So it turns out it was this kid’s birthday! There were some other birthdays, of varying validity, in the 152 today, but this kid’s was the most exciting. To be fair, his seat was actually in 151, but he spent some quality time with us early on. He was here for the national anthem and for the first inning or so, although we didn’t find out it was his 10th birthday till after the game, when he was posing with his sign in front of the fireworks show. More about the fireworks show later. I don’t know if it was his first game, but there were some indications that he hadn’t seen too much baseball. I have a nephew(ish) who’s about the same age, but he’s a New Yorker and he’s got a lot of baseball experience; I can’t imagine him having the same reaction to a routine popup (and again shortly thereafter to a called fourth ball), which was to shout “OH MY FUDGE!” in a way that sounded like he knew what was going on and objected to it. My mom. who was bearish on salty language, would probably have approved.
I forgot, going into the game, that it was Star Wars Day. If I had remembered in time, while I was selecting my hat for the day, I would have taken the Star Trek hat I got a few years ago on Star Trek Day. Partly because the hat I did wear – a luxurious SF Sea Lions cap – had a wonky brim that made me feel all night like I was listing to starboard, but mostly because the kind of people who love to dress up for Star Wars Day absolutely go bananas about that kind of open disrespect. I think of it as a conversation starter, for certain nonstandard values of conversation.
Antoinette loved that it was Star Wars Day even more than she loved that it was Fireworks Night. She told a little lightsaber-wielding girl about how she and her brother took up their own sabers and swore to defend the streets from evil when she was herself a little girl, and she regretted that she had not put her hair up in space buns. I told her I would like to have seen that, and maybe I will get a chance to, if she comes to the second Star Wars Day in September. Even if she doesn’t, though. she really got her money’s worth out of the Day, because around the end of the third inning, a pair of Mandalorians took up station behind my seats. They were definitely the most popular SRO transients I’ve ever had, with people asking to take pictures with them all game long. I myself took some:
When they first arrived, I took a couple without asking, but then Antoinette asked if she could have one with them, anticipating the rush.
You may be thinking that I am making some gender assumptions here, but they took off their helmets a couple of times, which I am given to understand is Not The Way. I called her on it the first time, and she started to look sheepish, but I assured her I was only joking and I was not, in fact, from the (I’m guessing) Mandalorian Helmet Police. I’m not going to show you the picture I took of her with her helmet off, just in case the Mandalorian Helmet Police are reading this blog. I will say, though, that both of them were very good-looking people when unhelmeted.
Eventually, they realized they didn’t have any photos of themselves at the park with their helmets on, so they asked me to take some, which I did. I like to think they recognized in me a natural authority in my position as Mayor of the section, and that I was the person most likely to be hiring mercenaries if the need arose.
Remember when I said there were other birthdays going on? This guy, for whatever reason – I didn’t ask him, and I couldn’t guess – bought this birthday sign for five dollars from someone in 101, right below us. Was it his birthday too? I don’t know, and neither did anyone else. When he’d taken a couple of pictures, he gave the sign back to whoever he bought it from. I guess he rented it, really.
I’ve gotten better at taking pictures, but no phone I’ve ever had has been equal to the task of capturing fireworks. I don’t know if it’s that fireworks just don’t seem impressive on a phone, or if it’s an Android vs. iPhone deal or what; I’d attribute it to the fog in San Francisco, but I’ve tried it in other cities with equally disappointing results. I want to do better , because my sister loves fireworks and I want to send her pictures of them (although I can’t get good shots of the fireworks themselves, one of my favorite pictures of her was taken when she was watching some). Anyway, I tried again tonight, and some combination of factors rendered my pictures truly terrifying. I got one that looks like a living evil brain squid with demonic eyes…
…one that looks like a different evil brain with demonic eyes but more of a nervous system attached…
…and one that just looks like a good old-fashioned mushroom cloud.
When I finally did get a halfway decent shot during the finale, I also captured this guy who had no interest in them at all and was leaving to beat the crowd:
Honestly, I should have taken a picture of Antoinette, who was enraptured. Better luck next time.
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