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THE LIFE OF THE PARTY! Sitting
in the right-field bleachers at Lackawanna County Stadium, Bob Williams looks at
the poster he's holding in his hand and nods his head toward the parking lots
outside.
"Out in my trunk I've got a stack of these like this," he said, holding his thumb and forefinger two inches apart. "Want to see them?" Anybody who's been to a Red Barons home game in the past three months has seen some of the signs that live in Williams' trunk. Williams and classmates Don Knight and Dave Lefchak -- all of them recent Scranton High School graduates-- are the founding members of the Sean Fesh Fan Club, the growing pack of fans -- many of them Scranton High classmates -- in the right-field bleachers who have brought life to the stadium. Not that they reserve their affection strictly for Fesh, the Red Barons' side-ariming, left- handed relief pitcher. As the Red barons have emerged as the top contender in the International League North race, Williams, Knight, and Lefchak and the friends who join them have become a pleasant fixture at home games, the ones leading the chanting, dancing, singing, and cheering. "I think it's crazy but its pretty neat," Fesh said. "They're fantastic. They make it a little more exciting. It's too bad there weren't 5,000 people like that, because this would be an incredible place to play with that type of enthusiasm." They don't see why their energy makes them the exception. "It's a lot of fun coming out and getting behind the team," Knight said, "especially when we're in first place. You'd think we'd get more people out to the park with the team playing so well. But we have a pretty good time here, anyway." "It seems like it's all senior citizens and 4-year-olds," Williams said. "That's rough, but we try to get them into the game. The season ticket holders are pretty good." In what often seems to be a funeral parlor of a stadium, the Fesh Fan Club is a maternity ward, bringing unabashed joviality to the pallor that normally descends over Lackawanna County Stadium. They are the ones with the signs reading Un-Fesh-in-believable and Fesh 3:16 and Death, Taxes, Fesh. Or Pine Sol -- Pine Fesh 66, Licensed to Fesh, and F-E-S-H spells relief. And don't forget Fesh=mc˛. They are the ones who shelled out $200 to buy the Scranton Miners uniforms worn by Fesh and Joel Bennett during the Red Barons' turn back the clock game against the Columbus Clippers. They are the ones who incessantly taunt opposing right fielders. -- "Why the right fielder? Because he's there," Williams said. -- who dance to the between-innings music, who are impossible to ignore when they start cheering for their favorite players and who lace songs with Red Barons- related lyrics. Hence, they're living La Vida Lucca. "They pay their money and they're like, 'Hey, we're going to dance in the stands if we want and have fun,'" Fesh said. "Instead of waiting for something to happen, they're trying to make something happen." They aren't some casual fans, either. They traveled to Syracuse to see the Red Barons play the Skychiefs. Some of their number have been to every home game since May. They bought Fesh's and Bennett's uniforms. Among their own game-day uniforms are their Scranton High caps and gowns and Williams' flourescent orange vest from his summer job with Bell Atlantic. To top it off, Knight built a website -- fesh.homepage.com -- that the group takes turns maintaining. It's loaded with the signs they bring, Fesh stories, pictures and other entertaining bits and actually is better than many of the International League teams' internet sites. "It's funny," said third baseman Lou Lucca, he of La Vida Lucca fame. "At first we were getting on Fesh because the signs they brought were all about him. But it's good to have them here, because it gets everybody into it. They even started singing my name in that Ricky Martin song. It's a good group of guys there." The fan club began innocently enough, during a May 21 home game against Durham. Fesh, who signed as a free agent last summer after his father approached Dallas Green at a Red Barons game and convinced him to give his son a tryout, pitched the ninth inning of a 4-3 loss to the Bulls. The fan-club-to-be then came upon a Sports Illustrated article that over-dramatized Fesh's father's efforts to track down Green, but were intrigued by his motivation. "This guy Fesh came in, he was hammering away, he looked good and we thought it would be fun," Knight said. "One night we brought a sign and showed it to him, and they laughed about it. We started coming every night, then we saw the article in Sports Illustrated and it turns out he's a great guy. We met his family and his girlfriend and we've talked to people in his hometown. It's a lot of fun." It's also come to be a lot of money. They figure they've spent at least $300 each buying bleacher seats and food, not to mention the $100 they paid for each jersey. "There's been some really good signs," Fesh said. " I don't know if I can pick out one in particular. They all have been pretty interesting. Every night you don't know what to expect. You don't know what type of sign or what kind of clothes they'll come out with." College beckons this fall for the founding Fesh-heads, but they expect to leave their campuses should the Red Barons win the IL North and make the playoffs. Until then they've got 18 more home games, plus two in Syracuse. "We come here and forget everything that bothers you," Knight said. "All that matters is baseball and having a good time at the game." Click Here to go back to the ZOO!
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