This evening was also Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night, so tons of fans were already in line when I arrived around 3:30pm for a 6:38pm game.
They fed us pizza and drinks, which works for me!
R2 was joined by several members of the 501st Legion. We took a group photo before heading out to greet the fans.
A little before 5pm, we made our way to the music garden. Since we were further away from the changing room than in previous years, poor R2 had to go over a long path of cobblestones to get to his station. He got quite a rattling, but appeared to come through it unscathed. We took our position at our photoop area, and soon a line of over 100 people snaked back toward the entrance.
The other characters also had similar areas for photos with the fans.
Around 5:45pm some of the characters (including R2) staged near the bullpen gate in left field corner, in preparation for walking the warning track to wave to the fans.
And out we went. Once again, R2 left his signature tracks on the warning track.
And once again, R2 appeared on the scoreboard. As was the case with Dodger Stadium earlier, the scoreboard refresh rate is out of sync with the camera, so the image looks bad even though it looked great in person.
As we approached the home plate area, the woman singing the national anthem this evening was particularly excited to meet R2.
We finally made it off the field, and went through various corridors to make our way back to the changing room. On the way back, R2 encountered Toronto Blue Jays outfielder George Springer, who also had fun with R2, and tried to coax him into the visitors clubhouse.
We hung out in the changing room for a little while, and then headed back down to the left field corner for the Steal-A-Base activity. After the 3rd inning ended, the characters returned to the warning track near the left field foul pole, to cheer on the kid that has 30 seconds to run down to a base stationed quite a ways away, grab it, return with it, and cross the finish line.
After that, R2's night was over. The Angels provided all the characters one of the bobblehead dolls, so that was nice.
The Angels ended up losing the game 4-3, dropping R2's record at Angel Stadium to 1-5. He needs to do better next year. Hopefully we'll be back.
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