Bleacher Bums



In all the years that I've attended ballgames, I have never sat in the bleachers until tonight, and wouldn't you know Marie and I were truthfully 12 inches from grabbing Francisco's home run shot in the 4th. I remember screaming at Marie "Watch out...here it comes!" The ball landed directly in the row behind us, hit once, and then the mad scramble was on for the souvenir. Marie was so... close to snatching it up, only for some guy who easily had a couple hundred pounds on her to get to it first. And what would be a "bleacher home run ball" experience without being doused by some dude's beer...unfortunately, it was my daughter who was the recipient of that episode...(Remember the scene in Jurassic Park/ and the reaction on the little girl’s face when she’s sitting in the tree feeding the leaves to the dinosaur…and then the thing sneezes on her, and she gets plastered with dino snot? Well, that pretty much was the same look Marie had on her face after her beer shower in the bleachers.)


We relocated to the upper deck in the 8th because of the fireworks show that was to follow the game. We arrived to our new seats just in time to see Grady blast a grand slam "way....back...to deep right....it's gone! Grand slam for all-star Grady Sizemore!" (sorry, pretty lame imitation of Hamilton's call, I'm sure.) By that time, the entire stadium was rocking.

The fireworks show was probably the best that I've seen at the Jake. They had a video montage of rock history playing on the scoreboard, a pretty cool light show going on in the infield, and then a guest appearance from Cleveland's very own, Michael Stanley singing his hit, "This Is My Town" To boot, they announced that everyone there that night had just made history as the Tribe had almost 9,000 walk-ups for the evening...the most in Jacob's Field history.