Out to the ball game

Yesterday was the last day of school!

So we celebrated by going to the Brewers game!

Several weeks ago, Kates' parents became the benefactors of four tickets in the Diamond Box seats behind home plate. The invited us to go, and we accepted ... Ending up 12 rows back, adjacent to the left side of home plate and close enough that we could see Ryan Braun's nose hairs.

The view was, in a word ... Ok, two words. Pretty awesome.


We did take Phoebe along for the ride. It was her first chance to see a Brewers game, after all ... But unfortunately for us, our abilities to really enjoy the game were somewhat hindered by Phoebe's inability to sit still. We'd pulled her from the daycare mid-day, completely messing up her routine. Then she didn't sleep during the drive to the ballpark and missed her afternoon nap. During the game she found shuffling between the seats to be the most fun. And by the eighth inning she was about as cranky and cranky can get.

If there was a bright side, it was that the game hadn't been worth paying much attention to anyway ... The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the second, and were up 3-0 before the Brewers finally scored in the bottom of the seventh. Then, the Rockies made it 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth on catcher Paul Phillips two-run single. I also missed one of the game highlights -- Phillips nearly getting run over by one of the racing sausages -- when I took a break to use the bathroom and grab a soda.

In the top of the ninth, with the game appearing out of the Brewers' hands, we headed to the Metavante Club -- formerly the 300 Club -- high above left field, which we had access to as part of our ticket deal.

Speaking of a pretty awesome view ...


As the ninth inning continued, we marveled at the view, snapped pictures and let Phoebe shuffle around the dining room -- to the wait staff's chagrin, I'm sure.


We had barely been paying attention to the game as the Brewers got two runners on in the bottom of the inning and Ryan Braun stroked a pitch to center field to close the gap to 5-4. I looked in time to see the ball sail over the wall, and then caught Bernie Brewer taking the home run slide. With the club's windows looking out over Bernie's clubhouse, I thought to scoop up Phoebe and carried her over for a closer look. Bernie saw us and waved as he walked the stairs back to his clubhouse ...

After a walk put Prince Fielder on base as the tying run, Mat Gamel struck out and it was over.

Turns out there were quite a few one-run games on Thursday.