Our mission leader, President Merritt, enjoys baseball.
As a reward for all the missionaries’ hard work, and as a way to get everyone together for a fun evening, he bought tickets for the Padres game. All two hundred missionaries– young and old– were given seats in the right field upper deck. Since we were all wearing our proselyting clothes (“pross”), it was pretty cool to see an entire section filled with white shirts and ties, skirts and dresses.
Many of the women had never been to a baseball game before; in fact, the two sitting behind us didn’t even know the rules. It’s probably safe to say the men were much more excited. Here’s President Merritt surrounded by a bunch of pumped-up missionaries:
Here we are, a few rows back with our friends the Knudsens:
Margie decided she should open her mouth like me in photos, because it always looks like I’m having so much fun. It seems like maybe she needs more practice, though.
It was a ton of fun. Our section went crazy when several of the missionaries were featured on the big screen. Notice President Merritt in the lower right:
The Padres were playing the Tigers, and in the first couple of innings the home team went up 3-0. The middle of the game was a fairly mundane three-up-and-three-down slog, and then we hit the top of the ninth. Detroit, with two outs and still down by three, poked a single up the middle. The Padres brought in a relief pitcher– the third of the game, if I remember correctly– and judging by his stats, we figured the game was over. We prepared to leave.
He walked the first batter he faced.
Then he walked the bases full on the next batter. Unbelievable.
After a few pitches, it was a 3-2 count. Two outs. The very last pitch of the game. Or… was it?
Grand slam.
The Tigers’ batter smashed a home run to deep left field, clearing the bases and putting Detroit on top 4-3. The Padres had their final inning but all three batters came up and then sat down. Game over.
There was a lot of grousing about how the Padres had blown it, but since I didn’t really care who won or lost, I kept telling everyone, “That Tigers batter just had the night of his life. A two-out full-count grand slam to win the game? That’s the stuff Major League Baseball players dream of. His mom must be very proud.”
So yeah, that was cool. And it was super cool to hang out with such fine men and women, even if I had to be in a shirt and tie.