Day 1- Cincinnati

        Well Hello World.  This is the official first post of my blog, as well as the conclusion of the first official day of the 2011 BBT.  AKA our baseball tour of 2011.  It started off early this morning at 5:45 when Garrett and I woke up and headed to the Salt Lake Airport.  We took a flight to Denver, where we met up with Eric and then continued onto Dayton, OH, where Taylor picked us up at the airport.  As soon as we got off the plane, I could feel the humidity! This is going to suck if it is always this humid!

Garrett arriving at the Dayton airport

        We then headed to the Jensen residence.  We unpacked the car and ended up playing some arcade style basketball in the basement.  Afterwards, we headed to downtown Cincinnati for the Reds-Rockies game.  Our tickets included passes to the Diamond club buffet dinner before the game, right behind home plate.  It was some pretty good eatin’!  After dinner, we walked out to our seats:  5^th row straight behind homeplate!! They were amazing seats!

Me in Great American Ballpark, just before first pitch.  This picture was taken from our seats.  Great view!

        The game started with cloudy skies, and by the time we got to the middle of the 2^nd inning, Colorado was up 5-3 and it started pouring.  They pulled out the tarps, and the stands cleared.  I stayed out in my seat alone for a few minutes until it got ridiculous, and then they also kicked everyone out, because of lightning being in the area.  At first we were disappointed, but we made the best of the rain delay, and it actually was one of the better parts of the game.  Because of the break in the action, we headed upstairs and took a little self-guided tour of the stadium.  Taylor, who has lived in Cincinnati his whole life and been to many Red’s games, ventured out beyond the outfield wall for the first time!  Even he was able to explore new ground on our tour!  They pulled the tarps off the field and got things ready, and a few minutes before they were going to start, they pulled the tarps back on.  So we waited for another twenty or so minutes.

Garrett being our photographer, and Eric being a Rockies fan!

When the game started back up, the crowd was electric (or buzzed, as many of the people around us would be better described as) after the 90 minute delay, and the reds scored 3 runs that inning to take the lead 6-5.  As the game progressed, the crowd thinned out because it was so late.  We ended up moving up to the third row and enjoying the last couple of innings there, while being entertained by some drunken friends.  Eric was one of maybe 17 Rockies fans in the stadium.  He was hackled, but never too bad.  The worst was probably when the lady next to us took his hat and threw it on the ground. Haha He did well supporting his team, but I probably would have been a little more vocal.  Haha but these drunken friends started trading players from the reds to the rockies and padres (I was wearing my pad’s jersey) and it eventually evolved to trading for retired players, players that have since moved, and even stadium security and team colors were offered! They were funny.  We spent most of the game on TV, but my favorite part would have to be the homer of the game- on the first pitch after we moved to the 3^rd row.  Brandon Phillips blasted a 432 foot shot to left field and you see all of our reactions on sportscenter! Haha. We also made the jumbo-tron between innings dancing with our drunken friends.

Great American Ballpark with the boys

        Colorado won the game 10-7.  It was a very fun game and a good start to the tour!  After the game we headed acrossed the river to Kentucky, for no reason other than to say we were there on the trip.  A HUGE thanks goes to Taylors parents, Nan and Keith (AKA K-Train), for letting us stay with them and for getting us those wonderful tickets and letting us enjoy the ballpark and game with them.  A wonderful start to the tour and hopefully a good sign of things to come over the next couple of weeks!

Game prediction standings:

Eric         1-0

Garrett    0-1

Mitch     0-1

Taylor    0-1

Scoreboard:

Jumbotron appearances: 1

Balls from the game: 0

Promotion items: 0

Car hours: 1

Game hours: 5

Rain delay hours: 1.5

Memorable comments from Drunk or otherwise funny people:

-“ Here we go RA-MON… Janish, pay attention….. actually go sit on the bench”

-“good eyeballs!”

-“crazy 2’s. anything can happen.”

-“It’s rally time! Who’s in? San Diego, you’re in!”

Clapping and cheering excessively after a batter called Timeout and stepped out of the box.

Trade talks:

-“We’ll trade you for….. Jeff Francis for…. Straight up! Just Jeff Francis straight up!”

-“we’ll trade Johnny Gomes for CarGo”

His friend: “Johnny Gomes isn’t even here anymore”

“I know! That’s the best part!”

-“We will trade for the color purple!”

“No we won’t! I don’t want to look like Barney!”

-“Hey… YOU!!! Girl!!”

-“This is incredible! The man is on the phone, while taking a piss! AND the best part is, the other person doesn’t even KNOW!”

-Eric: “Do you have anything healthy? like vegetables??”  Neco: “um, actually, no... no, we don’t.”  …. Eric: ‘How about cocktail oranges then…”