This, really, has nothing whatsoever to do with motherhood, but it’s a good heartwarming story and I’m going to share it anyway.
My husband’s first love in life was baseball, and I’m glad to say they’ve still got a healthy relationship in spite of the steroid years and the Giants’ fluke World Series win last fall. So each year, his parents get us 2 tickets to go see the Philadelphia Phillies (his beloved team since childhood) play the Houston Astros, which are the closest NL team to us. This year we decided to go to a day game on a Wednesday afternoon. Elvis took a day off work, and we packed up the baby and all his supplies (my favorite aunt lives about 30 minutes from Minute Maid Park and was just dying to babysit), and hoofed it over to H-town. We’d just gotten to the park and were making our way inside when I reminded E that our tickets were in his glove. I guess "reminded" is the wrong word, since he swears I didn’t mention it. Needless to say, in the 40 or so yards we’d walked between exiting from the car and stopping to take a picture in front of a giant Sun Drop mural, the tickets were simply gone. We panicked for a few minutes, and then decided to go to the Will-Call office. My MIL had paid for the tickets on her credit card, so maybe – just maybe – they would see we hadn’t made it up and would let us in anyway. After all, the park was empty. We don’t call ‘em the Lastros for nothin’. Before we could even get to Will-Call, though, we had a run-in with fate.
Two older gentlemen who had obviously overheard our plight had 2 tickets that they were just going to give us. We were, of course, suspicious off the bat. Why on earth would anyone give away two perfectly good tickets to a baseball game? Especially to Elvis and myself, who were sporting Phillies tshirts and hats. It turns out they were company seats (read: free) and neither of the mens’ wives had wanted to go to the game. The seats were in the 23rd row behind the home team dugout, which basically means they were … FANTASTIC seats. These gents were just going to enjoy the extra leg room, but instead they absolutely made my husband’s birthday. No catch, no strings. The guy wouldn’t even let Elvis buy him a beer to thank him for saving the day. He just wanted to talk some baseball with someone who knew something about the subject, and boy did he pick the right guy! Elvis reads baseball statistics books for fun during the summer. He can tell you with no hesitation who pitched in any World Series game in history, how many innings, and what the final score was. I mean, he really LOVES baseball.
The Phillies ended up beating the Astros 1-0 that day (we got to see Roy Halladay pitch his first complete game shutout of the season!), but the greatest part was the kindness of 2 strangers. It warmed my heart and made me so thankful that I will be raising my son in a world where people still go out of their way to take care of one another. What a wonderful birthday gift.
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