It seems fitting that on the day Keith leaves to attend the ELCA’s National Youth Gathering in Detroit, Michigan (Rise Up: Together – http://www.elca.org/YouthGathering) that I write about Henry’s first MLB experience rooting for our hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays (Rays Up!). This past Saturday, Thrivent sponsored its annual Lutheran Day at the Rays, where Lutherans from this part of Florida could all attend a game together and support the Eckerd organization. Our church, the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, had twelve of us sign up to go, and the game did not disappoint!  

We arrived a little late to see the Rays take on the Astros, but once we found our seats the Rays came alive and scored. Henry calmly sat in our laps for the first part, probably overwhelmed with everything happening in the stadium – from the lights shining, the music blaring, the crowd roaring, and the TV screens flashing – a lot was happening for our little guy to take in. He really liked the music and cheering, and soon began to dance and clap for the home team. Another awesome thing happening was the crazy thunderstorm raging outside the ballpark – we could see the wind and rain hitting and moving the roof and shaking the lights at the top of the stadium. It was scary, but also very cool. 

  
During the middle part of the game, Henry and I walked around the whole stadium. I tried to acquire a first time attendee buttons for him, but they were gone by mid-game; next time I’ll get him one for sure. We also tried to see the sting rays in the touch tank, but Henry decided he didn’t want to wait in a long line. So we played musical bats, colored mascot pictures, and climbed all over a giant baseball glove. When we returned to our seats, the Hen was ready to watch baseball and eat popcorn (mostly eat popcorn). He got antsy again so Keith took a turn walking around with him, but they made it back in time to see the Rays win! Henry and us Lutherans must be good luck charms for the Rays, who were having a losing streak before the sweeping Astros weekend. Rays Up, indeed!