Target Field Recap

Let me go ahead and get the game/Brewer/Target Field experience out of the way before I get to the stuff everyone really probably wants to read. The seats we had were insane. I've never had seats that good to a baseball game before, and probably never will again. It really does make a difference where you are when you watch the game. When you can see facial expressions and the movement of pitches it makes a huge difference. I felt like I was at a Wisconsin Timber Rattlers game. Our seats were slightly to the left of home plate, about 15 rows up. So close that we routinely ducked when a pitch would get fouled back. It was amazing.

Target Field itself is very nice once you are in your seat. The concourses were extremely narrow, which doesn't make much sense for a brand new stadium. It didn't help that it was about 1000 degrees and I was so hung over I wanted to die, but they were really crowded. The food options were probably a little better than Miller Park, and I wasn't at all interested in beer so I can't give you much there. The area surrounding the stadium was the nicest I've seen by far. Overall, not as fancy as Yankee Stadium, but more functional, and not as large. And the concourses are way too tight. I still prefer the Miller Park experience, especially when you consider that there is no place to tailgate. It was surprisingly easy to park, and though traffic always seems to be mildly horrendous in the Twin Cities, getting out wasn't that bad. I would go back, if only to find that prick that told me to "Get the fuck out of my way!" because I was "going the wrong way down the steps". I was personally unaware there were designated lanes. But it is a new stadium so I could've missed the sign.

During the game, I pitched an inning and 2/3 because Macha felt the need to use every pitcher on his roster the night before to attempt to save his job. John Axford's mustache got the save, and he is now my favorite pitcher. Finally, because we were in good ass seats, we were about ten feet from Zach Braddock's mother and sister as they screamed during his major league debut and illegally recorded it on a camcorder like it was a little league game.

Oh, and Corey Hart hit the first homer into the third deck which had to have been about 475ft, but because it was a visiting player that hit it, the Twins estimated at 440 ft. PPS. I heard Fielder's fat when he got hit by that pitch in his first at bat.

OTHER THINGS

We got DRUNK. Like, my wife and I were both blacked out, stumbled around downtown Minneapolis somehow avoiding being shot, my wife broke her shoe and was walking around barefoot, we finally hailed a cab to get directions to the hotel, but my wife jumped in the backseat and refused to get out, so the cabdriver drove us a block and a half to the hotel, where we had no cash and my wife refused to get out of the cab, but the cab driver didn't want money but I felt the need to go to the ATM to give him $20 anyway, then we both puked and my wife woke up with Ricky's Brewer jersey (that he'd worn that night) and shorts on even though they were way too small on her, so she's totally going to be giving birth to his child in 9 months, and then she proceeded to vomit until about the 5th inning of the game, drunk. So we had some fun. I accidentally drank a "Premium" Grain Belt because a waitress fucked up my order, and the thought of it makes me want to puke again today. The game would've been alot more fun if it wasn't 1000 degrees and I wasn't hung over. Overall, I'm pretty sure downtown Minneapolis was awesome and we both cheated death again. Same time next year????

Now if you will excuse me, I have to spend day one of my vacation doing manual labor in 1000 degree temps.

We've Been Compromised! Abort?

I don't know if I've been unlucky, careless or I'm turning into Michael Jordan of pretending to work "Minor League Baseball Edition", but I've had a few inconveniences lately. Nothing major, but I'm a pretty paranoid guy.


Last Friday, UW was taking on Illinois in the Big Ten tourney. I was sitting at my desk, with the ESPN TV feed playing on my computer, while sort of working, albeit not real efficiently. My monitor is in the perfect location relative to the door to my office, meaning it faces away from the door. So nobody can really tell what is on the screen unless they come around to my side of the desk. Anyway, about half time of the Badger game, one of my bosses (who is a big sports fan, and who knows that I am too) pokes his head in and asks me what the score was. I was a bit flabbergasted. I'm not sure if he knew that I was keeping track and didn't care, but just wanted to know the score. Or if he just assumed? I sort of played dumb like I wasn't watching it on TV and told him "last time I checked the Badgers were down nine....". I hadn't left my desk so I'm positive he didn't know the extent of my slacking. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with monitoring a scoreboard every few minutes, but I'm not the boss either.


When the game was over, he poked his head in again and asked. This time, I was onto his game and told him I don't know. He seemed disappointed and confused by the answer. Then I decided I would be "helpful" and say "Let me check. " And then he came to my side of the desk while I pulled up the box score.

The second incident occurred yesterday. Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament are about my two favorite days of the year. In a past life, I would skip class/take off of work to watch all day long. In my current position I can't do that. What I can do, however, is manipulate my schedule so that I don't have any appointments and can be sitting behind my computer between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., where I may or may not watch MMOD. So last night (yes, last night) one of my bosses decided to come into my office while I was in there to take a look at our calenders to see if they could pawn some stuff off on me this week. When they reached Thursday and saw 5 hours blocked off with no explanation, the question was "what is this?" I just said, I don't want any appointments. Then, they went to Friday and saw the same thing and said "You don't ever want appointments or what?" So that was awkward. Nothing incriminating, but one of those things that will probably cause the bosses to wonder what I'm doing during those hours. My only saving grace is that this particular boss is not a sports fan, and probably doesn't realize that there is basketball being played during those hours.

The question is: Is there any reason for me to be concerned? I say not because I have been working 60+ hours a week for the last 6 weeks, and I feel I deserve to fuck around for two half days. Thoughts?

DVR ALERT!!! Friday, beginning at 2 p.m. do not attempt to communicate with me in any way unless someone died. I will be going dark and will be watching the last three sessions of the tournament beginning at 6 p.m. as if they were happening live due to Bucky playing at 1:50 p.m. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

ST. PATTY'S DAY: Happy amateur hour! Even though I'm a quarter Irish, I don't need an excuse to get drunk. I prefer Wednesday as an excuse. While getting drunk on green beer is fun, it also brings out the assholes who can't handle their liquor and like to start fights. And it is annoying.

The Gaels?

I looked around for the Badger game on the dish last night, and couldn't find it. When I went to bed, I saw they beat Iona 60-58 in Overtime. The story on JSOnline was like two sentences long, and described nothing about the game itself. It is quite possible that it was actually played on College Hoops 2k9 in a dorm room somewhere, and didn't actually happen live. The only information was that Bucky shot 31.3%, which is poor. Iona's nickname is the Gaels. A quick check of Iona on Wikipedia reveals that it is an island in Scotland. If you are almost losing to a team with no mention on Wikipedia, that isn't real good. Iona plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference or the MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC. I only really know this because I play a bunch of College Basketball video games. My first guess was that a Gael was a bird. It is apparently a yellow and maroon leprechaun. Scary.

Bucky plays the San Diego Torerros Sunday night for the tournament championship. I don't know if San Diego is good this year or not. They were last year. It smells like a Badger loss.

Today's Predictions:

UW 51, Cal Poly 30

Oklahoma 31, Texas Tech 21 (although I will be rooting hard for the Red Raiders)

I murder at least 13 people at the mall. (It's X-mas shopping day! Wheeee!)