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Don't call it a Dodger Dog

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A couple weeks ago, a follow Master Gardener emailed out an offer for Giants tickets. Her family owned a block of seats, and normally managed to find takers within the family to occupy all the seats in the block. However, this July 4th weekend, the family was having a reunion that everyone was going to attend, leaving the family with Giants tickets they weren't going to use. Did anyone want to buy them?

I asked Kris if he wanted to go, and he liked the July 4th times, and said yes. I suspect if he had realized just how fabulous the seats were, he might hvae said yes to all of the games.

Now, I can count all of the professional baseball games I've been to on one hand. I can also count all of the professional baseball games I've been to that I've enjoyed on one finger. Kris knew this, so offered to make today's games as painless as possible for me. Instead of a long day including a train up to the City, train back and a full game, he suggested we drive.

We drove up, found a great, very close parking structure and walked over to the ballpark. On the way over, Kris leaned over and commented, "Whatever you do, don't call it a Dodger dog."

That man spoils all of my fun.

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We arrived after the first inning had started, but not before it had ended. We managed to purchase our Dodger Dogs, er, Giant Dogs, which really weren't so giant. I also had Kris buy me a Coke, which would be my second Coca Cola of the year and my ninth of the decade. Yeah, not really a big soda fan.

When we went to look for our seats, we were pleased to discover just how wonderful the seats were. We were in the 9th row just past the third base. Holy crap, I thought, these seats are awesome. Kris' response was, "Wow, the players are big!"

And big they were. Not really the size of us mere mortals.

Given how close we were to the field, we could see each player well. To really take advantage of the event, and the opportunity to see everyone well, I made Kris talk out loud as he was watching the game. He's always told me there's a lot of drama in a game, so I wanted to hear it.

He pointed out how the pitchers stand differently based on the runners on the bases. He pointed out how differently the outfields position themselves based on the hitters. He predicted various upcoming pitches.

And speaking of pitches, to my joy, Lincecum was pitching today.

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He pitched really well. The Houston pitcher was also pitching well, pitching 5 and 2/3 innings before an error by the shortstop started the Giants run of a lot of points. Well, Kris said it was a shortstop error. The official scorekeeper didn't mark it as an error, though.

I wondered how the crowd around me would have marked it. The crowd around us was fabulous, with one guy a couple rows up quite interested and marking stats.

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He would often turn to the people behind him, in front of us, and talk to them about the game, tell them something informative that also helped me understand the game, too. The guy behind me seemed to be explaining the game to his girlfriend, who was asking even more clueless questions that I was. For the most part, I enjoyed his banter. I didn't particular enjoyed when he yelled and cheered, though.

Still.

We ended up leaving after the seventh inning, when the Giants were up 8-1. Kris said he wanted to make sure we left early enough that I was still enjoying myself, so that I'd be willing to go to another game.

And, what do you know? I had a great time at the game. With this experience, I think we could go to another game together.

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