Stepping Out
Apr 4th, 2008 by John Setzler
I was out at L.P. Frans Stadium tonight for Hickory’s second attempt at kicking off the 2008 South Atlantic League minor league baseball season just to be rained out for the second day in a row. There were only a few fans in attendance, because the weather was bad before game time. As I was wandering around the stadium looking for a couple of decent ‘rain out’ feature type photos, I saw this lady sitting in the stadium having a bite to eat while waiting for the rain delay announcement. I have seen her at the park regularly during the last few years I have been covering the Hickory Crawdads. She probably attends more games than I do. I decided to step out from behind my camera and introduce myself and ask for a quick photo. This is a rather rewarding experience in most cases, and it’s also the foundation of my 1000 Faces photo project that I have been working on for the last few years (at a rather slow pace sometimes.)
Her name is Doris Mayes, and she has been attending a large majority of all Hickory Crawdads home baseball games since the inaugural season in 1993. She’s been a season ticket holder since 1996. I listened to her tell me stories about may Hickory Crawdads baseball players who have gone on to play major league baseball during the past 15 years. She was wearing a Crawdads baseball cap with a rather impressive collection of Crawdads hat pins that covered the history of this team through affiliation with the Chicago White Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. We talked about the weather, the new team, and what’s going on in Hickory with the new management at L.P. Frans Stadium as well.
This experience was quite rewarding for me. I highly recommend it :)