On Saturday, we went to Cincinnati to watch the Reds play the Boston Red Sox. The Sox won the World Series last year, but this is the first time they played each other since the Big Red Machine beat them in the historic 1975 World Series. This was Juliana's first baseball game. Look at her cute outfit, how she's dressed up for Flag Day (June 14th). We got Reds flags for the stadium give-away and we sat in the right field corner Family Section, next to the visiting bullpen.The opposing pitcher was Tim Wakefield, who went to my high school long before I did. I hollered out "Let's Go Commodores!" to try and rattle his cage a little bit. The Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez is the NL strikeouts and ERA leader and part of the puzzle to turning the Reds into a contender next year.
The seats in the Family Section were alcohol-free and near concessions, bathrooms and the play area (good), but out in the sun and partially behind the right-field foul pole (bad). Juliana and Blake stayed under their ball caps. Juliana tried catching her afternoon nap but kept waking up to home runs, fireworks, and fans shouting back-and-forth, Let's Go Redlegs vs. Let's Go Red Sox. Blake understands what baseball is, it's where you get to hit the ball with a stick in the grass and not in mommy's living room. I'm just trying to teach him the vocabulary, like "bat", "ball", and "Go Reds".
There were plenty of home runs on both sides, but Edwin Encarnacion's 9th-inning homer off Boston's closer Papelbon got the stadium rocking and tied it 4-4, before a Cincinnati-native Kevin Youkilis killed us with a Red Sox home run. It was a good game, although we came up short in the end. It was almost like the last game we came to Cincinnati for in 2006, when the Reds' Adam Dunn hit a grand slam in the 9th inning to beat the Indians.
Best of all, we got to enjoy a baseball game in the friendly Great American Ball Park, tasted that famous Graeter's ice cream (Juliana loved her first taste of ice cream), Skyline chili, Penn Station subs and saw Hall of Fame-bound and 600 HR club member, Ken Griffey, Jr. and future stars like Volquez, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce (Bruuuuuce!!!).
P.S. - For those of you wondering why Josh wasn't in the picture, he was at Scout Camp in nearby Indiana. We picked him up after the game. He spent the week at camp with 2 of his uncles and 3 cousins. He had a fun and productive week and proudly came home with 6 out of 7 merit badges earned. Way to go, Josh!
