Those summer classics: baseball, beer and chorizo
The Washington Nationals are official now that I've seen them. I saw them on TV before, but you can't believe everything TV tells you, so I doubted their existence until last night, when Ivan and I got a couple of tickets in a quick downtown sidewalk deal. Second row down the third baseline, $5 Bud Lights and $6 chorizos, which will hopefully become the new American standard at ballparks, because they were supremely tasty.
But I wasn't there to see the Nationals, though I was glad to see that they're actually a real MLB team, and not one made up for some screwball (pun intended, of course) comedy where the outfielder for the "Washington Nationals" decides to run for senator while taking the team to the World Series, or Frankenstein is the catcher or something. No, I was there to see the Astros, and they didn't let me down, getting a 3-2 victory, even after the normally rock-solid Brad Lidge almost blew it in the 9th.
I was also witness to one of the worst giveaway ideas in baseball history, as they were passing out Nationals and PNC Bank-branded full-sized umbrellas after the game. While the "after the game" part shows at least some level of level-headedness, the scenario during the walk to the Metro was nothing short of dangerous. People who are sober have a hard time with the concept of carrying a 3-foot, sharply-pointed metal stick vertically (safe) instead of horizontally (not safe) and swinging it back and forth in a crowd, so drunk baseball fans certainly weren't going to be any more thoughtful. I imagined the headlines the next day: 27 IMPALED ON FREE UMBRELLAS.
I'll be heading back to the ballpark on Saturday night to see the Astros one more time. I didn't get a chance to see them when my parents had moved back to Houston in the mid-90's, so this was the first time I had seen them in person in over 15 years. It's been too long, boys. Thanks for the win.
7 comments:
mmmmmmm chorizo - that served on a bun of some sort (or tortilla)?
I'm hungry now, thanks Reid.
Nope...served in a bun, hot dog-style, with peppers and onions.
Now I'm making myself hungry.
See, the irony is that an outfielder for the Nationals couldn't run for senator. Or even for the House. Unless you count those shadow people, but that wouldn't be nearly as funny.
So that's the downside of not playing in a state, but at least they don't have to pay those Canadian income taxes anymore.
By the way, you could have just come up to Baltimore during interleague, rather than wait a whole 15 years...
The outfielder for the Nationals could only NOT run for Senator if he was from DC and lived in DC. But, and I don't know if you knew this, many people who work in the District living in Virginia and Maryland.
Also, you think you're so clever with your interleague zinger, but this year was the first time that the Astros have played in Baltimore in interleague, and I figured that I'd just wait until they played a little closer to home.
By the way, there's still people who yell out "O!" in the national anthem. Come on, people! We have our own team now!
UGH! That stupid "O" thing! On a related note, I can't really get through the National Anthem at a sporting event without thinking of my favorite Naked Gun scene. "Buncha BOMBS in the air!!!"
Ha! Yeah, there's really nowhere in the song where you can yell "Nat." But considering the song was written in Baltimore, the "O" is more fitting anyway.
It is funny though how you will hear the occasional "O" at other, non-baseball events, no matter where you are. People at the Olympics in Greece were doing it in honor of Michael Phelps. It's part of Baltimore's influence on world tackiness...right up there with John Waters movies.
Back to the point though, even if the Nats' outfielders did live in Maryland or Virginia, they're probably all Dominican and not eligible to run for Senate anyway. Didn't think this was so complicated, did you?
But the original point was that this would be a movie, in which case they'd almost all be white, with a couple of really fast, goofy black guys and a Dominican guy who barely speaks any English, which leads to any number of hilarious situations.
Mostly, though, it's a movie, and you can do damn well anything you want in a movie.
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