Friday, August 10, 2007

Small Children in Loud Places

We took our first child to see the Red Sox play in Baltimore (Fenway South) when he was just three weeks old. We didn't plan it that way; we had intended for him to be 5 weeks old, but he was born two weeks late.

He did well for the most part. The only real difficult thing for him was when a home run or near-miss would cause the thousands of Sox fans and hundreds of O's fans to stand and yell, then we'd have a minor crying fit that he recovered from quickly.

The following May, when he was closer to 8 months old we took him to see the Sox again at Citizens Bank Park. This is the only use I had for interleague play, and now that we don't live in Philadelphia I'd be just as happy if they ended the ridiculous experiment once and for all. We went with my brother's family, including their son who is a month older than mine, and they seemed to have a good time watching the crowd and each other.

Now that he's almost two (and "holy cow" to that) I'm not sure that I'll be taking him to the park for another couple of years, since he really needs to be engaged and entertained a little more directly than watching a ballgame from nosebleed seats. I can't wait to take him to Fenway when he's older though. Back before the team was sold to the current owners there was a lot of talk about moving them out of Fenway, and I was worried that I'd never get a chance to go with him, the way that my father took me when I was younger. It looks like I'll get that chance now, with all the improvements and investments being made to the property. As soon as I generate enough blood plasma to donate to get some tickets (already used the spare kidney, but thanks for the suggestion) I'll begin saving towards that day.


Oh, we took him to a AA Wilmington Blue Rocks game once too, but I don't remember much about it. Nice park, though.


How old/young do you think is a good time to take your kids to the ol' ballgame?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

May 27th, 2006. I went to see the Sox play…. Hmmm… can’t remember who, now, maybe TB? Josh got tickets for our Birthdays. Go Aires. Daniel and Tuan were at The Monkey, so, Josh and I headed down to Boston. We got to see Curt Schilling’s 200th win. It was an awesome game. Did I celebrate with a nice, cold $428 beer? Nope. ( But, Rae, you love beer!). There would be no beer, and I think Josh was a little “Huh?” about that, but never questioned me. Why no beer? Well, that is the day Tuan and I found out we were pregnant. So, Tyler went to his first Sox game at 11 days “old”. He was very well behaved.

Tuan said...

Well, if you are raising A-ROD fans i say 38......but babies are free to the parks while you might have to take out a second mortgage to get him his own seat......its a hard call. I guess it depends on the kids love for the game, 5 would be memorable for them, so I think 5. Plus its t-ball at 5, so it may mean more if they like to play as well.

Bridggymama said...

wow you totally win, 11 days pre-natal, thats awesome!

Dan said...

See, I think that both baseball AND beer should first be enjoyed pre-natally. But that's just me.

luke said...

Dan: Apparently your parents concurred. It explains so much.