Take me out to the ball game...

I'm currently in the very last week of my five week honeymoon (how lucky am I!?). So far we've relaxed in beautiful Hoi An, Vietnam; shopped, gone to shows and gambled ($10...my husband and I are not big gamblers) in Las Vegas; explored New York (and I spent an incredible five days attending the RWA conference) and now we're in Los Angeles. We've seen so much, done so much... but how to choose just one thing to blog about?

All that excitement and glamour and I've decided to blog about...

Baseball.

Now, although my husband plays baseball, and we even have a friend that plays major league, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the game. Give me a game of AFL any day! (FYI, this is my team) However I was really keen to go to a baseball game in New York, I thought it would be a great way to actually experience America, rather than being such a tourist and just looking at things.

So off we went, catching a train from Manhattan to Citi Field, which is the home of the New York Mets. My adopted team for the day was the New York Yankees (I even had a Yankee's t-shirt for the occasion). The train was packed full of baseball fans, and actually felt exactly the same as catching public transport to a footy match back home - the underlying hum of anticipation, plus the excited smiles and enthusiastic conversations of dedicated fans. I guess sports fans are pretty similar the world over!

I was completely blown away by Citi Field, it is such a well designed stadium. Despite the sell out crowd, moving throughout the stadium was easy and there was So Much Food (more on that, later!). We were right up the top of the stadium, it felt like we just kept going up and up and up! But once at our seats, our view was sensational.

At the amazing Citi Field

At a baseball game there is a lot more entertainment than at a football match, because of the stop/start nature of the game (there is a few minutes gap whenever the teams change from offense to defense). So we have this absolutely HUGE scoreboard that shows all sorts of fun stuff - like quizzes, random fans who've been picked out to win prizes, a "pass the pizza box" race in one block, or my favourite - kiss cam! This is where the camera focuses on an unsuspecting couple in the crowd who then kiss. Awww!

(oh, and yes, the scoreboard is used to introduce each batter, to show the score...etc etc)

Compare the size of the scoreboard to the tiny people around it!

There's even a blimp that shows the birds eye view of the stadium during the game. Very cool:

I'm there somewhere!

Now... the food. This was incredible, I'm so not used to the food coming to me! Every few minutes we'd have someone come to our block selling everything from hotdogs to fairy floss (called cotton candy) to beer. And they didn't just walk silently up and down the steps, they'd hold up their wares, yell and do their best to sell them. And when they did, I loved the way the crowd worked together to pass the food to the purchaser - cash would be passed from stranger to stranger and the food would safely make it's way back exactly the same way.

The crowd was probably what I had most fun observing. The heckling, the cheers, the chants - and just the chatter - was fascinating. As you may have guessed, I barely watched the game, I was too busy watching the food vendors, the scoreboard and the crowd.

So the little things ended up being more interesting to me than the main event. If I really wanted to, I could watch a baseball game on TV whenever I want, but how often would I get to experience a real life American baseball game?

Has this ever happened to you? Have you visited a place and surprised yourself by what it was that really resonated with you?

Oh, and by the way - the Yankees won :)

Part of lunch, yum!