Rose and me at Citi Field. We were lucky to capture this during the roughly one-half inning where she was sitting still.
Today is Father’s Day, which makes it the perfect day to take Rose to her first baseball game.
Except we already did that last October, when she saw about four innings of Nats-Mets at Citi Field*. And by “saw” I mean “ran wildly around the Pepsi Porch while a professional baseball game transpired nearby.” It was a blast.
Today, then, is the perfect day to take Rose to her second professional baseball game. We’re going to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones host the Tri-City ValleyCats**. It’s a battle between the Class A Short-Season squads of Rose’s current team (the Mets) and likely future team (the Astros).
Why the switch in teams? Well, we’re moving to Texas. Austin, to be precise. After nearly 13 years in NYC (for me, and nearly 9 years for Allison), it was time for a change. We’ll be nearer to family, we’ll be in a house with a yard for Rose to run around in, and we’ll be in a city with the youthful creative energy that drew us to NYC in the first place. It’s scary and exciting, and it’s happening at the end of July.
Taking Rose to see the Cyclones—who play in a gorgeous park right on the water—has been at the top of my New York bucket list. I’m glad we’re going, and I hope against all odds that she might remember it someday. The weather is stunning, and we’ve picked out a player to root for: Daz Cameron, a hugely talented outfielder for the ValleyCats drafted last year from a high school in Georgia. He was born in 1997, and is the son of former MLB outfielder Mike Cameron, who was an awesome centerfielder in the ‘90s. If everything breaks right for Cameron fils, Rose will get to cheer him on someday in Houston, a short drive away from our soon-to-be hometown.
But who knows. Prospects go bust. Rose might not like baseball. (The horror!) All sorts of things can change. But there’s a chance, and life—especially baseball, and especially minor league baseball—is all about taking a chance.
Home.
*-Earlier on the Journal, I claimed that she saw Bryce Harper hit a homer. She didn’t, and he didn’t. I have no idea why I thought that, other than that my parents once told me I took a lot of hits to the head as a kid.**
**-At least, I think they did.