"Q" the babies: DAD POST: One of the Best Nights of My Life

This past Monday, our old neighbor Mr. Chai texted me and asked me if I wanted two free tickets to the Cardinals game on Wednesday. Well we have kind of a big weekend this weekend with Ellen's family and some of them are staying at our house, so I politely declined in favor of staying home and helping to clean up the house (because I'm pretty much the best husband there is). Mr. Chai then texted me a picture of the two tickets and told me I might want to reconsider. When I looked up the section I did indeed reconsider as they were in the 12th row directly behind home plate.

Now, who gets to be the lucky person that goes with me?

Ellen was all slated to go but then remembered she was on call that night, so she was out. She suggested I take Donovan, even though it would be a late night, because the seats were so good. I thought on it for a while (because we already had a full family day at the ballpark planned next weekend) and I decided that I agreed with her (shocker) and I should take Donovan to his first proper baseball game. At this point I was pretty amped up. This was going to be a boys night out and we were going to do it up right.

The next night (Tuesday) when we were all eating dinner we decided to tell Donovan about the big surprise. It went a little something like this:

Mommy: (holding tickets) Dono, do you know what these are?
Dono: Tickets? Cardinals?
Mommy: Yes, do you know what that means?
Dono: I'm going to the baseball game?
Mommy and Daddy: YEAH!! Are you excited?
Dono: Is Sugar Shane gonna be there?

Sugar Shane refers to Cardinals bench player Shane Robinson, Donovan's favorite player. I was super excited about all of this and work on Wednesday was absolute torture. I thought about it all day. I thought about what I could do to make it the most awesome game ever. I sent a tweet out to the Busch Stadium DJ and asked if he could play "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore for us at some point because that is Dono's favorite song. To my surprise he tweeted back and said sure, he'd get it on for us. Sweet! When I got home from work it was all I could do to not just leave Reese here by herself and take Dono downtown at 4pm. Alas, I was able to hold out until Ellen got home from work and Dono and I began our pilgrimage to Baseball Heaven.

All the way down there we talked about how cool it was going to be and everything we were going to do. Dono was particularly impressed by the Arch. He made several comments about how big it was and seemed genuinely surprised that he could see it from so many different parts of town as we drove around.

When we got down there we parked pretty close to the stadium so we didn't have to walk too far. We went over some ground rules about walking around in the crowds so we were sure to stick together. I told him if he didn't want to hold my hand (he did) he could grab onto my shorts or shirt because there were going to be a lot of people all around us. Dono's ground rule was that he wanted to hold his ticket, to which I happily obliged.

When we got up to the gate, Dono showed his ticket to the nice lady working and she scanned it for him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the tunrstile, so I helped him out with that. Wanted to make sure his little head got counted in the attendance. We were in center field at this point so we walked straight in and I lifted him up on the rail so he could see the whole field. "Wow! That's really big! It's huge!", he commented.

Next up was our real Stop #1, the one we discussed much of the way down here: The Team Store! I was ready to drop a mint in here, anything that kid pointed out I would have bought. He found a shirt he liked so we grabbed that one and I held on to it while we continued to search. After a couple of minutes Donovan said, "Daddy, let's just get this one. I don't need another one." Who is this guy?! Doesn't he know that he has a free pass right now!? I said that was okay, but as we headed to the register I spied a Cardinals Hot Wheels car. I pointed it out and asked him if he wanted that. Of course he wanted that. What does a kid that owns 289 Hot Wheels need? Another Hot Wheel. We paid for our merchandise and headed out into the concourse. Donovan wanted to put his new shirt on right away so we found a little spot and swapped them out. Then it was on to the concession stand.

We also talked all about getting hot dogs on the way down. After all, that's what you eat at baseball games! we got a couple of hot dogs and now it was time to check out these seats! We entered through the tunnel and kept climbing down, down, down until we reached our row, #4. Then we slid on over into seats 5 and 6. WOW. These were some sweet seats. I was pretty impressed at where we were. Donovan's going to think every game I take him to now is going to be like this. Here he is with his new shirt and hot dog, concentrating on the pregame festivities:

Here's a view of what Dono was seeing (FREDBIRD!):

And our view from the seats:

There was a nice young girl behind us (she was probably 14 or 15), so I told Donovan to ask her to take our picture. He said no way, but when I prodded him some more he agreed. So right in the middle of her sentence he just blurts out, "CAN YOU TAKE MY PICTURE!?" She did not fully understand so she asked him to repeat it. This time he spoke it so only those with supersonic hearing could pick it up and she thought he was asking if she was taking his picture with the camera that was already in her hands. She looked at me, terrified, as if I thought she was a creep taking pictures of my adorable child. I cleared it all up and handed over my phone and we came away with this wonderful image that will forever be etched into my mind. Is this kid having a good time or what:

Donovan was not antsy in his seat at all, he was very focused on what was happening out on the field and asking a ton of questions. "Who are those kids?" "Who is that guy?" "Where is Fredbird going?" "When is the game gonna start?" Also, I bought myself a Stan Musial pin and he wanted to wear it for a while, as you'll notice in this picture:

In the middle of the first inning, I hear over the loud speaker "whatwhat, what, what" over and over. It's Thrift Shop! He's playing it just for us! I explained to Donovan what was happening and we rocked out to the song for a while. He played it for a pretty long time! At least a minute-and-a-half! Donovan gave his seal of approval:

After a couple of innings, it was getting a tad stale. Shelby was walking the world and there wasn't much to get excited about...yet. A quick text to Ellen and she let me know that the kids' area in center field was open to the public. I asked Donovan if he wanted to go check that out and he was on board. We also made a pit stop at the bathroom. Dono's pretty good with the urinal, but doesn't quite have it mastered. Probably want to keep your hands off of that in the future, buddy:

Oh man was there a lot to do out in the kids pavilion in center. They had a whole play area like the ones in the mall with stuff for the kids to climb on (and jump off of incessantly). Here's Dono on top of the pitcher's mound:

And again on top of the Cardinals hat/tunnel:

We played in that area for quite a while, but then he heard the thumping of a baseball into a tarp and he wanted to see what that was all about. The thud we were hearing was coming from the fast pitch area. You could throw baseballs and there was a radar gun set up to show you how fast you were tossing. Dono wanted me to do it, so I bought a ticket for four pitches and we waited our turn. When we got up there Dono took the balls and I said, "Step up there! Throw it!" And so he did.

15 miles an hour, baby! Heads up, Nolan Ryan. This guy's coming for that strikeout record. He received many high fives from a baseball team of teenage boys that was there. There was also a very "happy" (read: drunk) gentleman that was telling Donovan how awesome he was and offering more high fives. He was very appropriate so it was pretty funny. Dono was a star. He was feeling good.

Next up was hitting, Dono's favorite. They had cages with a ball hanging from a rope that you could swing at. I think he really liked the fact that he got to do this with a helmet on. He was feeling like a big leaguer.

After this, to my shock and utter delight, Donovan said the following sentence: "Daddy, I wanna go watch more baseball." Uh, okay. Twist my arm. And in hindsight that sentence is doubly awesome because this is where a good night turned amazing. We trekked back to the seats on the opposite side of the stadium and just as we sat down, guess who walked up to the plate for a pinch-hitting appearance in the bottom of the 5th? SUGAR SHANE! Yes! And not only that, he delivers with a single to right! Then Matt Carpenter walked and Matt Holliday delivered with a two-run single to right! Sugar Shane crosses the plate to tie the game at 3! Things are looking up! The 6th inning was pretty boring and in the top of the 7th the Astros scored to go ahead 4-3. "Oh well", I'm telling myself. This has already been an extremely wonderful evening so a loss can't spoil this. At this point it's almost 10 o'clock. Shelby's gigantic amount of walks early on in the game has really drug this thing out. Dono and I discussed that we would watch the Cardinals bat one more time and then head out. Best decision I ever made. EVER.

We spent almost all of the 5th, 6th and 7th innings like this:

Dono on my lap, watching the game and playing with his new car. He would ask questions about what was going on and I would do my best to try and explain. It was some very awesome bonding we were doing. I was so happy at that moment, I didn't think I could be any happier. I was wrong.

Tony Cruz led off the bottom of the 7th by getting hit by the pitch. Alright, sweet. Tying run is aboard. Then Yadi steps in to pinch hit for the pitcher. This is his first appearance of the evening and the stadium is going nuts. It was pretty cool. He promptly strikes out, which brings up Matt Carpenter.

Now before I continue, I need to let you know that Donovan has asked me about fireworks no less than ten times this evening. He keeps seeing them on the scoreboard in an ad and asking if there are going to be fireworks. I tell him that they only shoot them off when a Cardinals player hits a home run and I didn't know if anyone was going to do that tonight. He leans back on my chest and I'm just enjoying the moment while the Astros are bringing in a lefty to face Carpenter. I look up on the jumbotron. Huh, looks like they're showing people around the pa....HOLY COW!! It's Donovan and I up there!! Just the two of us! They're zoomed in on us! The camera isn't panning away! We're going nuts! This is awesome! After they finally do move away we're high fiving the people next to us and the mom is commenting on what a trooper Dono is. Man, this evening just got amazing-er.

After we come down from our high, it's back to baseball. The Cardinals might have something going here. Carpenter always puts together a good at-bat, but he's facing a lefty, and lefty-on-lefty matchups are always tough. I'm just hoping for a base hit or maybe a double, get some guys on base.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!! There it goes! I knew it as soon as the ball hit the bat, that sucker was crushed. I lift Dono up so he can see it. He was easily following foul balls all night so I know he could see the ball and where it was going. I'm going crazy. I mean bonkers. I can't believe it. Yes, this put the Cardinals ahead 5-4, but more importantly, FIREWORKS! I'm holding him and pointing out to where the fireworks are going to shoot off. He's pointing. He's loving it. This night just went from amazing-er to unforgettable. In all my excitement I failed to realize that I'm crying real tears of joy. I can't believe how perfect this night has been. I mean, if you had asked me to script this thing before we went down there I would not have done as good of a job as what happened in real life. Truly one of the best nights of my life.

After all the excitement subsides, the Cardinals make two more quick outs to end the inning. Dono and I grab our stuff and head to the gate. When we go out a different gate than we came in, Dono asked where we were going. "To pay our respects to the greatest Cardinal that ever lived", I told him. I know he doesn't know what that means, but it was important to me. He's cool with it and gladly obliges with ol' dad to have a few pictures snapped.