Play Ball!

I have been a baseball fan since I was a kid–which is also the same time I wanted to try on a dress. 

The first game I attended in person was in 1963. I can remember my mom listening to Harry Caray (my mom was the baseball fan in my family, not my dad) on a transistor radio in 1964, yelling “the Cardinals win the pennant, the Cardinals win the pennant”, not that at that age I knew what a pennant was.

Before and after living in Australia (from 1999 to 2003) I have held a partial interest in season tickets to the Cardinals (the closest thing to a religion around here). In non-pandemic years, I usually get 12 games a year (for those who don’t follow major league baseball, each team plays 81 games at home during the baseball season, which generally lasts from the beginning of April until the end of September, give or take a few days).

With the pandemic, normal was disrupted. To begin the season, tickets were reduced to 32 percent capacity, and seats were sold in groups of four (in all other years we had two tickets to each game). Because not all the members in our season ticket group wanted to go, I got more games allocated than usual.

In late April, I had four seats to a mid-week game, and I asked my GG friend Falon, who I met when she worked at Nordstrom, to go to the game with me. We met when I first started going out, and have kept in touch on and off even though she doesn’t work at Nordstrom anymore (she’s a paralegal now). Falon is a baseball fan, and we had gone to a couple games before, but I was always in guy mode.

As I had four tickets and as Falon was going, my guest list was rather limited. If I asked a guy friend, the question would likely arise how I knew her–and the true answer that I met her dress shopping likely wouldn’t go over too well. I asked Michelle, another GG friend, but she wasn’t interested. Falon asked a friend of hers, but the friend couldn’t attend. Therefore, it was just the two of us.

As Falon as always been supportive of my dressing, I decided the conditions were right to check an item off the bucket list–attending a baseball game dressed. The stadium, because of Covid restrictions, was 1/3rd capacity, and seats were physically separated. Masks were required. The stars were aligning. I checked with Falon and she was ok with me dressing for the game.

As always, I contemplated what to wear. I finally settled on a pink Calvin Klein top and some stretchy slacks Michelle had given me about a month before. I figured pink was close enough to red (Cardinal Games are generally a sea of red). I added a black sweater (temperatures in the 60’s) to stay warm, and my booties.

I picked up Falon and we drove to the game together. It definitely made it easier to walk into the stadium with another person, and extra easier with another woman.

The game we were supposed to go to was an evening game, but the game the day before was rained out, so our game became a double header with a 4:15 PM start.

Falon was a bit surprised I wore the booties to the game (we had a several block walk from the parking garage to the stadium), but in for a nickel, in for a dime (and I did get a couple blisters on my left foot, but worth it).

We watched about the last five innings of the first game (the Cards won in seven innings), and the first two innings of the second game. We left so Falon could handle her child care arrangements. After dropping Falon off at her car, I had some time to kill before I could go home, so I stopped at a local frozen custard place (think ice cream, but richer) for a treat.

Another item on the bucket list checked off. I’m not sure I will be able to do it again, but it’s fun to think so.

….buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack……