I'll Make A Fan Of Her Yet!

Last night Andrew, my brother-in-law Stewart, and I took Willow out to her first MLB game - the Phillies vs. the Dodgers. She has been to minor league games before - the Wilmington Blue Rocks play less than 10 minutes away from here, so we have seen quite a few of their games. I love both types - the intimacy of the minor league park, and the spectacle of having 45 thousand people in one place cheering on their teams.

We did have nosebleed seats - this was our view from Section 426:



It really wasn't all that bad - I was worried about the sun and heat because it was up above 90'F yesterday. But then I started thinking about where we would be sitting - facing New Jersey - which meant that the sun would be setting behind us. And once we got to our seats, we found that the canopy was overhead. So, still 90'F+, but we were covered and had a bit of a breeze.

The failed family shot. I've got to learn to let Andrew take these because he has much longer arms than I have.



Willow and her favourite uncle/playmate:



Yes, she is wearing a different shirt. We bought her the Phillies shirt and she put it on right away (and in fact, she is wearing it again right now - she insisted on wearing it to bed).

The first six innings were pretty tedious - not much in the way of hits, and it was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th inning. Stewart was doing his best to explain things to Willow - but I don't know if she cared too much about the whys or hows of the game... but once the teams started revving up and hitting and making some good plays, she was transfixed. I asked her this morning what her favourite part of the game was and she said the cheering - she loved yelling when the Phillies started hitting. We even got to see fireworks - but not put on by the Phillies. Going by the direction of the fireworks, I think they must have been at the Camden Mud Sharks game. The Mud Sharks play right across the Delaware River from Philadelpia under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

We left at the end of the 7th inning, planning to make it back to the car and get out on the highway before the crowds let out. You know what they say about the best laid plans... we got as far as the Philly Airport and traffic slowed to a crawl, and bumbled like that until the PA/DE border. Penndot was doing night construction, and had narrowed the road from three lanes to one, and it only let up until a few miles away from our exit. Oh well - but the Phillies won!