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Take Me Out To The
Grand Ronde Night at Keizer Stadium draws thousands for hot dogs, snow cones and baseball.
8 AUGUST 15, 2003
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Community-minded Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
Owners Lisa and Jerry Walker are the latest partners of
the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
By Ron Karten and Peta Tinda
Let's face it. There's nothing quite like the
ball park on the evening of a game. You can
smell the hot dogs sizzling as soon as you hit the
parking lot.
On San Francisco Giants Night on Saturday,
July 26, at Keizer Stadium, the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde treated more than 100
Tribal members to an hour-long baseball clinic
for the kids followed by a squeaker of a game
between the Salem Volcanoes, the minor league
affiliate of the Giants and the Yakima Bears,
the Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate. CTGR spon
sors the Volcanoes.
First, the kids were out on the field with team
members, playing throw and catch, running the
bases and fielding the ball. When they cleared
the field, the crowd of fans began growing and
continued milling. The hawkers made the rounds
with snow cones in four pastel colors and cotton
candy in two.
On the diamond, the grounds crew placed the
forms around the plate and scooped lime into
the forms to mark the batters' boxes. The boys
of summer ran back out into left field, threw balls
back and forth, shielded their eyes from the set
ting sun, which was still too bright to ignore.
One youngster from the clinic threw out the
ceremonial first pitch, a dead-on strike, to get
the game underway.
When the Bears' designated hitter, Conor Jack
son, homered to left center in the top of the fourth
to put the Bears ahead, 3-1, the loudspeaker
played, the theme from Superman.
For a buck, pitchers young and old threw three
balls at a strike zone with a batter painted into
the batter's box and a gizmo timing the speed of
the pitches. Contestants saw the speed of their
first two pitches and if they guessed the speed of
their third, they won a free baseball. There were
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Ball Park A beautiful night at Salem-Keiser Stadium... a cool breeze, hot dogs sizzling on the grill, the crack of
the bat, the roar of the crowd and the superman theme on the loudspeakers... It was all part of San Francisco
Giant's night which drew more than one hundred Tribal members to the stadium.
11 winners even before the game started.
Meanwhile, Salem Volcanoes pitchers Brooks
McNiven and Mike Musgrave camped at a table
nearby signing autographs. Members of the
McNary Cheerleading squad wore t-shirts that
said: "Back with a Vengeance." They were wait
ing on box seats' customers as a fund raiser for
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their booster club.
It all almost made you forget that there was a
ball game going on, because all of a sudden, the
top of the first was over. It was three up and
three down.
A mom told her boy, "...butyou already had a
hot dog."
Meanwhile, Tribal member and Foster Care
Resource Specialist Matt Bucknell set up a table
with information about the foster care program.
"If I get a few people to take some informa
tion, I'll be happy," he said. A great sports fan,
Bucknell already had been out to the Volcanoes'
stadium a few times this year. Between talking
shop with potential foster parents, it was no bur-
den for him to
; - J J fZi pass the time
watching the
game.
Family Night
Tribal members
watch a fly ball go
up at the baseball
game. From left
are: Valeria
Atanacio, Izabella
Atanacio, Nicholas
Atanacio, Janel
Lara, Kalene
Contreras and Allie
Holsclaw.
Photos by
Peta Tinda
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Then, it was two out in the bottom of the fourth
and the Volcanoes were down 3-1 off Jackson's
homer. Left fielder Michael Wagner walked and
first baseman Travis Ishikawa homered to right
field to make it a 3-3 ball game.
"It's good to be giving back to the community,"
said Tribal member Janel Lara. "It helps get
out the Grand Ronde name
and gives the kids something
to do."
Then, it was the bottom of
the fifth with two outs and
the bases were loaded. The
score was still 3-3. Out
fielder Jesse Schmidt came
to bat. He was hitting .244 with two home runs
and nine RBIs (runs batted in). He could have
broken the game wide open with a long single
or a double. It was one and two. The pitch. He
grounded out to first with three men left on base.
The Bears slipped out of the inning like a sec
ond story man on a hot streak.
"It's nice to get out and enjoy the sun," said
Tribal member Kalene Contreras from the
bleachers in the general admission area at the
far end of the first base line.
By the end of the fifth, more than 36 kids had
won baseballs at the guess-the-speed-of-your-pitch
booth, and a little guy with a big heart was
in the process of winning another. His first two
pitches were 26 mph and 31 mph. "Guess 30,"
said his pop, whose word was as good as it gets.
"It reminds me of that movie, Bull Durham"
said Jesse Hall, boyfriend of Tribal member Kristi
Petite. His boss at S&W Woodworking has sea
son tickets and Hall had already been to four
games this season. "It's a great little stadium.
Great energy around the place."
At the top of the sixth, the Bears had two out
when third baseman Jamie D'Antona doubled
to right field. Up next, outfielder Alex Frazier
doubled, too, and knocked in D'Antona for the
leading run. The batters came and went after
that. The seventh inning stretch led to the
eighth and then the ninth, but those doubles
were all she wrote for that night. Four to three,
the Bears won it.
From the loudspeakers, the fat lady sang,
"Hopelessly Devoted To You." And win, lose or
draw it was not a message lost on baseball fans
in Salem for this summer's San Francisco Gi
ants night.