Josh claims that we’ve been watching too many different sports and that it’s okay he messed up and said that teams score points in baseball. (I don’t think that’s a valid excuse.)

Early last week, we made last-minute plans to go to Thursday’s Hartford Yard Goats game. Josh’s work has a suite at the stadium and he was able to get us tickets. The forecast called for some rain, and I wasn’t sure what would happen, but we headed down to Hartford after I finished work.

Josh walked in like he owned the place, mostly because he had been up to the suite before for work purposes. I just followed him and was like, “So this is how the other half lives.”

This was the view of the field from the suite; there was full roof coverage over the seats. Unfortunately, the tarp was still on the field—and spoiler: it would never be taken off.

One perk of the suite is that you have a dedicated staff member to take food and drinks orders; the guy stopped by shortly after Josh and I got there and explained how everything worked. The menu only really served 8+ people (we weren’t sure if anyone else was showing up besides Josh’s co-worker and her boyfriend), so we ended up going down to the concessions.

Josh’s co-worker and her boyfriend showed up, and we chatted with them while we ate. It was getting closer to 7:00 p.m. when the game was supposed to start, and we could see the team president and GM down on the field looking at the tarp. (Prior to going to the game, Josh was really excited to tell me that sometimes they put a tarp on the field before the game if it’s raining, and I was like, “Really?!“)

Around 7:00 p.m. there was an announcement that the game was going into a rain delay. The guy who had come by earlier for food/drinks said that if the game goes into a rain delay that basically means it’s cancelled. So at that point, we knew there’d be no game that night. Then a little while later the game was officially postponed, and we were told we could hang out in the suite for another hour.

There was another guy there from Josh’s work (he said he looked familiar but couldn’t remember what department he was in) with some guests, so we all hung out inside the suite watching the Red Sox game.

FOLKS! 🚨 MASCOT ALERT 🚨 So, while we were watching the Sox game, through the window on the suite’s door, I could see the Dunkin’ hot coffee cup look inside, and I instantly felt panic. There was no place for me to run—unless I just jumped off the suite balcony. It came in to visit and it gave high fives to Josh and I, while I was internally screaming.

And then it got worse when Chew Chew, one of the two main Yard Goats mascots, came in the suite with her handler. She was giving hugs to everyone, and I couldn’t scream, “Get away from me!” with other people in the room. So I sort of side-hugged her? And then her handler was like, “Do you guys want a picture with Chew Chew?”

I believe that’s the closest I’ve willingly gotten to a mascot. (Okay, second closest. I do have a picture with Wally the Green Monster from years ago.) But still. I cropped out and painted over the other folks in Photoshop, but yeah, less than a few feet from the mascot.

I was probably fully traumatized and then we left. When we were walking by one of the elevators, Chew Chew and her handler were waiting for it; meanwhile, Chompers, the other mascot (the green one) was walking back down the suite hallway. The handler asked, “Chompers, you okay?” and Chompers threw his hand up like, “Yep I’m fine” and kept walking. It was pretty funny since Chompers was just walking around by himself.

I was a bit disappointed that the game was postponed, and we weren’t able to go to the make-up game over the weekend. Josh is going to try to get suite tickets again to make up for the game, but we’re already going to two games with my parents later in the summer.

On Friday, we had tickets to the Hartford Wolfpack/Springfield Thunderbirds game that we bought a few weeks ago. Josh went to the XL Center for work and was in their new sportsbook/bar area; he said it was really cool and that we should go soon. Luckily, the T-Birds were heading down I-91 to Hartford and we got tickets. It helped, too, that it was a discounted ticket night for $12.

I took a half day from work, mostly so I could just hang out and read for a bit before we left. We planned to head into Hartford early before the game.

Around 5:00 p.m., we went to the XL Center Sports Bar for dinner. There were so many TVs on the wall—literally my dream place. We sat in one of the booth areas that had our own TV to watch.

Josh got a pulled chicken sandwich, and I got chicken tenders (sometimes it’s just easier to order something I know won’t give me heartburn). Ordering was via QR code and our drinks and food were delivered right to our booth.

Gates opened at 6:00 p.m., and we had to go back outside around the corner to go in one of the main doors. Once were were through security and scanned our tickets, Josh and I walked a lap around the concourse since neither of us had been there before. It was pretty big and had a wide variety of concessions.

For some reason, I didn’t remember that I bought our tickets right behind the goal. But our seats were pretty good and closer than we’ve been at T-Birds home games. We kept an eye out for other fans in Springfield gear; the couple sitting next to us were T-Birds fans.

But I’d like to note: Sonar has quite an arm. I’m convinced he’s a former college baseball player or something. He was up in the upper level for a t-shirt toss, and he literally threw the t-shirt across the short way of the ice right over to the other side. It was insane.

By the end of the second period, it was 4–1 Wolfpack and Josh was getting tired, so we decided to leave. (I think this is one of the very few sports games I’ve ever left early.) The final score of the game was 5–3 Wolfpack.

We’re done with sports games for a little while but I’m glad we both like sports enough to go to multiple minor league games a year, even when we really don’t understand one of the sports (hockey). I’m still out here explaining all of the weird rules of baseball to Josh.