I risked my life for a baseball ticket.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

That title is only slight hyperbole, by the way.

Today’s my day off from work, and the Cardinals were playing the Astros on ESPN. Somewhere around the third inning, it’s mentioned that Roger Clemens will be making his first start in Lexington, KY.

“Self,” I say to myself, “you live in Lexington.” And so I check the Legends’ website to find out when he’s starting.

Now, it’s important to note: I hate Roger Clemens and the Astros. I think he’s a jerk, quite frankly. That said, when you have the chance to watch a first-ballot Hall of Famer make a start, you don’t pass it up.

As I make my way across town, I notice that there are some clouds building. By the time I get to the intersection of New Circle and N. Broadway, it’s raining lightly.

I turned in at the ballpark and was surprised to see a relatively small line at the ticket window. I find a parking space and run to the pavilion that covers the ticket windows. Within five minutes, an absolute frog-strangler opens up. It was raining sideways with the 35 mph winds, and lightning was flashing all over the place.

Then lightning struck the ballpark. There was a loud bang, the lights in the ticket office went out and the windows rattled. About a minute later, lightning struck the shopping center next door.

At that point, they ushered us all inside, where a half-inch of water was pooling on the floor. Shortly after we got inside, the hail started.

Finally, they got one of the ticket windows back open, and so the four of us that were in that line braved the elements again, where we were getting rained and hailed on.

I got a really good ticket, though, on the third base line, lower level, last row. And then spent 30 minutes trying to get back to my apartment, as three of the major intersections around the ballpark had more than 4 inches of standing water.

2

It’ll probably do the same thing on gameday and you won’t even get to see him pitch.

P.S. In college, I watched an old, fat Rick Ruschel make a rehab start in A ball (He was on the Chicago Cubs). He schooled those rookies like they were little leaguers. Gave up two infield hits over 6 innings in a shutout. Shawon Dunston was a rookie and first pick in the draft and he smashed a triple off the wall in center field.

3

Shush, you.

I have a feeling Koby Clemens will be the starting third baseman for this game.

(And it’s quarter hot dog night!)

4

Why would you buy 1/4 of a hot dog?

5

Fine, it’s $.25 hot dog night.

6

I’ve seen Clemens pitch a few times, being an Astros fan and living in Houston and all. Once, I saw him throw 8 innings of shutout ball in under 70 pitches. Typical of the Astros last year, he got no run support, he aggravated his hamstring or whatever was bothering him, they bring on Lidge in the 9th and he gives up a solo homer for the loss. Even though it was 8 innings of pitching spectacle, the best part about the evening was that I was sitting in the tickets of the dude who paid my way through medical and graduate school, Bob McNair. $250 face value, all you can eat, “Diamond Box” field level, right behind home plate, in line with the home plate ump, 3 rows up with Drayton McLane sitting 3 seats in front of me.

The next time I saw him pitch, he pinch-hit in the 15th inning and pitched 3 shutout innings of relief for the win in the NLDS against the Braves.

The OP reminds me of a Texas vs. Missouri college football opener I once saw. By luck of the draw, we got 50 yard tickets about 3 rows in. All well and good until the second quarter, when the crowd moaned as lightning lit up the north horizon. Sure enough, by the beginning of the third quarter, some Texas thunderstorms had moved in. Lightning started hitting the stadium and we were moved into the concessionary space under the bleachers until it passed. It rained about 3 inches in about 10 minutes, then like many Texas thunderstorms, cleared out to a beautiful evening. 1/3rd of the people had left, so our 50 yard line tickets were kind of meaningless. UT had just put down natural grass fields for the first time (I think this was in around 1996), and drunk students obviously found themselves on the field during this 45 minute delay. We had the pleasure of watching them run around until getting tackled by the cops and hauled off. Ahhh liquor and college students – a surefire recipe for entertainment.

7

Reminds me of the Louisville-Kentucky game of a few years ago, where a freak thunderstorm hit Commonwealth Stadium between “America the Beautiful” and introducing the team. It rained for 15 minutes, which was just long enough to soak the field. A drunk guy ran out on the field and by the time they caught him, there were 5 security guards, a UK cop and a state trooper chasing him.