Thursday, April 20, 2006

Oh What a Night! Mid of April back in 2006.


That was perhaps one of the more interesting baseball games I've gone to. It started off innocently enough with me getting some nice seats in the Lodge level behind home plate. Cub's rookie Marshall pitched well for a rookie. He struggled with control the first few innings and gave up a two run bomb in the second. The Cubs scrapped out a run in the first. Then the whole night went kind of haywire.

The point of change all happened when a foul ball was actually hit in my direction. For the first time in my life I had a chance to catch a foul ball. The ball glanced up off a guy's hands and was heading straight at me. Sweet! I couldn't believe my luck. I dropped my pencil and scorecard in anticipation. I had flashbacks to little league, and my father yelling, "Use both hands. Both hands!" In slow motion I watched the baseball close in on my hands. Then out of nowhere the jackass in front off me throws out his arm and deflects it to my left. I say arm because he was on his cell phone. Since he didn't have a hand free, he tried to use his arm to knock it down. Moronic LA people and their cell phones. So the ball went left and down my row. I closed in on it just as another guy's hand snatched it up. I looked up into the face of a guy I'm pretty sure had never been to a baseball game in his life. He looked like some waif artist guy who smokes his Parliaments and leaves Nietzsche on his coffee table when ever dates come over to his apartment. Dammit! So close. At least I know where I'm getting tickets the next time I go. There were at least six foul balls hit to my section. Section 108 rows A through J for those who want to know. Wait for the right handed bats to foul them back about once an inning.

After the foul ball fiasco, I was graced with the sound of the moron behind me immediately grab his cell phone and call his friend to see if he was on TV. Of course he was so close to catching it. During the rest of the game he kept saying how he could've caught that foul ball or that foul bal. When he wasn't blathering on about his unfounded foul ball catching ability, he was explaining the game of baseball to his date. Of course everything he told her was wrong. I offer up two examples. First it's the top of the fourth and the Cubs have men on second and third. The Dodger pitcher doesn't give Cedeno, the number eight hitter, a pitch to hit. It is often called the unintentional intentional walk. The walk loaded the bases. The moron then proceeded to comment on how dumb the pitcher was. Now the Dodgers were in trouble because the Cubs can break this wide open. The game was tied 2-2. Now any baseball fan knows the pitcher always bats ninth in the "real" league. And anyone that was watching this game would've seen that the Cub's pitcher hasn't even come close to hitting a pitch. The pitcher promptly struck out on three pitches, and the inning was over. The second moronic moment happened at the top of the eighth. He explained that if the Cubs didn't score in this inning or the ninth that the Dodgers could score a run in the ninth and win. If nobody scored then they would go into extra innings. Which is technically correct. The problem was the Cubs were up 5 to 4. I don't know what game he was watching. Thankfully he left at the middle of the ninth.

That brings up another point. Dodger fans suck. The first wave left after the 7th. The Dodgers were up 4 to 2. The next wave left after the 8th with the Cubs up 5 to 4. They left with their team down by one run. What the hell? By the top of the ninth, the stadium was nearly all Cubs fans. The only Dodger fans left were the really drunk ones who couldn't make it up the stairs yet. My final thing for the Dodger fans: Stop bitching about Piazza. That was eight years ago! It was one trade. If you want something to bitch about, become a Cub fan.

The last crappy thing that happened was watching Derrek Lee collide with Furcal at first base. Watching your MVP collapse to the ground and grab his arm can put a scare in you. You immediately heard every Cubs fan in the stadium gasp. Then you heard the Dodger fans heckling. They have no idea what pain is.

There though some good things that happened. After the injury to Lee and pitcher Eyre, the Cubs came back to score three runs on a few two out hits and a couple errors. The Cubs of last year would've folded. Also, Amy and her boyfriend were sitting in the section next to me. Amy plays the aggressive news reporter on CSI: Miami. I actually talked to her for the first time at the wrap party last weekend. Turns out she has season tickets at Wrigley about five rows behind home plate. Her boyfriend then commented on how he could never break up with her now. I thought, "Break up? I would've married her day one. I would bust my ass to make that relationship work." Still, they are a nice couple, and it was a great coincidence.

Overall it was a nice night at the ballpark, and proves that you never know what will happen in baseball. The Cubs have yet to lose two games in a row. So, the Cubs kick ass right now too.Here's my mess of a scorecard. After the second double switch because of the injury it became almost hopeless. I'd like to point out that I took both of these picture with my cell phone's camera. My cell phone kicks ass.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yup... Pete's getting married. Met her on E-harmony. You know Steph got married, right??? Last month...

Bradford said...

I knew about Steph. I just couldn't get the time off from work to go. I had no idea Pete was getting married.

Anonymous said...

we are nerds. we keep score.