A Day at the Ballgame

Sometimes life is not about how much money something costs or how much you saved it is about living life and having a good time. I recently had a birthday and one of my presents was 2 tickets to a baseball game. It was a great evening at the game, despite a little rain and the team I wanted to win did not pull out the "W". Here is how the night went and I will also share some money saving techniques along the way that made it even better.

The evening started out with dinner at a restaurant with a sandwich and a beer. Don't forget the concessions at a professional sporting event are astronomical. I mean $9 for a hot dog, $6 for nachos almost seemed like a deal. So be smart eat before the ballgame. If you have time and the resources tailgate and grill out with beers and brats from your own house, saving lots of cash.

We had great seats, we were in row 10 and because of some great research by my girlfriend we did not even pay face value for the tickets! We enjoyed a great game all the way down to the last pitch to decide the game. We avoided the concessions, although a close call and did not even buy a poncho with the rain that started(I did forget the umbrella in the car, my bad). But it was a great game not too many people, it's the Marlins it's never too many people.

After the game we were walking back to the car and noticed the team entrance was on our way so we decided to wait and watch the players come out in there fancy cars and nice suits. There was a small crowd waiting for autographs and pictures, but no more than 50 people, make that no more than 25 I'm guessing. I did not have a lot of interest in many of the players, but I was definitely a fan of a select few. The Milwaukee Brewers have some great talent on the roster and I enjoy watching Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun along with the rest of Wisconsin. After waiting for some time some of the players that I recognized came out. Now I am not an autograph type of person unless it has some meaning or I met the person and had a conversation with him or her. For example I caddied for Michael Jordan if I was able to get to sign a scorecard or a picture of us that would have meant something, but to never meet the person and have them sign a ball or picture doesn't really do it for me. One of the better players was Prince Fielder however he was not signing anything today, but later Corey Hart came out a fan favorite of many and began signing. I think he is a good player but my friend Molly would have liked it much more than me. As we were getting close to leaving Ryan Braun came out and we happened to be standing next to someone he was friends with so he came our way. It was a feeding friendzy, I even had some old lady scold me for not getting out of the way. She said "If your not getting an autograph can you move", I basically laughed at the lady and moved my foot about 3 inches. She also began arguing with a 10 year kid how much better she liked Ryan Braun. It was funny to say the least. What I really wanted was a picture and as he signed everything for everyone it did not seem like I was going to get a picture. I stood on the side of him while he signed autographs so I got a picture or two that I was happy with. He then proceeded to be checked in for the bus and I asked the girlfriend if we could wait just a moment while he got on the bus. I happened to catch Ryan Braun's eye and asked Ryan if my girlfriend and I could get a picture with the All-Star Left Fielder. Security actually stopped him and told him that he could not go and he could not touch anyone, but he came over and took the picture with us as close as possible without touching. Although I thanked him afterward and shook his hand anyways, but all in all it was a lot of fun. Ryan Braun was a classy individual who signed autographs for everyone and even took a couple pictures that made some little kids day and maybe even some big kids.

So the Brewers lost but I felt like I had a winning day(yeah kinda cheesy I got it). I should have the facebook photos coming up here very soon.