Mom: The Crushers are playing in the championship game in St. Louis tonight. They lost 2 games and then won 2 games. This is the final game. You should go, you might be the only Crushers fans there.
Me: They're playing against the Gateway Grizzlies? I thought the Grizzlies were done. (The Grizzlies' stadium is on the IL side of St. Louis like us)
Mom: No, they're playing the River City Rascals
Me: Oh, that's WAAAAAAAAAAAY on the other side.
Mom: It would still be fun
Me: (I was about to give an excuse based on our evening obligations when it occurred to me that we had no obligations. The girls had already done their homework, completed their nightly reading, and practiced the piano. It was not a Activity Day week and the lawn was mowed. There were no PTO meetings or Enrichment activities. I had already worked out. I was dreading making dinner so sandwiches en route to a game sounded pretty appealing. My husband loves baseball so I knew he'd jump on board pretty quickly)
Maybe we will go.
At this point I was already online seeing exactly how far the other stadium was while I finished talking to my mom. I called Jared as soon as I hung up with her. After a few minutes of discussion (mostly because we're not spontaneous people and it felt strange to do something so last minute) Jared ordered the tickets (around 5:35) and packed up to drive home from work. By 6:10, when he pulled in the driveway, the kids were all in the car wearing sweat suits so they could sleep in them if we got home too late. I was waiting complete with sandwiches, chips, and drinks for all. The drive ended up being a little under an hour.
The beginning of the game wasn't looking so good for the Crushers. But, we were amazed to see a whole section of Crusher fans there. Our tickets, unfortunately, were smack in the middle of Rascal territory. The people in the seats in front of us and next to us failed to notice our Crusher attire and were having fun interacting with the kids. Then came our 7 run 4th inning. At this point we could finally start cheering. Our "neighbors" turned around in horror to discover we were in fact Crushers fans. I was nervous that our restless kids might not be as cute as they had been before the discovery of our loyalties. I was trying extra hard to keep them quiet and seated. In the end, Jacob, who can charm anyone, had them all eating out of his hand. The girls are pretty good at charming also. The lady in front of us even gave them her souvenir cowbell. Although, that may have been more revenge than goodwill. The cowbell has "mysteriously" disappeared after ringing non-stop for days and will remain that way for a looooooooong time. We finally pulled Jared and Jacob away from the game after 10pm. It was the start of the 8th inning and we were only up by 2 but with an hour drive home left and one girl in complete meltdown mode with 2 more close behind it was time to leave. By the time we walked to the car we had scored 3 more points. The Rascal rallied a few more runs but it was too little too late. The Crushers got the last out right as we crossed over the Mississippi River into Illinois and a second (no exaggeration) before we completely lost the radio station.
The Crushers won the Frontier League title in their first season. The final score was 13-10. It was a fun night. I might have to leave more holes in the schedule to allow for some spontaneity.
Bella and Katy (Notice the Indians shirts on all 3 girls)
(Jared and I actually have Crushers hats but you can't tell)
Jared and Jacob
1 comment:
Yeah crushers! so glad you went to the game
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