Ireland’s finest so proud to face New York’s bravest

Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic seems to nestle on the humid air and float away off to the Ramapo Mountains, visible in the distance beyond the ballpark’s centre field fence.

“And when that foghorn blows, you know I will be coming home.”

It’s the top of the seventh and final inning of the Irish baseball team’s exhibition game against the Fire Department of New York’s team, the FDNY Bravest. It’s taken this long for a decent song to pop up on the PA system — Irish Heritage Day in Rockland County has been leaning far too heavily on toora-loora, The Pogues and U2.