Such a bittersweet week. It started with having to say final goodbyes to my mother, who passed peacefully at the ripe age of 97. This prompted a trip to Maryland and, in a case of fortuitous timing, it turned out the Rangers were visiting Baltimore two days after the funeral. This provided me with two great opportunities: a chance to see a game at Camden Yards for the first time and the opportunity to do it with my wife, daughter and two grandchildren in tow!

When growing up in Maryland, my first baseball game was a Washington Senators game in old RFK Stadium. But most of my MLB games growing up were Orioles games, viewed at Memorial Stadium. The last time I saw an Orioles game in Baltimore was when my kids were maybe 7 and 5 years old. Now they’re both grown up with children of their own. Despite many trips back to Maryland over the years, a trip to Camden Yards was never in the cards. Until now.

Here’s what I learned: 1) Camden Yards is as nice a place to watch a ballgame as just about anywhere. It immediately made my Top 3 ballparks list, ranking right up there with Globe Life Park in Arlington and Coors Field in Denver; 2) The weather for the game we attended was as perfect as any game I’ve seen: temps in the 70’s, low humidity, little to no wind; 3) One usher in particular was as kind as can be (more later); and 4) watching a game with a 5-year-old and 2 1/2-year-old makes one have to relearn watching a baseball game!

I say this because, as excited and happy as I was with the 8-1 Rangers victory, I actually saw very little of the scoring. We arrived just a little late due to Baltimore traffic. We were just getting to our upper deck seats in the top of the 2nd inning when I glanced up just in time to see a ball carom onto the field in right. Mitch Moreland was digging for second and appeared tagged out there. While I was cussing Moreland out (under my breath so the little ones wouldn’t hear), I didn’t realize the umpires were about to call Moreland’s hit a home run. So I kind of missed that one.

As the game progressed, I was engaging the oldest grandchild, a precocious 5-year-old named Christopher, in conversation about baseball, school and his favorite things. While looking at him, I suddenly heard the crack of a bat. Carlos Corporan had hit one out. Didn’t see it. An inning or so later, I headed to the concession stands to buy a couple of dogs, some drinks and souvenirs for the kids. While waiting on my lemonade, the cashier announced, “Moreland just hit a 2-run home run.” His second of the game. Didn’t see that one either.

But hey, when I returned from the concession stand, I saw the family about 12 rows closer to the front of the upper deck. The usher said nobody was using those seats and invited us to move up. What a nice guy!

The game went on. At one point, someone on the Rangers got a hit and I cheered for him. Elizabeth, the 2 1/2 year old, cheered with me. This prompted her older brother, a Baltimore native of course, to admonish her. “You do know you’re cheering for the wrong team, don’t you?”, he scolded. I couldn’t help but smile.

In the top of the 5th, Shin-Soo Choo hit a rocket that turned into the Rangers’ 4th home run of the night. This one I was watching but I still didn’t see it. From where we were sitting, the trajectory took it right through the bank of lights in my field of vision. I know it went out and where it went out but I never saw the ball!

After the top of the 5th, our friendly usher became even friendlier. “There’s a whole row of seats not being used on the lower level. Why don’t you all go down there?”, he said. Whether he didn’t want to look at my Rangers jersey anymore or he just thought the kids would get a thrill out of the better vantage point (more likely), we jumped at the opportunity and soon found ourselves in the lower deck left field stands, where we stayed until the end of the 6th inning, when the hour dictated it was time to go. Thus, I also missed Joey Gallo’s bases-loaded triple that closed out the scoring for Texas while the little ones were already falling asleep in the car. Eight runs for the Rangers and I pretty much didn’t see the hits that scored any of them.

It’s all good, though. Watching a game in a beautiful ballpark on a beautiful night with my beautiful wife, daughter and grandkids made for a spectacular end to what had been a solemn week in my life. I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything and honestly, it was one of the best trips to a baseball stadium I’ve had in a long time.