The colors strike you first. The impossible green of the outfield, the nutmeg base paths, the shocking red of the home team's kneesocks.
As you settle into your seat at Franklin Covey Field, home of the Salt Lake Stingers Triple-A baseball team, your soul breathes. On the field, young men vie for a shot at the bigs (in this case, the Anaheim Angels, the team's major-league affiliate), while in the stands sit even younger men, slapping small fists in new baseball gloves as they dream big dreams.
Three up, three down. A shot over the wall in the sixth ― the ball seems to carry to the peaks of the Wasatch Range. Singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch, you realize that the perfection of this spring night has stretched through a hundred American summers. And the season is just getting started.
Batter up
The Salt Lake Stingers play Apr 8-Sep 2. $5-$8. 77 West 1300 South, Salt Lake City; www.stingersbaseball.com or 801/485-3800.
