Home Opener 2022, Sort Of
Well, as predicted, there was a lock out. Although an agreement was reached before any of the regular season was lost, it did push the home opener from March 31 to April 15. The new date was the first night of Passover, so we were at my parents instead of in Cleveland and I missed the home opener for the third year in a row. Naturally, the Tribe lost. From 2002 to 2019 I made it to 15 of 17 home openers, and since then there was 2020 which had no opener, and 2021 and 2022 when I didn't go.
However, there is more positive news. On Thursday, April 21, I had my season tickets for the get-away game in the afternoon against the White Sox. M dropped me off outside the stadium around 12:30. It had rained most of the night and morning and was grey and dingy, and my friend Tony had to bail at the last possible moment due to a last second childcare problem, so I was in my seats alone.
Owing to the weather and the time, there weren't a lot of people around me. However, the sun came out around the third inning, my buddy Jazzbo moved down next to me from his seats in the upper deck, and there was a pretty enjoyable baseball game with a Tribe win. I broke out the previously unused new scorebook I had purchased after the 2019 season. I even had some ice cream.
So yeah, it wasn't the Home Opener and lacked all the festivities, but since the team (finally) dropped the Indians name in the off season, it was my very first Guardians game. It was also the very time I attended any kind of public event since the start of the pandemic. It was exactly 2 years and 1 month since my last radio show, which was the last time I was really at a "public" building of any kind. M and I reasoned that the game was outside and wouldn't be crowded and were correct on both counts.
As far as the rest of the season goes, at the end of the 2019 season I had moved up to 15 games. Since 2020 proceeded without any fans, those were rolled to 2021. I didn't use any of them in that year, but had 6 rolled to 2022. I opted to move back down to 10 total games for the year, figuring that between Birdie and the uncertainty of the pandemic I didn't want to risk more money. This means I've got at least 9 more games to go this year, and I hope to use them all.
However, there is more positive news. On Thursday, April 21, I had my season tickets for the get-away game in the afternoon against the White Sox. M dropped me off outside the stadium around 12:30. It had rained most of the night and morning and was grey and dingy, and my friend Tony had to bail at the last possible moment due to a last second childcare problem, so I was in my seats alone.
Owing to the weather and the time, there weren't a lot of people around me. However, the sun came out around the third inning, my buddy Jazzbo moved down next to me from his seats in the upper deck, and there was a pretty enjoyable baseball game with a Tribe win. I broke out the previously unused new scorebook I had purchased after the 2019 season. I even had some ice cream.
So yeah, it wasn't the Home Opener and lacked all the festivities, but since the team (finally) dropped the Indians name in the off season, it was my very first Guardians game. It was also the very time I attended any kind of public event since the start of the pandemic. It was exactly 2 years and 1 month since my last radio show, which was the last time I was really at a "public" building of any kind. M and I reasoned that the game was outside and wouldn't be crowded and were correct on both counts.
As far as the rest of the season goes, at the end of the 2019 season I had moved up to 15 games. Since 2020 proceeded without any fans, those were rolled to 2021. I didn't use any of them in that year, but had 6 rolled to 2022. I opted to move back down to 10 total games for the year, figuring that between Birdie and the uncertainty of the pandemic I didn't want to risk more money. This means I've got at least 9 more games to go this year, and I hope to use them all.