Monday, January 30, 2006

2004 Perfect Game

Our family has been on the go every night for the last nine days, and 17 of the last eighteen. So when Will’s championship game was rained out yesterday afternoon, we got back to the house at six, able to enjoy a quiet evening at home, knowing we’d be on the go the next five days as well.

Monday evening at Will’s practice, I had a nice conversation with another dad, who was excited to have secured corporate tickets to the Tuesday Braves/Diamondbacks game. We discussed the logistics of getting to the game after the 5:30 Little League game ended, where to park, etc. I commented on how with future Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson pitching, it would be one of the top 5 home games of the year (on my personal calendar, where I noted all home games, I had highlighted the Diamondback series in red months ago).

Five minutes after we got home Tuesday evening the phone rang. It was the dad, wondering if Will & I would like to go to the game. With our busy schedule I declined, but told him that driving home a few minutes earlier in the driving thunderstorm, I noticed the southern sky looked clear, so the game should start on time. It would’ve been nice to go…at least we’d been to the Orioles/White Sox game at Camden Yards just two weeks ago.

We actually got the kids to bed earlier than usual. Will and Matthew were having a hard time going to sleep, but I was back downstairs before 8:45pm. Ceil was going to dial into a conference call at nine. Anxious to check on the game, I quickly noted Johnson hadn’t allowed a hit through four innings. I settled in on the couch. After Arizona was retired in the top of the ninth, I tried to wake up Will, but he wouldn’t budge. With Eddie Perez pinch-hitting with two out, I motioned Ceil over to the TV, interrupting her conference call.

Last night’s was the 17th perfect game, out of hundreds of thousands of major league games that have been played in the last hundred years. I missed a chance to be there, as I missed the 2004 NCAA Championship game with Georgia Tech.

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