Last week was opening day for baseball, and this year my team (the Dodgers) hosted Mike’s team (the Giants) for the opening series. Those of you who have been reading for a while will remember that the Dodgers are my former employer. I have a ton of great memories from my four seasons working in sales for the team, and I still have wonderful friends that work there. In fact, one of my wonderful friends gave us his set of comps for the second game of the year, so Mike, Annabel, and I met my cousin Leah at the Ravine to watch game two.

If you ask Annabel what her favorite baseball team is, she’ll tell you it’s the Dodgers AND the Giants. And if you ask her who her favorite player is, she’ll tell you it’s Matt Kemp AND Buster Posey. This is fine for now, but she only has five years before she has to pick a team and stick with it, so Mike and I are working hard to sway her. Since the Dodgers are no longer responsible for a large portion of our income, the “appearance regulations” have been lifted when it comes to what Annie can wear to games. Of course, Annabel picks out her own clothes, so I think it’s pretty telling that when she was at Giants’ spring training games last month she chose to wear non-Giants clothing. I also think it’s pretty telling that she chose to wear this ensemble to last week’s game at Dodger Stadium:

GO DODGERS!
Dodger dress, Dodger hoodie, and LA cap.

Hey, if Mike doesn’t care enough to get Annabel Giants clothing that will appeal to her (I mean, do you think Annabel is going to pick an orange t-shirt over a twirly blue dress?) then he doesn’t want it badly enough.

We got to the stadium early enough to walk around, and Annabel really wanted to go down near the field. I asked her if she wanted to watch batting practice and she said, “No mama, I need to go play WITH them.”

watching BP

I knew if she got close enough to the field an usher or ball boy would toss her a ball (they can never resist little kids who bring their own gloves) but she was content with staying farther back – I think the size of the crowd intimidated her a bit. So we walked around a bit more and then stopped for a family photo.

baseball family
Strangers take blurry photos.

We had nice seats on the club level, right outside the owners’ offices. I had my eyes peeled for Magic, but Annie had her sights set on the food:

eating a hot dog

She was also really into the player introductions, and went crazy for her Dodger favorite, Matt Kemp.

THEY SAID MATT KEMP'S NAME!

She cracked me up the whole game. She took her hat off for the National Anthem, cheered for the Dodgers (and the Giants, too, but the surrounding crowd definitely influenced her to root more for the home team), and sang along during the seventh inning stretch.

national anthem time

Go Dodgers!

Daddy and Annie

She was also THRILLED when Leah showed up. She loves her Tia Leah something fierce.

Surprise appearance by Tia Leah!

Also, apropos of nothing, she fed me grapes. I could get used to that.

Feed me grapes!!

After the game we walked through my old office, where Annie made a beeline for the lit-up LA logo:

outside mommy's old office

She never asked who won the game (the Giants), because it didn’t matter to her.

I love that she so clearly enjoys baseball, the sport that Mike and I both grew up adoring. It’s going to be a lot of fun going to games with her as she grows up, and hopefully she’ll pass her enthusiasm on to her brother. And just think Mike, even though Annie is clearly going to pick the Dodgers on her eighth birthday, you’ll get another chance soon with The Acrobat…although I’m not going to give him up without a fight.