Previous Trivia Answer: Noel Redding.
Today’s Trivia Question: Famicom is the Japanese version of what brand name?
I got to see my first Major League Baseball game in-person tonight. You would think that guy from Tennessee, someone who has walked the sands of Central Asia and the Nullarbor Plains in Australia, wouldn’t see his first MLB game as all that important, but it was. Partially for how it ended, but I will get to that.
I was in Boston on business for the day, and I was enjoying the view from the 22nd story window of my hotel, when I noticed some blazing lights in the distance, not far from where some clouds had gone down only a few minutes before. I quickly realized that a Red Sox game must be going on several blocks away, so I took the elevator to the ground floor, dodged the taxis, and made my way to the general location of the stadium.
I arrived only 30 minutes into the game and then gave John Stephany a call, since he was the only person I know would appreciate the fact that I was standing outside of Fenway while the Bo Sox where in a close race for the playoffs.
While leaning against the wall of Fenway and taking to John, I suddenly realized I was in a line to buy tickets. I waited until I got to the front and realized that I was in some sort of cancer survivor line that had formed around me while I was on the phone. The ticket guy quickly realized I wasn’t dying of anything right away (at least, not yet), so he let me pay the full fare for the cheapest ticket: $45.
And it was worth it. The game was back and forth through the first 5 innings, and then everything got quiet until the 9th. In the bottom of the 9th, the Boston fan started feeling it. You know: it. They started clapping with every batter, chanting with every chance at the plate, all until there were 2 men on, and then the atmosphere was electric.
Then, David Ortiz came to the plate for the Red Sox, and then everything fell in place. After a few foul balls, Ortiz hit one just to the right of the Green Monster and into the history books.
The crowd lost it. Everyone was hugging everyone around them. The guys behind me, which had been trying to figure out who was going to be hit with foul ball next throughout the whole game, started lifting everyone in a 3-seat radius up over their heads in a bear hug, elated over the outcome. Liberals hi-fived conservatives. Suburbanites shook hands with city dwellers. Someone threw beer on me.
All was right with the world.