Batter Up!

So the hubby and I met up with our buddy Phil to see a game at Yankee stadium. This was the best I could do with all the construction going around. But what's a blog about Yankee Stadium without a picture of the structure?

Originally we were going to take the train in from Connecticut, but decided to it might just be easier on us to drive in. It was actually. It took us about three hours, not that big of a deal for us, and we found the stadium pretty easily. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to find parking with the construction of the new Yankee Stadium going on, but those fears were unfounded. We found a parking garage and only paid $17 for the day. We were quite pleased as we had been expecting to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $30.

It was good to see Phil again. He had been in New York since Friday and met up with us. We knew to look for a Yankees cap and jersey to find him. Kind of hard in the sea of Yankees garb that surrounded us. But Phil told us where to meet up and all was well.

We had bleacher seats in center field. I'm not sure who's warming up in the bull pen. You'd have to ask Phil. The Yankees are his team, not mine. But I did cheer for them at this game. I did take this picture from our seats with the help of the zoom lens.

This is how the game looked to me. We were expecting it to be a slightly chilly day, but it ended up being a warm, sunshiny day. In fact I got a bit too much sun and am a nice shade of pink. Wasn't thinking about sunscreen. Of course they weren't predicting 70 plus degree weather either.

Before the game we wandered around a bit. Got to explore, it's just a must! So I just had to get a shot of the stadium facade that wasn't yet complete. I know I'm weird, but I'm okay with that.

I liked the artwork on the side of this building. I just wish the fence wasn't in the way. It was a parking lot, so I kind of understand the fenced in bit. Phil said it would make a wonderful stick ball field.

Oh yeah you might want to know about the game. The Yankees won against the Mariners. Eight to two. They don't serve beer in Yankee Stadium and I can understand why. There are some of the most obnoxious fans there. They like to curse and they don't care if there are small children around. My only regret is I didn't get a picture of all of us together.

Opening Day

First let me state that I'm not a die hard baseball fan. Most of the information I get is from watching ESPN with the hubby in the morning or evening. And that's about it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the game. But I'm not so much into the stats and such.

So today was opening day at Fenway park. I know some of my friends back at Ingleside might actually care about that. No Phil I didn't mean you. I only registered this because they discussed it at length on the radio and said that the person throwing out the pitch would give everyone goosebumps. That peaked my interest, but I didn't listen the rest of the day. I do have a life of sorts.

I thought nothing more of it until I watched ESPN with the hubby this evening. Buckner? Who's that? Before you go crying for my head please read the above statement I made about baseball. The hubby had to explain the whole Buckner story to me as I'm an idiot when it comes to baseball history. Hence the reason you can click on the title and go to a story on it. Hey I even classed it up by getting the article from The Boston Globe. Where's my props?

Sad that it took something like twenty plus years for Sox fans for to forgive a man for an error in a game. I have been told that since I'm a Cardinal fan I might not understand because we're a nicer breed. Hm.

EDITED: In an interview an emotional Buckner stated, when asked if he had second thoughts about attending this opening day, that he had to forgive the media for everything they had put him and his family through. Personally I think that would include the fans. They did a lot to the man too. Not just the media. I don't know that I could be so forgiving. After so many years of crap. He's a better man than I am. That's a lot of emotional pain that was inflicted upon him and his family.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

On the 16th of September we went to a Nationals game at RFK before the stadium was closed down. The last game, I believe, was the 23rd. They played the Braves and were, sadly, beaten. We went with our friend Phil. It had been over ten years since I had attended a Major League Baseball game, so I was excited. Phil even caught a foul ball. There was beautiful weather and I thought we had pretty good seats. The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot and we had hot dogs and beer. Could it get any better? Well... Only if the Nationals had won. Phil told us stories of the of a younger RFK stadium and we did a bit of exploring after the game. It was nice to see Braves and National fans could behave themselves. We even road the Metro, which was a first for me and the hubby.

So last night, September 28th, the hubby and I went to an Orioles game at Camden Yards. Once again it was a wonderful night. The weather was agreeable, our seats were good and we had hot dogs and beer. The Orioles played the Yankees and the Orioles won!

Just a few minor things that drove me nuts.

The two young ladies who sat behind me during the game. If I heard 'dude' or 'oh my god' one more time I think I was going to go postal. And oh sweetie, one word of advice holding up a sign telling Jeter you want to have his baby is TACKY! And getting pissed that they kept showing people with signs for Orioles players is just stupid, please remember where you are. Just another word of advise, since you seem to need it, you are not the first to come up with the idea of waiting after the game to see the team and follow them to their hotel. Now a days that's called stalking. Also if you actually watch the game instead of flapping your gums the whole time you might actually see that there is action on the field. There is not more things going on during a football game than a baseball game. Yes, she repeatedly said that. Sadly baseball may require a bit more thought than you are capable of.

Also I guess I'm used to Cardinal fans. We applaud the opposing team when they make a good play and are well behaved. I can't say that about the Yankee fans. They were loud, pretty much liquored up, obnoxious and even booed their own team at times. Never heard that one before. They started leaving before the game was over, assuming that their team won. Stupid them. The Orioles tied it up at the bottom of the ninth and won it in the tenth inning.

All in all it was a good game though. The hubby and I had lots of fun.

Stickball

Now I have played wiffleball and softball. Heck I watch baseball. Not all that often, but I do watch it once in a while. But today was the first time I'd ever played stickball. I'm a girl! Come on it's not like I went out and played ball all that often. The hubby and I went to Montross to play stickball with a friend in a field. If you're rolling your eyes you just don't know how to have good wholesome fun! Both of the boys had played before and seemed to enjoy themselves. I had fun too. We really needed more people to get a decent game going, but they did about five innings out of it. Pretty good considering the humidity.

For those of you as uninformed as I was, stickball is played with tennis balls and wooden bats. And, of course, gloves. There were only three of us so we had a bucket of tennis balls. While one person batted, another pitched. The third person was in the outfield. I was the outfield. I didn't mind, because truly I suck while at bat. It was hot as all get out even though it was only supposed to be in the eighties. There are other rules and such that go with the game, but you get the gist.

The pictures aren't of the best quality, because I took them with my camera phone while I was out in the field and was hoping the boys wouldn't notice me. We met up around three and left around five. Stopping for waters once and beers at the end. I was smart enough to bring both. The other thing that the boys did that I thought was kind of neat, but beyond my knowledge of baseball was call out old players from their favorite team as they went to bat. The hubby chose the Cardinals and Phil chose the Yankees.