Me (left) with Bishop Phil Whipple and Dr. Sherilyn Emberton, the new president of Huntington University.

Watching the game. Pam’s in the middle.

The dog with its basket of water.

Some water for the ump.

Sunday afternoon, August 4, was “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” Day for the staff of the United Brethren national office in Huntington, Ind. A few were on vacation or traveling, or otherwise unable to attend. But a good number of them, along with some family and friends, attended a Tin Caps game in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Tin Caps are a minor league (single A) team of the San Diego Padres.

Because of the need to make up a game cancelled because of rain, the August 4 game was turned into a double-header (both only 7 innings long). The Lansing Lugnuts won the first game, and the Tin Caps prevailed in the second.

It was also a “Bring Your Dog to the Game” day, though I didn’t see anybody with a dog. However, someone had a couple of highly trained Golden Retrievers that participated in the game. They would trot out to the homeplate area to retrieve bats after a Tin Caps player had batted, grabbing the bat in their teeth and, holding it high, prance back to the dugout. Every inning, a dog would prance out to the umpire with a basket of bottled water. The ump would take a drink, put it back in the basket, and give the dog a treat. Then the dog would trot over to the first base umpire. It was great fun to watch.

A photo gallery from the outing can be found on Facebook.