It was raining like cats and dogs on Mother's Day 2025!
Now, I have never understood what exactly that expression really means, so in 2025, let's all start a new expression for very heavy rain. It was raining like bath tubs and water towers, that stuff really hurts!
I was praying and hoping while driving all the way into Charleston that the Riverdogs baseball game would not be a rainout. After eating at Pearlz, we got to The Joe parking lot, waited fifteen minutes in our car, and it stopped raining. Hallelujah!
Well, if you have not been to The Joe for a Riverdogs game, here is why we have enjoyed our multiple visits.
Everyone from Steve in the parking lot to the ballpark greeter checking your tickets to John at the food concession stand, to Susan dispensing beer are all smiling, welcoming, friendly, respectful, and very helpful. They are all, hell bent on making sure you enjoy a great experience at the Riverdogs game.
The food is very good, and no, I don't mean for ballpark food, it's very good food. Did you ever eat a smoked hot dog? I have, at a Riverdogs game, and it is good...od! Thanks, Uncle Eddy. Man, Yelp will let anyone in these reviews.
All the folks here are so Family centric. We had elementary aged children walking from the Home dugout to the Visitors dugout before the game announcing each of their schools names that they attend. Some were waving, some walking fast, some shyly strolling, some were taking to their friends, some looked bewildered as to why they were there.
The Charleston Riverdogs Fun Bunch had organized those same children and had them competing for prizes between innings, tossing baseballs into aprons, running baseballs between bins, and racing children's electric cars all down the third base line, and "the little blond haired boy" whose electric car would not start, you was robbed! All the while grins from ear to ear, not on one of their faces, but on all of those children, their Dad's and most especially on their Mom's faces. Man, that was great to witness as we were both chuckling, laughing and smiling from ear to ear as well.
Their Mascot, Charlie T. Riverdog was outstanding not missing high-fiving, or bending down for a picture. He really looked for fans young, old, and in between, elevating their excitement by simply becoming part of their World for a few minutes. When he was beside my seat and two young boys were behind him waiting patiently to meet him, all I had to quietly say was "behind you", and Charlie turned hugging and greeting them both and those young children smiles lit up like the lights on Broadway!
There was a Father, Mother, and adult Son sharing a hot dog and a beer in the row below us talking, laughing and smiling with each other. It all felt terrific, fun, happy, touching, and wonderful to watch these types of Family interactions everywhere you turned.
I went to the Riverdogs Service Office which is the first window on your right as you enter the ballpark. I asked if they would post a Happy Mother's Day greeting for my bewitching, beguiling, breathtakingly beautiful lover and wife of forty-five years, wishing her a Happy Mothers Day from our two sons and myself. They were happy to do so and all of these greetings appeared on their right-center field electronic scoreboard between the fourth and fifth innings. And yes, the "Ah..., that was sweet, thank you Honey, along with a kiss and you guessed it, a big smile, made her day!
There is not a bad seat at The Joe! If you want to do it Chicago Cubs style like Bill Murray (the Actor and Comedian) you may choose to relax with a libation on Murray's Mezzanine and watch our Riverdogs.
Ok, ok, so how competitive is the baseball and how well do the Riverdogs play?
82 to 93 mile an hour pitches, very good defensive fielding everywhere. Home runs? Two, one from the Riverdogs and one from Columbia whose bats finally woke up in the seventh inning, I felt, due to our Riverdogs relief pitching.
Score 3-2, Riverdogs Win!
So if you want to see some great, completive baseball, meet some of the nicest, polite, welcoming vendors, and enjoy the heart warming antics of Team Fun Bunch in Charleston, SC, then do grab, your Mom and Dad, your Sisters and Brothers, your Uncles and Aunts, your friends and neighbors and come on down to see our Riverdogs fight the good fight. Why?
Because you might really enjoy sharing an uplifting baseball event with your fellow fans in ways you never expected. And maybe, just maybe, you and your Family will walk away feeling you've help create, and have been part of an indelible, lifelong, happy memory for all of your Family to share with each other!
I know we did.
Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers around the World, for without all of your collective love, the human race would not exist. This from a very grateful son and Father. I miss you very much, Mom.
BTW, it did not rain a drop throughout the game. We got in our car and bang, the rain started again. God is the Best.
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