‘Starved for baseball’: For fans, Charleston RiverDogs opener is more than a game

The ball streaked across a purpling Lowcountry sky, soaring high above right field before momentarily getting lost in the glare of stadium lights and then reappearing as a white speck still hurling into the distance.

As Brett Wisley rounded second base, Brandon Sweeney jumped up from his seat on the first-base line. Next to him, Sweeney’s 5-year-old son, Desmond, stayed seated but tightened his grip on the foul ball he had caught earlier in the game.

It was the bottom of the third inning, and now fans were on their feet in the stands at the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park.

Sweeney thought the ball might be going foul, but his premature groan gave way to elation when the ball disappeared, in fair territory, over the right field wall Tuesday night, becoming the first home run for the Charleston RiverDogs at the team’s long-awaited season-opener.

The crowd erupted and, despite the limited 3,500-person capacity, the cheers and screams reverberated throughout the stadium that locals lovingly call “The Joe.”

“We’ve been starved for baseball,” Rod Oomens roared at the heavens, as Sweeney gave his son a high-five.

“What did I say? What did I say?” Sweeney said, almost in disbelief as he turned to give high-fives to his friend, Ben Sharkey, and Sharkey’s 7-year-old son, Brian. “Crack of the bat! Crack of the bat!”

Seconds before the first home run of the night, Sweeney had been talking about how much he missed that sound. And how much he missed being here, in this stadium. And how great it felt to be back in the stands, watching this American pastime with his son.

“We’ve been starved for any sense of normalcy, which is what the RiverDogs bring,” said Oomens, a West Ashley resident who loves the team so much that he had his wedding rehearsal dinner at The Joe 16 years ago.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Charleston went more than a year without being able to cheer on its beloved minor league baseball club. The RiverDogs were 15 days from their scheduled home opener in 2020 when the city of Charleston issued stay-at-home orders last spring.

Soon after, Minor League Baseball would bench the entire 2020 season for all its teams, marking the first time a season had been canceled since the organization’s founding in 1901.

On Tuesday, for the first time in 611 days, fans filed back into The Joe for a much-anticipated game of baseball.

“It’s a chance for some normalcy,” RiverDogs President Dave Echols said Monday, on the eve of opening day. “It’s others being around you, enjoying the breeze off the Ashley River, whether you’re a fan of baseball or just happy to hang out with family and friends.”

There were some changes, though.

The RiverDogs took the field as an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays after 15 years with the New York Yankees.And this year, there are fewer teams in the minors, too. The number shrunk from 160 to 120 after a realignment last year, and all of the teams have been regionalized to reduce travel and cut costs.

Attendees could no longer pay for parking, concessions or merchandise with cash, as part of a league policy to reduce touch-points throughout the park.

Fans were also required to wear face masks, unless they were eating or drinking. Fans would, however, lower their masks to join in for cheers of “Let’s go, dogs!”

When gates opened at 6 p.m., a line of eager ticket-holders stood waiting to enter.

Beneath her face mask, Kelli Morse smiled as she welcomed fans back. This is her second season working with the Charleston RiverDogs.

“It feels like home being back in the ballpark,” she said. During the lost 2020 season, she said it felt weird driving by the park but never going back.

For one couple, opening day couldn’t get here fast enough.

Anticipating the return of date nights with his wife, Eric Jacobsen sent an email to his season ticket sales rep at 4 a.m. on game day. “It’s about time!” he typed, even though they still had 15 hours to go until the first pitch.

“At least five months of the year, this is our routine,” Jacobsen said, looking at his wife, Crystal Jacobsen, before the game started. “So, for us, it’s a step back to normal.”

The couple has been married for almost 30 years and now lives in Goose Creek. Game nights are date nights. But what they enjoy most is watching how much the players love the game that they love, too.

“You know, they’re just totally excited, and you can see it,” Eric Jacobsen said as he sat with his arm around his wife from their seats on the third-base line. “You can see it in the way they play. They have a passion and fire for the game.”

Crystal Jacobsen nodded. “And sometimes that gets lost when they go to the majors,” she said.

All of the players who take the field, they said, are “kids chasing a dream.”

So when the shortstop on the opposing Myrtle Beach Pelicans team jumped up and snagged a high line-drive that no one thought he’d reach, the Jacobsens and others in the stands cheered for him anyway.

And despite the still-lingering pandemic, some opening night traditions remained intact.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg still sang and played the national anthem on the piano just before a massive C-17 cargo plane flew over the baseball diamond at nearly 150 mph.

Charlie T. RiverDog, the team mascot, still blew kisses, danced on the dugout and, at one point, stole (and later returned) a beer from an unsuspecting woman.

And in the park’s club-level seating, on the first-base line, Charleston’s resident celebrity, Bill Murray, watched the minor league team that he co-owns as its “director of fun.” After nine innings and a brief rain shower, the Charleston RiverDogs beat the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 6-3.

And for the first time in a long time, it was just another night back at The Joe.