Making memories

We’re going to take a break from politics and FOIA follies this week and talk about a couple of far more important topics — my grandsons and baseball.

I made my first trip to Wrigley Field in 2018 to see my beloved Chicago Cubs play the St. Louis Cardinals. I was joined on that trip by my son Ronnie; his wife, Christi; and my grandson Hayden. We had a blast, just like we did the next year when we watched the Cubs and Cardinals again, this time in St. Louis.

I returned to Wrigley last summer and again this July with my wife, Lisa. Then my cousin Greg, who lives just outside St. Louis, invited us back to Busch Stadium over the Labor Day Weekend for yet another Cubs-Cardinals matchup.

And, as it worked out, the long holiday weekend provided a chance for Lisa and I to take along Hayden and his younger brother, Liam. It was Liam’s first major league game, and it was a special day for me as a grandfather to get to share that with him.

We met Ronnie and family for dinner on Friday night in Clinton, then brought the boys home with us. We hit the road Saturday morning only 20 minutes later than we had planned and made our way to St. Louis — with a stop in Springfield to make sure Liam had some proper Cubs apparel to wear to the game. After checking into our hotel, we had dinner at Twisted Ranch, which has become our regular choice of dining in St. Louis.

There was rain in the forecast for Sunday, but I felt confident the game would be played. The bonus was that the temperature, which earlier in the week had been forecast for 90 degrees, never got above 73. Sure enough, the game was delayed for more than an hour because of rain showers. But our seats, at the very top of the upper deck but almost directly behind home plate, were covered.

The rain delay was a long time for Liam to spend in his seat with nothing going on, so we gave in and let him watch videos for a while.

Once the game finally started, it moved quickly with neither team scoring through the first seven innings. Then Cardinals legend Albert Pujols blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Cardinals wound up winning 2-0. The game only took two hours and 22 minutes — 45 minutes less than the average game this season — which helped make up a bit for the long rain delay.

Liam will be 7 in December, so he was still a bit young for our previous trips. The fact is, he’s probably still a little young for four hours inside a stadium but he seemed to enjoy himself at least part of the time. Of course, the ballpark treats didn’t hurt. Liam had a pretzel, some popcorn and some cotton candy. He didn’t finish any of it, but as I told Lisa, we’ll only have so many opportunities to spoil him before he’s grown. But hopefully, there will be many more Cubs games in our future.

Greg, who for some unknown reason roots for the Cardinals, was of course excited about the win. He’ll remember getting to see Pujols hit his 695th career home run.

Me? I’ll remember taking my grandson to his first major league game.