We arrived in plenty of time, so I let him finish his nap. When he woke up, we took off for the stadium. As we were heading for our seats, a stadium employee gave us some tattoos.
We got to our seats before the game started so we were able to hang out at the fence and watch the players warm up. We were on the visitors side - the Colorado Rockies - and as we were watching the pitchers warm up, the pitchers coach seemed to zero in on Ryder and approached us with a baseball in his hand. He proceeded to say "hi" to Ryder and gave him the ball! Ryder said thanks and the coach went back to his business.
We went back to our seats as the game started. It was a great game and Ryder was into it and a good sport. In/around the 3rd inning, as the teams were switching from offense to defense, I sent Ryder down to the gate to watch. Again, one of the Colorado players seemed to zero in on Ryder. As I watched him approach, there was a line of kids, Ryder being the youngest, and the player was looking at Ryder. As I watched, I thought - "he's gonna throw the ball to Ryder and Ryder won't be able to catch it". So I hustled down to him and made eye contact with the player. He saw that i was Ryders dad and tossed me the ball. I gave it to Ryder and thanked the player. As Ryder and I walked back up to our seats, some of the fans were watching and one guy gave Ryder a high-five. So, on Ryders 1st day at a MLB game, he got 2 baseballs!
The game was long, but great! The Padres were up 11 to 7 in the 7th inning. The Rockies loaded the bases up and then got a home run/grand slam to tie it up! When they tied it up, i was like... "this can NOT go into extra innings", because Ryder was growing inpatient. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the Padres got 2 guys on base and another guy hit a walk off single to end the game!!!!
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=24842771
After the game, I took Ryder to run the bases! The Padres do a special thing where they allow kids to get on the field and run the bases. He did great! He was super brave - cuz I couldn't go on the field with him - and he ran the bases like a pro because Coach Jeremy taught him how. As he got to home base, I could see the beginnings of panic in his face as he struggled to find me, but i callled him, he saw me and all was well.
It was a fantastic day and you really could not ask for a better 1st father/son day at the ballpark than today.
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Location:Via Venzia,San Diego,United States
