It wasn’t raining, they’ve got boxes full of baseballs with brand new logos, and city crews were working on the fields.
“It’s all good,” Oceanside Minor Baseball president Mike Parlow nodded with a grin along the left field fence up at Springwood Old Wednesday afternoon.
Parlow and Save-On-Foods store manager Bruce Brown along with three young local players marked the arrival of the new baseballs — over 50 dozen in all — stamped with the Save-On logo. This is the local grocery store’s third season stepping up to the plate as main sponsor of Oceanside Minor Baseball.
Each team gets a a dozen game balls, and a dozen practice balls, “which is a huge help,” said Mike.
“Wooooah, really? That’s sooooo cool,” one of the lads on hand piped up when he saw the logo.
Everyone seemed suspiciously tight-lipped when asked if the logo has been specially designed to hypnotize opposing batters, but Parlow laughed, and liked the idea of special 3-D glasses for the home team “that would make it as big as beach ball.”
Adding their smiles to the early season photo op were Teddy Vukovic, 11, Devin Svensen, 13 and Austin Hykaway, 12.
The fields officially open April 8 and OMB’s opening day isn’t until April 30.
In terms off numbers, Parlow said enrolment is up slightly — “we’re ahead of last year; we’re going to have two midget teams this year which is the first time in a while.”