april can't come quick enough...

I know I've mentioned before that I live approximately eight minutes away from New Britain stadium, home of the New Britain Rock cats.

Every year they hold a fanfest type of event, that allows fans to come by and check out the stadium, enter raffles and giveaways, buy season tickets and such. Local charities give stuff away for donations and get their cause out to the people. There's a bunch of things for the kids to do like face painting, games and mascot meet and greets. They give stadium tours too, which is why we went. Oh, and free all you can eat hot dogs too. Nothin' beats a good dog at the ball park. I took some pictures, check them out.

The front of the stadium:

Normally the front of the stadium is pretty packed with people when there are games or events going on but I caught a rare moment when no one was around. Probably due to the rain.


Here is the view from the seats:

The view from the announcer's booth:

The device for the scoreboard:

This was just too neat not to snap a picture of:

There were some other pennants around too but the Ravens one was the best. There were some other Ravens things around too, namely on posters and such but all cool to see.


In the announcer's office:

In the clubhouse:

This is where I really wanted to go. It's really fun to see where the players spend their time before and after games.


More jerseys:

A few more:

This is the coach's office:

I was going to get a picture of the manager's office but it had filled up with people too quick for me to snap a shot.


The field view from the dugout:

The dugout bench:

Helmet and bat holders in the dugout:

Overall it was a great time. Being that it was my first time in the depths of the stadium and not just in the seats, I was really in awe of everything. Sure it's just minor league baseball but this is where the dream really begins for these guys. They had three call ups last season (Joe Benson, Liam Hendricks and Chris Parmlee), which they mentioned during the tour. They also mentioned a few times about David Ortiz, as if thats a surprise seeing as he's so popular on the Sox. Makes sense though. I had a great time and gave a donation to one of the local charities, which were giving away a voucher for two tickets at the home opener, on April 5th.

I can't wait.

Baseball can't start soon enough...