Went to the game last night and left in the 7th inning. The new knock on Brian Lawrence might be that he's awesome when it doesn't matter. I still think there's a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on there.
Jess and I sat up in 218. Corner of the Toyota Terrace. I love the padded seats up there. Readers Ilana and David hooked us up with tickets. Ilana got an employee award before the game. Jess showed up late. I sat alone for a little while. When Ilana was on the field to receive her award, I cheered.
After a bit, Jess showed up and we got dogs and garlic fries. On the third level of the ballpark, one of the concession stands is run by the 1st Intellgience Marine Battallion. Efficient bunch. Very polite. I was glad to support them with my purchase.
To contrast, I once had a sandwich at the Randy Jones BBQ in the Park at the Park. Some high school was running the stand. Everybody stood well away from the windows. I walked up, made eye contact with the girl behind the counter closest to me, and said, "How's it going?" Without a word, she slid to her left so that she was no longer the closest one. When I finally got somebody to take my order, he called it out to the other kids in the stand and they all laughed. When high school kids laugh as they're getting ready to prepare your food, the feeling is a little less than comfortable. That's the trouble you get with these volunteer run stands. Sometimes, paying money out of your ass for ballpark food seems OK when you know the money's going to upstanding citizens. Other times, the money goes to rude punk kids and those are the times when it feels really expensive.
Back to last night. We eventually went down and sat with David and Ilana after a couple of seats opened up near them. It was a nice time, but we all left after the 7th inning stretch. What do other teams do when they clinch really early? In '98, I remember still wanting to win through to the end to try to reach that 100 win mark. This season, I could care less about the Dodgers. Part of me thinks we should forfeit all three games just to stick it to Dodger fans who bought tickets.
In any case, we're one above .500. Another win guarantees us at least .500. Beat the Dodgers this series and we're a division champ above .500. Not that that ever really mattered. I, like the Padres, are pretty much resting up till Wednesday.
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