this post is supposedly about baseball, but mostly it’s about clothes
AK stalks Craigslist the way I stalk DSW.com, so last night we had field-level Dodger tickets for the price of nosebleeds (and I wore great shoes: silver-and-gray Converse with little splashes of orange that matched my nail polish).I learned a few important things:
1) On the field level—which probably has a more official name—there are nice bathrooms, and they sell Wetzel’s Pretzels instead of generic brand soft pretzels that aren’t so soft anymore.
2) Sitting next to fans of the visiting team who have strong lungs is not all that fun. One of them made his own blue T-shirt that said “Mannyroids,” which, for people who know as much about baseball as I do, alludes to Manny Ramirez, who was suspended for taking performance-enhancing drugs but is now back.
Normally I don’t think of zillionaire athletes who cheat to get ahead as underdogs, but after a while I started to feel sorry for the guy. Not that sorry, but a little. Partly because there’s a whole culture and industry pressuring athletes to do drugs, and that same culture/industry seems a little hypocritical when it punishes the guys who succumb to it. Partly because public humiliation administered by idiots just seems tacky. I guess the Braves fan next to us gets points for actually going to Michael’s and purchasing iron-on letters and applying them with what I have to admit was excellent spacing. Then again, maybe he loses points.
3) Boys puff their chests up and look like pigeons when they’re about to fight.
4) Whenever I watch baseball, I realize how many phrases come from baseball. Like, I’ll see a ball say over the field and think, Wow, he almost hit it out of the park. Hey! That’s why people say “He really hit it out of the park!” when someone does something impressive.
5) You can get three points (“Runs,” said AK. “In baseball they’re called runs, not points.”) at once if there are guys on first and second and you hit a home run. If it’s the bottom of the ninth inning and your team was losing up until now, this is pretty cool.
Comments
The other levels have names such as "loge," "reserve," "club," and, "top deck." None of which make any sense to anyone.
I saw Ethier's (who is my not-so-secret baseball crush) home run on tv last night. Very exciting. I'm jealous.
S: You and AK will have to fight over him. I nicknamed him Jon-and-Kate, because he looks a little like Jon of TLC fame. But cuter.
N: Ultimately I don't think I'll make much of any kind of baseball fan. Both my sympathy and my fandom are pretty lukewarm, although I do feel passionately about the various tiers of snack foods available at the stadium. What do they feed you at, um, Giants Stadium? Is that what it's called?
First game I remember seeing was for my 5th or 6th birthday. Drove over to see Yankees v. Red Sox. The guys behind us were kinda drunk and yelled so loud for the opposite team I liked at the time that I was too nervous to cheer.
I've never been really invested in baseball though I like having it on for background sometimes, and I like to see a game about once every ten years. I'm probably due. Yeah, last game I saw was Dodgers vs. Brewers during my '97-'00 LA stint.
That said, I think Manny's a fantastically fun player who was a quitter/washout his last few months with Boston--but, then, every player seems to do that with Boston. (Garciaparra? Clemens?) I think there's something about the intensity of playing in Boston that makes every player sick to death of it by the time they leave. I think Manny cares more about himself than his team often, but his cuckoo-for-cocoa puffs, laid-back vibe is perfect for LA. I like that guy. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ditched us for another team sometime soon.
My favorite line: "..." with what I have to admid was excellent spacing."
And yes, it was all about our uniforms and the color coordinated shoes.
PV: How did I not know you were a Disney cheerleader?! I'm so jealous. Did you have Kaepas with the little snap-in triangles in various colors? God, I loved those so much.