Date Night with the Loons

What's up, Readers.

The weather this evening was awesome - sunny and low '70s. . .

So my good buddy, Erik, recently won a Suite at the Dow Diamond for a Loons baseball game this season (a few weeks ago, at some hunter's banquet or some shit - he's always going to one of those.)  Suites are private rooms equipped with indoor and outdoor seating, a full kitchen, and a balcony overlooking the diamond - kinda like a VIP room for baseball.  We've gotten one before, back in 2020, when it was all the dads that went, and it was a lot of fun. 

Erik consulted with the group in order to gauge interest and availability, and we ultimately landed on this evening to take advantage of it.  All of the families except for the Griffins were able to make it out, which is about the same sort of turn out you'd expect for one of our friend group's larger parties (SuperBowl, Halloween, etc.)  We all met up there around 6pm and kicked off what would end up being a super fun evening.

Let's do this. . .

This Loons mascot - I forget what its name is - always makes the rounds throughout the Suites to greet the VIP attendees, and this evening he popped in pretty early in the game (minutes after we all got there.)  The mascot generally shows up with a handler or two, staff members that go around with it to take pictures of it with the crowd, etc.  When the mascot and handlers entered our suite, I saw that one of them was a former student of mine that I had six years ago (and who consequently took this picture of us our group. . . before everyone had showed up.)  

Baseball.  Like always, we watched for a little bit, but this game is incredibly boring to watch, so folks spent most of the time standing around, having drinks, and - of course - walking around the field.

Inside of the Suite.

I wasn't here for this, but here we have the five wives from the 'inner circle' forming a giant 'A,' to be smart-asses. There's some drama with the wives these days, as it's become evident that some of the families hang out a lot more than the others.  Us dads don't really care - it's natural that some families are closer than others - but it bothers some of the wives, I guess.  There's been some passive-aggressive comments made about A Team and B Team in the past, so these five formed this 'A' thing as a way of telling the other moms to just let it go.  I'm so glad I'm not a woman. . .

The guys all were meanwhile downstairs in the concourse, grabbing more beers and food and walking around the diamond - my favorite thing to do there.

From left to right: Kris, Amy, Danielle, Mees, Deanna, Kelli, Courtney, Susan and Alicia.  The only mom missing from our tribe is Stephanie (I think her and husband Lonnie Big Balls were away RV camping this weekend.)

Was trying to be sneaky getting this pic of this lady here, who kept shuffling nearby our group.  We can only assume she's special needs.  I'm going to Hell, 100%. 

Yours Truly, Tom, Erik, Collier, and Mitch.

Behind the Lawn.

Seriously lucked out with the weather tonight. . .

Halfway through a lap around the Diamond.

Back up at the Suite with the wives.

A bunch of us decided to take another walk around the Diamond - watching baseball, as stated before, can get super boring after awhile - and as we were walking out this old, drunk guy randomly walked up to some of us dads and began showing us some sports stats on his phone.  Totally unsolicited.  We didn't know him, we weren't talking to him - he just really wanted to show a bunch of strangers something.  What a frickin' weirdo.

The group continues along its walk (and Omkar shows off his ass.)

Erik - who, through his work, knows a lot of people around town - pointed out this guy to me as we were walking around the Diamond.  His name's Joe, and he used to be on a couple shows on Z93 back in the mid/late-90's: the morning show Joe and the Poor Boy, and the infamous weekend evening show The Captain.  This is the Captain, right here.  I might have fan-girled a little over seeing this dude walking around out in public like he's no big deal, so I just had to get a pic with him (he was totally cool with it) - told the guy he provided the soundtrack to my high school years, which I'm sure he gets all the time.  A f***ing legend, folks.

The walkabout group (not featuring Kris, who took the pic.)

Me and the ol' ball n' chain.

Full team (minus the Griffins) assembled for a group pic in front of the Diamond.

The group gets excited they were captured on the Jumbotron (just missed it, unfortunately - my bad.)

Creepy red sun going on here. . .

Someone hit the ball and did the thing.  TOUCHDOWN.

Always a good night when the home team wins.

After the game, the group begins to head out (not sure what Alicia's doing with her leg, here.)

Folks weren't quite ready to head home just yet, so we walked over to nearby Downtown and hit up Three Bridges (which, oddly enough, was packed with younger Millenials and Gen Z'ers, forcing us to sit outdoors.)

Kris and I didn't feel like having any more drinks - I had to get up super early (like, 6:30am) to help plant flowers with the Masons for the annual Midland Blooms event, so I needed to be responsible.  We weren't planning on hanging out long, so we sat down on a nearby bench while folks brought drinks back to a nearby table.)  A few folks began snapping pics of us since we looked like a 'cute couple' or some shit. . .

(Kinda looks like we actually like each other here.)

- Brian