13 Baseball Sundays with Sienna: Game 1 - part 1

Saturday Night's All Right for Worrying
Sienna looked like she had been punched in the eye. Now before anyone goes calling child services you will be pleased to know what she was NOT punched in the eye. However appearances can be deceiving and the swelled, puffy eye lid had reduced her right eye to a tiny slit.

It still didn't keep a crocodile tear from escaping as she bellowed her displeasure while simultaneously opening her left eye as wide as possible in an effort to maximize the parental guilt of putting her to bed. A baseball game tomorrow? How about just get a sick, grumpy child to bed.

Saturday, 6:57 PM. Who doesn't love a cranky child? Sienna had been sick off and on through most of the week, including a lethargic Saturday that included a reduced appetite. A fever had been yo-yoing in and out of her since early in the week, a sickness so bad that it included a) Grandman taking care of her, b) Daddy taking a day off from work to take care of her, and c) a call to the Doctor.

Pink-eye and other childhood maladies were thankfully ruled out. All I was left with was a sick, grumpy child tossed in with the belief that it would take divine intervention for this child to go to the game tomorrow. I don't care what anyone says, A crusty eye-lid never looks good.

Sunday - Game Day.
Maybe.When Danielle works a weekend game day it requires her to go to the ballpark early. This is a natural part of the process, never bothering us before. It just means that since she has the car and I am hitching a ride then I'M going to the ballpark early. If I am taking Sienna with me this means WE are all going to the ballpark early.

There are some tactical advantages to such an arrangement. First and foremost no 75 minute weekend subway ride from Brooklyn to Queens. Another tactical advantage is that during BP I have a greater chance at a foul ball. Unfortunately THAT tactical advantage has never paid off. Which not-so-secretly is one of the main reasons I want to take Sienna.

Size Matters
Before Fenway Park became semi-famous for its Monster Seats atop the left field wall - a view a mere 300 something feet away from homeplate where I can tell you from experience a BP line drive doesn't make you want to catch the ball it makes you leap out of the way so aren't killed - it had a net over the left field wall. Actually a baseball travels so fast that it could rip a hole through the net. Remember this information as it becomes important in a few paragraphs.

Local legend has it that net was erected to either protect the windows of the warehouse on Landsdowne street or that management was so cheap it didn't want to lose baseballs. For reference I will now point out that there is a ladder that is on the FRONT of the Green Monster which served go purpose other than to get someone to the top of the wall (or make for an interesting adventure if a ball hit it during the game.)

I vote for the latter.

Now Bostonians are enterprising by nature. We throw tea into harbors, elect crooked Mayors, and figured out that a well placed throw of a small wooden block could knock a baseball out of the net through a small hole and ONTO THE STREET. Yes, now you are to recall the above mention of balls creating holes.

A mad scramble would that ensue for the baseball.

My brother was 12 and I was nine when we first started getting involved in the baseball scrums. Why no one just took a piece of wood and clubbed us with it is beyond me. Probably because it was a good two years before we had a logistical chance at a ball.

My brother dove into one particular scrum and got his hand on the ball - he came up eye-to-eye with a giant Bostonian (we can tell our own by sight) with a neck as thick as my brother's body. My brother looked the Bostonian straight and the eye and asked, "I'm 12."

Back in those days being 12 meant something. Meaning that if you were 20-whatever the giant was he wouldn't just take something away from a kid. This was one of three times my brother or I would get our hands on a baseball.

My brother got the baseball and I learned size matters.

Back to Sunday
I guessed that no baseball player can resist an adorable child in a baby bjorn. Never mind one dressed in pink - perfectly legal in this case. A sure win for my child-who-is-only-in-the-bottom-5-percent-size-wise.

On Sunday morning I gathered Sienna at her crib. Her tiny arms raised toward the heavens as I picked her up, took one look at her eye and said, "Yes! We can go the game!" Also, as throw-in it was Easter Sunday and as Crash Davis once said (paraphrased) baseball is a church!

A church we could attend if the eye...

...eye looks normal! Now it merely gave you the impression she was rubbing her eye a lot. Still, a morning meal wasn't as hearty as I would have liked, nor enough milk could be drank.

Danielle and I made a tactical decision. I am pretty sure all parents make tactical decisions. Our reasoning was, Life isn't perfect and if she is cranky at the game I can leave Danielle at the park and take our child home.

At the time it made sense. Well, if you ignore the reasoning that involves your wife taking traing 75 minutes to get home. On a cold day.


That is correct it is cold out. One of those 60 degrees if you're in the sun, though really 50 degrees in the sun because of the wind, never mind if you are in the shade kind of cold days. We packed Sienna up accordingly: extra heavy jacket to change into once we got to the park, baby bjorn, carriage, extra milk and extra cheerios.


Sienna even rewarded us with a nap and despite some last minute glitches we actually left the house in plenty of time, hit no traffic on the BQE, and arrived at the ballpark a full half an hour before Danielle had to give a tour to a contest winner.

Yes, our brilliant, "We can make it through this!" decision making was a cold day too.
It was fantastic. We put Sienna in her carriage, whisked her through security, stopping long enough for admiring looks from some of Danielle's co-workers, and then going straight to Danielle's office so she could start getting some work done.

There was even BP. We are talking the chance for glory, free baseballs and ... is that Sienna being cranky? Why yes, yes it is.

Cranky in the Office
Sienna wasn't having so much of a bad day as she is in a "shy" state and not too fond of surroundings. That part isn't true. She is fine with surroundings unless Mommy leaves - at which point there is some crying.

The office was eerily quiet when we arrived, owing to the holy day, the start of Passover and some third reason I am likely forgetting. Sienna was happy to be out of her stroller, amusing herself by crawling around Mommy's office like the young explorer she is.

She was definitely cranky though. A parent can tell these things. I could also tell since Danielle left the office to use the bathroom. Sienna crawled after her, straight into the hallway. I picked her up so she wouldn't turn the area into her playground - okay I didn't want her to be stepped on - and when I lifted her skyward she developed a tiny frown on her place.

Luckily Danielle's office neighbor Emily (not her real name) was in. Emily loved Sienna last year when we brought Sienna to the office as a three-month-old. I guessed Emily would enjoy seeing the baby progress. I guessed right.

Emily grinned, talked the fine baby talk and even rubbed Sienna's belly a bit. Sienna could have cared less since she noticed the mini souvenir batting helmets that you receive once you eat ice cream. Mental note for me? No, physical note as Emily was kind enough to let us play with one.
After a couple of minutes I left Emily get back to work - that Danielle came back from the bathroom was merely a coincidence. I swear.

Danielle told me I could stay in her office while she gave the tour. Stay in the office? I had a ballpark to reintroduce my daughter to! Danielle vanished - once again resulted in an upset Sienna. However I took out my secret weapon at this point: the baby bjorn.

Sienna goes crazy at the site of it. Now was no exception. I slipped her into her heavier coat, put her into the bjorn and...could not get the stupid thing to lock up.

When I say this has never happened it has never happened. It was a three minute struggle as I tried to get it loose enough to get my child to be happy in it. I knew Sienna's heavy coat was bulky - for some reason it had become an impossibility.

Which is when Sienna started to cry.

Not a small sob, or "this is unjust." This was a full on, Daddy knock it off wail! The sound echoed too loudly for my tastes. I am not the type to worry about what anyone thinks of my screaming child except...we were at Danielle's place of work and I didn't want to disrupt anyone.
At least while Danielle wasn't around.

I muttered several hundred curses as I attempted to switch from Baby Bjorn to carriage. The difficulty was increased 50 fold as Sienna took that exact moment to arch her body like a bow and show the strength and resiliency of an upset child.

An upset child alerting to the world to her distress in her loudest tiniest voice.

She finally calmed down as held her in my arms, leaving enough room for her to jam a thumb into her mouth while she looked at me with both eyes wide - her formerly swollen eye showing not ill effects of anything other than being watered by her tears.

Thoughts of free baseballs were erased from my brain. This was now a matter of survival. I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into.

...to be continued

Wayne