It’s Here: Beer, Sun and Baseball 12

Today is the biggest annual (non-charitable) party for the Arizona wing of the Baker family: Beer, Sun and Baseball. It’s now in its 12th year.

Every year, on one Saturday in March, I throw together a massive tailgate party at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, home of the Oakland As. People pay a set fee and they get all their alcohol, soft drinks and food covered, plus a T-shirt and a ticket right behind first base.

Most people don’t come for the baseball. They come for the party. This year there’s 53 attendees. It’s always a great time. Mnay of the people who go to this only see each other once or twice a year, typically at this event. So it has a sort of reunion-ish quality about it. And the fact that it’s annual gives it a sort of holiday feel, each event marking another passage in time, a celebration of the fact that, hey, we made it another year, and we managed to get out and celebrate friends and family today.

Or something like that. Most people probably don’t think that deep. Some probably just wanna get a beer buzz and scream at athletes.

If you had asked me 27 days ago whether we’d be doing this event; and whether Beckett would be at full speed and not only be able to go, but up at 5:30 a.m. and bouncing on the bed and wondering when we were leaving, I’d have thought: no way.

Beckett’s progress and his return to form is nothing short of a miracle.

Time to go party.

(Pictures to come tomorrow. Lots and lots of pictures. Promise.)

– Ed, Heidi, Beckett and Brody