Waiting for a pop fly

No balls yet
Originally uploaded by Bizzy Girl.

It was the boys' first baseball game, and it fell on a weekend that I was picking them up. Their father asked me if I wanted to tag along, as he had four tickets given to him by a friend, and the boys really wanted to go. To be honest, it was the LAST thing I felt like doing, however I knew it would mean a lot to them if I did, so what is a mother to do?

The seats were pretty good: we were in the 200's right behind home plate in the VIP section. There were pretty girls in black dresses with red scarves around their necks taking orders and serving snacks to people. I found this kind of interesting. There were guys too, but mostly girls...all young and pretty. Guess baseball is still very much a man's sport.

We arrived a few minutes late. Tampa Bay was already ahead by one run by the time we got there. The Jay struggled to keep the score down, but by the seventh inning they still hadn't scored. The boys, who were really getting into the spirit, were disappointed and feeling despondent.

Then, the Jays finally got a run. It was the bottom of the ninth when they finally evened the score, and the game went into overtime. The Jays brought out their closer, B.J. Ryan, to pitch, who ended up allowing another run (d'oh!). The game was now 4-3 for the bad guys.

The tension was thick as the crowd loudly heckled stupid mistakes made by the players (a ball dropped by the catcher Zaur that rolled away allowed a base to be stolen). It was the Jays' turn to bat again in the second half of the first OT inning, and they brought out their top batter. I forget his name, but he had an impressive .360 average. With a man on base he managed to hit a homerun and score two runs, leaving the Jays victorious in a dramatic 5-4 win!

A fantastic game, and a great one for the boys' first. I loved how it all happened at the very end....just like in the movies!!! I am certain that my late father, who was a big Jays fan, was there with us in spirit.

Bizzy