Fisher Cats throw a block party
JIM FENNELL
Published Jul 13, 2011
Tonight's Eastern League All-Star Game at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium is about baseball. It's about some of the best and brightest stars in the game coming together for one night. It's about the Home Run Derby and New Hampshire native Jeff Locke pitching in the riverfront stadium for the first time.
Tuesday night's All-Star Block Party at Veterans Memorial Park was about none of that.
It was about a 2-year-old boy from Hooksett scaling the top of an inflatable climbing wall for the very first time and sliding down with a huge smile on his face. It was about a Massachusetts couple taking turns getting their picture taken next to one of NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick's race cars.
More than anything, this was about New Hampshire Fisher Cats owner Art Solomon saying thanks to everyone who helped establish his team as one of the model franchises in minor league baseball.
“I think it's very special,” Solomon said. “In my view, this is the people's team and let's celebrate it accordingly.”
Those people included Tony and Dee from have Haverhill, Mass. They were both dressed in black, and Dee had a black star drawn around one eye. They looked more the part of two people headed to a Kiss concert at the Verizon Wireless Arena. And, well, that's where they were headed.
A Kiss tribute band, Klassik Kiss, took to the main stage to play a short set.
Mama Kicks, the veteran New Hampshire cover band, provided most of the music and front woman Lisa Guyer quickly got the crowd going.
Guyer said she had seen it all during her 35 years in the business — that's until the Ace Frehley knockoff from Klassik Kiss came by to praise her singing. She admits she never had a guy dressed in makeup and heels compliment her before.
“Yeah, that's a first,” Guyer said with a laugh.
The guys on stage were followed by another band of power players. Solomon, Gov. John Lynch and Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas took their bows. Gatsas was gleaming, and not just because of the heat. The city was alive and vibrant for a night, its main park filled with people from around the state and the region, its hotels booked solid and its restaurants and bars hopping. Tonight will be more of the same when a sell-out crowd of close to 9,000 fills the stadium.
“Manchester of 10 years ago would have loved to get 10,000 new people to the city for the whole year, not just for one night,” Gatsas said.
Fisher Cats President and General Manager Rick Brenner said the team looks to offer people different layers of entertainment. Those layers were on full display during the block party.
The cars of Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch were parked along the Elm Street entrance of the park. Milling about was a Fisher Cats employee dressed as Uncle Sam. Fisher Cats mascots Fungo and Slider were also around, as were Max from the Manchester Monarchs and a TD Bank North mascot that I think was supposed to be an ATM.
There was a beer garden set up a few hundred feet from a kids' park, the Manchester Police Department's armored SWAT vehicle parked next to a telephone company tent, set up next to a table for a sports bar, set up next to a booth for an amusement park, which was located not far from an Italian ice stand.
There were even some all-stars around to sign autographs, including Conway native Locke, a pitcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization who was looking forward to his first chance to pitch in Northeast Delta Stadium.
Scott and Molly Mortimer of Merrimack were there with their young son Andrew for the block party in 2008, when the Fisher Cats hosted their first Eastern League All-Star Game. They thought there were more activities for kids the first time, but they weren't complaining.
“We like to come out to see what kind of event Manchester puts on,” Scott said. “So far, so good.”
The Mortimers were busy watching Andrew, 6, play in the bouncy house. Baseball didn't seem to be on any of their minds at that moment, and that was all right with team owner Solomon.
“We wanted to invite anybody and everybody,” Solomon said, “and let them celebrate with us.”
It seemed like people from all walks of life took him up on that invite. Welcome to Manchester.