Well I know it has a been a little while since I last posted so lets do a recap of what has happened since my last post. Albert Pujols hit his first home run as an Angel, the AL East has been flipped upside down with the Orioles on top and the Red Sox and Yankees on the bottom, Mariano Rivera got hurt which really is horrible for such a great player, oh and my wife had our first child. Yes, Mr. 9inningknowitall is now daddy 9inningknowitall (Pretty much the reason I haven’t written anything). Okay time to get back on topic.
So what do you do when the sun is out, there is no clouds in the sky and its warm enough to wear shorts and not shiver to death? I don’t know about everyone else but I go watch baseball and that is just what I did on Sunday. Even though I am a huge baseball fan, I actually went to my first ever college baseball game and watched as Stanford took on Oregon State.
I didn’t know what to expect going to this game. I didn’t know if the stadium would be empty because it just college baseball or if it would be packed BECAUSE its college baseball. Come to find out it was a sell out game but because the stadium wasn’t huge it didn’t feel crowded. In fact my dad who bought the tickets didn’t realize that he got us front row seats (despite being row F, the stadium design is the reason) along the third base side. The atmosphere was fun and given the fact that alcohol was not served inside of the stadium it made it a great place to take a family. Heck even fans with Stanford gear on were treated with respect and playfulness.
The main reason I was going was to see a few specific players on Stanford’s team, and I wanted autographs but had to leave the game early because of my responsibilities as a new dad. Even though I was going to see players from Stanford, it was an Oregon State Freshman who really caught my attention. Michael Conforto, rated last year as one of Baseball Americas top 100 prospects for the draft, showed glimpses of why they rated him that high. Its rare when a player can hit a foul ball that impresses me but on Sunday Conforto did just that. Conforto hit a ball that seemed to fly into orbit and would of been a huge home run except for the fact that he pulled it just a little too much. As soon as the ball left his bat the entire stadium knew that he had just hit a bomb. Conforto isn’t eligible to be drafted until the 2014 draft, but in the mean time he is one to watch.
As for the Stanford guys I was there to see in the first place I was disappointed. Brian Ragira, AJ Venegas, and Kenny Diekroeger all showed that they were solid players. In all I have to say that even though I got a sun burn on my knees and arms the overall experience was great and I plan on making trips to games far more often over the next few years.
Sounds like a good day in baseball indeed. 🙂