AJ was so proud of himself. And I was pretty impressed, too. Right about the time Mother's Day rolled around, he started thinking about Father's Day and gift ideas for Jeff. He came up with a great plan. He wanted to give Jeff tickets to a Duluth Huskies baseball team.
AJ calculated the cost of the tickets and suggested he could pay for two of them if I'd pay the rest. I dragged my feet a bit, knowing how busy our schedule is, but at last looked, and sure enough, there was a home game on Father's Day. I waited a little longer until I could see a weather forecast for that day. It called for sunny skies, so AJ and I went online and bought the tickets. We looked at the stadium's seating chart and were able to get them right over the dug out. Or so we thought.
All went went until we got to the stadium. And that's when we realized our seats actually were right above a walkway. With a big railing obstructing our view.
And did you notice what was going on out on the field? Those are the players doubling as the grounds crew. A bunch of unexpected showers kept popping up, and the game ended up being delayed TWO HOURS.
And just to make the experience complete, there was a special promotion on this night. Everyone got a set of "Bam Bams". What's a bam bam, you might ask? It's a set of inflatable tubes that makes an obnoxious echoing sound when banged together - a sound that becomes almost unbearable when made by dozens of children who are bored to death while waiting TWO HOURS for a game to start.
On a brighter note, the bam bams provide a wonderful distraction when you send the kids off and suggest they have a sword fight.
And still we waited. (They'd initially only announced a one hour delay. It wasn't until that hour was up that we realized it'd take at least another hour to clear the tarp, use an industrial strength shop vac to suck up the standing water that was covering the path between second and third base, add more dirt and then re-paint all the baselines.)
Recognizing what a fiasco the evening was turning into, the Huskies invited all the kids to come out on the field and dance with the mascot.
Sydney enjoyed that more than AJ did.
But the evening wasn't a complete loss. During the very long wait, AJ and Sydney managed to scam two different people into giving them three used baseballs. Oh, boy!
AJ also got a bunch of autographs. And I have to say one player in particular really impressed me. AJ held out his program and asked for an autograph. The guy not only signed it, but then took it to an area AJ wouldn't have access to and got more than a dozen other players to sign it. When there are rain delays, they have time to do things like that, I guess. But what a wonderful gesture!
At last the game started. Worse than having an obstructed view, we were seated behind protective netting, which meant AJ couldn't catch any pop flies. So at last he convinced Jeff to go with him and Sydney to sit in an empty spot where they might catch something.
No pop flies came their way, and as late as it now was, we left after the top of the fifth inning. But we saw enough of the game to watch the Huskies take a big lead, which they held through the remaining innings to win the game.
And AJ got a bunch of autographs and three used baseballs. Plus Sydney got a hot dog and ice cream. So really, what else could you want from a baseball game?
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