The bride wore white, the groom wore a tux and the guests of honor wore dirty uniforms.
Keyspan Park hosted its first wedding on Saturday night — the marriage of Dave Kerpen and Carrie Fisher — and despite the kitschiness of the setting, the union of the two big-time baseball fans was a moving celebration of love.
More than 1,000 people lingered after the July 8 loss to the State College Spikes — rising for several standing ovations for the bride and cheering wildly when Kerpen smashed the traditional wine glass at home plate.
The Jewish wedding was non-traditional only in so much as the groomsmen and bridesmaids were arranged on the foul lines and virtually all the guests were strangers munching peanuts and Cracker Jack.
It was even traditional right down to the rabbi, who stuck a little too closely to his script.
“Play ball!” one bored fan yelled out at one point.
Kerpen and Fisher, both 29 and both Mets fans, met years ago when they worked for Radio Disney in Boston. Kerpen was smitten, but Fisher was married, so he had to bide his time.
When she divorced, he made his move (some Cyclone fans wish the hometown pitchers had such a good move).
The groom’s brother said Fisher was perfect for Kerpen.
“She’s the most similar person to my brother I’ve ever met — except that she’s a beautiful woman and he’s not,” said Phil Kerpen.
To pay for the wedding, the couple shilled for some of their sponsors, including appearing in a cheesy video for their jeweler that was shown on the Keyspan video screen, which did elicit a groan from the sellout crowd.
Sandy the Seagull even wore a tuxedo.
Cyclone players, who participated, creating a “Field of Dreams”–style canopy of baseball bats through which Kerpen and Fisher took their first married steps.
“I think he’s found someone who will be there for him forever,” Cyclone relief pitcher Grady Hinchman said of Kerpen.
Hinchman, 24, is the only player on the team who is married (for all of a month!), but he had a good feeling about the Kerpen-Fisher nuptials.
“If he’s found a woman who will get married on a baseball field, he’s found the right girl,” he said.
June 15, 2006 issue
