Skipping Out of Work
(…for a Noon Twins game? yeah, I know, right?)
Although I may project a James Dean + Arthur Fonzarelli x Chuck Norris bad boy reputation, I’m actually a very good seed, indeed. I’m not the type to miss work to play out my own personal Ferris Beuller fantasies. Yesterday, I did just that. Well, without spontaneously leading a parade down Nicollet Mall to the tune of Twist and Shout.
At first it was done a bit reluctantly, too.
Earlier in the week after a day full of strange men trampling in and out of our new house, tearing out pieces of wall, shuffling through the attic, drilling holes, sawing, and installing new outlets, my wife decided to check her work e-mail from home. You see, she’s been playing hookey all week and needed to catch up on some random work-related issues. While sifting through her inbox, she stopped dead silent and let out a "no way!" She had won tickets to a Twins game! Two seats in an undisclosed location for the Noon game versus the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday June 4, 2009. Naturally, she asked her very loving and romantic husband to accompany her to the game because, after all, I am the bigger Twins fan in the house. Surprisingly, I held reservation in that I’d have to miss out on the day portion of work. I tentatively agreed to the date with my wife, and she secured a back-up date just in case I wussed out.
Thankfully, I didn’t.
We had to stop by her place of employment just before the game to pick up the tickets. The look on her face as she was walking back towards the car was priceless. She got into the car, jaw still agape, and asked me to guess where we were sitting. You see, this was the question of the century. Like most stadiums outside of Washington D.C., it’s impossible to find any single game tickets anywhere near the lower bowl around the infield. That’s why when I was able to find two tickets to a Saturday game in September against Detroit behind home plate in Row 28, I jumped all over them knowing that this was the closest we’d ever get to the game at the Dome. Adding this knowledge to the fact that it was never disclosed to us whether they were someone’s personal tickets or company season tickets, I made the assumption that we’d be in one of the sky box seats. Well, you know what they say about assumptions. They make an ass out of u and mption.
ROW SEVEN! BEHIND HOME PLATE! FOR FREE! WITH ALL OF THE MINNESOTA MILLIONAIRES! FOR FREE!!
*cough cough*
Let me also just point out that, even though it says Row 7, that row is, in essence, the third row. There were only two rows in front of us. They were the Dugout Box seats. Fully catered, cushioned seats, Metrodome style. So, ya know, still kinda ghetto. But, STILL! Two rows away from home plate! Did I mention that the tickets were FREE?!
Most people would be perfectly fine with this set-up, even considering that just 14 hours prior the home team had their behinds handed to them by Cliff Lee, but the awesomeness did not stop there.
Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our camera. *fizzle*
While taking in the amazingness of actually getting to see a game for once instead of from miles away near the top of the roof, and while getting acquainted with the natives of the sold-out-for-ages season ticket holders section, such as Granny Lynne who had occupied Row 7 Seat 5 since 1991, we nearly missed the First Pitch Ceremony. Normally we wouldn’t pay attention to this portion of the event. It’s usually some guy who recently won the lottery or some player’s kid. As they were announcing the special guest, I heard a name over the P.A. that I recognized. I saw, quite clearly, the back of a dark-haired man wearing a Twins jersey heading to the mound. The name on the back read PALMINTERI. As in CHAZ FREAKIN PALMINTERI! Yeah, yeah, you guys in NY and LA are all like "big freakin’ deal, we have celebs tossing out the first pitch all of the time." Okay, first of all, the only celebrity we have out here is Prince, and he’s too busy searching for camels at midnight to toss a baseball. Most importantly, though, is that Chaz is my wife’s absolute favorite mob flick actor. Almost in the exact same breath of air she geeked out that Chaz was just yards away from us and groaned at the fact that we had forgotten the camera.
Chaz ducked back down into the dugout. That’s when I made an important discovery and realization. I’ve had my camera phone this ENTIRE TIME! *frazzle*
So, of course, I had to take a couple of obligatory shots during the first inning. These are definitely not the quality of shots that I would have gotten with our digital camera, but it’s something. Let’s now take a moment to see exactly just how close we were to the field. FOR FREE!
click images to enlarge
Jealous? Yeah. We were redonkulously close. I’ve been behind home plate before, albeit back in 1986 and didn’t really understand how difficult it is to get seats back there, but I’ve never been THIS close, and this was something special.
Oh, you’d think the awesomeness would end there, but it wouldn’t. Oh, no. It wouldn’t. This game was freaking AWESOME! It was definitely one of the best games that either my wife or I had ever attended. Here’s a quick run-down of what happened…
Scott Baker tossed a personal career high 10 strikeouts
Five total home runs in the game, four by the Twins
Denard Span with a solo shot
Justin Morneau hit a two-run HR
Jason Kubel launched 2 three-run home runs (one in the first, the other in the second)
Joe Mauer was announced the A.L. Player of the Month for May
For those who enjoy highlight reels, check out these clips of the game. While watching the clips, keep your eye out for me and my wife.
Throughout the game, we noticed some gentlemen in the first row to our left who were apparently "living the dream." The Metrodome was, also apparently, ballpark #17 for them. One of the guys seemed vaguely familiar to us and was sporting a Twins jersey with no name on the back. Both men were sporting some big time biggitty blang gold rings. We inquired to those around us if they heard who these guys were. All we were able to gather is that the vaguely familiar guy is a player (don’t know for what sport or for what team or if he’s still active) and that one of the gentlemen is named Matt. Now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture of the guy to see if any of you recognized him. Oh, well.
The game ended just before 3pm, with the Twins easily cruising to an 11-3 victory. It was an incredible game to see from any seat. I still can’t believe we got to sit where we did. We may get to sit in the first few rows behind home plate in another stadium sometime in the future. Then again, we may not. One thing is for sure, though. This is the last year that we’ll get a chance to mingle with the money at the Metrodome.
And to think that I almost didn’t go…
