Books and Baseball

Last Sunday I had a fun opportunity - I read my book at a Saint Paul Saints baseball game! The Saints have a program called The Reading Tree that happens at Sunday home games. A local children's author reads from his or her book and a ball player talks about the importance of reading. It's an all around good thing.

Sunday was a double header because of a rain out the night before. So the plan was for me to read between the games. We got there half way through the first game. If you haven't been to a Saints game, you really need to go sometime. In addition to a great game (Saints won) we also had fun watching Mudonna the mascot, the Nerd, Press Guy, the Lumberjack and of course, Slumhog Millionaire, the little pig who brings out balls to the umpire between innings. It was a lot of fun, if a little cloudy and cold that day.

When the game was almost over, I was led down to the field. It was fun to hear the announcer tell the crowd that Dara Dokas, a local children's author, was going to be reading her book, Muriel's Sweater. (Somehow "Red" was dropped from the title.) But he pronounced my name correctly!

We walked out onto the field and a small crowd of kids and parents followed. A ball player, Andrew Bennett, joined us. Andrew and I sat on chairs and I read my book. Then Andrew talked about why reading is important. He also said his favorite book growing up was The Lord of the Rings. And he said he has a lot of time to read on the team bus. Muriel, the duck puppet, made an appearance and then Andrew signed baseballs.

I know the kids were really there for the ball player, but hey, it was fun to read my book and see the game (for free). Plus, I got to meet Slumhog Millionaire (aka Freckles) the pig!