The Game I missed.

On Saturday night we decided to catch the game at Petco Park. In theory the Padres are a contender in a pennant race and it's a new park so we decided that it would be a fun thing to do while we were down in San Diego.

It's a really nice park. They have a park beyond center field where the kids can play baseball or soccer. They have a small beach pit in right field where you can bring a beach chair and put your feet in the sand. They have an old brick building in left field that serves as the foul pole, a tribute to yesteryear, and a restaurant where they can gouge the fans. It's one of the new facilities where reaching your seat is like climbing Mount Shasta but there really isn't a bad view in the whole park.

There is a small corner by the brick building where you can stand on field level, yell at the left fielder and watch the game for a while. It was really neat because as we were standing there someone hit a home run right over our heads. We were having a good time. The wife said she'd like to see a Grand Slam sometime. Her friend and I explained to her that Grand Slams were pretty rare and that might be a bit to ask for.

Now to the real story about my trip to the ballpark. It was a 5-0 game with the Nationals easily ahead. The Padres had only scraped together 3 hits all night. After the 8th inning, the Wife said, "Let's go." In my lifetime, I can't remember ever leaving a ballgame early. Yes, I've left after the 3rd quarter of a Niners game, but I'm not a real fan of the Niners anyway. There just seems to be something indecent about leaving early. It's like leaving before the final act of a play or the last scene of a movie.

Every true fan watches the end of the game thinking, okay, there's only one out left, but my team might still come back. I believe.

But the wife isn't a real baseball fan, and the game wasn't moving. Somehow, I let her talk me into leaving early. We watched 3 more outs and left in the middle of the 9th. It looked like the game was over and the Padres were toast.

It turns out that the Padres came back to tie the game on a Grand Slam in the 9th. Then they went on to win the game in the bottom of the 12th on a 3 run homer. We missed all of it.

My wife now knows that if she ever goes to another baseball game with me, she is staying until the very last out, even if the score is 20-1, it's raining and we're past midnight. She'll just have to stay and watch.