Bobble-less at the Beavers game…
My friend is a baseball nut - in fact, he was one of the 900 people at Civic Stadium 15 years ago when Rodney McCray crashed through the right field wall. (The clip is now a sports blooper reel classic, McCray’s fifteen minutes of fame have long gone into extra innings as a result.)
Our decision about ‘what to do on a Saturday night’ was an easy one once we heard the Beavers were honoring Rodney with ‘Bobblefence’ night. While we’d first entertained hopes of scoring ourselves one of the 2000 bobbleheads being given away, those hopes withered away once we saw the hordes of people queued up in line at 6 pm. The next decision - wait in line, only to *not* get a doll, or head across the street for a quick drink and let the crowds disperse - was also an easy one. So we bought our tickets and cooled our heels elsewhere for a bit.
Far more painful were the decisions we were forced with once inside the stadium: Six fifty for a small glass of decent beer? A small bottle of water for 3.50? (And not a plain old water fountain in sight…) But the Beavers eased the pain by putting on a good show (they won the game, 6-2), the McCray festivities were entertaining enough, and it was a perfect evening to take in a ball game.
Even if we ended up bobble-less at the end of the night…
I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I like minor league games. I attended a couple of Eugene Emerald games when I lived there, and always had a good time.
But after attending just a couple of events at PGE park, I may never go back. The insane prices of food and drink, coupled with the (what had to be intentional) absence of even a single water fountain made me feel like the mark in an exceptionally large-scale con game.
Yeah, I used to have half-season Timbers tickets the first year after the park re-opened - we got better food, for lower prices then.
But after that management team tanked and the fiscal responsibility drums started steadily beating - well, different vendors got put in place; prices started going up and up.
I think the people working last night’s stand were doing so as a group fundraiser, which eased the pain a little bit.
But the insane prices make it much more unlikely I’ll be taking the kids to a game any time soon; they’ll want to eat through their college fund (3 bucks for a small bag of Cracker Jacks - but how do you say no to a small child who wants Cracker Jacks at a baseball game? That’s just plain un-American…)