Saturday, May 22 vs. the Salem Red Sox
Still hungover with elation after the first win in team history, the FredNats failed to turn it into a streak. They fell 4-1.
The promotional event for the evening was a confusing memorial to Harambe, the gorilla who was shot in a zoo several years ago. I get what they were going for with this (at least I think I did?) but something about the event was just off.
They donated to some charity to help gorillas in the wild, which was great. That felt like the bare minimum for staging this bizare spectacle nobody asked for. But it felt like they got stuck halfway between trying to capitalize on a half-decade old meme and legitimately honoring a dead gorilla. They did things like sing him happy birthday (which was unsurprisingly awkward) and refer to him as a “sweet prince.”
On the list of “People We As a Society Should Sing Happy Birthday To,” let me tell you, it should include zero gorillas. It should also include zero people over the age of six, but that’s a story for another blog.
I guess my thing with the Harambe thing is that how many hip, Gen Z people are even going to a baseball game? Do you really think a guy in his 60s is going to laugh at this and say, “I get the joke. This both makes me want to come to more baseball games here AND donate to a gorilla charity. I am both laughing at this while also feeling sad the gorilla is dead.”
Maybe I’m out of touch, but the whole point of the meme felt like to mockingly memorialize the beast. This felt like an event put on by someone who didn’t get it but wanted to seem like they were in on the joke. Either way, it’s an old joke. What’s next, “Take My Wife…Please” Night at the ballpark?
Odd Harambe commemoration aside, what stood out about this game was the number of Red Sox fans in the stands for it and the pitching performance for Salem overall.
All you have to do is look at the box score: one run on six hits for the FredNats isn’t going to get it done. For Salem, starter Jeremy Wu-Yelland was particularly impressive. He only allowed three hits in three innings of work – an impressive albeit brief performance.
Wu-Yelland received plenty of encouragement from the stands, as did his teammate. One woman in particular was SCREAMING praise for what seemed like every Salem player. At first it was no big deal. She could have been a Boston transplant rooting on her team’s affiliate. Perhaps she had moved to Fredericksburg from Salem and couldn’t bear the thought of pulling for anyone other than her beloved hometown team. Or maybe she just loathes the city of Fredericksburg, the Washington Nationals organization, or this (in her mind) unholy union between the two.
I didn’t know. What I DID know is she was loud and personal. She didn’t heckle the other team, which was good. Any adult who boos or heckles needs to get more fiber in their diet. But she was very pro-Salem, calling players by their first name in an attempt to spur them on.
Her words must have lit a fire under them, because she led them to the W. I’ll be honest, I was getting fired up listening to her. I have no idea what she would have led me to do, but I was buying what she was selling. Normally I wouldn’t consider robbing a bank or anything like that, but had this Salem Fan gotten behind me and told me to? Hand me the mask and a bag, I’m in. Her motivational tactics brought to mind some of the great, real-life legends from throughout history such as Churchill, Patton, or Aragorn.
At the end of the game, my wife and I saw another Salem fan who had been sitting behind us. She told us that the lady was actually Yu-Welland’s mom. That made a lot more sense.
Sunday, May 23 vs. the Salem Red Sox
The FredNats dropped yet another, this time to the tune of 9-1. We didn’t stay for the entire game.
Some fans may yearn for the days when all baseball games were played during the day. I am not one of them. The sweltering sun was too much to bear. We checked out by the sixth.
Unfortunately, we did catch most of the carnage before heading out.
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