Have you ever been to a baseball game and seen the manager walk out to the pitcher’s mound around the 7th inning, have a bit of a discussion with the pitcher and catcher, then give a signal to the bullpen and bring in a fresh reinforcement to finish the game? Or maybe a ringer to smack one out of the park?

Well, today I’m going to put all of our readers on my imaginary Golden baseball team. Some of you have already been in the game for a while, but I’m going to pull the rest of you off the bench and send you in as relief pitchers and pinch hitters to win one for our hometown.

The game has a name, it’s the 7th Annual Taste of Golden — On the Town. It started on April 30, but the final inning isn’t until May 9. That means that you still have an entire weekend to get in the game and win a participation trophy.

The taste of Golden is an annual event presented by the Golden Chamber of Commerce with the help of numerous sponsors. It was created to showcase the local cuisine, distilleries and breweries in town. Usually this happens under one roof, with everyone bringing samples of their goods and you’d buy a ticket to get into the event. Well, of course 2020 happened and that made everything more difficult but this year they are taking a different approach and running the event for 10 days with patrons able to enjoy it by going out “on the town” to the various participating venues. It’s free of charge to join the fun and they have an app set up that let’s you turn it into a game for yourself and the local businesses. Visit www.goldenchamber.org.

First off, here’s the team roster of participating businesses:

Ali Baba’s Grill, Anthony’s Pizza, Atost, Barrels and Bottles, Basic Kneads, Bella Colibri, Bob’s Atomic Burgers, Bonefish Grill, Bridgewater Grill, Buffalo Rose, Café 13, Capitol Grill, Cast Iron Tavern, Cheese Ranch, Croc Soup, Dominos’s El Dorado, Golden City Brewery, Golden Goods, Golden Mill, Golden Moon Speakeasy, Golden Sweets, Goozell, Holidaily, Indulge, Lil’ Ricci’s, Miners Saloon, New Terrain, Origin, Over Yonder Brewing Company, Pizza Hut, Roaming Buffalo, Schnepfs, Snarfs, Table Mountain Grill, Thai Gold, Trailhead Tap House, Tributary, Windy Saddle and Woody’s Pizza …And for your canine team mascots, Camp Bow Wow.

So, all of these places will be running some kind of specials for the event but here’s where the game comes in. They have an app for this that presents you with various challenges and goals. Some of it is trivia, other things include visiting the establishments and it all adds up points for prizes. There is a real-time leader board on the app as well as photos of the action. Kind of like putting yourself on the Jumbotron and score board, except you can hold it in your hand.

To get the app just look for Scavify in your apps store and download it onto your phone. Once it’s downloaded and installed, look in the events for Taste of Golden. Then you’re all set. Just follow the instructions there. You may be a little late to the game, but it’s still fun to play.

Although I’m putting this into the perspective of playing a game, there is a serious side to it as well. During the last year all of our local businesses were pretty much stressed to the breaking point and it’s been so hard for all of them just to keep their doors open. A Taste of Golden is our community’s chance to give a little support to some of the wonderful places that make our town special. Take a look at that list above. For a small town, it’s pretty impressive. There is so much variety there that you have to be able to find something you like. Probably lot’s of things. Help keep them open by dropping by this weekend. They will appreciate it more than you can imagine.

So, we’re in the middle of the 7th Inning Stretch, Harry Caray just finished singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame (Yes, I know half of you are too young to remember who Harry Carey was, just Google him), and it’s time to get in there and score a few runs for our hometown team of businesses. Batter up! Play Ball!

John Akal is a well-known jazz artist/drummer and leader of the 20-piece Ultraphonic Jazz Orchestra. He also is president of John Akal Imaging, professional commercial photography and multi-media production. He can be reached at jaimaging@aol.com