Fan Tales: A Coliseum debut to remember

I could tell from the way my dad said my name that he had unpleasant news to share. “If this goes much longer,” he said, “we’ll miss the BART.”

I checked the time and realized that it was almost half past eleven. The Oakland A’s and the Detroit Tigers were entering the 12th inning on a cool spring night in the East Bay and the last BART train would be leaving the Oakland Coliseum at midnight.

I was surprised at how late it had gotten. We had been at the park for almost five hours, but time had seemingly ceased to exist for me there. I had spent the evening trying to soak in every sight, sound, and scent the ballgame had to offer and hadn’t spent a moment considering how or when we’d get back…