Saturday March 19 was the day the Saints put single-game tickets on sale. A few years back, we started the tradition of heading out to the parking lot for a tailgating tune-up. Then the Saints started serving food, so we quit cooking during the ticket sales, but still showed up for the party. This year, the date was moved two weeks earlier than normal, and in spite of that, a few of us still headed out. I arrived before the phone-lines opened, since one of the days I wanted to get a couple spare tickets for was likely to sell out. When I arrived, it was pretty quiet. The van belongs to Andy, who was playing piano in the tent the Saints had set up.
Eventually, the rest of the gang showed up, and got the bonfire set up. We stood around that for a few hours, talking with various people who showed up and wondered what we were doing. After a while, Lynn and Candy decided it was time to build a snow-pig, so they (with some help from Alex) did. Me, I wandered around, offered various suggestions, which were ignored, and took pictures.
Once the pig was done, and staring up at the stadium (longing for baseball season, no doubt), Bruce and Dave decided it needed to be moved up near the stadium entrance with the two concrete pigs that live there. I was doubtful they'd be able to move the pig without breaking it, but Bruce had the idea of using a trash-can liner as a makeshift gurney for the pig, and it worked pretty well.
The journey was successful, and only minor touch-ups were needed to make the snowpig at home in the new location. And a curly tail was added, since that had been forgotten in the original construction, and would have gotten broken in the move in any case. Once the move was complete, it was time to head to warmer climes, so we adjourned to a local bar for some food and drink.
It was a fun afternoon at the ballpark, followed by some cameraderie at the bar, and I'm glad I headed out. Even if the weather wasn't particularly springlike, we made the best of it. And with any luck, we've convinced the Saints staff that maybe they should have the ticket sales a bit later next year.
Next outing? Probably the season-ticket-holder party. The word on the street is that it will probably be in late April, and the location is yet to be determined. The three possibilities are GameWorx in downtown Minneapolis (which none of us thought was a particularly good idea), the Summit Brewery (an excellent idea), and at the ballpark (not horribly original, but simplest to pull off).
