Opening Night at AZP

Last night was Opening Night for the Redbirds at AutoZone Park. It also happened to be UTHSC night, which means we were able to get discounted tickets and Rendezvous buffet! We got there early to wait on Brad and Sarah and her friends, who had our tickets. While we were waiting the corner of Third and Union was the absolute social event of the season. I can't tell you how many people we saw out there that we knew. It continued on our way into the ballpark as well, partly because Bellevue was also there and of course because there were people from UT there. On the way down to the game we had noticed a helicopter hovering over the stadium, which looked like the Channel 5 chopper. We learned later that it was indeed the Channel 5 chopper and that Dave Brown had hopped out of it to throw out the first pitch. Unfortunately we were late getting inside and we missed it. We did see Dave hanging out with Rockey the Redbird later in the evening and Drew was totally stoked to see him. We settled into the right field pavilion and got our BBQ nachos and then found some seats and watched the Redbirds get hammered. Now that Drew had the basics of baseball down I've been trying to teach him some of the finer points of the game and I think he's really catching on to it. He loves watching the relief pitchers warm up in the bullpen, so we walked behind them in the outfield and watched the opposing pitcher warm up for awhile. I hope that means he'll want to give pitching a try one day. He wound up getting a grand slam home run ball that was hit into the bullpen. The OKC player who caught it threw it to a young lady who turned around and gave it to Drew. He later was able to get it signed by Rockey. Soon after we headed home after a fun night at the ballpark for everyone.