OT: Rite of Passage - Took My Nine Year Old To His First Game Last Night (and that's going to be hard to beat)
As I get older there are things about growing up that have stuck with me through time. One of those memories is my late father taking me to my first baseball game at Tiger Stadium way back in 1968 to see them take on the Washington Senators. I remember today how huge the place looked, the sounds, eating hotdogs (best hotdog ever) and just how exciting and alive the stadium was. Earl Wilson was pitching that day for Detroit and I remember getting a program and trying to keep score on it like my dad showed me to. I remember hoping a foul ball came our way (it didn't) and while not completely understanding what was going on I knew it seemed very important. My dad, like me today, wasn't a huge baseball fan, but we had fun and the I remember the Tigers beat the Senators on a pinch-hit, walk-off home run in exrra innings by the late, great Gates Brown. It was so exciting!
Tonight I am taking my nine year old son to his first baseball game at Progressive Field here in Cleveland. While Tommy and my wife will be sporting Indians gear, I'll be representing the Tigers in section 130, row V, along with hopefully more than a few of my fellow Michiganders. Verlander's on the bump and it's Omar Visquel jersey night so the place should be packed and rocking. Hopefully he remembers tonight when he's 54 as fondly as I do my first game today.
Go Tigers!
Edit: Well that's going to be hard to top. That game had just about everything a nine year old first time fan could want. Great pitching, back and forth action, home runs, a ninth inning comeback from the home team, extra innings and a win for the good guys. And Fireworks!!! It doesnt get much better than that and he (and I) had an absolute blast.
PS: You'll note that we "split the dfference" in Tommy's clothing. A Tigers hat for dad and an Indians shirt for mom but trust me, the boy was 100% Tigers in his cheering!
Good story and thanks for sharing. My first game was back in 1992 it was a late September game between 2 pretty bad teams in the Tigers and Red Sox, but that's just the way baseball was around Detroit in the 90's to early 2000's. That said I saw Skeeter Barnes score on a walk-off error and the Tigers won 3-2 on a complete game from Frank Tanana.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where not only did we have UoM season tickets but we also had a package of I believe 12-15 Tigers games a year. I thank my Dad today for raising me as a baseball fan, I'll hopefully do the same someday for my kids as well.
. I'm sure your son will enjoy the trip.
Have fun tonight! Go Tigers!
I actually took the kids to their first game at Comerica last June, wishing I could have taken then to the old park at Michigan & Trumbull but having fun all the same. I actually think my son ate more hot dogs than I did, but then I remember my dad and I would have that contest on occasion at Tiger Stadium. Since then, they've been to two Mud Hens games too. It meant more to me to do that than I thought it would actually, and even if my kids don't turn out to be the baseball fan that I am, they are still special moments to me and hopefully them.
We're moving to Cleveland this fall, so we'll have plenty of other father-son moments at Progressive Field, especially when the Tigers are in town.
We arrived early and sat behind the White Sox dugout. A young pitcher came over and signed my ticket stub before the game. Bobby Thigpen went on to capture the single season save record that year.
I was so stoked J don't remember if the Tigers won or lost. I loved Tram, Chet Lemon, and Sweet Lou Whitacker. oh and those little chocolate malt cups with the wooden spoons.
We went to many Tigers games after that. I remember seeing a number of Cecil Fielder's home runs in his magical year.
OH MY GOD, the malt cups!!!! How could I forget about those!
(I just saw that the game is in Cleveland, hopefully the bus makes the trip.)
(Had to use the double post for something)
+1 for best hot dog ever!
The first game I took my daughter to was in '07. Verlander's 1st no hitter against the Brewers and Prince Fielder. My daughter was 8. What a great nite that was. Have fun.
Awesome! My first big league game was in mom's hometown of Cleveland as well. They just so happened to be playing the Tigers that night. I vividly remember Bobby Higginson hitting 3 homeruns for the Tigs. A quick google search shows that it was June 24, 2000. Almost 14 years ago to the day. I'm sure your son will remember something awesome from today. In my humble opinion, baseball is the best game to take in as a family.
my first Tigers game. It wasn't my dad that brought me, but my Little League bus trip to Tiger Stadium.
OTOH, all 3 of my kids took in their first Tigers game with their dad and mom. My youngest (only boy out of 3 kids) had his first game at the age of 4 (6 weeks before his 5th birthday)--- it was the first game of the final series ever to be played at Tiger Stadium back in '99. While my two daughters still remember going to that game (they were 12 and 10 and both had experienced their first Tigers games when they were 7 and 9), he says he doesn't recall it at all.
Oh well, at least I tried...
Enjoy that game with your son tonight, MGrowOld---you're still young enough to remember and he's now at about the perfect age to have fond lasting memories of it for the rest of his life!
The good news for your son is that he did not grow up in SE Michigan in the '90's, and therefore he has a baseball team to cheer for.
I went to my first professional baseball game at the age of 19, in 2005. So yeah, I'm kinda bitter.
My first game was at the old Tiger Stadium, must've been early 80s (so I'd have been around 8-9) with my parents & two of my siblings. I loved Sweet Lou & Tram and all those guys so much. As I recall, we had "obstructed view" seats and kept rotating as to who had the worst view by innings. Only detail I really remember of the game itself was getting smoked by the As, something like 10-1, but it was a fun day anyway!
should be mandatory for anyone who lives within striking distance of a big league ball park. question: will the indians fans be throwing beers and batteries at you and/or your son as the tigers finally right the ship and start winning again? if so, wear batting helmets!
took 3 of my boys to their first game last month at comerica. we all loved it, except for the score. and coincidentally, my oldest boy stumbled across the ticket stub last night of the first game i took him to 10 years ago. that was when we lived in san diego - we went by boat and docked it at a restaurant a block from the stadium. not a bad way to get to the game.
in 1979. I will still never forget the stale beer smell of Tiger Stadium
And BEAT CLEVELAND!
I took my 6-year old and it was a nice time, even though the Tigers lost. And that 101 questions is not an exaggeration -- everything from "Who's pitching?", "Is he any good?", "How fast did he throw it?" "Can you throw it that fast?", "How fast will he throw the next pitch?", "How can you tell it was a curve ball?", "Can you throw a curve ball?", and so on. Thankfully it was a not constant, just machine gun-like every 5-10 minutes or so when something new caught his interest and/or he was following up on one of my comments to my friend (e.g., "Boy, Verlander is struggling!")
And, of course, be ready to spend the usual excessive amount of money at the concession stands.
Have fun.
And is one hell of a good cook too.......
Enjoy the game and cheer on those Tigers MGrowOld!
I have taken my son to at least a game a year since he was born. He is lucky my job provides perks that provide me tickets because he has attended more events at the age of 7 then I did my first 20 years of life.
We left Nathan in too long. Ausmus should have put Joba in after the 2nd hit.
I don't disagree per say, but Joba has also pitched his last 3 games, by all accounts he was unavailable tonight. We will certainly see if that changes with these circumstances.
nice start from Verlander. nice finish from Coke. Boy, it's been awhile since we could say either of those things!
from MGrowOld? I'm guessing he and his son had the time of their lives and were so worn down by it all that it was probably time to call it a day once home.
I'll be looking forward to reading it Sunday, though.
Although I did take my son to his first Tigers' game, our best sports related afternoon was in '89. I scored a couple of tickets to the basketball game vs. WI. He was roughly 9, 10 years old. He counted Rice's threes in pregame and was simply amazed when he hit like a dozen in a row. Having wonderful seats, we saw some great athletes right in front of us. The best, imo, was yet to come.
We walked out of Crisler and we saw the Big House. He had never been. He asked me if we could go inside. I said, "Sure, it'll allow traffic to clear for the ride home." I can still recall him pretending he was holding the football as he ran up and down that snow covered field with just the two of us in the stadium. I eventually joined him on the field and we laid there making snow angels. It was great listening to him telling me what he was going to do on that field some day. I thought we'd be talking bb and fb all the way home. When I hit 94 I looked over and he was out and remained that way for the 3 1/2 hr ride home. Good times, bro. Cherish them.
that i thought that great wind-up to your time in the stadium was going to end up with some form of 'but then stadium security came and we had to flee. they eventually arrested us, put my son in the juvie lock-up, ....' fortunately it ended wonderfully.
Mark "The Bird" Fidrych was pitching. Struck out 9 that night. The strangest things you remember...
in your edit of the OP, MGrowOld! That game last night, exciting to the end with the right team winning for your son, was the kind of game that makes for great memories.
Thanks for sharing.
Too bad you are not going to games this fall, You are becoming kind of famous around MGOBLOG and I was going to get your autograph!
My autograph and $4.00 will almost buy you a gallon of gas these days.
Thanks for the nice words Rob & Mabel. We really did have so much fun.
and recap. i note that none of them show you as beer splashed or battery dashed and i will take it the indian fans were well-behaved. anybody try to get an 'oiho' (not a typo) cheer going?
A close game, extra innings, home runs galore, a blown save by Nathan (vintage Nathan!), an as-of-late rare extra base hit from Miggy which happened to be the game winner...and a save by Coke! Looked like a great crowd last night, too.