VIP at the Dodgers - Mets Game

Wow, I didn't mean to go a quite so long with no posting. I've been working a lot lately and let my blog slip. Sorry. Luckily the adventures continue so you shouldn't be too disappointed with what I have to tell you about today.



Laura has a lot of cousins all very close in age. Her family has an Irish branch, a German branch and a Ukrainian branch and they seem to be all over the place. Anyway, one of Laura's second cousins is James Loney who plays first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I'll give you a moment to click the wikipedia link and go and see Laura's legitimately famous cousin's wiki page. Cool, isn't it? So this week the Dodgers played the Mets in a three-game series at the new Citi Field. Because most of the Ukrainian branch of Laura's family lives in the New York area, James' agent provided them with an executive sky box at the game! Laura's cousins contacted her parents and let them know that she was invited to come as well and I got to tag along! It was totally cool.

James in the dugout before the start of the second game

The weather was terrible for baseball. It was really cold and windy. The box had outdoor seats that had overhead outdoor heaters but they were kind of ineffective with the high winds. Luckily there was also an indoor lounge with sofas and big screen TVs. We weren't too fancy so we we went downstairs to get our hot dogs (Nathan's! Mmm!) and beers. I also got a Mets hat, even though we were there to see the Dodgers technically, because I love the Mets.

We were actually there during a double header because the previous days game had been a rain-out. We watched the last couple of innings of the first game and saw the Mets win 4-0. The second game was only a little better, with the Mets winning 10-5. The most exciting part for us was when James was up to bat in the 4th inning. The bases were loaded and there was a full count and the ump called him out on what was clearly a ball! Everybody in our box was on their feet anyway and we were all angry but then James was thrown out of the game for arguing the call! The umpire thought he was throwing his batting glove at him but James told us later he was just throwing his glove so the bat boy could pick it up.

Yep. That's right. He told us later, because we totally got to meet him after the game!!!!!!

Laura and me waiting in the Family Lounge

After the game we went down to the family lounge and waited a while with some people who were from other branches of James' family. We waited and waited and after a while he came in and we all got to meet him for just a moment before he got on the bus with his team. They had another game against the Mets the next day. He was tall and handsome and really gracious and told us about getting thrown out of the game and what a bad call it was. He brought a couple of signed balls for Laura's cousin who was having a benefit auction and he posed for pictures with us and then he had to go. It was totally cool. Did I mention how cool it was?

Heres's us and a Major League Baseball Player