The Saints Win

We took the kids to a Saint Paul Saints game last night. It didn't rain.

It had been threatening to rain during the day, with clouds coming in before dinner time and hubby mentioning he had encountered a few periods of light sprinkles on the way home from work. We listened to the weather before we left, not that that is a guarantee, but they said the rain was supposed to hold off until after sunset. So, we plugged ahead with our original plan to go to the game.

Didn't buy tickets in advance since things have been so subject to change around here, and headed to Midway Stadium to try our luck with purchasing them an hour or so before the game started. This worked well since we got tickets right in the front a little to the right of home plate. Perfect for our first outing to a baseball game as a family.

We had planned to get the tickets and then get some dinner nearby, but when we saw all the people already at the stadium and how horrendous the parking situation was, we decided to just park and find something to eat at the stadium. Turns out that was a good plan too, since one vendor was giving away free hot dogs and water. Perfect cheap, baseball game dinner.

Even though I don't think the kids really paid attention to which guys were "our" team, they had fun. It was good we had the seats we did since the kids were in constant motion. At least they didn't have to crawl over people to get out or things would've gotten a little testy.

Ran into folks that my husband works with and they were asking us if we were dedicated Saints fans to get the great seats we had. Nope, just walked up and bought them on game day. The old-duffer-serious-baseball-fans sitting behind us had obviously over heard this conversation. When hubby took the kids to get some water during the 7th inning stretch, I could hear the duffers talking about coveting OUR seats and how we had just walked up and purchased them an hour before the game. They knew all the players, knew their stats, knew where prior players were, had just been to a Twins game the night before -- serious baseball fans.

Which made it even worse that moments earlier in the 7th inning stretch, when the crowd stood to face the announcer's box because they were throwing out bags of free peanuts, a bag came soaring overhead and ricocheted off the back of the head of one of the gentlemen and right into my hands. Momentarily, the thought of handing him back the offending bag crossed my mind, but then I thought how much my kids would like them, so all I mustered was an impish grin before I tossed the peanuts into my bag.

And the Saints managed to beat the fearsomely named Sioux Falls Canaries by a score of 7-1.