Take me out to the...

BALLGAME! Take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanut and cracker jacks! I don't care if we never go home, cause it's ROOT, ROOT, ROOT for the HOME TEAM. If they don't win it's a shame! But it's 1, 2, 3 strikes your out at the old BALL GAME!

Unfortuntely for me, I live in Kansas City, home of the Royals. So that means almost every night is a shame. But we can still root for them and enjoy games! This past Tuesday (July 24) was the 24th anniversary of the famous Pine Tar bat incident with George Brett at Yankee Stadium. I got the inside information, you see, George Brett hit a home run that night in 1983, but the Umpire ruled that George Brett had more than the 18" allowed of Pine Tar on his bat and threw Brett out of the game! (I tried to post a video link of the famous scene of Brett rushing the field, but it is under copyright claim to MLB and cannot be duplicated on the web!) The ninth inning had to be replayed a few weeks later, after it was decided that Brett's home run counted.

Side story... On July 24, 1998, which happened to be the 15 year anniversary of the incident, my mom was working at KCI Airport. During a break, she bought the newspaper and was reading the large front page article about the incident, when she looked up into the face of GEORGE BRETT himself!! She was so shocked! She asked him to sign the article, and surprising enough, he did. The autographed article is now framed and hanging on Uncle Eric's bedroom wall...

So of course, when we heard that July 24, 2007 the Royals were playing the Yankees...and that the first 20,000 fans would get commerative T-Shirts for the Pine Tar bat, we decided to go to the game! It was my first ever professional baseball game! Mom bought me a pink Royals outfit just for the occasion! I couldn't wait to go! I piled into the Suburban with Abby, Ben, Mom and Dad to head out to the K. Sadly, the game was sold out and it took us almost 45 minutes just to get into the stadium because of the large crowds, so we didn't get one of the free shirts. But we met up with several friends on the inside include Nate, Dan, Laura, Rachel, Andrew, Julie, Jeremy and Sarah! There were a few others in our group , too, but I didn't know them. I never cried the whole night, I just took in the sights, sounds and smells of the packed stadium!Here are some of my friends.... Laura, Dan and Nate!
More of my friends - Julie, Jeremy and Andrew!
Here's Ben and Dad!

Whoops, my mother sure messed up this photo! I thought she was supposed to be a good photographer! But I do look cute... Laura thought it was funny when Mom showed her on the screen...
And here I am with Mom and Abby!
I was slightly intrigued in the next photo. You see, most men that hold me have some sort of facial hair. So I couldn't resist touching Dan's clean shaven face. It was so smooth and soft.... Watch out Laura, Dan was making googly eyes at me, too! (Or maybe he was imaging that day in March when he'll get to hold his own baby!)Swing batter, batter! Swing! (check it out, you can see the ball!)
The highlight of the evening for me was near the end of the night. I was playing with Nate, when my mom suddenly noticed Slugger about one section over! Slugger is the mascot in case you didn't know. So Nate and Mom made a beeline for him! When he saw me, it was love at first sight! He grabbed me out of my mom's arms and posed for several photos! Then when Mom reached out her arms to take me back, Slugger turned his body away and shook his head at my mom like he was going to take me home to marry him!! Everyone watching cracked up! I love my newest boyfriend. Daphne + Slugger = True Love!

Andrew worded it best though... The 7th inning stretch hit me three innings early. Much earlier than anyone expected, I feel asleep in Abby's arms. I would have liked to stayed awake longer, but sleep overcame all other emotions.

All in all, I had a great time at the game! When can we go again?