July 1, 2010

Boys of Summer

I have debated taking Lil Sippy Cup to a Major League Baseball game for quite a while now.

I have computed the obvious "cost vs. benefit" analysis and the numbers never really made sense.  Plus, I wasn't too sure if his sporadic attention span would be able to handle 3 hours of America's favorite pastime.

Thankfully, his mother came up with an astonishingly brilliant solution: tickets to a Minor League Baseball game.

The Brooklyn Cyclones (the Class A minor league team for the New York Mets) play in a gorgeous beach-front stadium which is just a short drive away from us.  MCU Park has a comfortable seating capacity of 7500 which pretty much guarantees that every seat will provide a great view of the game.

As it turns out, last night was "Thomas & Friends Night", celebrating the 65th anniversary of the talking engine.  In recognition of this fact, the kids in attendance were provided the opportunity to walk onto the field, to the position of their choice, in order to sing the National Anthem.  This, however, would be done without the assistance of their parents.  Or of any adult for that matter.

For some reason, I thought Lil Sippy Cup would be intimidated by having to walk out onto a baseball field by himself.  Nevertheless, when we asked him if he was interested in taking part, he enthusiastically said "Yes!"

We walked onto the field, let go of his hand, held our breaths and, while all the other little kids ran to the various positions around the diamond in small clusters, Lil Sippy Cup walked, by himself, to the middle of nowhere in center field.  He probably would have kept on walking right to the warning track if I hadn't finally caught up with him as the Anthem came to an end. 

Needless to say, he thought it was hilarious.  The stadium staff and the ball players agreed with him and congratulated him for his obvious bravery and innocent sense of humor as we ran back into the stands.

We spent the rest of the late afternoon watching the game, eating hot dogs and catching imaginary foul balls.

He loved every minute of it.

It might not have been a Major League game but I think being able to walk onto the field trumps any memory a professional club's stadium could have offered.

More pictures after the jump.  Enjoy.


When you are walking into a baseball stadium and you find an inspiring statue of Brooklyn Dodger greats Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, you know you're in for a great night of baseball.




Lil Sippy Cup made a lot of friends on the field, including the Brooklyn Cyclone's mascot Sandy the Seagull.




The seats were pretty damn awesome...


...and close enough so that you could make believe you were going to catch a foul ball.


Lil Sippy Cup was focused on the game...


...but eventually decided he wanted to go exploring...


...and that's when we found these carnival games in a remote corner of the stadium dubbed "Kids Zone". 
The overall madness of the atmosphere appealed to his lunatic sensibilities.




He worked up quite an appetite at the carnival games...


...and was richly rewarded.


He's such a meatatarian.  The caveman in me is immensely proud.


Even while eating his meal, he kept an eye on the game.



After the feast, we walked around the stadium a bit more and enjoyed the sights.





Eventually, the night came to an end.
And we were able to add another successful adventure to our book.

1 comment:

brick said...

This is what summer is all about. A-ball is so much more enjoyable because of all the things you listed...and of course Thirsty Thursday!