Whoever said baseball is boring...

....is SO WRONG!

Last night John and I got to go to the Wildcard Tiebreaker game between the Padres and Rockies. Oh my gosh! It was so much fun!

Now, I grew up in a "baseball" family. But my enjoyment of the game basically involved Dodger dogs, salty peanuts and going home after the 7th inning stretch and singing the "baseball song." I liked hanging out at the stadium and I was lucky if I saw a hit or 2 and occasionally glanced down to see a guy in a uniform run from base to base. My brother , Mark, on the other hand, lived and breathed baseball as a kid. He liked everything....especially the stats and all the math...and the baseball cards. (Very weird.) So I kind of tolerated his passion for the sport and tried not to act totally bored when he recounted everything any player had ever done and what would happen if he hit this run or stole that base or made 2 more catches. Yada, yada, yada.....

But, last night all of that changed. John and I watched THE BEST game of baseball.

I was on the edge of my seat...if not standing on my seat for the majority of the game. I was cheering, and yelling, and booing & taunting the opposing team. I was high-fiveing the fans around me. I was actually reading the board and finding out things about the players that made me change the way I looked at them. I learned about batting averages. I began to expect different things from players. I watched the pitches and began to see the difference between a fast ball, a curve ball and a slider. I got mad when the umpire called strikes that were obviously balls. I paid attention to the batting line-up and knew when to expect greatness and when to hope that they put in a PH. :)

And throughout the whole game, I kept thinking of my little brother, Mark, and how proud he would be of me. I was also bummed John didn't have his number programmed in his cell (what?) because I had lots of questions for him. I was constantly quizzing John and every now and then, John would say, "that's something only Mark would know."

I watched every single second of the game with absolute intensity. I loved it! It was fantastic. I was so excited....the energy in the stadium was out of control. I refused to leave my seat to go to the bathroom, afraid I would miss something. (Yes, it was that good.)

So, I'm now officially a baseball fan. I"m beginning to "get" the game and why so many people love it.

GO ROCKIES!!!!!