Take Me Out to the Ballgame

   Confession time…I LOVE sports, not playing but watching them. You need to understand when I say sports, I am talking about the southern holy trinity of sports: baseball, football and basketball. The problem that I’ve always had is where we lived until last year had zero professional ball teams. That left us cheering for LSU, New Orleans Saints, and the high school where I used to work. I'll always love LSU and the Saints but they were several hours away from our house.
   Fast forward to our new home where we can root for the Houston Astros, Houston Texans, and the Houston Rockets!! I am in sports fan heaven. 

   Last Friday we went to watch the Astros play the Cleveland Indians at Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston. I was so excited to attend my first Astros game! They even gave me a certificate to commemorate the day. Come with me as I take you out to the ballgame.

Before we moved, people asked what I was going to do about the name of our blog. It must have been fate because Houston is the Bayou City so we really are 

Barking from the Bayou!

There are several places to take selfies at Minute Maid Park and this new mural is a fan favorite. It features the players with their theme for the year, “Take it back!” They are referring of course to the World Series trophy which they won in 2017.

We arrived early enough to watch the teams pre-game practice. It was fun watching them warm-up for the game.

Minute Maid Park has a retractable roof and on nice gamedays, they open it up. When we arrived, the roof was partially open but we watched as they opened it all the way.

Once the teams leave the field, the grounds crew leap into action. Did you know they chalk the field before each game? Here they are making the batter’s box.

They make the base/foul lines and put out the bases. The person in charge of home plate spent a long time making it perfect. Several people have the job of getting the dirt exactly so-so. It was very impressive watching the field come to life.

PLAY BALL!! The game was exciting and it was fun watching all of my favorite players in person.

There is no question that the Houston Astros have a HUGE fan base. Looking around after the game started, there were very few empty seats except in the very upper deck. We got to participate in the “wave” which was awesome and during the seventh inning stretch, everyone stands up, stretches their legs and sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” I’m not going to lie; I was singing at the top of my lungs! It was a BLAST!

Ninety feet above the field is the famous Home Run Train. It’s a replica of a 1862 steam engine and each time the Astros score, the engineer sounds the bells and whistles. When they hit a homerun, the train engine takes the 40-second trip up and down the track. 

Why a train inside the ballpark?

The west end of Minute Maid Park used to be Union Station. The cargo used to be logs but when it became Minute Maid Park, they switched the load to oranges.

How cool is that?

Each Friday night game will feature a firework show after the game. They say everything is bigger in Texas and that goes for their pyrotechnics! The show was timed perfectly to the music and there were a LOT of beautiful fireworks. We seldom get to watch fireworks because we are inside keeping Bentley calm so this was a special treat.

In the end, the Astros lost 3 to 6 but tied the series at two games each. We are looking forward to attending many more games this season. They even have a dog day later this summer so maybe the Bayou Boys can go with us.

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