Baseball ends on a high note

Baseball ends on a high note

The baseball season came to an end on a high note.   During the 2 tournaments on the weekend of Oct. 19th and 20^th, 56 games were played and the Knights of Columbus were serving concession food and drinks for every one of them.  The little league end of the year tournament was played on fields #1 and field #2 – they played 13 games on Saturday and 10 on Sunday.  The second tournament was a “stamp out cancer” benefit tournament, organized by Rosemary Villereal – they played 18 games on Saturday and 15 games on Sunday on Fields #3, 4,and 5  Most of the time there was a line at the concession stand.  We had 6 Knights working on the opening shifts, 7-8 Knights on the middle shift and 2-4 on the closing shifts.  The most inspiring comment (and there were a number of them) was “man, this is fun”.  Well, it may have been fun, but it was hard work as orders for hamburgers and hot dogs and nachos were often heard in the concession stand the entire weekend.  For example, John Espree, Russell Leroy, Mario Luna, and Peter Perta cooked 326 hamburger patties those two days.  We also served 320 hot dogs along with 108 Earl Campbell Hot Links.  There were approximately 150 nachos served as well.  We also cooked about 180 servings of French fries.  Plus all the other foods we serve, like chicken nuggets, chicken patties, frito pies, various flavors of chips and candies and pickles and so on.  For sure we can’t forget all the snow cones that were served those two days.  And lastly, we pretty much sold out all the drink we had on hand.  We didn’t run out but at closing time on Sunday we had some bottles of water left, a few diet drinks and 6 Gatorades total – that’s it.  This whole thing started on Friday night when the “stamp out cancer” group held a home run derby – it was for the kids as well as the moms.  Ray Rivera was kind enough to join me at the concession stand and we were extremely busy. 

But the real rush was Saturday morning about 9:30 or so when everyone seems to be hungry at the same time.  Keith and Mary Archer were manning the counter taking orders, John Espree was working feverishly trying to keep up with hamburger orders, Barry Barksdale was doing the cooking  (assembling the cheeseburgers, hot dogs, Earl Campbells, making nachos), while Frank Salazar was manning the fryers – you know, French fries, chicken nuggets and chicken patties.  Same deal the second shift with different Knights. Moises Martinez got baptized on frying stuff, Jesse Zuniga and Robert Tovar manned the counter, Steve Zehnder, along with Juan Gomez and Damien Gomez assembled the orders.  Luckily Russell LeRoy just came out without being asked and grilled hamburgers the whole time.  Robert Tovar’s wife, Vicki, also helped extensively by making snow cones – I’m thinking at least 75 of them.  Russell LeRoy stayed for the final shift as well where Larry Balagna and Dr. Nieto and I closed out the day.  Same kind of busy setting on Sunday. 

During the first shift, Trevor Edwards and Paul Ryan manned the counter, Tony Almanza did the frying and Marc Evan and Peter Perta did the assembling of food (Peter also grilled burgers in between orders).  When the shift changed at 12:30pm, Tony Almanza stayed because one person couldn’t make it and he stayed the entire second shift.  Larry Balagna returned a second day because another person was unable to work this shift.  Russell Gully, as per usual, manned the counter along with myself, Larry and Miguel Hernandez did the cooking (and they did a terrific job assembling the burgers, making nachos and so on), Mario Luna did the grilling and Benjamin Hernandez made a bunch of snow cones.  Nearly all the games were finished by the end of the second shift but, John Owen and I closed out the day.  After all the money was accounted for, we took in nearly $’s (come to the next meeting to find the exact amount). For sure the season ended on a high note thanks to all the Knights who gave part of their weekend to make it happen.  Thanks guys and Mary and Vicki.