2016-366 Day 5 – At the Stadium

I read an article that talked about special moments in sports stadiums and it reminded me of this one time we went to Dodger Stadium and something happened that I’d never forget. Then I remembered that we lived in the internet age and I didn’t have to rely on my faulty memory because I knew I kept screwing up the details. So I found the box scores, then I found the highlights, and now I can actually get it right.

The Dodgers were playing the Mets in Mid-May 2009 (It was the 18th, so we were probably going in honor of my birthday, or at least my Nana’s birthday :)) The game had gone into extra innings as a 2-2 tie and arrived at the top of the 11th inning. The Dodgers pitcher got two quick outs and then allowed a single to the third batter. The fourth batter whacked the ball all the way to the center field wall and a hush fell over the crowd as the batter motored into third and the go ahead run scored. Well, except for the Mets fan in the row in front of us who was hooting and hollering up a storm and running up and down the half-empty row.

The preternatural calm persisted for a moment, until a few hushed murmurs began. Players on the field were pointing towards third base. Confusion reigned as the ball was relayed to third. The third baseman stepped on the bag and all eyes were on the umpire. A single raised fist punched the air. The runner scoring from first had missed the bag! The loudest cheer I’d ever heard erupted from the stadium, and I was certainly doing my part to contribute. Never had I heard any place go from so quiet to loud all at once. The Mets fan in front of us collapsed into his seat, face in his hands. The Dodgers scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning, and the resultant cheer seemed nearly as loud, but could not compare in the difference in magnitude the sounds of the stadium experienced on the first play.

I found the highlights on Youtube and wanted to see if it lived up to my memory. It had indeed.
https://youtu.be/1r5hh0dIQEc?t=21m28s (It starts at the batter before the triple, it’s only the highlights so I recommend sticking through to the end.)

Box Score
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2009_05_18_nynmlb_lanmlb_1

Whenever I go to a sporting event, I always look for those things that are extremely rare or have never been done before. I always want to find moments like that one where 40,000 people (or probably 20,000 that were left in extra innings at that point) come together and experience something that will likely never be duplicated.

Hope all is well with you and you are enjoying these updates!