One of the things I checked when we first talked about going out east and coming back through the States was the New Hampshire Fisher Cats home schedule. They are the Double A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. They were starting a home stand just as we would be arriving in town. I ordered the tickets on-line back in July, just happy that we would see the stadium and the game. Here I am holding my ticket in front of the box office.

Part of the stadium opens at 5:00 pm, the seats and concessions didn’t open until 5:30 pm, so we had a 20 minute wait. The stadium is in downtown Manchester and sits on the Merrimack River, but unfortunately there is no view of the river from the stadium.

Our seats were second row behind the Fisher Cats dugout. The cost of each ticket was $12.00. Note the hotel in the background, just like in Toronto you could rent a room at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel and watch the game from your room.

As I went in search of a beer, I took a photo of the girls sitting in our seats above the dugout.

The girls looking forward to the game.

Earlier in the week I read that Jose Bautista would be doing a rehab stint in Dunedin, I mentioned to the girls that it was too bad they didn’t send him to the double A team, we could have seen him play. Well on Wednesday night, there were reports on the internet that both Jose Bautista and Adam Lind would be playing in Manchester on Thursday night. It was almost to good to be true. Once we got to the ballpark we waited for the players to come out and sure enough out trots Bautista and Lind. Here he is doing some pre-game stretches.

Lind was wearing number 14 and Bautista had on number 24.

Adam Lind looking like he is in a good mood. He played for the Fisher Casts in 2006 and was the Eastern League MVP. Notice he is wearing his Blue Jays pants with the double blue stripe.

We still couldn’t get over that Jose Bautista was playing. He led off the game for the Fisher Cats.

For the first inning there was a “bat dog”, after each player was up “Ollie” the dog would run out and pick up the bat and bring it back to the dugout.

Claudia and Angela eventually moved down a row to sit directly behind the dugout.

Notice Jose is wearing his Toronto Blue Jays batting helmet.

Half way through the game I went for some clam chowder from the Chowdah House.

Here is the starting line-ups for the game. The Rock Cats are the Double A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

We were trailing 4-0 early on, but in the fourth inning, with one run in and the bases loaded, Jose came up to bat.

The next six photos show Jose swinging and then watching his shot go off of the hotel. His grand slam put the Fisher Cats up 5-4.

In the fifth inning with the game tied 5-5, the Fisher Cats went back to back to back with solo home runs. Here is Brad Glenn crossing the plate.

Followed by Ryan Goins.

And finally Ryan Schimpf.

Jose looking for the camera.

Adam Lind walking back after one of his 3 strikeouts.

The catcher was coming back to the dugout after a third out strikeout, I waved to him for the ball, as he got close he tossed it up to me. I think it was my Fisher Cat ball cap that I had just purchased that helped. Here is Claudia with the ball.

Here is the catcher Brian Jeroloman who tossed me the ball.

Bautista didn’t have much action in right field for most of the game.

In the eighth inning, Bautista went deep again to make the score 9-6.

The announced crowd was 5,385.

After the game there was a fireworks show.

It was quite good, better than I had expected.

The final box score for the game. It was a great game and we all enjoyed ourselves.