My daughter and her new favorite bear, T.C.
Friday, August 14, 2009
As many of you know, I was a sports photographer for 13 years at KARE 11. That means I have been to about 200 NFL football games and probably close to 1,000 Major League baseball games. So after all these years, the thrill of watching a game has sort of lost its luster to me. However after taking my nearly 2-year-old daughter to her first ever Twins game this week, I may have a new appreciation for it all together.
My little girl was a great sport about the whole night. I was a little concerned that she would be too squirmy to sit in the seats for the game or that I would have to get up and down a thousand times angering the people sitting next to me. I even brought all sorts of snacks and toys to make sure that I could keep her entertained while we were in our seats. But in the end, she was totally fine.
The noise inside the Metrodome didn't bother her and the amount of people didn't seem to phase her either. But the one thing that she just loved more than anything was T.C. Bear, the Twins mascot. Now, keep in mind... I've seen that bear nearly 1,000 times since I moved to the Twin Cities and thought he was the dumbest thing I had ever seen. I grew up in Chicago where we don't have mascots for our professional teams so hopefully no one takes offense to my original dislike of T.C.
But as soon as my daughter saw that bear on the field from our seats, she just started screaming, "BEAR!!! BEAR!!!" as she pointed enthusiastically towards him. It was so funny! When the game started and the bear was nowhere to be seen, she told me that, "Bear is hiding." I was kind of impressed that she came up with that logic but I just went along with it.
But the craziest thing of all was that the mere thought of seeing T.C. Bear again sustained her attention for the two hours that we were at the Metrodome! I simply couldn't believe it! When he would show up on the field in between innings, she knew it right away and just loved every second of it.
All this time I thought mascots were a total waste of time!! But now they have a whole new meaning to me as a mommy!
I was so impressed with T.C. Bear and what he did for my daughter I actually dropped $20 to get her a stuffed T.C. Bear to take home with her. But it was all worth it when I looked in my rearview mirror on the way home from the Twins game and saw her hugging that bear. It was one of my fondest memories of being with my daughter and I only have T.C. Bear to thank for it!
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