All Around the Bay

The Red Sox were in town this weekend to play the Oakland Athletics. As I always try to do when this happens, I went to see a couple of games this weekend.

Saturday I met up with Subrata and we went to the game with a couple of his friends from college, who live in Alameda right near the Oakland Coliseum (ahem, excuse me: of course I mean the "Network Associates Coliseum". Assuming Network Associates hasn't gone under yet).

We had upper-deck seats behind home plate, which actually turned out to be not bad at all. We also saw Keith and Nate, two guys from our fantasy baseball league, who were sitting three sections over. It was sunny, it was warm, I got a sunburn, but who cares? It's baseball!

Oakland starter Barry Zito is on my fantasy team, so I was hoping for a 1-0 Boston victory (I mean, I could use the points from an Oakland victory, but I always root for the Sox first). Well, as it turned out, a triple, two doubles and a single in the fourth inning sealed Zito's fate, so I was able to happily root for Boston the rest of the way knowing that Zito was no longer a part of the equation. Boston rookie starter Paxton Crawford settled in, allowing one run in six innings in Boston's easy 7-1 victory. The real damage was done by the bottom and top of the Boston order, especially CHris Stynes and Jose Offerman, relative lightweights who each homered.

Today was a different kettle of fish, as Debbi and I had an afternoon date before the game (about which more below), and then we met up with CJ and David to head to the game. Yes, Debbi went to a baseball game with me!

We arrived at CJ and David's a bit late, and it eventually turned out that CJ thought that leaving at 3:45 pm was okay - if a bit early - for a 7 pm game. But the game started at 5:05, which I knew but she didn't realize until that day! She suggested we drive the whole way rather than do our usual BART-from-Union-City strategy. We breezed up I-880 and this looked like a good move on our part...

...until we hit the traffic heading into the park.

You see, Pedro Martinez was pitching for Boston, and as with us, it seems 40,000 other people decided to head to the park to see him, which meant that getting into the park by car was awful. A huge backup on the freeway heading in, and then a 45-minute wait after the game to get out. As the saying goes, 90% of the work took 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the work took the other 90% of the time. Gah.

We got in about 20 minutes late, missing the first half of the first inning.

Our seats - all the way down the third base line - were adequate but not great. Best I could get less than a week beforehand. And Pedro didn't throw a great game. But he was certainly good enough, and the Sox pushed to a 5-1 lead by the time he left after the 7th inning, in part thanks to Jose Offerman hitting another home run (he had a fantastic series). But then the bullpen came in and the A's started coming back.

Have I mentioned that there are a lot of Red Sox fans in the Bay Area? There's always a sea of blue caps on the first base side during a Sox/A's game. It's impressive. We were on the other side, of course, and the Sox fans were outnumbered, although still quite vocal. It made for a raucous round of cheering. Finally, with Rod Beck on the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning, and the A's behind 5-4 with the tying run on base, we all stood to cheer as Beck tried to strike out the final batter.

And he did! Maybe the only time I've seen everyone stand to cheer and see the strikeout come on the very next pitch! After the near-implosion of the bullpen, it felt really good. But then, what else are 4-run leads for? Sox win, 5-4.

The Sox have played 7 games in Oakland in the last year, and I've gone to four of them. The Sox have won all four I've gone to, and lost all three I didn't. Go figure!

The other big event in my weekend, as I said, is that Debbi and I went on our second date. And we had a great time!

We've continued to e-mail each other during the week (she only has e-mail access from work), and I'd invited her to the ballgame today and we decided to make a day of it. I drove up to her apartment - which is quite nice and seems like quite a steal for the Bay Area - and we picked up sandwiches at Togo's and drove over to the ocean, where we threw out a blanket on the beach and had lunch and spent most of the afternoon.

Although I'm entertained by telling people that we first met back in high school, the reality is that Debbi and I didn't really know each other, so we're still getting to have that fun experience of getting to know each other, getting acquainted. We had a pleasant afternoon of doing this in a lovely spot in the Bay Area. What could be better? And keeping in mind that this was only our second date, things seem to be going really well. I'm having a blast with her.

(And I think her friends are bugging the hell out of her to find out about me. She's coming out of a period where she hasn't been dating, and they're terribly curious. My friends mostly seem less curious, or at least less overtly curious.)

One thing that I think is working in our favor, which has been an issue in my last few dating experiences, is that we're both at similar points in our lives, and that we're both similarly established in our locations and careers. (The last two women I dated were both recent transplants to the Bay Area, and were in the midst of significant career shifts.) I don't know if that sort of external stability is crucial to any pair of people who are dating, but I think it helps. I don't think it's something to be taken for granted, but is worth being aware of, whether it's present or absent.

Something I've noticed that's been similar in my more recent dating experiences is that they feel more mature. Which is to say, I'm not as nervous meeting someone for a date, and I don't feel like as big a clod as I did ten years ago (these days I'm just a little clod). That's certainly a big win, in my opinion!

Anyway, so Debbi and I are definitely going to be seeing each other some more. Stay tuned!