game 5, ALCS

I have a few goals in life that revolve around sports. One of my goals is to attend the Olympics, both summer and winter. Another is to go to the World Series. Turns out that attending a playoff game is another goal, though I didn't know this until about a month ago. If you recall, the Angels played the Red Sox in the first round and the Twins played the Yankees. (the winners would play each other) Since Drew cheers for the Yankees and I cheer for the Twins, as long as the Angels beat the Red Sox, we could go to a playoff game and cheer for one of our teams. The Angels swept the Red Sox and the Yankees swept the Twins, so the Yankees and the Angels would face off in the ALCS.

On Thursday, Drew and I went to Game 5. The Yankees were leading the series, 3-1. Angel Stadium was a sea of red. I wore my pink "Virginia is for Lovers" t-shirt, without even realizing that it probably made me look like an Angels fan. I didn't mean for that to happen. Since I could not bring myself to wear Yankees paraphernalia, I wore the Virginia t-shirt to privately indicate my solidarity with Drew, a die hard Yankees fan.

Before the game started, people were making their way into the stadium. There were also bible thumpers with signs basically telling everyone that they were going to hell. I couldn't resist snapping a photo:

All right, back to baseball. We sat behind home plate at the top of the stadium. Even though we had nosebleed seats, we still had a great view:

I told you there was a lot of red!

The Yankees lost, 7-6 in a super exciting and suspenseful game. The Angels scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. Then nothing notable happened until the 7th inning, when the Yankees rallied and scored 6 runs. In the bottom of the 7th, the Angels fought back to score 3 runs. The Yankees managed to load the bases in the top of the 9th, but then Nick Swisher hit a pop fly to end the game. It was a lot of fun to attend a playoff game. The tension was palpable, and the excitement was contagious.