Sunday, April 16, 2006

A Night at the Trop

We have Dean's mom in town this weekend. I was able to get two precious days away from the Helium to spend some time with her. Getting Hindus and atheists to work on Easter weekend is actually quite easy. I'll be paying for it come tomorrow though.

Last night we went to see the Devil Rays take on the Royals at Tropicana field across the bay. Since the Rays have come under new ownership in the off season there have been $10 million dollars in renovations at the Trop with a promise of better fan relations and in time, better baseball. The Trop looked great. There was free parking in the huge lot. Before it was $10. And fans can now bring in outside food and beverages. This is all part of the owner's sympathizing that it is expensive to take your family to the baseball game.

Shortly after Dean and I moved down here, Dean got a job selling season tickets for the Rays and he hated it. On game days he worked 16 hour days and he had an hour long commute each way. With all that work we were still struggling to make ends meet. He stuck it out for a year before moving on. Since leaving he has seen the Rays front office undergo a complete change in the commission structure that would have almost doubled his salary and now the new owner overhauling the team again. He takes it all very well, but sometimes I think he wonders what it would have been like if he stayed.

When we walked through the gates, we were immediately spotted by one of Dean's old friends from when he worked there. Craig started at the same time as Dean and he has enjoyed enormous promotions along the way. Extremely, um, flamboyant and excitable he started working in the gift shop. Last night he informed us he was now Director of Fan Relations. As soon as he said that I was prepared to hear Dean's wrath about getting screwed over more after he left than while he was there. We congratulated him with genuine happiness. He deserves it.

What we didn't know about the position of Director of Fan Relations is that it also comes with the honorary title of "Mayor of Left Field Street". Our seats were in left field and as we were walking along the concourse loaded with Pepsis and hot dogs, we saw Craig again. This time he had on a tuxedo coat over his jersey and a top hat. He was at a podium addressing his masses. Which consisted of a boy and his dad.

Speaking of left field, our seats happened to be in the front row in left field. That was scary. At first we were excited to potentially catch a home run ball. The only ball that came close to us ended up bouncing off the fence only a foot or two away from us, leaving all three of us curled in a fetal position, screaming.

When we got home from the game we turned on our new beloved baseball package to catch the rest of the Twins vs. Yankees. The Twins had blown a four run lead and were trailing 5-4 in the 8th. In the bottom of the ninth, Miriano Rivera was pitching, the lead off hitter was walked. Joe Mauer, or Baby Jesus as Dean sarcastically calls him due to his savior image among Twins fans, hit a double. Second and third with nobody out. Rondell While and Torii Hunter both strike out. Then Justin Morneau hit a double scoring the tying and winning run. Suck it, Derek Cheater and PayRod and the rest of the Evil Empire!

12 comments:

Runner Girl FL said...

FUN!! Hope you guys had a great weekend!!

Hot4Teacha said...

Joe Mauer IS our savior. He is also my naughty night slave in occasional dreams and flights of fancy. Mostly he wears his batting helmet and shin guard... and that's it. YUM.

Jackie said...

sounds like a great time!

I was watching the baseball highlites yesterday, and I was scanning the crowd for you and Dean and him mom, not surprisingly I didn't see you, lol.

Hope this week goes well!

Natalie said...

lefty and teacha-
Joe Mauer is hot. And very nice. And Gardy's favorite. And everyone's favorite, which totally puts him at risk to be overrated. Just a batting helmut and shin guards? Kinky. The uniform itself turns me on. He's got a cute bubble butt that looks especially nice in baseball pants. Peeling them off would be my fantasy.

runnergirl-
It was way fun. I'm sure you'll hear more later.

jackie-
You're too cute! You didn't see us because we were busy ducking!

brainhell said...

Why are you phyics people always into baseball?

Runner Girl FL said...

Brainhell-
Because of the amazing amount of physics involved in baseball!! What makes the sweet spot of the bat, why the curveball curves, why the slider slides, the Bernoulli effect on a baseball!! and the thought that goes into the game. Ask Magnetbabe to tell you about the physics softball team some day. It was a good time.

Or maybe it’s just ‘cause we are well rounded fun people who like to sit outside on a Sunny day and watch a bunch of cute guys in tight pants run around and have fun while we drink beer and eat hotdogs…..

MB-
When is our next trip to the trop game I just made myself hungry for beer and ballpark hotdogs!!

(Note: during the season we don’t actually get to sit outside but you get the point)

Natalie said...

Good point, runner girl. I highly recommend Robert Adair's The Physics of Baseball for the answers to those questions. I was just out to lunch with Sylvia telling her about our softball team. Maybe in a future post...
Next trip to the Trop? Anytime after Helium.

brainhell said...

MB, next time you go to a game, bring z 12-pack of Twinkies. That'll end yer dry spell.

justacoolcat said...

"Baby Jeasus" , that is hilarious

Scott said...

We are so together on the Yankees issue. I've become somewhat of a red sox fan, and I get so tired of seeing the iceman Rivera come in and one-two-three the ninth. I love it that he got smacked.

Natalie said...

next time you go to a game, bring z 12-pack of Twinkies. That'll end yer dry spell.

I wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of scoring with a Twins player if he saw me eating Twinkies. It's bad luck since people who hate on my boys call them Twinkies (e.g. 1987 Tiger's playoff slogan, "Let's cream the Twinkies!").
It might not make a difference with the Rays, but none of them are very hot. Sorry, Rays.

Scott-
The iceman is melting. He isn't as lights out as he used to be. Teams just need to get over their neuroses associated with him. He's got psychology on his side.

Natalie said...

Oh yeah, minnesotablue-
You are not alone about Justin. I can't tell you how many times at spring training I heard people saying "when are they gonna trade Justin!" I couldn't believe it. I always knew he was good. And cute.