Road trip to Cinci -- Top 10 List

My family (wife and boy/girl twin 5-year-olds) made a road trip from Tennessee to Cincinnati to watch the Cubs battle the Reds.  It turned out that we were staying in the same hotel as the Cubs.  As previously mentioned, I sat next to S.H.E. for the Friday game.  On Saturday, I took my kids to their first MLB game.  Loads of fun to share:

Here are my Top Ten moments from the weekend:

10.  On Friday night, the aforementioned KissCam zoomed in on Glendon Rusch and Derrek Lee in the dugout.  It was funny.  I'm sure it was embarrassing for all involved.  Yet, with Glendon's man-boobs, who can blame the camera man for an innocent mistake!?!?
9.  Seeing Bob Brenly shopping at T.J. Maxx.  Dadadadadada TJ Maxx!  Proving once again:  "it's never, ever the same place twice".
8.  Watching Adam Dunn fake a bunt to try to pull the Cubs out of their Shift defense.  Yeah, that worked...
7.  Sticking with the Great American Ballpark Promos:   Sarah wrote about the 4 cheerleaders on an earlier post.  Actually, one of the four seems to be pretty cute (from 50 rows back, anyway).  One of their many responsibilities is to host a Let's Make a Deal game.  Here's a tip to fans:  The dud prize always seems to be behind the cute cheerleader's door...yet the male contestants always pick her door anyway!  We're such a predictable species.
6.  The Flex 'Em Camera on the scoreboard, giving fat bald guys the opportunity to flex their muscles in front of thousands of fans.  BTW, Sarah's muscular biceps would make AJ Pierzynski think twice about retrieving his own helmet!
5.  Riding the hotel elevator with Roberto Novoa and Freddie Bynum following Friday's win.  I said "whew...the ninth inning got a little scary".  Freddie responded with "But we won and that's alllllll that matters."    I didn't ask for autographs.  Given their respective ERA's and BA's, I kinda thought that they should be asking for mine instead. <rimshot>
4.  Meeting the Queen of the Queen City.  No, I'm not talking about Marge Schott...I'm talking about BCB's own Sarah (and her father).  It was a lot of fun sitting next to true, knowledgeable Cub fans.    It takes the right mix of optimism and sarcasm to sit next to me for a full game.  Sarah is as full of energy as she projects in her posts.  And props to her father who apparently showed her the way of Cub-dom, despite branches of Cardinals-dom in her family tree.
3.  Seeing Michael Barrett in the hotel lobby.  He is my 5-year-old son's favorite player.  We were waiting in the lobby for him to walk by on the way to Saturday's game.  Barrett apparently noticed my son's amazed eyes so Barrett nicely waved to him as he walked by (most players look straight down and listen to their ipods).  That wave alone made my son's weekend.  And something can be said for Good Kharma (see # 1).
2.  As we checked out on Sunday, we rode the elevator down with Matt Murton (my daughter's favorite player...I think because she likes yelling "Orange Guy").  Murton was EXTREMELY nice and cordial.  He was actually chatty with all of us.  He asked where we were from, etc.;  and he talked about his upcoming wedding in November ("past the post-season").  He said that he was having a blast playing baseball, but it has been even more fun now that they are winning.  He signed a ball for my awe-struck twins.  Good Karma struck again as he got two hits later that day.
1.  With good kharma on his side, Michael Barrett hit his grand slam on Saturday night.  With my kids jumping up and down with joy, I knew that I forever had them sucked into the exciting and tormenting life of a cubs fan.  Gotcha!  There's no turning back now.