Sunday, September 26, 2004

Baseball Game and Proverb

A friend in LA is an Anaheim Angels season ticket holder ( 4 seats ) and offered me 2 free tickets to see a game. I told him I am an Oakland A's fan. So he set up for my wife and I to see a game between the Anaheim Angels and Oakland A's on 09/25/04 (Sat). The game starts at 7:05pm. So we left for Southern California at 9:30am on Saturday by car. We arrived at Anaheim area around 3:30pm... so 6 hours driving..not bad. We still had time. So we went to her aunt's place in Orange County. We rested and ate dinner at a buffet with her aunt. Then we headed on to the stadium around 5:30pm.



Upon arrival, we felt something was wrong.. the parking lot is almost empty. Usually before the games starts, we can watch the visiting team practice in the field. So, normally, even this early, people would have already arrived. When we reached the parking entrance, we were told by the parking attendant that the game was over. They rescheduled it to an earlier start time which was at 1:05pm. We totally didn't know and I guess so many people didn't know either since there were still a number of people still coming to the stadium...the ticket office gave us a few choices, they could either refund our money or exchange our ticket for another game. We decided to just take the former since we weren't the owner of the season ticket. Since the season is ending, we are told that we can use these tickets for next season (any game). Of course we will choose " Anaheim Angeles vs. Oakland A's " game again.

When things like these happen, I always remember a couple of proverbs I live by. I actually shared this proverb in one of our recent department meetings that I conduct.

1. 石橋を叩いて渡る " Ishibashi wo tataite wataru "
( To hit the stone-made bridge before crossing )
[ To make double assurance ]

2. 初心忘るべからず " Shoshin wasuru bekarazu "
( Never to forget your roots or your original purpose )
[ Try never to lose your freshness of attitude ]

I don't know how these proverbs became the words that lead me in my adult life. Since I was in college or since I started working in Japan... I've always kept these in mind. However that game matter is exactly related to the first proverb. I forgot to check and was careless.

Even if the ticket said the game will start at 7:05pm, I should check their web-site before we left San Francisco. hmmm.. I am still not sufficiently trained.

link | posted by ExcelVir at 11:26 PM