MLB!!!

Well, when we found out I would be in the Philly area for work, my good friend Shawn (from Philly) suggested that we could go to a baseball game while I was there... Hmm... How about YES!! My first major league baseball game, I was SO excited and spent weeks and weeks looking forward to it!

The big day finally arrived and we drove to the sports complex! and slowed down quite a bit trying to get into the parking, but finally succeeded.  As we walked toward the stadium we could hear the last bit of the national anthem ('cause we were a teency bit late) and I could feel the excitement swelling up inside me even as the crowds swelled up around me as we all crowded through the security area... I had to say goodbye to my carefully brought water bottle and had my bag searched but it was worth it to have the bag so I could put the bobble-head in it! Yes, everybody who went to the game that night was handled a packaged bobble-head of Carlos Ruiz, one of the Philly catchers.  But he was pictured as being at bat... that is the part I did not quite get. 

We got to our seats which were in quite a nice place, down relatively close to the field where we could see all the action. Oh so exciting! Phillies vs. Marlins.

The game went along pretty quietly for a while... Somewhere in the first few innings the Marlins scored a couple of runs. The Phillies had not gotten any yet. After a bit we went to hunt down some food to sustain us through the rest of the game. Hot dogs!! The line took a bit but we finally emerged with our awesome hot dogs... And there was of course ketchup and mustard and pickle relish to put on them, AND sauerkraut! I have to admit I would not have thought of sauerkraut as a traditional hot dog condiment, despite growing up near Ackley of the renowned Sauerkraut Days, but hey... I will try almost anything and it was super good. Well when we had our arms full of food, we had to wait to descend to our seats again because the Phillies were at bat and you know what havoc might ensue if some dumb people got in the way of Phillies fans watching their team batting.

The game kept proceeding rather frighteningly smoothly and quickly and we kept waiting for the Phillies to get their act together and score something... Finally they did! It had to be at least the 7th or 8th inning when they finally tied with the Marlins. I can't remember the exact inning numbers after this, it all gets kind of hazy....  Well we were getting down to the very end stretch, I can't remember if it was the 8th or 9th. The Marlins were at bat and one of their batters somehow GOT TO SECOND. When the umpire called him safe, it started, it was a low rolling rumble at first and then it just surged up mightily and moodily into a wide wide  I had never heard anything so loud, it was louder than any of the preceding cheering. It finally stopped, but then as soon as the next batter stepped up, there it was again... Boooo, boooo, boooo, boooo, boooo. I seriously did not know whether to be tremendously ticked off or giggle uncontrollably. Mostly I defaulted to the latter. It was such a childish sulky rebellious thing. Some people were joining in just for fun too, because they thought it was funny, they could not keep from smiling even as they were still booing Shawn may have been one of them. 

Oh I'm sorry, I got so run away by looking at the booing that I forgot to finish telling the game story. Well! ... Let's see. The Marlins did get at least 1 guy home that inning. BUT then Phillies tied them at the bottom of the 9th. Oh my goodness!! Extra innings!! In the next set, the Marlins scored some more! Oh my goodness. Because the Phillies had just recently gotten their first 2 hits of the game, I guess a whole bunch of fans went extremely negative and flooded out of the stands because they didn't expect the Phillies to get any more in time. I mean seriously, it took them practically the whole game to score anything at all, it did not look extremely hopeful. But who would walk out on a game... that's ridiculous. Well after they were all out of our way,

the Phillies were up to bat again, and this time, what do you know... they tied with the Marlins again, this time with a home run!!  Whoop-dee-doo the "Liberty bell" went off! (there is a huge "bell" on the edge of the stadium that rings whenever there was a home run).  It was extremely satisfying to finally see a home run, there were probably at least 2 or 3 balls earlier in the game that were seriously within 1 foot of being a home run but didn't quite make it. Well. There we were again, tied at the bottom of the 10th. 11th inning!

I can't remember if the Marlins scored... I do remember the booing kept coming back. And there was some Marlin dude that made it to 2nd base and the ump called him safe... You can just imagine the crowd's reaction. They would never stop booing now.

Then the Phillies were up to bat and they got a guy on base, and another (I think?), and then...

HOME RUN!!!!!

The stands went nuts. As that ball went sailing up we leapt to our feet and screamed and cheered. It was amazing!

Well, I think that was the end, hopefully I didn't leave out anything too significant, it was certainly a tremendously exciting game. All the action was basically in the last 3 innings. Such a great way to break into major league baseball!

And you should look up the Phillies Mascot, the Phanatic - he is crazy and so funny!

Well I will leave you with picture proof!