brainwagon

Yesterday, Carmen took me and Adam and his girlfriend to the Atheletics/Angels game as a belated Father’s Day present. It was a fabulous day to be at the ballpark. First pitch was at 6:05, the weather was beautiful, and we had good seats near on the field level (far back, but a short row which meant that we occupied the entire row) and it was just great.

This is the first time I brought my Panasonic DMC-TZ1 camera, a neat little 5M pixel camera with image stabilization and a 10x zoom. It’s got some quirks, but the 10x zoom and reasonably short shutter delay makes it pretty easy to take pictures like this one of Vladimir Guerrero.

The game itself was a bit annoying from an Athletics fan perspective: Angel’s pitcher Jarret Weaver came in with record of 5-0 and an ERA of 1.35, and he showed it. He only gave up two hits in seven innings, while the Angels managed to score six runs on Joe Blanton. But Donnelly relieved Weaver in the eighth. Kielty then singled to center, Melheuse singled, moving Kielty to second. Mark Ellis popped and Kotsay grounded into a fielder’s choice, but moved Kielty to third, and Melheuse to second. Nick Swisher then came to bat, and with two outs actually singled, scoring Kielty and breaking up the shutout. Chavez then came up, and singled to load the bases for Frank Thomas. That would be it for Donnelly, who was pulled for Franscisco Rodriguez. These are precisely the moments that you want to see Frank Thomas, and while he didn’t put one into the seats, he did pound a nice single to right field which scored Kotsay and Swish. Perez came in to pinch run for Thomas, and Jay Payton singled Chavez home. Crosby would then strike out swinging.

Okay, here’s the bit I don’t understand. Your home team has been getting manhandled all day, you were trailing six to nothing, but they showed some life and scored four runs, and you are going into the ninth down only two runs.

And people begin to leave.

I don’t get it. Yes, it’s probably true that the home team isn’t going to complete the comeback. But for Pete’s sake, you’ve spent $30 to sit down on the field level, it’s a Saturday night, why are you leaving? Is there something so bloody important that the fifteen minutes you save by bugging out early actually matters? Did you have an important surgical procedure you needed to perform?

I don’t see people flooding out of movie theaters with five minutes remaining “just to beat the traffic”. Let’s face it, most movies are even more predictable than the outcome of a baseball game after 8 innings. What’s keeping them in the seats for movies, but makes them think that leaving early is a good thing in a baseball game?

[tags]Baseball,Rants and Raves[/tags]