Diane & I decided to spend an evening with our local minor league baseball team, the Norfolk Tides, as they hosted the Pawtucket Red Sox at Harbor Park. During warm-up, they marched about a bazillion Boy Scouts onto the field to recognize a special achievement.

Still during warm-up, I catch one of the Pawtucket players heading out to the field. We were seated right next to the Pawtucket dugout in prime enemy territory, but our Tides fans still held the greater numbers.

A Pawtucket pitcher, I believe, signs autographs for the waiting fans. The Pawtucket Red Sox are a minor league division of the Boston Red Sox, so there were people in Red Sox apparel everywhere. The Norfolk Tides are affiliated with the New York Mets.

The Tides mascot, Rip Tide, sprawls on top of the Pawtucket dugout to torment the rival fans, and to sign a few items for Tides fans. I'm not exactly sure what Rip is supposed to be, other than a fluffy blue dude whose name suggests that he might have something to do with water.

We discovered that the night we went was "Zooperstars Night", meaning that these silly, inflatable mascots would come out between innings and dance. Here, Harry Canary and LeBronco James dance in front of the Tides dugout.

Another way to kill time between innings is contests, such as the Basketball Leaf Blower Race between these two gentlemen. It's pretty obvious, but the guy in the gray shirt won.

Another Zooperstar, Shark McGuire, entertains the crowd on the Pawtucket side of the stadium. He ended up eating one of the staff (actually taking him inside the costume) and spitting him back up with only his smiley face boxers.

One of the Tides players takes his turn at bat. We hung out until the top of the ninth inning, when the Tides were leading 10 to 2, to beat traffic since we were pretty sure who was going to win.

Here, we're still in the third inning with the Tides up to bat. After this inning, we decided to check out the snack scene, and ended up with a soft pretzel and a souvenir mini-helmet full of Dippin Dots over the course of the evening.

Diane poses, pretending to be enthralled in the action, even though the action is happening in the opposite direction. She sports her new haircut from Regis, and her new navy polo from Old Navy.

Back to the Zooperstars action, this would be Clammy Sosa, who kept harrassing one of the ground keepers by throwing a baseball at him.

Our closing shot of the evening shows Tiger Woodschuck and LeBronco James at it again, getting down in front of the Tides bullpen.