Saturday, March 3, 2007

7th Quarter Stretch

One of the benefits of living in Florida is Spring Training for major league baseball. One of the benefits of belonging to the Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce is "Take me out to the ballgame" night. (The other is free after-work meet and greets - free cheese and soda!) Members were invited to the Minnesota Twins vs Cincinnati Reds game Friday night in Fort Myers and I gladly took two tickets.
Ma-Le has only seen baseball in the fall of 2004 when my St.Louis Cardinals lost to most of your Boston Red Sox in the World Series and again in the fall of 2006 when my St.Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series while I was in Ecuador. She assumes that the Cardinals are always in the World Series. (Last year was the first time they won since 1982 - Wohoo!) but suffice it to say she has seen very little baseball and this would be her first game. In Ecuador they have soccer and any other sport is pointless, but on the way to the game I decided to test her knowledge of baseball.

Pete - "How many innings are in a baseball game?"
Ma-Le - "What's an inning?"

Pete - "How may outs does each team get in an inning?"
Ma-Le - "An out is when someone hits a home run right?"

She actually picked it up very quickly and was attentive during the whole game, which may have had something to do with the guy who was beaned by a line drive in the 2nd inning. She also very wisely decided to root for the team that not only was scoring more runs, but eventually won (The Reds).

After the game the stadium provided the "best fireworks show in all of spring training!" with no hyperbole added whatsoever! No it was lame. At one point I thought the palm trees were on fire. A few orders of business - Ruth now leads Sean 3-2 in the grammar/spelling correction department. I'll need to think of a prize for the most errors pointed out. Or I'll need to learn possessive vs plural soon.

Also - if you leave a comment, leave your name or at least some cryptic hint as to who you are so I know I'm not letting the creepy dude in Tunisia from posting any more strange comments.

Lastly - no sooner did I post the last entry and there was a report of several deaths caused by the tornadoes in Alabama. I make light of certain things and in this case, something that terrifies me more than clowns, but I was lucky that the tornado that hit near Fort Lauderdale didn't do more damage. It really was a nerve wracking 25 minutes and I feel terribly for the people in Alabama and Missouri that were affected by the storms.

2 comments:

  1. A sudden guilt complex huh? I don't think that making light of a tornado somehow undermines or infers a lack of sympathy. Like all things in nature, there's an allure, a wonder and a danger.

    Now to the serious stuff, your date was rooting for the Reds??????? That is profoundly troubling and cannot be wished away by her baseball ignorance. Sox or Mets, fine. Even the Cards, we can live with, but the Reds? Yikes!

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  2. if she had rooted for the Cubs I would have dumped her.

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