Eddie Prasch and the Giant Donut

I don't know Eddie Prasch very well, but I speak to him occasionally in the dugout. He seems rather quiet to me. I think he's very focused on his game. Eddie covers third base for the Hickory Crawdads.

My observations of Eddie throughout this season are that he's an excellent fielder. Early in the season, his batting seemed very strong as well. As the season progressed, he seemed to be slipping just a little at the plate, but his current batting average (before tonight's game) was a solid .240.

Now... on to the thing about the giant donut...

When we see a big ole hairy ZERO on the scoreboard next to a player's home run count, we affectionately refer to this as a DONUT. Eddie has been carrying a donut around with him for a long time it seems. As I did a little research, I discovered an interesting factoid. Eddie was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004 and he has failed to hit a home run in his first 509 trips to the plate. I'm fairly confident that this little tidbit has been hanging around in the back of Eddie's mind for some time now.

Eddie got off to a great start tonight with a stand-up double on his first trip to the plate. This was followed by a single on his next trip. On his third trip, the waters parted and a light appeared above the right field wall. His ball was sucked into oblivion, chalking up Mr. Prasch's first professional home run. A crowd of over 4,500 at L.P. Frans Stadium rose to their feet and cheered Eddie on as he rounded the bases.

I immediately decided that Eddie was going to be the recipient of my newly founded "Big League Chew Player of the Game" award. I have been carrying a pack of Big League Chew bubble gum to the last few games with me, which I award to some outstanding performance of the evening. I had already finished photographing for the evening when this event happened, so I returned to the dugout to present Eddie with his Big League Chew.

I stayed in the dugout for a bit, chatting and watching the game. Eddie returned to the plate for his fourth time of the evening, so I stepped up to watch. All I can say about what happened next is DAMN! That same light that ate Eddie's donut appeared again over the left field wall. Mr. Prasch had hit back to back home runs. His first one was a solo and this one was a three-run dinger, which put the 'Dads on top of Lakewood by a score of 9-4. Over 4,500 fans erupted for a second time of the evening. It was a beautiful night at the ball park...

Congratulations Eddie... Keep up the great work :)

John M. Setzler, Jr.
(the guy with the camera)