Vickie and I went to a few
Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball games this year; in addition to watching the
games we watched the fans.
There was the guy behind us one
night that drank too much before arriving at the game and who continued
drinking after his arrival; this was the only instance of this we encountered during
the season. If he had kept it up someone would have likely complained to
management but as it turns out his wife or girlfriend finally had enough and
when she left he left. After he left a man sitting next to him said, “It’s a
good thing he left on his own, I saw that he had a pistol.” Indeed.
Then there was the man and woman
who appeared to have just met each other as part of a group of friends at the
game, they sat in front of us. He spent the entire game talking to her and she
spent the entire game appearing impressed by what he was saying – I don’t think
they watched one play of the baseball game since they were playing their own
game.
A behavior that we saw at every
game was Dumbphone obsession; people texting and emailing throughout the game. This
behavior spanned age groups, it included young adults and it included older
people. The saddest exhibition of it was the night a dad was sitting with his
son who looked to be around 5 years old. The son was really into the ball game,
talking to the players, trying to encouragement them; displaying joy and excitement
at the play on the field; he was a cute little boy. He tried to talk to his
father about the game, to share his experience with his father, but the father
was too busy doing…guess what? Yep, he was on his Dumbphone. Finally, after a
few innings the little boy moved down a couple of seats and sat with an older
couple and talked to them. Talk about spending time with your son; a microcosm
of life today.
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