As far as baseball games go, I seem to have lost my long-term memory. I always remember the grand total of 10 seconds of excitement, but then forget the multiple hours of boredom I have to endure for those 10 seconds. It’s like the visual equivalent of surfing – lots of time spent waiting, but very little time actually spent doing something. Or, as it goes for baseball, watching someone else do something.

But like I said, I tend to forget all that business, especially when presented with free tickets and a free meal beforehand (thanks to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which gives a lot of funding to Pete’s lab). And I guess the possibility of seeing Barry Bonds at least tie, if not break, Hank Aaron’s homerun record added some excitement. So after a brief stressful purveyance of the Old Town trolley station, we happened upon some convenient (and free!) street parking and headed downtown tonight.

Things I saw at the ballpark:

• A guy with a butterfly net. There was no way he was going to miss that multi-million dollar ball if it happened to come within a 15-foot radius of him.
• Hundreds of flashbulbs going off in the crowd every time Barry swung at a pitch. As it got darker, the effect got neater, but at the same time I wanted to make a public service announcement to the effect of, “Your flash only works for about 5 feet in front of your camera.” Sigh.
• Some guy standing in front of me with a pants wedgie. Not quite as impressive as a shirt wedgie, but still.

Things I didn’t see at the ballpark:

• Barry Bonds breeak, or even tie Hank Aaron’s homerun record. Damn.