Lancaster went to the bullpen in the sixth.
I intended to stay for the entire game — there were fireworks and a post-game concert planned — but this game moved slow, and there were thunderstorms in the forecast for about 10 o’clock. So I left at 9 o’clock, after the 6th inning, and I saw lightning in the distance driving home when I was across the Susquehanna back in York County.
Lancaster County smelled of wet cow manure as I drove home. It was nice.