Talkin' Baseball

Back in October, TV won season tickets to the local Triple A baseball team. For his November birthday, I bought him a season parking pass. Our very first date, back in 1988, was to a baseball game in the old stadium. When the new stadium was built, we pulled Y-Chromo out of school and took him to Opening Day.  After that, we frequently took the Chromos to games. It was an enjoyable, affordable family outing.

Then things happened. We stopped going except for one or two games a season. Last season, TV rediscovered the joy of an evening at the park. He also found the best seats in the house. When he won his tickets, he knew exactly where he was going to sit. I took vacation time and accompanied him to Opening Day this year. I, too, became re-enchanted. So we've gone to most of the games so far this season.

As we were leaving the stadium on Saturday night, TV heard something that prompted him to say, "If I blogged, that's the sort of thing I would blog about." And he's right. There's a lot of 'blog fodder' at the stadium.

Take Stephen Strasburg. He's a young phenom pitcher, and he's currently with our team. Three of the four times he's pitched at home this season, the stadium has been packed to the rafters. Watching him pitch is a joy. His first game, he not only won the game with his pitching, but also hit the first two RBIs of the game.

We sit in the first row of the second section. Lots of leg room. Good vantage point. Except whenever anyone in the last row of the first section stands up. And during Strasburg's first game, there was a crew of partying young men in that row who wanted to stand the whole time Strasburg pitched. We nicely asked them to sit. They complied. After Strasburg left the game, the rowdiest of the young men came to apologize to us. We asked if he had someone to drive him home, and yes, there was a designated driver. He shook our hands, then spilled beer all over himself. He wasn't an obnoxious drunk; just a young man honoring baseball and a great pitcher.

And the press wanted to set up in front of us, too. One very tall photog with a very tall tripod asked a kid two seats over if he was in his way. The kid said no, but I spoke up. The photog repositioned himself so I could see the action.  Later that night, several media types leaned against the railing in front of us for a couple of innings so we couldn't put our feet up, which is my prefered way to sit.

Since the team is on the road until Friday, I'll play catch up on the season during this week.