Hot or Cold?

Growing up in South Holland, the best fast food location was Sub Port with Taco Castle coming in a close second.  

I'll tell you, the sandwiches there were fantastic.  Everyone had their own foot-long favorite. 

One of the hardest choices was whether to order it hot or cold.  At a rapid fire pace, the cashiers would ask, "Hot or cold?" after you placed your order.   They asked this hundreds of times per day so they were blurring all the sounds together, so it came out almost without vowels and sounded like "Ht r Cld?" 

Sometimes, at the drive-thru, we would pretend not to understand and see how many times we could get them to repeat, "Hot or Cold?" through the speaker. 

Sub Port was open late and on weekends, before our teenage gang ended the night, we typically made a run for a midnight snack.  The drive-thru lines were always long and we were always hungry so we devised a plan for speedier service.  

While the lines to order were long at the drive-thru, there was usually a two-car gap between the order screen and pickup window.  We would simply skip the order screen and slip into line at the pickup window.  This way we bypassed a dozen cars in line and procured the food the person immediately behind us had ordered.

This was our version of Sub Port Roulette.  When we got to the window, we would pay for the goods, but the food we "ordered" was a mystery until we opened the bag. 

The food was always a winner, we just never knew if we would be the losers if there wasn’t enough to fill our bellies.

On Tuesday, the Cougars were hot, then cold, and then were the losers because we didn't fill ourselves up with runs.

First Inning

Tappers had first raps and only their leadoff hitter reached base.  Good defense left him there.

Facing our nemesis, Brennan, we went down 1-2-3.

Second Inning

Facing their nemesis, Martin, the Tappers went down 1-2-3.

In our frame, Coffey got a single and ran all the way home on Danielsen’s base hit.

Cougars up 1-0.

Third Inning

The Tappers spayed the ball and scored three.

What an inning!  Consecutive crushes by Kale, Teddy, Flandog, Jimmy and Diamond Dave garnered us a couple tallies.

All tied up at 3.

Fourth Inning

Another 1-2-3 inning by the Cougar defense.

Another 1-2-3 inning by the Cougar offense.

Still all tied up at 3.

Fifth Inning

One run for the Tappers.

No runs for the Cougars.

Tappers 4 Cougars 3.

Sixth Inning

A couple of singles for the Tappers but no runs.

Kale dinged a double but we couldn’t get him home.

Score was still Tappers 4 Cougars 3.

Seventh Inning

The Tappers found the open spots on the field and touched the dish three times to take a four run lead.

Cold bats for the Cougars and we were out 1-2-3.

Game over.  Tappers win 7-3 to take the season series.

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Next week the Cougars are playing Howard Park Roulette and bypassing our opponent to pick up a hot victory.

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Game Video

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Postgame Pictures

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It was a united postgame event.  JD supplied the backyard while Ryan and Tim supplied the food and drink.  We all filled our bellies.  A wonderful time.  (Sorry that I did not get more pics - too busy eating and talking - lots of others at the shindig including many kids).