It Wasn't the Same
Went to a ball game at the Metrodome yesterday. (Twins won on a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth!) To make a long story short, was invited, along with the youth I took, to one of the "suites" behind home plate on the 1st base side. It was comfortable, of course. Nice seats, good view, felt relatively closer to the field. But I didn't feel like I was really at a baseball game.

There was this 6'x6' open window. The ceiling was barely 7' high. I had to stand up and look over a ledge to see the people in the seats near me outside the box. It felt really strange clapping along with the crowd for Nathan's pitching. My own voice echoed back when I shouted at the home run. There was no feeling of the big picture, the wide-open expanse (even with a Metrodome roof) of the field and the stands. The echoing of 30,000 fans around you is great. It isn't the same when it is coming in a window.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the "comfort" but it wasn't the same. I go to baseball games for a lot of different reasons. To sit in comfort isn't one of them. It is meant to be a crowd experience. It is meant to be cameraderie. It is meant to be echoes of cheers and the stomping of 60,000 feet or clapping of 30,000 pairs of hands. It is singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and not hearing your own voice echo from the glass in front of you.

Okay. Enough whining. It was fun to be there with the students. It was fun to be with the people and to be there for the Twins win. But next time, just let me have my peanuts and Cracker Jacks in the stands. That's where I'm meant to watch the game.