Advice for new parents @ the Coliseum?

Oh, wait. Damn!

I actually have lots of useful advice, but am dashing out to a meeting, will respond at greater length later tonight.

He did fine until Jack Cust hit a home run and everybody cheered. That really freaked him out.

So my advice: go to a game where you don’t expect cheering.

My recommendation is don’t bring a child to the game until the child can walk, talk, sit in his/her own seat, and understand what a ballgame is.

If you have a can’t-miss game and can’t find a baby sitter, don’t sit where you could be hit by a bat or ball. With a baby on your hands, you won’t be able to watch the game closely so you won’t be able to properly protect yourself or the child from flying objects. When I see parents with babies or toddlers sitting near the dugouts, I figure they must be incredibly selfish, stupid, or insane. Get behind the netting, in the upper deck below the overhang, or in the upper bleachers.

Lily attended her first game at 2 – earlier than that I’d either go for a babysitter or a night game and hope they’ll sleep.

With a toddler, what works for us is:

• Day games.

• Don’t expect to stay for the whole game – we normally catch innings 3-7, which also avoids the crowds getting in and out.

• Bring one of the child’s friends and parent, but not your partner – get credit for giving them some alone time and see half an A’s game !

• Section 220 – Stompor fun zone behind, 2 good microbrew vendors below.

and his second game the next day in Sacramento.

Both were major losing efforts. (MIN 12 OAK 2, FRE 15 SAC 0). I told him if things don’t change, he’s not going to a game until he’s old enough to drive himself there.

This early, it’s really about you and not your kid so much, since they won’t get anything from the game. Day games might be better under the overhang to minimize the sun, but we’re going to sit out from the overhang on opening night this year to try to avoid the windtunnel.

That being said, I’m dragging my son to spring training this year (he’ll be eight months) and the Sharks @ Phoenix game. We’ve got noise-cancelling earmuffs on order.

First take him to a AAA game so the huge crowd won’t totally freak him out

Get seats in the sun — look at him! He needs a tan – way to pasty.

Make him stay the entire game — the last thing we need is more fair-weather fans who leave early.

Make him yell – a lot! The fans around you need to understand that people at baseball games are supposed to cheer – yell – heckle … that’s what real fans do.

Don’t put any “cute” s*** on him — an A’s visor or hat is sufficient. If you’re gonna put a jersey on him, then buck the trend and go with Canseco or Brown or somebody other people don’t like. Toughen him up.

Teach him to hate the Red Sox and Yankees and Angels and Giants very early in life — make sure he understands it’s ok to hate certain things.

And finally, brainwash the s*** out of him — tell him he leaves the house if he ever roots for another team besides Oakland … make him spend the night in the garage once just to show him you mean business – without a blanket – at around 9 months.

Oh wait, “Go A’s!” needs to be the first words out of his mouth — not “mama” or “dada” or any other cliche’d crap like that.

HAVE FUN!! :-)

My first kid, a boy, is due the friday before opening day.

I don’t think I’ll take him this year, which is a shame, we’ve already got a lot of good A’s gear for him.

I was thinking of taking him to spring training next year. Anybody have thoughts on that?

Each of my kids made her/his A’s game debut at six months or less. I gotta say that I disagree pretty strenuously with some of the suggestions others have offered. My takes:

1. The babe-in-arms stage is a great time to bring your kid with you. The baby is content right there, whether wide-eyed with wonder or asleep in your lap. Those who say otherwise are simply wrong…it’s when your kid can walk and talk that your job is much harder, and your kid potentially more annoying to other fans. At this stage, if your infant cries, or frets, or gets all vomit-y, take a stroll. With occasional trips to walk them or stroller them or bounce them to sleep, and so forth, infants can enjoy a good long game. Two year olds, much much harder.

2. salb is right, though, the sudden bursts of crowd noise can alarm little Reggie. Best you can do is to be ready at the most likely moments with the extra-firm cuddle and the soft words in the ears.
3. Have a spouse. Two adults taking turns tending young Catfish is the way to go…solo parenting at the ballpark is like ten times harder than tag-teaming.
4. Plan on missing parts of the game. And you might have to leave early. There’s no way around that…but so what? If your expectations prioritize the family fun experience over a personal first-pitch-to-last-out imperative, everyone will have more fun. Listen, your infant will not remember whether you were in your seats or your car in the 8th inning. And it won’t turn him into an Angels fan with a five inning attention span.
5. Aim for low demand games to start. A nice Tuesday night when KC is in town will work well. It’ll be quieter, and you can move around with ease. As you doubtless know, the simple act of moving is a great cure for the infant wailings. Also, I found night games were easier than day games, since the sun isn’t a factor…sun and heat were the single biggest problem for me and my kids in the early years. And infants’ can’t tell time anyway.
6. You can bring collapsible strollers into the Coliseum, which makes a nice comfortable seat alternative for your youngun (plus a big break for the arm-weary parent). I’d aim for tix in the Plaza Outfield, underneath the overhang—there’s lots of seats there and they’re not in big demand, day or night games. My kids actually think that the best seats in the whole Coliseum are the very top rows of Plaza OF, in the part of the section where the row is just 4 seats wide, because there’s a cavern effect in which they can yell and swing on the railings without bothering other fans. Those seats are also near in-house monitors, which is handy since you will in fact miss a lot of the action. And they’re just a few steps away from the prime "walk the kid around" concourse. Also worth noting—those back row "cavern" seats have a big extra space right behind them for storing diaper bags, big foam fingers, etc. Avoid the bleachers and Plaza Reserved, much more chaotic.
7. As long as you’re not packing the big Samsonite, don’t worry too much about the size of your diaper bag. They’ll let you in with it.
8. BTW, kids under two years old don’t need their own tickets.
9. There are TV sets showing the game in the Stomper Fun Zone. And the Stomper coloring shed is a good place for kids who like crayons. Rest of the stuff there, though, is oriented more towards kids 5-12 or so. But there are some stretches of padded floors where little Vida can crawl around without getting stepped upon. Probably.
10. There are changing tables in some of the restrooms…Sections 207 and 227 upstairs, more in the first deck. In both men’s and women’s rooms. The full list, and other fun facts, is under D for Diaper in the Ballpark A-Z Guide
11. If you’re inclined to empty the wallet to deck your kid out in green and gold, do it now. The A’s have a number of adorable clothing options for infants…and then virtually nothing until Junior hits age 8 or 10. It’s inexplicable to me, but it’s been that way your at least the last eight years in which I’ve been inculcating my kids into the Way of the A’s.