Out on the town to opening night

After our 2nd team practice we decided to get together as a team before our first game and hit the city of Vancouver.  The public transit up here is awesome, you can get to anywhere you want in the city for $2.50.  I took the "sky train" downtown and a bunch of the guys on the team met up at a place called Roxy where the Vancouver Canadians get in for free.  We all had a few drinks there, listened to a live band and then when the band was done we headed a few doors down to a club called Republic.  There was a line outside and they had stopped letting people in...that was until one of the guys on our team Justin, a 2nd round pick out of high school last year, decided to celebrate us being in Canada and his being of age by throwing down his debit card and buying a VIP booth for us all.  A VIP booth, 2 bottles of Grey Goose, and $2000 later, Justin closed out his tab and we all head home.  We all had a blast, and got a good night's sleep before our first game.
I got to the park at noon for our game, I got my lift in, conditioned, ran through some bunt plays and then suited up for introductions.  We all got called out to the foul line in front of a full house and then the Star-spangled banner was sung followed by the Canadian national anthem.  In Canada, the entire stadium sings along, and in this case, with the whole stadium singing the anthem, it gave me chills as it echoed throughout the field.  In between innings there is different skits and entertainment.  The sushi race is in between the 3rd and 4th innings where the different sushi mascots race around the field.  between the 5th and 6th innings, the grounds crew arrived in a stretch SUV limo dressed in tuxedos to the sounds of the backstreet boys playing.  They start a synchronized dance and go start dragging the infield dirt as the crowd went nuts.  Halfway through they drop their field drags as the chorus comes on again and they break into dance again, the crowd just roaring as they break it down. When the game ended the Canadians got the win in front of the biggest crowd ever in the league's history.  Autographs were signed pictures were taken with the fans and we head back into the clubhouse turning on some victory music.  The skipper came in, told us nice job and we showered up to head home.  Not a bad first professional game I'd say.  I pitch on Monday the 20th, starting my first ever professional game, wish me luck, my next post will be after that.

-Ben