The small white sphere against the twilight blue sky was centered in my vision and falling in what seemed like a direct trajectory towards my head. I threw up my arms and watched through squinted eyes as the ball glanced off the arm of a man in the row in front of us and bounced with great force off of the back of a stadium seat a few yards away. My heart was pounding. I have never been hit in the head with a baseball. I had been hit twice with an aluminum baseball bat, but both times swung by a third grader and never at my head. I had been hit several times in the head with a basketball--one time it broke my glasses. I had no desire to find out what it felt like to be beaned in the head by a baseball. Fortunately no one was hurt. Earlier in the same game, a young woman sitting in the section in front of us was hit directly in the chest. I can only imagine what that felt like.
Last Saturday, Rob and I went to our first I-cubs (the minor league farm team for the Chicago Cubs) game. Neither of us are baseball fans but aside from the near close encounter of the baseball kind, we had a good time. We got free tickets (from Rob's work for JDRF) to their game against the Memphis Redbirds. The first half of the game was pretty uneventful. By the 6th inning the I-cubs were down 3-0, but the Redbirds' pitcher was getting tired. He walked 2 players and allowed a 3rd base hit to load the bases. With only one out in the inning, we were hoping for someone to score...but we were suprised by a home run into right field--a Grand Slam! Even though the I-cubs did eventually lose...they played a good second half of the game and went into an extra inning. Rob and I both decided it would be more fun to come back when the Sioux Falls or Fargo teams were in town.
I put a few pictures of our evening up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157617877851027/
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