Baseball, Fireworks, and Bourbon…
I will give you it should have maybe read “Baseball, Fireworks, and Apple Pie,” but we had bourbon and I think it was still the classic all American wonderful evening. I am not sure why I am even blogging about it here. It was just about a perfect evening and I have not enjoyed a baseball game, at the stadium at least, in a long time. So the quick run down.
A friend of mine, that I actually graduated high school with and I were going to have dinner and hang out last night – oh and nothing like that – just friends. Anyway, sometime during the week, her work place offered her tickets to a Legends game in their corporate suite/box and asked me if I would be interested. Of course I was – as noted above it had been to long since I had watched one of my favorite sports live. So the cool thing about this particular corporate box is they provide the adult beverages too – so long as you place your order ahead of time.
We met for a snack ahead of time and talked, which was the plan, but I am not sure why the snacking given the spread that awaited us otherwise. We headed to the ballpark, arriving just in time given the slight traffic rush coming into the parking. We then made our way up the box a bit before the game.
The weather was partially to mostly sunny. There was a breeze blowing. The box opened to the shady side of the field, along 3rd base. There was a couple of people there already. I felt the odd person out, as they all worked with one another and I knew no one. They made me feel more than welcome though. We had a great spread of food that included just about every classical American food you can conjure, short of course only of ice cream and apple pie. Oh, and how much better can it get – as ordered, there was a bottle of bourbon in addition to the six or seven varieties of beer and such as well.
So the home town team, the Legends were facing off against the Capitals from I think somewhere in Ohio. The National Anthem was sung, the crowd cheered and the players took the field. What a wonderful summer night was set. The home team however, had a miserable first inning. Giving up three hits, three runs, and only by the grace of someone finally making an awesome play did they get out the top half with the opposing team leaving a couple of runners on base. It only got worse from there though – the bottom half saw awesome defense from the visitors that you couldn’t help but be marveled by the sheer athleticism and awesome effort put forth. You could almost replay the first inning for the rest of the game incidentally. It ended in a spanking for the home team with a score of 12 to 3 as the final score.
During the game, we of course talked more, laughed a lot, made fun of everything. There was an even funnier moment when I came up with the word ice-creamlessness. I had to give a definition – which is of course the state of not having ice-cream, particularly a state that is accompanied by suffering when you strongly desire ice-cream.
Interestingly enough, most of the conversation was just about catching up on what we had each done with our lives in the 20 odd years since we were in school together. That probably really is not that surprising given the nature of our plan. The interesting part though is that she thinks I should actually write a book about my life. That somehow there are just enough crazy things in my life that it would be a good read. I find it kind of funny given my recent vow that I was going to write be dedicated and write a book that such a thing would come up in conversation.
Anyway, after the game, to make the complete all American eve – they let off fireworks. I figure it would be just a few and very small. But they actually let of a huge number of fireworks, with a, true to advertised, extravaganza fireworks display that lasted at least ten minutes, maybe longer. I was actually impressed.
The downside, well now I am spoiled. I am not sure if I will ever enjoy a baseball game as well just sitting in the regular stands drinking a beer and having to pay near $5.00 for it and other $4.00 for the hot dog, while squinting in the sun and feeling the heat.
