Taken Out at The Ball Game

The time of year has come. As the Jimmer made the winter bearable I have turned my attention away from Cougar Basketball, instead focusing on the Lakers completion of a three-peat and of course the Angels and baseball.

Baseball was the first sport I ever loved. I have written about that many times here on Pete Chat. I don't fully trust a man who doesn't like baseball. B-Rock and I discussed this via twitter and came up with only two viable reasons why a man wouldn't like baseball. If you think think baseball is too slow, you are dumb.

Although the Angels don't come to town (or Baltimore anyway) until July, I was forced to feed my need with other teams. The defending American League Champions and NOT America's team the Texas Rangers were in Baltimore so a group of us decided to go up. I was most excited to cheer for my boy Vlad. I still love that guy even if he isn't on the Angels anymore.

One can certainly go to Baltimore and just eat at the game but we figured we might as well make a whole afternoon of it. Shannon, Dan, Julie and myself loaded into the Millennium Falcon and headed up to Charm City.

I can't say for certain if Kelis was driving but it would have made sense.

The drive up was relatively uneventful, we chatted and were generally excited to eat lunch at Chapp's pit beef. The thing about Chapp's is that it isn't really in a great part of town. It shares a parking lot with a gentleman's club, is across the street of a book store that is not Barnes and Noble, and check cashing place on the other corner. Despite it's less than picturesque location it does have a great beef sandwich.

I did not dress quite as warmly as I should have. My old man sweater did admirably but another layer would have made sense. We all filled up on pit beef and then headed over to Camden yards for the game.

I think that at final count there were about 17 of us who all got tickets together. Heather Hickson who is a proud Dallas resident gets props for organizing the evening. The Rangers must have known she was there because they put on quite a show. They scored thirteen runs including six in one inning. The game was never really close.

They game was not super intense and because I didn't have a dog in the fight, I spent my time rooting fro the grounds crew, promoting photo bombing, and trying to stay warm. There was also a fair amount of live tweeting going on as well. Dan, Joe and I, cheered loudly for Felix Pie and may have startled the people in front of us.

 Mary made the game all the more enjoyable with her rice krispie treats. They were delicious and kept me satiated through out the game.

Watch out Mandy, pretty soon there will be more pictures of Mary and I.

 As the game continued so did the chicanery. The situation pretty well unraveled to a mixture of shouting, photo bombing and the like. I really enjoy this type of situation. Others not so much. I had fun though, isn't that what matters?

Credit must be given where credit is due and Joe is certainly deserving off credit. He is the master photo bomber. If you aren't familiar with photo bombing, it is the act of getting in pictures in which you are not the intended subject. Job has basically turned this into an art form.

The master at work.

My attempt at photobombing mostly failed as I fled before the picture was taken. I am just an amateur when it comes to this particular mileau. I wil definitely need some practice if I am going to improve at it.

Once the game was over, it was off to Sonic. Lately they had been showing commercials for Sonic featuring their signature hot dogs (I am hungry as I type this and wish I was at Sonic at this very moment). Because there is no Sonic closer than 40 miles, it is pretty inconvenient to go there. We went a bit out of our way to have the goodness of food delivered on roller skates. I got a strawberry slush, and hotdog. It was soooooo good. After that it was back to Arlington.

That morning Shannon and I went to see Hanna. We both kind of liked it. By the time I got back to my place it was 12:30 AM. It made for a very long but very enjoyable Saturday.