Father 10th Man and his holy water

I’ve seen a lot of wonderful and magical things happen on a baseball field over the years, but I saw something last weekend that I had never before seen at a baseball game: A priest in a wheelchair was pushed around the infield where he blessed each of the bases and then home plate with holy water taken from the River Jordan in West Asia, where Jesus was baptized.
Very cool.
The pre-game ceremony was held in conjunction with the opening of St. Joseph’s University’s new baseball/softball complex. It was the first home baseball game played on campus since 1958.
Father James Moore, escorted around the bases by St. Joe’s players Kevin Taylor and Drew Stoll, did the honors with the holy water. (The photo that accompanies this post was taken by Jim McWilliams.) Father Moore even mentioned in his pre-game prayer that the St. Joe’s faithful have forgiven God for making them wait so long to play another baseball game on campus.
The opponent for the historical tilt was Iona College, in New Rochelle, N.Y. (A baseball trivia sidebar: New York Yankees Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig lived in New Rochelle, N.Y.)
Hey, if I’m on the Iona squad, I’m thinking the holy water blessing stacks the deck against my squad and provides quite a home field advantage for the St. Joe’s nine.
Which is apparently exactly what happened. St. Joe’s – off to a disappointing 1-11 start up to that point – got a stellar pitching performance from junior right-hander Kyle Mullen – the pitching may indeed have had more of an impact on the outcome of the game than did the holy water – to defeat Iona 5-1 and christen the new ballpark accordingly.
The reason I was there is that my father-in-law, Walt Wiesenhutter, was a pitcher for the Hawks in the 1960s. In addition, The Blonde Accountant is a graduate of St. Joe’s, so we’ve got some family history there.
And it’s a nice ballpark. It’s got some charm and character. I’m not crazy about the Astroturf surface, but in the northeast, weather usually is a factor for baseball teams, so the synthetic surface makes sense from a field maintenance perspective.
But knowing how superstitious ballplayers can be, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Father Moore will be asked to bless each base with holy water from The River Jordan before each home game, at least for the rest of the season.

Ballparks and recreation

Big baseball weekend at our house, which isn’t too much out of the ordinary, really.
Leading off was a college tilt as St. Joseph’s took on Temple in a twinbill Saturday afternoon at Skip Wilson Field on the Temple Ambler campus. It was the first time I had gotten to enjoy a game at that particular field and it’s a pretty nice college ballyard.
This matchup was of particular interest because Father of Blonde Accountant and The Blonde Accountant are both St. Joe’s grads and Pop Pop pitched for the Hawks back in his day. I have no allegiance to either team, but I do enjoy watching college baseball when I get the chance. The accompanying video shows some of those sites and sounds.



St. Joe’s took both games from the Owls, although we could only stay for the first game. Son of Blonde Accountant had his regular season CYO finale back in Montgomeryville so we headed back for that. Tough day for the youngster as he took the collar and his team lost. But the rain held off until after all baseball was done for the day, so that was good.
On Sunday, Son of Blonde Accountant and I took in the Reading Phillies. We got to see some of the young Phillies prospects — like pitchers J.C. Ramirez and Phillippe Aumont, first baseman Matt Rizzotti and shortstop Freddy Galvis — and the rain held off long enough for the home team to secure a victory.
One of the many wonderful things about baseball is the terminology, of which we heard plenty over the weekend, mostly during the college game.
For example, the following phrases can usually only be heard on the ballfield:
— “Lotta hop!” — It means, “Stay aggressive, show a lot of enthusiasm.”
— “Right man, right now” — Refers to having the best hitter at the plate with runners in scoring position able to get a clutch hit and drive in the runs.
— “Hum, baby!” — Usually what is said to a pitcher, as in “Hum that pitch in there” or “throw it hard.”
Then of course, there is the umpire bating. Umpiring at the college level in particular is challenging and one must have a thick skin. There is a lot of chirping going on from the benches. Among my favorite lines over the years tossed at umpires:
— “Hey, poke a hole in that mask!”
— “Hey ump, shake your head, your eyes are stuck!”
When I played, my dad didn’t get after the umpires too much — and neither did I — because we understood that umpires don’t win or lose ballgames. But when Pop did feel the need to sound off, he was relatively nice about it.
“Wake up ump, you’re missing a good game!”
One of my alternative activities over the weekend was to go shopping with The Blonde Accountant for a new kitchen faucet. Although that still has to happen, I believe this weekend qualified as an example of another common phrase: “Can’t beat fun at the old ballpark.”