One of the VIP Mixtape Festival perks was a Rock N Jock softball game of NKOTB vs BSB. This was the only VIP perk that I was sad I was missing out on, because I only bought GA tickets. However, about a week before the festival they announced that tickets would be for sale for $10 at the event for non VIP ticket holders to also attend. I could not be happier – boybands and baseball, it doesn’t get much better than that!
For NKOTB – Jon did not play. He just hung out in the dugout. I think this was because he hurt his leg last year on tour, he probably didn’t want to hurt it again! For BSB – Nick didn’t play. He was nowhere to be found. It turned out he had a solo show in Toronto that night and that is why he was not there.
During warm ups there was a dog out on the field – Donnie’s dog, Lumpy. He was HILARIOUS and was running all over the place trying to get the ball! Howie was throwing and the dog would not leave him alone and wanted the ball he had in his hand. The guys kept throwing a ball far away so he would chase it and get out of their way haha
BSB won the toss up and decided that they wanted to bat first. I believe it was Howie D who was up first, he hit the ball right to Jordan and after he caught it, Donnie ran over and then Joe joined them and they were all jumping up and down like they had just won the world series. Howie ran over all annoyed and next thing you know – he is jumping around with them too.
After the first inning, it was BSB 4, NKOTB 3. It seemed like they were trying to get things moved along and the next couple of innings were scoreless. Donnie was playing around and took his shirt off to bat – ended up hitting the ball right to Brian, who was actually a really great ball player and Brian had no trouble catching it. Donnie wasn’t too happy about that – but in his next at bat hit an inside the park homer which scored not only him, but 2 others too.
NKOTB ended up winning by a score of 9-4 after only 4 innings of play. (They had said they’d play 5, but I guess things were going a bit too slowly so they had to cut it short)
It was so much fun – but I really don’t know who decided to have it start at 10am when the show went until 11 each night of the festival and the VIPs had after parties after that! If they decide to do it again next year (and it sounds like they might, the festival at least), I hope that they do it a bit later in the day!