19 August 2003 - I used the vouchers won from the public
library to go to the Cardinals game against the Pittsburgh Pirates today.
After work, I drove over to David's house and we went downtown together in his
car. He knew just where to park and we had dinner at a "sports restaurant/bar"
near the stadium. He paid for parking and I paid for dinner and we broke
even.
When we presented the vouchers at the ticket window,
David dickered with the lady at the window and got us seats in line with first
base. Although still in the upper section, we were in the first row and had an
excellent angle on the action as well as being in the shade while the sun was
up. As we went in, SBC was handing out cards featuring Tino Martinez. If he
hit a home run, we would get a free radio. David didn't think this was
likely.
I enjoyed learning about the logic behind the batting order,
watching for the signals being passed amoung the players and just enjoying the
charm of Busch Stadium on a muggy summer evening. Baseball is about 80%
inaction, 15% futile action and 5% thrilling action. No violence or gore,
although David (true to his big brother status) told me that bugs would be
attracted to the lights, fly into them, burn and fall into my hair. I don't
think that happened, but I will wash my hair just in case.
And OH Yeah, Tino hit a home run. So my haul for signing up
for the St. Louis Library summer reading program stands at 1 coffee mug, 1
great evening at the ballpark and 1 dinky little radio -- not bad, really, and
I enjoyed the books I read also.