Suddenly both benches emptied at the ballpark, and the contents of each team’s bullpen went rushing past us. My companion and I looked at the scrum on home plate, then at one another, then back at the melee. And then, for the first and last time all night, we stood and cheered together.
We weren’t entirely sure what we were cheering, mind you. I was wearing a Reds tee shirt and he was braving the swampy August heat in a Cardinals jersey, but we both stood with the rest of the crowd and roared. Something unusual was happening right in front of us, something violent and tremendously exciting, and we didn’t know the details, but we knew that whatever it was, our respective teams were standing up for themselves.
The Jumbotron in left field hurriedly flickered from a closeup of the batter to a nice, peaceful Reds logo. In the raucous center field bleachers, we had an eyeline view of a swaying crowd of ballplayers. It was the fight of the year and we were there, but as the public address system remained silent and the in- stadium television feed was cut, we had no idea what was going on.
This, then, is sports in the twenty first century; between high definition broadcasting and pro team’s nineteenth century insistence upon maintaining a positive public image at all costs despite the fact that more rosters than not are crammed with DUI offenders and child support deadbeats, fans actually in attendance at a major event might actually be better off catching the game at home.
Sweltering in the dead of August, a $5 frozen pot of strawberry puree resting on my neck, watching my fellow bleacherites frantically texting friends and family to find out what in the world had just unfolded right in front of us, I thought of my parents, sitting in their air conditioned condo with my aunt and uncle, parking for free and with a private bathroom just steps away. This was one of the most important game of the year between the tied Reds and Cardinals… and I missed the announcers letting me know what might be going on in the very game I was sitting in front of.
