Comparison
As you might have guessed, we’re a hockey family. We don’t play hockey. But we certainly contribute a significant amount of our annual income to the NHL to see hockey.
But this is “dead time” in our annual entertainment budget. Hockey ended a couple weeks ago. Training camp doesn’t start for a couple more months. Preseason games don’t start again until late September. And the regular season doesn’t start till October.
Understandably (to us anyway), we’re wandering aimlessly right now without that focus that drives us as a family in entertainment.
So Denise and I did something we never do. We went to two baseball games this week. We got seats down at field level for the first game and then up in the club level the second game. At the first game, the Rockies came in riding an 11 game winning streak, and by the end of the 3rd inning, we knew pretty clearly it wouldn’t get to 12. We were actually very worried that the team would send us a “thanks, but we don’t need your business letter” after that game, because we too were assuming that our presence was just the charm to cause their loss! But, refusing to give in to the possible bad luck charm scenarios, Denise and I went to another game last night, this time with the Rockies having won 14 of 15…that only loss once again being the game we were at.
We were feeling pretty good after 6 innings. The Rockies were comfortably in the lead at 4-2 going into the seventh. But they went to the bullpen, and quickly gave up 5 runs. They were trailing 7-4 going into their half of the 8th. Denise and I were already talking about never going to a game again…there was no way they would let us in…and they knew who we were from the ticket ordering process off their web site!
But that Rockies magic that fueled them into the World Series in 2007 seemed to magically come back again last night. In their half of the 8th, they got a 3-run homer from their catcher to tie it, and then in the bottom of the 9th, they got a game winning, walk off 2-run homer from Mr. Rockie himself.
What a great win. More importantly, what a great way to keep customers…take away the perception of a curse!
Even with all the excitement, I have to admit — baseball is so hard to watch.
When I was young (decades ago!), I love to play baseball and softball. I played into my 30’s. It was awesome.
I was decent too…here’s me in fine form:
But even back then, I spent lots of time waiting and watching, yearning for action:
As we got to the field yesterday, I couldn’t help but watch baseball with a constant view of comparing it to hockey.
We had the pre-game warm-ups:
And the baseball version of the zamboni:
But baseball had something rarely seen in hockey…players waiting around for action:
And a rain delay:
But there was one other thing the same…a score board video start to the game:
We had a great time. Even more since they won!
But I must admit, if I had the choice between baseball and hockey, and both were going to cost us as a family $300 or more for one game, I’d have to choose hockey. In hockey, action is non-stop through the breaks between periods. In baseball, action is non-stop while the ball is in play, but it’s a struggle to wait for things to happen between plays.
I loved playing baseball. I love the experience of the game.
But boy it’s hard to watch!