Saturday, April 23, 2005

I Love this Game

So the baseball season is about two weeks old and I already couldn't stand it anymore and had to go to a game. I saw that the D-Backs series was mid week and figured I could find some cheap ticket from someone who didn't want to go. I let Wednesday go by but with the Schmidt-Ortiz match up on Thursday, I just had to find a way there. I checked Craigslist Thursday morning and found a pair of club level tickets with a parking pass for 90 bucks so I went for it.

I called my friend Tim who I go to games with a lot and is a Schmidt fan. He punked out on me though with some work excuse. I tried a few other people and no one could make it. I couldn't believe it, I was about to be stuck with a 45 dollar ticket. My wife was going to spend the day with her family while I was gone but I called her and asked if she could come back and go to the game with me. (Hey I love going to baseball games with my wife, she wasn't on my initial list of person to ask because she was set on going to see her family when I told her I wanted togo to the game) I asked my parents to watch the kids and all of a sudden I had a cozy date with my wife.

I tried to leave work as soon as I could but I ended up leaving five minutes late. Traffic was actually pretty good to the Golden Gate but as I hit the span an electronic sign came on with, "STALL ON BRIDGE. USE CAUTION." I could not believe it. I was stuck on the bridge for a good twenty minutes before I got up to see the tow truck working with a motorcycle...A motorcycle???? Someone could not have just picked the thing up and moved it aside? Anyway I winded through the city and picked up the tickets (at least he was near the park), pulled into parking lot A (by the clydesdales, who are on tour through the country), met my wife coming from BART, and settled into our seats on section 223 one pitch into the game.

And what a game it was. Schmidt wasn't real sharp, but he got the job done. Ortiz was typical Ortiz, a ton of pitches, but effective. The struggling Giants offense certainly helped him out too. The game went along pretty briskly without much offense. Britt and I wanted to take advantage of the club level and find something that we can't get in other parts of the park but we settled on fish and chips and Irish nachos. At least we've never had it before and it was reasonably good value for the money. I was hoping for some kind of potatoe skins for the nachos but it was just steak fries and gave me the feeling I was eating chilli cheese fries...

When the game went into extra innings, I had mixed feelings. I always look for games to go long when I am there, it means that it's a good game and I get more game for my money. That night, however, with my kids falling asleep at my parents, I knew I couldn't stay forever. As the innings go by, my wife and I gave each other questioning looks as to how late we are going to stay (incidentally, I was at a Giants-D-Backs game once that went 19 innings. I left that game after 15 innings and they lost). We decided that we would stay for a 14th inning stretch but that was it. Lucky for us, Deivi Cruz has also been sitting for 12 and a half innings and decided that he wanted to go home too. It was awesome, I think I would have been pretty bummed if we lost.

Lastly, and sadly, in all the excitement, my camera fell out of my pocket and took a nasty fall. It still kind of works, but the case pops open and it makes strange sounds. I guess we did get a good 3+ years out of it. I looked on my computer the other day and saw that I had like 5000 pictures on the computer...I am now officially shopping for a new digital camera....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, what is it with you, the D-Backs, and extra innings? Ah well, at least the Giants pulled this one off. Out of curiosity, what makes Irish Nachos Irish? Do they have an accent?

Winnie said...

Irish Nachos... the potatoes make them Irish???

Jaim said...

They're soaked in Scotch. ;)

Glad ya had fun at the game. Sorry about your camera, though.