News

By Emily Shoffit

There are some things found at the ballpark that are simply unforgettable: the crack of the bat, the freshly cooked hot dogs with mustard and relish and, most of all, the fans.

And in Leesburg, Florida, one particular group of fans has left their mark on the town’s Florida Collegiate Summer League team, the Lightning.

“Come on in!” the voice of a petite elderly woman hollers over her two barking Chihuahuas. “They won’t take more than a leg.”

Marie Armstrong is one of the four infamous “front-row ladies” that call Pat Thomas Stadium their second home. Lucky and Trixie, the two guardians of her mobile home, are honorary fans of the Leesburg Lightning as well. Armstrong has been following the Lightning for four years now. She and her other front-row faithful—Jenny, Joann and Jan—are at every Leesburg home game to cheer and bring cookies for the boys of summer.

“They’re noticeable. They’re unmistakable,” said Jack Meier, a member of the Lightning board of directors. “When you see them there, you know who they are and that they’re there because they’re true fans. We have a lot of fans, but they probably know most of the players on a first-name basis. They can look at the number and tell you who it is.”

Armstrong sits in her breakfast nook with her furry companions on her lap and wall of priceless family memories near her side. The partition is barely big enough for all the photos of her six children, 13 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren.

A striking young man in a United States Army uniform heads the collection of frames. She met him at a bar in San Jose, California, called Tradewinds in 1972.

“I went and tried to sell my car to the bartender,” Armstrong recollected. “He came up to me and said, ‘Let’s dance,’ and told me ‘Don’t sell your car to the bartender. He’s trying to take advantage of you. If you can’t make your car payment, I’ll write you a check for it.’ He did. So I married him.”

Armstrong was born and raised in Ohio but lived in California and Oregon before moving with her husband to Florida. In Ohio, she was raised a Cincinnati Reds fan but chose to love the Oakland A’s when she moved within the team’s perimeter in the 70s.

She stepped away from Major League Baseball when she moved to Florida in 1999, and in 2007 the Lightning were founded. Armstrong attended games, but it became difficult to do so with her husband’s health decline.

“We went to a few games, but he fell in the stadium twice,” she said. “We couldn’t go anymore. After he passed away, then I started going all the time.”

Since her first game as one of the front-row faithful, she’s made new friends and countless memories at Pat Thomas. She and her fellow Leesburg fanatics typically don’t travel to away games unless it’s the league championship game at Tropicana Field. But they will always be at every Lightning home game, arriving hours before game time to make sure they get their seats.

“Rain or shine, we’re there at least two hours early to save our seats,” she said.

Armstrong has always been a big fan of baseball, and it runs in the family. Sometimes her grandchildren accompany her to games and run the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning with the rest of the “Lightning Bugs.”

If she had to choose one favorite memory from her front-row service time, she couldn't do it. Each year is filed away as favorite in her book. She has drawers full of Lightning memorabilia: team photos, baseball cards, etc. But like the special keepsakes she brings home on summer nights at the ballpark, Armstrong and her group make a trip to a Lightning game more memorable—unforgettable, even.

“We’ve gone to baseball games at Lake Sumter [Community College] before, and [Chuck Johnson, Lightning P.A. announcer] told us that if we were to come in one at a time, we’d be hard to recognize,” she said. “But when all four of us come in together, you know who we are.”