It'a a rare condition, I'll admit, usually only found in certain neighborhoods in the far northern reaches of Chicago on 50 to 60 days each spring and summer. Sadly, while I feel its characteristic symptoms today, I will somehow have to muddle through the day.
Damn it!
The Real "Crash" Davis (and even though he went to Dook, I'm still posting his picture here)
The Nats are playing an extremely rare day home game today at 12:35 p.m. As much as I'd love to blow off work and head out to the ballpark, sadly, the work culture in this town is like an antibody to Northside, or Wrigley flu. Half of D.C. bills by the hour, and the other half are clients checking the billing records. This effectively negates the possibility of taking a little undertime, chucking the tie and lounging in the outfield for an afternoon.
Sad.
Playing hookie from work is so entrenched in the Chicago culture you almost feel a little silly not going to the game. My brother told me he and three guys in his IT department each used to sign out to a different location downtown - specifically Clark and Addison; Addison and Sheffield; Sheffield and Waveland; and Waveland and Clark - and take in a game.
D.C. is a night game town, and that sucks. But, and this is a big but, if they started playing day games, I bet people would loosen up and come.
"This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."
- Terence Mann, Field of Dreams
4 comments:
Anyway you can work the game into a client meeting? That way you get paid for fun!
i have one gripe with the possibility of more nats day games (because today would've been the perfect day to blow off life, eat a half-smoke and drink a beer): WMATA. could you imagine a game at nats park ending at 4:30 PM on a tuesday? gaaaah. that would be the worst commute in the history of time. and that's probably why they don't do more of them.
Liebchen - Sadly, that's just not possible anymore.
magnolia - my answer is the same number of people would be on Metro, just maybe not at the same stations. (Although, l'Enfant would probably be a mess.) The folks at the game would still have been coming home from work, now they're just coming home from the game. Easy peasy. But you're probably right about how they're thinkin'.
As one of those "bills by the hour" people I would gladly skip work and go to a day game. However as one of those "bills every hour" people I cannot... =(
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