What if you were celebrating Easter and a beautiful spring day and being in downtown Knoxville on that beautiful day — and then a baseball game broke out?
That’s kinda what happened on Sunday at Covenant Health Park. The Knoxville Smokies were on the third day of their opening homestand against the Birmingham Barons. But, for us, it was the first day of the baseball season.
My sports-loving husband, Alan Carmichael, posed with the Easter Bunny and giant blue Peep at Covenant Health Park on Sunday.
You see, we are quarter-season ticket holders. That’s more than you might imagine. In minor league baseball, a quarter-season is 17 home games! And, based on the schedule for our group of quarter-season ticket holders, it was our first game of the year.
We went to cheer on the Smokies, but the game took a bad turn almost from the beginning. And, by the top of the third inning, the Barons were leading 10-0 over the Smokies. We hated that. But there was so much else to enjoy that we stayed to the end of the game anyway. The final score was 10-5. The Barons still won. But we had a blast. Check out some of the fun!
Since the game was at 2, we started the day at 1 with lunch in the Club Level at Covenant Health Park. This nice guy was serving thick slices of honey baked ham.
Here were some of the other options.
I thought the most interesting dessert offerings were donuts that you could top yourself with a variety of frostings, sauces and sprinkles. But there were brownies, cookies, and slices of cake, too.
The first folks we ran into were our friends Elizabeth and Jim Williams.
And County Commissioner Larsen Jay who was taking a rare day off of campaigning for Knox County Mayor.
We made a stop at the Silver Bullet Bar for a glass of Pinot Grigio.
And then we headed to our seats right behind home plate. I have to admit that even though there is a huge net protecting the spectators, this sign always makes me nervous!
Our friend Joshua Peterson stopped for a chat.
Jim and Kim Hays, fellow downtowners, were right down the row.
News Sentinel Editor Joel Christopher, his wife, Sarah Riley, and their son Justice have seats just across the aisle.
Possibly due to the dismal score, a line started forming pretty quickly at the Backstop Bar, located right behind our bank of seats.
We didn’t eat there, but I thought the offerings at Knox Smoque looked good: pulled pork, beef brisket, mac and cheese. Plus, I had to chuckle at the spelling of what I presume is pronounced as “Smoky.”
Loved running into Amy and Brandon Barger holding “Wonder Woman.”
More tempting menu items at “Forks on First:” burgers, tenders, hot dogs.
Ha. Note the fire alarm embedded in it.
The sky was dramatic at 4:30.
When the game finally ended, this happened! Workers began dumping out what must have been thousands of plastic Easter eggs filled with candy! An announcement was made for children under 12 to get in lines to enter the field and claim the eggs.
I thought the Easter Bunny looked a little forlorn seeing all his eggs on the ground!
Jackson, one of the mascots, amid the eggs.
But then they let the kids out!
It was wild.
How do I choose?
What on Earth is going on here?
I think there are enough for everyone!
Documenting the scene.
So was the News Sentinel’s photographer, Saul Young.
Smokies General Manager Tim Volk looked serious.
What a finale!
We walked home and arrived about 5:45 to this beautiful sight on a beautiful night. (Our building is the one on the right there.)
All season ticket holders got a bobblehead of Knox the mascot to take home. He will remind us of a wonderful Easter evening,
