The #1 and #4 ranked posters on this site happened to attend last night's "game" at the same time. Can you believe that?

I met up with the BZA at the game and he will be putting up some pictures, shortly. It's like a combo diary / photo album, if you will. Let me preface this by saying that my buddy "Jam" and I made it to our seats in the bottom of the 6th. For whatever reason, I'll let you infer if you know me at all, too much "coordinating" took place prior to the game. No matter.

We bought the cheapest tickets we could and rolled on in. After posting up in section 343, double fisting, I finally got a chance to absorb some numbers and situations. My man, Brandon Boggs, was at the plate. 1-2 count with 1 out when we arrived, and he K'd, which sucked, cause I knew Boggs mashes LHP. Anyways, to my indifference, The Swan had been pitching himself a little bit of a ball game. 2-2 7th inning, I mean well done, dude. Let him stick around -- I'll continue to eat crow.

 ** The drama **

 Between the 7th and 8th innings, something significant happened. In OC fashion, I went down to interact with the bullpen. Now, I did this patiently. I talked to the usher at some shop behind the bullpen to ask him when the best time for approach would be. I was like dude, where's CJ? I didn't see BGL in the bullpen. Of course, the one time in my life I physically walk down to the bullpen at RBiA and BGL wouldn't be sitting there with ALL of the rest of the guys. Kam, Lizard, Rupe, Tejeda, all of them. No BGL. How frustrating.

So, I chilled for a few minutes, figuring he was in the Men's Room or taking a "BGL being BGL" break, Manny style. I went back to the usher, he echoed my suspicion. In the meantime, I spotted OMOT in the bullpen. Yep, that's right, folks. What the hell was Gerald Laird doing in the bullpen? I mean, I knew Salty was starting, at least he was when I got there in the 6th inning.

I was like fuck it, I'm gonna see what's up with "Gerry's World." So I go down there, right on the first row as close as I can, between innings, while some stupid promo is playing, perfect timing, and I'm like "Gerry, what's up? Hey, Laird, ONE MAN FIVE TOOLS." And, of course, would he only turn around once I dropped the OMFT. He turns around with a smile on his face, realizes that he's never seen me before in his life, then turns right back around in his seat. I called his name out once or twice more for good measure, then after it donned on me that I had been big-timed by Gerald fucking Laird, I go "alright, Gerry. I hear ya, then." Douche bag -- I would later return to the bullpen.

But 30 seconds later, I noticed Gerry was gone. Huh. After re-upping on brew, I head back to my seat in the highest of decks on the RF foul side. I was pissed. I knew this wasn't good for me, Gerry's karma, the team, my friend, The BZA's experience, the game itself, everything.

Then, after I call The BZA (sitting 3B side, lower levels) to report on Gerry's erratum, Jack K'd somebody on something filthy and there was uproar -- before melting down and surrendering the lead. Back to the bullpen. At first, I didn't see BGL when passing by, so I posted up in CF for a sweet view of Murph's AB. This was 8th inning or so, if I recall, Boggs had just drawn a BB [haha] and Murph was up. I think it was against a lefty, so I wasn't paying so much attention as soaking up the atmosphere.

I shot the shit with some random dude named "Jerry." We'll get back to him later. I think Murphy k'd, if I'm not mistaken, and that pitch was BULLSHIT from my viewpoint. I don't know what the tracker said, but it looked a foot outside from straight-away CF. Thanks, blue. All of a sudden, BGL appears in the bullpen. I talked to multiple knowledgeable fans in the section, who had all mentioned that they hadn't seen Siege the entire time. I notified these fans, they reply "No, that's not CJ ... is it?" I wasn't going to waste any more time answering that question, because I saw BGL warming up. I know what he looks like, no homo.

BGL was posting up on the BP mound, patiently warming up, chilling, something or other. I strided with bounding leaps, down the packed aisle, and I go "Hey!! BGL. We miss you man, but we understand. Tell Brandon to keep his head up." BGL smiled and nodded in a cool way: fully acknowledged me as if I were a friend. Out of respect for the situation, I mean he was literally warming up [he was respectfully saying, hey thanks, but I really gotta go or I would talk). That's all I needed.

After showing him respect, on my way out, I go "Gerry big-timed me, dude." Much laughter was heard in the section, because all these people had seen OMOT shut me down earlier. I knew I wouldn't be denied. I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO SEE YOU, LAIRD. I DON'T WANT YOUR AUTOGRAPH, JERK. I didn't even want to talk to Gerry, per se, I just wanted to talk to someone who could find BGL for me. I picked Laird because I knew he had the biggest ego. In hindsight, I bet if I picked Kam, he would have come over and said hi for like 2 seconds. I just wanted to acknowledge BGL. That's it -- mission accomplished.

I return to CF. Jerry's still chilling in the same spot, before calling a GW-hit from ... Cat. I was like uhhh, Cat against LHP? LOL. Sure enough, after I told Jerry that they need to pinch hit here ... who do they bring up? #15 himself. Gerald Laird. God, damn. Gerald Laird killed the rally instantly. Instead of showing off all of his tools, he made himself look like a fool. Popped out to 2B, inning over, rally dead. Good job, Gerry. Hope you feel proud. You're that good. Re-up on my way to 3B so I can "meet" BZA, once and for all. We met up, shot the shit for 5 mins, agreed to the combo diary, and returned to the lower-level seats. He already knew that it was Laird's fault, also, and I told him that would be my title.

We posted up in the 9th for a decent rally, the lower sections were much more zestful, spiritually. Everybody had the reverse rally-cap on and everything. Direction of the cap was switched, person by person, until something positive happened. Truly great fan stuff. Salty started off the inning, apparently after a WP the previous inning? I'm sure I can find out from the game thread whether Salty should have blocked the ball that Crawford scored on. Anyway, I was expecting Salty to get something started. That dude looks fierce at the plate. I would hate to have to pitch to him for the next 10 years or so.

But once J32 got to the plate -- you could smell the anticipation. When Josh fouls a ball off in a high-leverage situation, the whole crowd is like "oooh. he almost got that." There's been nothing like that since A-Rod, iirc. Few things in life are more suspenseful than a Josh Hamilton plate appearance, live. I told my friend "just no double play, just no double play." Of course, Josh would be too fast for a DP, so one run scores. Milton had great crowd support too, but whatever, we just didn't get it done tonight. One run short -- it happens.

I made damn sure to grab a J32 T-Shirt on my way out. He must be acknowledged, often. There was cool motorcycle stuff after the game. Some hot chick passed me a flyer, so I accepted it, and these guys are the "Red Bull X Fighters / International Freestyle Motocross."

It was the coolest thing ever, especially after a loss. It's just like if there's a Robert Earl Keen concert after the game, you have something to fall back on. After egging these guys on, they ended up doing backflips and all that crazy stuff, despite the presence of wind currents, which was awesome. It sent a good deal of people home in a good mood, I'd imagine. They really put on a show -- for free.

That's that folks. I highly recommend attending at least one game, if you can, this year. If you can coordinate with someone from LSB, all the better, just means there's more subplots. There's a different feeling at the ballpark right now. I truly mean that. Casual fans, even, aren't so resigned, yet anyway. Maybe that's the whole Nolan bit, lol. WWND.

People think this ship is heading in the right direction. I concur, it's just that, Gerald Laird needs to be traded as soon as possible.

 / See BZA post for pics