Tino's Birthday

 

Yeah, so this isn't a "today" post, but it's a oops, "I should have blogged about this three months ago" post. For Tino's birthday, we went down to Miami to see the Cubs-Marlins baseball game. The last time I had seen a Cubs game was during Bob Brenly's first stint as broadcaster for the Cubbies.

It seems like a life-time ago that I worked during the summers as a nanny for the S.F. Giants ball players. The Brenly's were the first family that I worked for. I tried for weeks to get into touch with Bob. In fact, Tino sent countless e-mails via the radio station but to no avail. Game day came. I told Tino he would have the chance to meet Bob. He wanted to know how. I said, don't you worry. I will get you in. We went to the players parking lot, where we saw the Cubs' bus. I went to security and told them I was a family friend and needed to speak to Bob Brenly. He had already gone upstairs to the press box. It took me awhile to find the press box, but I finally tracked it down. (The upstairs security guys were not as helpful as the downstairs security guys.) We had to find the press box the old fashioned way. Go inside the stadium, look up to where we saw all the computers and cameras, then wander upstairs in that direction.  My plan to track down Bob was going well . . . until of course we got to the doorway that said "Press Box, No admittance, etc. etc."  Yeah, right.

 

 

Once again, I had to go through my very professional and confident "I know what I am doing" speech to the security guards.  It took three security guards.  Finally, the security supervisor came to help us.  It took about ten minutes of waiting, but it was worth the wait.  Bob's look of surprise on his face after not seeing me for 20+ years was almost as big as the look of surprise on Tino's face that I was able to actually make it through security and introduce him to Bob.  As suspected, Bob hadn't received any of Tino's e-mails.  I  have to thank Joan, Brenda, Shelley, and Becky (former S.F. Giants baseball wives) for teaching me the ins and outs of getting around ballpark security twenty plus years ago.

 

As for the actual baseball game, I couldn't tell you who won or who lost.  For me the most exciting and memorable part of the game was being able to see Bob after all these years and introduce him to two of my three children.  (Yes, I was a little weirded out thinking that my kids are now OLDER than his kids were at the time that I was their nanny.)  How time flies, when you're having fun!