mark's big adventure

i took mark to his first ever dodger game today. they had a rare, getaway thursday, day game against the rockies and since i am unemployed and had mark at home with me today, i figured it was optimum to get him out among the dodger faithful. we had a great time and i hope one day he has the opportunity to read this blog post.

it was an eventful day in many ways. before we even left the house it took some cunning to get everything together and ready for our big day. i packed mark's bag with diapers and wipies, an extra onesie in case of accident, snacks, two bottles of juice, and my dodger hat. i dressed mark in one of his dodger onesies and wore my own dodger jersey from a softball league i played in years ago. (unfortunately in this photo mark's glove hand is blocking the view of his LA logo.)

as expected mark fell asleep for the ride to the stadium but we made great time and i woke him after only a one-half hour trip. they seemed to be renovating the dodger stadium parking lot so as i entered i was funneled into the upper corner of the lot, (lot 8,) above the right field reserve seats and overlooking downtown. when i got mark's sleepy butt out of the car i wanted to point out the buildings i recognized and tell him where i used to live right down there on bunker hill. i wanted to point to chinatown and tell him about my elementary school there but alas, he is 1.6-years-old and only getting onto his first words now so i'll wait and tell him those things way too many times in years to come.

i was hell-bent on us sitting in the left field pavilion. i imagined manny ramirez cracking a high, three-run drive into the upper section of said pavilion and me catching it on the fly and begging the dodger organization to help me get manny to sign it to commemorate mark's first game. so i trekked all the way down all levels and across the parking lot to the game day ticket booths outside that left field pavilion. when i made it to the front of the line, the salesman told me the left field pavilion was sold out. my $13 budget seat was moving on up to the $19 reserved level so i told him to give me one in the right field reserved section since i was parked over there. walking with mark's bag on my back and mark volleying back and forth from my right and left sides, i hiked back across the lot to the right field side and up all those steps i had just come down, (field to loge, loge to club, club to reserved levels.) i was winded when i reached the top and felt good that i had gotten some exercise in.

stopping at the concession stand for a coke and a dodger dog, mark and i made our way to our seats. we missed the first pitch which was thrown out by someone the dodger stadium public address announcer and a former high school friend of mine, eric smith, introduced as, "snoop d-o-double g." we missed the national anthem and we missed clint barmes getting to 3rd base but we did see matt holliday hit a sacrifice fly to plate barmes and thus, the dodgers trailed 1-0 and our seats were barely warmed. (in this photo, mark is peering out at the scoreboard above the left field pavilion as they were showing mr. dogg enjoying the game in his box seat.)

mark ate a couple bites of my dodger dog but then stopped, perhaps intuiting the deathly levels of sodium present. so i busted out one of his bottles of juice i had packed and he drank it down without stopping. he also made quick work of the cheerios i had packed. it was blazing hot but we were so high in the right field reserved seats we were under the awning and in the shade, (which was a real plus.) my coke disappeared as quickly as his cranberry juice and water.

mark got antsy in the 3rd inning and wanted to get off my leg and venture forth. problem was there was little room to venture and i was less than comfortable with mark hitting and brushing up against the 400lb man who sat two seats over on our right. he did not complain but still, i tried to hold mark down after he got his stretch in and had to point out every helicopter that passed, every bird in the air, and the police academy in the distance, which i explained to mark was just across the street from my first little league field. i remember that team i was on was the giants, which was one team name they should have left out of that league. i did not understand at 7-years-old why random people in the area would tease me when i wore my jersey. dodger fans are nothing if not loyal. distracting mark to get him to stop fidgeting was kind of fun, anyway.

during the top of the 4th inning i noticed wetness seeping down my right side. at first i thought it was sweat but quickly realized, i was not sweating that much. mark's diaper was not holding in his pee for which i have the huggies corporation to thank. i gathered our stuff, kept him right over my wet spot and headed back out the concessions and bathrooms area only to discover there was not a men's room with a changing table in it. drats.

so i headed further and further out towards right field where no one was and eventually, i got to an area where i was able to stop behind a little building and put mark's little mat down and change him right there. off with the soaked, (but super cool skater shorts,) off with his dodger onesie, off with his shoes and off with his diaper which was really not all that wet. it was as if his pecker was poking out the left side of the thing or something when he decided to take a leak.

(again it's...

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Huggies diapers)

Dept. INT

P.O. Box 2020

Neenah, WI 54957-2020
...in case you were wondering how to contact these evildoers.)

in any case, i made the change in relative peace, except for all the cheering. what luck. as i was changing a diaper nowhere near in a position to see the game, james loney was singling in manny ramirez to tie the game. still, mark made the transition from his skater shorts and dodger onesie to no shorts and his pearl jam onesie, the black one with the crazy little screaming guy from their alive and ten days, in fine form.

i was hot so we grabbed another coke for me and some popcorn f0r the two of us. dodger stadium does not really have suitable kid's food. i found no chicken tenders or grilled cheese sandwiches anywhere. my total expenditure including parking and my ticket had reached the $50 mark. woe was me.

sitting next to mark and me were four mexican guys, all slightly large, all wearing dodger jerseys, all super cool in my book. when a guy wearing a yankee hat walked by in front of us one of them yelled out, "yankees?! get out of here!" mark enjoyed the commotion.

later when a guy wearing a red sox hat walked by i heard the same guy say, "boston?", to which i added, "go home!" so when we returned from our leaky adventure, these guys offered help in getting me back to my seat seeing as i was weighed down with mark, bag and concessions.

in the bottom of the 5th, matt kemp had gotten to 2nd on what should have only been a single and andre ethier followed with a solid single to right center scoring kemp and giving the azul a 2-1 lead. (ethier was throw out at 2nd on the play and should have thought better of trying to stretch the run-of-the-mill single into a double.) the cheering brought mark to life and he began clapping then and about every five minutes thereafter, (and for no apparent reason,) which was cool.

in the 6th inning a guy way down in front of us but on our deck failed to catch a pop foul so i boohed loudly. one of the four guys complained about the bumbler because he was wearing a dodger jersey and i turned and suggested perhaps the guy should go become an angel fan. since i was decked out in dodger gear, it was my own little joke. no one there knew my affinity for the halos.

in the 7th inning with one out, derek lowe gave way to hong-chi kuo, and mark and i headed for the exit. his antsyness was reviving and i figured six full was probably all i could ask of him on this his first outing. we got right to our car and encountered zero traffic on our way out. i was spent. mark stayed awake until we hit pasadena and i listened to the end of the game on the radio.

in the top of the 9th, jonathan broxton came in to close it out and gave up a double off the wall in right field to ian stewart to open the inning, then he mowed down baker, tulowitzki and grilli with a barrage of 97 miles per hour fastballs that just sounded utterly overpowering on the radio. that is how it ended. i listened to the final out in our carport then got out and carried mark sleeping inside and to his bed.

before coming to the computer to blog about our day, i got out of my dodger jersey, which oddly did not smell like urine, cleaned up a bit and got into a pearl jam t-shirt. what a great day.