Arena Athletes · 3:19pm Jun 10th, 2016
Well, I'm keeping busy. Right now, I have half a dozen story ideas in various states of production (working titles include He Come to Town, How Lyra Met Bonbon, and What Shy Did on Her Summer Vacation) and I'm about to start teaching myself JavaScript.
However, yesterday, I got a chance to take a break from the code-'n'-pone routine. Through some business connection or another, my sister-in-law got four free tickets to a New York Yankees game, to which she and my sister invited my father and me. We had quite a lot of fun, not least because this was my first time seeing a major league baseball game. Plus, it's New York City, so there were plenty of enjoyably bizarre occurrences:
• I swear I briefly crossed paths with the adult human version of Plaid Stripes. No spoons in her outfit, but between the way she carried herself, the moistness to her voice, and the way she all but walked facefirst into me as she was getting off of the subway car, the resemblance was uncanny.
• Unsurprisingly, there are numerous vendors just outside of Yankee Stadium. At least five people offered me tickets in the few hundred feet between the subway stop and the stadium itself. Hat vendors were also out in force, offering their wares from within the stop itself. Unfortunately for them my father and I came prepared. When one looked at us, I saw a sublime moment of disappointed resignation on his face, like my headgear had singlehattedly crushed all of his hopes and dreams. It was kind of funny.
• Also hanging around the stadium: A man in "2016" glasses he might have kept since New Year's—yes, there's a lens in the 1, which feels like cheating—a blue-and-white clown wig, and facepaint, with two crossed American flags on his back and wearing enough Yankees paraphernalia to stop a bullet. I think he might have been there even if there hadn't been a game that day.
• I think it may be more expensive to eat in Yankee Stadium than at Disney World. Two mediocre hot dogs, a soda, and a basket of fries cost $25... though, to be fair, the basket was the size of my head. Never felt hungry for the rest of the night. (Still, th minors have better food. The Trenton Thunder have funnel cakes.)
• Just around the corner from the hot dog stand? Sushi and noodle bowls. Yeah, I think I'll stick to the traditional fare.
• The music was a big part of the fun. They played the Imperial March as they announced the Angels' lineup and the song from the Episode IV medal ceremony for the Yankees.
• There's an above-ground subway track (superway?) just behind the scoreboard. When I saw one roll by during the national anthem, I couldn't help but laugh. It's New York, alright.
• My ingrained reflexes betrayed me. There was a baseball game. There was a screen. Based on past experience, to follow the baseball game, I watched the screen. I didn't realize the flaw in this logic until after the first pitch. (Though in my defense, there were a lot of numbers on the screen, which is an excellent way to get and retain my attention. Statistics are always one of my favorite parts of any sport.)
• Actual conversation:
Me: Oh God, that guy's four days younger than me.
Sister: And he's old for a ball player.
Yeah, that was a fun revelation.
• My sister-in-law is always entertaining. In this case, it was because she apparently has zero retention when it comes to baseball, so we got to explain everything to her. She's like that one side character in every game- and sport-based shonen anime to whom the others can explain the rules of the game for the audience's benefit.
• While the music was fun, some of the CG graphics left something to be desired, especially the clapping hand animations. (Sis: They spent millions on those animations. Me: In 1998.) One had disturbingly circular fingernails, like a four-fingered Mr. Mime was trying to applaud with the backs of its hands.
• One guy deserves special mention. Last night was Chris Parmalee's second night with the Yankees. The day before, he became the second Yankee ever to get two home runs in his first game with the team. Last night, he ended the seventh inning in tremendous style, doing a split to make a catch... and spraining a hamstring in the process. Splits and cleats do not mix. You just have to feel bad for the guy.
• On a lighter note, the introduction for the Yankees' closing pitcher was hilariously over the top, with CG flames everywhere, including his own iris. This somehow led to saying how he should be throwing roses into the other guys' bats and giving encouraging speeches to Sailor Moon. It made sense at the time, and should give some sense of the kinds of conversations I have with my sister.
In all, much fun was had. 
Ah, the age old American pastime.
And really, isn't it grand despite all the lackluster we see behind the scenes?
And seriously, what kind of entertainment venue doesn't have funnel cakes?
I'unno man, fries that add up to the size of your head sounds like it might make up for it.
Oh, wow, you're teaching yourself Java? Good luck.
Music guy must be an Angels fan, if he's giving them the best music. He'll be fired for sure.
As someone who wears glasses I can't imagine that ever being enjoyable to wear. *shudder*
...actually, he probably doesn't care about that.
Also, that's pretty cool. I've never been a watch-sports kind of guy, but the first time I did - it was a minor league womens' basketball tournament in Hong Kong that we had got cheap tickets for - I quite liked the tension, the air of anticipation, despite not really knowing what was going on. No theatrical fouls to wit. Baseball does bring two things to mind: firstly, "America!" and secondly (sub master race reporting in):
Sounds super fun! While I am not at all a sports fan myself, it did sound rather fun, in the department of the numbers on the screen especially. Glad you had a good time. In the same relevance, though, it's super cool that you're teaching yourself Java. I'm working on coding as well, working on gml (which is a very specific code to a game production program) and also html, so it was just a cool little thing to spot.
The Angels are my local team. Like, 20 minute drive from my house. But I'm that annoying guy who thinks professional sports are just a way to keep the masses from paying attention to the real issues of the world.
4012824
Baseball is clearly a sport made to be watched in person. Preferably with funnel cake.
4012828
It certainly didn't hurt.
4012839
I just finished a crash course in C++. At least this won't expect me to allocate my own memory.
4012919
Kiss her, you fool!
Ahem. Sorry about that. I may be largely shipping-agnostic with ponies, but that doesn't apply across all IPs. (And yes, sub master race.)
But yeah, baseball is a lot of fun to watch. There's a lot of tension and expectation interspersed with moments of climactic action. Also a lot of pop flies that don't do much more than describe a parabola before landing in an outfielder's glove, but them's the breaks.
4013093
Athleticism can certainly serve as an opiate of the masses—after all, it's the latter half of panem et circenses—but opiates don't have to be abused. Like any form of entertainment, it can serve as a temporary relief from those issues. Also an excuse to spend time with family who I don't get to see very often.
That said, those guys are hideously overpaid.
Hah, same thing happened to me when I was attending a recording of a videogame-review-show... thing, at Games Convention in the early 2000s.
I actually got a front-row "seat"...aka standing at the edge of the stage, and staring at the desks on stage where ~5 people were talking about upcoming videogames and playing pre-release versions on their PCs / consoles.
Obviously, you couldn't see what was on their screens from off-stage. But luckily, there's a huge screen hanging in the background, just for that. So of course I'm looking at the screen most of the time. I also hadn't had much sleep that night. You can see where this is going.
So, the camera pans, the host walks down the rows of people, asking for volunteers for... something, I forgot.
Suddenly my view is blocked.
I look up.
The guy from the TV is standing in front of me. "LOLWHUT?" goes my brain.
I had failed to connect the dots that I was watching him walk towards my direction on the TV.
....And then he talked to the guy next to me to volunteer for ... whatever it was, I think playing a match of Mario Kart to win a price, maybe? Eh.
It was only later when I saw the show on TV that I realized I had been standing there for 15 seconds looking really confused.
4012839
He said "JavaScript".
JavaScript is not Java.
Java is easier.
4013258
Yes, but it will expect you to accommodate every major (and minor, if you're into that kind of thing) browser yourself, including all their quirks and (in)compatibilities. And then stuff is still going to break because IE.
Fuck IE by the way.
Also Javascript pretends to be object-oriented but does not provide you with any sort of remotely sane class construct, so if you want to program OOP (as you probably do, in this day and age) you get the joy of manipulating objects without any other features like private or protected members, sane inheritance, etc. etc., and you get to implement really fun patterns to work around that by messing with object prototypes, and using functions instead of classes, and all that good stuff!
And did I mention that IE will break stuff? Because it will. And you will curse it.
It helps a lot to be drunk during the games, or so I've heard since I just get bored watching baseball. Pretty incredible story
, though I would have advised you to stay the hell away from stadium food and go for hole-in-the-wall rando-ethnic afterwards. That's how proper New Yorking is done.
4014850
Well, yeah, but that definition of proper New Yorking precludes going to a Yankees game at all.
4014957
...This statement is so very true. Also, how was the new Yankee Stadium? I only ever went to see them in the old park...
4016091
I can't compare the two, having never been in the old one, but it's a lovely chunk of architecture festooned with monuments to past greats. I haven't been to many ballparks in my life, but that one feels close to the Platonic ideal.
4016105
At least there's that. Might have to make it to a game this summer, then. Gotta love the convenience of living in Northern NJ.
4014957 What, no it doesn't! You're allowed to root for the Yankees or the Mets!