Yesterday I talked about the kind of rides they had at Funland. Then I failed to finish the post. Rather than adding to it and coming up with a new topic today, I'm going to pretend it needs to be a two part article. So there.
What's left to talk about is the games. I'm talking both video games and the games where you can win prizes. Let's start with the prizes you can win.
On the boardwalk there are several classic games. There's the usual ring toss, ball toss, basketball shooting, and water spraying games. I never had any luck at ring toss. On the end is a horse racing game where you have to roll the ball to make your horse advance. I've played that a couple times and had no luck. Inside is a whack-a-mole game with about 12 stations. I'm not sure if I ever played that one. There's a frog bog game, but if I ever played it I've had no luck at it. (Actually, I think they got rid of that game recently.)
Other games include a duck pond where you win every time, and a catterpillar game that's probably similar. (Maybe I'm confusing two games here.) There's a ping pong game that I never played where you try to bounce balls into bowls.
The big game that we always played was a larger ball toss game next to the ticket booth. This game had a gold prize in the middle of the cups and a few red and blue cups. What's memorable about this game is that my mom won the gold prize a few years in a row. The first time she won she got a big lion. I would say it was about 2 feet high, three feet long. The second year, my dad and I saw my sister walking around with a goofy looking pink ostrich on her back. I forget what we've gotten after that. We've since given away those prizes since they just sat around in our trailer in a closet.
Not to far from the big ball toss game is an arcade. This arcade is the type where you can win tickets to trade in for prizes. The obligatory skeeball is located next to the bumper cars. I'm only average at that game. The one memorable thing is when, during the later 90s, Funland and other arcades added a cyclone ticket game. This is the game where a light revolves around the machine and you push a button to stop it to win the jackpot. During the later 90s when I was too old to go on rides my parents used to tell me that they'll give me money to play in the arcade if I would win the jackpot first. It takes several tries but it's not impossible to do.
There are several claw machines next to the whack-a-mole station. My dad always, always played these. He was pretty good, too. I think he was annoyed when they raised the price for some of the machines to fifty cents, though. My memory is fuzzy, so I'll only mention that he won a few Pepsi Polar Bear dolls. I'm not sure how much of these smaller prizes we kept. I may have to look through some bins.
I never had much luck myself and never had the patience for it. Usually when I started to lose, I felt I could have been wasting my money on a game instead of this darn claw machine.
There's a shooting gallery, which I was always a big fan of but I rarely played myself. In fact, I probably played the most times when someone left a game early. I can activate the easier targets, at least.
At some poin (probably the mid-ninties), a water shooting gallery was added to the second arcade. This was fun and easier than the shooting gallery, although it was a bit more childish so I probably only played it with younger cousins.
Speaking of the second arcade, we'll end this post by talking about that for a few paragraphs. When I was really young I used to mostly ignore this. The only games I remember being interested in was Super Mario Bros Vs. and some hack and slash game called Rastan. Otherwise I was more interested in the rides. Only when I became a teen and more self-conscious, I began focusing on the arcade. (Besides, there were other arcades in Rehoboth to go to.)
One of my best trips to that arcade was during a birthday where I had received ten dollars. After going mini-golfing at the roof of another arcade, I went to Funland and played The Simpsons arcade and beat it. My parents were making fun of how much I was pumping quarters into the machine. I had actually seen the ending to the game before at some other place but I was determined to see everything for myself, especially since I've played the game several times before and the best I could do was get to the dream level. I wish I could remember how much money I spent, and I actually spent too much because the game started repeating and my dad took over my final quarter or so.
They also had the Xmen arcade game which was similar the Simpsons game. Sadly I never got far in the game but I did get to hear Collosus's mighty yell.
There are a few pinball games set up, and I did get into one machine. This was around the time dot matrixes were new, so I enjoyed the Street Fighter pinball game because it gave you a mission. I could only defeat about five warriors.
I'll end this with a game machine that had a trackball that allowed you to play centipede and a bowling game. The memorble thing about this one was that someone had left about 90 some credits in the machine and I ended up buring about 30-40 of them.
That's it for Funland for now. I don't think I've been there in a few years. I'll have to watch the old home videos to see if I forgot any interesting anecdotes. Hopefully sometime this month I'll have more stories about our trips to Delaware including the glory years.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Delaware: Funland
I said I was going to get back to this someday, and why not get back to it before the summer is over? Especially since I need to gather my thoughts better on the other topic I wanted to do today.
Funland is a small amusement center located on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach. It's been there for as long as I remember, and is still there today. It opens from sometime in May and closes in early September. It contains rides, video games, and prizes you can win.
In the early days I was still a kid so I mostly focused on the rides. A lot of the kid rides were the type where you got into a vehicle and rode around in a circle. Some of them, like the firetrucks and the space ships had ropes/buttons that you could manipulate to cause as much noise as you could. Everytime you go to Funland you can hear the buzzing of the space ship ride. My sister and I rode these a lot when I was still small enough to do so. It wasn't long before I had to give up these rides but my sister was so small my mom had to hold her while she was on the carousel. One of the best kid rides was the swings ride. Sadly, that was built around 1988/1989, just when I was starting to get too big for some rides. In fact, around that time a jungle jim was built, and it would have been my favorite ride if I wasn't around the size that was too big for the ride. I held a grudge for that. (Worst yet, apparently in recent years they added an adult version of the jungle jim. Now I'm too old (and self-conscious, really) to go on that.)
Luckily there are several general audience rides. There's a helicopter ride where you pull back on the handle to go up. There's a home video of me pulling back and forth on the bar where my parents joke that my weight is causing the ride to malfunction. There's a tea cup ride near one of the entrances, which has the wheel in the middle you can spin. We also have a home video where my parents joke about my sister barely being able to hold on. Next to that is a Gravitron ride which I have yet to go on. Since my parents wouldn't let me go on, I now see it as a mystical ride where who know what goes on while the space ship spins around. I should go on it one day. I should bring my wife or fiancee if I ever have either of those.
A couple rides I've gone on but usually avoided were the paratrooper ride and the wagon ride. The latter isn't listed at Funland website so it might not be there anymore. The wagon ride was a ride where you get strapped down and the wagon you're in rotates while the ride revolves. I was too chicken for this ride but my parents managed to get me on it a couple times. We have a video of me bouncing the foam safety bar a few times till it hit me in the chin. I never liked when the wagon rotated in a way where you go head first. That was much scarier than when you rotated back first, somehow. I've gone back to it a few times, including once with my favorite cousin. The paratrooper was scary to me because I don't like heights. It also goes backwards before it's done, which was scarier than going forward.
The bumper cars are located next to the tea cups and can be seen from the boardwalk. There are three tires in the middle of the room and you have to go counter-clockwise. During the early days my sister and I would share a car since she was way too small to drive one herself. (I can't remember if dad used to also drive around with us when we were really little.) The bumper cars had annoying straps that you had to wear around your waste instead of your shoulder. I always hated it when we had to wear them around our waist, especially since I already had a big stomach around the time.
I don't know why, but when I was in a bumper car I actually started thinking it was more fun just to drive and avoid hitting and getting hit as much as possible. One of my favorite memories and one I wish was on camera was of a time some teen lost his baseball cap which led to a major pile-up around one of the narrow sides. While most people got stuck, my sister and I squeezed by them and the tires and we both laughed as we had no one in our way. When we got to the other narrow side the operator finally turned the ride off and yelled at the guy who lost his cap.
Now that I think of it, I think my dad did ride with us at first. He had to, since I remember that the first time I rode a bumper car alone, I got upset when my car didn't operate. Someone had to tell me that about the floor pedal.
The most famous ride is the Haunted Mansion. It's only open at night, when the boardwalk is really crowded, so I've only been around a few times to actually be able to go on it. I have a couple times, and it's a fun ride, even if I don't remember much. I'm a bit of a chicken, but there's only two things that could really scare me on a ride like this. The first thing is either spiders or webs, which could be the deciding factor if someone was trying to convince me to go on a ride. The second is sudden loud noises. I'm a sucker for a cheap scare like that, so I actually tend to cover my ears on haunted rides. (One time my sister, our favorite cousin and I were on some other haunted ride, and he made fun of us because my sister was covering her eyes and I was covering my ears.)
It's a shame that I don't remember too much about the ride. What I mostly remember is that you can see people ride by on the roof of Funland and the outside of the mansion. Inside I can remember only two things. The first is the skull room, where you see several dozen floating skulls. I love that room. The second part is the end. You start descending down a dark passage where the only thing you can see is a monitor. Some scary old guy talks about whatever. Just when you reach the end of the hallway, the ride jerks so you're now facing a truck while a loud horn blows. This part will get you on your first ride and I had to get ready for this everytime I rode this afterwards.
Don't you hate it when they say, "A work in progress..."?
Funland is a small amusement center located on the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach. It's been there for as long as I remember, and is still there today. It opens from sometime in May and closes in early September. It contains rides, video games, and prizes you can win.
In the early days I was still a kid so I mostly focused on the rides. A lot of the kid rides were the type where you got into a vehicle and rode around in a circle. Some of them, like the firetrucks and the space ships had ropes/buttons that you could manipulate to cause as much noise as you could. Everytime you go to Funland you can hear the buzzing of the space ship ride. My sister and I rode these a lot when I was still small enough to do so. It wasn't long before I had to give up these rides but my sister was so small my mom had to hold her while she was on the carousel. One of the best kid rides was the swings ride. Sadly, that was built around 1988/1989, just when I was starting to get too big for some rides. In fact, around that time a jungle jim was built, and it would have been my favorite ride if I wasn't around the size that was too big for the ride. I held a grudge for that. (Worst yet, apparently in recent years they added an adult version of the jungle jim. Now I'm too old (and self-conscious, really) to go on that.)
Luckily there are several general audience rides. There's a helicopter ride where you pull back on the handle to go up. There's a home video of me pulling back and forth on the bar where my parents joke that my weight is causing the ride to malfunction. There's a tea cup ride near one of the entrances, which has the wheel in the middle you can spin. We also have a home video where my parents joke about my sister barely being able to hold on. Next to that is a Gravitron ride which I have yet to go on. Since my parents wouldn't let me go on, I now see it as a mystical ride where who know what goes on while the space ship spins around. I should go on it one day. I should bring my wife or fiancee if I ever have either of those.
A couple rides I've gone on but usually avoided were the paratrooper ride and the wagon ride. The latter isn't listed at Funland website so it might not be there anymore. The wagon ride was a ride where you get strapped down and the wagon you're in rotates while the ride revolves. I was too chicken for this ride but my parents managed to get me on it a couple times. We have a video of me bouncing the foam safety bar a few times till it hit me in the chin. I never liked when the wagon rotated in a way where you go head first. That was much scarier than when you rotated back first, somehow. I've gone back to it a few times, including once with my favorite cousin. The paratrooper was scary to me because I don't like heights. It also goes backwards before it's done, which was scarier than going forward.
The bumper cars are located next to the tea cups and can be seen from the boardwalk. There are three tires in the middle of the room and you have to go counter-clockwise. During the early days my sister and I would share a car since she was way too small to drive one herself. (I can't remember if dad used to also drive around with us when we were really little.) The bumper cars had annoying straps that you had to wear around your waste instead of your shoulder. I always hated it when we had to wear them around our waist, especially since I already had a big stomach around the time.
I don't know why, but when I was in a bumper car I actually started thinking it was more fun just to drive and avoid hitting and getting hit as much as possible. One of my favorite memories and one I wish was on camera was of a time some teen lost his baseball cap which led to a major pile-up around one of the narrow sides. While most people got stuck, my sister and I squeezed by them and the tires and we both laughed as we had no one in our way. When we got to the other narrow side the operator finally turned the ride off and yelled at the guy who lost his cap.
Now that I think of it, I think my dad did ride with us at first. He had to, since I remember that the first time I rode a bumper car alone, I got upset when my car didn't operate. Someone had to tell me that about the floor pedal.
The most famous ride is the Haunted Mansion. It's only open at night, when the boardwalk is really crowded, so I've only been around a few times to actually be able to go on it. I have a couple times, and it's a fun ride, even if I don't remember much. I'm a bit of a chicken, but there's only two things that could really scare me on a ride like this. The first thing is either spiders or webs, which could be the deciding factor if someone was trying to convince me to go on a ride. The second is sudden loud noises. I'm a sucker for a cheap scare like that, so I actually tend to cover my ears on haunted rides. (One time my sister, our favorite cousin and I were on some other haunted ride, and he made fun of us because my sister was covering her eyes and I was covering my ears.)
It's a shame that I don't remember too much about the ride. What I mostly remember is that you can see people ride by on the roof of Funland and the outside of the mansion. Inside I can remember only two things. The first is the skull room, where you see several dozen floating skulls. I love that room. The second part is the end. You start descending down a dark passage where the only thing you can see is a monitor. Some scary old guy talks about whatever. Just when you reach the end of the hallway, the ride jerks so you're now facing a truck while a loud horn blows. This part will get you on your first ride and I had to get ready for this everytime I rode this afterwards.
Don't you hate it when they say, "A work in progress..."?
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark
I watched this a couple weeks ago so it won't be fresh in my mind. Sorry about that.
Anyway, this was one of the more anticipated things to be released this year for MSTies. Sure, we already had rifftrax, but where's our host segments? Not to mention the small annoyance of syncing the movie with the mp3 player. Here we finally have our direct-to-dvd MST3k that we should have had in 2000, except life is unfair. I ordered this from amazon the day before it was officially shipped.
Side note: Amazon delayed my order for more then a week. A few days ago I saw it being sold at a Best Buy. I know where I'm ordering the next The Film Crew movie.
I finally got the dvd on a Tuesday but waited a few days before finally watching the movie. For those who don't know, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett are no longer a guy and two robots in space forced to watch bad movies. Now they are three guys stuck in some room forced to watch bad movies. Everybody got that? Instead of riffing on movies just to keep their sanity intact, they are asked by their boss to provide a commentary because he just believes these poor movies deserve one just like their more fortunate colleagues. The guys never see their boss, so they make fun of the movie.
This episode finally reveals who Bob Honcho is. He's an old white guy who believes in preserving old films. Of course, he's a rich old white guy, so he only talks over a speaker to his employees, but he's a nice, if oblivious, guy. I thought it was Mike doing his Jack Perkins but the credits said it was something else.
Anyway, the dvd starts with a slightly amusing host segments where the guys introduce themselves before chatting with Bob Honcho. The funniest joke is over who would be the most unlikely woman to appear as a stripper in the movie. There's two other host segments, one in the middle of the movie. These are ok if unmemorable, but I have to say that I missed the host segments after listening to the Star Wars rifftrax. Maybe it's my terrible attention span that was begging for several breaks. I would have liked one more host segment, even though the entire thing is ninety minutes long. (It's as long as MST3k: The Movie!)
The guys finally sit down to watch the movie. Unfortunately there's no silhouettes, because they can't rip off everything from MST3k. That and it's a low budget production, of course. (I miss Crow's dimension defying head.) The riffing is a bit less rapid fire than on MST3k. Also, at times the riffing seems to be for a more general audience, as the guys occasionally have small conversations. (Of course, it makes sense given the premise, and thankfully it only happens a few times.)
Hollywood After Dark started slowly for me, but after they got away from the junkyard I started getting into both the movie and the riffing. The movie is a mostly plotless film about stripping, a robbery, and probably some other stuff. When I say I got into it, it was mostly fascination about how little anything happened in the movie. Rue McClanahan plays some woman who chooses to strip after not doing so well as an actress. She meets some guy who's part of a stripping business and they have a boring, depressing relationship. They go to the beach a few times. At some poin, Rue has a relationship with some sleazy guy who probably rapes her. The two guys fight, and if I could remember which one was which it could have been not boring. At some poin during all this, a robbery takes place. It ends the usual pre-1970s way.
What's funny is that given all the talk about how there's stripping in this movie, it's pretty damn boring. It should be the highlight of a no budget, no plot movie like this, but some of the funniest riffing happened as the guys started to wish for anything else to appear on screen. Also, Rue McClanahan wasn't that attractive. Apparently, The Golden Girls lasted several years because the idea of Rue being the sex-crazed one was just sooo funny. Now I know why.
I've already described the rest of the movie. There's not enough there to really go into detail.
The riffing starts off slowly but takes off after the junkyard scene. I still wish it was a bit more fast-paced like MST3k, but it certainly gets the job done. Besides the stripping scenes, other highlights include the focus on Rue and that first guy's depressing relationship. The funniest riffs comes when the guy starts to frolic on the beach, if frolic it the right word. Another memorable gag was the 'pitching the movie' riff cracked halfway through the movie. Good stuff.
Since this is not shown on cable tv, the guys can get away with a couple things they couldn't on SciFi Channel, but it's not as bad as some reviewers make it sound. Probably the most objectional riff was one where they used a crude term for sex early in the movie while the couple was on the beach. As for the movie, the rape is off screen and the stripping is boring, although one stripper has diamond covered nipples, or whatever. It's borderline nudity, I guess. I haven't seen it in a while.
One odd thing is that this was supposedly made in 2005, according to the credits. I guess Shout! Factory held onto it for a couple years. I wasn't expecting these four dvds to become a full length direct-to-dvd season, but I was hoping that the guys would make more if these dvds were successful. They still might, but it seems less likely now. Let's all cross our fingers that these DVDs are a success and Shout! asks the guys to do four more episodes in the future.
Killers In Space is the next DVD and I really recommend getting it from Best Buy. I haven't seen that movie either so it should be a treat.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Pac-Man Wrestling
Ok, so I don't have any other ideas for a post and I'm just jumping on a dumb bandwagon. You see, there used to be an NFL player called Pac-Man Jones. Now he's signed up to be a wrestler. So let me jump on this bandwagon as quickly as I can.
Wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka...
wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakkCLOTHESLINE!!!!!
Thank you.
Wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka...
wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakkCLOTHESLINE!!!!!
Thank you.
Monday, August 6, 2007
This Week In Entertainment (8/6/07)
Today's Pick of the Week is The Simpsons Season 10. I'm not sure how many seasons I'll eventually get since the commentaries have become less and less fun, but I'm definitely going to pick up these episodes. This season included a really lame Halloween sketch, Phil Hartman's last appearance, and a really terrible episode starring the best father in the world! This gives me an idea for a post this week.
Also out this great week, is The Film Crew: Killers in Space. I'm including the link to the Best Buy page because amazon took forever to deliver Hollywood After Dark. I hope to review TFC:HAD sometime this week.
Another great DVD set is The Muppet Show: Season 2. I work and graduated from the same college that Jim Henson went to, so you know I'm picking this up. PIGS...IN...SPACE!!!!!
The recent animated TMNT movie is out on DVD. I didn't see this in theaters and it doesn't look like the film did that good, but I'll probably eventually see this.
See, releasing a Blu-Ray edition of Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within doesn't fix the problems with the film. It merely makes it's one redeeming feature probably better.
I actually watched one of the Superfriends shows as a kid, so it might have been this collection, which was made in the mid-eighties.
This is the second season of the Saturday morning edition of TNMT, I think. Good stuff, if I'm thinking of the right era.
The History of the Jets: You see, there was Joe Namath and his guarantee! And, Joe Namath and his guarantee...and, Joe Namath and his guarantee......J E T S? Jets Jets Jets... Jets?
Something for Bears fans to watch when this year's Chicago Bears go through the inevitable 'letdown after a Superbowl' loss year.
History of the Chiefs: Featuring some of the best 13-3 teams to not make the AFC Championship game!
The Naked Gun Triple Feature, because they don't make spoof movies like they used to. Buyer beware: THE JUICE IS LOOSE IN THESE MOVIES!
Black Supaman: Because White Superman doesn't care about black people!
Out in theaters this week is the third Rush Hour movie. The plot involves French people or land or something. It's probably stupid but I'll see it if HP5 or The Simpsons Movie isn't available. By the way, if you could clone ten people, wouldn't Jackie Chan be one of them? Think about it.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Nats Watch (7/31/07)
I guess I abandonded this almost immediately. Oh well.
Anyway, I went to a Nats game with my dad on Tuesday. It was the first time I went to a Nats game since the end of 2005. The game was the first of three vs. the Cincinnati Reds and started at 7:05.
We got to RFK Stadium about a half hour early. Dad got the tickets and we ended up sitting in the upper left side of the stadium. We sat in the front row in front of the divide between the upper second and the upper lower section. We thought this was great because it gave us a good view of the field, although I was later annoyed by the hundreds of people that walked in front of us. Also, I wanted to slouch, but the bars in front of our seat wouldn't allow it. I had to sit at an angle or let one of my legs dangle underneath. We also had to hear every guy who was selling beer, hot dogs, or cracker jacks.
I should have taken the opportunity to walk around the stadium. I had never gone to RFK even though my parents promised to bring me sometime. Although I'm not sure what I would have done. RFK feels like a parking garage.
(One thing that bugs me about RFK? There's a wall of Washington greats in the outfield. For the Redskins, it includes Theismann and Doug Williams, but not Mark Rypien. I can understand Theismann, but how long did Doug last after the superbowl win? I don't understand how he gets the nod but Rypien doesn't. )
Before the game the big screen was talking about some PGA thing. I wasn't really paying attention but that was the theme of the ball game. The person who threw the opening pitch was from the PGA. The anthem singer might have been too, but I didn't pay attention to who it was. During the anthem, I was glad to see that nobody shouted "Os!!" during the national anthem. I find it really rude when people shout during the anthem, especially people from Baltimore. I remember being really angry when I heard "Os!!!" at a Caps game. (Does it make me a hypocrite if I think it's rude for people to shout out their team name during the anthem yet I thought it was cool that fireworks went off towards the end?)
The game started and was scoreless through four innings. At one poin, Screech, the Nationals fat eagle mascot somehow snuck up on me. I guess I have a giant blind spot on the left side of my vision. He started poining at me and even made a "shooting a basketball" gesture. I just sorta froze. I thought about shaking his hand but just waited for him to go by. He lost interest in me but a dozen kids suddenly wanted pictures of themselves with him. This blocked the game for a few minutes. I finally decided to take a picture of him but my phone was off so I was only able to get a picture of his back before he was too far for my phone.
Behind me a large group of people filled out the second row. I was a little annoyed that I got women behind me, because women tend to be annoying when it comes to sports. There, I said it. At one poin I was thinking to myself that women should be banned from sports games. There's something annoying about women shouting "Whoo!" at sports game, but behind me I got the chatty kind of women. These women were only barely interested in the game and I was annoyed by their distracting conversation, but luckily the crowd started to drown them out. Still, why would anybody go to a ball game and talk about stuff like their weight or the vice president? Relax! Enjoy the game! Jeez. Later, my dad and I switched seats and I started to hear the mens' conversation. I was annoyed to hear their conversation too until they started talking about interesting things like the opening day of this season.
The Washington Nationals have a gimmick where they have the presidents from Mount Rushmore racing. It started as some computer animated thing, but by midway of last season they actually had people wearing costumes with big heads racing. Tuesday was the first time I was able to see it in person, and I was really looking forward to it. I was at first disappoined because the racing started on the big screen and I thought I was being cheated. The presidents were running around D.C. and Teddy stopped to get a hot dog. That's probably why he never wins. Never keeps his eye on the prize. Since the theme of the day was PGA, Teddy and Lincoln burst through the side of the stadium and quickly started playing golf. Washington and Jefferson watched for a minute, until they got bored and ran for the finish line. Washington won. Teddy got confused and started running the wrong way. And that's why Teddy is the real star of the Nats! (Lincoln, by the way, apparently had spikey anime hair. The 1860s were a different time!)
My dad got some peanuts before the game started, and had attracted ants by the time he was only halfway through the bag. Before long I told him to get a hot dog for me when he asked me what I wanted. The hot dog was good but I wish I could have gotten more to eat that night. I could have eaten a pizza or chicken strips with fries (the latter is something we've gotten a few times before.)
I guess I should mention the game. At the fifth inning both teams started scoring. Our pitcher had a rough inning and gave up to runs, and he could have given up more the way it was going. I was disappoined and worried that my dad and I were going to go 1-3 for our trips to the Nats. The bottom of the fifth turned that around when the Nats scored four runs. Three of those runs came from Zimmerman, one of the few Nats that I recognize by name, most likely because he's been with us since the start. That would have been the play of the game, if not for the second baseman (short stop?) making a great defensive play during the sixth. Ronnie Belliard grabbed a ball that the pitcher managed to kick as the ball went by. Belliard had to go to his right, away from the second base to get the ball. Rather then turn all the way around before throwing the ball, he simply flipped the ball behind him to whoever it was that was covering second base at that poin. Beautiful play, and the replays made it look like he was having fun. I wish I could have watched SportsCenter that night just to see if they showed it, which they damn well should have.
The Nats gave up another run later on, but then put up two more runs to secure the win. After my initial grumpiness I really got into the game, and at the end all I was thinking was that the only thing the game was missing was a home run from the home team. That didn't happen, but the Nats still won 6-3. It was a fun night, and I hope we go to another Nats game this year.
Anyway, I went to a Nats game with my dad on Tuesday. It was the first time I went to a Nats game since the end of 2005. The game was the first of three vs. the Cincinnati Reds and started at 7:05.
We got to RFK Stadium about a half hour early. Dad got the tickets and we ended up sitting in the upper left side of the stadium. We sat in the front row in front of the divide between the upper second and the upper lower section. We thought this was great because it gave us a good view of the field, although I was later annoyed by the hundreds of people that walked in front of us. Also, I wanted to slouch, but the bars in front of our seat wouldn't allow it. I had to sit at an angle or let one of my legs dangle underneath. We also had to hear every guy who was selling beer, hot dogs, or cracker jacks.
I should have taken the opportunity to walk around the stadium. I had never gone to RFK even though my parents promised to bring me sometime. Although I'm not sure what I would have done. RFK feels like a parking garage.
(One thing that bugs me about RFK? There's a wall of Washington greats in the outfield. For the Redskins, it includes Theismann and Doug Williams, but not Mark Rypien. I can understand Theismann, but how long did Doug last after the superbowl win? I don't understand how he gets the nod but Rypien doesn't. )
Before the game the big screen was talking about some PGA thing. I wasn't really paying attention but that was the theme of the ball game. The person who threw the opening pitch was from the PGA. The anthem singer might have been too, but I didn't pay attention to who it was. During the anthem, I was glad to see that nobody shouted "Os!!" during the national anthem. I find it really rude when people shout during the anthem, especially people from Baltimore. I remember being really angry when I heard "Os!!!" at a Caps game. (Does it make me a hypocrite if I think it's rude for people to shout out their team name during the anthem yet I thought it was cool that fireworks went off towards the end?)
The game started and was scoreless through four innings. At one poin, Screech, the Nationals fat eagle mascot somehow snuck up on me. I guess I have a giant blind spot on the left side of my vision. He started poining at me and even made a "shooting a basketball" gesture. I just sorta froze. I thought about shaking his hand but just waited for him to go by. He lost interest in me but a dozen kids suddenly wanted pictures of themselves with him. This blocked the game for a few minutes. I finally decided to take a picture of him but my phone was off so I was only able to get a picture of his back before he was too far for my phone.
Behind me a large group of people filled out the second row. I was a little annoyed that I got women behind me, because women tend to be annoying when it comes to sports. There, I said it. At one poin I was thinking to myself that women should be banned from sports games. There's something annoying about women shouting "Whoo!" at sports game, but behind me I got the chatty kind of women. These women were only barely interested in the game and I was annoyed by their distracting conversation, but luckily the crowd started to drown them out. Still, why would anybody go to a ball game and talk about stuff like their weight or the vice president? Relax! Enjoy the game! Jeez. Later, my dad and I switched seats and I started to hear the mens' conversation. I was annoyed to hear their conversation too until they started talking about interesting things like the opening day of this season.
The Washington Nationals have a gimmick where they have the presidents from Mount Rushmore racing. It started as some computer animated thing, but by midway of last season they actually had people wearing costumes with big heads racing. Tuesday was the first time I was able to see it in person, and I was really looking forward to it. I was at first disappoined because the racing started on the big screen and I thought I was being cheated. The presidents were running around D.C. and Teddy stopped to get a hot dog. That's probably why he never wins. Never keeps his eye on the prize. Since the theme of the day was PGA, Teddy and Lincoln burst through the side of the stadium and quickly started playing golf. Washington and Jefferson watched for a minute, until they got bored and ran for the finish line. Washington won. Teddy got confused and started running the wrong way. And that's why Teddy is the real star of the Nats! (Lincoln, by the way, apparently had spikey anime hair. The 1860s were a different time!)
My dad got some peanuts before the game started, and had attracted ants by the time he was only halfway through the bag. Before long I told him to get a hot dog for me when he asked me what I wanted. The hot dog was good but I wish I could have gotten more to eat that night. I could have eaten a pizza or chicken strips with fries (the latter is something we've gotten a few times before.)
I guess I should mention the game. At the fifth inning both teams started scoring. Our pitcher had a rough inning and gave up to runs, and he could have given up more the way it was going. I was disappoined and worried that my dad and I were going to go 1-3 for our trips to the Nats. The bottom of the fifth turned that around when the Nats scored four runs. Three of those runs came from Zimmerman, one of the few Nats that I recognize by name, most likely because he's been with us since the start. That would have been the play of the game, if not for the second baseman (short stop?) making a great defensive play during the sixth. Ronnie Belliard grabbed a ball that the pitcher managed to kick as the ball went by. Belliard had to go to his right, away from the second base to get the ball. Rather then turn all the way around before throwing the ball, he simply flipped the ball behind him to whoever it was that was covering second base at that poin. Beautiful play, and the replays made it look like he was having fun. I wish I could have watched SportsCenter that night just to see if they showed it, which they damn well should have.
The Nats gave up another run later on, but then put up two more runs to secure the win. After my initial grumpiness I really got into the game, and at the end all I was thinking was that the only thing the game was missing was a home run from the home team. That didn't happen, but the Nats still won 6-3. It was a fun night, and I hope we go to another Nats game this year.
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