Early in the game, in the middle of a strong Giants second inning (after an even stronger first), there is a bunch of chaos at – in quick succession – home plate, first base, and the plate again. Lamont Wade bunts, the throw to first is wild but backed up, a run comes in, and the throw to the catcher is wild, but then there’s a maybe thirty-second delay in which the umpires reset everything, and everyone in the crowd says to each other some version of either “What the hell is happening?” or “I have no idea.” This is the first time it’s happened this year, but it will happen again – I’m going to have to go home and listen to the radio replay or the feed on MLB.TV to find out what was going on. The radio and TV guys know what’s happening, and they’re explaining it, but we don’t have access to them, and calls like this never get explained to the stadium at large (it turns out Wade’s bunt hit his bat twice, resulting in a dead ball at the plate, but I won’t find that out until much later).
Equally confused, although knowledgeable about a LOT of other things, is my guest Jacob. He grew up an Orioles fan, and he remembers some days of Oriole greatness from way back, having been at the game in which Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record. Hearing that leads to talking about the players we think of as avatars of class and gentlemanliness – Ripken and Derek Jeter and Christy Mathewson and Joe DiMaggio. Glory and history aside, though, he also remembers plenty of lean years, having been born in the year that the Orioles set a record for losses to start a season (21, if you want to know). He also mentions that the Orioles hold the American League record for most losses over the history of the franchise (9938 at time of posting). Unlike a lot of Oakland fans I’ve had to listen to lately, he gets to love the park his team plays in, although we do touch on the Coliseum when he mentions seeing the Orioles there.
Jacob is probably the most lively conversationalist I’ve brought to a game yet; he is so interesting that I am constantly pestering him with questions about dating, medical care, his family, himself, Baltimore, all of which he is happy to talk about at length. We’re both involved in at least one local community, but his participation has been limited by health issues, so I am really happy to have been able to meet him here. He is only the second person to come with me that I hadn’t met before, but it bodes well for the year. The conversation is so engaging, in fact, that even though it is Superman Day at the park (being the 85th anniversary of Superman’s debut in 1938) we don’t even talk about superhero movies until we are parting ways at the BART station half an hour after the game.
The national anthem, by the way, was just about perfect, except for what to my mind was a little too much fancy footwork on the last note (“BraAaAaAaaaaaAAve!”). The game was a solid 7-3 Giants win, Jacob was a delight, the day was absolutely perfect, I got a pair of Superman socks with capes on the back, and I am stealing acquired a hilarious new way to describe my orientation (“I round myself off to straight”). I don’t know if a person could ask for a better day.
Type your email…
81 Dates 