Swingamis Missamiss

The AAA Sacramento River Cats held a Harry Potter Night at Sutter Health Park last week and despite the late afternoon's unholy temperature I figured it would cool off by game time. It didn't. 

Quick disclaimer:  I’m not really a huge Harry Potter fan but I did read all the books and saw a couple of the movies on television. They’re good. I think my favorite thing about them is that they got a lot of kids to read.

As far as magic schools go I prefer Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians”. Solid trilogy and a good TV show as well that lasted five seasons.

But I Digressimus Maximus….

Harry Potter Night was a truly magical evening starting with Sutter Health Park’s astonishing transformation from the home of the Athletics and one of the worst ballparks in MLB, into the home of the Sacramento River Cats and one of the nicest minor league parks in the country. 

Although to be fair, it was less about wizardry and more about disappearing any signage that said A’s.

They also used the "Reducto!" spell to knock about 20% of what the A’s charge for food.

Sorting Hat

Before finding my seat I subjected myself to the indignities of the Sorting Hat. 

For the uninitiated, the Sorting Hat is a talking hat that takes the measure of your soul and tells incoming students what house they belong to.

Most people want Harry’s house, Gryfindor. It values bravery, courage, nerve, and chivalry. The other houses are Ravenclaw, Slitherin (Kind of like the Omegas in Animal House), and Hufflepuff, which is as lame as it sounds.

I got the International House of Pancakes. 

Attire

Many of the attendees wore themed clothing.

The fans in this photo were wearing The Cloak of Invisibility.

They tried to theme as best they could with what was apparently a very small budget, by replacing player photos with characters from the film...

and letting River Cats mascot, "Dinger" wear his high school graduation robe while waiving a stick...

and pretending a beach ball was the "Snitch" from the game of Quidditch... 

All of the above said, mostly it was just a minor league baseball game.  

The River Cats were playing the Houston Astros AAA team, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys and, in what does not bode well for the Yankees, they have relief pitchers that were scarier than, "He Who Will Not Be Named."  

They had fastballs in the mid to high nineties with eighty-two MPH change ups. 

Swingamiss Missamis! 

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I did see one legitimately wonderous sight. One that I have never seen before...

In the bottom of the ninth with the game tied at 4-4 , the River Cats had one out and a man on third. I turned to my friend and said, “All he needs to do is put it in the air.” And he replied, “Squeeze bunt.” 

Being a Yankee fan I had no idea what he was talking about.

Lo and Behold, apparently there is a play in baseball where the runner on third breaks for the plate and all the batter has to do is make limited contact with the ball by doing something called “bunting”.  

It made no sense because the exit velocity is miniscule and throws the whole algorithm off, but they executed it perfectly and the River Cats won the game.

Magic!