For love of the game

Well, I finally did it.

Saved a few pennies, used some Christmas money and realized a lifelong dream. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Those who know me well know that my first love really wasn't the little dark haired girl with the blue eyes and perfect teeth. No, sad to admit, it was baseball. (What can I say? I was 5. Girls were annoying, like my little sister.)

One of my secret goals in life (up there with something like climbing Everest) was to be a baseball season ticket holder. Some people wait years to purchase Green Bay Packers tickets. Others keep submitting applications for Bristol Motor Speedway. Not me. All I wanted was season tickets to our national game.

Choices are few in East Tennessee. The Atlanta Braves are three and a half hours away. The Smokies season tickets are a little bit out of my budget. (Plus I'd go broke filling the SUV with gas driving back and forth to Kodak. Thanks, Victor Ashe!)

But then my eyes fell on Rocky Top. I remembered Rod Delmonico and his Diamond Vols. Yes, they play with aluminum bats. Yes, it's freezing cold for half of their season.

But Halls guy Jeff Lockwood is the new first baseman. And, so yes, I did it. Cue the drum roll.

Guess who is the newest UT baseball season ticket holder??!!

Whoo Whoo!

Found out something else fun. The Vols will play a baseball game on my birthday this year! That's another to-do crossed off my list.

And if it couldn't get any better, I even got an autographed Chris Burke baseball out of the deal. OK, so he hit the home run that knocked my Braves out of the playoffs two years ago. If you're going to put a dagger through my heart, do it in style.

Life is good. And if it proves impossible to get to 39 home games, which indeed it will, what the heck. I've got tickets to 'em all!

Least I can do for love of the game.