Front-row seats not necessary to enjoy papal Mass

Published: 2008-04-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Many remember Bob Uecker, the former major league baseball catcher, more for his post-baseball career than for his playing days. One of his more memorable forays was a beer commercial in which the usher plucks him from his seat, with Uecker saying to his friend, I must be in the front ro-oooow ..." only to be shown at commercial's end sitting by himself in the nosebleed seats, hollering about a play taking place 500 feet from him, "He missed the tag!" Such was inevitably the lot of plenty of fans -- Pope Benedict XVI fans -- at Nationals Park in Washington for the April 17 papal Mass. Only 5,000 or so people could get tickets placing them on the field. Only another 20,000 or so could sit in the lower bowl of the "100-level" seats. But don't pity the folks sitting in the last row. To them, for a papal Mass there's not a bad seat in the house.

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