Comments and Feeback

It has come to my attention that folks out there could not comment on this blog unless they were registered with Blogspot. Well, that trash has been taken out, so to speak. Now you can feel free to leave comments and feedback with just your name or even anonymously!

Speaking of that, let's use this post right here as a feedback forum. Detroit was my 15th stadium so that means I'm half way done! If you have any comments or suggestions for things you'd like to see more or less of for the next 15 parks I'm all ears. Maybe there are too many pictures and you feel like you're back in kindergarten? Maybe the posts are too long, or not long enough, or I'm not showing enough bathroom pictures??

Whether I know you or not, constructive critisism, a friendly hello or an anonymous rant telling me how terrible I am will all be welcome.

Kind Regards,

Mgmt.

IT’S UNANIMOUUUSSSSSSSSS!!!!

8 Mile movie reference? Anyone?


Anyways, after paying something around $30, the promise of my first born son and my left arm (below the elbow) in tolls, I finally made it out of Canada and into Detroit. Before we get to the Tigers game though, I have to tell a story. After the Celts beat the Cavs in game 7 of the semifinals I popped on the computer to check the schedule of the eastern semis. “Game 3, in Detroit, May 24…huh…I don’t see the Tigers until the next afternoon…huh…” Well, I think we all know where this is going. I checked out stub hub and got two tickets to the Saturday night game for $34 each!! What the hell?? I had them shipped overnight priority (which cost an extra $20) and was all set to see the Pistons/Celtics in Detroit. Nice little bonus though, eh? To top it off, Steve was going to be in Ohio for work until Friday and after a little coaxing decided to drive up to meet me for the game!

This was weird...during the afternoon of the game I popped online and checked out ticket prices on the Pistons website. I could have bought two tickets, for the same section we sat in, at only $24 each. So even though the face value of my tickets was $75 per, my little “deal” wasn’t all I thought it was. I guess the Pistons can lay claim to that great sell-out streak because they keep dropping prices until the place is filled?

Moving on...After the whole “Melee at the Palace” or whatever it was I was a little nervous that we’d lose our lives in the upper deck but it was actually a pretty tame atmosphere. Steve and I were openly rooting for the Celtics and weren’t hassled once. The Pistons, like many other playoff venues, decided to give out tee shirts for all the fans to put on. We didn't. We were rebels. The effect was pretty cool though.

Of course, I had to get the obligatory victory shot in there after it was all said and done.

We also stuck around to watch the Sportscenter guys do their thing. Stu Scott, Mike Wilbon and John Barry.

Detroit had quite a night while we were there. The Tigers were playing and ended up scoring NINETEEN RUNS, the Red Wings opened up the Stanley Cup Finals with a win against Pittsburgh, the Pistons and Celtics were playing game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals and as the fans around us at the game were quick to proudly point out: THE LIONS DIDN’T LOSE!! Hats off to Detroit for a great day :-)

The next day I headed down to Detroit (the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons play, is about 33 miles north of the downtown area) and passed B-Rabbit’s hood! I didn’t stop to check it out though.

I’ve only been to Detroit once before and that was for the coolest deal I worked on at my old law firm. I got to go with one attorney who represented the bank helping to refinance the lease on Comerica Park (aka, where the Tigers play). We spent about 2 days straight in a conference room, hardly slept, ate decent food and got the Tigers their money. It was a blast though, I like baseball!!

Game Notes:

The game was on a Sunday so I had no trouble parking at a meter downtown. I was shocked at how many “downtown” buildings were empty or in disrepair though. Maybe the place looks different during the middle of a week day but this place was an absolute ghost town in some spots when I was walking over to the stadium. The first thing I noticed, even from far away, was the facade at Comerica Park. Everything is very Tigers oriented and they all look fierce. [Time out, funny story. I write these blog posts in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste them to the website. Well, when I just wrote facade the program put a funky little thing under the “c” because it’s French – it did it again! Facade. Haha! So anyway, I bet you won’t be able to see anything different about the word because Blogspot isn’t that high-tech but this is funny for me!]

At most stadiums they try to make the entrance gates unique. They’ll put “Third Base” above it or have the name of the stadium or name a gate after a famous player or something like that. Usually that’s to let fans know where they are in relation to the inside of the park. Well, Comerica’s entrances have been the best. They have scary cat, sorry, tiger statues all over and they also play up the baseball theme as well (obviously). There are giant bats and balls and Tigers paraphernalia everywhere. I thought the entrance on the right was cute with the big Red Wings jersey.

I could tell almost immediately after I entered the park that Comerica was going to get some high marks. I’ve really been interested in what sets a stadium apart; what is unique and special about it. It wasn’t on par with San Diego but Detroit, like San Francisco, was able to do a lot with roughly the same building structure as many of the newer parks. I noticed the “Tigers Den” seats first. This section is on the field level and wraps roughly from first base to third base. I sat in these seats for the 9th inning and it almost feels like you’re lounging at a summer BBQ enjoying a game. The seats are really comfortable, you can put your feet up, you get a private table for food/drinks and each pair of seats feels really separate from the next. And like I said, these things wrapped around most of the infield so a lot of people get to take in a game this way.

I’ve been getting to every stadium pretty much right after they open the gates so I’ve seen my share of BP. Here’s another picture but you should also note Ford Field in the background. This is where the Lions (who also didn’t lose on Sunday!) play. The stadiums are right next to each other. I wonder how parking is for duel Sunday September games? Also worth mentioning is my seat for this game. If you travel up the foul pole and then look just left, in the corner of the very top row is where I watched this game from. The ticket I purchased had me down in the bleachers where I would have fried so I retreated to the shade but there were 42,000+ people at this game and empty seats were hard to come by.

I took a lap around the concessions and the Tigers scored some points here. They are the first team I’ve seen trying to make a profit on game used material. If I still had a job and was offered the chance to buy a game used base for $100 would I do it? I sure as hell would think about it a lot longer than I did! They also sold bats, balls and other such game used items for decent prices. They have full size amusement rides for kids and some cool stuff for adults too. There was a carousel and a Ferris wheel and also a beer hall and BBQ area.

Continuing on I found these decade themed stanchions. The Tigers have been around a really long time and it was really cool to see all the history and team photos and stories each of these poles contained. There really was a lot of information on each one.

I settled in to watch some batting practice and for a while and wouldn’t you know it? They shrunk Magglio Ordonez!

OK, that’s not true but I’d be willing to wager any amount of money that the kid on the left of this picture is Odonez’ son. There were 3 of them out there shagging fly balls during the Twins’ BP. That’s really cool for those kids. The fans were getting a kick out of them flopping around out there too. People went nuts when any of them would make the most routine catch. Of course, they didn’t make anything look routine and definitely made their share of errors. The rest of my day, though, was pretty much error free.

[“Ooooh, nice transition, Matt!”]

High Points:

-Food. Who doesn’t like food? The prices were a bit lower than I expected; $3.25 for a pretzel, $3.50 for a hot dog. Totally reasonable! I stayed away from those things but had to try a $5.00 Chicago dog. Side note – I’ve had two “Chicago dogs” now and I haven’t yet BEEN to Chicago! Anyways, it was pretty good. Comerica's take on it came with jalepenos, relish, onions, tomato slices, a whole pickle spear and it was served on a poppy seed bun.

-The last two games I’ve been pretty lucky in terms of starting pitchers. I got to see Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay as well as the ace of the Tigers’ staff, Justin Verlander. Here’s a picture of Mr. Verlander warming up in the bullpen before the game. I also have to mention these bullpens were stellar. Spacious, well kept and with a great angle and private entrance/dugout for the pitchers to watch the game. The fences were low enough though that fans got a great vantage to watch them warm up.

-The Tigers mascot is a Tiger named “Paws.” Alright! Two in a row!!

-I walked to every area of Comerica Park in which the common fan was allowed. There are a LOT of cool places to stand and catch the game. There are various deck levels and a few bridges between sections and even standing behind the seats down in the lower bowl you still have a good angle to see the action.

-I thought this was a cool way to honor the retired Tigers players. They each had their number, like at most stadiums, but they also had a statue and plaque which talked about their accomplishments. My question is where are they going to put the next guy??

-Instead of a foam finger signifying “we’re number 1” the Tigers offer a very intimidating foam paw complete with claws! Roaarrrrrr!!!!

-This may have been a function of the amount of people in the stands (I think I touched on this earlier in relation to Fenway) but I was not once hassled by an usher or even asked to see my ticket. The stadium was packed though and I’m sure for the most part folks police themselves and ask an usher for assistance where necessary.

-The sight lines at Comerica Park were really nice. Also, the city backdrop was pretty cool. One of those buildings is where I worked on the refinancing deal!

Low Points:

-Something you can see in the last picture above is the center field wall. It is ivy covered and below is a better picture but this needs to be touched on. It’s really a large area that, in my opinion, is wasted. When you walk behind it you can’t see any of the game. I know the batters need a black space behind the pitcher to pick up the ball but I think they could have done something different here. My initial reaction was to put a bridge up over the wall but then (after a home run) I found out they have a gigantic water fountain display that puts on a show to celebrate the home run. What about a draw bridge that could be raised and lowered? I don’t know, I just felt like they could have done better.

Before we move on, if you’re a fan of the TV show “The Office” you need to click to enlarge this picture and look at the bottom right corner. Is that not Kevin?! Even when I zoom in on the picture further on my computer it still looks just like him. Wild stuff, huh?

-There was trickeration afoot! I loves me some spicy mustard and I’ve learned to consider it a boon when I find some at a park. Well, the Tigers offer some “fancy” concessions where you can get a chicken caesar salad, sushi, wine and other such non-standard ballpark fare. Well, in their condiment basket I spied the classic gold and maroon Goulden’s mustard pack! Sweet deal, right? Wrong. I got back to my seat and it was in the spicy mustard package but it was plain yellow stuff. Don’t play with the emotions like that, ya know? If you’re only going to have boring mustard, fine, but don’t try to trick the people!

-I’m not sure where I stand on the placement of the scoreboard. The city backdrop was nice but it was set far off in left field and that eliminated thousands of of fans from being able to see it.

-This isn’t a knock on Comerica specifically but I haven’t noticed any vendors throwing anything to customers. I think that’s AWESOME at Fenway and I haven’t yet seen it anywhere else.

-The fact that I drove to this game and wasn’t with other people didn’t allow me to take advantage of the special at a bar right where I parked. A pitcher and 4 shots for $14.

-The ushers at Comerica didn’t hassle me but they’re also terrible photographers. I took 3 pictures with me in them and this piece of trash is the best one.

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:

Teams: Tigers vs. Twins
Final Score: 6-1 Twins
WP: Glen Perkins
LP: Francisco Cruceta
Time: 2:42
Announced Attendance: 42,413
Ticket Price: $15.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 9-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 5994
States Visited: 13
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 20
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Cleveland Indians
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)

Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-
Blue Jays: C
Tigers: A-

Nice night for a game, eh?

Well, I knew weather would play a factor at some point during this trip but to be honest, I was ready for a rained out game, not 4 hours in a plane on the runway. On my way from Houston to Boston I stopped over in Charlotte. I boarded my flight up to Boston about 2:45PM…we didn’t take off until 7:00PM. There was much taxiing and rerouting and refueling and we finally took off into the setting sun with lightning on 3 sides of us. I hadn’t yet mentioned it because I thought I would jinx myself but I had not seen rain since I left Boston. That’s about 5 weeks with no rain…even in Seattle and northern Cali. That’s amazing! Anyway, I made it back home for about 34 hours…just enough time to pick up my car and head up to Toronto, eh?

Speaking of my car, I was always under the impression my 626 got good gas mileage. Then I spent a month driving a brand new Ford Focus and found out I was dead wrong. I’ve filled up my tank twice now and it’s hurt. A lot. The Focus gave me something like 468 miles to a 12 gallon tank. Now my tank is closer to 16 gallons and I’m not getting anywhere near 468 miles out of it. Dammit.

I made it up to Toronto in fine shape. I actually liked the city a lot. There was a nice mix of old and new buildings with the new stuff REALLY looking modern and cutting edge. Then there were little neighborhoods tucked away which all seemed to have their own identity and I wanted to do some more exploring if I had had the time. Also, there’s a bit of a European feel to the people and businesses that I liked. The Rogers Centre (aka skydomewitharoof) however, nowhere near as cool.

Game Notes:

During the day before the game I went for a run down by the water and to check out where the stadium was. The Blue Jays provide fans with automated ticket machines (think ATM) right outside the stadium for after-hours purchases. I haven’t exactly been looking for these things but I haven’t seen them anywhere else either. I brought my plastic so I went up and tried to buy a ticket and was all set until we got to the payment screen and they wanted a $2.00 service fee from me. No sale! I waited until the window opened to buy the ticket from a real person. I marched right up, got a front row seat (in the upper deck) and was promptly charged a $2.00 service fee for using my credit card. What’s that all aboot, eh? Not a good start, Toronto.

When I entered the stadium for the game for some reason it felt like Tampa Bay without all the kid-themed stuff. We were definitely indoors and there was no light shining through here. There was a lot of concrete and the bleachers were just cold, hollow and metal. Not very inviting if you ask me. I took a spin around and, frankly, there wasn’t much to see. I did a lap in aboot 15 minutes then settled in to watch Roy Halladay make his warm up tosses. He’s a big guy.

Also, for those of you who have been wondering what is behind the outfield wall at the Rogers Centre you can find out the answer below. Also, note the bench for the guys in the bullpen to sit and watch the game from a great vantage.

After Halladay was done I decided to get some food. The Canadian dollar and the US dollar are pretty much on par these days so the prices were aboot average compared to the rest of the league. One thing that was a bit odd though was how they calculated costs. At every other stadium your order comes to a multiple of .25 and there is a sign that says “taxes included” or something like that. It makes it nice and easy. Well, the Rogers Centre prices are all off like “4.37” or “6.73”. I thought maybe they did it that way so that with tax you end up paying a whole number, or at least a multiple of .25. Nope. I bought a couple of items and was met with all kinds of funky Canadian change. One thing I didn’t buy and I’ve regretted ever since was the “pickle on a stick.” Most of you know I LOVE pickles and this thing was only $1.77. I have no idea why I passed this up, especially since I’m trying to find new, unique food at every park. Ruggerfrussin…

PS - did any of you click on this picture to enlarge it? PPS - if you did, did you notice the Bud Light DOMESTIC draft price? That stuff is brewed in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, that's HARDLY domestic in the city of Toronto, eh??

Other than that place though, the concessions were pretty boring and they were far too spread out. If you wanted a particular kind of food or drink you usually had to walk quite a ways to find it. The Rogers Centre is big too. I imagine back in the heyday of the early late 80’s and 90’s that place really got rockin. There are just SO many seats! Anyway, I grabbed one of those seats and I think karma caught up with me a bit. I wasn’t sitting in the seat I paid for, instead I sat in this.

The thing aboot this is that I settled in way up in that section! As I mentioned, I wrangled a front row seat (in the upper deck) for this game but it was so damn crowded down there. Plus, being a bit vertically challenged put a pole right in my sightlines in my real seat. So the gum was unfortunate but I got over it and watched Roy Halladay toss an absolute gem.

High Points:

-During pregame field grooming (which doesn’t take much because there isn’t a lot of dirt) they actually “build” the mound. They spent aboot 15 minutes tamping down a very wet muddy surface and then brought in a ton of dirt and groomed the whole thing just like new. That was fun to watch.

-There is a cool hotel in center field. It was out of my price range for this trip but for some lucky families you get to check into your room, open the curtains and catch a baseball game! Have a look.

-I got a sausage with “everything” and that came with a lot of jalepeno peppers. My mouth was on fire and I loved it.

-The aforementioned grounds crew was dubbed the “fastest” ever and they put on pit crew uniforms, sprinted in from left field and had the dirt around the bases groomed in aboot 1 minute. It was pretty impressive. Also impressive was the Blue Jays mascot…it’s actually a Blue Jay. HOORAY!!!

-The french fries were wide, spicy and of excellent quality.

-During the 7th inning stretch the crowd sang “take me out to the ballgame” as per usual. Well, the Blue Jays fans actually sang “root, root root for the HOME TEAM.” As opposed to inserting “…for the Blue Jays” like most other teams. I mean, it’s not like they’re the one-syllable Reds or something, they were given a wide open door and didn’t walk through. I didn’t get it.

Low Points:

-During the first trip through the lineup for both teams each player’s first career hit was documented (situation, date, etc.). Frankly, I would have preferred their season stats to this point. Something more relevant to the game.

-Once those stats were revealed it came to my attention that the Royals and Blue Jays combined to have 3 guys with an OPS (On Base plus Slugging percentage) over .800 on the day of the game. That’s pretty poor. For reference, 10 players on the Red Sox alone had an OPS over .800 on that day.

-When you needed a scoreboard there just was not one to be found. When I finally found out where the balls and strikes were kept and where the pitch count was kept it was just too much effort. When I need to know a count, I need to know a count. Far too much effort for the fan unfamiliar with the Rogers Centre.

-The aforementioned gum incident.

-The value of the American dollar. Prices all over the city seemed high. I’m not an economics buff but isn’t this because Canadian prices were higher previously due to the relative weakness of the Canadian dollar versus the American dollar? Now that Canada’s dollar is pretty much equal with ours they’re having a field day and US travelers are getting all bitchy in their blogs.

-Ushers were checking tickets at every single section. By now we all know how I feel aboot this.

-On my way out of Toronto I needed to use up my last 15 dollars so I stopped for gas. I paid 1.27 per liter. I'm also not a math buff but if you whip out the old calculator and realize there are 3.7854 liters in one gallon (1.27 X 3.7854) you find out I paid 4.81 per gallon of gas!!! Thank god I only had 15 bucks left.

The following are not low points, I just wanted to include a couple more pictures.This is the space needle right next to the stadium. I took a picture during the day but this one came out better.

On the walk home I found the hockey hall of fame!

Overall Grade: C

Game Stats:

Teams: Blue Jays vs. Royals
Final Score: 7-1 Blue Jays
WP: Roy Halladay
LP: Zack Greinke
Time: 2:14
Announced Attendance: 24,207
Ticket Price: $11.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 9-5
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 5728
States Visited: 12
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 19
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Detroit Tigers
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)

Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-
Blue Jays: C

Update

Dear All,

I've finally caught up with all of the stadiums and the blog will stay that way for approximately the next 6 hours until I see a Blue Jays game. I'd like to point out that I'll be seeing 9 games in the next 13 days (plus travel) and while I'll try to be a good soldier, I can't promise frequent updates. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult period.

Kind Regards,

Mgmt.

Michael Bourn is hitting .333 on his current 3 game hitting streak!

When you’re batting below the Mendoza line for the season I guess the scoreboard operators will cling to anything! More on that later though.

Well, summer is here! It’s freaking hot and I’m doing my best not to fry. I’ve even been wearing sunscreen while I’m sitting in the car on these long drives. Though I have to say I’m getting better at them. I did the 300-something miles from Arlington to Houston practically in my sleep. I managed to stay awake by playing a new fun game. I called it “field or prison” and I still wasn’t any good at it by the time I left the state. Basically, when you see some light stanchions in the distance or over the crest of a hill you guess whether they are lights for high school baseball/football fields or for a prison. It’s REALLY hard and often one would be on one side of the highway and one would be on the other! I dunno, it kept me awake and entertained as there are a lot of both in Texas.

Houston was nice enough. I drove into the city a few hours early to check out the downtown area. I had lunch in a local pub and a guy bought me my first round because I was wearing my Sox hat. “Red Sox Nation!” he exclaimed. Too bad the beer only cost $1.50 because it was a pregame special. There were a lot of Cubs fans roaming around the city. I saw a bunch of them in Denver too. As a fan base, they seem to travel very well. I was actually really excited to see Minute Maid Park. On TV it looks really cool so maybe my hopes were a bit too high but, on the whole, it didn’t offer too much. The game ended up being close until the end and the fans and some other intangibles made up for what was a pretty lackluster building.

Game Notes:

The first thing I noticed upon arriving at the park was the train. This is an actual full size train with a big burly conductor guy dressed in overalls who comes out and waves a towel. If an Astro hits a home run he drives the train about 50 yards on a track and blows the whistle and makes smoke come out of the engine area and smoke stack. Unfortunately no Astros hit a homerun during the game but we still got to see the train show during pregame ceremonies. This is the same train, other side of the wall.

There are two other things I’d like to point out about this picture. First, see the Citgo sign above the seating area and above even the train (by the way, they may be around but I didn’t see a single Citgo in Texas)? Well, Carlos Lee hit that sign during BP. That’s DISGUSTING! I have no idea how far that ball would have gone but that is a mammoth shot; definitely well over the Monster Seats at Fenway. The other thing I thought was funny is the “Eat More Fowl” pole in left field (as well as one in right). We all can share a laugh over the Chick-Fil-A ads where the cows tell you to eat more “chikin.” But it turns out if you get seats behind these poles your view is severely hindered. That spells fun for the rest of us, but not for those unlucky few. I should also note that if either of those poles gets hit, fans can redeem their ticket stub for a free sandwich the next day at participating Houston area Chick-Fil-A locations.

Walking around the concession area of Minute Maid Park was pretty much a waste of time. The vendors had a distinct southwestern feel and offered the food to match but nothing looked appealing. There was no variety, no special deals, nothing new. **Side note: I realize that as I continue on this journey more and more parks are going to start looking the same and offering the same food, souvenirs, etc. But I had seen 9 parks before Petco and they still were able to completely blow me away. I’m not going to dock a stadium points just because I happened to see garlic fries somewhere else first, but I’d still like to see them play up their own theme where possible. ** OK, now that that’s cleared up, Minute Maid did have the most unique condiment offerings I’ve seen. As I’ve mentioned, most stadiums do the ketchup, mustard, relish and onions to top one’s purchase. The Astros provided all of the regulars plus buckets of cilantro, pickles (high point!), salsa and jalepenos. That was a nice touch.

I thought an interesting note was the dearth of Roger Clemens references and the prevalence of Biggio/Bagwell paraphernalia. Yes, Roger only pitched for them a few seasons and blew them off for his “final” season in New York but you really would be hard pressed to find anything Clemens around the park. I thought he would have been kind of like the “hometown hero” or “favorite son” and at least given a board somewhere. Maybe his recent media exposure has something to do with this?? Meanwhile, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell each have huge facades dedicated to their accomplishments and bronze statues out in front of the park.





















And who can forget everyon's favorite fireballer??

Moving on. Minute Maid Park is home to the most unique center field in the majors. There is an incline that is in play and I’ve never understood how this isn’t a danger to the players. Think back to when you were a kid. If you were running around on a field and not looking and all of a sudden you started up an incline, didn’t that ever trip you up or really throw off your balance? “Uh, no Matt, I don’t know what you’re talking about. These are world class athletes who can deal with a little adversity now and then.” Yeah, well maybe I’m an unathletic shmuck and ya’ll can go jump in a lake. Here’s center field.


Right near the hill in the sun you can see some table tops. They are seating for a local restaurant and on one side of them they have the hill and on the other is the bullpen. They’re actually a pretty good vantage to catch the game. I went down and took some pictures during BP but the ushers (and this was park wide) were very concerned that I only take a few photos and return to my section. Even the PA announcer at the beginning of the game warned fans to be prepared to show their ticket at ALL times when returning to their seats. That was kind of a buzz kill. This wasn’t always the case but the ushers were certainly more “in my business” at Minute Maid Park than at other recent venues.

Apropos of nothing: This was another stadium with a retractable roof but because the entire left field wall was glass, the sun shone through and it hardly felt like we were indoors; I saw the 2nd inside the park home run of my trip during this game; the Park had a scoreboard and TV in each of the lower sections (like San Diego) but the scoreboard provided little information and the TVs were not HD; the train locomotive carried one car which was full of pumpkins, I have no idea the significance of those pumpkins. Must be time to move on to the high points.

High Points:

-The following was funny for a few different reasons. The Sterling High School Choir performed the national anthem before the game. As they were walking out from right field they had to navigate Astros players warming up. Well, two of them were engaged in long toss and as the kids walked in between them the players continued to launch throws back and forth. I actually caught the ball midflight, I don’t know if you can see it but it’s pretty much straight south of the State Farm logo.

The other thing about this group of kids was their absolutely unexpected singing voices. So far on this trip Texans have had the thickest and most distinct accents of anywhere else. You haven’t heard a southern accent until you’ve spent some time in rural Texas. Side note, when I was in the western part of the state waiting in line at a Super 8 there was a fully decked out cowboy getting extremely angry with the hotel person who wouldn’t take his coupon. He kept calling it “booo-shiit” as in “this is booo-shiit.” I did my best to hide my grin :-) Anyway, when these kids opened up the anthem it was like they had just been flown over direct from Heathrow. A British sounding national anthem sung by Texas high schoolers…truly a site to behold!

-Texas is proud. It was funnier at the time but now that I think of it, we must look just as silly when belting out Sweet Caroline with all of its “so good, so good” and whathaveyou. But…to watch 32,000 strong belt out and clap along with “Deep in the Heart of Texas” was also some kind of site to see.

-The aforementioned annoying ushers spent half their time checking tickets and the other half wiping bird shit off the seats. There were so many pigeons flying around during the game and during the day they leave the roof open so the seats are rather vulnerable to attack.

-This was the most entertaining part of the game for me. Two rows down from me a kid was being obnoxiously drunk and yelling for the first few innings of the game. Well, he promptly passed out around the early part of the 5th inning.

He was with a group of about 6-7 friends and once they realized he was down for the count they did the noble thing and switched sections. They were so quiet and careful not to wake him as they left and were giggling as they looked down at him for the next 10 minutes. Then 20 minutes passed and they kind of lost interest. Fast forward THREE innings and the kid is still passed out! It was the top of the 8th when he FINALLY woke up. Of course he was dazed, bewildered and quite embarrassed while stumbling around asking people if they knew where his friends were. The whole section knew but we were also in on the joke so nobody spoke up. Finally one of the kids from his group shouted his name and he walked sheepishly up to them. Kept us all quite entertained though!

-The scoreboard was both friend and foe during this game. I found this to be rather cute.

This guy is hitting .192 for the season and they're singing the praises of his 3 game hitting streak. Come on! HE GOT 4 HITS IN 3 GAMES! If you want to talk about a hitting streak, you talk about this guy!

Holy crap, huh?

Low Points:

-Fans again were far too concerned with finding their correct seats. I know the ushers were all over you about the tickets but once you get up into a nearly empty section, does it really matter? I stayed far enough away from everyone in this game that I wasn’t kicked out but time and again I saw people go to a section and kick out the 1 or 2 people who were in their seats, even though the rest of the rows around them were barren. Just burns mah britches, ya hear?

-I couldn’t figure it out at first and initially thought it was just some annoying kids in the outfield but prior to the game there was this incessant whistle blowing made far worse by the indoor acoustics. Eventually I realized it was the pep squad. Instead of yelling at people and cheering they just looked at them, pointed and blew their whistles. There were 6 of them, each with their own whistle, so whenever they were on the field it was headache time.

-I wanted to kill the scoreboard guy when he put this up.

There I was, following diligently along on my blackberry when this sign flashes on the board. I thought Lester was done right there with that stupid jinx but luckily our boy pulled it off and an innocent scoreboard operators life was spared. For now…

-There was a general apathy amongst the fans. People would cheer a hit or a run but they weren’t what I would consider “into the game.” There were half as many people in Oakland and they made it seem like the place was packed. That’s how to be “into a game.”

-I may have gotten a little worked up in the last post about the Astros mascot being a F@%*^!*G bunny. Well, it turns out his name is something Jackrabbit. Fine, there are jackrabbits in Texas, whatever. It still doesn’t make it OK that they have a bunny for a mascot.

-For the first time on my trip I hit a pretty bad traffic situation leaving the game. Karen wasn’t quite sure how to get me out of it and I killed about a half an hour just idling on my way to the highway. That sucked.

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:

Teams: Astros vs. Cubs
Final Score: 7-2 Cubs
WP: Ted Lilly
LP: Brian Moehler
Time: 3:19
Announced Attendance: 32,458
Ticket Price: $7.00
Parking Price: $6.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 8-5
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 5157
States Visited: 9
Beds slept in: 17
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19
Next Stop: Toronto Blue Jays
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)

Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-

Everything's Bigger in Texas

To get to Arlington, Texas (where the Rangers play) I had to drive over 1100 miles in two days. Frankly, it wasn’t that bad! I knew what I was getting into, which helped in terms of mindset and also there was ZERO traffic. I would go for hours at a time before I saw another car. My journey was full of two lane highways and trucks, which all stayed in the right lane. Also, for about 400 miles the speed limit was 80 MPH! That was really nice, especially since I had a car that could actually perform at that speed. I won’t go into too many more details, just know that my trip was a smooth one.

One other point to note: when I got to my hotel I enjoyed a pool for the first time on my trip. For those of you who don’t know, I took a scuba diving class senior year of college and fell in love with swimming laps. Well, I had the pool to myself Friday morning and I got burned because I spent an hour doing laps. Anyways, before I got in I was attacked by a bird when I was opening the cage to get to the pool! I must have gone too close to their nest or something but a bird literally pecked twice at my arm and then hovered about 5 ft. above my head. Needless to say, I was quite rattled by the whole experience. But the show must go on…on to baseball!

Game Notes:

I ended up staying at a HoJo about a half mile from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I think that’s the official name anyway. From my balcony you could see the construction of the Dallas Cowboys new 80,000+ seat monstrosity.

I know they say everything is bigger in Texas but this thing was absurd. I’ll get you another picture later but trust me on this one. When I walked over to the Ballpark the word stately came to mind. The entire outside of the park just looked “stately” or “regal”…I really liked the first impression.

(That’s the outside and here’s the inside.)

When I got inside the theme rang true. Everything IS bigger in Texas. The ceilings were high, the aisles were spacious and the food was enormous! Not to judge but the patrons could stand to run a few laps too, if you know what I mean. Keeping with this theme, my first stop was section 17. I’ve been trying to read a bit about each park beforehand and the Rangers website provides a handy guide to where all of the concessions are located. Well, section 17 purports to have a “1/2 pound hot dog”! I had to check this out. The sign calls it a “loaded hot dog” and I really think they could do better with that. Call it a “Ranger Dog” or a “Texas Two Step” or SOMETHING to get people to buy it, ya know? Anyway, being the tourist, I had to try it.

UGH. Not cool, Texas. It came with the dog, chili, onions and cheese wiz. I added ketchup, mustard and relish. I had to go at it with a knife and fork and I’m not happy I did. It was just a pile of unhealthy unenjoyable if you ask me. Oh well, when in Rome, right?

David Murphy was the next cool attraction. Murphy was half of the trade (along with Kason Gabbard) to bring Eric Gagne to the Sox last year. It didn’t work out but I think the Sox still do that deal again if given the option…based on numbers history anyway. Anywho, this guy gets his own banner! He was maybe a 4th outfielder in Boston and here he is starting in Texas. Good for him.

The next thing I noticed was Nolan Ryan. He was everywhere in this stadium. Now, Nolan Ryan was one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game but it kind of seems like everyone wants to “own” him. He spent parts of 5 years with the Mets, 8 years with the Angels, 9 Years with the Astros and his last 5 years with the Rangers. The way they made it seem you’d think he was the founding member of their franchise and took on the rest of the league by himself. Either way, I still had to get a picture with the big lug.

The kids area at the Ballpark in Arlington is right where Nolan’s statue stands. They have the typical whiffle ball field, face painting, kid size food and the like along with the speed pitch with a twist. Most stadiums have a radar gun where you can see how fast you can throw but the Rangers provide a manikin batter! Also, if you hit the catcher’s mitt on 3 out of 4 throws you win an official Rangers jersey. It was interesting to watch the strategy here because some meatheads just threw it as hard as they could to rack up numbers but others would slow the ball down and try to hit the mitt (with success!). Of course, they got ridiculed by their friends and wouldn’t win the jersey but it was still fun to watch.

Last general point…and again, I won’t dwell on this because I’m not turning this blog political but people in Texas are DAMN proud of their soldiers in this war. Regardless of which side of the line you come down on, it was nice to see the troops in Texas are supported in a helluva way. All of the typical “rah rah” songs were played… "Proud to be an American", "God Bless America", etc. along with the "Star Spangled Banner" and some others I didn’t recognize. Well, they all got a standing ovation and we even were treated to a special live speech from a major general over in Bagdad. Good for them. God Bless America.


High Points:

-Like San Diego, under the press box at the Ballpark in Arlington they had a section that jutted out and gave fans a good view of the action on the field.

-I believe they have something similar at other stadiums but I haven’t seen it yet so I’m going to give the Rangers points for keeping their center field grass open for kids to chase home run balls. You can’t sit in the area during the game but there is a special designated section in straightaway center field for kids to run out on should a homerun land in that area. That’s good old fashioned baseball.

-Because I promised it, here’s a closer shot of the new Cowboys’ Stadium!

-I attended the game on the day of the Preakness. I didn’t think the race was that big of a deal but all of the Astros stopped taking batting/fielding practice to watch the race. About 80-90% of them seemed genuinely interested in the race. That was kind of cool and odd at the same time.

-Since I showed up to the stadium so early and saw it all pretty quick I decided to keep score of the game. I didn’t get to move around as much as other stadiums but I had really forgotten how much fun scoring an entire game could be. It forced me to pay attention and I’m glad I did it. I may do it again soon!

-Neither a good nor a bad but there were a lot of genuine Texas cowboys as well as a lot of Astros fans at the game. Definitely not something I’d see back on the east coast so I guess overall that was cool.

-I was not once hassled by an usher at this game, whether in the upper deck or the lower bowl. Frankly, they didn’t have enough ushers to keep tabs on all of the fans. I guess they aren’t unionized down here :-)

-Lots of fans got to be on TV after the game.

Low Points:

-I was very excited to see the outfield at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how the park is modeled after all of the other parks in the league. Maybe I’ll appreciate this once I finish my tour but as of now I’m let down. The coolest feature of the park is closed off to the public! In center field there are many stanchions and it looks like a cool place to watch a game but, wouldn’t you know, it’s an office building! The first floor is apparel and ticket sales, the 4th floor is Rangers corporate offices and the middle two floors are leased out to private corporations. That sucks! Here’s what I’m talking about.

-The poles in the right field bleachers weren’t that bad and the bleachers were kind of cool but they still obstructed the view of a lot of fans.

-There were a LOT of luxury boxes in this place. That’s not necessarily bad but when it starts invading on “normal” fans enjoyment of the game, like in center field, it gets to be a bit much, right?

-The bathrooms here were just OK and nothing to write home (or to a blog) about.

-I know I’ve had a lot to say about mascots lately but you’ll need to bear with me on this one. So the PA announcer asks the hometown fans to welcome the “6-shooters” which is the equivalent of a cheerleading squad, just like they have at every park. Fine, that’s all well and good, right? No, it’s not. The 6-shooters come out looking cute on the back of a pickup truck with none other than “Bunny the Astro”. OK, fine, I have no idea what this mascot’s name is but it’s a friggin bunny in an Astros uniform!! UGH! I’ll admit, I don’t know what an “Astro” is but I’m pretty sure it’s not a god damn rabbit. Anyway, after some antics from him the Rangers’ mascot comes out and does his own bits. At least the Rangers’ mascot was a horse and that’s somewhat understandable. The Astros have a damn bunny…what the hell?!

-The only video board in the Ballpark in Arlington is above the right field bleachers and because of its location thousands of fans cannot see the various “hat shuffles” and “condiment races” it displays between innings.

-The scoreboard operator in Arlington was having a bit of an off day as well. I’m pretty sure the Sox didn’t score an “upside down 4” in that inning…

-The person who was chosen to sing “take me out to the ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch was TERRIBLE.

-I took up residence in some seats in the upper deck directly behind home plate. My section was about 2/3rds filled. I was kicked out of my seats TWICE by people who had tickets exactly where I was sitting. Fine, it’s their seats (even though there was empty row after row all around) but when both of those families move after a half inning, that’s when I get pissed. I’ve bitched about ushers not having perspective, but how about fans?? If you want to spread out, don’t worry about your assigned seats, just move up a few rows to the empty section in the first place!

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:

Teams: Rangers vs. Astros
Final Score: 6-2 Rangers
WP: Vicente Padilla
LP: Roy Oswalt
Time: 2:46
Announced Attendance: 38,534
Ticket Price: $10.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 8-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 4851
States Visited: 9
Beds slept in: 16
Next Stop: Houston Astros
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)

Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-