2064.11 - Tickets to Game 1

[R.Umali]

There was no question that Decorah was getting tickets to Game 1, even with the silly “post-season fee” the Black Sox charge on top of tickets. She felt lucky that the seats she got were only ten rows back from her usual seats in Section 212.

So, as Sacramento was making a series of it against Nashville on Sunday night, when Will asked if it was possible to change tickets from Game 1 to Game 2, hackles were raised.

The pizza was inches from her mouth. What did her nephew say, exactly? “Tiny schedule tweak? That kid Yael has a slot right behind the dugout and said I could dock.” Translation: "Her nephew's new friend Yael has an extra seat right behind the dugout and offered it to him."

Decorah watched the Mad Popes’ Lou Bayou swing over a Bin-ying Yen pitch. Strike three. She let her thoughts drift over those rumors last year that Bayou could’ve been a Black Sox. She took a bite and then she took a breath and said, “What the hell, Will? I don’t know if I can change it. I don’t want to change it. This is Game 1. We're going to Game 1.”

Will said, “Well, yes. We're going. But I can sit right behind the dugout. And you can resell my seat. Resale’s vertical right now. Olympus Mons vert.”

Decorah, “I'm not wanting to sit with some schmo.” All the schmoes she sat with over the years flashed in her mind. To be fair, she can be a schmo herself sometimes.

Will said, “If we unlock Cartwright, we party pixel-to-pixel.”

Decorah was tweaked. “Cartwright? You are not -. You can’t talk about that! That's a jinx. You just jinxed them!”

The Black Sox, by virtue of winning the Frick Heartland, had a spot in the Doubleday Series. They were waiting the result of the Kernels vs. Sluggers matchup in the Geoghegan Round. The Kernels had won earlier in the day off a walk-off single by Ken'ichi Okubo to make it a 1-2 series. If Decorah thought about it — and she did, though she would beg the party line — she would want the Kernels to win. Sure, the Kernels came in just as hot as the Sluggers this September, but that Louisville lineup could, and often did, hit dingers for days. They had tagged Adam Hines for three HR, all solo shots thank goodness, a couple of months ago.

She looked at Will, his eyes scanning from wall-mounted television back to pad back to wall-mounted television. He was doing homework, texting, running sims, decoding Forrest Rockburn's latest glitch-speak-laden interview.

He laughed and turned up the sound, “Listen to this.”

It was Rockburn responding to the question “Who would you like to face in the Doubleday? Des Moines or Louisville.” Rockburn actually had not beaten either team this season. And Louisville basically effed him in four starts, hitting seven HR in 17.1 IP.

Rockburn said: “Pick? Load either, anch. Kernels run cleaner on my chipset: low noise, tight parse. But if you’re asking my cache, queue the Sluggers, my hombre. They bug-checked me all season. Launch angles spiked, seven moonshots. Cool. Gimme the rematch patch. Gimme their bats in a fresh build under playoff latency. Mark that. I’ll throttle walk packets, keep the fastball on rails, and sandbox the long ball. Sluggers are a boss fight. I click boss fights.”

Will’s aunt half-listened. She loved the pitcher for his electricity on the mound but she could only take so much of Rockburn’s retro slang. Seemed forced to her. Louisville will eat him alive. At any rate, she was still processing Will’s suggestion that she somehow exchange the Game 1 tickets for Game 2 tickets.

Will repeated, “I click boss fights. Aces.” He had clearly moved on.

Decorah said, “It’s up to you what you want to do, but I’m going to Game 1.”
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Chicago was 8-6 against Louisville this season, winning 2 of 3 at Kentucky Truck Plant in September, and 2 of 3 at Vinnie Vitale in August.

[Jwalk100]

Post season fee is kinda like Personal Seat License.

[Krathan]

I’m just imagining how irritating it would be to be a middle school teacher when this language is in its prime.