FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Tyson Whipple and his friends Jake and Rookie are on a nine day, nine ballpark trip – with plans of sleeping in their Toyota Corolla and eating peanut butter sandwiches. Tyson will be blogging about his trip daily.

Day 3

5:30 AM. Trust me on this: if you’re sleeping in your car, there’s no better location than a Target parking lot. It’s very well lit and is spacious enough to see potential attackers from afar. Yes, this is what three nights in a car does to you.

9:00 AM. McDonalds is currently peddling a new Southern chicken sandwich for breakfast and lunch. Today we received a free sandwich with the purchase of a med drink. SCORE!

10:00 AM. After an almost free breakfast we head to Marshalls because Jake only brought shorts – and now it’s freezing. He is looking for a cheap pair of sweats and it just so happens I find the only pair left in the store and buy them right out from under him for seven bucks. He has no other option but two buy some really questionable blue pants for twice the cost!

11:30 AM. We arrive at Progressive Field and to my surprise it is located just 20 feet from Quicken Loan Arena – very much like the stadiums for the Saints and Hornets in New Orleans. I really like that easy access for the city. The stadium is okay, the field is just okay and even though it’s a noon game on a Thursday, the fans were just okay. The stadium was maybe at half capacity and that was partly due to a kids promotion day. Indians’ starter Aaron Laffey pitched well, but he broke up the umpteen scoreless innings streak with a throwing error to first.

After every inning, woman-magnet Grady Sizemore would throw his between-inning-toss ball into the stands. The two kids behind us were more than happy to tell Grady he sucked because he didn’t throw a ball to them. Well, before the eighth inning, Grady threw the ball directly at me. I simply reached out and grabbed it – over a mom and her girl. The girl then says, “Hey Ranger dude, can I have your ball?” I, of course, am wearing my Texas hat.

I responded to her rudeness by calmly saying, “Don’t you think if Grady liked you, he would have thrown the ball to you? I’m not even an Indians fan and he threw me one.” The crowd instantly turned on me, and the bleacher drunk screamed, “How do you sleep at night.” I responded with a “I sleep on a big bag of baseballs that I stole from little kids.”

Half the crowd busted into laughter, with the other half calling for my head. The girl calls me a jerk, and uses some other choice words. What happened to parenting? Even though that rude little girl didn’t go to school today, she still got taught a real life lesson in supply and demand.

We’re staying tonight at the Marriott. The hot tub was great. On to Cincy.