Road Trip to San Jose-Saturday

                                                                   Road Trip To San Jose-Saturday

     

          Arriving at Municipal Stadium a week ago last Saturday, forty-five minutes before game time, Annie and I continued our epic road trip, finally reaching the apex of the journey with the San Jose Giants versus Bakersfield Blaze game.  We had rendezvoused with Melissa out front, finally meeting one of two individuals instrumental in keeping me on board, while I figured out the technology associated with posting my articles on Around the Foghorn.

Melissa had been the one who originally organized for the staff writers to meet together for the baseball game, and had rented a special party deck, which was then cordoned off for the sixteen members of our group.  We had our very own waitperson, who introduced herself as Vanessa, so we didn’t even have to fetch our barbecued meal or our glasses of wine.

Upon meeting Melissa, we had also been introduced to Alex, her husband who also wrote for ATF.  Alex knew the ropes so we accompanied him to the spot and basked in the late afternoon, April sunlight, 66 degrees on the stadium thermometer when we first arrived.  it would get chillier later on as it got dark and the breeze picked up, but for the most part, it was ideal.  Alex entertained us until game time as some of the others began to arrive.

Our party deck was directly adjacent to the area behind third base.  We were very much in range of heat-seeking foul balls.  Indeed, though I paid pretty close attention, I did get surprised by a screamer that bounced once on the track and hurtled past, directly to my left.  Instinctively I reached out my left-or throwing-arm in an effort to deflect it past the person who was standing directly in its path.  I did succeed in making contact with the ball, or at least my ring and pinkie fingers made contact.  My gallant effort had no discernible effect on the trajectory of the ball.  

Now, ten days after the fact, the numbness in my fingers has diminished, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I regain full use of both.  As far as the person to my left is concerned, she was paying attention, and did nothing more than lean deftly back and allow the ball to make its way to empty area behind the deck, unimpeded by any effort on her part.  Smart gal!

Annie and I met Dee, the second editor at ATF, who like Melissa, had taken pieces of my writing, formatted them, inserted pictures, and posted them on ATF, so that I could contribute before I had been able to complete the tech component.  I have always thought it was very generous of both of them, in terms of time.  Ultimately, the goal was to get me through the tech process and it worked to perfection.

We also met Chris, one of our ATF writers, who had come from Toronto for a week of SF Giants baseball, and who had just come down the peninsula from the Giants/Tribe game earlier in the day.  With the Giants having taken the second of the three-game series, our group was especially jovial. 

Now we enjoyed a fun ballgame as backdrop, while we chatted about all things ATF-related, and lots of things that were not.  We exchanged baseball philosophy, took some pics, and talked a little treason.  There were two beverages included in the price of the tickets, and Annie and I chose to imbibe in the proffered zinfandel.  Figuring that we had walked to the stadium and were returning to our room in the same manner, we would splurge.

Though it had occurred to me in the weeks preceding the event, that I might have picked their brains for a little tech assistance, I had also realized that I would never be able to function in that capacity, while in that environment.  When I had traveled to Redding to get Jack to tutor me, everything had been perfect, with no distractions and no unreasonable expectations.

So we kept it totally social and had an unequivocally enjoyable time, cementing relationships that up until this evening, had been like the publication itself-cyber space only.  Attaching personalities to the already-familiar faces, in the arena that we all enjoyed, was as easy as it was to share our enjoyment of the Orange and Black.

I would like to report that the San Jose Giants were successful that evening, but unfortunately, though it was a close game, Bakersfield scored one in the eighth and one in ninth to tie it, and then three in the top of the tenth to eventually win, 6-3.  

It just goes to show you can’t win ‘em all, but it does give us a good reason to get together again for a similar party.  After all, winning isn’t everything; good company is.  When you put them together you get nothing but great success.