Who's Playing?

The baseball game networking event was fun and fortuitous, or at least potentially so. It was set up as a true mixer with a good ratio of people trying to sell and needing to be sold. I got to talk to people I needed to, or at least talk to people who can get me to the people I need to get to.
Sometimes it's like pealing back the layers of an onion to get what you want. What you want isn't always forthcoming, either. It can be a slow and tedious process. Last night, was neither.

It was also hot. There was nowhere to go to escape the heat. I and my enclave went up to the upper deck and stood under the giant cantilevered canopy they have up there. That caught the breeze and worked out nicely. Until they fired up the grills. I felt badly for the staff, a couple of whom really looked like they were on the verge of stroking out. All these fair haired dutchies baking in the sun... it isn't natural.

at least the food was good, the beer flowed and we got there early enough to beat the parking people, so it was even free to park. I spent zero dollars. Well, not true. 3 Beers, 3 dollars in tips. Still, that's only three more than zero.

My friend and fellow youth leader Kim Hamilton facebooked me letting me know she was working first aid at the game, so I got to see her and hang out for a bit in the air conditioning. Kim is a customer of our company, so it was reasonable at a work event to go thank an existing customer. And it was the first time we had seen each other in months! Too long, we decided so lunch is forthcoming.

It could have been the Whitecaps against the Packers for all I knew as I did not watch one pitch of the game. There was so much humanity there I found far more interesting, like the rotund woman in vintage hippie tie die whose face was so red she looked like a firework flitting about on the porch. Not a lot of people talked to her. Not surprising when you dress like an explosion.

Then there was the contingency from a local private school engineering staff that must not get out much, for after only a couple beers they went from quiet Dutch people to sunburned F-bomb dropping lady-leering sports fans. It was a palpable regression and very fun to watch them go from Amish to asshole in 2 beers.

All in all, it was the most fun I have had at an event in a long while and I am glad I braved the heat. It reaffirmed my great and abiding love for the game of baseball. Wait, that's not right at all. I still hate it with the passion of a thousand hot suns and think it should be avoided by all people always. Yes, that's it. That feels right. But, I admit to liking the park atmosphere and I can see why people would want to go there.

It's too bad all those people sweating bullets on the field didn't realize they'd be far better off sitting down with us and having a beer and a brat and some clever conversation. That's where the party is and I doubt that most of us would have realized the game had stopped. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure I realized it began in the first place.