baseball

Summer almost got away from us without me having to sit through a dreadful 9 innings this year. But ALAS. Yesterday, Darren noticed that our minor league team, the Fort Worth Cats, was having KIDS NIGHT tonight. And so, along with our friends, the Carmans, we went.

"The only redeeming thing about a baseball game is the hot dogs," I groused as soon as we found our seats. One hot dog, way too many peanuts, 2 diet cokes and a Tums later, I must admit I was wrong about that. There were MANY redeeming factors tonight:

It was Dale and Kristi's 18th Anniversary, and while we were all aware of that, we were UNaware that Dani had secretly made her way to the announcer's booth and requested that they wish the Carman's a happy one. That is, until we heard their names come blasting over the speakers. That was cool.

As Darren chauffeured the boys to the bathroom, little 2-year-old Jonathan tagged along. Aidan put his arm around Jonathan's shoulder and walked with him like that all the way down the sidewalk. It was sweet to watch.

Toward the end of the game, we broke the sad news to the boys that there would be no "running of the bases" after tonight's game. For some reason, the announcers hadn't mentioned it at all throughout the whole night, so we assumed it must've been a last season thing and they weren't doing it anymore. Both boys cried, because they were SO looking forward to it. It's the one thing they remembered from last year's Cats game.

As soon as we won the game, we were treated to a fireworks show. I laid on my back across the bleacher and watched as the bombs burst in air directly above me. FANTASTIC. Suddenly, ash started raining down on me. It was kinda cool. Some of it was ashy and papery, but some of it felt like sand. And the smell of fireworks... totally love that. When the pelting of sand-ash finally started getting to me, I sat up and saw sweet little Faith in her Mommy's arms, looking up at the fireworks, TOTALLY mesmerized, with the biggest grin I've ever seen her wear stretched across her face. It was beautiful, and brought tears to my eyes.

After the fireworks, the lights came back up and... guess what?? The kids got to run the bases!! Aidan and Ian couldn't believe it. Dani and Katherine took Aidan, Ian and Kristopher to the first base line and ran with them. Aidan tore around the bases in his "super-fast mode". We cheered for all three boys as they rounded third toward home. It was so, so cool to see the pride on their faces as their parents hooted and hollared for them. LOVED that.

No photos. My batteries died as soon as we got there. What's up with THAT? I usually take precautions against such things.

On our way out of the park, we noticed a bunch of people peering through a crack between the grandstand seats and the empty underbelly of the stadium below. Down there, strewn about for some reason, were a half dozen tombstones. Engraved. One of the death dates was 1969. What on EARTH? It was bizarre, and I intend to write The Why Guy at Channel 8 to find out WHY. Kinda creepy, when you consider that the Cats play at historic LaGRAVE Field.

Hmmmmm.

So anyway. Baseball. Eh. It's alright, I guess. :)