Sunday's game

It's been a while and I know that this is more than a week late, but it is well worth it. The three of us went to the game with a few friends that we hadn't been to a game with and thought it would be fun to show them what a game with us was like. So we went with Shachar and Bailey, both classmates of Avi and Segev in Middle School. We got down to the park right before gates opened, and so the few of us who were there held a place in line right for Shachar who had gotten food, and Segev and Bailey who weren't there yet. They came after we had gotten in, so I didn't see them until around 5:15. The reason was that I ran into the ballpark to see if there were any baseballs around, but instead I saw that the place where Errol (an usher that we talk to every game) stands was empty and I was allowed around. The only problem was that he was walking up that area and he stopped me. He saw who I was and let me through because there were no other people around. SWEET!! There was no Batting Practice, so I went down to the field level to talk to Ruben. Because I was the only one who had gotten through of our group (Avi got stuck and had to wait) he came over when he saw me and we talked for a little bit. We talked about the Ronnie Deck t-shirts we had all gotten and about him visiting our school. It was a lot of fun and the people around me just watched us talk and were amazed that a player was that cool with just coming over and talking. So Ruben had to go help out with the pitchers warming up, so when Ronnie got back from the bullpen, he came over to talk to me. We talked for a little bit, he loves the t-shirts and he thought it was cool that it was a birthday present and that we had thought of him first. That's pretty cool. The pitchers from the bullpen started to warm up, so I figured that I had a very good chance at getting a baseball from the first group done. I stood right behind Danys Baez, who of course knows me, and when he turned around, I waved to him, and he said Hey. I asked him if when he was done if I could have the baseball and he said, "Yea no problem" I got to talking to some other people around me about the season and about the Orioles and also how I knew all the pitchers. Eventually I got the lady next to me a promise of a ball from Matt Albers since it was her birthday. When Baez and Dennis Sarfate finished, Dennis, who had switched sides with Baez ended up with the ball, and since no called out to him, I calmly asked him for the baseball and he tossed it to me. That was cool and that was baseball number 30 on the year. WOW! I honestly never went into the season thinking about collecting baseballs, but it has been a lot of fun, and 30 is a lot of baseballs. Eventually I went back up to Errol who told me to get my annoying friends, (Avi, who had been bugging him about getting through since he saw me) and when I brought Avi back, we were let through and we waited until 5:45 when everyone else came back to start walking around. There was no BP, so Avi and I stayed around home plate and chilled there with everyone else. Avi and I had a lot of fun just talking on the side, with no one to bug us and nothing really to do. It was a lot of fun, and it was good to be at the ballpark, close to the field, with good friends, on a sunny day. Avi did ass Brian Bass for a baseball after he was done warming up, so we each had a baseball. After that, Avi and I went over to the dugout and managed to get Chris Tillman's autograph, which is pretty cool since he is one of our great rookie pitchers. Segev and Avi found the survey lady who gives out tickets, and so Segev took the survey and we got 2 tickets to a game. After that we stood and talked for a little bit until we went down to the first row behind home plate and when Alan Dunn was done talking, we called him over and talked with him for a little bit. He told me that he was going to pick up some of the New Yankee Stadium commemorative baseballs for us. That's very cool and very nice of him. That was about it before the game other than talking to Miss Kelly and joking around with Shachar and Bailey. We eventually went back to our seats, and talked to some people we had seen at previous games. It was very hot out, so only a few of us sat out in the sun, while everyone else was a section up under cover. In the fourth inning, Segev, Bailey and I decided to go get a free sandwhich (from a coupon we had gotten from a guy we see a lot who had given us season tickets to the last few games of the season- regular seats, but we can get around the ballpark early). So we went out onto Eutaw Street and got the sandwhich. It tasted amazing and it came with a big drink which was great in the heat. After that we decided that we were going to go see an old teacher of ours and her young (1st grader) son, who had seats next to the dugout. When we went down to see them we sat in the top of the section until the middle of the inning, and after a great play, I looked over and there were 6 nuns standing and cheering. That got us laughing, because its not everyday you see a group of nuns at an O's game. So middle of the inning we went to say hi, had lots of fun and then went back to the nuns. So for that entire inning we had great seats and wanted to stay, but we continued to explore. At this point we were just finding random places to go because we were having a lot of fun and laughing a lot. I decided that we were going to go look at the most pointless seats in the ballpark. Located on Club Level, all the way down the 1st base line, they are facing towards Eutaw St. (away from Home Plate) and when you do turn to see the game, you are under the seats that are in front of you. Its a very odd location, and no one ever sits there. So we went to see the seats and pretty much we were right on top of them. The regular seats, the seating area extends out over Eutaw St and pretty much it extends a little to far. That was crazy, and there was really no one there, and its about a foot over, so its a very easy jump. We weren't going to do that, but it's possible. After all of that, we found the fan of the game, and the guy who gives the pretzels away to the fan of the games row, and after some debating and some avoiding it, Segev went up to the guy and he managed to get 2 coupons for free pretzels. Those pretzels were amazing. The salted one was one of the best I had ever tasted and it was worth every step I had taken to get it. We did a lot more walking and exploring, and tried to get some more free food, but at that point, we had run out of free food. At this point it was the 7th inning so we went back to the seats and chilled with everyone else for the rest of the game. I got an autograph from Former Oriole Davey Johnson, who was doing the post game show, and did have his World Series ring on. That was a lot of fun, and very cool. The entire game, Bailey had been asking when she was going to get her Red Bull, since I had told her that the night before, I had gotten a free one from the bullpen. So after the game, Ronnie couldn't stay, and so all we had was the guys in the bullpen. I asked one of them for an extra Red Bull, and he did a half-nod. When they emptied out the cooler, there was one left, and I was so excited. Of course, the guy threw it to us-- o wait- no he didn't-- he put it in his pocket. WHAT!?! I had been asking and I wasn't shouting or anything. UGH. So I felt horrible and I was determined to get Bailey a Red Bull. After that we went across the street to the Tavern to see Joe, but when we got there we were told he was on break and then that he had left. We decided just to stay and have some water, and we sat down in a big booth. Amazingly, Joe was still there, and he came down and saw us and waved. He had to go do some things, but when he got back, he did come talk to us for a little bit. It was a lot of fun, and even with the times he had to go work- I know, right, it was still a lot of fun. We got free bread from one of the guys that knows us and we told Joe we were all set and we didn't need anything, but I did ask him for a Red Bull. He told us that he couldn't get it for us because that was at the bar, and he couldn't just take something and not have an explanation. Bailey had some mixed reactions about that and when I was joking around with her about it, she was laughing and crying. Eventually everyone noticed, and including her, we all had a good time with that. Everyone else gave up, but Segev, Avi and I were going to make sure she got a Red Bull. So knowing that Joe would be cool with it, we went to the window, and while Segev and Avi asked outside, where Joe was, I got his attention and was playing around with him, inside. Then we all went outside (the 4 of us) and joked with Joe and the people he was helping, who were cool with all of it. We told Joe that Bailey had cried over it, and so we got it down to a $3.50 for the Red Bull (which we will pay eventually). Bailey told us she was going to the bathroom, but when Joe came out of the kitchen, she rushed over and grabbed Joe to see if he had it. There was one problem- I had taken the Red Bull from Joe at the top of the steps, and she was at the bottom with him. Everyone played into it amazingly and she had no idea I had it. She was ready to kill Joe- she was yelling that they had a deal, and then Segev stepped aside, and she looked up at me. I was holding the Red Bull like I was going to drink it-- I hadn't opened it, and her face went from anger to happiness to complete joy when she saw it. We all got a kick out of that, and headed over to the train. Bailey was overjoyed and hopped up on sugar, and she couldn't figure out when to drink the Red Bull.
The train is a whole other story. We got on, and there was a drunk O's fan and a drunk Yankees fan. The entire time the O's fan was yelling at the Yankees fan to just shut up and eventually, about halfway through the ride, he got up, yelled at the Yankees fan that there were 6 O's fans and 1 Yankees fan, and that he was going to get (jumps up and down) stomped. We all laughed at that one and were amused by all the yelling that went on after that. Eventually the O's fan tried to sit in the row with the Yankees fan, but according to the Yankees fan, "This seat is Tooken!" WOW-- we were really laughing now and that pretty much finished up the most amazing day we had had all season. It was the funniest, the Orioles did win 7-0, and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves. And as always, Go O's!