Take me out to the ballgame... but not for a couple more years... please!
Sometimes we just do things that other... "normal"... people wouldn't do. Most of the time it turns out pretty well. Today we packed up our three five and under children and headed out for a day at the ballpark... Comerica, of course...
Lisa
Sometimes we just do things that other... "normal"... people wouldn't do. Most of the time it turns out pretty well. Today we packed up our three five and under children and headed out for a day at the ballpark... Comerica, of course...
And we began to realize... that perhaps... we overdid it this time...
After
munching some PBJs in the parking lot, we headed to the gates... which
weren't open yet. I explained the reason for the steam rising from the
grates in the road, and we all moved out of the "sewer smoke"... It was
then that Grace began to get irritated, because she was hot... and
there were bugs... Thankfully, though, the wait was not long, and we
got in without any issues. The kids all got free T-shirts, and Phil and
Seth went to purchase a program, while I helped Grace out of her
sweatpants and jacket. I am NEVER prepared for cold weather, and when I
finally was, it wasn't...
Phil took Seth and Grace
down to try to catch balls during batting practice. There were almost
no balls to catch... and they didn't catch any... which added to the
crabbiness... A picture is worth a thousand words...
So
we walked around a bit, while Phil explained some of the historical
artifacts, and Seth decided he liked Kanine (as in Al Kanine) the best.
The statues are pretty cool... While we were looking at them,
an incredibly kind woman came by and offered us several free tickets
for the carousel or ferris wheel! How awesome!
Eventually,
we decided to find the elevator, which would take us to our seats...
And the funniest thing happened... We got on, and then the elevator
stopped to pick up more people... and Mike Illich got on! I had my
camera hanging around my neck, and I immediately began to think about
whether it would be appropriate to snap a quick picture. In the end, I
decided not to. Everyone in the elevator was kind of looking around,
obviously thinking... or even whispering... "Is that Mike Illich?" Only
Phil seemed to have the presence of mind to look at him and say, "How's
it going?" Which nearly made me laugh, because it's not like we know
him, and it's not like Phil usually strikes up conversations with people
he doesn't know on elevators... Later we were thankful that he did not
say something to the effect of, "It's about time after 14 years!" And I
lamented the fact that I did not say something like, "We just love
those hot and readys!" 
Mr.
Illich commented about our bringing the family out to the ballpark,
talked to Seth for a minute, and then got off... but only after we all
tried to get off on the wrong floor... oops... The poor elevator
operator was so frazzled, she nearly couldn't get the doors closed
again!
We finally made it to our seats. Well, first
we climbed... and we climbed... and we climbed some more. On the way
up, someone made a comment about how many kids we had, and then he
realized I was pregnant and made another comment about more being on the
way. Then the whole row of people burst out laughing. I wasn't sure
whether or not to be offended, so I just burst out laughing, too. We
probably were a pretty funny sight. We got situated in our seats, and I
looked at Phil and informed him that I was not moving again until the
end of the game! Unfortunately, during the first half of the first
inning, Caleb had managed to kick the little girl in front of him in the
head and spit at the lady seated next to us... So I decided to move,
after all...
This was somewhat problematic, but
eventually I had my camera bag slung over one shoulder, a wiggly Caleb
in one arm, the folded up stroller in the other, and the diaper bag in
one hand... And then the hot dog man was in my way! I'm not too sure
he liked it that I made him move, but I couldn't really see any way
around it. I continued my descent down the rather steep flight of
stairs, dropped the stroller at the bottom (better than dropping Caleb),
and proceded to get Caleb situated... again. And then I began to
wonder... what will I do now? There were still potentially 8 1/2
innings to get through!
Clearly, the most logical thing was to eat something!
I
ordered a frozen lemonade, and got a hot pretzel for Caleb. He called
it a "donut" the whole time, but I was too tired to argue. Then we sat
down on the concrete walkway and watched the cars go by the stadium,
talked to a nice Comerica Park employee, and caught a few moments of the
game on a nearby TV screen. We tried to sneak into some unoccupied box
seats, but the security guard didn't seem to like that... By the end
of the third, Phil, Seth, and Grace came to find us! We never did get
back to our seats!
We took the elevator back down and went in search of the carousel. That seemed to help...
It
seemed logical, at this point, to watch the game from the main
concourse. We found a good spot under the statue of Hal Newhouser, and
all was well... especially the score! Seth really liked the view of the
score board:
When
the game was nearing a close, we started listening for instructions
about "Kids Run the Bases". Once we knew where to go, we walked that
way... except, when we got there, it wasn't the right place at all, and
kids were already starting to run the bases! Thus began a family run of
epic proportions... We, of course, had no idea that we had plenty of
time. But seriously, we had to have looked like a scene right out
of The Brady Bunch, with corny background music! At one point, Grace
was even pushing the empty stroller, while I ran behind her nearly
dragging Seth and Caleb, and Phil ran in front pointing the way...
Finally,
Phil took all three kids, and I went to find a good place to take
video. I carried the stroller (loaded with most everything we'd brought
with us) down some more lovely steep stairs and eventually collapsed in
a stadium seat and waited for my family to appear to run the bases...
and I waited... and I waited... and I waited... probably about 45
minutes... During this time, Phil called my cell phone nine times, but I
never heard it...
Phil told me later that the wait
was worse for him (which I'm sure it was), because I was sitting all
alone... in basic solitude... with nothing to be responsible for except
the stroller, while he was trying to keep three kids in line...
literally. At some point, Caleb got fed up with the waiting and
"spanked" the lady in front of him... I honestly can't even write that
without cracking up... even though I should be mortified...
When
they finally made it out on the field, they were all so cute! Caleb
took a couple of spills and was filthy by the time he made it to home
plate, but it was tons of fun to watch. I didn't get any pictures, but I
think the video turned out OK.
I carried the
stroller back up the stairs and met Phil and the kids, just as they were
coming up a different set of stairs... and then we realized that we
couldn't find Seth's glove...
Since I must have
been the one responsible for this (moms always are, you know), I
retraced my steps. Well... I tried to anyway. The problem was
that "Kids Run the Bases" was over, and one park employee was not too
thrilled about me going back to look for the glove. Finally, he gave
in, but I was pretty sure he wanted me to hurry. I ran down the
stairs... I didn't find the glove... then I ran back up the
stairs. Partway through my run back up, another park employee took pity
on me, I guess, and told me that I didn't have to hurry. That was very
good, because I don't think I could hurry anymore...
My next stop was guest services, where they immediately produced Seth's glove!
Looking
back on this day, it was surely an adventure. But I have a new rule:
Children under five do not go to pro-sports games! We had fun, but I'm
thinking this might have been a good trip for just one little guy and
his dad:
Lisa
P.S. I decided not to recap the summer. This is a long enough entry for today...
Comments (4)
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I can't believe you went and didn't call me!!! I can see Comerica from my window and would have LOVED to meet your adorable children. Next time you venture into downtown Detroit gimme a call... I'd love to see ya!! Sounds like it was quite an adventure! Miss ya.. the new target isn't nearly as great as brighton was with our team. -
Sounds like you had quite and interesting day! Glad you had fun though! I started cracking up when i read that Caleb spanked the lady, that is hilarious, even though it shouldn't be. Lots of Love, Jess -
Ahaha... I loved that! I started laughing when I read about ALL the things that Caleb did...lol, He definitely does put a new definition to terrible twos.... lol, I just discovered that your a great story teller.. I probably wouldn't take the time to write all that... Well, I might write about my day at Cedar Point...it was funny.. But if I don't end up doing it, I will have to tell you in person.. (the story is much better in person anyways... ;) > Lol!!! Lots of Love, Shandi
p.s. You ever need a break, remember that you have a superhero's girlfriend babysitter! lol -
How dare you disrespect Al Kaline! :)
What a day it was.....and I'm glad the lady in front of us was clear it was Caleb that did the spanking, and not me!
We were lucky to see a win, weren't we? Only 11 in the last 34 games...yikes!
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