Paging Crash Davis and "Nuke" LaLoosh!
Triple-A Baseball is so much fun! We had our office "end of the year" pa
rty last night (the UT fiscal year is 9/1 - 8/31) at the Dell Diamond, home of the Round Rock Express. (Affiliated with the Houston Astros.) I've been to a few other minor league stadiums -- The Potomac Cannons - now the Potomac Nationals, and the Hagerstown Suns -- and this one is by far the best. It doesn' t make a lot of sense to me that the Express is in the Pacific Coast League, but I'm sure there's a reason. Then again, our opponent was the Memphis Redbirds (which is cool, cuz M and I saw their stadium when we were in Memphis!) and they're nowhere near the Pacific Coast either.
We had the picnic area to ourselves (and free beer/soda, burgers and dogs), at the end of the first base line just past the foul pole. Unfortunately, the picnic area is right next to the pool - yes, there's a pool at the ballpark - and we didn't get to go in it. It just didn't seem fair, taunting us like that. (I think you can reserve the pool area also/instead, but you probably have to do it early in the season.) Our seats were on the berm, so I guess you couldn't call them seats... but it was a great spot after the sun set and stopped shining drectly in our eyes. Here's what it looked like until about the second inning.
Of course, going to a baseball game with a bunch of computer geeks means the conversation will range far and wide, and this was no exception: there was some talk about work, but then we talked about baseball movies - Major League got everyone's vote as the favorite, but we couldn't forget Field of Dreams, Bull Durham or The Natural. (I usually pick Bull Durham over Major League, but that's because I was sixteen when it came out and I thought Kevin Costner was *HOT* back then. He was! He isn't any more.) We went through a bunch of other sports movies - they showed clips from Rocky, Varsity Blues and Remember the Titans - so then we moved on to college football. (Can't be around J. for too long without talking about his beloved Longhorns.) We have a nice friendly argument about his 'horns vs. my USC Trojans. The "University of Spoiled Children" came up, but I chuckled politely and let it go. [Speaking of spoiled children, it's rather ironic that a guy who played for the *Trojans* apparently couldn't remember to use one when he was fooling around with his ex-girlfriend. Matt, you idiot!]
But I digress. We enjoyed the game, which was tied at 1-1 through the bottom of the 10th inning. At that point, it was after 10pm, and those of us who were still around (about 6 of us) decided enough was enough. Wouldn't you know it, the Redbirds scored 2 runs in the top of the 12th, to win the game 3-1. Bummer. It occurs to me now that we also missed the big end of season fireworks show. Double bummer.
Regardless of last night's loss, the Express made it into the playoffs, but they won't be playing at home again until next weekend (when I'll be in DC/Boston). Then they play in the PCL League championship the following week. I think I'll have to try to go to a few games next season!
rty last night (the UT fiscal year is 9/1 - 8/31) at the Dell Diamond, home of the Round Rock Express. (Affiliated with the Houston Astros.) I've been to a few other minor league stadiums -- The Potomac Cannons - now the Potomac Nationals, and the Hagerstown Suns -- and this one is by far the best. It doesn' t make a lot of sense to me that the Express is in the Pacific Coast League, but I'm sure there's a reason. Then again, our opponent was the Memphis Redbirds (which is cool, cuz M and I saw their stadium when we were in Memphis!) and they're nowhere near the Pacific Coast either.
We had the picnic area to ourselves (and free beer/soda, burgers and dogs), at the end of the first base line just past the foul pole. Unfortunately, the picnic area is right next to the pool - yes, there's a pool at the ballpark - and we didn't get to go in it. It just didn't seem fair, taunting us like that. (I think you can reserve the pool area also/instead, but you probably have to do it early in the season.) Our seats were on the berm, so I guess you couldn't call them seats... but it was a great spot after the sun set and stopped shining drectly in our eyes. Here's what it looked like until about the second inning.Of course, going to a baseball game with a bunch of computer geeks means the conversation will range far and wide, and this was no exception: there was some talk about work, but then we talked about baseball movies - Major League got everyone's vote as the favorite, but we couldn't forget Field of Dreams, Bull Durham or The Natural. (I usually pick Bull Durham over Major League, but that's because I was sixteen when it came out and I thought Kevin Costner was *HOT* back then. He was! He isn't any more.) We went through a bunch of other sports movies - they showed clips from Rocky, Varsity Blues and Remember the Titans - so then we moved on to college football. (Can't be around J. for too long without talking about his beloved Longhorns.) We have a nice friendly argument about his 'horns vs. my USC Trojans. The "University of Spoiled Children" came up, but I chuckled politely and let it go. [Speaking of spoiled children, it's rather ironic that a guy who played for the *Trojans* apparently couldn't remember to use one when he was fooling around with his ex-girlfriend. Matt, you idiot!]
But I digress. We enjoyed the game, which was tied at 1-1 through the bottom of the 10th inning. At that point, it was after 10pm, and those of us who were still around (about 6 of us) decided enough was enough. Wouldn't you know it, the Redbirds scored 2 runs in the top of the 12th, to win the game 3-1. Bummer. It occurs to me now that we also missed the big end of season fireworks show. Double bummer.Regardless of last night's loss, the Express made it into the playoffs, but they won't be playing at home again until next weekend (when I'll be in DC/Boston). Then they play in the PCL League championship the following week. I think I'll have to try to go to a few games next season!
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