Yesterday, I made my first trip up to GABP for the season and I thought I would share some thoughts on my trip and experience. I’ll do this in a Chad’s Titanic Struggle style recap!
Positives
– The Reds won. I don’t care what the situation is or at what juncture in the season we are in, anytime I go to a game and the Reds win, it’s a positive. The club went 5-1 in games I attended live last season and are 1-0 this season. Hey Reds, how about making it easier for me to attend more games in person! 😉
– I took my dad and my 4-year old son. I have taken my son to plenty of games already, but this was really the first one in which he was old enough to really know what was fully going on and would remember what happened. He talked about it the whole way home and loved his Brandon Phillips gold glove that he got as a give away. It had been about 3 years since my dad attended a game and, despite his crankiness, he enjoyed spending time with his grandson at a game.
– The weather was beautiful. The temperature was probably low-80s with a nice breeze/wind the whole time.
– Our seats were great! I am nearly convinced that the 400 level is about as good as you can get at GABP for the price. The seats were $22 (minus half for two-others thanks to the family day discount) and we had a great view. We sat just to the right of the ‘gap’ in the stadium on the homeplate side and could see everything great.
– I have admitted to having a man-crush on Votto and yesterday just supported that cause!
– Jay Bruce! Enough said! After his first homerun of the game, my son was alive and watching the whole game.
Negatives
– The weather was too beautiful. Is that possible? Well, I have concluded that I have a better tolerance for heat than anyone else in my family. My dad was ready to find shade before the game started and my son complained at times about being hot. Both left in the 3rd and 7th innings to find shade. Granted we aren’t from the midwest where things will get even hotter as summer approaches.
– The drive to Cincinnati for me is long! We woke up on Sunday at 6:30 and drove for 4 hours up, and then 4 hours back just to see the game. For me, it is worth it. But it makes for a rough Monday morning at work.
– The scoreboard is nice, but busy! I love the clarity of the new scoreboards, but to me, it was really hard to take it all in. You have both teams listed, the player’s image, game stats, bio, and line score on the main board. Then on one of the lower strips you have the batter’s season stats along with the pitcher’s stats. On the wall, you have the out of town scoreboard which no longer shows you all the games at once. You have to look at the right time to catch the score of another out of town game.
– My son was glad David Ross hit a homerun. My son is still confused as to how players move from team to team. Not to mention the Braves are his #2 team since he was a member of the Braves T-Ball team last season in our hometown. I had to put a stop to that and coach my own team this year so he could be on the Reds!
Etc
– I plan on making the long drive back up to Cincinnati for the May 9 game against the Cardinals. It is Joey Votto Bobblehead day. Did I mention my man-crush?