Brock's First Sox Game

So it's weird to start a blog post without a Brock picture, but bear with me. There's a story here. This past weekend was my fantasy baseball draft. Mackie, the fellow pictured above, flies down from Alaska every year to participate. This year he stayed through Monday so we could attend the White Sox opener.

I've been trying to figure out the perfect time to bring Brock to a game. Unfortunately, mlb games are typically scheduled during nap time or after bed time. It's a conundrum. Opening day was out of the question. It's expensive, it's packed, and it's typically cold and wet. I never try to attend opening day, but Mackie was in town, so I demurred. 

Well, the weather did not cooperate. We stood in the rain for about 3 hours before being sent home. The sox rescheduled for Tuesday, but Mackie had to fly home. Now we were sitting on an extra ticket to a 1pm game: nap time.

Holly and I decided he should go, and offered him two choices: he could stay home from school and take an early nap to have energy for the game, or I could pick him up at noon from school and go straight to the game. Brock was very clear. "I want to go to school. I can't miss school." What a guy.

So I left work early, picked him up early, and we set off on a long train ride to the south side. His school had put his lunch (lasagna and broccoli) in a ziplock for him to take. I tried to convince him that you really have to get a hot dog at a ball game. "No daddy. I have lunch here," he replied. The kid isn't wasteful. "Go sox!" I told him to yell for the pic. Immediately after the picture he clarified, "and not the red sox!" So proud.

We barely made the first pitch, settling into some really great empty seats behind the dugout that were not ours. We had upper deck tickets, but this makeup game was empty. Perhaps 5-6000 people were there. Brock did a great job through the entire first two innings. The only rough part was when the sox scored the first run on a play at the plate. It was pandemonium. Scary. "I don't want anyone to stand up and yell," Brock complained. Lucky for him, the sox were done scoring. 

Brock was bored, finished with his lasagna and broccoli, and pointed up at the top row of the upper deck. "Let's go up there. Those seats look good." So we turned into mountain goats and set off on an epic journey from ground level to the nosebleeds. On the way, we stopped at the "fundamentals deck," a kid's zone that i'd never been into, because you need a kid to get in. It was all shut down for the day, everything was still too wet from the day before, but we'll be back. It's really really cool. Kids can take grounders, hit in the cage, pitch to live catchers, and run to first base clocked against famous players. It's basically a separate and free baseball fun park. (sorry no pics. it's hard to chase a kid while holding a million things)

This was the best selfie I could pull off with the field in view.

Enjoying the views...

Eventually the sun came out so we moved to the official "worst seats in the house" to catch some rays. To Brock these are clearly the best seats, and honestly, I thought the game was easier to follow from here than the outfield lower level. Looks like Brock's gonna be a cheap baseball date.

As the seventh inning started Brock turned to me, "Daddy, i'm really really really tired." It was nearly 4pm with no nap, so we decided to leave early and head home. We were at the exit closest to the train when Brock suddenly remembered, "daddy you promised we could get a churro." Kids and their elephant memories right? So we walked halfway around the entire park and back again. It was definitely worth it.

Brock passed out on me about 30 seconds after our train left the station and stayed zonked all the way home. I'm proud of him. Can't believe we made it to the 7th. The first of many....