A real American experience...Baseball!

A few weeks (months?) ago we had a real American experience. I mean, it felt like walking into the middle of one of those films that you used to watch as a kid on Saturday afternoons in the 80s... Yup, we went to a minor league baseball game! It was the Missions (San Antonio of course) verses the Arkansas Naturals.


I'll mostly let the pics speak for themselves but it was a wonderful experience! We were one row back over the away team dugout, so not behind the protection of nets, which made it vital to keep your eye on the ball! Sadly that didn't stop me getting pooped on by a yellow-bellied bird! (either a western kingbird or a great kiskadee, not sure which but it was pretty) There were about 20 of these gorgeous birds hanging out near the lights and then diving in after insects, and I was full of admiration for them... until :splat:

We were greeted outside the gates by the Spam Mobile (I kid you not) giving out free spam samples...Didn't partake in that experience.


One of the things I absolutely loved about the baseball was the food. Not so much the giant cups of beer or the pizza and nachos...But here was a place where I could quite legitimately eat a box of popcorn and a GIANT pickle for dinner! And I did! (in fact I think I made it through two of those pickles, which is no mean feat)



We had a family in front of us and the kid was just desperado for a ball to come his way. If you catch the ball, it's yours. Lucky for us maybe we didn't get too many hurtling in our direction, but one of the guys tossed this little tacker a freeby at the end. Heartwarming eh? It was also lucky that these guys were in front of us because they had babywipes to help me out of my sticky bird situation...


During the game we were entertained by the mascots - Puffy Taco, Ball-o-peno (yep, a giant pepper) and the express news (local paper) dog. We scored the dog in our wing and he was an absolute classic, playing to kids and adults alike (he took quite a shine to the Norwegian lasses!)


If you click to enlarge the pic below you might be able to read the advertising for a fried chicken chain on the foul line... However they're run by "make Jac sad fundamentalists" so we won't be eating there any time soon.


We won the game easily, 7-1 I think with most of the action happening in the first 30 minutes. It was exciting and the crowd had all these little chants and drum beats and stuff that we didn't really understand but joined in where we could. It was a gorgeous night, shorts and t-shits the whole time, and it was such a clear sky. Was gorgeous to watch the colour dropping out of the sky but as the lights warmed up on the field the players and the diamond became almost surreal in their intensity.


The night finished with a huge fireworks display! We'd had such a good time that we were just grinning like idiots at that point! I highly recommend a trip to the baseball!