A night at the ballpark

Driving to the game tonight I was listening to Andy Masur's interview with Greg Maddux.  Greg admitted that he didn't know if he'd be a Padre by Sunday. He also said he tipped his hat to the fans just in case it was his last start as a Padre.  There was some debate last night whether he tipped his cap because he broke into the top 10 strikeout list or the that he might be leaving the team.  Now we know.  It's official I don't want him to leave under any circumstances.  I hope that he stays the season and decides to play with the Pads in 2009, we're a better team with him here.

I don't want to complain because it's my own fault.  I swore I'd never go back, but I was hungry and thirsty.  The concessions are absolutely terrible at Petco Park.  I spent two full innings in line to get a hot dog and a coke.  Does that sound reasonable to anyone?  There were approximately 15 people in front of me.  I saw someone dressed as a fan taking notes on the what was going on in the kitchen.  I asked if she was a secret shopper because the service is unbearably slow.  She said she wasn't, but then I saw her in the kitchen a few minutes later.  She worked for the Padres in some capacity.  I worked in food service and  I realize it's not easy but Petco Park definitely needs someone to fix their concession system.

Chris Young pitched an excellent game.  Starting the game with 6 strikeouts got the crowd amped, but the real thrill was the Gerut's bases loaded deep fly ball.  I was sitting behind the Petco Porch and everybody in right field thought it was gone because we lost sight of the ball.  It was electric for about 5 seconds, I'm just going to pretend that it was a grand slam.

Pad Squad Kelly was the stand out squadder again out in right field. Five Pad Squadders all chatting amongst themselves in a little clique while Kelly was the only person talking to fans the entire time she was out there.  Major League Memories aren't going to make themselves!

You know the Jerome's best show in the house game where Weisbarth asks a fan a question and the answer is always a Padres player?  Well the game is very similar to Wheel of Fortune in the way that they give you a group of letters and you just fill in the blanks for the answer.  Today's question was "Who was the 1987 saves leader?"  The answer was "_an_e Mc_ul_er_" or something like that.  I didn't know the answer it was Lance McCullers, but I thought that if they give you the letter "C" somewhere in the answer than they give you all of the "C's" in the answer like the Wheel of Fortune rules. I guess you just need to know that we aren't playing official WoF rules.

A lady sitting next to me thought I was a genius.  She asked me what the numbers over the batters eye were.  i told her and she asked if I knew the players.  She was amazed that i knew that.  Not a big deal, but then we saw this huge moth flying around.  People thought it was a bat and she said "there are no bats in San Diego!" and I told her "Actually there are 22 different species of bats in San Diego".  By some weird coincidence I looked that up on google this week.  She was getting freaked out that I knew two facts.  Glad she didn't ask any other questions.

[Note by jbox, 07/30/08 8:55 AM PDT ] So I was just telling Dex that I wrote this post late last night and I went to bed immediately after finishing it.  I forgot to make a joke about the only flying bats in Petco are the broken wooden ones that MLB refuses resolve.  I also hate this post, it's stupid and part of me just wants to delete it.  I woke up in the middle of the night wanting to delete it.  I think I complain too much and it's not interesting, but I blame that on the hot dogs that made me feel totally gross and gave me nightmares last night.  This post is almost exactly like the last game report I did where I complained about concessions and complimented Kelly.  I guess those are the only two things you can count on at Petco.