Baseball!

I had some friends over on Friday to celebrate our day of independence. A friend gave me 4 tickets to a ball game the next day, and we jumped on 'em. They were great tickets down the first base line, we were free that evening, and the tickets were free. Got to the stadium, and my son and I started advertising for the 4th ticket. "Extra ticket!" "Extra ticket!" No takers. Then we said "Free Ticket!", "Free Ticket!" -- and a family of 5 that was converging to the stadium with us told us that they were looking for a ticket. I said "great, here you go." The mom said, "well, would you like some money for it?" "You, know; to buy a drink or something?" "We were going to buy a ticket anyway." I said "sure, that would be great". "Give me whatever you want." So, she called up her husband, who was 10 feet in front of us by now, practically running for the gate. "Honey, give this man some money!," she said. I wish I had my camera ready - the look on his face said something like "are you nuts?" "we scored a free ticket here!" "you want to give this guy money?". I smiled, and repeated my earlier sentiment. "It's ok, just give me whatever you want." The guy was definitely struggling with the amount -- the "vibe" between us was totally different than with the woman, so, I said, "ok, how about 10 bucks?" After a few strained moments in his wallet, he pulled out several green sheets of paper money and handed them over. And so it was.

At this point, I was actually ahead $2 because parking was $8. But, hey -- getting paid $2 to take your son and mother to a ball game ain't bad. Of course, as a captured audience, we bought food, drinks and snacks at outrageous prices (bratwurst 7, pizza 9, two frozen lemonades 10, cotton candy 4, snuck in bottled water 0).

We had a great time. My son and I had our mitts on and wanted to catch a foul ball. Actually, I think I wanted to catch a ball more than he did. I wore my mitt religiously throughout the game. I think Alex wore his till the 5th inning, and then focused on eating. There's something special about baseball for us. Alex loves to play it, wear the uniform, and imagine that he's out there on the field playing ball -- making the play that saves the game, or hitting the winning home run. I used imagine myself being out on the field too, but this time, I just enjoyed being there. Something about the green grass, the smell of leather from my glove, the bright lights above, my son and mom getting along for the moment, and the crowd of cheering fans all around us -- and "I" was one of "us". I love baseball, and the constitution that made it possible. It meets my needs for freedom.