Tucson Padres win 10-9

If you are a baseball fan, I'll apologize now for this blog post. If you want to read about our day from a baseball aficionado's perspective, you should read my son's blog: http://joesage.wordpress.com/


After six hours of driving, a stop in Yuma for In and Out burgers, and filling up in Gila Bend, we arrived in Tucson Arizona with about 45 minutes until the first pitch at the Tucson Padre game.


Joe was determined to go to the game and the rest of us hemmed and hawed about whether we really wanted to go. Fortunately, our motel was less than two miles from the stadium, so we piled back into the car and drove the three minute trip to the Kino ballpark.


Free parking was the first perk, and we parked about 100 feet from the ticket booth. We bought our tickets and we had our choice of seats in the stadium. We sat in the second row above the dugout - the closest I've ever been to a professional baseball team.

The Tucson Padres are the triple A minor league team for the San Diego Padres. The logo and mascot were the same, and the players even wore the cami uniforms in honor of the military just like the SD Pads do on Sundays.

The crowd was small. There were probably 25 people total in our section. It was still pretty hot out, but the warm breeze kept the air moving.

As the game got underway, I realized that it doesn't matter whether you are watching the San Diego Padres or the Tucson Padres, baseball is long and dull except for a few exciting moments sprinkled throughout the game. After an hour had passed and the second inning had finally ended, I decided I was tired of sitting.


I promised my doctor that I would try to get some exercise while on this vacation, so I decided to walk around the stadium. David and Zachary kept me company as I lapped the park three times in the next two innings. We stopped several times to watch the game and peer over a fence at the Padre bull pen.


By then it had been two hours and we weren't even half way through the game. The Padres were leading and I was ready to spend some time in my air conditioned room. David and I headed back to the room while Joe and Zach stayed for the rest of the game.

An hour or so later, Joe called to tell me that it was the top of the 9th inning and I could come get them. The Padres were ahead 7-4. When I arrived in the parking lot, I could see the scoreboard, and it was now tied! In the 10 minutes it took me to get in my car and drive back over to the stadium, the Fresno Grizzlies had scored three runs. While I waited in the parking lot, they pulled ahead with two more runs! Eventually, the Padres scored and won the game. It was an exciting finish and the fans (the few that were there) were excited.


I'm thinking Little League has the right idea with 6 inning games.