BEHIND THE SCENES AT PETCO PARK

TJ and I got to do the behind the scenes tour at PETCO in his last week of school about a month ago.

Here's what I learned:

• there are 300,000 giant nuts and bolts massive metal beams in this place.
• the tiles on the front came from India and it's supposed to make it look like it fits the southwestern U.S. Go figure.
• the field is off limits to everybody pretty much. It gets mowed daily or something ridiculous like that. The runway around the outside is made of some crazy mixture of finely crushed rock.

• there are people who pay $40,000 per year for seats behind the stadium and end up watching much of the game in an exclusive club behind home plate with crazy expensive food and flat screen tv's.
• the visiting team dugout has no back rests on their benches and nowhere even remotely close for them to pee during the game but the padres backrests and a bathroom that is readily accessible. Who knew "home team advantage" included toilets?

• there are no windows on the announcers booth and no way to close it even if it was raining... which it does so little.... that they skipped the windows.

• the "Western Metal Supply Company" building in the corner was originally declared unfit for the structure by current building codes. To avoid having to destroy it, they had the state declare it a national historic building. Then they built the stadium as an "addition" to the old building. No joke. Bureaucracy is stupid. I hate red tape. Sooo Stupid!

• the "park within the park" is open every day the team doesn't have a home game. Oh... I so need to take my kids and play whiffle ball and have a picnic there. And... watching 150 middle school students spontaneously start playing games and rolling on the ground made me wish my church had a MASSIVE grass lawn. Our concrete jungle inhibits normal social play for all ages that grass simply invites. If I could redo one thing in our church, I think I might bulldoze a chunk of the parking lot and install grass and park benches/tables around it instead.

• maybe next time TJ can get us a tour of the WORLD CUP!!!! Brazil is the summer before his senior year. I hear a stadium tour calling us!!!!