A party at a Hartford restaurant celebrated the Yard Goats and their first game.
Thursday was supposed to be the home opener for Hartford’s new minor league baseball team, the Yard Goats.
But the stadium won’t be done for another month or so.
Still, that didn’t stop fans and sponsors from celebrating the city’s team’s first pitch.
So, look on the bright side. Had the game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels been played in Hartford, it would have been rained out.
“And we’d probably be looking at a double header tomorrow, which would be two seven-inning games, back to back, in the middle of the day, in about 30 to 40 degree weather,” said Mike Abramson, the team’s assistant general manager. He was hosting a party at a Hartford restaurant for fans and sponsors -- people who wanted to celebrate the Yard Goats and their first game.
Abramason is a bright-side kind of guy. He knows that the difficulties getting the stadium built on time and on budget -- it is neither -- have been a downer. So he’s giving fans something else to look forward to.
"We open up against the Yankees' affiliate and the Red Sox affiliate for our first home stand," he said. "Which is an excellent diversion tactic against any disappointment people had. We say, when we finally do open, it's going to be much warmer, we're going to play the Yankees, then we're going to play the Red Sox."
I followed Jonathan Holden around the mini-burger bar. He’s a season ticket holder -- and he was when the team was the New Britain Rock Cats.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing," he said. "If it wasn’t raining, we’d be two blocks away outside. But that’s okay. And we know that, in...six weeks now, we’ll be here. And it’ll be good.”
And the first game ended well. The Yard Goats won their first game ever, beating the Flying Squirrels five to four.