TheyÕre not monkeying around with security anymore. Approaching the ticket-takers offers everything you see at the airport except the x-ray machines and Geiger-counter-like devices.

If you have no carry-ons (maybe someday weÕll be able to check our luggage before we leave for the ballpark), you can zip through an express lane. Otherwise, there are inspection stations you have to pass through. Every bag is inspected, and the security people even have ... rulers. Not Napoleon and King Tut, but actual rulers, 24 inches long. This is to make sure that no edge of your bag is longer than 14 inches. I donÕt know why this is the number, but it is.

Our diaper bag, as it happens, was exactly 14 inches at its longest edge. The kind security person then took the time to measure the shorter edge. Imagine our relief when we found that this, too, did not exceed the 14-inch limit.

My father, however, was sent back to his car with his backpack.

In a better day, when there are overhead compartments in the Loge level, perhaps DadÕs backpack will make it back into the game.