Perched on a clifftop overlooking Chattanooga’s riverfront is the home of the Cincinnati Reds’ AA affiliate the Lookouts. Every Tuesday night, local grocer Food City sponsors a buy one get one free, general admission ticket for $10.50. Chicago Cubs’ AA team the Tennessee Smokies came to town last night. We donned our Cubs’ gear and took ourselves out to the ballpark
Game time was 7:15 and Tuesday’s steamy, heat hung heavy in the air. We started our first visit to AT&T Field sharing a refreshing beer in Big River Brewery’s Beer Garden for half the price of suds in a Major League ballpark.
Ballplayers at the AA level happily greet fans and sign autographs. They haven’t morphed into prima donnas yet.
I posed with a Smokies’ pitcher people were excited about. When he left, I asked a woman with a Cubs’ hat on, “Who was that?” She replied, “Alex Katz, he’s my son. He was born in New York and played for Israel in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The Cubs bought his contract from the White Sox.” My surprised reply made her smile. “He was such a nice guy. You deserve to be proud of him.“
Lookouts’ pitcher, Julio Pinto from Venezuela, stopped on his way to the field to mug for the camera with Karen.
Looie the Lookout latched onto Karen for his photo op while we searched for a prime viewing spot. The 6,382 seats stretch from shallow, right field down the first-base line and end just past the third-base dugout. Behind the center- and left-field fences is a sheer drop-off. AT&T Field is an intimate and friendly place to watch a ballgame.
We settled into the first row of a general admission section just before the game started. Usher and Cubs fan, Geoff spotted us in the mostly empty stands and invited us to sit anywhere in his lowest level section.
We chose the first row behind the third-base dugout. It was my first time to occupy a front-row seat at a professional ball game. While we were there, the Lookout’s Promotions and Marketing Manager stopped to chat with us and Geoff brought us a foul ball to take home.
As we were leaving, Geoff said he enjoyed my fake, foul-ball grab for the camera. “When you’re on the first row, you’re part of the show.”
Social Distancing was not an issue. It was a fun ballgame, with all the whacky promotions AA ballparks put on between innings and the Lookouts won 8-3. Our first baseball game in over a year was excellent.