Games with Dave

We've done this for a few years now. I go to the airport. Shake hands. "How ya doin'". Off you go. Drive back home to Seminole. Chat about this and that. We've both been told that we should be be more communicative. Communicate your feelings more. O.K. Sure. Whatever.

This year it was a little different. Picked him up Thursday at 11 A.M. at the airport and went directly to a game at the new Phillies stadium, Bright House Networks Field. Opening Day for Spring Training in the Tampa Bay area. Yankees vs. Phillies. Good way to start a Spring Training vacation with my son Dave. We're both big Yankee fans, and O.K., he's more fanatical than I am. That's a good thing. After a brief hassle at the Will Call window for tickets (and a long hassle with getting into the parking lot), we were in. Nice park. Where's the beer? Found "World of Beer" in short order. Great selection. He's got his Bass and I get my Rolling Rock Green Light. Low carbs you know. Got to be healthy now, even though it might be just few Buds too late for that. Thanks to the parking fiasco, we're too late for BP (batting practice). But while we're in line for (healthy?) hot dogs we do see the first pitch of the year. Couldn't tell you now if it was a ball or a strike, but it doesn't matter. Baseball is finally underway. Are these winters getting longer? The Yanks lost that one, but that doesn't matter either. It's only an exhibition game. The Yankees were a real tough ticket this spring. They're always tough, but this year with all the A-Rod publicity, it's been even tougher. It was good that I got a Yankee ticket at the Phillies, because that was the only one I could get while Dave is here on vacation. Friday we watched the Yankees play the Phillies again at Legend's Field in Tampa. Unfortunately no tickets available (as of late January!), but incredibly, it was on ESPN! Spring Training on ESPN! O.K., we'll take it.

Next day it's Saturday, and we're off to Al Lang Field, my absolute favorite place to watch a baseball game. Opening Day here for the Devil Rays. We get to this game early enough to see some BP (it's Pirates vs. Devil Rays). I always love to hear the reaction when I say that the Devil Rays are a great team to watch. They have a really good running game (when they can get somebody on base), but their pitching has always been worse than just a little bit suspect. Their outfield is incredibly fast, and they have another really fast outfielder in minor league ball this year. I told Dave that they might win as many as 85 games this year, and he couldn't believe his ears. Gave me crap about that for the rest of the time he was here. O.K., like the tech bubble that burst, maybe I was a just a little overly exuberant. But they still are a great team to watch, and this is just a fantastic place to be watching. We had great seats for this one, but all the seats at any spring training field are really somewhere between good and great. Here, today, I could hear the hiss of an occasional fastball. We don't talk a lot during a game. "Who's this kid? Know him?" "What ever happened to [insert name here]?" "Nice dig at first." "That's gone." Stuff like that. We need to communicate more. We drank Bud's & Michelob Ultra's here. By the end of today's game the beer lady is beginning to recognize us.

Sunday is the home opener at Grant Field in Dunedin. Oops, not Grant Field any more. Now it's Knology Park. Sounds like it's out of a George W. Bush speech. ("We had knology about the strategery of the nucular weapons...", but that looks like fodder for another thought). We had fun with that one. (Knology is some kind of a cable company). Today it's the Blue Jays against the (again) Phillies. Great seats again, but alas, not for long. We go to these games because we like baseball. I think some people go because their T.V. is broken. We were unfortunate enough to be right in front of the "Loudendumb" family. This is not to be confused with the obnoxious fan who's always yelling the wrong thing. These were just people who thought the game was a lead in for "Wheel of Fortune". "Somebody always scores on a home run". Well, duh! That was a good five minute conversation, but sadly, not the only one they had. We had to change our seats because I didn't bring a gun. My fault. We actually had trouble not talking to each other during that. Fortunately it was far from sold out so we could sit a little further up and a little further out. Still good seats. Eventually, we almost got nailed three times by foul balls. Still haven't gotten one. Couldn't tell you who won that one. Good game to watch though. Good thing it was cloudy. My exposed skin is starting to sizzle in the sun. The Blue Jays are a Canadian team (Toronto) so we felt we had to have some Labatt's Blues & Lights.

Monday and it's back to Al Lang. The Devil Rays and the Reds. Griffey Jr. is there, but he doesn't take BP. There's a letdown. Good seats today? Well, we're a row in front of an Indian's scout (not Tonto's horse). We'll really be able to call balls & strikes today. Stay on your toes, Blue. The beer lady almost knows us by name now, but it's still $11.00 a round ($5.50 each for Buds and Ultras). I know this is the last spring training game of the year that we'll be watching together, but I'm not sad about that at all. Mainly because my skin can't take any more sun, but also because I know we've done it again. Gone through four games in five days without any serious overt communication. That's what anyone who was looking at us would say. Fine.

Tuesday and it's time to make the drive back to the airport. I could drop him off curbside. "See ya." "Thanks for coming." "Thanks for having me." A handshake. O.K., done. Not this year. I'll go in so we can have a beer while he waits for his flight. We watch ESPN while we have our beers. Don't even know what kind we had. Didn't taste all that great. And it was freezing in there.

Driving home I thought about the past five days. We had a lot of some pretty good baseball. He really loves the game. We go to races together too. We probably don't talk all that much there either. That, almost certainly, will be another thought. Maybe we don't seem to talk all that much, but I think we just do some things right.

just a thought. bill brower, 10-mar-2004

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