An Awesome Tigers Game!

Today we ventured out to the Tiger's game. It was Kid's opening day and I thought it would be nice to take Addy before the baby arrives. It took me well over a month just to get tickets. Children under 3 are supposed to be free (well considering they sit on a parent's lap), however, in order for us to be able to go we needed to take Addy's orthopedic stroller which meant we needed a third handicapped seat for the stroller. I didn't think it was fair to have to pay for a third seat when children under 3 are supposed to be free so it took a little legwork. I must have explained my story to about 4 people in the ticket and box office when I finally reached someone in the season ticket office who was nice enough to help us out. In the end, we were able to sit in the handicapped section while only paying for two seats.

It was a beautiful day and Addy was very excited. Apparently on Friday, she told everyone at daycare that she was going to a Tiger's game. I never thought she would get so excited, so that was nice to see. She scored a Tiger paw as we entered the game and got a free ride on the carousel because of kids day. She was very well behaved the entire game. It was nice to be in the handicapped section because we had enough room to give her the walker and let her stand or sit to watch the game. The orthopedic stroller has been very nice as we are now able to take the stroller and the walker to outings.

After watching the Tiger's get off to a bad start, we were very excited to see them come back and win in the 9th inning. Awesome! We had planned to stay to run the bases when the game finished. I never could have imagined what happened next. We waited in line along with thousands of kids. We got down to the field and we gave Addy her walker. As we started out at first base and headed to second, Addy walked along with the crowd of kids. I walked beside her while Aaron took the stroller to meet us at home plate. Parents really weren't suppose to go on the field unless the children were very young and, well, in our case it was fine. As we approached second base, I looked around and started to notice that there were no longer kids running on the field. As I looked over my shoulder, I could see that the ushers had stopped the line of kids from going on the field. I didn't think much of it and the thought crossed my mind that maybe they only let so many on the field at a time. As we left second base and began approaching third, it really hit me. They had stopped the line of kids so that Addy could run the bases by herself without the crowd of kids surrounding her. Everyone in the ball park at this point was cheering her on. I was shocked to say the least! Thousands of people cheering for one special little girl. It was absolutely amazing. She rounded third base and headed home where she reached down to touch the plate with her hand and thousands of people clapping. At this point I could hardly take a picture because I had tears in my eyes. After reaching home, Dave Dombrowski, the Tiger's president approached us to ask her name, age and to get a picture. He gave her a high five for a job well done. Aaron looked over to see ushers who even had tears in their eyes. As we proceeded to leave the ball park, even on the streets of Detroit, people were approaching us and telling us how awesome that was. It was one of those situations in which you wish you could do it all over again and have a video camera in your hand. It all happened so fast and when it was over we were able to see how one little girl can touch so many lives. A day that Aaron and I will never forget!

On our way

Tiger paws

Carousel ride

Running the bases

2nd base

Meeting Paws at 2nd base

Still running

Rounding 3rd

Home!

Meeting the president

Tuckered out