Addison Road

Gretchen, Sophia and I went to watch the Angels play tonight. It was a fantastic game.

In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Angels are down by 2 runs, and the pitcher for the Astros loads 1st and 2nd base on walks. They pull him from the game, and put in a relief pitcher. The relief pitcher walks another one, and the crowd goes nut.

Reggie Willits, the kid we called up from the minor leagues this year, is everybody’s new favorite player. He bats lead-off, and he just forces pitchers to walk him. So, of course, everybody in the stadium is on their feet, cheering for, not a hit, but for Reggie to shoulder his bat and let the pitcher throws 4 balls at him. Everybody in the stadium is yelling, “Reggie, Reggie” and sure enough, Reggie puts the bat on his shoulder, and takes a walk.

Then Chone Figgins comes up right behind him, and takes another walk. The score is now tied on walks. Orlando Cabrera pops a sacrifice fly ball into right field, and Evans, who turned in a 2-run home run on his first major league hit tonight, scores from 3rd base. Angels lead by one.

And up to the plate steps Vladimir Guerrero, the most dangerous hitter in baseball. The entire place is on their feet, going nuts. Sure enough, Vlad unloads on the baseball, sends it over the wall into center field, and clears the plates. Everybody in the whole stadium is screaming at the top of their lungs, “Vla-ddy! Vla-ddy!” Everybody except for my daughter, who was jumping up and down and screaming out, “Daddy! Daddy!”

She thought the 40,000 people packed into Angel’s stadium tonight were all cheering for her daddy.