Well, it couldn't have ended better for both of my Bay Area baseball teams. Both the Giants and the A's had come from behind wins to start the season out right, both scores also ended at 5-4 and the fireworks began in the 8th inning. Bonds with a 3 run jack to lift the Giants and Eric Byrnes with a pinch hit two run double to overtake the Rangers for the A's.
Good stuff and it was all the nicer to have been at the A's game, some great seats about 18 rows back, I almost caught a foul ball but it was just out of reach. And I came away with lots of observations to share.
One, people in cars behave like assholes. The nightmare of getting to the Coliseum anytime near game time is an abject reminder that, if you can imagine it, some asshole is going to do it. Like the idiot bitch in a left turn only lane, racing us to force her way back into the not left turn only lane. She needed to be slapped. Or the jerks who pretend to not see you as two lanes merge and they don't allow the one car from each lane fair means of integrating the two lanes. Many other examples but hey, let's get to the ball game.
By what gross justification do stadium owners and sports franchise owners decide that its okay to charge four to five times regular market rates for goods solely because you happen to be buying them at the ball park? A small bag of peanuts for $4.50? A 20 ounce soda for $3.50? A big soda in a keeper cup for $4.50? Its kind of more than a little rude to basically just keep charging people through the nose for the entire experience. The cost of the tickets, the cost of parking, the cost of snacks and the cost of team memorabilia all adds up to one hell of an expense just to get out to the park for a ballgame.
And then there are the lines. Lines for everything. Lines off the highway to get into the parking lot, lines to have your bags searched, lines to have them take your ticket, lines to get to your seat, lines at the food stands, lines in the bathrooms. If there were a single expression of the experience then it would have to be: Wait. Oh, you need some napkins? The line starts over there. The packed-like-lemmings-into-shiny-metal-boxes crap was kind of a pain to deal with but I learned a nice workaround. Just go up to the second deck and walk along the walk way there, you get to see the game, there's almost nobody there and you can get where you need to go much, much faster.
And just forget all about getting any garlic fries if you have any interest in watching the game. The lines at the garlic fries stand were insane, literally about a hundred people all waiting for garlicky spuds.
All in all, it was a nice outing. Nande got to play with Modoc for the evening and got pooped out but good by the hyper Weimerauner. It was a late night but that was to be expected and we've got our first baby class tonight so there is no rest for the weary.
Shoulder Rehab Update
Just got back from a check up on my ailing right shoulder (I wiped out on my bike a few months ago and mostly have partially torn my rotator cuff, we're still waiting to see if I'm going to have to have surgery to fix it).
Apparently someone's been working on making a less painful needle. I got a cortisone shot to help it heal up some and not hurt so much and I barely felt the needle go in, the only mildly uncomfortable part was feeling the pressure of the fluid going in. Though it is supposed to be sore later on tonight when the temporary numbing stuff wears off.
But we'll see. If I end up with a usable shoulder again then I'll be a happy camper. The icing and work outs are strengthening it but they also make it more sore too.
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