[Summer To Do List]: o10. Go to a baseball game – CHECK!

See: “[List]: The Quintessential ‘This-Is-What-I-Want-To-Do-This-Summer’ List!”

  • o10. Go to a baseball game (edmonton capitals website)

    Last summer Edmonton’s baseball team was renamed the Edmonton Capitals and heavy advertising started to try and get people to come out to the baseball games! I’ve started seeing those familiar billboards popping up around the city again (“HAVE A BALL FOR JUST $10!”) and I have to say, I really would love to go to my very first baseball game! The first game starts June 1st and I think even going to the first game would be quite an experience. I am not a very sports-y person but I do have good times watching sporting events with friends and I think i’d quite enjoy watching baseball live, even though watching it on TV is fairly boring.

  • I went to my very first baseball game Saturday night! It was the Edmonton Capitals vs. Maui Na Koa Ikaika and I had so much fun!! We got there about twenty minutes before the game was scheduled to start. I’d never driven to Telus Field before and it’d been a long time since Mike had been there so we didn’t really know the best parking place and we ended up parking three blocks away when we realized after that we could have parked right across the street from the field, (Lot 1) doh!

    Now I had been seeing baseball game billboards and hearing ads about the games on the radio so regularly the past couple weeks that finally I got Mike (and our friends Paul and Sam) to come out to this particular one for mostly one extra special reason — apparently Saturday games are called “Saturday Night Movie” where after the game they throw up a big screen right in the middle of the field and play a movie for free! Put that together with cheap tickets and we were sold! We got box seats (sounds cooler than it actually is) and the game started off with a home run for Maui, dang! And that pretty much set the stage for the rest of the game, the Capitals did not do very well so for my very first time actually seeing them play, they didn’t make the greatest impression!

    Despite the lack of Capitals’ stellar performance on the one night I choose to watch them play (I heard they did a lot better the night before though!), I still had a blast!!!! It’s just something about being outdoors beneath bright blue skies and a shining sun on a summer day just spending time with friends, cheering every once in awhile, boo-ing every once in awhile, and buying snacks and food that’s really not healthy for you on a Saturday night that is just undeniably fun! I wasn’t drinking that night (designated driiiver!), but I was still highly satisfied in the food and beverage department. I ended up going through two diet pepsis, potato chips, two sets of nachos, a LOT of popcorn and a perogie dog!

    Unfortunately I was stupid because the perogie dogs are supposed to come with potatoes, onions bacon and sour cream and the potatoes are kind of shaved like hashbrowns but I didn’t realize! I thought they were onions and I hate onions so I scraped off all of the “onions” and then realized that they were actually hashbrowns. A ruined perogie dog. It was really just a bun, wiener and bacon, lol. Still satisfactory. The potato chips were delicious though! They reminded me of the cactus cut potatoes from Boston Pizza (quite possibly my favourite appetizer EVER. Okay, not ever, but definitely my favourite appetizer from Boston Pizza.)

    And a Capitals game recap is not complete without mention of their mascot – Frazzle the Roadrunner! I definitely don’t think Frazzle looks like a roadrunner. My friend Sam and I had to ask him what he was and since mascots can’t speak, he ended up doing charades to tell us what he was! ha ha. We got a picture with Frazzle. I asked him if it was air-conditioned in the suit, which made everyone laugh. It was a genuine question! It made me think of when I was in California last summer and there were people in costumes in Hollywood on the walk of fame — it gets soo hot I just can’t imagine being out there is worth it if it’s not air conditioned inside the suit or something!

    But overall the baseball experience was great. I learned about balls and strikes and outs. I learned about home runs and how to tell when a ball is likely going to be caught. I sang that famous baseball chant that everyone seems to know the general tune of. Mike and Paul reminisced about when they used to play baseball and other baseball stories. I talked about how in Elementary School we used to play chinese baseball with the giant red rubber ball. We were also encouraged to “clap out” players on the Maui team but I really don’t understand how clapping makes the person screw up it just feels like we are cheering for him!

    The after-game movie (Shrek) was pretty sweet. There was a fairly big crowd of families/teenagers/kids present and a lot of people went to get lawn chairs and blankets (my group included). We only had one blanket though and it was definitely not enough to keep us all warm! I’m pretty sure Mike and I both got sick because of not being adequately dressed for the chilly nighttime weather. As the movie went on and the weather got cooler more people picked up and left. Finally we left too just before Fiona arrived in Duloc. I have never watched a movie outside before! I know that there are a few outdoor movies during the summer that play in Churchill Square in Edmonton but I’ve never gone and I had actually meant to put that on my summer to do list too but forgot. Still, great experience, despite leaving early. I had a great night out and a great experience. I would recommend a Capitals’ game (or any baseball game outing) to anyone looking for a good summertime outing with friends. It was so fun and I think great memories have come out of it.

    I also installed a gallery plugin to WordPress (finally!) so I can now post fuller-sized photos in gallery-format in my posts! Here are a few of the pictures I posted throughout this blog but in big form, plus a few others. I know it also says View in PicLens or whatever, I’m trying to get rid of that but don’t know how yet. It looks better going through the slideshow normally, NOT through PicLens!! Like I said, I only just installed the plugin and I haven’t had time to go through it and customize and figure things out so I’m sure my future galleries will be a bit better! ;)

    June 5, 2010 – Edmonton vs. Maui!

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