Beth El Men's Club and Emanuel Synagogue Brotherhood had collaborated many times in the past. When it was announced that a minor-league baseball team would be coming to Hartford in 2016, we came up with the idea of having an outing together. The team schedule came out, and we identified a Sunday afternoon game that would work for us. We then learned that there would not be kosher food options in the ballpark, and we'd be prohibited from bringing our own food into the ballpark. We discussed various options in providing a meal prior to the game, and decided to have a tailgate party with a kosher BBQ. The individual whose company owns an outdoor parking lot one block from the ballpark, a well-known businessman, philanthropist, and supporter in the Jewish community, offered space in parking lot for our group attendees to park our vehicles and to have our tailgate party. We spent several months planning this outing, however, there were delays in completing the ballpark. Ultimately, the entire season had to be played elsewhere, and our planned outing had to be canceled.

With the ballpark completed for the 2017 season, we made plans to try again. We had already gone through all the planning once, so it was much easier this time. We chose a date that worked best for us, and initially committed to buying 100 tickets. We were given seats in the best sections of the park, right over the Hartford Yard Goats' dugout. We ultimately sold 111 tickets, and were able to secure the additional 11 seats in the same sections as the others. The pre-game kosher tailgate BBQ was a tremendous success. This required a lot of pre-work. The Saturday night before the game, a bunch of guys got together for 2-3 hours at the Emanuel Synagogue to take care of food preparation and getting all the supplies ready. Early Sunday morning, multiple vehicles were loaded up with grills, food, supplies, etc. Another 2+ hours were spent setting things up and cooking. Prior to the 12:00 tailgate time, we were ready to enjoy our meal! We were in our seats for the 1:30 game. Prior to the game, one of our attendees threw out the first ball. We had a great day to enjoy the ballgame.

Our goal for the program was simply to have the two biggest conservative shuls in the Greater Hartford area work together to have an outing that would be fun for all and appeal to multiple generations of our synagogue members and their friends. The program strengthened the relationship of the Beth El Men's Club and Emanuel Brotherhood. All the upfront planning and particularly the tailgate party work involved connected the Jewish men from both shuls. While we've had professional sports outings before that we've collaborated together on, this program was unique in the offering of the kosher tailgate BBQ.