My new state this year was Kentucky – but it wasn’t a concert this time, instead 3 Party Animal games against The Visitors. The Visitors are essentially a banana ball try out team and hopefully we will see some of the players on the teams in the future. With 2 more teams coming next season, I am hopeful that a lot of the players will be making it to teams!
I woke up at 2:30am and made my way to the airport and had a 3 hour layover in Baltimore and managed to get myself a sit down breakfast at Miss Shirley’s, as finally, my gate was close by! (And I landed 2 gates from where I’d be taking off!) I got to Louisville, took an uber to my hotel, they were able to get me into a room early and I relaxed a bit before heading down to the Louisville Slugger Field for game #1. I checked in for VIB which was out in the outfield, rode the elevator down with VAVA and got to go by a bunch of their props in the tunnels. They had posters for both the Party Animals and the Visitors and I tried to get as many signatures from both teams as I could. I had the same seat for all 3 games and it was a seat in a row all by itself right behind home plate, so they let me go right to it after VIB was over.
Some highlights from Game1: Ashby Vining hit a HR for the Visitors. Baber became the all time trick play leader. Baber hit a HR. The Party Animals won, 4-1.
Friday morning I went on a tour of the Louisville Slugger museum and factory, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I also learned a lot about bats and hitting that I never really knew despite all the games I have watched. I got to hold a few MLB players bats, see how they were made from tree to the final finishing touches, get my own mini bat and then hit up the gift shop for 4 more banana ball mini bats. (If I’d need to check a bag home for 1, might as well have 5, right?)
With threats of rain, VIB was moved to closer to home plate for game #2. This time I opted to do just selfies with the players and ended up with around 20! The heat and threats of rain seemed to be happening constantly, the tarp wasn’t on the field as long as it was the night before so there weren’t any delays. Wild weather. I just made sure to keep at least 1 poncho on me at all times and at least 2 fans! My neck fan was worn for all 3 games and I think I would have been pretty miserable without it.
Some highlights from Game2: Peyton Chatagnier led off the game with a HR for the Visitors, Jordan Brewer hit a HR for the Visitors, Ashby Vining hit *another* HR for the Visitors, The visitors scored in each of t he first 6 innings, and scored 5 in the 8th. The Visitors won the game 3-2.
Saturday I woke up and was pretty wiped out, I opted out of going to the Ali museum and instead got a ticket for the 1pm Trolley tour. This was a 90 minute tour around town with a quick stop at Churchill Downs. There is a street/area of beautiful Victorian houses that I’d love to spend more time exploring – and they have extra large sidewalks as well! Perfect for me, if I could afford it! I learned a lot on the tour – and even got to show off some of my new knowledge during Jeopardy when I got back. When we got back from the tour, we were right across from the slugger museum and I was going to go back and get the green party animals bat that they had. I took about 10 steps and got caught in a complete downpour and ran back to the museum that the tour started at and went into their lobby to ride out the brunt of the storm. Heavy rain, thunder, lightning. Eventually the rain let up, but I took a ride to the ball park instead to get settled in for the last game.
For the 3rd game, VIB was on the concourse since it was actively raining throughout – and SO humid. The plus side to this meant that I was able to snag myself an ice cream helmet before heading down to my seat once the rain let up. Fortunately it passed and lightning stopped as well so the game was able to be played. Pharty kept coming out in just his underwear, not sure what was going on there… This time I ended up checking out the after party plaza for a bit as well. It was not quite as chaotic as I thought. Party Down was a lot of fun!
Some highlights from Game3: Jordan Brewer hit another HR for the Visitors, Baber hit another HR! The Party Animals won, 4-1.
Sunday it was time to get up a little early, head to the airport and head back home… knowing I’d be going to 2 more games the next weekend!
Katie 
