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The ongoing Domination of Eiler peacekeeping mission in Lansing-Michigan is going on so long, it allows for two baseball seasons. The Dominator missed out on the last one. It's time to catch up.
The Dominator actually prefers minor league baseball to majors, because the minors care more about their fans. He feels that way about cities too. Lansing-Michigan is a minor-league city, and that's a good thing.
The baseball team which dominates here is the Lansing Lugnuts, minor league affiliates of Toronto. Their enemies the Kane County Cougars are visiting from Elgin, Core Territory of Illinois, Domination of Eiler. This game is like the Domination Classic. And it's a convenient Saturday afternoon game. And it's Play Pants Day, the Domination of Eiler holiday which is the first day of wearing shorts.
- Expeditionary force showed up an hour before the game. Five minutes would have sufficed.
- Stadium was about 10% occupied. Admittedly the weather forecast was "cloudy with showers", but that usually beats the "partly cloudy with thunderstorms" which prevails through most parts of baseball season through most parts of the Domination of Eiler.
- A Domination-grade clubhouse seat was occupied: first row, aisle, overlooking 3rd base, with trivial access to indoor barroom seating. Indoor proved useful for journalling, and for avoiding one famlee that apparently got a cheap upgrade during the game. Their baby in the stroller even got in free.
- The barroom has overpriced sandwiches, albeit with meat freshly carved. Beer is reasonable by baseball park standards, though. Up here, an imperial pint of Newcastle Brown costs $6.5 USD. Down in the stands, that's about what Budweiser costs.
- The Dominator's loyalties are divided. He wore his Elgin Maroons T-shirt, just so he could demonstrate his Illinois knowledge of what one town and their high school baseball team in Kane County are called. He also wore his stylish "Fatface the Baby" baseball cap in a declaration of neutrality, instead of buying an $18 Lugnuts cap. But he clapped for the Lugnuts.
- Both teams displayed their audience commitment and their mastery of the stadium, by hitting foul balls to all parts of the audience. The audience was well pleased.
- With their Dominator in the house, the clouds dared not rain, and the home team won, 10-4! But the series still goes 2-1, Kane County.
The operation was bicycle-based, and therefore used an all-digital soundtrack. The Conquering Car is still stuck with an old tape deck. After 20 years, the tapes are getting kind of boring.
- 600 songs are now loaded on the former Conquering Cell Phone, which now serves as a music player so the current Conquering Cell Phone can serve as a camera, which comes in handy for unexpected photo opportunities such as happen at minor league ball parks. The current phone can do both those things, but it really burns through its batteries.
- Thanks in part to recent collaboration with allies, the current soundtrack is dominated by Radiohead, Triumvirat, the Dead Milkmen, and the Statler Brothers. Four similar soundtracks stand ready for future operations, before repeating the songs already recorded.
- This is to say, recording operations are going well. More digital songs have been obtained and recorded in the last three months, than ever before. And it's great fun to dredge up some of those old songs, and to find new songs which the allies recommend.
Down time in South Lansing at the Cadillac Club, unfortunately with an Elvis impersonator. At least he was Fat Elvis, the most realistic kind. But next weekend, there's a comedy show of Lansing's funniest women, including one City Council member who shows up at neighborhood meetings. Bought a ticket for that.
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