Good seats, great game

I am a cheap man. There is no doubt about it. I am a broke man, and I am a cheap man. I save the dollar when possible. This means that when I go to a Twins game I buy cheap seats in the upper deck, and I then briskly move into section 218 after the first inning. 

So, last night when a scalper, a desperate, desperate scalper offered the Twins Girl and I two seats behind home plate for $50 (face value $55 per ticket) we pounced and sat down low.

I have sat down low before, on Father’s Day and that is it. I watched Johan Santana get kicked out of a Father’s Day game while his dad was sitting four rows in front of us. I remember feeling bad, not just because the Twins would lose and Santana had a rough start, but because it was in front of his father, and I could hear his father cursing at the umpire. But I was mainly sad because of how good I felt to be able to hear Santana on the field, yelling.

You don’t hear that in section 218. 

So, last night was a great night to start with because the seats were so spectacular. We were in section 121, right to the right of home plate, in row 28. Now, row 28 at the dome is really like row 23 because there’s something like five rows missing, so we were really in section 121, row 23. Great seats.

You can see the players in detail, see their faces, hear the bat on the ball, clearly. You can yell and feel like the umpire is really hearing it. Still, it gets aggravating sitting down low because you see the money around you.

There was a woman sitting in front of me who did not go off of her Iphone until the bottom of the fourth inning. She just sat there reading emails, paying no attention. I was irate, didn’t she understand where she was sitting? Of course she didn’t, she was careless, she had a huge mustard stain on her shirt - money was clearly not an object.

There was other strange behavior going on around section 121 on Friday night. At one point I went to the restroom, and as I am doing my thing a man slides up next to me. Now, I understand that the trough is a delicate place - there are rules that must be observed.

One: You can look down to line up your shot but then your eyes need to get out of there.

Two: Find a place on the wall to look at, and stay there.

Three: Keep a few feet distance between you and the man next to you - there’s a certain number of people that can fit in a trough section, don’t stretch that number.

Four: Shake, spin, and bounce. Get in and out quick, keep the eyes at shoulder level.

Five: Wash and leave.

So, when a man came up next to me, right next to me, his shoulder was essentially in my back, I was shook. When he then said, ‘That’s how you saddle up,’ my entire frame of mind about what a bathroom is and what the proper etiquette is, was imploded. 

I turned and looked into the man’s eyes, which were friendly and grey, and I said, ‘Well, that’s certainly one way.’

I shook, spun and ran out.

The Twins Girl couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to talk about anything when I sat back down.

But that wasn’t the only earth shaking thing to happen on Friday night. The Twins got an early lead, blew it, and they went from the fourth to the eighth inning without mounting any kind of real threat. Adam Everett hit some balls for extra bases; Joe Mauer stayed hot; Carlos Gomez continued to impress. But the real magic, as everyone knows, came in the ninth. 

Delmon Young, single, stolen base.

Matt Tolbert, sac bunt.

Adam Everett, foul-out.

Carlos Gomez, epic walk, stolen base.

Mike Lamb, epic at-bat, Texas leaguer, game winner.

Those are the small details, the bigger and more important aspects was the amazing tension in the three key at-bat’s.

Delmon Young was patient and precise in his swing, he ripped a few fouls down the right field line before finally getting squared away and hitting the single up the middle.

Carlos Gomez got ahead 1-0, fell behind on two foul balls, nice rips too, not over-aggressive, and then, amazingly took three straight balls. That at-bat, with two outs, gave one pure faith that something could happen in the ninth. Gomez then stole second without a throw, and then the real drama.

Mike Lamb stood up there and fell behind in the count, and just battled. When he took that hit the other way, we were sitting in the perfect seats to see that it would float right down the left-field line and drop in. It was a no-doubter, and the place exploded.

I have been at any number of games that have been won in the ninth inning by great Twins play, but that has always been from Joe Nathan’s side of things. This was, as far as I could remember, my first bottom of the ninth rally for a win. I have never seen a walk-off, and I jumped and raised my arms like I was at home-plate.

And, for the most part, I was, just 28 (or 23) rows away.