Yesterday I took my son to his first baseball game. It’s sort of a father-son rite of passage, is it not? Well, we did all the cliché things so many others have done before but I’m pretty sure no one ever had or will have so much fun.

We were in Frederick, Maryland, to see the Frederick Keys host the visiting Salem Red Sox, and the game itself was a pretty one-sided affair. The Keys had a 5-0 lead about 10 minutes in and that’s where it stood when we left at the seventh inning stretch. (The home team would tack on two more runs to win 7-0.)

My son really likes baseball, at least in theory. The thing about minor league parks, of course, especially “kid-friendly” varieties that exist in 2016, is that there are a hundred other distractions to divert one’s attention from the game on the field. (The between inning contests are just the start of it.) At Harry Grove Stadium, for example, there’s a moonbounce, a carousel, an array of carnival games, and a giant inflatable slide. My wife and I spent most of the afternoon chasing our boy from one diversion to the next, pausing only for the overpriced wares one expects to purchase at such occasions.

Yup, we had a great time celebrating our little slice of Americana.

If only Franklin had been able to see just one pitch from our seats.