1988 Score, Jamie Quirk

#577 Jamie Quirk

Here is the third and final card that Jamie Quirk signed for me at Fanfest.

Today, I went to my first baseball game of the year. No, I wasn't able to make it to Spring Training. But I was able to make it to a Division 1 NCAA game. I went to Wichita and saw the Wichita State Shockers defeat the Long Beach State Dirtbags, 7-5. It was a great game that went back and forth until the seventh when the Shockers scored four to take the lead and hold it. Here is a picture of my first pitch of the year.



I bought a ten dollar ticket that should have had me sitting in a seat behind the third base dugout. But, I decided that I wanted to sit in the sun since it was 60 degrees. So, I went and sat in the left field bleachers. I didn't wear a hat, so half of my face and forehead got burnt. I even have a nice raccoon eye from wearing my sunglasses. But, it was well worth it to see these two great baseball schools battle it out.

It looks like a sparse crowd in the stands, but that is not the case. Most of the people that go to WSU games sit in the outfield. It costs $6 for a GA ticket (outfield berm). They all bring at least two of three products when they sit out there- lawn chair, cooler, and/or grill. That's right, you can bring a grill to the game at Wichita State (no charcoal grills, though). How cool is that? I have been to over 50 professional ballparks and have never seen one that allows that. As for the coolers, you can bring anything in them that is not in a glass bottle. Yes, even canned beer. Again, this is the only park that I have ever been to that lets you bring your own beer. I didn't take a picture of the area today, but here is a picture from a game I was at last year. Keep in mind that at last year's game, it was about 10 degrees cooler and was played against Harvard.



This area was packed today.

I'm sorry to get side-tracked from the autographed card tonight. But, I love going to games and I love talking up the local teams. I originally started this blog to get used to blogger so that I could start a blog about all of the ballparks that I have been to. Well, I have enjoyed this one so much (and contributing at Auto-Matic For the People) that the ballpark page has been moved to the back-burner. I just need to figure out how to make a website and then I wouldn't have to worry about a ballpark blog. But, if anyone would like to see some of the ballparks that I have been to (and you have a myspace account) go here. If you don't have a myspace account (I don't blame you), you can still see most of the ballparks that I have been to. It isn't really up to date.