Hey Hey, Holy Mackeral

I went to my first Cubs' game of 2015 today

     Make no mistake, I love going to Cubs' games.  But today they just did not have it.
8-4 Kansas City.  The game started with a first pitch home run....and it was downhill most of the way after that.
     It was nice to see Jorge Soler hit a homer, but it was not enough.
     Dan and I got to the yard about 1 for a 3 p.m. game.  John got there closer to 2.  Seems early, but when you get there that early you get a 25 percent discount on food.  So the question becomes, how much can you eat in an hour?
     I had a bison burger and ...... (drum roll, please) a beer!!  I never buy $9 beers at the park, but I figure it's 25 percent off, so I should take part in the all American tradition at the ball park at least once.
     (And no, I don't mean the tradition of drinking to excess, peeing on somebody's yard, and starting fights......well, ok, peeing sometimes is allowed, even without beer)
     But in every good deal, there is the fine print, which is early bird discounts don't apply to alcohol.
     The beer vendors have a love hate relationship with the crowd.  The people drinking beer love them, while people like me hate them when they stand in front of you selling beer, thus blocking your view of the baseball players.  Which is why we go.
     (A peanut vendor came past.  I said we should ask if his nuts were salty, but John said I better not....admit it, you laughed.)
     Beer at the park is $9.  I routinely see people giving the vendor a $10 bill and telling him to keep the change.
     I can understand.  He's lugging at least 15 pounds of beer up and down the stairs; he deserves a tip.
     Some of the beers are even more than $9.  On the man concourse, they had $12.50 imported beers.
      Most of you know I am pretty cheap.
      But a lot of people going to the game are not.  They are thirsty.  You can see people who have four or five plastic cups at the end.  My thought was....that's almost $50 on beer!  I can buy some 24 packs with that!  And still eat meat.
     Since I am not a big beer drinker, it doesn't bother me to not have any.  But water...well, that is the source of life.  A bottle of water at the park is $4.75.  But you can buy a bigger bottle for $1.49 at the 7-11 outside the park, and as long as you don't open it, you can bring that into the park.
     There were a lot of KC fans at the park, I didn't realize so many people would follow them to Chicago.  Everybody seemed to get along quite nicely.
      Dan sat next to a family that I think came from Australia, or someplace where they play Australian rules football.    They had a lot of questions about the game, the park, the team.
     Aside from the outcome, it was a good day.
     Peace and love