Our next exciting episode...
Big weekend o' fun, day two: Friday was the non-foodie day. Altho plenty o' food and tasty beverage was consumed, it was not the focal point. We were at the Bulls game, with a large group of local and out-of-town wedding guests, friends and family of our pals S. and D. We were all down in the picnic area that's behind the visitor's bullpen, out in left field. I believe I already mentioned the tasty beverages, and alluded previously to the tasty barbecue sammiches. Pretty sure the 'cue at DBAP is by Dillard's. Even tho it's not world class 'cue, that's still a damn tasty barbecue sammich, esp. with some slaw on top. The view down to home plate isn't the best (more on that in a moment), but it was such a fun night of hanging out with friends that we didn't mind at all. Plus we got to see a couple of really spectacular play by the left-fielder that happened right in front of us.
And it was a crazy night at the DBAP. Bulls hit around in the 7th, scoring 8 runs and blowing the game open. But even crazier was whatever happened in the Columbus half of the 8th. We weren't paying super-close attention to the game, and it was a little hard to see what was going on at home. First thing I noticed was that the batter was on the ground and the trainer was out checking on him. I assumed he'd been hit by a pitch. After he got back to his feet, apparently not significantly worse for wear, there was some kind of discussion going on between the umpires, his manager and the batter. Next thing I know, he's been tossed from the game and proceeds to absolutely lose his shit. We're talking Lou Piniella or Earl Weaver (to drop a really oldschool reference on y'all) levels of losing it. I don't think he actually bumped the umpires but that's only through a supreme effort by his coaches and team-mates, one of whom ended up by lifting him off the ground and carrying him from the field and into the dugout. After that, the several minutes of the manager arguing, waving his arms and kicking his hat rather paled in comparison. I'm still not sure exactly what happened. The only story I could find about the game said the Columbus manager and (IIRC) catcher were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. My best guess is that the batter was not hit, but dove out of the way of an inside brush-back but not until after swinging and as a result was called out on strikes after he picked himself up off the ground. ETA: finally found a news story that described what happened. I had it mostly right. On an 0-1 count, the Durham pitcher ran one inside on the Clippers' Manny Alexander who failed to check his swing before getting hit by the pitch. On learning that he would not, in fact, be taking first base but would instead be at bat w/ an 0-2 count, Alexander lost his shit bigtime and everything else went down pretty as it looked to me from the left field picnic area.

Next time: bendy pirates, raspberry bellinis, townies, Bobby Darin, the Hustle and more take over Bay 7