The view from Section 408

Last night I attended the baseball match between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Kansas City Royals. The Crew spanked the Royals 11-6.

(By the way, it should be imminently clear from the amount of page I've dedicating to the Crew of late that I got me a serious case of Brewer-Fever. I swear there are other things rambling around in my [little, pea-] brain right now and there will probably be a non-Brewer related post in the near future. Or at least a post where the Brewer references are only peripheral.)

Spur of the moment, some friends and I decided to go to the game. We showed up some time in the top of the first and went to the ticket booth.

Me: What's left? We need four together.
Ticket Guy: (pointing to the seating chart) all I have is deep left field or deep right field, 3rd level is $33 and 4th level is $13 tonight.
Me: Thirteen bucks? Done. Four in right field.
Ticket Guy: Are any of you students?
(All of us look at each other. Did anyone still have a student ID?)
Friend J: I am.
Ticket guy: (obviously on to us, but not giving a shit) They're half price for students tonight.

For $6.50 each, we gain entry to the park and head up to our seats in section 408. Not exactly the friendly confines of Section 228, where I normally sit, but it would do. Everyone in section 408 is a student. At 27, I am the oldest person there. Well, almost. Four rows in front of us sat a family. From left to right: chubby older son, Dad, chubby younger son (sporting a "Kid's Klub" Brewer hat"), Grandma (also sporting a "Kid's Klub" Brewer hat), and mom (who had a bit of a mullet).

Several rows up and to the right sat the biggest douchebottle in the stadium. He was wearing a Nomar Garciaparra Cubs jersey. Did I mention that this was a Brewers-Royals game? So, like, the Cubs weren't playing... And did I mention that Nomar Garciaparra isn't on the Cubs? What's with people wearing jerseys to games were the team represented on the jersey isn't even playing? I can understand if it's a little kid that doesn't know any better and has really bad parents, but come on. There was also a Red Sox guy sitting in section 408, but he was largely left alone. Also, as to be expected, there were a handful of Royals fans scattered about.

As you might imagine, given the demographics of section 408 and the amount of beer available, conflicts were erupting all over the place. Nomar was the primary target, but one Royals fan made his mark too. Pretty much everyone was using extremely foul language, which seemed to bother the family four rows up. I didn't have a ton of sympathy. We were sitting in the middle of a section geared towards college kids. Drunk one's at that. Just as you should expect to hear naughty words in the student section at Camp Randall (Point: "Eat Shit!", Counterpoint: "Fuck You!") so too should you expect to hear naughty words in section 408. The family endured the atmosphere for about 5 innings. But some time in the 6th, things got particularly heated between Royals' fan and the guys sitting behind us. Royals' fan started flipping all of us off and stating "fuck all of you and fuck the fuckin Brewers" or something brainy like that. Kid's Klub Grandma had had enough. She got out of her seat and grabbed Royals' fan by his collar and "escorted" him down the steps while giving him an ear-full of Grandma wisdom. And the crowd goes wild. "Here we go Grand-ma here we go!"

As for what was going on on the field... Ryan Braun showed that he is the real deal, going 4 for 4 with a dinger and a double, outshining the Royals' rookie at 3rd base, Alex Gordon (who also had a good game). Cory Hart hit another dinger. Royal-turned-Brewer Jeff Suppan got the win over Brewer-turned-Royal Jorge de la Rosa. Ned left Soup in a little too long again, but it didn't really matter. Villanueva came in to pitch two scoreless innings and turn it over to Turnbow and Wise. Nice game guys.

Additionally, it was Mike Caldwell bobblehead night, so all fans received a bobblehead doll of the filthy pitcher (but not the filthiest pitcher on the squad) from the 82 team that won two games in teh World Series against the Cards.