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By education and experience - Accountant with a specialty in taxation. Formerly a CPA (license has lapsed). Masters degree in law of taxation from University of Denver. Now retired. Part time work during baseball season as receptionist & switchboard operator for the Colorado Rockies. This gig feeds my soul in ways I have trouble articulating. One daughter, and four grandchildren. I share the house with two cats; a big goof of a cat called Grinch (named as a joke for his easy going "whatever" disposition); and Lady, a shelter adoptee with a regal bearing and sweet little soprano voice. I would be very bereft if it ever becomes necessary to keep house without a cat.
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Coors Field Nugget One - opening homestand
Opening Day on Friday - with the Diamondbacks in town. They are the closest the Rockies have to a traditional league rival, and anticipation was high. The stadium sold out, and in the lobby we were besieged by the usual groups expecting to have tickets to see the game and discovering for one reason or another that they were wrong about that. Unfortunately too many arrive with an air of aggrieved entitlement, and no matter how patiently we try to explain why their hopes are going to be dashed, it never ends with understanding.
One group - probably the victims of a sort of scam - had purchsed six tickets from the friend of a friend of a friend, who then (as nearly as we could determine) reported them stolen, got reprints, and sold the seats a second time. Since the tickets they were holding when they arrived were the sequence reported stolen, they were out the money they had spent.
A sort of professional poor soul found a partially torn ticket (without the bar code) somewhere on the sidewalk and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the gate staff to admit him. He then came to the ticket service office. They were able to determine that the ticket had already been used by someone already in the stadium (who knows how the stub got dropped on the sidewalk) and refused to reprint the ticket. Eventually security had to come over to escort him away.
Late in the game, about the 8th inning, I got a phone call from a mother looking for her son. She had the name of the stadium employee who had called her, so I put her on hold, intending to reach the stadium employee on the other line. The elevator door opened, and here came a trio - the kid, a police officer, and the stadium worker who had called her. Seems the young boy, who is eleven years old, was at the game with his father, who was drunk by now. So the kid left his dad (without a farewell, it seems) found an usher, asked to be directed to a phone where he could call his mother. I got back on the line with the mother, and told her that her son and his police companion were on their way to meet her at the pick up point manned by the police about a two block walk away.
One of my bosses later said he was inclined to tell the boy to come back to see him in about 7 years and ask for a job!
Ubaldo Jimenez, pitching on Friday, and Jorge de la Rosa, pitching yesterday, both left the game with recurring irritations on fingers on their respective pitching hands. Jimenez may miss his next start. This morning I got a call from a very chatty woman telling me about her husband who pitched for the Cardinals in the late 40's and early 50's, and who knew all about a special ointment for sore fingers, and she needed to talk to manager Jim Tracy right away to convey this valuable information. I had to get very firm with her and state repeatedly that on game day, she would not be able to speak with him, that I was happy to take a message, but she would just have to be content with that.
Today's game wasn't played because of a sudden storm which swept in bringing a cold windy mixture of rain and snow. In the midst of the flurry of phone calls about the weather, the finger ointment lady called back, again wishing to speak to manager Tracy immediately and adding to that a rhapsodic description of her grandson pitching a Little League victory. Not exactly the conversation I wished to have just at that moment, with at least seven calls on hold.
I had one call from someone wanting to know if he really and truly needed to print his ticket - couldn't we just scan the barcode on his cell phone displaying the email?
And I can tell the entire stadium operation is still yawning and stretching, returning to life after the long winter. Usually by the time I arrive at work at 8:30 on Sunday morning the concourse is fresh and clean. Today the power washers were still roaring away and rivulets of water coursed around my shoes.
Dbacks won on Friday, Rox won yesterday. They'll make up today's game in about a month.
Real life is here again!
One group - probably the victims of a sort of scam - had purchsed six tickets from the friend of a friend of a friend, who then (as nearly as we could determine) reported them stolen, got reprints, and sold the seats a second time. Since the tickets they were holding when they arrived were the sequence reported stolen, they were out the money they had spent.
A sort of professional poor soul found a partially torn ticket (without the bar code) somewhere on the sidewalk and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the gate staff to admit him. He then came to the ticket service office. They were able to determine that the ticket had already been used by someone already in the stadium (who knows how the stub got dropped on the sidewalk) and refused to reprint the ticket. Eventually security had to come over to escort him away.
Late in the game, about the 8th inning, I got a phone call from a mother looking for her son. She had the name of the stadium employee who had called her, so I put her on hold, intending to reach the stadium employee on the other line. The elevator door opened, and here came a trio - the kid, a police officer, and the stadium worker who had called her. Seems the young boy, who is eleven years old, was at the game with his father, who was drunk by now. So the kid left his dad (without a farewell, it seems) found an usher, asked to be directed to a phone where he could call his mother. I got back on the line with the mother, and told her that her son and his police companion were on their way to meet her at the pick up point manned by the police about a two block walk away.
One of my bosses later said he was inclined to tell the boy to come back to see him in about 7 years and ask for a job!
Ubaldo Jimenez, pitching on Friday, and Jorge de la Rosa, pitching yesterday, both left the game with recurring irritations on fingers on their respective pitching hands. Jimenez may miss his next start. This morning I got a call from a very chatty woman telling me about her husband who pitched for the Cardinals in the late 40's and early 50's, and who knew all about a special ointment for sore fingers, and she needed to talk to manager Jim Tracy right away to convey this valuable information. I had to get very firm with her and state repeatedly that on game day, she would not be able to speak with him, that I was happy to take a message, but she would just have to be content with that.
Today's game wasn't played because of a sudden storm which swept in bringing a cold windy mixture of rain and snow. In the midst of the flurry of phone calls about the weather, the finger ointment lady called back, again wishing to speak to manager Tracy immediately and adding to that a rhapsodic description of her grandson pitching a Little League victory. Not exactly the conversation I wished to have just at that moment, with at least seven calls on hold.
I had one call from someone wanting to know if he really and truly needed to print his ticket - couldn't we just scan the barcode on his cell phone displaying the email?
And I can tell the entire stadium operation is still yawning and stretching, returning to life after the long winter. Usually by the time I arrive at work at 8:30 on Sunday morning the concourse is fresh and clean. Today the power washers were still roaring away and rivulets of water coursed around my shoes.
Dbacks won on Friday, Rox won yesterday. They'll make up today's game in about a month.
Real life is here again!
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