Aggie Baseball

Growing up I hated baseball. Watching it on television, watching it live, playing it. I suppose these feelings stemmed from a few negative childhood experiences (twice I nearly knocked people – my dad and my cousin – out when my wildly inaccurate throws hit them in the head, and I was the worst player on my team the one summer I played co-ed baseball), and since my parents and friends weren’t really interested in baseball there was no reason for me to change my opinion of the sport. Tom, on the other hand, loved baseball and was very good at it. Still is, actually - what a stud.

When Tom and I moved to Michigan he convinced me to start watching Detroit Tigers games with him, and before I knew it, we both became Tigers fans (despite the fact that they were pretty bad for nearly all of the six years we called Ann Arbor home). We watched games on television, bought t-shirts and hats for all four of us, and even drove to Detroit for quite a few games. I still don’t like to play baseball, because I’m TERRIBLE – I have the hand-eye coordination of a drunken grizzly bear (Tom’s analogy) – and I’m afraid of the ball, but I’ve become a huge fan of watching the game on television and in person.

We’d heard good things about the TAMU men’s baseball games, and since everyone in our family now enjoys the sport (or at least the food and the singing and the mascots), we decided to check out one of their preseason games (you know, before the regular season starts and the rowdy college students decide it might be fun to see if one of my kids would bounce as easily through the student section as a beach ball would). The crowd was, at least based on my experience, HUGE for a preseason college baseball game – it seems the team has a lot of regular community fans, and hundreds of college students attend the games as well. We arrived in time to snag great seats in the general admission section and stock up on hot dogs, popcorn, and the sweetest pink lemonade I’ve ever tasted, which was of course full of sugar and kept the kids up late enough that we made it through six whole innings.

Will’s highlights were “when they (the Aggies) got hits” and “when they (the Aggies) were up to bat”, and I’m fairly sure Hallie’s highlights were the popcorn and marching back and forth in front of Tom and me in the bleachers. My highlight was when Hallie finally stopped marching back and forth in front of Tom and me in the bleachers.

My dates for the evening.


Welcome to Aggieland!


It was 73 degrees when the game started.


"Look Mom - they're hugging!"



Let the good times roll.


In all seriousness, the evening was a wonderful one – we were together, outside in beautiful weather doing something we all enjoy. Football is king in Texas, but on this Friday Night in College Station, the Lights were pretty bright at the baseball field as well.