On a Brighter Note...

I sat behind Dustin Ackley's entire extended family at the game tonight.  Most of them had awesome Ackley gear that I didn't even know was for sale yet (probably it was not, for the general public at least).

His parents were pretty nervous and quiet, but they took a lot of pictures of his first AB, including the scoreboard displaying his name.  They moved around a lot to get good pictures and good karma.

His grandparents were awesome.  My buddy and I talked to them for the last 6 innings or so, once we firmly established that they were indeed the Ackleys.  They had a ~200-person party in North Carolina to watch his first game last Friday.  Then about 50 members of the extended family drove up to DC yesterday and today to watch this three-game series.  His grandpa was rocking a retro-M's Ackley shirt, which I now want real bad.

His grandpa told us how scouts had been watching Ackley since his sophomore year of high school and that every UNC game they went to, there were at least 5 team scouts there - progressively more each year.  Apparently he has a very large family, as there were about 30 other grandchildren and such spread around the section we were sitting in - most right down behind the M's dugout.  It was a great atmosphere.

It was an awesome game to watch until the 9th inning, obviously, especially with Ackley hitting early and playing great defense later.  After the walkoff homer, we all sat in stunned silence for awhile.  Then I stood up, shook his grandpa's hand, and said that we'll get 'em the next two days, and he agreed emphatically.  Go M's!