A new Spin on things

Never been to a farm-team game.
     Never thought I wanted to.
     But thanks to some free tickets from work, Rick and I found ourselves Friday night in the stadium of the LowellSpinners – the Red Sox farm team based in the one-time mill town that was once one of the largest producers of textiles in the world. That accounts for the team’s name – “spinners,” as in the turning spools of thread used in the mills.
     We had a ball, no pun intended.
     This year’s team isn’t ready for prime time (as if this season’s Red Sox are) but we fell in love with the ambiance of the place on that perfect summer night. The between-inning entertainment that ranged from two girls racing to see who could put on firemen’s hats, jackets and boots the fastest to the amazing border collie that could run halfway across the field to catch a Frisbee.  The basement Gator Pit, with its sumptuous grilled offerings. The mascot, an alligator (I don’t know why either). And, especially, the stadium itself, a low-slung, open structure over which the towering smokestacks of old Lowell still towered.
     As Rick said, Kerouac (a Lowell native) would have loved it – the laughing people, the beer, the good times.
     We loved it ourselves.
     BTW, Lowell won over the Connecticut Tigers 7-6.
     I think we might be back.