At the Ole Ball Park

Me and Jim up and bought some bleacher seats to the O's game last night against the powerhouse Devil Rays. I think it's a great idea to go to the second game of the season. Compared to opening day, it' has half the crowd, half the fireworks, and half the lame fanfare and celebration, and you still get an early glimpse of the team. And if this game is an indication of the rest of the season for the O's, pick up the whole O's lineup for your fantasy team, at least for the month of April. Jay Gibbons may have even earned a spot on my team. Everyone was jumping out of the gate. We batted around twice in the first 4 innings and Brian Roberts had 5 plate appearances in 5 innings. Although, it's possible that going up against Seth McClung, who handily rhymes with McDung, will skew the offensive stats a bit. On the negative, Bedard looked a bit shakey, and if we weren't at the slaughter rule by the 5th inning, he may not have lasted for the win. So it's not exactly an impressive win, but it's good to see the runs on the board.

One non-game highlight was a guy 4 rows back yelling at Johnny Gomes, the D-Rays' right fielder. I've heard from SportsCenter that his name is pronounced as if it rhymed with "homes", but this guy persisted to continuously yell "hey GO-MEZ" over and over. He didn't really have any insults for him or classic put-downs, yet it seemed uproariously funny every time he yelled "Hey Go-mez". By the 3rd inning, he had about 10 other people (including me) just yelling "Go-Mez". Our whole section was eventually saying "Let's Go Go-Mez" while eveyone one else in the stadium was saying "Let's Go Orioles". We would even yell "Go-Mez!" instead of "Charge!". And to this moment, I have no idea why we were doing this. Actually, I just figured out why. Go-Mez is the perfect name to shout. Go ahead, just shout it right now. You'll understand.

Other ballpark highlights included the "Bird Man", (who was some guy sitting in the back of our section with an orange and black pom-pom wig and a toucan nose who would occasionally run to the front of the section and yell incoherently), the token Wizards Wrap-up show caller asking the Oriole Bird for an autograph (I'll let Jim explain that), and going a perfect 0-3 in the Crab Shuffle, Hot Dog Race, and Guess the Year contests on the Jumbo Screen. Plus, I still have hair in my mouth from the free O's fleece blanket they gave out, which is a great way to take home a part of the game.

All in all, it was a freezing night, a blowout game, and an expensive dinner. Everything you want and more at the ole ball park.