The longest day (of baseball)

All I really wanted to do on my family vacation to San Diego in mid-April was take my kids to their first Major League Baseball game in hopes it would be something memorable. I secretly hoped something historic would happen, you know, for my six kids' sake. Something they could tell their grandkids about.

Turned out it was a memorable and historic night — in ways I never could have imagined. Like they say, be careful of what you wish for.

A couple of weeks earlier, I purchased eight $8 tickets to the April 17 game between the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies. It seemed like a bargain, though the seats were located in the left-field stands. I felt like a hero, even for a guy who earns a living by getting into games for free.

My wife and children were thrilled to get out of town for spring break, especially after a harsh Utah winter. We swam at the hotel, soaked up the sun, played at the beach and spent a day at SeaWorld. But what I was looking forward to most was the Padres-Rockies showdown at Petco Park, a stadium I had never visited before.

Despite hitting some traffic (what else is new?), we got settled into our seats about 10 minutes before the opening pitch. I was happy to see that we weren't as far away from the field as I had feared. The view was good, especially for $8 tickets. As we settled into our seats on a balmy spring evening in San Diego, my kids gawked at the lavish surroundings of 5-year-old Petco Park.

Things were great until the bottom of the first inning, when a group of rowdy, ribald college kids showed up and planted themselves in the row directly behind us. I knew they would be trouble from the start. They were all carrying big cups of beer and one of them accidently spilled some down my wife's back as he attempted to sit down in his seat behind her. The kid apologized and tried to clean up the mess, but my wife had to move one seat down, forcing one of our boys to sit on my lap for the duration of the game.

Things only got worse from there. It didn't take me long to realize why those tickets were so cheap.

As the game progressed and the hooligans behind us kept sucking down beers. It was like watching a scene from "Animal House." I thought it somewhat ironic, that the name of the Padres' manager is Bud. Bud Black.

While I spent $64 for tickets, I'm sure one those guys spent at least that much on beer by the fourth inning.

Right below our seats, playing left field for the Rockies, was Matt Holliday, the runner-up in the National League MVP voting in 2007 and the reigning 2007 National League Championship Series MVP. Unfortunately, the beer consumption by the guys behind us hadn't impaired their memories any. They knew, of course, that Holliday had scored the controversial winning run against their Padres the previous October in a 13-inning, one-game playoff at Coors Field in Denver.

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