Fireworks WEEK

Fireworks Fridays at the ballpark are always among the most popular nights of the year. People love sitting in their seats and watching the night sky light up over the Atlantic.

With that in mind, we've expanded the fireworks to beyond just Fridays this year, and have created an entire week of fireworks, July 22nd-25th!

Behind the scenes, the fireworks shows can be a little stressful. The usual Friday night shows are not under the Cyclones' control, though we work with and support them. They are set to go off at 9:30pm every Friday night, but as you probably know, sometimes our games are not quite finished at that point. The shows can be held off until 10pm, at which point, I have heard that the fire marshal on duty literally starts pushing the buttons to begin the show, due to city ordinances.

Unfortunately, sometimes our games are still not over by 10, so we have -- from time to time -- had in-game fireworks, rather than postgame fireworks. (Last year, in particular, we seemed to run into this problem every Friday night.)

This makes for some funny imagery (pictures of the players' reactions are great), some very unfortunate timing (the worst was when the show started immediately after JR Voyles had been hit in the face), and some interesting at-bats (Paul Lo Duca said he'd never experienced anything like it).

Despite the hassles and the heartburn they cause, though, the fireworks do make the fans happy. So, while adding a few more shows this year during Fireworks Week may also add a few more ulcers for Steve Cohen (watching him sweat out the long innings near 10pm can sometimes be the best entertainment of the night), in the end, we hope you'll enjoy them and make it all worthwhile.

-- Dave