Take Tai Out to the Ballgame

I wonder if this is why fathers love taking their kids to the ballpark. . . . I'm pretty sure Tai had a good time at today's A's game against the Mariners. But I know that I had a great time. We got to the Coliseum an hour-and-a-half early so Tai could watch batting practice and stand by the railing to get some autographs. Sure enough, a couple of pitchers from the Mariners obliged (Jarrod Washburn and Ryan Rowland-Smith, for the record). Tai didn't have anything for them to sign except the back of his A's program, but that's fine. Next time, according to one of the A's ushers, I should hold up Tai and shout, "Hey, can my son get a ball?"

Stomper Fun Zone

Next, we went up to the "Stomper Fun Zone" and each of us ate a hot dog for lunch. Then Tai played with all the toys scattered about, completely oblivious to the fact that the game was about to start. Besides the toys and a slide, the Fun Zone included a games area, where for six bucks, you can do three different activities, and at the end, you get whatever prize they're handing out, in this case, an A's kids cap. Tai took some assisted swings in the mini-batting cage (those balls weren't that slow). Then in the soccer booth, Tai freaked out (and rightfully so) at the life-size goalie figure who wore an intense look while blocking the net. Finally, there was the pitching booth with the radar gun. This happens to be one of my favorite games, and since Tai seemed content just to hand me the ball, I took a few throws. Without having any warmup tosses, my pitches sailed so far out of the zone, the gun didn't pick any of them up.

We finally got to watch an inning of the game, fortunately one where the A's scored a few runs so that Tai could hear the crowd cheer. Then it was time to go home for a nap. The A's lost. Fortunately, that was irrelevant.