Reliving the Glory Years of High School Baseball at an A's Game

Yeah, that's a long title, but whatever. Heather and I went to the A's/Indians game last night with some friends. We used the rest of our free tickets, and although we didn't get the seats we wanted (Section 130 on the fence), I'm really glad we sat where we did.

Starting off with the highlight of my evening: I caught my first major league foul ball ever! I've been to like 50 or 60 major league games now, and I finally got one. Granted, I didn't catch it on the fly, but it was still pretty exciting. For me. Some people have asked for the story, so here it is (complete with a diagram!). The next paragraph is just a setup, so skip it if you are already bored with this story:

I'm sitting in Section 129, Row 23, Seat 1. That means I am on the right aisle in the third row of the back part of 129. The key to the location is the perpendicular concrete walkways intersecting just 5 feet in front of me. The intersection, which is three stair steps below us, also has a corner of a handrail jutting out . Utilizing the walkway and the rail gives me a chance to cover a lot more ground. Yes, I look for these things when I sit down. Heather will confirm that I stated the following before the game started: "The key to me catching a foul ball today will be my ability to find and grab that rail when the ball is in midflight." I say a lot of stupid crap like that all the time. Heather will confirm that, too. The difference yesterday was that I was right.

In the sixth inning, Nick Swisher fouls a ball of Fausto Carmona. I jump up and head for the walkway intersection, and I decide that it's probably going to land somewhere in the section to the right of us. So I put my head down, grab the rail and jump over the stairs, heading into the heart of Section 128.

A second or two later, I look up and the ball is about to land to my right, straight into the hands of a guy who got hit in the head with a bag of peanuts a few innings prior. Well, this guy had pretty good form--he did use two hands--but he sure as heck didn't learn how to cradle a ball at any point in his life. Or maybe the bag of peanuts to the head threw off his depth perception. He pretty much hadoukens the ball, and it caroms down into the walkway in front of me. I jump forward and field it like a slow roller, barely grabbing it before a four year-old girl does. Kidding! She was like six.

Check out the sweet diagram. The green arrow is my path, and the red line is the path of the ball. Someone give me a Powerpoint certificate! And no, I didn't run over a person in a wheelchair in a box. That's just the diagram's symbol for wheelchair-friendly seats. (There was no six year-old girl either, by the way.)

Other good things about the game: we met a very nice couple from Ohio, and it was a joy to talk with them throughout the evening. Rachel and Ben got married earlier this year in Cleveland, so the girls talked about wedding dresses while Ben and I talked about the Ohio State and Texas. Wow, now that I look back on it, that's very stereotypical. Men talking about sports and women talking about clothes....anyway, they were very nice, and I hope they enjoy their stay in Modesto. (Ben, Rachel, if you read this: when you wear your Tim Couch jerseys to the Browns/Raiders game on October 1, try to bring some sort of protective padding. The Raider Nation is representative of like 0.01% of the Bay Area, so please don't let them ruin your visit, even after you shut their team out. Go Niners.)

Back to the game: George and I ate a dollar dog for every run the A's scored, a tradition that blew up in my face when the A's beat the Twins 13-2 a few years ago. It wasn't too bad this time, though. George ate all four of his in the first inning. On a related note, I've never waited that long for ketchup in my life.

Heather's friends Leslie and Eric were sitting about 8 rows behind us, which was just coincidence. We're gonna eat pizza with them on Monday.

I like Zack's pick-a-player game, where you pick one player before the game who you think is going to go deep. It adds a little excitement to the game. I goofed though; not only did I pick a player who wasn't in the starting lineup for myself, I picked Antonio Perez for Heather. The dude has one homer this season. I could have sworn he had zero, which would have made him due.

And the A's won in comeback fashion, with Frank "Old Hurt" Thomas hitting a go-ahead double in the seventh inning. The M-V-P chant was the definition of wishful thinking, but it was still pretty awesome.

And finally, I also had sweet potato pie, but DID NOT succumb to the BBQ. I say that with some sort of pride, like it means I ate well, even though I had four rat sticks and some pie. But I put sauerkraut on my rat sticks, so I guess I ate some vegetables.