Leesburg Lightning ready to bring more baseball magic to fans | Frank Jolley
The 16th edition of the Leesburg Lightning is about to be formally introduced to the Lightning Nation.
Fresh off its third Florida Collegiate Summer League championship, Leesburg will welcome Sanford to Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field at 7 p.m. tonight for the first of 19 scheduled home games this season.
The Leesburg Lightning and The Pat. It’s classic small-town America, a veritable Norman Rockwell painting.
Ever since the Lightning played their first home game on June 7, 2007, a summer evening at the ballpark (I know it's technically not summer, but in Florida, it is) has become the place to be.
Lightning strikes: Leesburg Lightning baseball: Five things to know as season set to start in the FCSL
Frank Jolley: The Lightning leave no doubt. They are the best!
A winning combination: Lightning, city create Americana through baseball, fireworks
Fans come for more than the free admission
And that’s why Leesburg has become the marquee team in the FCSL.
No other team outdraws the Lightning at the gate, although to be fair Leesburg is the only team in the league with free admission. However, even when the entire FCSL was free admission, the Lightning was the top attraction.
Of course, it helps when an organization makes a concerted effort every year to put a quality product on the field. Since the team was born, the Lightning have compiled a won-loss record of 348-253, which makes them the winningest team in the FCSL over the past 15 seasons.
Sanford, with 307 wins, is closest in terms of victories.
Some might suggest there has to be more than just baseball that draws people out to the ballpark at the rate of nearly 1,000 per game. There has to be a fountain of youth or something out there, right?
The Pat is where it's at for good eats
Well, there’s the food.
Lightning officials has long bragged the concession stand fare is, “Quite possibly, America’s finest ballpark food.” A stretch perhaps, but a hot dog or sausage dog — or hamburger, cheeseburger and chicken sandwich — at The Pat almost always seems to make everything seem better.
People like to talk about the evils of hot dogs. And it’s true they’re high in fat and sodium nitrates and all kinds of other things that sound like things found in a mad scientist’s laboratory.
But, is there anything better than a big, fat hot dog covered with mustard, relish and onions — absolutely no ketchup — at the ballpark?
Like Humphrey Bogart once said, a hot dog at the ballpark is better than steak at the Ritz.
Absolutely.
I’m good for at least a couple whenever I’m there.
Still, “there has to be more to it,” some might say. “Why would so many people leave the comfort of their air-conditioned living rooms for a sweltering summer evening to watch a ballgame and eat hot dogs?”
Carrying on dad's legacy: Tyler Brandeburg strives to make game day unlike any other
'A kind of therapy': John Meier set for another Leesburg Lightning home opener after beating down leukemia
A simple formula for success
Truthfully, there’s nothing more.
No fireworks during player introductions or after home runs.
No big-screen scoreboard showing replays or informing fans that the batter’s nickname is Snuffy and he still sleeps with a teddy bear.
Instead, there’s a mascot, Striker, who often entertains fans with his mere presence. There are also myriad on-field contests between innings, involving fans, as well as a chance for youngsters to run the bases on a “real live baseball field” — how my brothers and I used to refer to Tinker Field in Orlando when our dad would take us there for Minnesota Twins spring training games.
Perhaps that’s the answer.
The simplicity of a Leesburg Lightning home game reminds us of our youth — before video games and cell phones — when a baseball game was a highlight to our day.
We didn’t need bells and whistles.
All we needed was a seat — form fitting or bleacher — a game program and a ballgame, and a bad day instantly got better and a good day became great.
If that’s the case, then the Leesburg Lightning and Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field have been whipping up a magic elixir since 2007.
Come get ya' some!
Write to Frank Jolley at frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Lightning baseball: Leesburg ready again with 'elixir' for fans
