Take me out to the ballgame

What do June 26th, 2005 and July 15th, 1979 have in common? Those are the dates that Ryan and I attended our first baseball games (respectively). I was 11 when I attended my first game. Ryan is only 14 months old, so he probably won’t remember his first game. I remember mine like it was yesterday. It was the first time my dad took me to see my favorite team, the Oakland Athletics. The A’s lost to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 on an error by shortstop Dave Chalk.

The A’s had been leading 2-1 going into the 9th inning, but they couldn’t hold on. That was pretty typical for the ’79 A’s (they lost 108 games that year). Both pitchers tossed complete games that day, a rarity today. ’79 was the rookie season for a guy named Rickey Henderson. It was also the first year that Henderson, Dwayne Murphy and Tony Armas played together as an outfield. Those three would go on to become the best outfield in A’s history (in my opinion).

I found a great website called retrosheet.com, which has box scores from many Major League Baseball games of years past. You can see that 26 year-old [box score here].

Anyway, Ryan’s first baseball experience was a tad different. We went to see the same Oakland A’s, but the opponent for the game last Sunday was the San Francisco Giants. The A’s would end up pummeling the Giants 16-0. A’s pitcher Rich Harden combined with two other relievers to one-hit the Giants. It was one of the most lopsided losses in Giants history (which I thoroughly enjoyed).

I saved Ryan’s ticket, much like I saved the ticket to my first game. I actually have that ticket in a small frame that I keep in my office. The frame also includes tickets from games two and three of the 1989 World Series (game three was the infamous earthquake game), the 1987 All Star Game, and the game four of the 1990 American League Champion Series (Roger Clemens was tossed in the first inning). The A’s swept both the 1989 World Series and the 1990 ALCS.


Our tickets
I also saved Monday’s newspaper for Ryan so he can read the game write up if he’s so interested. More than anything, I hope he’ll be able to look back on that date as the first time his dad took him to a ballgame.

He’ll certainly be able to silence any Giants fans with the story of his first game.