Passing the Hat

My friend Harrell, my roommate during my freshman year in college, is a big baseball fan. Since he lives in Austin, he goes to the Round Rock Express games. He also makes a trip or two to Houston every year to see the Astros.

He loves the minor league game, where fans in Round Rock literally "pass the hat" to collect money for players after they hit a home run. Here's his latest report from the Express game in which Andy Pettitte pitched on his rehab assignment:

Just came back from the Express game. Pettitte actually looked sharper than the 2 runs in 3 innings would show. He's much bigger and stockier than I had imagined.

The best part was that all night long we were hitting balls right to their outfielders, and Frisco carried a 5-1 lead into the 8th, when we loaded the bases and then Matranga hit a grand-slam to tie the game. Man we were giddy. We went on to win in the 10th.

I bet Matranga made at least $700 in donations, everyone one, including me was shelling out the dollars, it was a sellout and the largest crowd ever at Dell Diamond, 13,500. The place was rockin' at the end, fun for all.

(The following is in reponse to my question of whether the Round Rock fans pass the hat after every home team home run:)
Yep. I only shell out about twice a season. It's fun. Only costs a dollar, and I think the players getting the extra money is appreciated, I think they only make about 15K for the season. We shelled out for (Jeff) Kent went he was here. He should have paid us.