Honestly I'm about done with going to baseball games. It's becoming a joke and it has only gotten worse over the years...and I'm not talking about the team on the field. The management of security has been horrible. I've barely missed a game over the last 15 years. I'm in my late 30's have 3 kids who enjoy going to the games so it's going to be a tough decision.
1. A few years ago I watched college aged kids get banned from games for telling the center fielder he "sucks"..no foul language...just "sucks". I was so mad at what I was seeing I argued with security so they decided to throw me and my daughter out as well and told us we were banned from all future sporting events. As soon as we got thrown out several more people got thrown out defending us. I went to Brad Pittman's office or whoever over saw security at the time and got free tickets to the next few games and an apology.
2. Fans tried to camp out in chairs for our Regional years ago and were told by security they couldn't spend the night there...yet doesn't seem to be a problem at basketball games.
3. At the same regional, outfield security refused to open the gate while the other gates were all open letting people in. I asked a guy about it later he said they didn't like how the people at the front of the line were acting impatient so they thought they'd make everyone wait.
4. This one is my favorite! Back when they gave out the Gene bobble heads I got one and my daughter got one. We got to our spot on the hill between the 2 pavilions. A security person chased us down and said we had to give one back because my daughter (age 2) got in for free. I laughed and so did the other people who were with us, thinking he must be joking. He radioed back to the gate to ask for backup...I told him we had no idea he was serious and if he wanted it he could take it from her. He did...so I gave her mine.
5. My 3 year old daughter had a Dora backpack with an unopened bottle of water in it. Security saw the need to search the back pack, open the sealed bottle of water and smell it to make sure it was water.
6. This year I showed up to the first Saturday game of the year. Wife dropped me and the kids off at the gate. I had a cooler with 6 beers, security opened the cooler and said I couldn't bring those in. I had no clue what they were talking about. They said it as if I knew I couldn't bring in beer that didn't say 3.2. It was a pretty ridiculous conversation...so had to throw them all away. Thanks for the warning, or maybe just a sign.
7. My kids get told they can't stand there if they stop and stand on the sidewalk for more than a couple of seconds. Have you been to a game lately? They aren't impeding any traffic.
Other dumb things: Requiring a special $10 ticket to sit on the hill. Make no difference to me, I have 4 season tickets...but why do idiotic things like that when the program is in it's current state of sucking? Not allowing reentry into the game...why not stamp hands like the old days and let people back in? The bag for my chair blew over the fence yesterday, security didn't want to let me go get it. Of course the new 3.2 rule about beer and they way they are handling it looked like a fiasco at the gate yesterday as well.
I used to have a group of about 10 of us who went to every game, grill and have a few drinks now it's down to just me and my kids with maybe one other person coming along. It has a lot less to do with the team and more to do with idiots running the staff.
I could go on and on more than I have, but I'll end my rant here!
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