2749 - Baseball story

With the Cardinals in the playoffs it got me thinking about baseball. Not the Cardinals, but the Gateway Grizzlies.

I'd been to a game with friends a few years back. It's a different atmosphere at a smaller ballpark. You are much closer to the action.

I had walked from the bleachers down to the concession stand behind home plate. I got myself a hotdog and a beer. Then I walked up and stood behind the first level of seats to watch the game for a few seconds before heading back to my seat. I was at the orange X. It's about ten rows off the field.

Just then the batter popped a ball almost straight up. Probably a hundred feet up. I'm standing there watching the ball peak and start to drift back. Now I've played enough ball in my life to know where a ball like that is going. It was coming down right to me. I wasn't even going to have to move.

Remember, I just came from the concession stand. So I look down at my hotdog in one hand and my beer in the other. Then I look back up at the ball. Yep it's coming right to me. Then I look at the hotdog and beer again and think, 'I paid ten bucks for this stuff and I don't need a minor league baseball for my collection'.

So I took one step to my left and wham, the baseball hits right where I was standing, bounces off the back of the seats and flies off down the promenade. Some kid got the ball and I saved ten bucks. I have my priorities.