Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

...take me out with the crowd!

This past Sunday we took a family trip down the road to Dodger Stadium to see the boys in blue take on the.. other.. boys in blue -- my Chicago Cubs.

 (I'll get this out of the way ahead of time and just let you know that, yes, I attended all three Cubs-Dodgers games last weekend, and the Cubs did, in fact, lose all three. Such is the life of a Cubs fan.)

Ellie and I had been talking about the game all week.. and we'd gotten pretty excited for it.  Me because it'd be the first time we'd get to take Ellie to a baseball game that she'd remember. (She did make it to a game when we lived in Boston.. but she was quite young.) Ellie kept telling us how "the baseball game is like a movie theater with big chairs and lots of people."  She remembers the *one* time we took her to a movie to watch "Beauty and the Beast 3D."  I suppose it wasn't too far off, though.

We had some very nice seats on the upper deck behind home plate.. but it was very hot that day so we moved around Dodger Stadium quite a bit.. to sit in shady seats where they were available. We also took a few walks through the concourses to keep cool.

 Ellie was very interested in what I was writing down on the scorecard.  I tried explaining how to score a game to her, but she was more keen on practicing her "E's," "H's," and "L's."

She was also very keen on her first Dodger Dog.

She almost finished the whole thing, actually.  Just a couple bites were left over.

 Ellie learned sportsmanship at this game. "I can say 'Go Cubbies!," but if you want to say 'Go Dodgers!' that's okay, too. If you want to." I think she's right. I'm a Cubs fan. Ann pretends to be a Dodgers fan.. so it's more or less fair.  I also don't mind the Dodgers at all and hope they do well.. on days when they *don't* play the Cubs, anyway.

Ann and Ellie were happy to share two frozen lemonades during the game.

The game itself was an exciting one -- a back-and-forth affair featuring several lead changes and two bullpens who really didn't want to nail down the game for their respective club. Unfortunately (for me), the Cubs wound up losing 7-6.  But the best part of the day, for me, was when we got to take Ellie out onto the field. It was "Kids Run the Bases Day" at Dodger Stadium.. and we weren't going to miss this chance despite the long line we had to stand in.

It was like a conveyor belt of kids down there.  Adults weren't allowed to come except in the most special of circumstances.  Ellie had been asking for the better part of the game, "Can I go run on the field now? I want to run on the bases." And when she got the chance.. she was not disappointed.  You can see her rounding 1st base down there if you squint. She was really chugging.. and did a great job staying in the base paths.

Here's Ellie after touching home plate.

It was a great day for baseball.. and I hope we can do it again soon.