Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Friday, July 20th 2007, Wake up time: 7:10am 


I woke up so early as I had to go see Don and do the gardening work he'd asked me to help him with. I walked over to his place in Sheraton Park (it was a part of Manor Park, a road just off of it.) It was mainly weeding that I had to do. It was long, hot and labouring :/ But I worked for two hours and got a good $20 for it! So all in all, not bad at all. 


I got back around quarter past 11, and found the living room turned into a fort. Claire asked if I wanted to help her finish building it. It was a lot of fun and I felt like a kid again,,,in a good way. I was getting hungry and it was around lunch time so I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 


After lunch, Bev asked if we wanted to join her in going to this big department superstore. It had  everything, from Jordan's Furniture, to a Base Jumping activity and a Jelly Bean shop...where the floor was glass with Jelly Beans underneath! There was also a Bose which is a huge electronics store...top of the range stuff. We moved onto Market Basket to get some groceries and then Dagostinos which is a sandwich place. I had a Pastrami (which is a meat that is a mix of different meats) and cheese sandwich. 


We headed home, and Bev told me some great news! Her friend had a season pass to the Red Sox and she had two spare tickets for the evening. As it would be my only real chance to see the Sox, I should take her up on it and go along. Lyle didn't really like baseball and Claire wasn't fussed. It was really hot so I jumped in the shower and got changed. We then headed out for the Red Sox game! 


Red Sox Game


We got to the game about 6.20. We did the typical thing of buying overpriced refreshments as there is nothing else available. Remember the coke that cost me $1 for 3 litres? This coke was considerably smaller and cost me $4! We went and found our seats.


There were some dogs on the field as a pre-game warm up playing frisbee. We then saw the ceremonial pitch, which is normally a celebrity throwing the pitch. They sometimes do a good job, but sometimes fail miserably, which everyone laughs at in a jolly way. Then a little girl comes out and says the infamous words "Play ball." 


I'm going to take a moment here to explain the basic rules of baseball for anyone who has no idea...as some of the references might make no sense. There's two teams...and nine innings. A inning is over when a team gets three players out. You're out if you strike out three times. It's quite hard to actually type out all the rules without losing anyone...I should really just explain things as I go along. 


The first two innings, nothing much happened. There was a run for the Sox, but that was about it. A run is when a player makes it round all four bases to 'home base.' In the third inning, there was some controversy. There were two players on base, and it seemed it was a home run. Manny Ramírez was easily my favourite player. He just strolled round the bases, knowing he had all the time in the world. If it's a home run, all the players get to go to home, counting in the runs. Manny, strolled away. But then it was decided it wasn't a home run! Manny was between the bases, as he took so long to walk and he was out :( It wasn't his fault, it was just unfortunate.


The White Sox, a team from Chicago, scored back three. But in the fifth inning, the Red Sox scored four more runs! I saw almost everything I could see in a game. I even saw David Ortiz steal a base! Stealing a base happens when the pitcher throws the ball, and the player attempts to quickly run between the bases before the pitcher gets the ball back. It's normally only the speedy players who manage it as you have to run super fast. David Ortiz is a BIG guy! He managed to make it, but hurt his shoulder in the process... bad move really. 


During the sixth inning, some people started the wave, and both Bev and I joined in. The seventh inning called for a stretch, where all the crowd sings 'Take me out to the ball Game' The stretch is just because most games can go on for a long, long time! It's all based on how quickly people are struck out. 


It was the eight inning where everything kicked off. Manny hits it, and got to second. There was a bunk line hit and as far as I know, Veritek did a sacrifice fly...the end result, however it happened was that the bases were loaded. Bev said the ominous words 'As the bases are loaded, with a man on every base, if there was a home run now, all four players would get run home and it would be called a grand slam." Julio Lugo steps up to the plate...third hit, sailed right over the Green Monster (the famous biggest wall at the side of the park) and was a home run! All four players were run in. 


After the 8th inning, we sang the song 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil Diamond. It was chosen because of the chorus...which is to help players believe. Although the Sox won the World Series in 2004, they hadn't won it for 87 years...it's called the Babe Ruth curse. The year they sold one of their greatest players to their rivals The Yankees, and after that never won the World Series...All exciting stuff!


Although I may have not accounted for every run, the game ended in high spirits with the Sox winning by 10 runs to 3. It was an added bonus as The Yankees had lost to the Devil Rays! 


I'll share some things with you...here's an article from the game, if anything needs clearing up. 


http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/07/21/big_bang_theory/

Also, here's the song 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil Diamond. Sweet Caroline


Overall, a very exciting evening and quite a good day! 
Thanks for listening.