Expos-Giants Game, September 4, 1988

[noteful]

It's a beautiful day in Montreal, somewhere late summer and early fall, and Meg and Laura take a long and meandering path from the cafe where the bar turned up today, around the city, and to the Stade Olympique.

Meg had no trouble getting tickets, and if they're not exactly the closest seats ever, they do have a nice view looking down over third base, and a good view of the whole field.

"I think we're over here."

Comments

[noteful]

"An excellent choice."

They're in the song and everything.

"So," Meg says, a moment later, once drinks and peanuts are obtained, and they're settled into their seats, "what do you think?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"The stadium is very big."

Beat.

"And crowded."

Comparatively.

"It would be difficult to adequately defend. If there was trouble."

[noteful]

"Well, yes. I guess it would be, but that's . . . unlikely. At least anything serious."

[cutting_edgex23]

"I know," X says. Quietly.

"But it is better to be prepared."

Some things X cannot quite help.

"You will not have anything? To eat."

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"I know. Always better to be ready."

Meg shrugs. "I'll get crackerjacks when the right vendor wanders by," she says.

Meg opens her program and produces a pen.

"So the first game I ever went to with my father, in Detroit, before Toronto had a team, he started teaching me how to keep score. And I thought, if you wanted, I'd show you. It's a good way to follow the game and learn what everyone is doing and all that.

"If you like. It's not hard."

Especially for someone with Laura's memory.

[cutting_edgex23]

X tilts her head very slightly, then shifts position so she can better see the program.

"That would be useful."

Beat.

"I have been to Detroit before. But not for baseball. You liked it?"

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"I haven't been in years. I think so?"

Meg hands the program and the pen over to Laura, and gets her own.

"So first, when they announce the starting lineups for both teams, we write them down. And then, as each batter comes to the plate, you record what happens. And it's all done with a shorthand, and everyone does it a little differently, but every position has a number -- the pitcher is 1, the catcher 2 . . ." and so on around the field.

"So if the batter hits a fly ball to the centerfielder, I write down F8. And if the second baseman catchs the ball and throws it to first, and the runner gets tagged out, that's 4-3. A strike out is a K, for reasons unknown."

And so on.

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is like chess," X says.

"The numbering."

Kind of.

At least it helps X make sense of the scoring procedure?

It will do.

[noteful]

"Right. A number to represent each position, so you can easily keep track of what happens."

Meg likes score-keeping. It's elegant its brevity, but complete.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You can read the game from the card?"

Beat.

"When it is done."

You can do that with chess games, too.

X approves of simplicity. When it is useful.

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Meg nods. "Yes. I save all of mine, from games I go to.

"You can look back during the game, too, if you want to see what happened the last time a batter came to the plate."

[cutting_edgex23]

"It would be useful for gambling? On the game."

X's curiosity is purely academic.

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"I've never thought about it," Meg says.

Meg Ford, not much of a gambler.

Shocker, we know.

"I think they do look at past game statistics for that sort of thing, probably."

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"It would be practical. And efficient."

X sounds vaguely approving.

And she may also look at some past game statistics for teams in her timeline.

Just to -- see.

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"Yes."

Pause.

"Though then I would have no idea how to go about placing a bet."

Meg considers.

"I guess your city is kind of playing mine. We could . . . bet a quarter on the outcome of the game, or something."

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers.

"Or a root beer float."

Beat.

"Quarters are not very useful."

X is game if Meg is.

[noteful]

"Root beer float it is," Meg agrees. "I'll buy if the Giants win; you'll buy if the Expos do."

Meg offers her hand so they can shake on it.

[cutting_edgex23]

"The terms are acceptable," X says, taking Meg's hand and shaking it.

It is a deal.

One it is probably good that X does not mind losing.