We lucked into luxury suite tickets to the Phillies game last night. We had a great view, and even better, air conditioning! We shared it with other employees from Pat’s office and their guests, including some really cute kids, who Tim quickly befriended. 
The suite allowed them to run around and play, have some make-your-own sundaes, and watch the Disney Channel so the rest of us could watch the game.
It was a great game if you were either a Cardinals fan or a baseball fan with no horse in the race. The Cards kept slamming home runs, the fans kept booing and demanding that the home run balls be tossed back on the field (most were.) The Phillies had a mini-rally in the end but even that wasn’t legit, it seems. Michael Bourn hit a home run into the first row of the stands, but stadium security apparently determined that the fan who caught the ball reached over the wall to grab it, and quietly escorted him out of the stadium. In my opinion if the umpires didn’t call interference, there wasn’t any, and it puts a blemish on the kid’s first ML home run, but hey, not my call.**
Going into the game, the Phillies had 9,999 losses in their existence. At the beginning there was an air of hopefulness, that the 10,000th loss would happen another day, but as the game wore on and the Cardinal home runs continued to fly, the fans seemed to embrace the inevitable. A group of guys tore off their shirts to reveal one with a giant red 1 on his chest, the other four with red zeros. A hopeful banner reading “10,000 is not in the Cards” soon found the word “not” x-ed out.
The energy during the little 9th inning rally was incredible considering that most of the sell-out crowd had long since headed out the gates. Final batter Ryan Howard probably got the loudest “Lets Go Howard” cheer in his life. As the guy sitting nearby said, “That was the most energized way to end a loss!” 
Out in the lot pockets of fans alternated chants of “Ten Thousand” with the more typical “Dallas Sucks” (because Phillies fans love their Eagles too, right?) And the absolutely terrific server who worked our suite (and sneaked me a much needed cup of coffee!) told us she’d heard the game tickets might be worth something on ebay due to the loss, so if you collect these types of things, let me know!
**late edit- while my son insists the fan did reach over to grab the home run ball, apparently he was “escorted out” in an attempt to make a deal so Bourn could get his first ML home run ball back. **
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