On Baseball and Young Love

This past week, the latest baseball season came to a close in the worst way possible for a Red Sox fan – with a Yankees win.  My husband brought my daughter to her very first game a few weeks ago, and I was reminded of the first Red Sox game I went to, back when I was 23. It was not where you’d expect – instead of Fenway Park, my first Red Sox game was viewed at the old Kingdome, where the Seattle Mariners played.

I was temporarily living in Seattle, and had met a guy, who was the friend of a friend.  We’d hung out a lot one night when we were out with a group, and I liked him.  He liked baseball.  So, I did what any girl in her early 20s would do when she was interested in someone.  I got a “group” of people together to go to the game and invited him (it ended up being him, his roommate, my friend, and me).

He sat next to me (a good sign, of course, right?), and we talked the whole game.  He told me all about the Seattle players (A-Rod, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr), and the Red Sox players (Mo Vaughn and a bunch of others I don’t remember).  We had awful seats (not much of a budget at 23 years old!), but it was still fun.

There was also a really surprising moment for me.  At one point, a young boy sat down next to him, and my “date” started chatting with him.  I’d never really thought about wanting kids (I was way too focused on my upcoming career), but at that moment, I remember thinking my crush was just perfect, because he was so good with kids.  I could actually see him bringing his children – our children (yes, it was a BIG crush), to a baseball game in the future.

And that surprised me.  It was never a criteria for dating someone before.

I’ve been a Red Sox fan for 12 years now (Yikes!).  And, the guy?  Well, he took his daughter to her first game a few weeks ago. She had a blast!  How do I know?  Well, she said to me, “Mommy, I had SO MUCH FUN with Daddy!!!”.