More Baseball

We had the chance to get some seats to the Tribe game yesterday (the Indians won 5-4 in 10), thanks to my friend Craig. Great seats (club level), fine weather (didn't need the jacket after the 3rd inning) and I got to bring my son. I remember going to Cubs games with my Dad (and Grandfather) in the late 60s and early '70s, and I hope that he had as good a time as I did back then...

Three old stadium memories:

Craig and I have been going to Indians games for a long time now. Yesterday's game reminded us of the night we went to a late season Tigers game at the old Stadium, where we crashed a hospital function in the old football press box. Because of the lousy sight lines, a late inning drive to the wall in right field had us guessing if Cory Snyder had caught it or it went out. We couldn't tell, because there wasn't a TV feed (OK there was - but the hospital folks had turned it to Monday Night Football -- Oakland vs. Denver) and there weren't enough fans for us to hear what happened behind the glass. It was a homer...

The best part after the Tigers game was that we had no problems finding the car -- we had parked in the back lot of the Stadium, next to the lake -- it was the only car in the entire lot.

To paraphrase "Plan 9 From Outer Space" "It was kinda spooky-like."

Speaking of spooky -- Wednesday afternoon game against the Kansas City Royals (George Brett, Bo Jackson era). We show up an hour before the game, and end up with 1st base tickets just beyond the Indians dugout. We're the only people sitting in the section until the third inning, when two other guys start wandering around our section -- where do they sit? Right next to us (it must have been a block of four seats that were available). During the game we can see right in the Royals dugout, It's a late season game, Brett's in the batting lead, so he's gone early after getting a hit, Jackson isn't playing, but he is sitting in the dugout -- with a yo-yo -- scaring the hell out of his team mates. But the spooky part comes before the game -- Longtime bullpen catcher Luis Issac is coming in from the bullpen, sees someone he knows in the stands and starts to talk to him -- just then a female "fan" dressed head to toe in Indians gear, stands up behind the man and points a toy laser gun at Issac and fires (dwee-dwee-dwee). We thought poor Luis eyes were going to pop out of his head. Nobody says a thing as she continues to fire at him. Luis finally leaves and she sits down like nothing happened.

But the one that always cracks us up was the last game Reggie Jackson played at the old stadium -- as he, McGwire and Canseco all hit homers and Oakland beat the Indians 13-3 (or something like it). Before the game, as we were just walking into the concourse, Sandy Alomar, Jr. walks by us (in full catching gear) with a bucket of balls, spikes clanging on the old cement floor. and no one looked at him twice (except us, mouths agape). We never could figure out why he was walking through there, unless he was on his way to pick up a hot dog before the game started.

Oh, and I forgot to mention -- after the game, as we're leaving and walking in front of the stadium, I see a guy wearing a t-shirt of my band (Indian Rope Burn). There are less than 100 of those shirts in circulation, and I think I only have two left. I know the drummer from the band Dig has one, because he wore it in the video for "Believe," but it still freaked me out...