On Saturday March 31st, I dragged my wife and my parents to the Alamodome for a pre-season baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres. Yes folks, a baseball game at the Dome…that is not a typo or a fake news headline!!
The Dome is 20 years old and I have had the pleasure to see Paul McCartney, lots of San Antonio Spurs games, a ton of High School football games (including 3 state championship games), several College football games, an NFL football game, a few exhibit shows all the Dome, and although I never attended any of the monster truck, dirt bike, or motor cross racing events, I did see the Dome full of dirt many times.
As far as hosting a baseball game…this was actually a FIRST for the Dome!! So, yeah, I was super excited to see the configuration, enjoy a nice day at the park (I mean the Dome), and watch a live baseball game! I was also relieved that this game would have no weather issues (rain or hot) since we were inside a climate controlled facility that maintains a temperature of 70 degrees!!! Gosh, the last baseball game the 4 of us attended was at Wolfe stadium last year for the AA All Star game (man, it was freaking hotter than hot)!!
Would you believe that this was also the FIRST time I have ever had to pay see a sporting event at the Dome? I guess I got an advantage since I am part of the media!!!
Man, the last time I was at the Dome was on Saturday, December 8th for the 5A Texas High School football state quarterfinals…it was a super awesome double header. Three weeks prior to this game, I was also at the Dome and the TSRN broadcasters, Bobby Stautzenberger and Mark Kusenberger, and I were on the field and Mark and Bobby were trying to visualize the baseball configuration and where home plate would be!
Lemme just say getting to the game and leaving the game was a PIECE OF CAKE. We drove ourselves and parked in Lot A!! Finding our seats on the Club Level was also very easy since I am very familiar with the Dome!!!
Our seats were in the first row of Section 230 and that was really cool cause we had some leg room.
Kinda a weird view of the game since we were located in center-field. It did provide a view of almost the entire field (minus right-field). There were a few home-runs hit down the right-field and I missed them cause I couldn’t see the player or the ball (I knew they were home-runs by the roar of the crowd and the umpire signaling a home-run).
You know what I absolutely love about being at a live baseball game? It is the sounds…the sounds of the ball hitting the glove and the bat hitting the ball. When I first heard it at the Dome, I was like, dude, this is awesome…baseball at the Dome (a 60,000 seat football stadium). When I am at a football game at the Dome, all I hear is the fans and bands!!!
The folks sitting next to us…my mother knew them (what a small world)!! And, one of those ladies…well, her mother was one of my Professors at UTSA!!! We know too many people!!! How can I avoid bumping into somebody I know or somebody my parents know? I know, Nina and I can move to Minnesota…nah, too cold…how about someplace on the West coast darling? Okay…sounds good, let’s do it!!!
OMG, my Dad was having the time of his life. He had his really good digital camera with several difference lenses and was able to use his mono-pod!! No, that is not the newest Apple product. It is a like a tri-pod, but with one leg!!! I was snapping pictures of anything and everything with my little digital camera when compared to my Dad’s. I also used my phone to take some pictures.