Cleat Chasers winking at a pitcher as he throws in the 'pen? Busch League.
7 run bottom of the 8th to steal away the game from the over-powering Western division? Pretty cool.
In case you couldn't tell, this was the all-star game. I went as a fan rather than a student. I just wanted to see good baseball.
Of course, with over 8,000 fans in a small park, it really took until the 2nd inning until I could find a place to stand by the home bullpen.
Here was my view from my first resting point:
I stood exactly mid-way between the warming pitcher and catcher, and lemme say, a 93-MPH fastball whizzes by your ears. Between the sound of the ball and the sound of the ball against the mitt, it was difficult to concentrate on the game. There wasn't much to see, though. A solo HR made it 1-0, and otherwise, not much offense from my innings at that vantage point.
The most fun thing at that area was watching the two late teen cleat-chasers, as they're called: young females after athletes. One of them -- the one that I must admit I thought was cuter left with a wink. I'm pretty sure it was directed at the warming pitcher, but I can pretend it was me. I mean, I was on the phone on a psuedo-business call talking all about music, the music industry, and sounding all cool and professional. ::rolls eyes and nods::
After a few innings, kids started running up to my area to get autographs -- not mine, of course. I took this opportunity to walk around, get a few different vantage points, and get a burger.
Ultimately, I ended up sitting on the back row of the bleachers on the first-base side. I could get this seat because the game had become one-sided. After trading solo home-runs, the west -- with help from some shaky east defense -- opened up a 5-run lead.
The view from my new seat:
When I sat down, the game was one-sided:
Somehow, the east put together a rally, which climaxed with 3 streakers (not pictured) interrupting the game. The very next pitch, a 2-run home run tied it. (With two outs, no less!):
At this point, I leaned over to the person next to me and said: "This certainly doesn't feel like a tie game." Well, it wasn't for long. Merely 2 batters later.
And that's how it ended.
A fun game to watch. I've never had to park so far away...
The final scoreboard:
When you're back in NY, we should go to a ball game. Why? Because both stadiums are being replaced and I've never been to a game. Ever. (Unless you count little league, which was boring but had good ice-pops.)
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