Tag: relationships

#TBT – Super Heroes, Siths, and Saltiness

I know what you’re thinking…”Damn girl, you’re still here?!” Yes, yes I am. Listen keeping up with writing and everything else life throws your way is hard! I have much respect for those of you who do this professionally and/or with some level of consistency.

But I’m back right now and OMG so much has happened!

We A LOT of lost games.

…and at one point I never thought we’d get to .500 (meaning we have the same number of wins and losses). But we did… actually we’re .535 (8 games over .500) and look real good sitting at 2nd place in the National League East, 6 games behind Atlanta and 1.5 games in front of Philly! For the first time in Nationals history, we are Wild Card contenders. You see in the years we’ve won the National League East we had the wins and simply clinched it. This time is different because we’re coming back from a big deficit. But watching us play during this second half in pursuit of a chance at making the playoffs, certainly makes for good baseball and high blood pressure.

The BF and I had our first outing together at the ballpark…and then another!

May 25th – Marvel Super Hero Day

Although he had done the Spartan Stadion at the ballpark just two weeks prior (*ahem* on my birthday), this would be The BF’s first time at the ballpark for an actual game. I felt the pressure. Admittedly, I had my doubts. The ballpark is one of my happy places and I’m quite protective of that. Plus my past dating during baseball season (DDBS and yes, I just made that up) experience had been shitty at best. So just in case he wasn’t that into baseball or was uncomfortable with how much I am, I chose two themed games I knew he’d enjoy: Marvel Super Hero Day and Star Wars Day. To say he loves these two things, universes, cults, or whatever you want to call them would be a gross understatement.

We arrived at the ballpark a little late, missing the Ryan Zimmerman as Captain America bobblehead giveaway. It was hot and humid and I wondered how well, if at all, I would balance following the game and making sure The BF was comfortable. After all I had dragged him out to the ballpark on a hot and humid day to sit in the direct sun for several hours. Turns out that as usual I hyped that entire scenario…in my head. Things had been effortless with us up to that point and being at the ballpark was no different. It was perfect and by the end, I was looking forward to catching another game with him. I actually think he paid more attention than I did and I might have observed the beginning signs of conversion.

We walked away with a Curly W, beating the Marlins 5-0. The biggest win for me though was walking away knowing that I have someone who loves me, even when I’m a sweaty screaming fanatic at the ballpark.

June 15th – Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day was our second time at the ballpark. We arrived early enough to snag the Obi Sean Kenobi bobblehead. Before taking our seats we checked out battles between The Resistance and The First Order, fans young and old in cosplay, an inflatable Death Star, and a pretty cool R2D2.

I must say that while the Nationals did well with Marvel Super Hero Day, they just did a must better job with Star Wars Day. It was a completely different experience with Star Wars-themed sights, food, and entertainment all throughout. Which made up well for the 10-3 loss to the Diamondbacks.

I took my salty family to the ballpark too!

June 4th

Every year, I bring some of my favorite people out to a game and it’s always a good time. Usually Karl and Jen will join me for a Phillies game, and Kyle, an Orioles game, but this year everyone joined me when the White Sox were in town. This was during the time that neither team had reached .500. To be clear…they weren’t salty at first. Actually when they arrived at the ballpark, they were quite confident the White Sox would take the win to get them closer to .500.

I just checked…they are .451 and 18.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins so I’ll spare you the details of how that game went (we won 9-5).

Also since this post is super late and the cat’s finally out of the bag…

Congratulations Jennifer & Karl! 💙

 

Love and Baseball?

Okay so…I’m dating!

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Yes…get hype for this one! I’ve had my share of ups and downs with online dating but my new guy has been a breath of fresh air and I am open to all of the abundance this new relationship has to give! Now of course there were things that caused other dates/relationships to never take off, but would you ever think liking baseball would be one of them?

In the essence of time and boundaries, I’ll share just this one experience. I was attempting to get to know a guy this past summer. It was right at the start of All-Star Week. I guess in hindsight maybe that wasn’t such a good idea because it was a super busy time. However, I did what I thought was my best in communicating upfront my agenda for a particular day and when I would likely be available to talk. I don’t know, but it became obvious that he didn’t care to understand all that All-Star Week was or allow some flexibility. I found myself defending why I liked baseball so much and traveled to the ballpark day after day that week. This guy also reminded me that I’m a woman and I’m Black…like I wanted to forget or be something different or that it excluded me from being a spectator.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t my only bad experience with dating and baseball and for some guys (clearly not the right one), it can be hard to understand a woman’s affinity for any sport…especially a sport like baseball. What is this the Republic of Gilead?!

Let’s do some math: There are 162 games during the regular baseball season and about half of those are home games. So if you’re a full-season ticket holder that’s roughly 81 home games. I have a half-season plan with the Nationals so that’s still 42 games. We haven’t even factored in the Postseason into this equation. Now that doesn’t mean folks go to every single game they have tickets for, because I surely don’t. That’s a lot of freaking games! But the probability of being at the ballpark and/or watching the games on tv multiple days out of the week is kinda high. Would only someone who loves or at the minimum can tolerate baseball understand and accept that?

Well given my past experiences with baseball and dating, I figured it was time to throw out a disclaimer to my new guy. It was the day after the Super Bowl. As I do most mornings, I jumped into Google Hangouts to chat with him. He sent a few messages about the Super Bowl and how low viewership was this time around. Good. I was still in my feelings about the outcome of the Saints/Rams game so I was pretty much done with football. Baseball season was coming and I finally had something to look forward to! I sent a few messages about baseball to change the subject (sorry babe) and to provide a segue to my disclaimer:

Me: I apologize in advance…baseball will become a huge part of my life over the next few months.

My New Guy: No apologies needed! Baseball will become a huge part of my life then.

Me (to myself): I’m sorry, what?!

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Told ya…breath of freaking fresh air! Am I lucky or what?!

So after picking myself back off the floor I wondered: How important is it that your significant other like baseball (or insert any other interest) too? Do we just need the freedom to enjoy what we like or would we prefer their willingness to learn about and occasionally join us at what we’re interested in?

Have you had an experience (good or bad) dating during the season of your favorite sport or otherwise trying to enjoy something of interest? We want to know so feel free to share in the comments!

-Nika

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