“Ants Marching” by Dave Matthews Band
The current spring-like weather we are having here in Chapel Hill has me turning to my “Pantana” playlist. It’s one all centered around these classic college bands. You know the ones I’m talking about: REM, Sublime, Tom Petty, Blues Traveler, etc. But it also covers the current “college bands” we have had in Chapel Hill: Ripe, Kendall Street Company, Moon Taxi, Atlas Road Crew to name a few.
Anyway, as I sat at my house’s front yard picnic table (best investment we’ve ever made) typing away at an essay, “Ants Marching” came on. The opening strike, as if on cue, flooded my mind with images of green grass, garnet stadium seats, and the smell of salted pretzels.
This infamous Dave Matthews Band hit takes me back to spring Sundays at Founders Park and Carolina Baseball games with my grandfather. I truly think it was almost divine intervention that each and every Sunday (without fail) had weather like I experienced this past week in Chapel Hill.
Let me set the scene for you.
I’m about 11 years old, pulling up to Founders Park with my grandfather after church. It was a tradition of ours. I spent a lot of time at South Carolina baseball games, at Gamecock games in general, but there was something extra special about a Sunday series closing game. It always felt a little separated, being perfectly in the afternoon and almost guaranteed to have great weather.
The two of us always sat on the upper level of the 3rd base side, a perfect view of the game and close enough to hear the infamous hecklers taunt the visitor’s bench. We always had the slight breeze drifting over from centerfield that kept us cool during those impossibly humid April and May games. When I first started going to games in 5th grade, I would go to about one home game a week. By the next season (which was the 2011 Back to Back National Championships), I was at every single weekend series game and somehow convinced my parents to let me go to the Tuesday night games as well. The security guards and Athletic Department administrators all knew me by name, and I somehow became the unofficial mascot for the staff. It wasn’t common to have someone so young, let alone a young girl, so invested in Carolina Baseball. (Yes I said Carolina, and yes South Carolina is “Carolina” in Columbia.)
But back to the song, since that is what this blog is about anyway. The reason I always think of South Carolina games is because every Sunday, without fail, Ants Marching would boom over the loudspeakers at Founders Park at the start of the 5th inning. The upbeat tune was a reprieve from the intense silence while awaiting a pitch or the harsh cracks of the (then) aluminum bats. It was almost fitting for “America’s Pastime” to have this classical college pop-rock band as its ambience. Honestly, it’s hard for me to describe but I truly can’t hear that song without thinking of the 5th inning at Founders.
And if we really want to get deep, we can think about the correlation between the nice, easy Sunday at Founders Park being our break from the daily ants marching. It’s a picturesque day where my only concern was whether Christian Walker would hit another home run or maybe, just maybe, I could snag a foul ball.
I know most people think of baseball games as boring and drawn out, but it was never just about the game for me. No, South Carolina baseball games were truly an experience. I look back so fondly on those games because of the people I befriended, the growing love I had for the game, and the easy escape it was, with guaranteed great weather of course.
