Bill & Ron's Excellent Baseball Adventure

Today my Christian Brother, Bill, and I took a wonderful baseball day trip to Cincinnati to see an afternoon game.

We has some terrific discussions on the way there. Bill has a million stories from his years as a teacher and sports coach.

He also gave me some touring tips about Washington DC.

We arrived about 90 minutes before game time and walked around the ballpark for a while. We watched the game preparations on the field and ate some delicious ballpark peanuts.

The game was played rather quickly and was fun to watch. There was some interesting weather. The temperature was in the 50's and the clouds and sun played "king of the sky" all afternoon. Accompanied by an intermittent wind the weather take my jacket on and off a countless number of times throughout the afternoon.

On the field there were mascots (the picture above is that of "Gapper" and "Rose Red" two of the 3 Reds' costumed mascots who entertain at their home games) and a pitching duel.

The Reds' Bronson Arroyo and Cardinals' Brad Penny traded scoreless innings until the bottom of the 5th when Arroyo drove in the Reds first run but then gave up a solo homer to Matt Holliday in the 6th.

With the game tied at 1 in the last of the 9th Reds outfielder Johnny Gomes sent the more than 13,000 fans in attendance home happy by hitting a game winning homer over the left center field fence.

The trip was "educational" as well as we learned the "pecking order" for roaming vendors at the ballpark. Beer vendors are first (they make more money) then the food vendors. The cotton candy and snow cone vendors are part of a different concession company all together and don't figure in the hierarchy of beer & food vendors. That wealth of information came as a result of my asking several vendors how a vendor was chosen to sell a specific item. Like I said "educational".

We made good time trading stories and laughing coming home as well. We made good time; getting back to my house before 6PM.

It was the earliest in a season I've ever gone to a baseball game. I really had a great time. Thanks Bill for a fun day of laughter and friendship. I really needed a day like today.