At the beginning of September, Tammy asked me if I wanted to do a minor leave baseball game before the season ends. I told her that would be fun and added that I haven't been to a Tacoma Rainiers game since 2019, when my Mom's office went. It's always a good time. She mentioned that she remembered me talking about it when we "went" to work. I even told her back then that the next time they plan it, I was going to invite her to go with us. But then, 2020 and Covid happened, and we never did it again.
She replied back to me with cool, it's on me. She said that she would check the schedule and get back to me. I added that pretty much any day works except for a few weekends because they already have plans attached to them. She went on to tell me that she had a great time with her other friends when she went earlier that summer, but they chat and drink a lot and didn't pay too much attention to the game at all. She wanted to watch a game with someone who wasn't going to do that and actually pay attention. She said when we do go, she was going to buy herself a hat or shirt because she wanted to support the team.
I told her that when I spend money to go to a game, a concert or other event that I pay attention and stay to the end. I told her the story of the last time we went to a Rainier's game back in May 2019. Doug's unhinged girlfriend, Jenn, drank way too much (she should not have been drinking in the first place) and was embarrassing us so Mom asked Doug to take her home. You could tell by Doug's face, he was mortified.
Tammy said she was excited to go and have a beer and a hotdog. I told her it was definitely going to be a good time. She texted me her address again (even though I already had it from sending her a Christmas card) just so there weren't any unknowns, or I got lost or something driving to her house. I never looked to see where her house actually was and it was literally a street down from Gonyea Park, where my brother used to play baseball when he was in middle school.
About a week or so after she invited me, she said that she found a day that would work and bought tickets. The day she picked was September 21st. I found this hilarious because that was the only day during the week, I had something scheduled to go to. I didn't have to go to the Geocaching Community Event but still, I found it funny. I told her as long as the weather was nice.
**Update: Our summer lasted until mid-October-ish.**
The day of, I made sure I had everything at lunch time so I could just log off when 4:00 hit. I was lucky it was a pretty easy going Wednesday so my afternoon wasn't hurried. I logged off exactly at 4 p.m. and left with my wallet, phone, mitt and a couple of warm clothes just in case it got cool outside. You never know in the Pacific Northwest next to the Puget Sound. I wanted to leave as soon as possible because I had no idea what traffic would be like on I-5 northbound. I was hoping it wasn't that bad because it was the middle of the week. I plugged her address into Nuvi and headed out.
I got onto I-5 north bound and I did not have any trouble getting to the exit I needed. It was a little slow merging onto 512 but I didn't have to do anything because I was getting off at Steele St. The exit was congested, and I had to wait a few lights to turn left on to Steel St. I then turned left again on the Spanaway Loop Road and followed Nuvi to her house. I saw the yellow house with the green Subaru parked in the front.
She had me come in, I met her dogs and cats, she gave me a tour of the house and we got ready to head to Cheney Stadium to watch Rainiers take on the Round Rock Express out of Texas at 6:05. I know I have never seen this team out of Texas play before. I've only been here a handful of times since 2007 and have seen the Reno Aces. Alburquerque Isotopes, the Sacramento River Cats and the Salt Lake City Bees. We hopped into the Subaru, and she wanted to drive down the side streets to avoid Hwy 16. I didn't blame her. I navigated her down to the stadium and into the main parking lot. We did have to pay to park, which wasn't that much.
We found a place to park, made sure we had everything and walked to the front of the stadium. Tammy had our tickets scanned, we grabbed a free DIRT program, and she immediately went into the gift shop to find a hat or a shirt. I really didn't need anything since the last time we were here, we got free Rainier hats. She ended up choosing a hat. After that, we hit up the concession stand, she got her hotdog, kettle corn and beer, and I got a hotdog and a Coke Zero. We went up to our seats, which weren't that bad.
We ate, chatted and waited for it to start. We stood for the National Anthem and watched the ball game. It was warm evening and a great night for some minor league baseball. We finished our food before the first pitch was thrown. We got on the board first at the bottom of the 1st inning. I was hoping that would set the tone for the rest of the game. Sadly, it didn't.
At the top of the 3rd inning, the Express rocked our pitcher...base hit after base hit. They found the holes in our outfield. They ran up the score 4-1. It was still early in the game, and we could come back easily if our bats woke up.
Debbie saw that I posted that we were at the game and asked how we were doing since the minor league games aren't televised. I told her we were not winning but the game was still young. It's baseball and it can change at an instant. They brought in another in the top of the 5th and we drove in another one at the bottom of the 7th, just after we sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
The 8th inning was scoreless and then they scored one more at the top of the 9th to make it 6-2. It was getting pretty hopeless. I told Tammy we would need a bunch of base hits, or some doubles or even a few home runs with people on to make this happen in our favor. We hit a solo home run to make it 6-3. I went through the scenarios in my head on how we could win it. It literally came down to the perfect storybook ending. The visitor's loaded the bases with 2 outs. I could not believe it was actually unfolding. All we needed was a walk off grand slam. Would it happen?
They changed pitchers, he warmed up with a few pitches and a right-handed batter stood in the box ready to go. I told Tammy, if the first pitch was down the middle, I would take it. With one out and three on, the batter launched it over the left field fence. IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!! WE WON ON A WALK OFF GRAND SLAM! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!
I stood there stunned. I told Tammy, we went to one heck of a game, didn't we? She said, we sure did! We stayed for a couple minutes while the fireworks exploded in the distance. We gathered our stuff and headed back out to the car. We took the same roads back to her house. It didn't take very long to get back. She gave me a tour of her backyard while she let her dogs out, we chatted with the neighbor for a few minutes and then it was time to go home because we still had to go to work the next day. I told her thank you, that it was fun and we should do something like it again soon. She agreed.
I headed home and arrived around 10ish. I got in a quick shower and quickly got ready for bed.
Go Rainiers!
Next Adventure: Dad's Birthday
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