Sometimes,
the best thing you can do is make another person happy – even if just for a few
hours.
Last
week, the CEO of my firm gave me his tickets to the Cardinals- well sort
of. When he doesn’t use his tickets, he
raffles them off within the firm and I won.
This is a small miracle in and of itself since I didn’t put my name in
the hat because I didn’t think I would have someone to go with. After a bit of confusion and angst, I
realized that I am a resourceful and capable person; I could find someone to go
with. In fact, there was that nice guy
over on the trading desk…
To make
a long story short, at 6:15 on Friday evening I headed to the MetroLink station
with the nice guy from trading, who for the purposes of this, we’ll call
Frank. Despite a rainy afternoon, the sky
was clear blue- perfect for a walk through downtown Clayton. Frank and I made good time and arrived at the
MetroLink station just at the train was arriving. We raced across a foot bridge and down some
steps to catch it just as the doors were closing. Our perfect timing at the Metro station was
rewarded when we arrived at Busch Stadium just as they were singing the
National Anthem.
We
collected our free t-shirts and made our way down to our seats. I’d been told that they were great seats, but
I didn’t believe it until we were sitting there. We were just off the third base line, seven
rows back from the dugout. The sunset
lit up the Arch just to the left of the scoreboard. We were close enough to the field to hear the
ball when it hit the catcher’s mitt. The
whole time, Frank kept up a running commentary about the Stadium and local
area. He apparently loves coming to ball
games, even though he isn’t a rabid sports fanatic – which made him a perfect
companion. His biggest excitement about
the game was getting to have Nachos.
The
game started off with a groan when the Milwaukee Brewers got the first run of
the game. That didn’t last long. The Cardinals came back with a vengeance in
the second inning. Halfway through the
top of the third inning, the Brewers replaced their starting pitcher, which is
apparently a very, very bad thing. The
poor guy walked off the field with his shoulders slumped in defeat. At the end of the third inning, the Cardinals
were winning 10-1. Frank made the
observation that at least in Basketball and Football if you are getting stomped
by your opposition, the clock will eventually run out; in Baseball, an inning
runs as long as it has to.
Frank
held out through the fourth and part way through the fifth innings before he
finally broke down and went to get Nachos.
The salty crunchiness of the chips, combined with the velvety gooiness
of the cheese and tangy jalapenos made the wait worth it. No beer, no pretzels or hotdogs, just Nachos,
that was all that was needed to make that evening complete- especially for
Frank who was more excited to be there than the little kids in the stands with us.
While
it was obvious that the Brewers weren’t going to stage a comeback, we stayed
until the sweet end of the game, complete with fireworks!
In the
end, I am so happy that I invited Frank to share the evening with me. He was an easy companion to talk to and hang
out with, and he was so thrilled to go to the game, that I can’t imagine anyone
else appreciating it more than him.
No comments:
Post a Comment