A perfect night for baseball

I must start with a disclaimer.  Brent and I are not in any way baseball people.  My parents, grandpa and most especially my brother-in-law Zach (and to a lesser extent my sister) are, in fact, in to baseball.  They watch games all year, follow players, attend games, etc... My Dad's family was all about playing local baseball and I believe my maternal great-grandfather was semi-pro (maybe even pro?) at one time.  


Meanwhile,Brent and I are much more fair weather fans at best. When the Nats arrived in DC we attempted to be supportive.  We went to a few games a year and kept up generally with how it was going (generally badly). I even knew a few players' names and stories. I did enjoy the stadium experience, particularly in the new stadium with the view of the capitol.  Then we moved to OK and largely forgot about it as Oklahoma is very much a football state.  We do, however, have a reportedly very good AAA team, the Redhawks who currently lead their division and are a feeder team for the Texas Rangers.  They play in a fairly new park in the heart of the revitalized Bricktown area, but we had never even been inside the stadium!


As part of IRSP, Brent finds a few fun activities for the participants throughout the program.  This year, one of those activities was attending a Redhawks game.  I thought it would be fun to go to and Marilyn (my MIL) graciously agreed to watch the kids for us (Thanks so much!!). We had a great time.  The weather was as perfect as summer weather gets in OK--warm, slight breeze, just an edge of humidity.  We were sitting in the shad just on the third base side of home plate about 10 rows up. These were $10 tickets!  It was perfect.  


We relaxed, watched a little baseball, tried to decipher the scoreboard and figure out what a Zephyr was (and why it was  the competing team's name).  We did the requisite wandering around buying food we didn't need.  I even got my snowcone after much searching.  I spent a fair bit of time observing Brent's students and trying to figure out their social scene which was amusing as always.  The Redhawks were up by two runs when I left to relieve our gracious sitter and get a little rest.  I did learn some interesting things about current trends while I was there so here is your impromptu Redhawks fashion report:


- Apparently, short cutoffs are back in, who knew? I really wish they would find a way to keep the pockets from hanging out the back as it sort of ruins the effect.
- Ladies either need flat, strappy sandals or tall wedge espadrille type shoes (I wore the later-- so trendy)
- Lots of layering of clothes in weird ways, not sure what's going on there.
- I saw some adult female with a big flower in her ponytail that contained some sort of flashing little red light--big no in my book and I asked Brent to have me committed if I tried something like that.
- For the gents-- apparently a decade on cargo shorts are still totally standard -- in case you were wondering.
- Kids all seemed to have on Redhawks apparel, some of which was being handed out free here and there.  


Yes, there was a game going on and I sort of was watching.  I even picked a favorite player - Jarrod Saltalamacchia - Largely because I liked his name.  Speaking of which the announcing was strangely minimal.  In any case, for me, baseball games will always be about the experience more than the game and this was a great one!