Baseball: "It's More like the Pulse of Life..."

Story and Photos by Kelsey Snider

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – And the crowd goes wild! Ahhhhhhh! What is it that brings a baseball stadium to life? 

It’s the fans. The die-hard baseball loving fans.

"I was still in this seat when it was really cold…there were some nights where I was like I’m going to need a microwave to warm-up, but it didn’t matter," Robert Silver, a Syracuse Chiefs fan, said in an interview in the third row seats right behind home plate. 

On Wednesday night, the Chiefs played the third game of a series against the Buffalo Bisons. The Chiefs won 6-1, but the result of the game isn’t what keeps three particular fans coming back to every game year after year.

It's the love of baseball.

Robert Silver: "Baseball is the perfect American game."

For the past three years, Silver has been a season ticket holder and says he has not missed a single home game. He says he comes because he simply enjoys the game.

He enjoys the teamwork that the game presents. Silver says that there is not one player that is more important than another.

"If everyone works together and does their best, you have to succeed," Silver said.

Silver’s first Chiefs game was four years ago, and it only took four games before he realized that he loved going to the games, and he has been going to every game ever since.

Silver says he will leave work based on the Chiefs schedule. He says the games help him forget about the work day.

"After the Star-Spangled Banner and play ball, I'm in," Silver said.

Silver sits right behind home plate every game. He says he likes to sit there because if it's a left handed pitcher and a right handed batter, then he can read the pitch. He says he can focus and enjoy the game that way.

David Okun: "It’s more like the pulse of life."

David Okun, a Chiefs fan, says he has been going to the Chiefs games ever since the first one in April of 1961. He has been to every single home game for 55 years and even goes to most of the away games. And the games he can’t make, he’ll watch online.

Okun grew up watching the Chiefs. His father took him to his first game when he was six years old and has been hooked ever since. But it’s not the score or the statistics that keep him going back, it’s the love for the game.

"There's something different about baseball," Okun said in an interview in the first row of section 207 on Wednesday, "It’s almost like breathing. It’s more than a sport to me." 

He enjoys getting to know the stories of the players. He says most of the players in Triple-A are veterans. The players who have been in the Major League and have come down because of different circumstances. Okun says he appreciates the decisions players have to make while in Triple-A. Decisions that are heartwarming or sad regarding the player's future.

Okun sits along the first base line in that second section, halfway up the lower stands every game.

Kathleen Woollacott: "I like the game, but I love to be here."

Kathleen Woollacott says she has been a fan for 14 years. And again, it’s not because of what’s on the scoreboard.

"It’s terrible because people see me here all the time and think I know the statistics and I don’t.," Woollacott said in an interview in the first row right behind the Chiefs dugout on Wednesday. "It’s just the game. I like to be here, and I like to see a good game,"

Woollcott, who has only missed two games this season, says she loves the atmosphere of the stadium. She remembers her favorite moment at NBT Bank stadium.

"One time it started to rain, and I listened to it on the radio. I listen to them calling the game. They said everybody’s gone up undercover because of the rain except that gutsy fan in the first row with the flowered umbrella. And that tickled me more than anything I’ve ever heard," Woollacott said.

Woollacott says she has been to every game, rain or shine, sitting along the third base line right behind the Chiefs dugout for 14 years and has only missed 14 games.

So whether it's the teamwork, the player's stories, or the atmosphere that brings fans to the game, there is one thing in common, they come because they love the game of baseball.