51,451 Sick People
Observations from Opening Day:
School attendence monitors are wise to the game. At my daughter's school, absenteeism was higher than normal...and I'd imagine it was higher than normal at their parent's work places. One of my daughter's teachers even put two and two together: Kelsey usually has perfect attendance. Kelsey loves baseball and today's opening day. Therefore...
We arrived two hours before game time. People were tailgating like crazy to the degree that even news commentators were talking about how this was signicantly more activity than normal. It was cool but they could learn an awful lot from any S.E.C. football tailgate party. Even on the soft games there's way more cooking out than what I saw yesterday. There was enough there to definitely appeal to the senses, though.
We watched batting practice and tried to grab a home run or two. No such luck, although a guy two rows in front of us caught one. It's amazing how loud the crack of the bat is in an empty stadium. Another nice appeal to the senses.
We went to see what new apparel and such were offered at one of the gift shops. Lots of new hats...the biggest trend seemed to be clothing for girls. Lots of logos on pastel hats and jerseys and such. Kelsey again lobbied for the pitching jacket that runs for $125. She told me she was cold and tried it on. It was 78 degrees outside, 72 in the store.
Our seats were just under the overhang of the upper deck, 30 rows off the visitors dugout. Sat all day in the shade with the breeze. Our friends Wes and Lizzie got sunburned in their seats two sections down and sat the last two innings with us.
My lunch was hot dogs with mustard and onions. As it should be on opening day.
There's no question that four F18 fighter planes can make a lot of racket. Charley Pride sang the national anthem, and held the last two lines to wait for them to fly over. Kinda cool. I didn't understand why the Texas band was there and their football head coach was being honored on opening day for their national FOOTBALL championship last fall. Sure, the owner is a UT grad, but c'mon.
Just before the first pitch, Kelsey said (to no one in particular), "I just LOVE baseball." I knew exactly what she meant because I thought the very same thing at the very same time.
The game was out of hand by the 5th inning. It looks like we're the same as last season: We only score when we hit home runs & our pitching staff gives up lots of runs. The high point before Hank Blalock's home run for us in the 6th was to watch our rookie 2nd baseman get his first major league hit and have his teammates rush to save the ball for him.
We saw some friends as we were leaving the park...we exchanged stories of calling in sick at school and all that. He told me he was taking his kids home and then heading to the Stars hockey game with his wife that night: The sports quinella! The hockey team lost, too, in overtime--I bet he was bummed at being 0-2 on the day.
We got in the car and got home relatively quickly. I know the back roads now. But I can tell you this much: Even when the home team loses, there's few things better than opening day with your daughter on a picture-perfect afternoon (I'll post some pictures once I find the cord to the camera...).
Observations from Opening Day:
School attendence monitors are wise to the game. At my daughter's school, absenteeism was higher than normal...and I'd imagine it was higher than normal at their parent's work places. One of my daughter's teachers even put two and two together: Kelsey usually has perfect attendance. Kelsey loves baseball and today's opening day. Therefore...
We arrived two hours before game time. People were tailgating like crazy to the degree that even news commentators were talking about how this was signicantly more activity than normal. It was cool but they could learn an awful lot from any S.E.C. football tailgate party. Even on the soft games there's way more cooking out than what I saw yesterday. There was enough there to definitely appeal to the senses, though.
We watched batting practice and tried to grab a home run or two. No such luck, although a guy two rows in front of us caught one. It's amazing how loud the crack of the bat is in an empty stadium. Another nice appeal to the senses.
We went to see what new apparel and such were offered at one of the gift shops. Lots of new hats...the biggest trend seemed to be clothing for girls. Lots of logos on pastel hats and jerseys and such. Kelsey again lobbied for the pitching jacket that runs for $125. She told me she was cold and tried it on. It was 78 degrees outside, 72 in the store.
Our seats were just under the overhang of the upper deck, 30 rows off the visitors dugout. Sat all day in the shade with the breeze. Our friends Wes and Lizzie got sunburned in their seats two sections down and sat the last two innings with us.
My lunch was hot dogs with mustard and onions. As it should be on opening day.
There's no question that four F18 fighter planes can make a lot of racket. Charley Pride sang the national anthem, and held the last two lines to wait for them to fly over. Kinda cool. I didn't understand why the Texas band was there and their football head coach was being honored on opening day for their national FOOTBALL championship last fall. Sure, the owner is a UT grad, but c'mon.
Just before the first pitch, Kelsey said (to no one in particular), "I just LOVE baseball." I knew exactly what she meant because I thought the very same thing at the very same time.
The game was out of hand by the 5th inning. It looks like we're the same as last season: We only score when we hit home runs & our pitching staff gives up lots of runs. The high point before Hank Blalock's home run for us in the 6th was to watch our rookie 2nd baseman get his first major league hit and have his teammates rush to save the ball for him.
We saw some friends as we were leaving the park...we exchanged stories of calling in sick at school and all that. He told me he was taking his kids home and then heading to the Stars hockey game with his wife that night: The sports quinella! The hockey team lost, too, in overtime--I bet he was bummed at being 0-2 on the day.
We got in the car and got home relatively quickly. I know the back roads now. But I can tell you this much: Even when the home team loses, there's few things better than opening day with your daughter on a picture-perfect afternoon (I'll post some pictures once I find the cord to the camera...).
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