So, i went to see the Orioles play the Blue Jays at Camden Yards today. Baltimore lost 5-3 in extra innings after their bullpen failed (again) and after one of the worst first-base umpiring decisions i’ve ever seen.
But the result itself is not really the subject of my post. What i’m curious about is why thousands of people got up and left at the end of the ninth inning. I mean, you pay good money to come see a game, you sit there most of the afternoon in 95 degree heat in the sun, and then, just when the shade starts to take effect and the game enters its most exciting phase, you pack up the kids and the coolers and head for the exits.
Now, i know that the performance of the Baltimore bullpen this year is not exactly something to inspire confidence, but the Orioles have looked pretty good all weekend. And surely, given the fact that you’ve devoted the whole of Sunday afternoon to the ballgame, you can’t have anything THAT important to get back to at 4:30. IMO, there’s not much more exciting in baseball than an extra-innings game, where a single shot can win the game and everyone’s on the edge of their seats.
Don’t get me wrong–i don’t really care what these people do, or when they leave. I just don’t understand it, that’s all.
Unrelated note: my sympathies to the kid who got absolutely flattened by a line-drive foul ball to the head today. The medics were called and s/he managed to walk out under his/her own steam, but i’ll bet there’ll be a nice bruise there for a while.
To “beat the traffic.” My family members, especially my uncle, were these kinds of people. We went to a monster truck rally (shut up!) once and left in the middle of the semi-finals…to “beat the traffic”. At a concert I went to once, most of the people I went with left as soon as the band finished their first encore (the lights didn’t come back up, you know it’s over when the lights come up) to “beat the traffic”…and missed an incredible hour and a half encore. And felt really stupid listening to it over the radio, sitting in traffic in the parking lot.
The irony is, they scurry out with everyone else, then sit in traffic anyway.
That I will never understand either. Baeball games are expensive and damned if I ain’t gonna get my money’s worth. I know that lot a lot of people are gonna be like me (be there when they open and leave when the ushers kick us out) but come on! If you’re not there for the end of the game, why be there at all? The last innings of Giants-at-LA games sound like the crowd is half Giants fans. “Let’s go Dodg- egh, screw it, let’s go home.”
Same here! When I go to a concert or ballgame, I figure, I paid my bucks for this seat, they’re going to have to pry my butt out of it at the end of the night.
This exact thing happened to my dad when I was little. The family goes to see a Mets game and they’re doing horribly. We leave at the top of the ninth in disgust. As we are driving away, a huge cheer emenates from the stadium.
Of course, I didn’t give a shit about baseball, then or now, but my dad and brother were devastated.
I went to my first baseball game (Braves at Mariners) a couple weeks ago, and observed and thought the same thing.
The Braves eventually lost the game, but at the moment the exodus began, the score was close. Both teams are good teams, so it blew my mind to see people so anxious to beat the traffic that they were willing to leave while the game was still in progress. Honestly, if you hate traffic that much, you shouldn’t be going to games.
They had good seats, too. I think that’s what bugged me the most. Why couldn’t they have stayed home and let me have those sweet behind-home-plate seats?
Once I took a Finnish friend of mine to a baseball game (we had season tickets). Game lasted a long, long time. I could tell he wasn’t as enamored with the event as the rest of us were, so I said we could leave. This was maybe in the 11th or 12th inning.
The game was eventually over at 4:40 in the morning, having begun around 7:30. It featured one of the wildest finishes ever.
The rest of the party, which had remained when we left, never quite let me forget it…
Well, it’s good to know that i’m not the only one flabbergasted at this sort of thing. I’ve heard the “beat the traffic” argument before, but i still can’t understand why anyone would bother going at all if the only thing on their mind for the whole game was “I hope it doesn’t take to long to get home.”
And dantheman, you’re a much more accommodating person than i. If that had been my Finnish friend, i would have nailed his butt to the seat.
GMRyujin, i’ve only been in the US for a few years and am still learning baseball lore–what was the Immaculate Reception?
Yeah, I know. But I’d been to hundreds of games, and he hadn’t. I wanted to show him what one was like; I didn’t want to make it unpleasant for him. As it was, I think we left 1 am-ish.
If I went to, say, England and a friend took me to a cricket game that I found dull after a few hours, would it behoove him to take me home? Probably, since he’s the host and I’m the guest.
Now there’s something to tell your friends at work the next day: “I missed the two-out home run that won the game in the bottom of the 14th inning, but i sure beat the traffic!”
I suppose this could be it. But, really, if your main purpose is drinking rather than the game, surely there are cooler, more comfortable, cheaper places to spend the afternoon drinking beer? Especially given that the ballparks generally serve crappy beer anyway.
One of the beer-sellers in the stands yesterday was yelling “Coors Light! Everyone drinks Coors Light.”
And i was tempted to yell, “Yeah, they do when the the donkey piss runs out and there’s nothing else available.”
Yeah, but you miss the game, which was the whole point of dealing with traffic in the first place. I would want to cram as much baseball as I could between the fighting-traffic segments of the evening.
My, my, my. Not here, man. Pac Bell Park has a way better beer selections than most bars. Imports, microbrews, hard-to-find beers (Big Daddy IPA, anyone?), wines, mixed drinks, and the typical swill… It’s great. It’s all expensive, of course, but damned if they didn’t try to give you some good choices.
Thanks for the Immacualte Reception link. Very interesting.
My girlfriend is from SF, and next time we get out there during baseball season, i really want to catch a game at Pac Bell Park. I may be in town on August 2/3, but the Giants are away that weekend.
