Rainy memory

Something occurred to me as I mowed the lawn in the rain today. We're going to our first regular season game tomorrow; it's against the Cubs and it could rain. That combination will always conjure a memory for me.

Last May, Christine's co-worker had tickets he couldn't use so we went to a Saturday afternoon game we hadn't planned to attend. It was a pretty good game: Freddy Garcia actually lasted six-plus innings. Although he and Geoff Geary blew up and gave up six runs in the seventh, the Phillies came right back with six of their own to retake the lead in the bottom of the inning. Brett Myers pitched two innings in a non-save situation in what was a turning point toward him being a dominant reliever.

But for us, an off-field incident will always stick out. There was a rain delay that lasted more than an hour. We sat through it, and the place emptied out for the end of the game.

In the ninth inning, as the rain was pouring down again, Aramis Ramirez fouled one back all the way up to our section. In our row. Since there was no one else left in the row at this point, I ran down the row and dove, coming up banged and bruised but with a game ball. Unfortunately, a kid was a few seats and rows away. He wasn't a cute little kid - more like a teen and he was nowhere near the ball. But that didn't stop a drunk in the section from suggesting the ball belonged to the "kid." I wussed out and gave the ball away. {I tease Greg about this, but he definitely made the right decision. We didn't need a fight over a ball.}

I'm still kicking myself for that. It would have been the second ball I ever got at a park - the first in regulation. In the early '90s, I brought my glove to batting practice at Yankee Stadium. I was there real early, camped in the right field corner. Someone hit a lofting fly right to me. I camped under it, but someone jumped over me and snagged it. Determined, I moved up to the wall and soon a ball was roped there. I reached across a bunch of kids (none of them had gloves and had no chance at it) and wound up with the ball.

Later, I had Pat Kelly sign the memento while I interviewed him for my high school paper when he was signing autographs at a local mall. I wore my Red Sox windbreaker and used my Red Sox pen.

Tonight's games: Christine and I are heading to the city for a party tonight. I know we have to miss the end of the first nationally televised Yankees-Red Sox game and probably all of the Cubs-Phillies game, so we probably won't update until after Sunday's game.