Balloon skydiver delays softball game
JANESVILLE — Middle school softball season was wrapping up Monday night at Marshall Middle School when a man dropped out of the sky.
It was during the seventh-inning stretch when two parachutists dropped out of a hot-air balloon, said Anne Gohlke, coach of the Marshall 1 team.
The Marshall Cardinals were playing Beloit Aldrich Middle School 2 in their last game of the season.
One skydiver landed in the area of nearby Monroe Elementary School, and the other, a man, guided himself over the Marshall tennis courts, landing in center field, Gohlke said.
"I think we were all kind of in shock to see he was actually landing on our field," Gohlke said. "As the umpire said, 'I've never experienced that.' We just stopped play because it was between innings, and we all just watched him land."
The man gathered his chute and didn't stop to talk to anyone, walking in the direction of the other skydiver, Gohlke said.
Gohlke said two other parachutists had dropped from the same balloon earlier, disappearing to the north and west.
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Oct 17, 2012 at 12:34 p.m.
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Do you need a permit or permission of some sort to do this? Seems like it is not an appropriate area to do this in either.
Oct 16, 2012 at 6:23 p.m.
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I could never figure out why a person would jump out of a perfectly good hot air balloon (or airplane).
Oct 16, 2012 at 4:12 p.m.
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He just dropped in to see what condition his condition was in.
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