Thus far in my life I’ve been fortunate enough to have attended literally thousands of sporting contests, ranging from tee ball and Pop Warner to various professional leagues.
Ask me the greatest one I ever saw and I’d probably stumble over an answer.
Before yesterday.
Dateline Front Royal, Virginia, July 5, 2026, Mike and Franklin witnessing the Front Royal Cardinals of the Valley Baseball League hosting the Strasburg Express. (Yes, all of those things are real.) With a few hundred local brethren present–I use the term in a literal sense, as it was Saint-something-or-other local church night at the ballpark–my son and I watched zero after zero light up the scoreboard at Bing Crosby Stadium. Yes, that Bing Crosby, who played a benefit show for the local townsfolk in 1950 and so enamored were they the stadium was named in his honor.
Fast forward three quarters of a century, and so we went to the bottom of ninth inning tied at nil. After quickly explaining my son what a “rally cap” was (and demonstrating, of course), the home team advanced three runners to base. Two outs had been made in the process–one at home which would have brought immediate victory–and all the while a storm threatened the park. God himself was lighting up the stands with crackling spark after spark, the glow of electrical discharge followed by roars of thunder topped only by the sounds made by the erstwhile subdued crowd. Fans stood, mouths agape. Ten thousand eyes and five thousand tongues… my God it was “Casey at the Bat.”
Except…
there was joy.
Cardinals batter James Green lines a single to center that plates the winning run, joy abounding Front Royal and the entire Shenandoah Valley. Spelunkers flashed their lights and the organ bellowed in Luray Caverns; the churchgoers became rather unchurchlike. This was the rapture. My son and I high-fived stranger after stranger as we ran through the parking lot, reaching the car just before the deluge of rain.
As we exited amongst the maddening crowds not a soul feared the growing tempest, dancing sans umbrellas and sans shame.
It was… the greatest game I ever saw.
