At 24-13, the Tribe was off to a hot start. Fausto Carmona - more or less our ace - took the mound against Doug Fister. In retrospect, you know this was an inauspicious beginning since Fausto turned out not to be Fausto at all, but some guy named Rob who had adopted a false identity.
Because it was a last-minute trip, Glenn had no time to prepare a proper scorecard and ended up using the woefully inadequate ones sold at Gate A. Adding insult to injury (because he finds it morally objectionable to pay $1 on a stadium pencil) Glenn scored the game with a permanent marker. This led to the single most error-ridden scorecard ever recorded.
Seated in the lower reserve among the "Choo Crew" (our right fielder), Jennifer and Glenn watched the Tribe come out to an early lead, 2-1 over Seattle into the 7th. Fausto, or Roberto, then gave up a single, a home run, a double, a walk, and another single... allowing Seattle a 4-2 lead. Tony Sipp pitched the 8th, then came back out for a turbulent 9th inning.
As the Indian's came up to bat, we found ourselves facing off against Seattle's closer, Brandon League. Leadoff man Michael "Dr Smooth" Brantley hit a double. The shortstop, Asdrubal Cabrerra followed with another double, scoring Brantley and bringing the Indians to within 2 runs at 4-2. Choo advanced Cabrerra with a groundout, but it was one down. Carlos Santana, just emerging as a power hitter, came to the plate. He worked League to a full count before hitting a weak grounder that went 4-3 for the out. Two out. The designated hitter came to the plate, the powerful but oft-injured Travis Hafner, or "Pronk" as we called him. The first pitch was fanned by a massive missed swing. Things did not look good. Only the promise of fireworks kept the crowd at ease. But on the next pitch, a baseball miracle occurred, the likes of which we haven't seen again. Pronk crushed the ball to deep center field for a 2-run scoring walk-off home run.
The Cleveland faithful went wild, and amid the random fist-bumps and high-fives by unknown bros, Glenn turned to cheer with his lovely princess. With a big smile, she looked up at him and asked: "Do you want to marry me?" Glenn paused for a beat, laughed and said of course.
As you know by now; to everyone's surprise, she pulled out hardware. Literal hardware, two hose clamps, and put one on his finger. Just to "cover the bases" (yuk yuk) she produced the flat head screwdriver necessary to adjust them to the perfect fit.
