You sit in the hot sun for five hours or so, at the mercy of vendors hawking $8 bottles of water, surrounded by obnoxious old men sauced up on Budweiser, and the players scratch, spit and generally just hang out on the field before you not doing much of anything to capture my interest.
Fast forward to Sam's birthday this year, though.
Sam has recently become baseball's Number One Fan. Something clicked with him while playing for the HPBC U-7 Athletics this spring. He's obsessed with it. He has encyclopedic knowledge of the players in his burgeoning baseball card collection, and he even starts his day with "Sports Center".
So when Joel found information about birthday parties at Principal Park, we signed up faster than you can say "Babe Ruth".
Sam invited three four of his best little buddies. Everyone received a genuine Iowa Cubs cap, free reign of the jungle gym on the first base concourse, hot dogs, popcorn, soda, and Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Sam had his smiling grin displayed on the Jumbotron during the seventh inning stretch. And fireworks from the center field line topped it all off after the game.
One of Sam's buddies looked up at me as we were heading home and declared, "I will never forget this night for the rest of my life!"
Enough said.
Those people certainly know what they're doing. Did I mention I HATE baseball? Not anymore. After seeing the game through a true fan's eyes, I have an entirely new appreciation for the sport.
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