Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
Moderators: nuzzy62, simballerific
Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
I'm thinking and will get back to it! However, I was at the Bucky Dent game....(Yankee fan)
-
todd999430
- Posts: 2969
- Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:34 pm
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
Wow, this is an easy one for me except I have two stories to share.
First, I'm at a baseball game with a fraternity brother. He's not paying attention and was actually reading a magazine at the time. Eric Karros is at the plate. I believe it was spring training, actually... and he hits a foul ball. It's heading and curving toward our seats. Everyone is pointing and jumping around. My friend can't be bothered; he's just sitting there reading his magazine. The ball ends up bouncing off the hands of someone behind us and then is propelled into the magazine my friend was reading. The ball comes to a rest in his lap. He looks down, smiles, and then stands up with the ball in one hand, like he caught it on the fly. He then had the ball on the dashboard of his car for the next couple of years, just rolling around.
Second story, I'm at a baseball game on a first date. It was sort of random. She was a co-worker and we hung out the night before. I had plans to go with an ex girlfriend I was sort of seeing at the time, but she was slow in responding if she definitely could go and when we would leave for the game, etc... so I just asked the co-worker to go instead. She said yes. I drove up to the game and it was a fun game. Had solid seats. She left to go to the restroom at one point and didn't come back for 30-40 minutes. I assume she had just bolted and wasn't ever coming back. Eventually, she returns and says "I feel dumb saying this, but I have been siting one section over for the last 30 minutes... I forgot the section number and just made my best guess of where I thought you were. I eventually looked around and saw you over here, so yeah, here I am." She then fell asleep the entire drive home. Probably one of the worst first dates ever. I married her.
First, I'm at a baseball game with a fraternity brother. He's not paying attention and was actually reading a magazine at the time. Eric Karros is at the plate. I believe it was spring training, actually... and he hits a foul ball. It's heading and curving toward our seats. Everyone is pointing and jumping around. My friend can't be bothered; he's just sitting there reading his magazine. The ball ends up bouncing off the hands of someone behind us and then is propelled into the magazine my friend was reading. The ball comes to a rest in his lap. He looks down, smiles, and then stands up with the ball in one hand, like he caught it on the fly. He then had the ball on the dashboard of his car for the next couple of years, just rolling around.
Second story, I'm at a baseball game on a first date. It was sort of random. She was a co-worker and we hung out the night before. I had plans to go with an ex girlfriend I was sort of seeing at the time, but she was slow in responding if she definitely could go and when we would leave for the game, etc... so I just asked the co-worker to go instead. She said yes. I drove up to the game and it was a fun game. Had solid seats. She left to go to the restroom at one point and didn't come back for 30-40 minutes. I assume she had just bolted and wasn't ever coming back. Eventually, she returns and says "I feel dumb saying this, but I have been siting one section over for the last 30 minutes... I forgot the section number and just made my best guess of where I thought you were. I eventually looked around and saw you over here, so yeah, here I am." She then fell asleep the entire drive home. Probably one of the worst first dates ever. I married her.
-
simballerific
- Posts: 1299
- Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 2:18 pm
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
Wow, this ended up being longer than I anticipated.
Worst: I referenced this in the other thread. I am a MN Twins fan who has lived in San Diego the past couple of decades. I have a few friends from MN that also relocated here over the years. Every season when the Twins play the Angels, we take the Surfliner(Amtrak) up to Orange County and catch a game. We are vocal(but not profane) fans. We wear Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew jerseys. I always bring a sharpie to make impromptu signs and/or deface whatever Angels swag is being given away at the stadium. Angels fans hate it when you deface an Angels hat. We have a completely defaced Angels snuggie that was given to us in 2010 when they set the Guinness world record for most people wearing a snuggie at the same time.
On to that fateful day. May 2, 2012. Jared Weaver pitched a no-hitter against the Twins. 9-0 final score. Just a miserable experience as a fan. But if you talk a lot of smack, you have to able to take it as well. I refuse to ever leave a game early. So, we stayed until the bitter end. The Angels fans were giving us props by the end for sticking it out.
Best: My first MLB game ever. 5 years old. Went with my dad and grandpa. Old Cleveland stadium, back in the early 80's when they were lucky to get a few thousand fans. A foul ball came our direction. Grandpa caught it, and handed the ball to me. It was magical. As we were leaving the stadium I asked my dad, "When can we come back so that I can get another baseball?"
Epic: In the late 90's my buddy and I road tripped from MN to the East coast and caught games at Wrigley, Cleveland, NYC, and Baltimore. After spending the 4th of July in DC, we drove over night to Chicago. We were broke college kids, so we'd been sleeping in his old Nissan 280z hatchback. As we were getting close to Chicago, we stopped by Notre Dame in the morning and took a self guided tour(AKA let's see what buildings we can sneak into). They were doing work on the football stadium and we got kicked off the campus after sneaking onto the field(But sir, we didn't see any sign saying we couldn't go on the field). We decided to catch a game at the new Comisky park that evening and then drive back to MN after.
We get to Comisky around 2pm for a 7pm game. We park in a lot before the attendants have even gotten there. After counting our money, we determine that we have just enough money to buy two cheap tickets, gas to get home, and some McDonalds. We do have a cooler full of beer though, so we start tailgating by ourselves. Right before the game is about to start, even though it is hot and humid out, I put on jeans and a fleece sweatshirt. My plan being that I will sneak like 10 bottles of beer into the game. That part of the plan goes smoothly.
We find our seats way high up in the upper deck. Our section has maybe 10 people in it total. I place our beers down by our feet and start enjoying the game. Albert Belle comes up to bat, and my buddy yells "Albert Belle, you suck!" About 20 yards away, a woman with her kids, glares at us and says "watch your language". OK, whatever. 10 minutes later we both feel hands on our shoulders, and it is stadium security.
+Who's beers are those?
-Ours.
+You know you can't bring beer into the stadium.
-Really?? We didn't see any signs saying that you can't.
+Well, you are going to have to leave the stadium.
-OK, we'll just take our beers and go then.
+No, your beers are confiscated and you're kicked out.
-What? Either we leave with our beers, or you let us stay and you confiscate the beers.
+This isn't a negotiation. You're coming with us.
They take us down into the bowels of the stadium. They mug shot us, and get our names. I intentionally did not have my ID on me because I wasn't 21. So they can't prove I'm underage. Some how we luck out because my buddy played high school hockey with one of the security guys cousins. So instead of handing us over to Chicago PD, they take us out a side door and kick us out. (I have a photo of us with them)
After getting kicked out, we immediately encounter a scalper asking us if we want tickets. We tell him we just got kicked out and only have $5 on us. He thinks that's funny, and realizing that $5 is better than nothing, gives us a couple of tickets. We go back in the stadium, and these new tickets are 15 rows behind the dugout on the 3rd baseline. Great tickets. Way better seats than before.
We decide that we want to get a photo of ourselves standing on top of the dugout. The only problem is that there is an usher stationed at the bottom of the aisle who would surely thwart our attempt. But we notice that the ushers switch out every once in a while. We start talking with a group of 4 middle aged men who are season ticket holders seated behind us. We tell them our plan, and ask them to take the photo for us.
It's now around the 5th inning, and we make our run for the dugout and get our photo. Success! 3 minutes later we feel hands on our shoulders. Same security guys.
-Hi guys, how you doing?
+We saw you on the jumbotron when you jumped on top of the dugout. Thought you looked familiar. Kind of like the two guys we had just kicked out of the stadium.
-Did we do something wrong?
+Yeah. You can't go on top of the dugout.
-We didn't see any sign saying we couldn't.
Somehow we talk our way out of this jam. We show them that we have no money, so we can't buy any more beer. And now that we know all of the unwritten rules, we can follow them. I'm still not sure why they let us stay, but they did.
After security leaves, the guys sitting behind us, who took the photos, tell us: wow we have never seen anyone jump on top of the dugout and NOT get thrown out. We instantly respond, so then why didn't you warn us, you guys owe us a beer. And they bought us a couple rounds of beer. I can't remember who won, but nobody in the nice seats got mad when we yelled at Albert Belle that he sucks every time he came to bat.
Worst: I referenced this in the other thread. I am a MN Twins fan who has lived in San Diego the past couple of decades. I have a few friends from MN that also relocated here over the years. Every season when the Twins play the Angels, we take the Surfliner(Amtrak) up to Orange County and catch a game. We are vocal(but not profane) fans. We wear Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew jerseys. I always bring a sharpie to make impromptu signs and/or deface whatever Angels swag is being given away at the stadium. Angels fans hate it when you deface an Angels hat. We have a completely defaced Angels snuggie that was given to us in 2010 when they set the Guinness world record for most people wearing a snuggie at the same time.
On to that fateful day. May 2, 2012. Jared Weaver pitched a no-hitter against the Twins. 9-0 final score. Just a miserable experience as a fan. But if you talk a lot of smack, you have to able to take it as well. I refuse to ever leave a game early. So, we stayed until the bitter end. The Angels fans were giving us props by the end for sticking it out.
Best: My first MLB game ever. 5 years old. Went with my dad and grandpa. Old Cleveland stadium, back in the early 80's when they were lucky to get a few thousand fans. A foul ball came our direction. Grandpa caught it, and handed the ball to me. It was magical. As we were leaving the stadium I asked my dad, "When can we come back so that I can get another baseball?"
Epic: In the late 90's my buddy and I road tripped from MN to the East coast and caught games at Wrigley, Cleveland, NYC, and Baltimore. After spending the 4th of July in DC, we drove over night to Chicago. We were broke college kids, so we'd been sleeping in his old Nissan 280z hatchback. As we were getting close to Chicago, we stopped by Notre Dame in the morning and took a self guided tour(AKA let's see what buildings we can sneak into). They were doing work on the football stadium and we got kicked off the campus after sneaking onto the field(But sir, we didn't see any sign saying we couldn't go on the field). We decided to catch a game at the new Comisky park that evening and then drive back to MN after.
We get to Comisky around 2pm for a 7pm game. We park in a lot before the attendants have even gotten there. After counting our money, we determine that we have just enough money to buy two cheap tickets, gas to get home, and some McDonalds. We do have a cooler full of beer though, so we start tailgating by ourselves. Right before the game is about to start, even though it is hot and humid out, I put on jeans and a fleece sweatshirt. My plan being that I will sneak like 10 bottles of beer into the game. That part of the plan goes smoothly.
We find our seats way high up in the upper deck. Our section has maybe 10 people in it total. I place our beers down by our feet and start enjoying the game. Albert Belle comes up to bat, and my buddy yells "Albert Belle, you suck!" About 20 yards away, a woman with her kids, glares at us and says "watch your language". OK, whatever. 10 minutes later we both feel hands on our shoulders, and it is stadium security.
+Who's beers are those?
-Ours.
+You know you can't bring beer into the stadium.
-Really?? We didn't see any signs saying that you can't.
+Well, you are going to have to leave the stadium.
-OK, we'll just take our beers and go then.
+No, your beers are confiscated and you're kicked out.
-What? Either we leave with our beers, or you let us stay and you confiscate the beers.
+This isn't a negotiation. You're coming with us.
They take us down into the bowels of the stadium. They mug shot us, and get our names. I intentionally did not have my ID on me because I wasn't 21. So they can't prove I'm underage. Some how we luck out because my buddy played high school hockey with one of the security guys cousins. So instead of handing us over to Chicago PD, they take us out a side door and kick us out. (I have a photo of us with them)
After getting kicked out, we immediately encounter a scalper asking us if we want tickets. We tell him we just got kicked out and only have $5 on us. He thinks that's funny, and realizing that $5 is better than nothing, gives us a couple of tickets. We go back in the stadium, and these new tickets are 15 rows behind the dugout on the 3rd baseline. Great tickets. Way better seats than before.
We decide that we want to get a photo of ourselves standing on top of the dugout. The only problem is that there is an usher stationed at the bottom of the aisle who would surely thwart our attempt. But we notice that the ushers switch out every once in a while. We start talking with a group of 4 middle aged men who are season ticket holders seated behind us. We tell them our plan, and ask them to take the photo for us.
It's now around the 5th inning, and we make our run for the dugout and get our photo. Success! 3 minutes later we feel hands on our shoulders. Same security guys.
-Hi guys, how you doing?
+We saw you on the jumbotron when you jumped on top of the dugout. Thought you looked familiar. Kind of like the two guys we had just kicked out of the stadium.
-Did we do something wrong?
+Yeah. You can't go on top of the dugout.
-We didn't see any sign saying we couldn't.
Somehow we talk our way out of this jam. We show them that we have no money, so we can't buy any more beer. And now that we know all of the unwritten rules, we can follow them. I'm still not sure why they let us stay, but they did.
After security leaves, the guys sitting behind us, who took the photos, tell us: wow we have never seen anyone jump on top of the dugout and NOT get thrown out. We instantly respond, so then why didn't you warn us, you guys owe us a beer. And they bought us a couple rounds of beer. I can't remember who won, but nobody in the nice seats got mad when we yelled at Albert Belle that he sucks every time he came to bat.
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
These are great...Someone post a fun tread each week for us to ponder....OK?
I'll share one that's not mine but gets my father -in-law's dander up (even now at 89). It's one of those the grand kids use (my kids, my nieces and nephews) to get pa going...
He was on a first date (!) with his wife to be at Ebbetts Field and she asks him to get her a dog and a beer. So he does. While waiting, he hears wild cheering. When he gets back he asks my (to be) mother in law what happened. She says all the men ran around and then they ran in to take a rest. (classic the way he says it...even now!) They guy next to him looks over and smirks...."unassisted triple play" Sadly, we and the kids don't use this rave up technique too much anymore since grandma passed.
I'll be back with mine later...
I'll share one that's not mine but gets my father -in-law's dander up (even now at 89). It's one of those the grand kids use (my kids, my nieces and nephews) to get pa going...
He was on a first date (!) with his wife to be at Ebbetts Field and she asks him to get her a dog and a beer. So he does. While waiting, he hears wild cheering. When he gets back he asks my (to be) mother in law what happened. She says all the men ran around and then they ran in to take a rest. (classic the way he says it...even now!) They guy next to him looks over and smirks...."unassisted triple play" Sadly, we and the kids don't use this rave up technique too much anymore since grandma passed.
I'll be back with mine later...
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
I call this justice served.
A foul ball went into the stands at old Wrigley Field and a young kid got the ball. The this fat hulk comes up behind him and took the ball from the kid. A group of us got up to get the ball back from the Bozo but God joined in. The guy slipped on some beer and fell down the steps and broke his leg and we took the ball away and gave it to the kid.
An usher came by and asked what happened and let the kid keep the ball.
Poetic justice
A foul ball went into the stands at old Wrigley Field and a young kid got the ball. The this fat hulk comes up behind him and took the ball from the kid. A group of us got up to get the ball back from the Bozo but God joined in. The guy slipped on some beer and fell down the steps and broke his leg and we took the ball away and gave it to the kid.
An usher came by and asked what happened and let the kid keep the ball.
Poetic justice
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
Simple things....I was at Shea in '65 (when I was eight years old...off season!) going down to the dugout seats during batting practice and a ball rolled over and a player picked it up and i said' please may I have the ball?" And the player said "are you a good boy?" and I said yes sir (different era) and he smiled threw it over. He became my favorite player (and that includes my pitching idol Stotts). Evey once in a while, I'll sneak his name (or part of his name) on a player just for the halibut.
My favorite player (still 55 years later); Tony Perez
My favorite player (still 55 years later); Tony Perez
-
simballerific
- Posts: 1299
- Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 2:18 pm
Re: Fun thread: Your best and worst times (baseball wise) as a fan at a ball park.
Great thread idea rich. And I love everyone's contributions.
Couple quick ones to add.
** I was at the Padres game when Trevor Hoffman got his 500th save. He's probably the franchise's #2, soon to be #3 fan favorite. 1) Tony Gwynn, 2) Tatis Jr 3)Hoffman
** Also attended the Cubs game when Andre Dawson got beaned. The emotion in the stands was kinda crazy. First because it's The Hawk and everybody loved him. And then when he got up from the ground and charged right at Eric Show...the stadium was buzzing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71CjTqrHOA
Couple quick ones to add.
** I was at the Padres game when Trevor Hoffman got his 500th save. He's probably the franchise's #2, soon to be #3 fan favorite. 1) Tony Gwynn, 2) Tatis Jr 3)Hoffman
** Also attended the Cubs game when Andre Dawson got beaned. The emotion in the stands was kinda crazy. First because it's The Hawk and everybody loved him. And then when he got up from the ground and charged right at Eric Show...the stadium was buzzing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71CjTqrHOA