Breakfast at the Park: A Sunday Adventure

Breakfast at the Park: An Sunday Adventure in Breakfasttown USA

I don't do pictures in my fanposts, mostly because I don't take them, and I don't get the pictures from my friends and family who so.  So I will have to paint a picture with words on what my Sunday morning / afternoon adventure was like at Petco Park Sunday June 26.   Prepare yourself for an exciting adventure one sunny day in America's finest city!

The people in the party partaking in the game with me was: my mom, girlfriend and nephew.  I had wanted to do Breakfast in the Park for some time, so I was excited to get out to the park and see what it was like.

We showed up at the gates at exactly 10am. Which was precisely on time for season ticket holders or for people with special invites... and precisely 30 minutes early for lowly normal folk like us. So we stood around for 30 minutes waiting for security to show up and check our bags to let us in.

I do not know how often most of you are around kids, but I can tell you 9 year old boys are difficult to entertain for that period of time.  I did an decent job of keeping him occupied with a combination of playing catch, talking about baseball, and pretend karate chopping each other.  Eventually an usher gave him a massive handful of temp tattoos and my mom took him to "Sports Palace" outside the stadium to grab him a new hat.

After our 30 minutes were spent we ran over old-people, other slower children, and got into a line to get a seat on the field.  THIS was absolutely worth it.  After scoring some custom hashbrowns, bloody marys, and water we sat down to enjoy breakfast on the field. 

My mom is your standard "assertive" mother who was on a mission. To get as many autographs for her grandson as possible.  She did not disappoint.  After relentlessly stalking: Clayton Richard, Bud Black and Aaron Harang she scored all three autographs and pictures for herself and Gabe.  I was uninterested, choosing instead to enjoy my alcohol and fatty fried breakfast.  I do not completely understand how middle aged women are completely un-rejectable, but my mom personified this.  Breakfast at the Park is truly the ultimate fan experience: place a bunch of seats around the bullpen and feed us delicious food, and alcoholic beverage and the players HAVE to walk by us to get the the bullpen.  Amazing. 

Soon they kicked us out of our seats.  Something about a game being played?  I had almost forgotten why I was here.  Rolling up to our left field reserved seats, they were directly in the center of the sun.  I must have put on 7 coats of SPF 30 waiting for the game to start. 

The fanfare for the Military was rather awesome, I love our Sunday Appreciation days, and I enjoy the camo jerseys... I did not enjoy our early hitting with RISP futility.  It was annoying and seemed like such a waste of Cory Luebke's inspired start (struck out the first 4 batters I believe!).  

After 4 innings my family waved the white flag and headed up higher to avoid literally baking in the sun. This was an inspired choice and made the game much more watchable.

At around the 6th inning my girlfriend and I noticed a child walking up and down the stairs apparently looking for someone.  Me, too busy cursing and swearing to myself about our luck with hitting in RISP, ignored the fellow.  My girlfriend, the gold-hearted good Samaritan she is, assisted the kid, in a conversation that apparently went something like this.

"Do you need help finding someone?"

"My parent said they would be in the middle"

"Middle where?"

"I don't know"

"Is that ticket around your neck where you were sitting?"

"Yes"

"Thats way over there"

"Thats where we were sitting, not anymore"

So my girlfriend, rather baffled, handed the child over to an usher to attempt to reunite the child with his family.

Due in no small part to the embarrassing rage she could obviously sense was building up in me with each at bat, and her general disinterest in sports, my girlfriend checked in on the kid's well being regularly.  The usher finally informed her that the kid was successfully reunited with his sister.

10 minutes later the usher rewarded my girlfriend with a bag full of bobble heads (Headley and Eckstein), a Adrian Gonzales statuette, and a duffle bag... none of which she was interested in, and all of which I was... score!

Eventually the Padres figured out how to hit with RISP, and Heater came in and got his 20th save.

All was well in Breakfasttown USA and dammit, it was a good day.

NOTE: I want to publish this ASAP, so I am doing so as is, without rereading for grammar or spelling, I may edit it later to do so.