Take Me Out to the (Interminable) Ball Game!

Jim and I went to our first Nationals game last night. I picked him at the office with a picnic dinner, including roast beef sandwiches and Genny Cream Ale and we drove over, parked under our favorite shade tree in our favorite parking lot, and ate and drank while listening to this year's March 13 ABB NYC concert. We went in just as they were singing the national anthem, in English, if anyone wants to know, so were there when they came onto the field. It is fair to say that at that time the audience was somewhat sparse. It got bigger as the game went on....and on....and on....and on....until, finally, just before 10 and the beginning of the 7th inning, when the Nationals were down by one, we and a lot of the rest of the slightly increased audience decided to bag it, npi. The Nationals scored another run on our walk to the car, Brian Schweitzer, who I knew had it in him and could have driven home several other runners several other times if he had timed it better. But in the end, the Marlins scored in the 9th and we lost, again.

Fortunately, even a slow game is better than no game at all. It's restful to sit in the lovely evening air with just your husband and do whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it vis a vis the game. And we found ourselves getting very creative, figuring out ways to up attendance and enthusiasm, for instance. We thought pajama night would be a good thing, as an example, perhaps with free juice bars. Maybe everybody could just stay overnight there. And I thought we could replace the organ player, who does a few bars to get things stirred up and just as the crowd starts to get into it, quits.

Anyhow, it was lovely, even if it was the slowest ball game in the history of the world.