Baby’s First Baseball Game
This week we took Oliver to his very first major league baseball game as the Toronto Blue Jays took on the visiting Minnesota Twins at Rogers Centre.
It was earlier than we maybe would have planned, but thanks to Trish, we had tickets with the 2018 Music Industry Toronto Blue Jays Charity Baseball Game event, and headed into Toronto to see some of our friends from thereviewsarein.com world and catch the game.
It was a great event for a great cause and I’m happy that we were able to participate. Big love to everyone that came out (700 tickets were sold to the group) and special love to everyone who bid at the silent auction before the game (yay Steam Whistle, thanks for hosting). Proceeds went to MusiCounts and the Unison Benevolent Fund, two charities that we’ve always loved and are happy to support at thereviewsarein and now at thisdaddylife.
It needs to be noted that I LOVE baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays. I’ve been a baseball guy my entire life. I played through my whole youth. I am/was a certified umpire. I’ve been to more Blue Jays games than I can count. I’ve written about baseball and the Blue Jays for my own blog and other websites. In college I interviewed (then) General Manager JP Ricciardi for a writing project. I have a baseball bat beside my desk in the office at home. I just really love the game and the team.
But one of my favourite things about baseball is that it’s something that my dad and my brother and I all enjoyed together. We watched games with dad and my gramp in the basement. We hit at batting cages. We went to a few games at the (then) Skydome. We talked about baseball whenever we just needed something to talk about. It was the thing that we always had. And it’s something that I will always carry with me and be able to think of him.
So, it’s special to me already that I can share baseball with Oliver. We’ve had a few games on TV at home, and a couple times it has seemed like maybe he’s paying attention. And on Father’s Day we fell asleep together while watching the game in bed, and that was adorable. But taking him to his first game, that was special.
Note: My mom loves baseball too and was always at the park with us as kids as a coach or assistant or cheering us on. I didn’t want to leave that out. Thanks for everything, mom!
We entered Rogers Centre through Gate 10, and the security and ticket staff were great. There were no slowdowns, we got to pass through the ticket gate off to the side, and then we walked up the ramps to the 500 level.
Tip: Parents taking little ones to the Rogers Centre with 500 level tickets… be ready for that climb. If possible, share the stroller pushing responsibilities, or make sure that the parent pushing the stroller isn’t carrying any more weight that they need to. Because holy cow it was a lot more effort than I anticipated.
When we got to the top, we looked for the Guest Services window to check the stroller. Again, the staff were great, giving us a tag and putting the stroller in with some others so we could go to our seats. They also filled out and gave us Ollie’s official “First Game” certificate. Jess and I were both kind of excited to get that.
After all of that excitement, we put the baby in the carrier, strapped onto me, and we took a lap around the concourse before finding our section. I love wearing Ollie, and I love the ballpark, so this was all good by me.
When we got back around to section 527 we stopped and waited for the national anthems to be sung, and then started our climb up to our seats. All the way up to row 20. Row 20 of 21. That’s right, Oliver got his first taste of major league baseball in the cheap seats, and I’m totally okay with that.
Note: It wasn’t until this very moment that I decided to see what Toronto Blue Jays ties there are to the name Oliver… it looks like we’ve got pitcher Darren Oliver [2012-13] and 1B/DH Al Oliver [1985].
We got settled in our seats, took the baby out of the carrier and took turns holding him on our laps as the game started. He was calm and happy, looking around and more than once we caught him staring across the stadium to the giant video scoreboard.
Jess and Ollie and I all sat together for the first four innings of the game (a well pitched 24 outs on both sides) and then it was diaper and feeding time. Jess took the baby down, changed his diaper in the washroom, and found a spot on a bench on the concourse and the two of them did their breastfeed thing. Jess posted on Facebook about finding a spot for them to feed, and there were some comments in the “you shouldn’t need to find anywhere special” vein. And yes, they’re right. But the truth is that the seats in the 500 level aren’t really all that comfy for breastfeeding. And, the family washroom with the breastfeeding station, wasn’t that inviting to Jess. So, a bench on the concourse was the perfect spot.
I went down to meet mama and baby when they were done and we walked around together on the concourse for a while. We saw some friends, we navigated the crowds and lines at concession stands, and we tried to find a counter selling fountain pop. We did find that counter, but the line was taking forever, (Jess moved about 4 places in line in the time it took me to walk 5 sections over with Ollie in my arms, buy popcorn, and walk back) so Jess and Ollie went back to the seats and I bought bottled drinks.
At this time the Jays were losing 2-0, it was the 7th inning, we did the stretch and song, and settled back in. We watched as the game continued, Ollie with his noise cancelling headphones on. We pointed and cheered and cuddled the baby. It was just like watching any other game, just with a tiny human in our laps.
Our plan from the beginning was to leave before the end of the game, and to follow Oliver’s lead on when he had had enough. But he never gave us the signal, so after the bottom of the 8th, now losing 5-0 after a three-run home run by Eduardo Escobar, we packed up and went to get the stroller.
The truth of the matter is that I wish the Blue Jays had put on a hitting clinic, banging out a few homers and running up the score. I wish we’d been able to last all nine innings, without worry of the crowd and trying to get the baby out of the stadium and back to Union Station.
Oliver got hung with an L at his first Toronto Blue Jays game, but he was there.
And I’m hoping that it won’t be too long before we’re back again, watching together as the team pulls out some big wins and he learns to love the game the way I did all those years ago.
Let’s Go Blue Jays!
