Root, root, root for the home team
Jul. 5th, 2004 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
djonnUp till very recently, 4th of July has been a family day for me, usually involving a picnic and pleasant scenery. However, this year found me on my own, as the Parental Units are visiting the Kid Brother and his family in sunny southern California (including my rugrat-sized niece and nephew).
So I decided to go with a different 4th of July tradition, and went to a baseball game.
In Portland, this means the Beavers, who are in the Pacific Coast League (read: at the top of the minor-league food chain) and affiliated with the San Diego Padres. This being the 4th of July game, we were promised fireworks afterward, and there were also several promotions running. Now this was my first pro baseball game in *years*, and whereas it wasn't brilliant, it was entertaining and moved along pretty briskly -- the opponents got more hits, but we won the game on an over-the-wall home run (bringing in a total of three runners).
Oh, yes, and I had the obligatory ballpark hot dog and bag of Cracker Jack.
As for the promotions:
By virtue of having picked up the right autographed program book, I got a small plush cow which should amuse one or another of the rugrat relatives when they're up to visit later this summer.
By virtue of being among the first 2500 folks into the park (the game drew a touch over 10,000, a big crowd for the Beavers), I got a coupon good for a free compact fluorescent light bulb (thus a useful $5-$8 premium, last I looked). Also a coupon for $2 off another one.
By virtue of not sitting in one of the right rows, I did not receive a small appliance (toaster, coffeemaker, George Foreman grill) in honor of Portland General Electric's 115th anniversary, this being significant because the Beavers' home stadium is PGE Park.
If you followed that last closely, you will have realized that the PGE folks did not think that last promotion through as well as they should have. Their system was to announce a section number and a row number, whereupon everyone sitting in the particular row/section would get one of whatever appliance was being featured during that particular inning.
Thus, after the game and the fireworks show, the hordes of fans waiting for the light-rail train that stops just outside the park included one extended family group whose Fearless Leader was toting not one, not two, but SIX neatly boxed George Foreman Grills -- one each for Mom, Dad, Auntie, and each of their three rug-rats. (He agreed with me, rather bemusedly, that this didn't seem entirely fair. But I notice that he didn't offer to give me one of the grills, either.)
And so home.
So I decided to go with a different 4th of July tradition, and went to a baseball game.
In Portland, this means the Beavers, who are in the Pacific Coast League (read: at the top of the minor-league food chain) and affiliated with the San Diego Padres. This being the 4th of July game, we were promised fireworks afterward, and there were also several promotions running. Now this was my first pro baseball game in *years*, and whereas it wasn't brilliant, it was entertaining and moved along pretty briskly -- the opponents got more hits, but we won the game on an over-the-wall home run (bringing in a total of three runners).
Oh, yes, and I had the obligatory ballpark hot dog and bag of Cracker Jack.
As for the promotions:
By virtue of having picked up the right autographed program book, I got a small plush cow which should amuse one or another of the rugrat relatives when they're up to visit later this summer.
By virtue of being among the first 2500 folks into the park (the game drew a touch over 10,000, a big crowd for the Beavers), I got a coupon good for a free compact fluorescent light bulb (thus a useful $5-$8 premium, last I looked). Also a coupon for $2 off another one.
By virtue of not sitting in one of the right rows, I did not receive a small appliance (toaster, coffeemaker, George Foreman grill) in honor of Portland General Electric's 115th anniversary, this being significant because the Beavers' home stadium is PGE Park.
If you followed that last closely, you will have realized that the PGE folks did not think that last promotion through as well as they should have. Their system was to announce a section number and a row number, whereupon everyone sitting in the particular row/section would get one of whatever appliance was being featured during that particular inning.
Thus, after the game and the fireworks show, the hordes of fans waiting for the light-rail train that stops just outside the park included one extended family group whose Fearless Leader was toting not one, not two, but SIX neatly boxed George Foreman Grills -- one each for Mom, Dad, Auntie, and each of their three rug-rats. (He agreed with me, rather bemusedly, that this didn't seem entirely fair. But I notice that he didn't offer to give me one of the grills, either.)
And so home.
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Date: 2004-07-05 11:30 am (UTC)We did the blues fest and caught the waterfront fireworks. Dave's a big harmonica fan so we attended the Bill Rhoads' Harmonica Blow-off and the watched the fireworks from the north end of the festival grounds. This meant they were directly behind the near tower of the Hawthorne Bridge -- partially obscured, but still quite nice as they lit up the steel girders and reflected off the water & boats below. I played with the 60 second movie setting on my digital camera and managed to get the finale recorded, complete with ooohs, aaaaahhhs and many loud booms.