#Natitude

Last Monday night, SRK and I went to Nationals Park to see the Nats take on the Milwaukee Brewers. I grew up an Orioles fan, and Nats Park is still fairly new, so I'd never been to a game there before! I was happy to have SRK there for my first experience.

We got downtown about 1.5 hours before gametime, so we spent some time at the Bullpen, an outdoor area right next to the stadium that has beer, mixed drinks, music, and cornhole {I heard someone call it 'bags.' Shame on northern souls.} It was a neat place!

The weather forecast made us a little leery - okay, a lot leery - predicting scattered storms throughout the evening. The rain was fairly constant during the day, but stopped around mid-afternoon and luckily held off for great weather at the baseball game. Clouds be gone!

Our tickets cost $2. Yep, two bucks. The service charge for ordering online cost more than the actual tickets. Our seats weren't bad, and it was a beautiful day. Definitely worth it! I was surprised at how empty the ballpark was. Maybe because it was a Monday night, or because it was a holiday week?

obligatory selfie

Bryce Harper - the 20-year old phenom - just returned from the DL, and this was his first game back. He is a fan favorite, so it was fun to see his return to the lineup! He didn't disappoint the crowd - he bats third, and on his first pitch in the first inning, he hit a solo home run. Bryce is back!

The game wound up as a 10-5 Nationals win. There was a lot of action and scoring to keep it interesting, so it was a great game to be at! It was also Dollar Dog night, so SRK took advantage of the $1 hot dogs. The beer was pretty good, too. :)

I will always be an Orioles fan, simply because I'm from Maryland and grew up with the O's {and Cal Ripken!} and the Nationals didn't exist until I was in high school. But, I could totally get on board with the Natitude movement. The stadium is beautiful, the fans seem loyal and fun {despite the shallow turnout}, and I love that the team continues to grow and improve. Plus, Natitude is a pretty super pun. And I am a big supporter of puns.

I see a Nationals t-shirt in my future!

Questions of the day:
Have you ever been to an MLB game?
Do you root for your hometown team?

A Diamond Heels Love Affair

As you may know, I am a huge baseball fan. My brother played baseball for over 10 years, and when I was little I had no choice but to tag along to all of the games, road trips, and tournaments. In high school, I was a manager/scorekeeper {yes, I know how to keep a score book!} for the varsity baseball team for 2 years. I guess you could say I was hooked?

The NCAA Division I baseball playoffs began this weekend. UNC - because we are awesome - truly - was awarded the #1 overall seed in the entire tournament {hello cool!}, which means that we hosted a double elimination Regional tournament made up of 4 teams. If we win the Regional tournament, we go on to host a Super Regional, which is a best of three series against one team.

My friend NC and I bought tickets to the UNC game on Friday night, as well as to the "final" {potentially} on Sunday evening. So on Friday after camp, I spent a glorious evening at the Bosh watching the Heels take down the Canisius Golden Griffins {yes}.

Carolina victory!

Luckily, things went as planned - UNC won its second game - so it played in the Sunday evening game versus Florida Atlantic. Another beautiful day!

 Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as well for the Heels on Sunday night - we ended up losing to FAU, aided by our 15 men left on base during the game. Luckily the tournament was double elimination and that was our first loss so the two teams played again last night...

...and the Heels were victorious!!! After 13 long innings, which ended around 1:15am and included a grand slam and a 3 run homer, we won 12-11 on a walk-off single; one of many recaps here. Coincidentally, the pitcher for FAU was the brother of a family baseball friend's girlfriend from MD. Confusing explanation, but a small world!

The beautiful news is that we now go on to host the Super Regional this Fri-Sat-Sun {if needed} against South Carolina - a traditionally formidable baseball school. I have commitments most of the weekend, but am hoping to get a ticket from a friend for the Friday afternoon game.

Go Heels, Go America. It's a #gdtbath

{source}

Questions of the day:

What are your feelings about baseball?

If you have graduated, do you still go to sporting events at your alma mater?

Maryland + Baseball

Happy Monday, folks! I'm coming at you from Maryland this morning {hooray!}. I'm up here dogsitting for the week, and whenever I come home to visit, even when I'm working, it kind of feels like I'm on vacation. So the blog may be a little bit lonely this week; if it is, I apologize in advance. More than likely, it will consist mainly of photographs of dogs. But I know that's why you read it in the first place.

I managed to have a very full, delightful, and busy weekend before I made the drive to Maryland, beginning with a Friday afternoon apartment showing in Chapel Hill. AK is out of the country so she wasn't able to go with me, but the apartment was lovely. The complex seems well-maintained with fairly new amenities. My only concerns are that trash/water/sewer is not included in the rent price, it's more expensive than the area is probably worth, and it might be a little too far from campus for me. TBD.

Post-appointment I was headed to the UNC baseball game, but I had about 1.5 hours to kill, so I headed over to the boys' house. They are all in Cabo, and the spare key wasn't where it's supposed to be, so I couldn't get inside - so instead I sat on their front porch, drank a Corona, and caught up on some e-mails.

 There was a very high chance of storms, but the weather ended up being absolutely perfect for Friday evening baseball. UNC ended up winning the game, and with that win they officially topped the ACC standings. Go Heels! The ACC tournament is this weekend at the Durham Bulls stadium, but I unfortunately won't get to go to any of the games since I'm in MD.

Colin Moran, junior, 3B. I want to be his best friend.

 After the game, I walked back to my car through our beautiful campus so I could enjoy some evening views of my favorite place on  Earth. Worth it:

Bell Tower

On Saturday night I met some family friends at the Durham Bulls game for a second helping of baseball. My mom's goddaughter goes to school in Durham, and we've been trying to set up a time to get together ever since I got off my crutches. Her family happened to be in town this weekend, and they offered me an extra ticket to the baseball game, so there we were. The Bulls actually played the Norfolk Tides, which is an AAA affiliate of our very own Baltimore Orioles, which was a very cool coincidence.

 The Bulls won in only 7 innings. Right after the 7th inning ended, all of a sudden it started POURING. I mean this was a legitimate soaking rain. We ran to cover and tried to wait it out for a while; eventually, we gave up and made a {long} dash to the cars.

The whole family {minus 1!}

The D family used to live in Maryland and attend our church, but many years ago moved to NC. We don't get to see them much - especially with all 6 kids together! - so it was so wonderful to see them {minus 1 who is studying abroad}. There are a few teachers in the family, and I always enjoy picking the brains of new teachers, so that was an added bonus.

More weekend recap tomorrow. See you then!

Question of the Day:
Baseball - yay or nay?