Red, White & Boom!

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Baseball and the Fourth of July go hand in hand, like a ball in a glove, especially now with the United States of America’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence fast approaching.

Being born on the Fourth of July makes it even more special for me. I am not going back 73 years to the year I was born, 1953, but let’s go back 33 years to 1993 with the release of the movie “The Sandlot’’ and one of the best baseball Fourth of July scenes ever.

The film’s narrator Scotty Smalls explains:

“There was only one night game a year. On the Fourth of July, the whole sky would brighten up with fireworks, giving us just enough light for a game. We played our best then, because I guess we all felt like the big leaguers under the lights of some great stadium. Benny felt like that all the time. We all knew he was going to go on to bigger and better games because every time we stopped to watch the sky on those nights like regular kids, he was there to call us back. You see, for us, baseball was a game. But for Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez baseball was life.’’

Yes, the baseball star of The Sandlot was named after Benjamin Franklin, one of 56 Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence. At 70, three years younger than me, old Benjie also was one of the five men tasked with drafting it.

As the iconic scene develops with fireworks aglow in the night sky, it gets even better as Ray Charles sings “America the Beautiful’’ with heart and soul.

Wait a minute, I’m talking about America, sweet America, you know, God done shed his grace on thee. He crowned thy good, yes, he did, in brotherhood from sea from shining to sea.

The movie depicts the year 1962. I was nine years old that summer and playing baseball every day in our own little Sandlot in Kenilworth, New Jersey. The movie showed what our summer was like back when there were no helicopter parents. You were on your own, learning about the game and life. We were the players, the manager, all the coaches, fans, and umpires.

Great times. Great lessons learned.

I bring this all up now because in researching what is going on this July 4^th in the baseball world, MLB is collaborating with four drive-in movie theaters in the U.S. with something called the Summer Drive-in presented by Ford where “The Sandlot’’ will be shown on the big, outdoor screen. Yes, the drive-in. There are only four drive-ins where this is taking place, but you take what you can get these days with MLB and those four drive-ins are located in Vineland, New Jersey; McHenry, Illinois; Blue Ridge, Georgia; and Paramount, California.

When The Sandlot ends the drive-ins will then air their hometown team’s MLB game. Since Vineland is South Jersey, the Phillies will be shown. Illinois will get the Cubs, not the White Sox, the Braves in Georgia and Cali will show – who else – the Dodgers.

On July 4th, attend any game, anywhere, it doesn’t have to be a major league game; check out the minor leagues or summer collegiate leagues.

On July 4th, attend any game, anywhere, it doesn’t have to be a major league game; check out the minor leagues or summer collegiate leagues.

Everyone knows of the Cape Cod League but there are other places where baseball is being played on July 4th weekend and one of my favorites is the Coastal Plain League, home to the Morehead City Marlins at Big Rock Stadium. The Marlins are a mile and a half from the beach, where July 4th lives a life of its own on the Crystal Coast; the team’s owner Buddy Bengel has planned a special July 3rd celebration so you can get your fireworks in a day early on Friday night. With the beach and boats nearby, the Marlins don’t play on any July 4th. Good move.

Red, white and blue gear will be on tap for many teams that day and the Marlins have a sweet cap: red, white and blue — plus stars. Bengel, a wonderfully optimistic and patriotic person, is always fun to talk with about baseball and business. He owns a restaurant in New Bern, NC called Poppy’s Bites and Barrels. That restaurant is named in tribute to his late grandfather, Ben DeFonce and also for the VFW Buddy Poppy charity.

“That restaurant was built and designed with my grandfather in mind,’’ Bengel told BallNine on Wednesday. “We used to call my grandfather Poppy, and the poppy flower is a national symbol for service members killed in action. My grandfather was a retired United States Marine that had two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He was in Korea. He was at Heartbreak Ridge.

“We do a lot of things with the restaurant that are involved with military nonprofits, donating money back to veterans and veteran organizations.”

“July 3rd will be the fireworks night for us at the ballpark,’’ Bengel said. “We will do an America 250th, celebrating 250 years of, as they say, American dominance. Good old hot dogs, apple pie, do some feature things centered around that. It is always a fun night when you have postgame fireworks at the beach; it’s always a win for us. We are your warmup to the 4th and are releasing our America line of gear in the next week and a half.’’

There is major construction at Big Rock Stadium this year. “We have leaned into it and our coaches — when they coach first and third — they wear construction helmets, our guys wear construction vests, we are selling construction hat nachos where we put it all in a little construction helmet,’’ Bengel said.

A sense of humor goes a long way in baseball.

The Yankees’ AA-affiliate Somerset Patriots are rebranding their team for July 4th. So, what do you change the name to when you are already the Patriots and are based in the heart of Revolutionary War history?

How about calling yourselves the Somerset Semiquincentennials? They will play four games in those uniforms, July 3, 4 and 5 and August 15th for the team’s annual Revolutionary Revelry Night. The games on July 3 and 4 will feature fireworks as well. The new design was created by Fooser Sports Design, using Old Glory Red, Basic White and Old Glory Blue, the company says, to represent the exact color shades used on the American Flag. Well done.

The Patriots are bold not only with the name but with the cap that features a bald eagle wearing a star-studded red, white and blue top hat. The bald eagle has been used since 1782 as a national symbol, including being featured on the original Great Seal of the United States.

Teams across America are celebrating. The AAA St. Paul Saints will feature a postgame Super Fireworks Show and a Monster Food Truck Rally.

There will be baseball across the major leagues too and through the years there have been some memorable July 4th games. In an excellent piece for Memories and Dreams magazine published by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, my friend Sweeney Murti writes about July 4th highlights.

I remember being down the Jersey Shore on the hottest of days on July 4th, 1983, listening on the beach to a transistor radio when Dave Righetti fired a no-hitter against the Red Sox. He threw 132 pitches, something that would never happen today in the pitch count Nerd World of baseball. Pitches are counted like never before, but injuries are worse than ever. Rags struck out Wade Boggs on a slider with his final pitch. Maybe it was a sweeper? That marked the Yankees first no-hitter since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

Another classic I remember from July 4th ended early on July 5, 1985, when the Braves and Mets went toe to toe. This featured the most unlikely of home runs by pitcher Rick Camp in the 18th inning, but the Mets won the rain-delayed game in 19 innings.

In 1939 on July 4th, there was the famous Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man’’ speech at Yankee Stadium, ending with Gehrig telling the fans, “So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.’’

Up in Cooperstown, N.Y., it will be a most special day. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will hold programs on July 4 to recognize both Independence Day and Lou Gehrig. Did you know that Gehrig’s final game was played on June 12, 1939, the same day the Hall of Fame opened? Programs on July 4th at the Hall include a Plaque Gallery Tour, a Curiosity Cart, open hours in the Baseball Discovery Zone, a Lou Gehrig Tour and remembering June 12, 1939.

There’s more. The beautiful village of Cooperstown will celebrate with fireworks at Lakefront Park with the Cooperstown Community Band performing concert band classics before a classic rock band takes over after the fireworks. Earlier in the day the Fenimore Farm and Country Village will host a reading of the Declaration of Independence on its Tavern Green at noon with activities for kids and families. Over in nearby Springfield, at the north end of the lake, there will be 112th annual Fourth of July parade, believed to be the second longest running July 4th parade in the country.

Murti mentions the July 4th, 1980, Nolan Ryan game where he reached 3,000 strikeouts with Phil Niekro accomplishing the feat four years later. This too, a special event I remember from my childhood: Mickey Mantle hitting his 300th home run on July 4, 1960.

That 300th home run by The Mick, my favorite player, along with the fireworks show I watched in wonder from the breezeway roof of my home, yes parents used to let their children climb out a bedroom window onto the roof to watch fireworks, turned out to be a wonderful seventh birthday present for me. I got a new bat and baseball glove as well so I could walk down the street to play ball with all my friends in our Sandlot.

Happy Fourth! And on my 73rd birthday: Happy 250th America!