Just give me the ball...

I won tickets through work to go to see the Milwaukee Brewers play the Houston Astros at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Since there were only two tickets I had to make a quick decision about who to take. I couldn't take Lacey because it was too late for us to make arrangements for Peyton and Reagan. I could have called up one of my guy friends, but it was so last minute I didn't want to do that either (guys, feel free to let me know if I should have called and I'll keep you in mind next time an opportunity like this comes up). That left me with the option of taking one of my children.


I couldn't very well choose one child over the other, so we used the process of elimination. We would ask each child if they wanted to go, not telling them whether we actually had the tickets. If they both wanted to go, I was going to just give the tickets back and let someone else go. However, if one of them did not want to go, then I would take the other. Peyton wasn't interested, and Reagan was, so I had a date for the evening.




We arrived at the ballpark about two hours before game time. There was a private meeting room available for us until the game started. We ate a quick dinner and went out to explore. Reagan was intrigued by a large slide in left field. Unfortunately, it was not a kid's attraction, so we had to find something else to do. I bought souveniers for her and Peyton (seen in the picture) and we walked from end to end around the concourse. We settled into our seats and I warned Reagan that it was possible that a ball might come our way.


It turns out that I was prescient. Hunter Pence, the second batter, fouled a ball off into our section. It was a high pop-up and immediately the ball scavengers were hovering toward our row. I stood up and instinctively grabbed Reagan to protect her against the inevitable scrum pile that was soon to occur. As I did that, the ball bounced on the floor and landed right in our laps. I handed the ball to her and the crowd (in our section) cheered. Unfortunately, it didn't happen exactly that way.


I think (but I can't prove it) that I made some move toward protecting Reagan, but it was also designed to get me a better angle at the ball. It did land about two seats away from her, but also in the row behind her. Those seats were empty, so it was a free for all to get the ball. Seeing the ball on the ground, I dove over my seat reaching my hand out for the ball. As my hand was gripping the ball I felt a dull pain in my left eye. Oh yes, there are seats here, strategically placed approximately eighteen inches behind the row in front of them. That's what I think I hit. It didn't really hurt that much, and Reagan was happy to have the ball, so I just resumed watching the game. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed the bruising around my eye. I took a picture so you can see the badge of courage that I now wear (and to absolve Lacey from any responsibility for the mark).


I thought for sure that Reagan would fall asleep on the bus ride home, but she was so excited about everything that happened that she kept talking the whole way home. Then again, maybe she wasn't so much excited as she was juiced up from the cotton candy.