take me out to the ball game....

Last night a local homeschooling Mom organized "CT Homeschoolers Night" at the New Britain Rock Cats game (a AA minor league baseball team, farm club for the Minnesota Twins). It was also Jersey night, and the kids all got Rock Cats uniform jerseys, as well as Rock Cats hats because there were more than 300 people in our group (actually, there were more than 500 people in our group! That's a lot of homeschoolers at one baseball game!). It also was Tuesday night, and every Tuesday night at the Rock Cats game, kids eat for free (they got a voucher for a free hot dog and drink at the gate). All for just $5 a ticket -- talk about your family value!!

The homeschool kids got to unfurl and hold the flag on the field during the singing of the National Anthem -- you can actually see J, who was sitting on The Map Man's shoulders, in this photo -- about 2/3 the way across the field of blue you can see someone with a light colored shirt -- that's J! Zoo Boy decided NOT to venture onto the 99 degree field and stand in the sun for half an hour (smart boy!) so he and I watched from our seats.

Then it was time to play ball! We actually only lasted a couple of innings -- did I mention that it was 99 degrees? With high humidity? And no breeze? I'm guessing it's a lot like what attending a ball game in Hades would be like.... Zoo Boy was asking to leave pretty much the moment we got to our seats, and I have to admit to feeling about the same way. Otherwise I'm sure we would have enjoyed the whole experience a lot more.

As it was, J was pretty taken by the game and watched the play closely. I mentioned to him that his Grampy and Uncle Jeff both LOVE baseball (I did too as a kid -- obsession was probably a more appropriate word, actually, before I came to my senses and obsessed over football instead....), my guess is that he'll start picking their brains about the game's inner workings.

Zoo Boy trying to make the best of it. He ditched his shirt within minutes of arriving, and started asking for drinks soon thereafter. Poor kid feels the same way I do about the heat, but J wasn't leaving until he'd seen enough baseball to satisfy his curiosity on the topic. We finally made a run for it between innings. (Dad, you would have been proud, we were the FIRST people out of the parking lot, no traffic at all....)

Hopefully this will become an annual event (the baseball game, not the heat wave!) for the homeschoolers. Other than the beastly weather, it really was a blast!