I Severely Underestimated The Drawing Power Of A Blanket!

A few years ago I was the host of an afternoon sports talk show here in St. Cloud. One of my favorite days of the year was when the General Manager of the St. Cloud Rox would come on the show to reveal the upcoming season's promotional schedule live on the air.

While those days have come and gone, I still love checking out that promo schedule when it gets released in the spring. This year, my seven-year-old son joined me in circling our 'must-sees' at Joe Faber Field.

While the jersey, Chisel plushie and the Rox hat giveaway nights all naturally caught his eye, the item that surprisingly (to me, anyway) was his number one want this summer was the stadium blanket.

He grabbed a sharpie and wrote "BLANKET NIGHT" on the June 24th square of the family calendar... and waited. Last night was the big night and I decided to take no chances, so we got there early... or so I thought!

THE BIG NIGHT 

Monday's Rox game against the Badlands Big Sticks was scheduled for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch. That meant the gates opened at 5:35 and the first 300 fans through the gates would get the blanket.

So, we arrived at the game at 5:15 p.m. and oh my goodness was the line to get in the game already long! I could not believe it!

Sure, for a bobblehead or even a jersey I would definitely expect such a turnout and would absolutely plan to get there even earlier in the day... but a blanket?!! Color me shocked.

SHOUTOUT TO THE ROX 

On the Rox end, they did an AMAZING job of getting all of us into the park really promptly. I had two ticking time bombs, one two years old and one seven, and their fuse didn't even have time to get lit before we were inside the Rock Pile. I don't know -exactly- how long it took to get in, but it was no more than 10 minutes.

There is truly something for everyone at the Rox game: My seven-year-old goes for the Sprite and bounce house; my two year old is in it solely for the food (and reminding himself he isn't scared of Chisel the mascot), my wife loves the in-game entertainment/people-watching and my dad and I enjoyed the game itself. It was a perfect night.

In the end, we got our blanket and, as an added bonus, we were treated to another wonderful night of baseball on a summer night in Central Minnesota.