Tigers

Part of the 40th anniversary weekend for Dada's parents involved taking the entire family to a Pirates game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. They were playing the Detroit Tigers that night, and wouldn't you know it, we ended up sitting right in front of some boisterous Tigers fans. They would holler and cuss and carry on until Liam turned around with his hands over his ears and scowled at them. He said, "stop yelling!" There were about four of these guys and they all cracked up. The loudest one said, "sorry, little buddy. I'll try to stop. I get excited sometimes." All would be fine for a few minutes, and then there would be a call they disagreed with, so there would be more creative yelling at the umpire or at the ref or whatever seemed called for. Again, Liam would turn around and admonish, "you're yelling again!" They'd laugh again and console him, "sorry, little man. I won't yell anymore, I promise. Shake on it." He held out his hand, Liam grabs it to shake, and notices that this guy's index finger is missing at least one knuckle and fingernail.

"Hey! Your finger is short!"
"Yeah, I know. I cut it off."

(Insert Mama mentally smacking herself in the forehead AND the Tigers fan. She knows where this is going...)

"You cut it off!?"
"Yeaaaah. But it's okay now."

Oy vey.

Every so often, Liam would turn back around and announce, "your finger is short!" And the guy would answer him. And it would start all over again.

The yelling would resume and then the scolding would be followed by more promises. The Tigers fan even let Liam wear his hard hat, but the condition was he had to cheer for the Tigers. Liam was adamant that he was a pirate. He simply could not grasp the idea that one of the teams was the Pirates. He kept hunting for men with hooks on their hands, parrots, and torn-up clothes and hats. It was pretty funny.

The Pirates did a number on the Tigers, so the Detriot fans left before the game was done. They were clomping down the stairs past us and stopped and said goodbye to all of us. I thought that was nice, that they made an effort, you know? Liam talked about the guy with the short finger a few times since then, but thankfully it hasn't been discussed anytime there have been scissors or knives or anything you'd associate with cutting. I thought for sure there would be all kinds of issues later on, but I was wrong. Whew!