12 Posts Today: 6 Injury reports & updates, 6 good articles - including one by Rob Neyer and one by our guest writer: Deb Gurke ... / Tomorrow: All the latest and some fun stuff - followed by a Great Weekend at Cowboy's Baseball ... / Thank you for visiting - Enjoy!
Until next time, so long everybody ...
Lee [ Cowboy ]
Baseball: A Life Experience by Deb Gurke
You can talk about baseball in so many
different ways. Stats. Plays.
Players. Teams. Fantasy. Series. Eras. And for me,
one aspect of baseball that I love to talk about is the experience. What it brings to your life. How it connects you to people. For example, taking your kids to a
spring training game. Your grandma
teaching you to knit while watching the Cubs. Meeting someone who becomes an important part of your life
through fantasy baseball. And,
creating a goal to see every MLB park as you work through your relationship
with your dad.
This last example is the one I am going to
talk about here. My dad and I had
not spoken in 29 years. We had
never really gotten along and when he told me he was not coming to my wedding,
I was done. As time went on my
sisters and mom also drifted away from him.
Over the last year or so, I have begun to
clean up some things in my life.
(Perhaps there is something about entering your mid-50s that prompts
this urge.) And, my dad has been
on my mind. So, about a month ago, I decided to look him up. It takes about five minutes to find
someone on the Internet and I learned that he had died in 2006. As a result, cleaning up that
relationship was going to be more difficult.
Several friends suggested that I write him a
letter. And, so I did. I wanted to include a famous quote,
something to give the letter a little pop. Instead, I decided to riff on something my daughter, Kate,
did to get through a challenging time in her life. She wrote a list of ten things she knew to be true. And, on that list she included the
following:
I will try to see
every mountain range in the Americas before I die.
I changed mine to “I will visit every MLB ball park before I die.” I am off
to a good start. I’ve been to
Wrigley dozens of times; Miller Park when the Cubs are in Milwaukee. I’ve been to Comiskey, Target Field,
Busch Stadium, Petco Park, Dodger Stadium, Coors Field and Nationals Park. I have also been to Fulton County
Stadium, the old Comiskey (the one NOT named for a cell phone), and the
Metrodome—the ugliest stadium ever built, and Riverfront Stadium.
And, the latest entry on the list: Fenway Park. I will share this most recent experience here. I was scheduled to go to Boston for a
conference and immediately checked the scheduled once I knew the dates. My heart sank. The Sox were playing the Yankees. No chance of getting a ticket to that game! Well, once I had created the ball park
goal, I knew I had to find a ticket, so I redoubled my effort. My good friend Harry always says, “You
only need one ticket. You can
always find one ticket.” With that
in mind, I started looking. I
checked the Boston site, and, no surprise, tickets were sold out. I checked in with people I knew from
Boston to see if they had any connections. No luck there. I checked stub hub—Yikes!! The prices. I thought, well I will go to Fenway and
see what is available on that day.
There will be guys (it is always guys, never women) selling tickets at
the park. Then, the day before I left,
I decided to check stub hub one more time. At the top of the list was ONE ticket in right center field,
nine rows up. And, while I admit
that baseball tickets are ridiculously over-priced (I could get into the
bleachers at Wrigley when I was a kid for $1.00), I thought $44 was
doable. So, I was in and I was so
excited!
That Saturday was a beautiful day. Temperature was 78 degrees and
sunny. I arrived at the park and
loved the way it is crammed into the neighborhood. Narrow streets all around, vendors selling Italian sausage
and Sox swag. Banners hanging with
all of the Boston greats—Williams, Yaz, Fisk, Ruth (not sure how people feel
about being reminded of this one), Cy Young, to name a few.
There was something kind of magical about
where I was sitting. As I walked
up the ramp, which was not very long, and saw the field, I realized that it was
almost exactly the same spot as the first time I ever went to a ball game. That time it was at Wrigley, and it was
from a higher angle, but it was an outfield view, almost the same as the view
at Fenway. I settled into my seat
and took some pictures. The
scoreboard. The field. The Green
Monster. I compared the park to
Wrigley. It seemed smaller. The grandstands looked similar. But the outfield seats were
different. And that big green wall
does not compare to the green ivy at Wrigley. Also, Wrigley does not have a Jumbotron! And I think that is
a good thing.
Other folks started to show up and we chatted
the way people do at ball games.
Four college students to my right.
White Sox fans from Indiana, all in Boston for internships. Two Yankees fans to my left. A woman in front of me, also first
visit to Fenway. Just delightful.
Oh yes, and the game. Well it was quite memorable. Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the
end of the first inning. Added 3
in the second, 2 in the third and then again in the 5th. The Yankees scored one in the
sixth. Heading into the 7th
inning, the Sox were up 9-1. I
thought I might leave after the 7th inning so I could check in at
one of the conference receptions.
Stay for “Take me out to the Ballgame” and watch the Sox end the
inning. After all, at this point, the
game had gone on for almost three hours, and the Sox had the game in hand. I was feeling like I got my money’s
worth.
Well, those damn Yankees. They scored seven runs in the top of
the 7th! Oh boy. The score was now 9-8. I wasn’t leaving. Boston fans started getting a little
restless. The Yankees fans around
me where polite. While I tend to
despise all things Yankees, I must give credit where it is due. These Yankee fans were much better
behaved than some of the Cubs fans I’ve seen at Miller Park.
What happened in the 8th inning
was even more unbelievable. The
Yankees scored ANTOHER SEVEN RUNS!!!
I am not sure I’ve ever seen the Cubs crumble that badly in one game
(I’ve seen them crumble over the month of September several times, but never
this badly in just one game. Unless of course if you do not count game six of
the 2003 NLCS—the infamous Bartman game.)
The score was now Yankees 15.
Boston 9. Boston fans
were booing—at least the ones that had not yet left. Yankees fans sitting there smugly smiling as if to say, “what
else would you expect?”
It was quite an experience. Besides the Boston collapse, the game
was 4 hours long. There were 33
hits, one error. Seven Boston
pitchers. Six Yankee
pitchers. Three Yankee home
runs—two for Teixiera and a grand slam by Swisher. One Boston home run. Four double plays included an unassisted
double play by Teixiera AND an unassisted double play by Adrian Gonzolez. Something for everyone!
I cannot say a good time was had by all. I can say it was a memorable experience
for me. And, because I had decided
to create that ball park goal, I have another park on my list. Ten down, twenty
to go. Thanks, Dad.
What do you think?
