For the Love of Balls

Hey Sports Fans.

Decker's. The rendezvous point.

So the last few years or so, The Kings of the Hill have made it a point to travel out to the Dow Diamond for the Great Lakes Loons' Opening Night. Always the first Friday of April, the game kicks off at 6pm and usually runs until like 9 or 9:30pm or so. Some of the dads meet up to pre-drink and eat dinner beforehand, and the last couple years we've gotten together to do this we've met up first at Decker's (which is like a two block walk from the Diamond - works out perfectly.)

This year I didn't get out to Decker's until like 5:30pm, so I met up with the rest of the guys just as they were paying their bills and getting ready to set out. From there we walked to the diamond, grabbed some beers, and settled into our seats for about, oh, two innings of baseball before getting bored. Then we did what we always end up doing - walking laps around the diamond, drinking beer, meeting up with other folks, and otherwise just enjoying the start of yet another season.

Anyway, here's some pics and video detailing the evening. Enjoy. . .

Morgan had been the first to arrive to Deckers. . . at, like, 2:30pm.

Three hours later, Mitch and Morgan leaving the bar after an early dinner.

As we were leaving, Lonnie went to go move his truck. . . and totally rammed into the back of this random-ass boat that was parked out front. At the sound of the crash, a waitress ran out and asked who had hit the boat, then proceeded to tell the rest of us that that was like the third or fourth time that boat had been hit that afternoon. Can't make this shit up, folks.

A short walk later, we had arrived at Dow Diamond.

After grabbing some drinks, we went to go find our seats.

Same exact seats as last year - the first section, all the way to the back (so no one sat behind us.) 

Decent turnout for Opening Night (as is usually the case.)

Go Sportball.

Alayna and that Sebastian guy she's gone on a few dates with went to the game as well, so while we were there we made it a point to track them down and embarrass the holy hell out of her whenever possible (managed to do so a half a dozen times, thereabouts.) Parenting 101, folks.

From Left to Right: Mitch, Morgan, Yours Truly, Rob, Lonnie, Erik, and Steven.

Spying on the teenagers, yet again.

They have these phone charging lockers at the Diamond, which Lonnie was forced to utilize early on in the evening (because apparently he doesn't know how to keep his phone charged like an adult.)

Rob and Erik. Sharing gloves.

Morgan and Steven, waiting in line for another round.

On one of our laps around the playing field, we ran into the Cannonball and her new flame again.

Walking behind the scoreboard.

These puny-ass fires weren't doing much to alleviate the chilly weather this evening. It was in the mid-40s and windy.

Cannonball took this one, from across the field. That's me in the light grey hoodie and black vest, with the hood up (because it's zoomed in so much the pic is blurry as hell.)

Crappy solar panels, not pictured.

The Kings of the Hill

After an hour or two of walking around we headed back to our seats to watch another inning of baseball (considering we had paid for the tickets, it was probably wise to watch a little bit of the actual game.)

That didn't last long, though - we were up moving about again after a few minutes. Too damn cold out to sit still in the seats like that.

This game was a bloodbath. Loons got curb-stomped by something like 8 runs, I forget. Hooray for the home team.

By the 7th or 8th inning, the writing was on the wall - we definitely weren't winning this one. That, and all the restaurants and kiosks were shutting down, so we couldn't get any more beer.

So, not ready to call it a night quite yet, we decided to leave Dow Diamond and head downtown.

. . . but not before getting some obligatory pictures in front of the Loons train (or whatever the hell it's called.)

And one with me ('cause I'm usually the guy snapping the pics.)

Did you know Rob can do a cartwheel?  Neither did we.

Morgan and Lonnie decided they were all funned out for the evening and walked back to Decker's to get their cars. The rest of us continued on towards the downtown scene, and of course we had to stop and get a group selfie under these hanging lights.

(Erik wanted to try and get one with more of the lights in it.)

Decided to pop into Brinstar - the retro arcade bar we hit up from time to time - for some beers and their famous spring rolls.

They weren't too busy this evening, so we were able to get a table right away (which was weird, considering the game was close to letting out.)

The bathrooms in this place are down a super long, narrow hallway. The sort of place you wouldn't want to be cornered by a monster or a ghost or a rapist or something.

Seriously. Who designed this nonsense?

Some wall graffiti along the hallway.

Another dad selfie before we paid our bills and took off for the next stop.

I would straight up DOMINATE this trivia night.

Next up was Three Bridges - probably one of the shittiest bars I've ever been to, but it's popular with some of the people in our group so I just suck it up and deal with it.

We were lucky enough to nab a table at this joint, too.

There's not a whole heck of a lot I like to drink at this place - the liquor is over-priced and their beer sucks ass. I pulled the trigger on some 'brown ale' that ended up tasting more like a porter, and I loathe porters. Took me about an hour to drink this thing.

Steven had definitely had a few drinks over the course of the last several hours, and was putting his military-themed Loons hat on all the guys, trying to see who wanted it (I guess he didn't want it anymore, I forget why.) Not my style, that's for sure.

Ran into Kyro and his group of dads while we were there - him and his crew (some of which are in the guys' Fantasy Football League) always go out for Opening Night as well. All in all, a fun evening and one that we'll be for sure repeating next year. Gotta root for the home team, gang.

- Brian