Last night 3 friends and I went to see a minor league baseball doubleheader in Nashville. "The Sounds" are the AAA affiliate of the MLB Milwaukee Brewers and have played in Music City USA for several decades. I took Bill, a fellow deacon from my church, Johnny, a friend who is a baseball fan and used to go to my church, and James, someone I used to work with. I had always wanted to get to know James better while we still worked together but never took the opportunity. James and I had only ever talked at work or work related events. When he came to the dinner I had with my former coworkers a week or so ago I told him I'd call him to go to a ball game sometime. Less than a week later I had an extra ticket so I called him.I invited him as my guest and hopefully looked forward to the start of a friendship.
The group was very diverse. We had 4 different personalities and all different ages. I was a little worried that James would feel out of place. Bill and Johnny couldn't have been nicer to James.
Johnny, is a guy who's from my dad's generation. He really likes baseball and always has his own opinion on whatever subject comes up. Bill, is a security officer at our local county courthouse. He was a high school teacher for many years. My wife had him as her history teacher when she went to school. He too is a big baseball fan and has been to quite a few major league ballparks.
The trip down to Nashville was full of conversation about baseball and many other subjects. I drove and James sat in the passenger's seat so we could talk. I really got to know him a lot better on the drive down I-65.
Johnny let me borrow his handicap parking placard allowing us to park closer to the gate than we normally would have. Our seats were about the best we could get. We were less than 10 rows from the field behind the first base dugout. The picture at the start of this post shows the view from our seats.
The weather was perfect with temperatures in the low 80's dropping to the low 70's as the night progressed. The stadium was not very crowded either. Our section was not quite half full. As a matter of fact although I had bought tickets for 4 seats in the same row by the end of the night each of us were sitting in a vertical row in front of each other in the aisle seats of 4 successive rows.
During both games we talked, exchanged stories, asked each other trivia questions, and commented on people we saw. There were several things that were said and happened during the game that made us all laugh quite a bit. This included me mistaking a guy who had caught a foul ball in the stands for a woman (you had to be there). The hometown team, The Sounds, won both of the 7 inning games played. After the game there were fireworks which were rather impressive.
Although it was late the ride home was also full of conversation and laughter too. I couldn't have scripted the evening any better. Well perhaps I would have gotten us home a little earlier. I didn't get back to my house until about 1AM. Otherwise the evening was one of the best experiences I've ever had at any baseball game. I can't wait to do it again sometime.
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