The Ball Game - part 2

As I said in the original post, my wife Cindy won two tickets to a Red Sox game. When she first told me about it, she said the game was going to be on July 17. But when we looked at the tickets, they said July 31. Neither of us could figure out where Cindy originally got the idea that the game was on the 17th. We let it drop.

Also part of the wining package was the chance to meet and have lunch with Jonathan Paplebon, the Red Sox closing pitcher (a relief pitcher who specializes in coming in at the end of the game when his team is ahead - the "Closer" shuts down the other team and allows his team to coast to victory - sometimes). Cindy didn't want to go and said it would be better if I took my son Evan. So, we planned for that but as the big day approached, Evan got nervous because we weren't sure what the situation would be. Would we be sitting at a table with him and need to know what to talk about or would we be among a large number of fans and just be lucky to get to shake his hand and get a picture with him? But Evan was worried to the point that it was ruining the entire event for him.

I could sympathize with Evan. When I was about his age, and my parents were shopping for a new car, the owner of one of the dealerships got a call while we were there. He talked to the person for a short time and then asked me if I'd like to talk to the greatest ballplayer ever. Well, I was a Pirates fan and assumed he meant Roberto Clemente but he was talking about a guy who had been born and raised in nearby Donora - Stan Musial. Like Evan, about 45 years earlier, I wasn't sure what to say to him. What if he asked me about the Cardinals (the team he had played for)? What if he asked me which team I played on (I didn't play organized baseball)? What if...what if...what if? So, I just said, "No, thank you." To my father's credit, he didn't force me into it. He probably couldn't understand my reasons (he was very outgoing and would have talked Stan Musial's ear off) but he respected my feelings enough to just let it go.

So, we decided that I'd go alone and sell the other ticket because at this late time, I couldn't find anyone else to go with me. So, I left the house at 8:30 AM to get to Boston at 11 AM for the lunchtime meeting with Jonathan Paplebon. When I got there, the restaurant where the meeting was to take place was closed. I waited around until I saw some waitresses arriving and asked them about it. As I got out the voucher for our meeting with Mr. Paplebon and looked at it again, I finally noticed the date of the event - July 17. That's where my wife had gotten the date from originally. But when I saw that the game was on July 31, I just assumed that the meeting would take place on the same day. Wrong! I'll read everything the next time but even if we'd have known that meeting Mr Paplebon would take place two weeks before the ballgame, we might not have made the trip to Boston just for that.

But the saddest part to me was that Evan would have made the trip with me if it hadn't been for the meeting and lunch with the famous ball player. We could have had a wonderful father and son day at the game and not have had to spend so much time there as I ended up having to do waiting for the 4 PM game to start. I ended up having a good time (more on that in later posts) but I didn't have as good a time as I would have had if my son had made the trip with me. If I'd only read the voucher.