The Old Ball Game

Here's the real beauty part of February in ABQ. The UNM baseball team begins hosting games at the end of the month; the home opener was Friday. So Saturday we gathered up the family and headed out to Isotopes Park to watch the Lobos take on the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.

As a UNM student, I get in free, and tickets are $5 for Summer and $3 each for the kids, making it a cheap outing. And the crowds are small--maybe 200 people in a stadium that seats 12,000+, meaning there's always a good seat.

It was a gorgeous day at the ballpark; gametime at noon, the temperature was 55, reaching the mid 60s by the last out. We first sat three rows back behind home plate, but as the afternoon went on, the sun dropped behind the pressbox and it got chilly. So we moved up the third base side a bit, until that too got cold. Finally, we moved over to the sunny first base side, behind the Lobos dugout, and basked in the sun.

The game itself was good; the Lobos had lost 13-3 on Friday, but they came back with a nice victory Saturday, winning 4-1 (the second game was a UNM blowout, winning 22-2). The Lobos infielders made some dynamite defensive plays, and the pitching was solid.

Here are some pictures from the game. First, Evan, who loved just wandering around the seats all game long:
And second Isaac, who sat a few rows behind us in our first seats. Looks pretty smug, huh?

And with that, I bid you welcome to baseball season, my favorite time of the year. Here's to a few more UNM games (BYU comes to town next month), my Spring Training trip in just under 4 weeks, and a half dozen or so 'Topes games. Play ball!