Thursday, May 21, 2009

AAAA Baseball at its Best

I went to the Nationals / Pirates game last night and was treated to quite a pitcher's duel(ha). The Pirates have won 5 straight games, but winning 3 straight against the Nats is like beating a blind kid in a seeing contest. Anyway, here's a recap of my night:

5:30 - Leave work and hope to get home by 550 so we can leave for the 7 oclock game at 6.
5:45 - Hit horrendous traffic.
6:05 - Arrive home in an extremely bad mood, not even caring if I go or not anymore.
6:10 - Leave anyway, without directions to the parking lot where we prepaid to park in, expecting to arrive around 6:40.
6:40 - Have been sitting in stand still traffic because of an accident. At least at this point, it is laughable.
7:05 - Game starts, I am not there. Why can't they start at 730??
7:20 - Finally get into the city, but now I can't find the parking lot, and GPS cannot help me.
7:40 - Find the parking lot that was labeled poorly after driving around the Capitol Building 3 times.
7:41 - Kick myself because the lot is right off the offramp that comes into the city.
7:50 - Arrive at the stadium after about a 10 minute walk (yes I paid 18 dollars to walk 10 minutes to the stadium). Oh, and I saw free parking right next to the lot I was in.
7:51 - Enter the gates and see on the scoreboard outside that it's only the bottom of the 2nd inning...Oh baseball and its slowness. This is when I first notice the large number of people with Pirates hats and jerseys on. The vendors outside the gate were selling as much Pirate gear as Nats...
7:55 - Get food before we get to our seats because we are famished. Some Pirates fans see my Pens shirt and yell "GO PENS." I smile.
8:00 - Get to the seats in the beautiful stadium (no sarcasm). It really is a nice place, just a severe lack of fans. There are a mix of Nats and Pirates fans around me, but not many people at all. I am in the lower section, about 30 rows behind third base. Definitely great seats.
8:00-9:35ish - Neither team can muster up much offense as both teams had their aces on the mound. It is a 1-1 game going to the top of the 9th, and Leigh begins to get anxious. She refuses to stay past 1015, so I guess this game better end soon.
9:40 - Thank God for Joel Hanrahan. He loaded the bases with 1 out, and after Brandon Moss couldn't get the run home, Hanny threw a wild pitch (which followed about 10 pitches in the dirt, one had to get by eventually) and the Pirates scored their second run. Pirates fans stood up and cheered, and Nats fans began to leave.
9:50 - Enter Matt Capps. Leigh is excited because the game will end soon, but I warn her that Capps is terrible and this could go to extra's. After giving up a hit and me thinking the game was over, he gets a double play inducing ground ball, and things are looking up. In steps Willingham, who is struggling but definitely has some pop. Well Capps lays a fat one in there and Willy crushes it. I haven't seen a home run in person in a looong time, so from my angle this looked way gone. I groaned to myself as I realized I probably wouldn't get to watch the end of the game, but luckily the ball fell JUST short and Nate was able to snare it. The 3 very loud drunk Nats fans booed their team and yelled sarcastically "damn, this is so surprising!" And other similar phrases. I feel bad for them...maybe we can let them win 1 game this series.
10:00 - Actually left when I had hoped we would, and the drive home was much more pleasant.

Oh, one other note that I forgot - Sean Burnett came in in like the 8th, pitched to a lefty, gave up a hit or walk or something, and was pulled. I figured it was for a righty to match up with the next hitter...then I noticed the hitter was a lefty and Grabow was coming in. Wow, John Russell has a lot of confidence in Burnett...


In semi-related news, my friend Haley, who probably only Ryan knows and who Kevin had a thing for, got Ian Snell's phone number 2 nights ago at the bar she works at. She is short and curvy, and decently attractive and works at a bar that promotes hot girls. She dances in beer baths and stuff...Anyway, she didn't even know who Snell was, she just said she got a Pirates' phone number and his name was Ian...Nice. She did disclose the fact that she has a bf to him, so good for her I guess...I hope something comes out of it though, because it would be pretty cool to be in with a major leaguer.

UPDATE: Here's what Haley told me: "He's pretty attractive, I was tempted, seeing he has like a 9 million dollar contract, but i didn't even know he was a baseball player until one of the periogies told me who he was! More importantly I met Oliver Onion Perogie and i"m gonna go root for him tonight at the game, ha. I may or may not text Ian and say good luck, just to see. He said he would fly me out to parties in Houston and Miami, I'd be down for that ;)" Good stuff.

1 comment:

Ngewo said...

She should totally start banging, I mean hanging out with Ian Snell.