Taking the Kids to a Ballgame

I took my own advice yesterday, and the kids & I, along with my Pop, went to Miller Park to catch the Brewers-Giants game.  We were fortunate to get some very good field level seats from my wife’s boss.   Sure, it’s fun to listen to Bob Uecker on the radio, or follow the in game thread at brewerfan.net, but still, there’s nothing like being there. 

The kids had a blast.  My 11 year old son went down to the edge of the field near home plate to watch the Giants take batting practice.  He got a couple of batting practice balls tossed to him by one of the Giants coaches, Tim Donnelly, I think.  He also got about 5 autographs, including Ben Sheets, David Riske & a few of the Giants players.

They hava a great kids area on the first base side of the field level concourse.  Both my son & daughter got to do things like race a cutout of Corey Hart to first base, pretend to be in the sausage race, and see how fast of a pitch they could throw.

The kids each got hot dogs, and were both disappointed at the selection of baseball cards included with their kids meals.  They each got the same card of an obscure Brewer backup catcher that neither of them had heard of.  Of course, we brought most of our own snacks in a duffel bag, which should surprise no one who has read my previous post on this topic.

Fortunately for them, the kids got baseball shirts, but we got them a couple days prior, to avoid the high prices and the phalanx of purchasers at the stadium store.  My son proudly wore his Ryan Braun Jersey and my daughter was thrilled with her pink Brewers shirt.

The Brewers starter, Manny Parra, threw no-hit ball through the first five innings.  I was vey proud of my boy, who a couple times leaned over to me, motioned to the scoreboard, and told me, “Parra has been very, very sharp so far.”  Even though it was a little early to get excited, it’s nice to see the boy knows enough not to talk about the possible no hitter.

My daughter is always a good sport at the ball game, and roots for the vistitors almost as much as she does for the Brewers.  The noise got a bit much for her, so she & I went back to the kid concourse during the eighth inning, but we made it back to our seats in plenty of time to see Eric “Game Over” Gagne get the save. 

A great game, all around, very enjoyable both for the kids & their Grandpa, and for me as well.