The First Game

What a crazy, busy, and tiring few weeks it has been in the Petersen household. We have just returned from an amazing trip to Alaska and while the memories we have from that trip are some of the best memories of recent time, it was our adventure this past weekend that will go down as one of the most special for me. To say that I am obsessed with the Red Sox might very well be an understatement. We named our dog Roxy, our cat Fenway and I own enough Red Sox shirts to wear one every day for a month and never duplicate. This is a passion that I intend to share with my Son. It is this passion that drove us to drive 4.5 hours to Tampa after a work day, 28.5 hours after we returned from Alaska. We drove to Tampa so we could take Connor to his first ever Boston Red Sox Baseball game.

The Red Sox rarely make it this far south but, thanks to playing in the AL East, make the trip to Tampa to play the Rays several times a year. Every season, I try my hardest to attend at least one game and often Tampa is the easiest due to proximity. However, having a baby is a new factor to consider. Anyway, several months ago, prior to the season even starting, I happened to mention to a family friend, Darlene, that I wanted to come to Tampa to see the Sox. Darlene is the President of the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce and a few days after mentioning this, she sent me an email kindly informing me that she had tickets, as well as accommodations, if we were still interested in coming to a game. Being the die hard fan that I am, nothing was going to keep me from this unexpected treat. Of course, at that time, I failed to realize that we would need to drive the 4 hours to Tampa the day after catching the Red Eye from Anchorage to Chicago, then to Fort Lauderdale…but like I said, Die Hard!

Well, Alaska came and went, and was awesome. I went to work and we were on the road by 6pm. We arrived at our hotel at around 10:30pm and got settled in. Our hotel was nice and we had a balcony that faced the ocean. After breakfast the next morning with Darlene we met with 2 gentlemen who were helping her film a promotion for Clearwater Beach. Darlene had previously asked if Kristin and Connor would mind being in a portion of this video. Of course, they didn’t mind but much to my surprise, the wanted to use all of us. It turned out to be a lot of fun. The shot consisted of Kristin, Connor and I walking along the beach and after a few feet looking up at a parasailer flying over the beach (which will be added at a later date) and wave. It could not have been more perfect. Our little future Oscar winner waved on cue every time. They even filmed a little portion of just Connor sitting in the surf playing with the sand.

After wrapping up the shoot, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the game. Kristin had asked if we could head over early to try and get some autographs. I was skeptical because every stadium handles this differently. I figured it wouldn’t hurt so we packed up and left. The game was scheduled for 4:10 and we arrived at the stadium around 1:50. As we walked towards the stadium doors, it became obvious that the doors were not open yet. This concerned me since it was 95 degrees and extremely humid thanks to recent rain in the area. Thankfully, we only had to wait about 20 minutes for them to open the gates and we immediately walked to the other side of the stadium to the Red Sox dugout. It was amazing. We were able to walk right up behind their dugout and Connor even got to sit on top for a few minutes. As we stood there, we were able to watch the Sox take batting/fielding practice which was a treat. We got to see all our favorites hit. At one point, Connor was playing with his stuffed Red Sox baseball. At this stage, Connor’s favorite game is the throw game. This game basically consists of him throwing anything he can get a hold of and waiting for mommy or daddy to pick it up. Fun for him, annoying for us. Well, at one point, Connor was doing this with his baseball and like the future Shortstop he is, he nicely threw it towards the field resulting in it falling over the edge and into the Sox dugout. Of course, no one on the field saw this happen and we could not get anyone’s attention. We stood there for about 5 minutes or so before several of my favorite players came running into the dugout. Moments later, all we see is Jason Veritek’s (who happens to be one of my all time favorites) hand pop up over the dugout roof and toss our ball. We were so excited. Shortly after, Terry Francona (Red Sox Manager) walked over to the dugout and started telling people to toss their balls, shirts, programs down for him to sign. He looked over at us, saw Connor and asked for his ball which he proudly signed.

About this time, the players finished warm-ups and returned to the clubhouse to finish preparing for the game. We went to our seats which were 4 rows from the field out in right field. These seats were amazing. The game was great. The Red Sox ended up winning 9-5 and hit 3 home runs into our section including one that flew directly over our heads, hit the wall behind us and bounced back over our heads to someone sitting a few rows in front of us.

All in all, I could not have asked for a better weekend. Although I know Connor will not remember any of it, I am excited that one day I will be able to show him his ball and tell him all about his first (hopefully of many) Red Sox games!

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In 9 month news "dada" was finally said and it happened on the way home from the game. He is 29 inches long (90th percentile) and 19.8 lbs (25-50th percentile). His noggin is right on track with his height as well. The doctor couldn't get over how advanced he was, and enjoyed interacting with him while he talked to her, and waved, and clapped, and pulled up, and did just about every trick he knows.