For years, many of you have seen me laugh along at Brendan’s “old” jokes at my expense.  Whether it’s between songs, changing lyrics of songs or just a knowing look during the Who’s Baba O’Riley (“Let’s get together, before we get much older”), Brendan has always seemed to have the perfect old joke in his back pocket. Finally, last night I was able to turn the tables on him with the help of our good friend Adam Budney.  The plan was hatched two days ago when I asked Adam to join me at the Cubs/Brewers game on Monday.  He told me Brendan would be going as well.  I immediately tried to think of what we could do to have a little fun with him.  I suggested the idea of a sign, and Adam said he would text Brendan during the game, get his seat number and then we could add that onto the sign with the hopes of it making the broadcast, flashing from our sign to his seats.  We hatched the plan, picked up 3 sharpies & poster board at Walgreens on the way to the game and took a seat for a couple drinks at Sheffield’s to create the artwork.  As you can see, we’ll be sticking to our day jobs as this arts & crafts business is clearly not our forte.

Upon arrival, we found out that our kind friends in the Cubs front office put our seats next to each other.  Adam & I now had the added challenge of trying to hide the sign until the right moment.  As the game went on and we realized Brendan had no idea what we had in the bag (nor did he even seem to notice that we had something under the seats), we sensed that the 7th inning stretch would be the right time for the reveal.

In a perfectly serendipitous moment, our friend & photographer NuNu showed up 3 rows in front of us just as the 2nd out of the top of the 7th was recorded.  I sent him a “Turn around and take some photos for us” text and he happily obliged, totally nailed the shot.  I love that we made it through “Take Me Out To the Ball Game” in it’s entirety without Brendan noticing the huge sign behind his head.  Perhaps the best part of the joke is that Brendan just turned 38, not 40.  But last night, for the first time, Brendan was finally the old guy.  Happy birthday Brendan, we’ll never forget it.

Joel