Stuff to See!

Baseballed Out

I'm getting tired of watching the Orioles lose.
This season has been pretty exciting in comparison with the last four years, true. The O's are ten games from .500 with 22 to play (they have to go 14-8 to meet my prediction of 79 wins, which is quite possible). They're still mathematically alive in the wild card race, although that won't happen (their tragic number is 2 if I'm not mistaken).
But I've gone 3-10 in my 13 ballgames this year. Switch those numbers and the O's are 72-72 instead of 65-75. Of course, that's pointless since my presence, one way or another, has done little to affect the outcomes of particular games, but still, I don't recall having this bad a season in many years, possibly ever.

A review of Zen's games
• 4/20: O's beat Tampa Bay
• 4/29: O's beat Seattle
• 5/14: O's lose to Angels
• 6/4: O's lose to Tampa Bay
• 6/8: O's lose to Arizona
• 6/13: O's lose to San Francisco
• 7/23: O's lose to Minnesota
• 7/25: O's lose to Minnesota
• 7/31: O's lose to Yankees
• 8/3: O's beat Seattle
• 8/14: O's lose to Toronto
• 9/8: O's lose to Minnesota
• 9/11: O's lose to Yankees

Yup, 3-10. Oh well, it's just a game.
As you can see above, I had tickets to the 9/11 game. As I'm sure was the case of most people, my thoughts and feelings were divided concerning the third anniversary of the terror strikes against the United States. On the one hand, I solemnly saluted the many who lost their lives, their loved ones, and their peace of mind. On the other hand, I noticed a strange number of celebrations of various kinds designed to celebrate life. On the whole, I tend to agree rather than disagree with the timing of those celebratory events, thinking that the ones we all lost would rather have us enjoy life, even if they have lost theirs. 9/11 seems to have become as much a celebration of life as a day of mourning our many dead. For those of us who have lost loved ones, we don't consolidate our mourning into one 24 hour period; it follows us for the rest of our lives.
Therefore, to watch America's game on the anniversary of America's darkest day seemed to me to be especially appropriate.
Since I'd taken my camera with me to so many other baseball games this year, I decided against carrying it with me this time. I expected that the opportunities for picture-taking would be much the same as the other games I had seen. In that, I was mostly right, although we'll get to an exception or three later.
What I didn't expect was to find a comic book convention.
Strange as it may seem to one who has read comic books from around the time that he could read, I'd never actually been to a comic book convention. I've been to a sci-fi convention and a Transformers convention, but not a comics convention. Having arrived in downtown Baltimore with some hours to kill before the game, I was surprised to see a man walking down Pratt street in a vampire costume. I mentioned this to someone walking beside me and he said there was a comics convention going on. I jumped on the opportunity and made my way to the 5th Anniversary Baltimore Comic-con.
After paying my $15 entry fee, I made my way to the enormous array of comic stands, with the occasional toy stand thrown in for kicks. I'd determined to at least purchase a little something to justify my entry fee (throwing good money after bad, I reasoned). Since there were roughly 37 million comics, I knew I'd find something. As it turned out, I found a lot more than I actually ended up buying, which was just as well. I picked up an Optimus Prime bobblehead (pictured with my Eddie Murray bobblehead), a chromium-enhanced Transformers Volume 1 No.1, a fairly rare Transformers preview (to Volume 1), a rare variant cover for TF Volume 2 No 6 (Ultra Magnus cover) for a good price (it went for up to $25 at the convention mentioned above), a TF War Within volume 1 No 1 (with transforming Prime!) for less than cover price, and a dealer incentive TF War Within volume 2 No 1 (with The Fallen).
Naturally, the world of comics and toys intersects somewhat. I resisted the urge to pick up any new or used toys (even the $290 Fortress Maximus), mostly because I'd gone rather buck-wild recently, including a very cool G1 Ghost Starscream (pictured in Robot and Jet forms). That piece is one of 2,000, supposedly, and was none too cheap. I'm also expecting a New Year's Convoy from 2002, which I actually saw at the convention, although for slightly less than I paid (grr...).
Nonetheless, there were plenty of toys around. Most of them were used, and I didn't see any that made me think more than once or twice about picking them up. And plenty of comics.
From the convention I went to the game. As has become usual with home games against the Yankees, it seemed as if a wormhole had opened in the fabric of space and brought the Bronx to downtown Baltimore. I talked to a few of the visiting fans and the consensus was that a 3 hour drive to Baltimore was less painful than a trip to the South Bronx. Having been there, I can see why.
As long as the visitors pay their good money and generally don't try to wreck the joint, I don't really care what they do, although it sickens me to hear cheers for the opposing team in my own stadium. I maintain a respectful approach and a playful rivalry with the opposing fans. Unfortunately, as I've seen more than once, and would see again yesterday, others can take it a bit too far.
There was a group of six men sitting in front of me. While only one of them was truly obnoxious, five of them were drunk. What may have begun as a playful rivalry soon turned into crude gestures, crude language, outright threats, and generally outrageous remarks made to every pretty opposing female fan within eyesight, as well as some really dirty looks. By the seventh inning, there were about 10 cops in my section, escorting the jerks out of the stadium. I stayed out of the fracas, although seeing some drunk punks giving my city a bad name bothered me more than seeing 25,000 Yankee fans cheering the opposing team on to victory. I even apologized on the behalf of the city to a visiting family who had been particularly offended. They appreciated it, although they didn't see the need for an unrelated observer to do so.
Displays like that just make my team and its fans look all the more pathetic. Sad, but true. In that regard I was glad that I was attending the game solo (although I had two tickets).