Went to my first baseball game ever to see Portland Beavers vs Las Vegas 51s. As a spectator sport, baseball must rate as one of the most dangerous as sliced and mishit balls regularly end up in the stands. These are called ‘fly balls’ and there are warnings dotted about to watch out for these. If you get hit by one of those suckers you’d know it.
We were happy to be seated behind a protective net having had our general admission seats upgraded to ones near the club room (free snacks!) – the catch to this offer is that during a break in the game the MC (Robert) paid us a visit with the club mascot in a beaver suit (Lucky).
Rob did a 30 second rap about the great deal of these upgrade seats and introduced us by name as our images flashed up on the bg screen – “they’re from Italeeeee!” Rob seemed slightly fazed that we were in Portland on vacation -“I didn’t know Portland was such a hotspot!”.
The game itself lacked incident and the Beavers were soundly defeated. One screaming female fan near us was about as passionate as it got in the half empty stadium. She was often more entertaining than the action on the pitch. I confess that I don’t get all the rules – when does a ‘ball’ become a ‘strike’ for instance – but we understood enough to enjoy the spectacle. It was a learning experience although I would say a one day cricket match is faster moving and more exciting (that’s my Brit roots showing).
