This past Sunday, the Indianapolis Indians hosted Peppa Pig, which I was pretty sure meant we were legally required to bring Beth to the game. Not wanting to be accused to child abuse, I dutifully bought tickets for ourselves, along with my brother's crew and my dad. The day before, the weather reports looked pretty ominous. Warnings of heavy rain and thunderstorms right as the game was supposed to be happening. Still, even as of a few hours before the game was about to go and things were looking pretty wet, the Indians posted everything was still on track. And, as noted on the Indians' website, it isn't unusual for it to be raining in other areas of Indianapolis but be perfectly sunny downtown. Indy is a pretty big place. So, we dutifully drove from Lafayette to downtown Indy to meet up with everyone else. It rained off and on the whole drive down, but it was a downpour when we got to Indy. As luck would have it, we all unknowingly arrived at the parking garage at the same time and all pulled into spots right by each other. Somewhere on the drive down, I realized I had lost my new paper plate, so that was great.* The garage we parked in is catty-corner to the ballpark. From inside the garage, we thought, sure, we'll just run over, pick up tickets from Will Call, then wait things out from the covered concourse. It took maybe a minute of being out in the driving rain for us to decide, "Nevermind, we're crossing the street once to get to the JW and we'll go from there." *I don't know how it works in other states. In Indiana, it used to be that you got a paper plate at the dealer, and then the license branch handed you a new license plate once all the paperwork got through their system. That was probably almost twenty years ago now, though. Now, the dealer still prints off a paper plate, but once you're told to go to the BMV, the BMV prints off yet another paper plate and says you'll get a real plate in the mail sometime in the next two weeks. I'm sure there is a reason for this, but that's asking paper to stay stuck to a vehicle for a long time. It only took that long for us to be absolutely soaked and Beth to start shivering. It took a while for us to come up with a plan, but Indianapolis has done a great job with being an all-weather downtown. So we decided we'd take the skywalks back across to the garage, then over to the convention center (where the Junior Olympic National Gymnastics Champioinships were going on, apparently), and then over to Circle Center Mall to grab something from the food court while we waited out the rain. We did that, and by the time we were done eating, the Indians answered me on Twitter they expected the rain to move out in a half hour or so, and they'd have an updated start time soon after that. Which was just about the right amount of time for us to walk (with two toddlers in tow) back over to the stadium. So we did that, picked up the tickets, and walked around the concourse to find the relocated Peppa booth, which you can see above. Now, let me explain a bit here. This was a big gamble on our part. Beth has not reacted well with any sort of costumed mascot or anything like that in her entire life. She gets really excited to see them from afar, but to start to interact with them? That's always been a really hard NO, complete with hard clinging to us and screaming. So, as Beth was the only kid there to meet Peppa at the start, that was fully the reaction I was expecting as we walked up, especially when she wouldn't get close to Peppa without me holding her. After just a few seconds of wariness, though, Beth thankfully warmed up and got super excited for Peppa and was completely into it. By the time my brother caught up with Quinn, we had reached the point where it was going to be hard to drag Beth away from Peppa. The talked for a while, Beth showed off her Peppa shirt, talked about how she would be watching Peppa later, gave lots of hugs and high-fives. It really ended up being a huge win, and hopefully a turning point for all costumed characters. For the record, Quinn was considerably less excited about Peppa. Apparently she'll have to try again in a couple years. The rest of the game was just a blast. The crowd was awfully sparse, clearly the weather had scared off most of the fans. Even so, the atmosphere was great, and the sparse crowd actually made it easier with Beth, as she could explore the stadium much easier and got to go watch a good chunk of the game right at the wall next to the Norfolk bullpen. The weather actually turned out to be perfect. Just the slightest bit of that post-storm chill on the breezy air and nothing but clear skies while we were actually in the stadium. The game itself went along pretty quick and offered some drama. Norfolk pulled ahead with a three run homer, which Indy countered to tie with their own three-run blast, before Norfolk finally put things away with a big inning late. All of this is a very long-winded way to say that baseball, current warts and all, is still just the perfect summer sport. If baseball is too slow for you to watch on TV, that's a fair enough argument to make. Not one I would defend, but everybody has their tastes. To not enjoy the game in the stadium, though? That is absolutely nuts. Even if you aren't a baseball fan, I don't see how you can't enjoy the stadium. Baseball gives enough breathing room there is time to catch up with those around you while you take in the sun and the scenery. I don't believe it is an accident that baseball stadiums tend to not only have the most scenic views as the outfield opens into whatever city they happen to be located in, but also some of the most interesting architecture as well. I also feel like baseball as a whole puts much more thought and effort into the stadium food and drink than all the other sports. When Chopped had their sports episode, I don't think it was an accident they picked the head chefs at four different baseball stadiums.* *For the record, in order of placing, the chefs came from the Reds (James Major), Rangers (Chris Vazquez), Orioles (Josh Distenfeld), and Cardinals (Jessica Helms). In a bit of added drama, the Cardinals' chef used to work for the Reds' chef, if memory serves. She didn't come particularly close to knocking off her mentor, though. So, I know I've made this plea, but let me make it again. You don't have to break the bank buying tickets to a big league game, although MLB does a good job at keeping tickets relatively affordable. But, for even less, there is very likely to be a minor league park near you for even less money and an even more family-friendly atmosphere. You really can't go wrong, and your soul will thank you, too. Comments are closed.
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