It was during my first year as a scorer of APUSH essays in 2008 that I really fell in love with Minor League Baseball. That year- and for seven more years afterwards- the scoring was in the Kentucky Convention Center in Louisville, and at least three evenings during the week of grading I would wander down the River Walk and drop $5 to watch a few innings of the Bats v. the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Toledo Mud Hens, the Pawtucket Red Sox, etc. The atmosphere was (almost) always great and they even welcomed us Readers on the scoreboard. Perfect way to unwind after eight hours of scoring essays.
But every once in a while, one of those beautiful nights at Bats Stadium included the unctuous "Bark at the Park" ritual. Not being a dog owner, I'm never going to appreciate the attraction of taking a dog to a baseball game. And it didn't help that the food special was $1 hot dogs because they were (yuck) boiled, which should be a war crime.
*As I prepare for a third straight year in Kansas City- where, again, the Royals will be on the road and there is no minor league team available to spend an evening enjoying- ChatGBT is giving me a glimmer of hope, predicting that after a decade of exile we APUSH Readers may well be welcomed back to Louisville in 2027. If that's really a possibility, I take back anything bad I've ever said about Bark at the Park. I'll put up with the dogs if I can get the Bats back.
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