The Opener - Yes, I Was there!

Yes, I made it in. It was was more a hope, than a plan, and Karma has a way of paying you back, in this case, in a positive way.

I did work my full day, trading EMails with my good friend the Doctor. He was tapped to entertain some brokers, and I was jealous. The plan was for me to go home after work, lay the tile trim on the bottom of the tub so it could cure, and then meet up with Doc after the game at Rock.

The tiling went quick, and I found myself venturing downtown around 4:15. There was no rush hour traffic to speak of, unusual for this time of day during the week. I decided to go straight to the stadium, to experience the ambiance and see if there was some cheap seats available now that the game was well on its way.

There was quite the crown outside the stadium, peering through the Home Run Deck (left), and as expected not a tick in site or a scalper in view. I did a complete walk around, but all I got out of that was some good exercise. I opted to go back to the Home run deck and wait it out. In the past they would lighten up around the 7th inning stretch and I felt that was by best chance to get in for a peek at the ball park. It was about the 5th inning, and then it happened.

A couple came walking out of the gate and the lovely lady fanned a pair of tickets: "Would you like these" as she looked at me.

I smiled and said, "sure".

I tucked these souvies into my pocket to put on my ticket wall in the garage. I was certain they were their tickets, that they didn't need anymore and thought nothing of it. It wasn't a few seconds later I felt a tap on the shoulder, it was her again.

"You know, those tickets have never been used"

"WOW, really?!? I said as she smiled and walked away

Now I didn't know what to think, but worst case scenario is that security at the gate could do nothing more than tell me "nice try" if they didn't work, so to the gate I went.

I was greeted with a "How are you doing" and my response was "We'll see in a moment"

Hitting my ticket with the scanner he then looked up and said "You're good to go, to which I replied, and now I ma GREAT!

I was handed a Homer Hanky, an official certificate of attendance to the inaugural opener and there I stood, in awe, of the new facility. I couldn't believe my luck and took advantage of my new found success by doing a complete lap around the inside of the ball park. First I went to my actual seats (right), just in time to witness Kubel's Home run, the first ever at the park. I was sitting right under Minne and Paul, so say the light show, significantly washed out by the bright sun, but I was there.

After the inning was complete I walked along the back deck and purchased my first Big Dog (left, yes, the actual dog I bought), the Dome Dog replacement. It was big and yummy!

I continued my loop, eventually settling into a a seat on the aisle up from the visitors' dugout on the 3rd base line. Here I watched Jon Rauch complete the close (right), of the first ever regular season game at Target Field.

All the pics I took can be found here. All I had on me was my Samsung Instinct Cell phone, but not bad I guess.

I win for the ages, a ball park for the fans, and the time of my life, that just fell into my lap, totally unexpected. I think it was Karma payback for giving up my Spring Break to work on the bathroom . . . or just blind luck!

Flash

PS: As for the Doc, he had a problem with his tickets and went through the other extreme, an almost there but unable to get in situation. He'll have to tell that story