Summer of Matt

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of...

2010-10-05T13:57:00.009-04:00

OK, I think some of you may come to the conclusion by the end of this post that I really did not give the new Yankee Stadium a “fair shake” due to the circumstances of my trip; however, I assure you that is NOT the case. But if anyone out there reading, especially you Yankees-Front-Office types, wants to pony up the cash to bring me back to review the stadium again, I’d welcome another trip to NYC! In the meantime, here’s a little background to provide color for my Yankee Stadium trip, 2010 style.

To get over to Edinburgh for school this year I was required to get a UK student visa. I thought this would be fairly straightforward but it turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought. I won’t bore you with all the gruesome details but after a couple of rejected applications, I ended up having to take one of my whirlwind “leave-at-4AM-get-home-after-midnight” trips (*patent pending*) to NYC on Wednesday September 8th when I was scheduled to depart for Edinburgh on Friday September 10th! Yikes!

Well, if you’ve read the other posts, you know by now that it all worked out and I’m over ‘cross the pond safe and sound but August was an extremely stressful month. Anyway, I had to go to New York to have an in-person interview with a member of the UK consulate in order to get my visa. But, that also meant I could scoot over to Yankee Stadium for some day baseball and my last stadium review. I had my interview in the morning and then headed over for a 1PM game against the Orioles. I only got to stay for about 7 innings because I had to return to the consulate to pick up my visa at 4pm but that hardly made a difference in my opinion of the stadium which, by the way, was quite low.

Trust me, this shot says a lot more than just “Yankee Stadium.” It actually says:

“Hi, Matt, welcome to the new Yankee Stadium! From the outside, our new behemoth of a ballpark looks really regal and impressive, much like Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, but it is actually the epitome of a character-less, sterile, unfriendly environment to watch a baseball game, epitomizing the stereotype of corporate greed that helped bring down the economy of a once-great nation.”

Yeah, that’s what it says. OK, maybe that’s a little over the top, but it’s at least along those lines. Like I said, the outside of the stadium and even when I first walked in looked “typically impressive.” Like, what is “supposed” to be impressive. Except, it just wasn’t.

This concourse was really big and that’s always nice, it was just…maybe too big? It certainly didn’t feel like I was at a baseball game; more like a Las Vegas convention. And, unfortunately, that feeling of being underwhelmed by over-abundance was a theme that pervaded my entire day at the ballpark. I commented on this back in the San Diego post about being so impressed by everything and taking tons of notes, contrasted with the Angel’s stadium where I just didn’t write that much down. Well, at the new Yankee Stadium I just didn’t write that much down.

Game Notes:

Initially on my lap around the park, I was nodding with approval at the open concourses the Yankees had incorporated into their new park. Obviously they took care of the MASSIVE congestion problem from the old stadium, right? Not so fast…

What the heck?! This is in a major area of the ballpark (under the bleachers in the outfield) and the space couldn’t have been more than 8-10 feet wide for tons of people to squeeze through. What’s that all about? Not a good start, Yankees, not a good start.

Next thing I found was pretty cool though. Granted, if you wanted a sandwich with this meat it cost literally $15.00, which I passed on, but taking a picture was free and pretty neat.

Nothing like a butcher shop at the old ballpark, huh? Speaking of food, the variety was there, much like the Mets, but the options didn’t really feel unique. Maybe they were and I was just having a bad day but I’m willing to wager dollars to donuts that it had more to do with the Yankees lack of variety and not me. Check out these options though:

It’s good that they give you the calorie information I suppose, but the vast majority of the food places just seemed like standard ballpark fare, unless Joe the Plumber wants to pay a week’s salary to get some of the fancier options. Personally, I went with the foot-long dog and a beer and called it a day.

Look at the standing room number though. I can’t say for certain as of this writing, but I think the Yankees sell tickets for standing room counters. Wow. Standing room should be just that – room to stand at different areas around the park to move around and get a different flavor. Now we’re going to limit that to one’s little area of a half-counter? I don’t like it. Also, no cup holders like the Mets had!

One more note about the food I have to mention was the terrible condiment selection. I took a picture but I won’t bore you with it. In an interesting twist, the Yankees offer Frank’s Red Hot Sauce with their catchy slogan – “I put that sh*t on everything” – but other than that it’s just standard ketchup and mustard (but again, points for spicy). That’s it. I was upset with the Twins but I’m REALLY miffed at the Yankees, especially after seeing what the Mets did. It’s not like these other stadiums are keeping secrets from people. For the record, having a large condiment selection is a good thing!! Especially when people are paying an arm and a leg to get into your stadium – give back to the people, you know?

Speaking of that though, this is a good time to mention my ticket price. You could argue that I paid $17.95 for my ticket. And, I guess technically I paid $17.95 to walk into Yankee Stadium but it felt like I got a better deal than that. Since I went to a game in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, in September after the kids have gone back to school, StubHub was practically giving these things away! There were all kinds of deals for “special” areas of the stadium – various suites and such. Looking back I probably should have checked this out for the Mets game too. Oh well. Anyway, I ended up paying $4.00 for my ticket in the upper deck, right behind the plate – my favorite place to watch a game. However, the person selling them only sold them in pairs so that kicked it up to $8. Then with fees and charges and whatnot I paid $17.95 for two tickets and didn’t use one of them. I guess I could have tried to scalp the other one but I think people are really suspicious of print-at-home tickets – especially right outside the ballpark. But overall, not bad.

Meanwhile, while Matt was going off on various tangents, the Yankees decided to close off the lower bowl of the stadium to those unworthy peons who only pay money just like everyone else to get into the stadium. What? Yeah, the lower bowl is only open for 40 minutes from when gates open. So, unfortunately, I didn’t know this before the game and I wasn’t allowed into the bourgeois area of the park to bring you some of my patented batting practice shots.

I did, however, get to take a trip up to the furthest parts of the ballpark. And let me tell you, they are FAR away. This happened at the original, or should I say “last version” of Yankee Stadium and they didn’t fix it.

Not as bad as St. Louis but the players still looked like ants down there. Wait a second! Maybe the other side of the outfield would be better?

Nah. Course not.

Other than that, nothing really stood out about my lap around the park. I mean, the entire thing ballpark is really just sterile concrete and honestly, felt pretty “worn out” despite the fact that it hadn’t been open for 2 years by the time I saw it. So I settled in, somewhere above home plate to enjoy the game.

High Points:

-One of the few parks in the country to have Bank of America ATMs. Though credit for that high point probably should go to BoA rather than the Yankees who, in reality, likely just accepted the highest bidding bank.

-I’d say the thing the Yankees did best was to absolutely nail the scoreboard set up, much like Minnesota. There was a TON of information at my fingertips, they didn’t repeat information like the Mets did on their new boards and the scoreboards could be seen from virtually the entire park! Have a look…

-The ironic introduction music struck me and, I’m guessing, very few other patrons at the park that day. For some reason, the Yankees played the theme music for the Empire and/or Darth Vadar and/or whatever the bad guys in star wars were called during the Orioles’ introductions. Then, during the Yankees’ own introductions they played the Resistance or the Rebel Alliance music! Of course this is ironic to a Red Sox fan because Larry Lucchino famously (locally at least) referred to the Yankees as the “Evil Empire” back in 2002. Ha!

-Having a cooler with “Retro Beers” was pretty sweet – even if they were something like $9 a pop. For those keeping score at home this thing included: PBR, Ballantine XXX, Schafer, and Schlitz.

On a related note: Stella Artois and other premium beers could be had for a relatively low price of 24oz for $11.00.

-The Yankees had a nice, understated tribute to the Boss out in center field. Regardless of any controversies through the years, that man was good for the game of baseball.

-Hmm, I don’t know what other high points there were about the day…maybe the fact that I got my visa?! Haha, the Yankees didn’t help with that one though…

-Oooh, here, this! I got a small bottle of hand sanitizer courtesy of New York Presbyterian Hospital

Yeah, so there’s that…um, let’s move on to the low points.

Low Points:

-I think a note I made right in the middle of my page sums up my day pretty nicely. It says, and I quote:

“What am I supposed to write about?”

That should never happen at a baseball game. At least not for someone like me, who is reviewing the stadium and it’s my very first trip to a place which has just opened to much fanfare and is the home of the most iconic team in Major League Baseball.

-I even wrote down the dimensions of the ballpark which I hadn’t done since some of my first stadium reviews. There just wasn’t that much going on! Of course, those dimensions came into play, especially last year when home runs seemed to be flying out of right field in record numbers. FYI, left to right it’s 318, 399, 408, 385, 314.

-The Yankees decided to bring a whole new level of “lame” to the game when, instead of the gawdawful “kiss cam” they decided to take it a step further and make a “smile cam.” Good grief.

-Again with the computer generated races – this time it was three different New York City trains racing back into town. I think they had this at the old stadium too though. Speaking of which, it’s gone now but I honestly liked that one better than this new monstrosity.

-I couldn’t get into Monument Park again. Also, in the next picture take a look at the bullpens. I mean, no frills is fine but some teams actually made awesome bullpens (see: Detroit Tigers). If you’re building a brand new stadium I think things like that should be thought about.

-I again disliked the pre-recorded national anthem. Why not sing it live?

-Still confused by the cheers that go on in the right field bleachers when the game starts. Who starts it, how do the people know what to say, etc?

-I have complained about this at virtually every Orioles game I’ve been to around the country but one stupid O’s fan managed to do the “O!” thing during the anthem again.

-The “Farmer’s Market” in New York had more options than the little cart in the heartland (Minneapolis) but it all looked old and paled in comparison to the Mets offering.

-Not really a low point but the Yankees obviously have a lot of retired numbers. Well, Mariano Rivera is number 42 and will certainly be in the baseball Hall of Fame as well as have his number retired by the Yankees. What happens then? I ask because number 42 is already retired by baseball in honor of Jackie Robinson. Does JR’s just stay a lighter shade of blue? Tough situation there!

So I guess that’s it. So long, Yankee Stadium, try to do better next time around, k??

Oh, PS, did I mention what a long day it was??

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:
Teams: Yankees vs. Orioles
Final Score: 3-2 Yankees
Extra Innings: 0
WP: Joba Chamberlain
LP: Koji Uehara
Time: 2:44
Announced Attendance: 44,163 (84.5% full)
Ticket Price: $17.95 (though arguably $4 I guess?)
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:
Home team record: 24-9
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 35
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: I dunno...some team has to build a new stadium!!
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins (2008): B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
Red Sox: A-
Twins (2010): B+
Mets (2010): A-
Yankees (2010): B-

The X Factor

2010-09-29T15:48:00.017-04:00

OK, time to clear the guilty conscience. While I did manage to visit all the newly opened parks during the summer of 2010, I was a bit delayed in writing up the posts. That, however, might help me make a point about the Mets’ new Citi Field. I know I’ve mentioned it before and at the risk of joining the ranks of those working in the department of redundancy department, some stadiums have just got it, and some don’t. If you don’t know, I’m now in Edinburgh, Scotland for my third year of law school and there is a show on over here in the UK called “The X Factor.” It’s just the equivalent of American Idol in the States where they try to find the person who has “the X factor” – well, let me be the first to tell you that Citi Field certainly has the X factor and no, I’m not talking about Xavier Nady! …Random 2006 reference? ...Anyone?

Anyway, Siobhan was kind enough to lend her couch for me to crash on so I Amtraked it (yes, that’s a verb, but did I spell it right?) down to NYC for a night of baseball and merriment - thanks SioTime! And fahhgettaboutit guy, the Mets done good. Sometimes it almost felt like some smartypants in their offices actually read my blog and took some criticisms to heart when designing the new Citi Field! (see generally Summer of Matt, post 36 “Meet the M-E-T-S: The 19 Hour Odyssey” discussing lack of condiment selection, waste of space, and general unfriendliness of stadium) Similar to the feeling at Comerica Park, Miller Park, and the other highly rated stadiums, I knew immediately Citi Field would be a good one. They kept one of my favorite parts about Shea, and that’s putting that day’s lineup in the form of huge baseball cards right when you walk in.

Before heading inside though, there were a few things I liked about the outside of the stadium. What was Shea is totally gone and paved over to provide parking for Citi Field’s patrons. All I could find that was left was the giant Home Run Apple that used to be in center field at Shea and would pop up with lights and fanfare whenever the Mets homered. The Johnsons were making their annual pilgrimage to NYC for a Mets game. They live in Oklahoma now but Roy, the dad, grew up in Queens and takes his wife and two sons there every year. He just got laid off last year though, from his job as a software developer, so this trip was extra special to him and his family. Apparently, they scraped what they could and saved every penny here and there in anticipation of the weekend. Good for them! Plus, I guess their car broke down on the drive over and they almost didn’t make it but a trucker pulled over and helped them out right on route 95! Anyway, enough about them, here’s a picture of the Home Run Apple and the Johnson family.

Did I get you? Hope so! That was all made up, I just couldn’t get a picture of the apple without some stupid family jumping in the way. Anyway, they also had some really cool “then and now” banners. My favorite was the one with Darryl Strawberry and Jason Bay. Don’t ask me why. The other thing I liked about the outside of the stadium were the bricks paid for by sponsors of the stadium. Can you find the funniest brick in the picture? I’ll give you a hint, it says “Go The Mets!” WTF? I would be so embarrassed if I were Chad Hemenway and Family.

So anyway, when I walked into Citi Field I was greeted by an impressive multi-level concourse.

On the bottom was a huge tribute to Jackie Robinson as well as the Mets Hall of Fame. The HoF had some absolute gems in it. For example, there were tons of pictures of Mr. Met and the championship teams and plenty of reminders about what happened in a certain year involving a certain city and a certain team who’s certain first baseman didn’t make certain that a certain ball rolled slowly into his glove, which led to certain panic among certain fans in the said certain city. Certainly didn’t need to be reminded about that as often as I was! There were some awesome things in the HoF though, like Donrus baseball card packs! This brought back SO many memories as soon as I saw them. ’89 Donrus cards were pretty much the height of my card collecting days.

Also, I found one magical loogey! I mean Keith Hernandez. Related: I didn’t help him move.

Moving along…

Game Notes:

I loved my walk around Citi Field. There were SO many good things about the stadium to take in. First, the condiments jumped right out at me. If you remember, Shea stadium had ketchup, mustard (albeit spicy brown) and that was it. No frills. Well, the Mets certainly changed all that in the new joint.

These carts were self-serve and had almost any topping you could want. Ketchup, mustard, relish, jalapenos, sour kraut, lettuce, tomato, and on and on. AMAZING! Seriously, best condiment selection in the country. Well done. Also, BEERS.

Wow! Seriously, almost anything under the sun. Of course, the old adage of “buy-the-draft-because-you-get-20-oz-for-$7.00-instead-of-paying-$7.75-for-16-oz-poured-into-a-cup” rang true once again but the selection was nevertheless impressive. The prices, overall, however weren’t so hot. I mean, it was New York so I was expecting to pay through the nose for just about everything, but still. The counter to this, of course, is that Citi Field offers you any kind of food you could possibly want. The selection and unique variety really stood out. The Mets certainly are turning the experience of a baseball game into more of a night on the town than your father’s hot-dog-and-a-soda-boom-done kind of night. The best thing about this paragraph is I promise it's the only one to use so many hyphenated word combinations. The best thing about the food at Citi Field, though, was the alternative options.

Wow! They had gluten free hot dog, sausage and hamburger rolls, and gluten free beers! Excellent. They also had something similar to the Twins’ farmer’s market except this thing was apparently international.

I’ll move on from food now, but the overall selection pretty much tops anywhere else in the country. Walking around was relatively easy too – save for the very top concourse. The Mets had enough room to build the new place and the concourse at the top of the stadium could have been wider, considering the amount of fans up there for any given game. Another thing that was cool about walking around were the freaking cup holders on the standing room railings!! The Phillies had, yes had, the best standing room places in the country until now, but the Mets one-upped their neighbor to the South. They put cup holders into the standing room railings so now the beers wouldn’t fall over and you have more room for your food. Genius. The irony, though, is that the Mets don’t offer standing room tickets for sale. Kinda weird, no?

The Mets also borrowed right-center field from the Phillies. Well, no, not literally, but this looks an awful lot like the standing-room concourse out in the outfield in Philly.

The last bit from my lap around the stadium was the upper right field corner. If you remember, I went to the very furthest seat down the right field line in Shea and took a picture. I was high up and FAR away. Seriously. But in Citi Field it wasn’t nearly as bad (nor as steep!) except the view surrounding the stadium left a little to be desired. See both below.

OK, that’s probably enough about walking around. How ‘bout some high points and low points, huh?

High Points:

-It was Irish night! That means I got an Irish themed Mets cap and there were tons of Irish steppers and a bunch of fiddlers banging around before the game. These kids on the big screen were banging away for a solid 15-20 minutes before game time.

The players didn’t know how or where to warm up because there were so many little tikes whirling and dancing all around the outfield. Also, the last song that was played lasted over 9 minutes. These kids had SO much energy and endurance.

-The Mets, unlike an unnamed other team who happens to be from New York City as well, allowed fans unfettered access to the lower bowl of the stadium during batting practice for to make with the taking of the pictures. I got some great shots of nearly every angle of the stadium. That’s how to do it, guys!

-The luxury space at Citi Field looked really nice from the outside but I really couldn’t see too much of it, which was yet another good thing (are you listening, Cleveland??).

-Despite seeming like a very large park, Citi Field still retains its intimacy – much more so than St. Louis or the other parks that got lost somewhere along the way.

-They called it “fried dough,” which is what it is. It’s not “funnel cake.”

-The amount of little kid and family oriented activities was on a par with or exceeded that offered at any other park.

-OK, this next one is NOT laughing at the gentleman in the wheel chair. It’s to make fun of the captain-obvious security person who gave me a chuckle. These fans were trying to find their section and some of them had seats right up the stairs and as I walked by I heard an exchange that included, from the security woman, “well, you guys can go up, but the chair has to stay down here…” Ummm, yeah, thanks a lot captain obvious!

-The bathrooms were spacious and clean – throughout the entire game.

-A high point that was mentioned at Shea back in 2008 was the hearty “YOU SUCK!” that greeted the very first Giants player to step to the plate. Well, the Mets fans still got it. Every single player on the Phillies was booed heartily after he was announced. I know they have a division rivalry and all but I get the feeling this had more to do with Joey New York Fan than the Phils.

-The striking presence of the structure as one exits the subway, the aforementioned beer prices, food selection (gluten free!), cup holders on railings, and the hat I got for Irish night were also high points.

-Also, it’s just a pretty park.

Low Points:

-The biggest drawback about Citi Field, and I mean by a long shot, were the scoreboards. Honestly, they maybe couldn’t have got this worse, especially after seeing the bang-up job the Twins did with their new place. The Mets, for some inexplicable reason, make fans stare at two giant, almost duplicative scoreboards when some of us are just craving something, anything else! Look at this and zoom in:

We get that it’s Raul Ibanez, twice. The line score for the game, twice. His BA, HR, RBI, OBP, SLG percentages, each twice. His position, twice. His picture, twice. Seriously? I mean, counter argument would be that not everyone can see the scoreboard like in St. Louis. But I’m here to refute that – I thought the scoreboard sightlines were great all over the park. So what gives, NY? On a related note: the out of town scoreboard is tucked way high up in left field and hardly anyone can see it and certainly wouldn’t notice it unless they were looking for it.

-Food Prices were too high, but it was still New York.

-Forgot to mention – I got fries with some sort of bacon flavored cheese dip. This would have been good in theory but the cheese stuff was practically frozen and made for tough going. Low point.

-The closed captioning on the scoreboard was woefully behind – jokes were ruined, fire/escape instructions were being relayed during candy bar ads, and it was just bad all around.

-A couple in front of me got into an absolute BRAWL and were trying to be quiet, but we’re talking New Yorker quiet. Eff bombs were flying this way and that and it was pretty distracting.

-Speaking of my seat, I got kicked out by fans with real tickets in the bottom of the fifth inning. What the heck? I thought LA was on the west coast??

-Does everyone know what LEED Certification is? Basically, LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building project meets the highest green building and performance measures. I should have mentioned this, but the Twins’ new park is LEED Certified! And while the Mets claim to have undertaken a green initiative:

http://www.allbusiness.com/environment-natural-resources/pollution-monitoring/8940322-1.html

They clearly have not. I only snapped one picture but all over the park there were bags full of aluminum cans mixed in with trash. The flip-side to this argument is that “it gets sorted out at the landfill” but I’ve been quite dubious of that position for years now. The Mets get a thumbs down in this category until someone takes me to the landfill and proves otherwise.

-The last low point was that there just wasn’t much happening during the game. For all the hype and buzz in the stadium early on, it all just faded away and the game was quite boring. The fans weren’t that into it, the scoreboard didn’t do too much to help (which is good, in theory, when the fans are into it on their own. see e.g. Fenway Park!).

I think that’s all I’ve got! See you on the other side of New York!

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:
Teams: Mets vs. Phillies
Final Score: 8-4 Phillies
Extra Innings: 0
WP: Roy Halladay
LP: Jenrry Majia
Time: 3:09
Announced Attendance: 30,071 (78.7% full)
Ticket Price: $23.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:
Home team record: 23-9
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 35
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Yankees (Yankee Stadium)
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins (2008): B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
Red Sox: A-
Twins (2010): B+
Mets (2010): A-

Right on Target?

2010-09-19T07:28:00.025-04:00

When I showed up for the first day of law school a couple of years ago I found out that I needed to learn how to write. Apparently, meandering, flowery prose are unacceptable in the legal/business world. My professors and advisors have spent the past two years drilling out of me what was ingrained throughout my time in high school and as a liberal arts major in college. Despite Villanova’s best efforts, I plan on digging down deep inside of me and dragging these new blog updates on for as long as possible. Get straight to the point?? Bah! Who wants to do that? That’s boring. This blog has been and will continue to be an outlet of creativity. So, without further ado…

When I was in Minneapolis to review the Metrodome back in 2008 I found out the Twins were constructing a new stadium to be opened in 2010. It was clear the Metrodome was not well-suited as a baseball stadium but I also found out the new park would be an outdoor facility…in Minneapolis!! The Twinkies have been perennial playoff contenders for at least a decade now and I can’t imagine baseball being played outside in Minnesota late into October; or, for that matter, in the first weeks of April every year. Luckily, the game I went to was in July and weather (at least cold weather) wasn’t a concern. I flew out to the Twin cities to visit my friend Ellen and her dad Chris hooked us up with sweet suite seats (jeez, say that three times fast!) – so first, a big THANK YOU there for the seats and the hospitality!

As far as Target Field was concerned, it was new, it was modern, and it was…nice. I may catch some flak for this, but compared to some of the great stadiums in the country, it just didn’t blow my doors off. Obviously all of these reviews and impressions are completely subjective and many different factors affect each visit, but for this particular park I just found it to be lacking…je ne sais quoi. There was no “it” factor for me. Plenty of people are going to disagree with me though. Check this out:

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/teamrankings/_/category/stx#table

ESPN The Magazine ranked Target Field the number one venue in all of sports. This, while my favorite baseball stadium in the country – the Padres’ Petco Park – was ranked 43rd. So what do I know? Regardless, my trip to the Twin Cities this summer certainly was very different from the first time around!

Game Notes:

One of the reasons I may not have taken more away from the stadium was the fact that we simply weren’t there for very long. The game lasted only an hour and fifty-two minutes!! Yes, 1:52. At the time, it was the third-shortest game in the majors for 2010. Also, due to factors beyond our control we didn’t get to the stadium all that early so we didn’t get to catch BP or walk around an empty stadium either. By the time I completed a lap around the park we were already a few innings into the action. The trade-off, though, was that for this game we had a “suite” view from the Land O’Lakes suite!

Quite a different experience from my typical “I’ll have one of your cheapest tickets, please.” All of the suites at Target Field are named after lakes in Minnesota. For those of you keeping score at home, we were in the “Farm Lake” suite. We were greeted with a great spread of food and drink and a tremendous view of Minneapolis. I will say, the sightlines around the park were pretty well thought out and from the third base side, this is what we got to look at:

The field views from around the rest of the park were a bit…quirky. Not good or bad, just quirky. The dimensions of the concourse are really different from most other parks and there are a lot of sharp angles as you walk around the stadium underbelly. That concourse, though, is something the Twins really improved on compared to the Metrodome. Two years ago the game I went to wasn’t very crowded but moving around in the concession areas was still a nightmare. At Target field there was TONS of room to walk about freely. Kudos to them on that one.

In walking around the concourse I found some unique things. First, unlike St. Louis or especially one of the new New York stadiums (I won’t spoil which one!), the seats all over Target Field feel really close to the action. The plot of land the stadium is built on isn’t a huge sprawling area so all the seats ended up being decently close to the field. Second, the gates are all named/numbered after famous players in Twins history. Also, and I’m sure I’m forgetting other stadiums that did this, but like Baltimore, the Twins have a light-rail train that pulls RIGHT up to a gate, which is tremendously convenient for people who want to take public transport to the game. Two other local tributes that were kind of subtle was this wood engraving of Kirby Puckett behind one of the bar areas in the suite section. I didn’t even notice it the first time I walked past. Then there was a salute and pub dedicated to “Townball.” Apparently this is kind of an informal league around the state where people just get together to play every summer and there are over 300 active teams.

At the main entrance gate I found two cool things. One was this farmers market:

Small but effective? I guess it’s just a nod to the local produce producers (yeah, I just went there). The other thing was this weird metallic “wind thing.” I don’t know how else to describe it and this picture does it no justice at all but when the wind blew, these metal plates moved in random wave formations. It looked really cool, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

What else…food? You should all know I always love checking out the food/prices. The Twins stepped up their prices from a couple of years ago but overall it was still more reasonable than many of the other parks around the country. Of course, they had more “brats” than you could shake a stick at, a hot dog runs ya $4.50, 16 oz. beer for $7.00, $4.50 for nachos…then they had these “tator tot boats” that I was too intrigued by to write down the cost! Also, I completely forgot to get the cheese curds again. Oh well, next time, yeah?

Finally, before we get to some high and low points, we saw “Wally the Beer Man” on our walk around the park! For those of you who don’t know, apparently he’s been a staple at Minnesota sporting events and especially Twins games since the Metrodome opened. If you’d like to know more, here’s a Sports Illustrated article from 23 years ago!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066153/index.htm

High Points:

-As mentioned, the intimacy of the seats at Target Field stood out and virtually everywhere in the park that I walked to felt pretty close. Also, they have real-live metal bleachers for that extra-special, traditional, back-cramped-by-the-fourth-inning baseball experience!

-The Land O’ Lakes suite, complete with food/drink spread and fully stocked dessert cart certainly was a high point of the day. On a related note: the bathrooms in the suite section were immaculate but I neglected to check out the regular ones. 1000 pardons for that, please.

-The scoreboard(s) at Target Field may have taken over as the best in the country. I remember that Arizona’s and Washington DC’s scoreboards had previously been up there in my book, but the amount of information you could get at a second’s notice in Minneapolis was truly impressive.

Between the main scoreboard above, and the two below, fans have at their fingertips all kinds of “modern” numbers (please tell me you know what OPS means by now), the current pitching line, the batter’s season stats, who was due up, and virtually any other info you could want. Finally, have a look at the right-hand side of the picture. Ellen and I tried to recreate the magic of “Minnie” and “Paul” shaking hands but I don’t think we got it quite right…mostly cause we turned out way more blurry than they are in real life.

-The aforementioned open concourse was a definite plus.

-The retired numbers at Target Field took up about 1/100th of the space they did in the Metrodome.

-The highest point of the game was probably when Chris took me down to the VIP area behind home plate. They have a separate club down there with all the food and drinks you could want. There is a little peephole for fans to watch players take BP inside before the game. And, I’ve said it before, but Major League Baseball is just a completely different game from down at the field level. It was only for a couple of innings, but boy was it worth it!

(See also more scoreboard information in straightaway centerfield. I’m telling you, this place was a wealth!)

-The last high point was probably the bullpens. Tons of fans in the left field bleachers can easily peer over a short wall and check out players from both teams warming up. But when I checked them out, all I could picture was the amount of trash talk that must happen between teams. I guarantee you it’s not “hey, how are you, how’s the family” type stuff. It has to be pure venom that is spit back and forth between competitors, separated only by a few millimeters of chain-link fence, ready to do battle in front of an arena filled with thousands of screaming fans, all calling for blood and…what? No? OK, maybe that’s just me. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Vicious, huh?

Low Points:

-Despite the very “new” feel and modern décor that accompanied my visit to Target Field, the stadium left some things to be desired. First, the condiments at this brand new stadium really let me down. We all know I loves me some spicy mustard yet the best the Twins could do was the generic Heinz products (yellow mustard, ketchup, and sweet relish). Wait till you see what one of the New York teams did…

-The fan-to-scoreboard interaction was a little metza metz. Granted, it’s the Midwest, but even accounting for that, the scoreboard was doing a lot of cheerleading throughout the game. Also, the Twins got rid of the “No Rules Fish Race!” (see Summer of Matt, post 27, para. 11 “One Day Honey, One Day Onion” discussing general awesomeness of said race). Sorry, sorry, I know I said no more of those. So the in-person fish race was replaced by a computer generated, rigged to win, cartoon sports car race featuring Babe the Ox and other indigenous Minnesota creatures. Lame.

-I again was swindled into drinking Michelob Golden Light. Luckily, because of the “suite” perks, I didn’t waste money on it this time around. But I clearly didn’t remember the marketing lesson Dad gave me two years ago. Those guys are good!

-The Bud Deck was closed off to fans without tickets to the Bud Deck. Jerks.

-TC the Bear is the Twins mascot. He showed up a few times throughout my notes. First, on the left, he can be seen absolutely demolishing the competition in the pre-game home run derby. Random fans are selected to try to hit softballs over the outfield fence. Then this TC character comes out of nowhere and obliterates the high score. I would LOVE to have that guy’s job. To just be some washed up minor leaguer or college player who gets paid to come in and ruin the hopes and dreams of random fans before every game. Haha, sounds awesome! On the right is “Creepy TC.” Creepy because he’s wearing a skinny mustache and huddling around a group of unsuspecting youngsters…yikes.

-The pregame field grooming guy did not drag his mat in perfect circles. Obviously a low point.

-Another low point, and obviously this is the Twins’ fault, was the game time. An MLB game lasting under two hours is just unacceptable, especially when I’ve got a ticket to a suite! Luckily, it started pouring (and I’m talking big, strong, Midwest rain – not some little drizzle like back home. Seriously, hardest I’ve seen it rain in years) after the game so we got to hang out a bit while everyone else had to unsuccessfully dodge the sheets of water on their way out of the stadium.

-The Twins kept their old-school, campy intro music but, unlike 2008, didn’t mix it into something new and fresh. Lame.

-Whoever sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was pretty off key!

And just for the heck of it, here’s a few more pictures:

The illusive “Bud Deck” and Twins retired numbers

Trippy painting

John, Ryan, Brenda, Ellen

Land O' Lakes Jersey!

OK, I reckon that’s all I’ve got for Minneapolis. On to Citi Field in New York!

Overall Grade: B+

Game Stats:
Teams: Twins vs. White Sox
Final Score: 3-2 Twins
Extra Innings: 0
WP: Carl Pavano
LP: Mark Buehrle
Time: 1:52 (?!?!)
Announced Attendance: 40,637 (102.9% full)
Ticket Price: $0 (Thanks, Chris!)
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:
Home team record: 23-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 34
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Mets (Citi Field)
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins (2008): B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
Red Sox: A-
Twins (2010): B+

Update

2010-09-05T13:52:00.002-04:00

Hi!

Well, I’m kind of shocked that it’s been over TWO YEARS since I updated this blog. The time has flown by for me. Also, I guarantee you my summer of frivolity and lack of responsibility was miles more interesting and worth your time reading about than the last two years which, as predicted, were spent mostly in the library.

So, what’s been going on with me? Well, the first year of law school was pretty much the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I spent my first summer working for a commercial litigation firm and it cemented my previously conceived notion that I am NOT a litigator and will never see a court room in my career. I enjoyed second year way more, especially after I ended up getting a Nintendo Wii second semester :-) This past summer I worked in the legal department of a company based in Boston that builds wind farms all over the country. That was really interesting as I’ve been fascinated by wind energy for a few years now (see Summer of Matt, post 27, para. 1 “One Day Honey, One Day Onion” proclaiming author’s adoration of wind farms). OK, no more of those, I promise! Anyway, I managed to survive the first two years of law school physically intact and, for the most part, mentally as well. I made the most of my time at Villanova but now I’m heading off to start yet another adventure – this time it’ll be ‘cross the pond! I was lucky enough to be accepted into a program where I’ll spend my third year of school studying abroad with one of Villanova’s partner schools – the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. I got the chance to work in Edinburgh for two months during 2007 so I know what I’m going back to and I couldn’t be more excited! I’ll get to spend 12 months there and earn my JD from Villanova as well as an LLM of U of E. As of now there are no plans to tour the rugby stadiums in the UK but I will certainly keep you updated if that changes.

This summer though, I was fortunate enough to make it to the baseball stadiums that have opened since I completed my trip back in 2008. That means I went to Minneapolis to check out the Twins’ new outdoor (?!) stadium and also took two trips to NYC to see the dew digs of the Mets and Yankees. It may take another few weeks but I promise to get all those stadium reviews up for your viewing pleasure...as if anyone is still checking this blog, haha!

Regards,

Mgmt

African or European Swallow?

2008-08-25T17:24:00.003-04:00

A lot of people have asked me if I planned to continue this blog while at school. Fearing such continuation would lead to the mass boredom of all 12 of my readers, I decided against it. I did not want to have to start every entry with something like "Today when I was studying at the library..." but forgive me when I say:

Today when I was studying at the library, I was deep in thought about whether it is possible for someone to own the air space above their property when all of a sudden a pigeon of some considerable size flew right into the window next to me!! It made quite the thud as it went limp and fell towards the ground below. Heads popped out of cubicles everywhere and I got up to see if the little fellow was alright. Alas, I couldn't see that far down.

I may have a headache from the reading I have to do but I'm sure I've got nothing on that poor guy! It's all about perspective, right?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls…Welcome to Fenway Park.

2008-08-17T13:29:00.016-04:00

Well, this is it. We’ve reached the pinnacle, climbed the mountain, saw all there is to see, etc. etc. etc. I really did not want this journey to end but I thought there would be no way more fitting than to finish at Fenway Park. To be fair, I will warn you all that this post will be the longest of the trip and most likely will take up quite a fair amount of your time. The word "EPIC" comes to mind.

All over the rest of the country I had compared bits and pieces of Fenway to each stadium and now it’s time to see how Fenway, on the whole, stacked up against the other 29 major league parks. Truth be told, I actually was lucky enough to attend two other games in Boston this year (one with Lindsay early in the season and one with Brandon which I’ll explain in more detail – thanks guys!!) but for my “official review” I went with Gretchen to a game against the A’s and tried to move around the park, just like always, and also stay sober enough to take coherent notes and give the stadium a proper review.

Brandon invited me to a game against the Angels on Wednesday July 30th and my “official” game was on Friday August 1st with the team having an off day on the Thursday in between. Normally this wouldn’t be significant, but given that the MLB trading deadline fell on that particular Thursday, in between the games, it turned out to have quite an impact! Having seen those two games means I saw the end of the Manny Ramirez era in Boston (great pictures to follow below) and also the beginning of Jason Bay’s time patrolling left field.

Before the Angels game I went to the new “Bleacher Bar” on Lansdowne St. with Brandon and Riley. For those of you who haven’t heard about this, the bar is located under Fenway’s bleacher section, is new this year and gives patrons a field level view of Fenway Park from straightaway center field! There is a garage door size opening in one of the walls and the warning track is literally on the other side of a few inches of glass.

The bar isn’t directly affiliated with the Red Sox and is open year round. Given that it’s inside Fenway Park, I can’t even begin to imagine what they’re paying in rent! A few other stadiums around the country had something similar to this (US Cellular in Chicago comes to mind) but I thought this was the best just given how close you are to the field. During the game a player could literally crash into the wall right at your table! As if that wasn’t enough, check this out.

Apologies again to those who are easily offended but if you hadn’t figured it out, this is the view from one of the men’s room urinals. This way you’re guaranteed never to miss a second of the action; this place thought of everything!! I even managed to get myself a few suspicious looks while snapping a photo of my friends in action.

The Bleacher Bar is a great “pregame” location because the beers are WAY cheaper than inside the stadium. This is a theme among all the bars surrounding the park though. I didn’t see a comparable selection of watering holes anywhere else in the country. The bars in Chicago surrounding Wrigley were great but I still have to give Boston the nod on this one. We even had the number 2 baseball bar in the country, the Cask ‘N Flagon. I’m not sure why they’re so happy to tout their status as number 2 but I do know there’s always a line to get in before and after games.

I’d also like to point out various other goings-on in the above picture. There is the famous Citgo sign on the left, the sign on the Cask singing its praises as baseball’s number 2 bar, the street sign for Lansdowne St. (which, by the way, was undergoing massive amounts of construction when I was there) and also the “Dice-K” sign, the significance of which is lost on me.

Aside from the bars, the area surrounding Fenway had plenty of other great things to offer. Like many other teams, the Red Sox have paid homage to their greatest player ever; in this case they built a statue of Ted Williams.

I don’t fancy myself much of a sculptor so I’m not an expert on proportions or anything but doesn’t that hat look like it’s just going to swallow the child hole?? Either way, something was off about this statue and it creeped me out. Moving on a bit further I discovered a sight I hadn’t seen in a long time. I think the media coverage of the Red Sox is directly proportional to the passion of the fan base. Take a look at all of these media trucks lined up outside the park.

I didn’t see anything like this at any other stadium in the country. Granted, this picture was taken one day after the Manny Ramirez trade so there was all kinds of national attention swirling around the Red Sox but I’ve seen similar sights almost every other time I’ve been at Fenway Park. All of the local news stations always have a truck and a reporter to cover the game and then there are all of the cable stations that also follow and report on the team. NESN (the New England Sports Network) is one of the few stations of its kind where a localized region has a fan base interested enough to support an entire sports channel devoted to the teams from that area (in this case the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins). That’s mighty impressive! To wit, here you can check out Tom Caron, Jim Rice and Gordon Edes doing what they do best.

Side Note: If anyone can let me know whether that usage of “to wit” was appropriate or not it would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been trying to work it in for the last 29 parks and it just never seemed appropriate :-)

OK, I’m 1200 words into this post and we haven’t even got inside the stadium yet! There’s still one bit I have to cover though. I can say it definitively now: on Red Sox game day, Yawkey Way is like no other street in the country. It runs adjacent to Fenway Park’s 3rd base/home plate area, stretches roughly 150 yards and is the picture of absolute pandemonium before each game. I could never get enough of the atmosphere and the buzz that permeates the entire block. Without fail, you always find the die-hard fans with their thick accents talking about what Francona is going to do with the lineup that day, the recent bandwagon jumpers wearing their pink hats and talking about how cute Varitek is or saying they’ve never heard of a guy called Jason Bay, the first-timers who completely pack the largest souvenir store in the country and the drunks stumbling their way towards the bleachers, trying to avoid getting ejected before first pitch. It is a kaleidoscope of passion, unmatched anywhere else in the nation.

The street was filled with masses of people decked out in their sox gear, sausage carts, peanut/pistachio venders, purveyors of that liquid gold we like to call beer and, of course, “Big League Brian!” This guy has the greatest job. He just walks around on stilts before every game and takes photos with fans, plays catch with them and generally seems to have a good time.

One last note I want to mention about Yawkey Way is that for the game against the Athletics I ran into Steve’s uncle Harry! Steve and I stayed with Harry and Diane in LA when we were there for the Angels and Dodgers games and Harry had just come over to this coast to catch a game at each of Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. Small freakin’ world, huh?!

Harry: if you see this, I'd love to get the picture we took to put on here for posterity!

Game Notes:

It’s not really fair to include updates and renovations at Fenway because I didn’t get to do that for the other stadiums but, too bad, I’m going to do it anyway. The Red Sox have really made some nice upgrades since I was a little kid. The stadium is still old and definitely feels it at times but the new management team that took over earlier this millennium have done a great job of adding bits and pieces here and there every year. One of those renovations was to add seats atop the Green Monster. No, I didn’t have tickets there and, sadly, this was as close as I could get.

I don’t know what the big deal is; the view isn’t even that great, right?? This turned into somewhat of a theme though. I knew it going in but was still disappointed with the lack of unfettered access to many parts of the stadium. Pretty much the entire “upper deck” section ringing the infield is off limits to the common fan. Thank God Susan got me those EMC tickets for a game two years ago or else I think I would have had a tantrum then and there not knowing what I was missing. It’s too bad that most of the luxury seats are sold to corporate sponsors but at least the boxes get used, unlike in some other cities *cough*Cleveland*cough*.

One of the newer areas I did get to check out was the Budweiser roof deck in right field. This is the view from below.

And here is me, wistfully gazing into the distance contemplating why, oh lord, WHY I decided it would be a good idea to go into 6-figure debt instead of finding someone to pay me to travel and write for the rest of my life!

Anyway, this area had tabletop seating and plenty of standing room. They also had a very large, full-service bar if you just wanted to hang out and drink with the game in the background. This was very similar to the “red porch” in Washington and considering tickets up there cost $115 it really is not a bad deal to try and get a standing room ticket for $20 then head on up to the bar for the game.

I guess now is as good a time as any to address the ticket prices at Fenway Park. On the right side of the first Bud roof deck picture above you can see some steel bleachers; these are called “Conigliaro’s Corner.” This was an addition by the Sox last year to make the park seem more family friendly. Can we pause there for a second though? I just paid an average of $14 per ticket at every single other stadium in the country and now I’m going to get the privilege of shelling out $25 to sit on freezing cold or burning hot steel (pick your month, maybe May is tolerable?) while craning my neck from the highest point in the park to try and get a glimpse of a game being played below? Where do I sign up?!

I understand the whole “supply and demand” thing and that Sox tickets are THE thing to get right now (trust me, I paid $110 per ticket back in March for $50 seats behind a pole for my game) but it still sucks that the scalpers/third-party agencies can’t be better controlled. Outside Fenway there were scalpers EVERYWHERE and they all had handfuls of tickets. I’d like to think something could be done about that. But I digress, after one more of me, it’s back to the park!

I was actually quite pleased with what I picked up on when I returned to Fenway after having seen the rest of the country. Purposefully or not, I’ve definitely become adept at picking up on things that are important to me at a baseball stadium and Gretchen and I discovered a few other things that I normally don’t notice or don’t think are cool/important.

This was the first time I had seen one of these machines at a park, at least for the fans to use. The Yankees giving out free cups of ice water trumps it but here’s a picture of Gretchen and her very talkative new best friend getting cooled off.

The grandstand section at Fenway makes up the vast majority of the seats in the house and almost all of them down the first base/right field line are TERRIBLE. They face straight ahead so you have to turn your neck or body for the entire game (you know how much that sucks, people with back troubles!) and usually there is a pole blocking your view of some of the game. Plus, the seats themselves are old, hard, wooden, dilapidated pieces of crap.

For as terrible as their condition is though, if you somehow manage to score free tickets to the lower levels or otherwise shell out half your life savings, the “close” seats at Fenway are closer than anywhere else in the country. Take a look at this next picture. Fans in the seats right near the field or dugout are RIGHT THERE. I sat in the second row behind the dugout a few years back and I haven’t had that kind of experience at any other time in my life. It’s pretty much like being courtside at an NBA game, only better because you’re at a baseball game!

When my lap around the stadium finally ended and we found our seats it seemed only fitting that there was a pole blocking my view of second base. Frankly, I wouldn’t have expected anything else.

High Points:

-The above picture is a great example of the first “high point” I want to make about Fenway Park. My notes, from both games, are filled with little tidbits about how great the fans were and I don’t know if I can stress this enough. My recent stadium reviews have found me doting on the “east coast” stadiums and how the crowds are more into the game than elsewhere around the country. Well, I really tried to not let my Red Sox bias influence my review of the stadium but please believe me when I say that Sox fans truly are a different breed. Getting back to the picture, the stands were virtually packed by the first pitch for every Fenway game I attended. If you look at the stats below you’ll see that the stadium was filled over capacity at 103.6%. The atmosphere at Fenway Park, even on a Wednesday night in late July, was like no other stadium in the entire country, period.

-I got to see Josh Beckett pitch. It’s always fun to see the ace of a staff work his magic (even though we lost that game).

-I mentioned this on a few occasions in other posts and my theory rang true. Other than guarding the various “exclusive” sections of the park, ushers were only around and in my business if I needed one. Given that Fenway sells out on a regular basis the ushers aren’t going to concern themselves with fans sitting in their exact assigned seats because, for the most part, people are able to police themselves and the ushers can stick to their real duties of helping people find their section or kicking out the meatheads who can’t correctly read their ticket.

-Rachel gave me this idea and it actually worked out pretty well! If you let peanuts soak in your beer long enough they’re absolutely delicious when you eat them whole, shell and all! At first I gave them maybe 5 minutes and they were disgusting but I left them in a bit longer and, lo and behold, c’est magnifique!

-I’m going to keep referring back to this but I can’t help it. Throughout the game there were ZERO scoreboard prompts or little matching games or condiment races. At Fenway Park it was all about the baseball with zero frills attached. Fans went absolutely bonkers over pregame introductions and even the most routine plays, then the decibels jumped up ten-fold when anything meaningful happened. At each game I went to I paid attention to the baseball, not the scoreboard or the music or the food or the mascot, just the game. The fans got their own chants going at just the appropriate times and I realized that was what had been missing around the rest of the country. It just didn’t happen in places like Kansas City or Texas or Florida. I LOVED it!

-I love the creativity shown by the young entrepreneurs who peddle the tee shirts outside the park.

Hmmm…Bartles and James? Smirnoff Ice? I wonder…

-I guess at most other places in the country this would have been a low point but I was actually pleasantly surprised at the prices in Fenway Park. I had expected the Yankees and Red Sox to charge the highest prices in the country but I’d have to say the Nationals and Mets were the worst offenders. At Fenway you could get a hot dog for $4.75, a pretzel for $3.75, candy for $2.50 and a foot-long hot dog for $5.00. The beer was “one size fits all” at $7.50 for 16oz. and, frankly, I was expecting much worse across the board.

-Good old northeast liberalism reared its head as in between a few innings during the game “Rosie the Recycler” girls trotted up and down the aisles collecting things that could be recycled. That was nice to see and also a first in the country. Also, for the record, I don’t know if these girls had a name or not but I think it should be "Rosie the Recycler" if it isn’t already.

-The most beautiful wall in the country.

-Most likely it was due to the game being sold out but there was always a vendor around when you needed one (save for beer vendors, but more on that later). With their bright yellow shirts it was easy to pick them out of the crowd and all you had to do was raise an arm if you needed something. The peanut and cotton candy guys also delivered in a big way. I knew I wasn’t crazy when I kept talking about them throwing things across multiple aisles. It was nice to be home!

-Beach balls being batted around the bleachers!!

-Like the guy who was on point in Philly, the music people at Fenway played “a little less conversation, a little more action” when the A’s pitching coach went to talk to his pitcher. Good stuff.

-You can chalk up this next one as the only thing the scoreboard does to get fans “into” the game. After the top half of the 8th inning the scoreboard always plays “Sweet Caroline” and the fans get all kinds of into it. I’d say half the stadium was at least tipsy at this point so everyone thought they could actually sing and you should have heard some of the notes and words coming out of people. The fans behind us on Wednesday were from out of town and I’ve never heard Mr. Diamond’s song butchered so badly. That part wasn’t what I’d call a “high point” but the tradition itself certainly is.

-You may be wondering what the scoreboard actually does do in between innings if not showing silly graphics or condiment races. Well, most of the time between innings they play highlight montages. Gretchen brought up the good point that on Friday I’m sure some poor intern had to spend hours either editing Manny OUT of all of those highlights or creating new, fresh ones instead. Either way, I’m glad I’m not that poor sap.

Wait, what am I talking about? I would LOVE to work for the Red Sox!!

-Here’s me…wishing I worked for the Red Sox.

-I’m not sure if it was exactly a “high point” but it certainly was not a low point so I’m going to include the Manny Ramirez/Jason Bay dynamic in this section. During what turned out to be Manny’s last game as a member of the Red Sox he again was up to his old tricks and Brandon pointed it out so I could capture it on film. Aside from jogging down the line to first base or refusing to play, he also managed to make the inside of the Green Monster his second home for the last few months. During a pitching change on Wednesday night he made one of his now infamous trips inside the wall…who knows for what.

Gee, where’s the left fielder go??

There he is!!

But not for long, obviously. Manny was traded to the Dodgers the next afternoon and by the time I showed up at the park on Friday a fair number of people clearly had already moved on.

It was now time to usher in the Jason Bay era in Boston. Much like the fans who sell the shirts outside the stadium, these guys got a little creative as well. I thought this was the best sign in the park that night.

Of course I had to document the first time he stepped into the batter’s box at Fenway.

As well as the absolutely thunderous, prolonged ovation he was given by the sellout crowd.

It ended up being quite the debut for Mr. Bay with his new team and in his new state. He would go on to score both runs in a 2-1, 12-inning victory over the A’s on Friday night. The stadium erupted into pandemonium when he crossed home plate in the 12th. Still love that pole :-)

The fans immediately embraced him as one of their own and you could see the appreciation and sense of wonder as he looked around the stadium while being interviewed on the field after the game. The stands were still 90% full (definitely more packed than Yankee Stadium was in the 12th!) and it was clear he had never seen anything like that in his career.

-I will admit that I don’t know if other stadiums have traditional music they play after a victory but I did get to hear “New York, New York” in the Bronx and that was nothing like coming home to “Love That Dirty Water” and “Tessie” in Boston.

-Instead of the dense leagalese I found in San Francisco, Fenway's poem was much more to the point.

-I always look forward to the street drummers banging away on their various buckets outside Fenway after the game. I will say that Boston is not unique in this regard as there were other similar performers dotting the rest of the country but they’re all usually pretty good.

Low Points:

If any of you out there are still reading, I'm almost done, I promise. Fenway did have some things that disappointed me…

-For a fleeting moment I felt like I was back in Dodger stadium with its unfair class system. For my entire life, I cannot remember there being beer vendors walking the aisles of Fenway Park. At every other stadium there were guys who came around to deliver beer to you in your seat, as is common place at many sporting events. However, I was SHOCKED when I saw beer vendors in the lower box seats at Fenway, and only in the lower box seats at Fenway. Not only did I feel jipped, I feel like I’ve lied to anyone who’s read this blog. WTF, Fenway?! Thanks for being jerks.

-This picture speaks for itself…are you serious??

-During the Wednesday game I saw with Brandon there was a church choir who sang the national anthem. They were from Ireland and I don’t know if it was a joke or what but I can say, without hesitation, that it was absolutely the worst performance of the National Anthem I’ve ever heard in public. This group was TERRIBLE!

-Right after I get done lying to you about the beer vendors I have to own up to another mea culpa. I had ranted at various times about regions of the country calling Italian Ice by other names like “water ice” or “frozen lemonade.” Well, would you know it? Fenway had vendors walking about selling BOTH! Obviously I have no idea what I’m talking about and the last 4 months of my life have been a complete and utter waste.

No, just kidding :-)

-The Bank of America ATM inside the stadium was great to see but it was less great to see that it was out of order. Boo that.

-I felt bad for this guy (and the thousands of other people like him) who felt the need to cover up the back of his Ramirez Red Sox tee shirt. The girl in front of him clearly had no problem but this guy kept his white shirt on his back throughout the entire game. However, it was little match for the flash on my camera.

-The Fenway organist is quite the talented individual. I’m glad Fenway is one of the few parks in the country to still incorporate the traditional organ songs and sounds but when the guy starts playing Rihanna’s “Umbrella” I think there’s a line that has been crossed and I’m not sure we wanted to do that.

-The scoreboard displayed the words to the National Anthem sans punctuation. Once I saw it done right at a few other stadiums I think it should be required everywhere. “Oh say, does that star spangled banner yet wave?” is clearly a question and I want it displayed as such!

-The aforementioned scalpers and ticket prices definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.

-It’s never fun to try and review a park but not be allowed to enter some of the coolest areas. I understand the reasoning behind it but it still was a low point of the experience.

-My trip is over :-( That’s the lowest point of all!!

Don’t worry, I’ll try to do a recap thing soon and post some other pictures that I promised I’d get to way back in the first week of May.

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:

Teams: Red Sox vs. Athletics
Final Score: 2-1 Red Sox
Extra Innings: 3
WP: Mike Timlin
LP: Alan Embree
Time: 3:50
Announced Attendance: 37,832 (103.6% full)
Ticket Price: $110.00 (Yes, more than double face value. Thanks a lot, scalper jerks)
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 22-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 33
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: No more stops :-(
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
Red Sox: A-

Update

2008-08-09T13:38:00.002-04:00

No, I haven't forgotten about Fenway Park. In fact, I even went to a game already, I just haven't had time to turn my experience into wonderful prose yet and probably won't for another week or so. I'm packing up and getting ready to move to Villanova this week so just hang tight and I promise I'll get to friendly Fenway as soon as I can.

Regards,

Mgmt.

2008: Yankee Stadium’s Final Year (you may have heard?)

2008-07-29T12:10:00.010-04:00

Well, it had been a good run but I think we all know about Mr. Steinbrenner’s rules on facial hair so before my trip to the Bronx it was time to shave the beard. I went from mountain man to 10th grader in the span of fifteen minutes. Oh well, here’s one last relic (mountain men don’t smile).

Instead of spending an excruciatingly long day on the train as with my trip down for the Mets I turned the Yankees game into a weekend trip. I still took the train but it was so much more relaxing and less stressful. I even managed to book my Amtrak reservation for the right day! Go me, off to a good start.

Anmay and Jeremy were nice enough to let me stay with them for the weekend, which was awesome because we got to catch up a bit and hotel prices in New York fit nobody’s budget. Anmay even scored some primo tickets in the middle tier of Yankee Stadium and I got treated to my first game of the trip! Thanks a lot guys!!

Game Notes:

On the day of the game I left pretty early and took a sweet tram from Roosevelt Island over to Manhattan to catch the subway up to the Bronx. It was pretty early on a Saturday morning and the thing was packed. Otherwise, I would have been able to take some great pictures; the view from the tram was really incredible.

My biggest regret about Yankee Stadium was not making it to Monument Park. I know, that seems like a slam dunk and it was the first thing I wanted to do but there was a slight mishap with taking the subway to the stadium and by the time I got there (80 minutes prior to game time) I was told the line was full for the day. I guess you have to show up right when the gates open and get in line immediately. I suppose they’ll be taking everything over to the new stadium so if I make it to a game next summer I’ll let you all know how it is.

If it weren’t for the subway mishap though, I wouldn’t have this sweet picture to share with you all.

I met Bob Ryan!!! He's easily my favorite Globe columnist and I like the TV stuff he does too. When I boarded the subway in Manhattan he was sitting right in front of me reading the New York Times so I rudely interrupted and we ended up chatting about baseball stadiums all the way to Yankee Stadium! He had some great opinions and insights, especially with regard to putting parks into an historical context. Apparently the stadium where I saw the Yankees play was not “Yankee Stadium” with all the mystique and history of Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, etc. That one died with the 1973 renovation. Obviously I wasn’t around then but I can see how that would make sense for true students of the game.

After getting shut out of Monument Park I tried to take a lap around the rest of the stadium. I can say unequivocally that Yankee Stadium wins the award for “worst crowd flow in the country” by leaps and bounds. Yes, this game had a higher attendance than any other I attended but this place was TERRIBLE. Everything was cramped, from the outside of the stadium to the concession areas to the seats and aisles. Kansas City and Shea were the only other stadiums that could be in the running for the award but KC was undergoing renovations and the game was only about half full so it was manageable and Shea wasn’t packed either so that helped. It took forever to walk around Yankee Stadium but, bound and determined, I did it! For your enjoyment, I plan on sharing some of what I found.

The Yankees also win the award for “steepest outdoor upper deck.” After just handing out that honor to Shea I feel a little cheated, and frankly, so should you. Yankee Stadium’s upper deck definitely took the cake though. Speaking of which, when I was snapping some shots of the field a VERY large, VERY tattooed man asked me if I was wearing my Pawtucket hat. It was actually a green Phillies hat but it just has a “P” on it so I could see how he may have been confused. I informed him it was a Phillies hat and he explained to me that Pawtucket was the AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and he may not have been able to let that slide. Pawtucket, eh? You don’t say! (I’ll give him points for the knowledge though…)

Hopefully it won’t happen in my lifetime but if the Yankees are ever to win another World Series title they will have a LOT of repainting to do. Everywhere around the stadium (outside and inside the building) they have signs proclaiming their status as “26 Time World Champions.” That’s all well and good but a lot is going to have to change if they wind up with another title. Of course, that assumes the same overabundance will pervade the new stadium but I’m assuming it will.

I’m also assuming the Yankees will have some better food options in the new stadium. There was absolutely NOTHING special about the food at Yankee Stadium. It was all standard ball park food, though surprisingly moderately priced ($3.00 for a hot dog, $4.00 for a pretzel, $8.50 for a 16oz bottle and $9.50 for a 20oz draft). That’s really not bad considering I was in New York. The Nationals and Mets definitely have the highest prices in the country…until we get to Boston anyway. Also, like the Mets, the Yankees provide only ketchup and mustard for condiments. That fact lead to the funniest exchange of the day that I witnessed. An A’s fan in his late 30’s strolled up to the condiment platform with his elderly father and asked nobody in particular “where’s the kraut?” After discovering there was none to be had he grew increasingly frustrated and decided to take it out on his dad. He very snidely remarked “well, that’s Yankee Stadium for you” and started raising his voice at any question his silver-haired dad asked. Finally he finished off his tirade with a classic “LET’S GO TRY THE OTHER ONE!!” I almost lost it when I watched him walk 20 feet down the hallway only to encounter the exact same condiment selection.

One final point about the food at Yankee Stadium was the giant popcorn buckets they had. For $12 you could get a souvenir bucket like the one I got in Kansas City (for way cheaper) and I wanted to get a picture of them but the lady working the stand was not happy with this at all. She stared me down until I walked away. Kind of creepy if you ask me. Also of note is the payphone on the right. When was the last time you used one of those? I remember using one around late fall ’99.

The seats Anmay got for the game were in the shade which was the best news of the day. It was so hot and so sunny that day that I probably only would have lasted a few innings in most of the other seats in the park. As it was, we were relatively comfortable in our seats for all 12 innings. We also were pretty close to the action. I got to see first-hand what the highest payroll in baseball can buy you…

TWO HOSES!! The Yankees spared no expense, even for their grounds crew. They couldn’t put out a bucket of sour kraut to appease ornery A’s fans but they certainly were the only team in the majors to have TWO hoses to water the dirt before the game.

Some other pre-game notes before we move to the high and low points:

There were no ushers anywhere. That’s an exaggeration but, like Fenway, I’m betting the Yankees assume fans will police themselves due to most every game selling out. If you needed an usher you could find one but they weren’t just hanging out ready to stop me from taking pictures in various sections of the park.

The National Anthem and then God Bless America during the 7th inning were instrumental, recorded versions! EVERY other stadium has had live performances of those pieces (FYI - GBA wasn’t always performed but when it was, it was done live!). I was kind of surprised at this and I’m not really sure I understand the reasoning behind the decision.

Tom Coughlin (head coach of the New York [football] Giants) threw out the first pitch. I still can’t believe Eli got out of that collapsed pocket, or the damn catch for that matter…

Whenever I’ve seen Yankee games on TV in the background I always hear the “roll call.” This is when the fans in the bleachers chant the name of all of the starters for that days’ game. I was pretty interested to see how this worked, for instance, does someone lead the cheer or does it just kind of happen? Well, I couldn’t see it that well but it did appear that someone was coordinating the chanting out in the outfield. Also of note regarding the bleachers is that those fans are kept separate from the rest of the stadium and vice versa. I couldn’t walk out there or take any pictures because there is only one entrance and that’s from outside of the stadium. Finally, the bleachers are now alcohol free! I couldn’t believe that. I’ve heard so many war stories about the infamous bleacher crowds at Yankee Stadium. I wonder how it is now with no alcohol served.

Only some of the Yankee batters had “intro music” as they came up to bat. I don’t know why they didn’t all have it.

High Points:

-Meeting Bob Ryan before the game was AWESOME!!

-I’ll give the Yankees fans this: they were some of the best in the country. They were totally into the game the entire time and the stadium was still about half-full even into the 12th inning. The scoreboard did some things to prompt cheers but it really was unnecessary, the New York fans created a great buzz with the constant chatter and cheering for things other than a home run.

-I thought this was great:

Almost every luxury box at the top of the screen behind home plate had a fishing net to grab foul balls that would roll up the netting. It was fun to watch the little 10 year olds who missed their chance get serenaded with a healthy chorus of boos.

-I mentioned the day was wicked hot. Boo the Yankees for charging $4.75 for a bottle of Poland Springs but kudos to them for providing multiple water stations on every level for fans to stay hydrated. They had workers constantly pouring free cups of ice water for anyone who wanted one. Good idea.

-The grounds crew performed a completely choreographed dance to the “YMCA” in between one of the innings.

-The DirectTV blimp patrolling the skies above the stadium had a legit TV on the side of it! That was pretty incredible. I made two separate notes about it on my sheet of paper so I guess it really made an impression on me! :-)

-Most of the parks around the country have flags with the other teams/cities on them. The Yankees, Reds and I think the Giants were the only other teams to put them in order of current divisional standing. I thought that was a nice, subtle touch.

-When Mariano Rivera trotted in from the bullpen I got to experience the “real” Enter Sandman.

-Speaking of Rivera, Jeremy brought his binoculars and showed me an ingenious strategy for getting great pictures. You just hold the camera up to one of the binocular eye pieces and it acts just like a telephoto lens! I got some great pictures, including Rivera:

And the days’ starter, Joba Chamberlain (who REALLY needs to stop throwing at Kevin Youkilis)

-The atmosphere and structural setup on River Ave. outside Yankee Stadium reminded me a lot of the old Causeway Street outside the Boston Garden. There are elevated train tracks, raucous fans and tons of bars, merchandise shops and sausage/food carts everywhere.

-Getting treated to a game with great seats was definitely a high point of the day.

Low Points:

-The biggest low point of Yankee Stadium was the cramped quarters. It was REALLY difficult to move around in the underbelly of the stadium because of all the people crammed into such a small area. In the seating areas I couldn’t move because there are railings separating every 4th seat so you can’t just cut across empty rows, you’re forced to use the very small aisles to try and navigate your way around the place.

-This was as close as I got to Monument Park:

Even Jeremy’s magic telephoto lens couldn’t get me special access…

-I think the above problem contributed to the absence, in my mind, of the “Yankee mystique.” I didn’t feel that special, indescribable feeling people talk about when they wax nostalgic about Yankee Stadium. Or maybe Mr. Ryan was right when he said that died with the 1973 renovation. Whatever it was, the stadium didn’t quite live up to the hype.

-On that note, did you hear this is Yankee Stadium’s last year?? Fercryinoutloud, enough already! We get it. It was special to have the All Star game played there in the stadium’s final year, great, now can we let it go and move on?

-Jorge Posada takes WAY too long to dig in and go through all his annoying pre-at-bat routines. Good thing he’s on the DL now and won’t be wasting any more of my time.

-On a related note, the fans that chanted “hip, hip…JOR-GE” during the entirety of each of his at-bats can go jump in a lake. Holy crap was that annoying.

-The final note about Posada doesn’t so much have to do with him but with the seven year old girls sitting behind us. I was pretty impressed with their knowledge of the players and the game but was horrified when they started talking about how funny it would be to see Posada hit a ball that ripped through a Red Sox outfielder’s head. And this was at a Yankees-Athletics game. Can you say rivalry?!

-The video and scoreboards at Yankee Stadium are truly outdated and I’m sure this will be remedied in the new park.-I wonder what I’ll think of this picture in 10 or 20 years…Bobby Abreu, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez:

-When he was warming up and stretching in the outfield prior to the game Alex Rodriguez couldn’t get enough of watching himself when the video board was showing highlights of the previous night’s game. What a prima donna. What? Madonna? No, no…prima donna.

-For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the grounds crew performing the “YMCA” they did a TERRIBLE job of grooming the field. They would walk around the field dragging the same nets that most other crews do but all of them had a bounce in their step and the field ended up with little “waves” of dirt that quite easily could have affected many a ground ball.

-The game went WAY too long.

-To top it off, I had to listen to “New York, New York” because of a hit-by-pitch that forced in the winning run. It wasn’t even like the Yankees deserved to win; the A’s definitely blew it. This was the most lackluster "walk off" celebration I've ever seen.

-We thought we’d let the subway crowd die down and stayed a bit late after the game to snap some pictures.

It didn’t help at all. For some reason the usual trains leaving the stadium were not running and we were trapped like sardines in the extremely hot, extremely cramped subway underground. That was terrible.

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Yankees vs. Athletics
Final Score: 4-3 Yankees
Extra Innings: 3
WP: David Robertson
LP: Lenny DiNardo
Time: 4:45
Announced Attendance: 54,183
Ticket Price: $75.00 (but free thanks to Anmay and Jeremy! THANKS GUYS!!!)
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 21-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 33
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Boston Red Sox
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B

Meet the M-E-T-S: The 19 Hour Odyssey

2008-07-21T18:02:00.013-04:00

So I’m home…and I’m devastated. For all intents and purposes the “traveling” part of my trip is over. Having only the two New York stadiums and Boston left to go I took the train to Queens for a day trip and I plan on doing the same for a weekend trip to the Bronx. [See, Duke? I told you this trip was made up of “planes, trains and automobiles!”] The day trip to the Mets game was pretty intense though. I woke up at 4:30AM to catch my 6:05 train to New York City and didn’t return until after midnight. The day started out pretty rough when on the T to South Station I realized I had booked my ticket for the next day! I think I may be developing an allergy to online reservation systems. Some of you will remember the near disaster in Minneapolis that lead to a roller coaster ride at the Mall of America as well as the mishap in Milwaukee. It turned out not to be that big of a deal as, after spending an anxious 10 minutes or so in line, I was able to change my ticket to the correct day (for an extra $30) and board the train about 45 seconds before it pulled out of the station!

Taking the train was an interesting experience. I read a book for most of the trip down and generally enjoyed not stressing out about trying to beat everyone to New York. With all the stops though, I think it actually may have been faster to drive. Pros and Cons I guess...C’est la vie… Whatcha gonna do?... Win some lose some. OK, I’m done. When I got to Penn Station I was quite happy I had been to the city on a few other occasions for work. I think otherwise I would have been pretty overwhelmed. I found my way to the right subway pretty easily and headed out to Shea Stadium.

En el tren a Shea Stadium había anuncios completamente en espanol! Yo nunca he visto esto. Que magnifico, verdad?

Game Notes:

The first thing I saw upon exiting the train was Citi Field. The Mets’ new stadium is coming along quite nicely and should be ready for opening day 2009. I took a ton of pictures myself but I never seemed to get a great angle. This poster inside Shea gave me a much better perspective than my pictures.

Please note: light of God shining down on center field not included.

For reference, Shea Stadium is currently located in what will be a parking lot to the left. I said should be ready for opening day 2009 because the construction workers there were a bit suspect. I don’t know if this was break time or what but you can see guys on all three levels just kind of hanging out. They also spent most of the game in these areas just watching the action.

There are two things I’d like to point out about the next picture. First is above the ticket window there are pictures of the players in the Mets’ lineup that day (they hadn’t yet updated it from the previous night because Johan Santana is on the far right and he didn’t pitch in the game I saw). That was pretty cool though and the only other team to do something similar was the Cincinnati Reds, though theirs was on a much smaller scale. The second thing about this picture is the line at the ticket window. After I just get done bragging about my “park savvy” I used in Washington I can’t believe I didn’t try to find another ticket window in New York. This line took forever. It was senior citizen’s day at the ballpark and I have nothing against them as a group of people but it is a fact that sometimes they take longer to do things. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The last thing I want to mention about the outside of Shea Stadium is the dearth of scalpers. I did not see or hear one person openly trying to buy or sell tickets anywhere around the stadium. The Mets have signs posted next to the ticket windows admonishing patrons that they are not allowed to resell tickets for any price, but that is similar to most stadiums around the country. Maybe they actually enforce it in New York?

In stark contrast to places like Tampa or San Diego which were very family and kid friendly, Shea Stadium is a no-frills, all business, pure baseball stadium. The typical ballpark smells were the first thing that hit me when I walked in. The air was filled with the aromas of grilled sausages, popcorn, hot dogs and, unfortunately, hot people. The concession areas at the stadium were extremely cramped. Shea is a great test of my theory on “if you have the space, you can build it right.” Well, apparently 1964 didn’t get that memo. There is a tremendous amount of wasted space in the underbelly of the park and trying to move anywhere was a nightmare. The official attendance of the game I saw was 48,755 (85% capacity) but that had to include season ticket seats sold because the place looked maybe half full. I really would have hated to try and move around during an important game or one where they sold out. This picture is just one example and it was taken very early in the day. As game time approached I felt more and more like a sardine.

One side note about the picture above – on the far right you can kind of see the self-serve style the Mets used for some of their food stands. I didn’t find that very often around the rest of the country and it reminded me of Roy Rogers. We used to stop at the one on Rt. 95 north of Hartford, CT on the way back from Long Island. I miss it, I used to put SO many pickles on my burgers, it was awesome…but I digress.

Anyways, the Mets food options were kind of limited but a few things were worth mentioning. Much like the rest of the park, the condiment selection was absolutely no-frills.

That’s it, the Mets don’t mess around. No jalepenos, no sour kraut and certainly no “effin relish.” That also meant, though, that were was no yellow mustard, only the spicy kind; points for that one! There wasn’t anything close to a “Met Dog” (frankly, I don’t know what that would even mean...a slice of pizza served on a bagel with lox and cream cheese?) and the prices were right up there with or exceeded those at Nationals Stadium. The one unique thing the Mets did do was to list the calories of everything they served, even the beer ($8.00 16oz bottle and $9.50 24oz can). That was a little unexpected but kind of helpful. Check out those peanuts, huh?!

The seating area at Shea was MASSIVE. For those of you who didn’t do the math above, the capacity is 55,601 and, crowded though it may have been, I think it would have been really impressive to see the stadium filled to capacity. To top it off, they have that kind of capacity while only having room for a few hundred people in the outfield! Speaking of which, I think that was the worst part of Shea. The place really was a dump. I know it’s old and they’re moving into a new stadium soon but they’ve really let it go. The scoreboards are awkwardly disconnected and so small that Budweiser has a billboard add larger than both of them combined. Also, this must have been a time period phenomenon because Dodgers stadium was built in 1962 but the colors of the seats in Shea are totally random. Blue and orange make sense, but where do you get Red and Green from? I climbed up to the very top row of the upper deck in right field and took some shots from the seat furthest away from home plate.

Have a look at the stairway, I mean, that thing was STEEP! The upper deck at Shea was definitely the steepest outdoor upper deck in the country. Tampa and Arizona have it beat but those stadiums have roofs and I’m not sure why domes can be steeper but I’m not going to take the time to figure it out. Instead, how about we all get distracted by Flushing Meadows which was pretty much right next door. Did anyone see the Nadal/Federer match at Wimbledon this year? I say greatest match I’ve ever seen, many say greatest ever.

High Points:

-I settled into an upper deck seat behind home plate before the game and when the first Giants batter was announced he immediately was greeted with a bellowing “YOU SUCK!” from an already intoxicated Mets fan a section over from me. Fair stereotype or not, I thought this was quintessential New York fan and it definitely started the game off on the right foot.

-I liked this shot I took during the game.

-Another great thing I’m still not over yet about being back in the northeast is the palpable ballpark buzz at most of the stadiums. Shea was half full and yet it was no exception. The white noise/chatter was there, the scoreboard hardly had to do anything to get the fans involved in the game and I think it’s just SO much more enjoyable to watch a game in that kind of atmosphere.

-I’ve heard it a bunch in my lifetime but I was still excited to hear “Meet the M-E-T-S” (complete with bouncing-ball video montage!) blaring through the sound system prior to the game.

-The aforementioned spicy mustard packets were certainly a highlight of the day.

-The pretzel I purchased was exceptionally warm. Usually stadiums have heaters and serve pretzels warm but this thing was out of control…in a good way.

-I bought a grilled sausage inside the stadium and it was delicious.

-I may get in trouble for this next “high point” but I think it’s something that needs to be addressed. The men’s room at Shea was absurdly cramped and, like I said, I would hate to try to move around during a sold out game but it also had one of the most unique things I’ve seen not just at a ballpark but anywhere in the country. Ready? The toilet seat is on springs! The “home” position is up and, frankly, I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen. Why isn’t this more prevalent across the country? What is bad about this idea? Of course, that leads to the larger point of women always yelling at guys to put the seat down but why shouldn’t ya’ll have to put it UP? It’s the same amount of effort that needs to be exerted by either party. I understand the consequences can be worse for those with the XX chromosome but I still don’t think the constant berating is fair. Instead of arguing though, why don’t we just put springs on all of our toilet seats?!

-I thought this was pretty funny. What’d I say about no frills, huh?

-There was a certain raw, undeniably New York quality to the ushers, fans, vendors and the actual stadium itself that, to me, screamed Mets. For better or worse, at least the stadium had some character.

-The last high point at Shea happened completely by coincidence. I went to the other side of the stadium to get some pictures of the scoreboard and all of a sudden my long lost little Jewish brother started sprinting up the stairs right towards me. It was funny, I couldn’t resist. Please don’t report me to any governmental agencies…he was sitting in the next section over, right across the aisle.

Low Points:

-I was reminded why I’m glad I did the bulk of this trip in April/May. Not only was it senior citizens day, I think it was also “every summer camp in New York City” day. Far too many unruly children were clogging things up all over the stadium. I would have taken more pictures but I don’t want people to start getting the wrong idea so I’ll just tell you that I’ve never seen so many blocks of colored tee shirts in my life. Every camp or group had matching shirts and I want to know what happens when two large groups wearing neon green pass each other in the concession area. Like I said, it’s really crowded and what if some kids get spun around and start following the wrong group of shirts?! I’m really curious as to what the contingency is in that situation.

-I was a little concerned by the passion these fans displayed towards Mr. Met. They were putty in his hands…I wonder what would happen if he ran for office? And for those of you wondering about the title of this picture, yes I did take 7 shots of Mr. Met. I’m a little concerned about that as well.

-I touched on this above but Shea did not use its space well at all. The shell of the stadium is really large and it seems like they had plenty of land to build on but really did waste a lot of what they had to work with. Inside the concession areas there were huge gaps of dead area between the ramps and where they served the food. Sitting in the outfield for a baseball game can be awesome. Only a few hundred fans per game get that privilege at Shea; that’s not right. Hopefully Citi Field will remedy these problems.

-I didn’t get pictures from all of the usual angles at Shea because the caste system reared its ugly head again. To recap, at Dodger Stadium you can only access your section or higher, at US Cellular Field if you have a ticket to the upper deck you can only access the upper deck and at Shea Stadium if you do not have a field level ticket you are not allowed into the lowest level of the seating bowl. We clear?

-This was one of the few stadiums around the country that charges a premium to buy food from vendors. Generally things only cost .25 more and I guess I agree with that principle but it still was a low point for the game.

-Some songs are synonymous with prominent closers. Trevor Hoffman runs into the game to “Hell’s Bells” in San Diego, Mariano Rivera comes in to “Enter Sandman” in the Bronx and Fenway has been pushing “Shippin’ Up to Boston” on Jonathan Paplebon. Billy Wagner has been one of the best closers in baseball for more than a decade and I was absolutely FLOORED when he came into the game to “Enter Sandman.” EVERYBODY knows that’s Rivera’s music…or so I thought. Originally I was outraged at this egregious offense but a simple Google search actually revealed that Wagner started using the song three years before Mariano did. Here’s a picture of the “offender”. Sorry Billy!

-There was a group of children sitting near me for the second half of the game who were die-hard Yankees fans (or, more probably, band wagon, don’t-know-any-better Yankees fans) who took great delight in trying to start a “Where is Joba?” chant. I really wished their chaperones had informed these brats that we were at a METS game. They then started all sorts of Yankees/Jeter/Joba related chants. That was a blast, really. I swear I didn’t move my seat shortly thereafter.

-I was severely underwhelmed by a certain usher’s ability to take a decent picture of me. This is what I ended up with.

-This had nothing to do with the game but I witnessed a fascinating sociological phenomenon at Penn Station before taking the train home. I walked in to a sea of fish-eyed people staring at the board where they list what track your train will be on. I really didn’t get it. Almost without exception, the track listing would be posted about 10 minutes before a train was supposed to depart. I found no point in standing there with everyone else staring at the board. I did a lap around the station, weaved in and out of people as they stood stoic, staring at the board. It was kind of like what happens on an elevator. Why stand facing the doors watching the numbers tick by? In college, my social psychology professor made us do an experiment where you get on an elevator and stand “backwards.” Try it, it’s fun :-)

Overall Grade: C+

Game Stats:

Teams: Mets vs. Giants
Final Score: 7-3 Mets
WP: Scott Schoeneweis
LP: Sergio Romo
Time: 3:10
Announced Attendance: 48,755
Ticket Price: $20.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 20-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 32
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: New York Yankees
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+

EXXON = Global Warming…and Corporate Greed...and hunger in Africa...and SARS...and El Nino...and obese Americans...and the extinction of the dodo...

2008-07-06T20:16:00.005-04:00

1.) Sandwiched in between my shuttle trips up to Philadelphia I managed to catch a Nationals game. Which was nice, you know, given that I stayed in the DC area for almost two weeks!

2.) Even though I went to the Nats game before the second Phillies game, I will ask those of you who pay attention to such details to refrain from asking me questions about how I calculated the “miles driven” stat below. It’s right, just trust me.

3.) I stayed with my cousin Lisa out in Herndon, VA and navigating the bus route to get me to the Metro to get me to the game actually proved more difficult than anticipated. It turns out I was waiting on the wrong side of the street for a bus and even though I left time for DC rush hour traffic I still did not make it to the game very early. As such, I walked in just as they were playing the anthem (which was very nice by the way…I have it as 5th best on the trip for those keeping score at home) so I won’t be able to post those exciting BP photos you all love. Apologies for that but I did manage to snap quite a few other interesting shots.

Game Notes:

WELCOME TO NATIONALS PARK, WHERE THEY EVEN LET THE BATBOY FEEL INCLUDED!!

For those of you who don’t know, Nationals Park is brand new this year. Can I take a second to point out the name? Nationals Park…has a nice ring to it, no? That’s right, even in the corporate climate that pervades Washington, DC, they did not sell off the naming rights to corporate sponsorship! I was pumped. DC is the one city I’ve encountered so far though where I would have been OK with this. They were able to get away with a lot (at least in my eyes) because I’m familiar with the culture and for some reason I allowed the typical “corporate sellout” type stuff (too much luxury space, annoying hosts, etc.) a longer leash there than at other parks. By the way, a simple Google search will inform you that the Nats are currently searching for a corporate sponsor to rename the park but it's nice while it lasts, huh?

The team itself even admits they don’t quite have the necessary parking/metro infrastructure in place to handle full crowds every night and that was rather apparent. I arrived on a completely packed Metro train and immediately upon heading up to the sidewalk I was met with this:

What did I say? The folks here are a different breed, I’ll tell you what. Only in DC could a baseball game turn into a protest. These guys wanted to boo Exxon during the 7th inning stretch because Exxon sponsors it. There were about a half dozen die-hards with signs greeting fans on the way into the park. I’m upset about the gas prices too (especially now that I’ve cracked 10K miles on this trip of mine) but there’s a line I’m not ready to jump over just yet.

I got to the centerfield gate and ticket window with about 20 minutes to game time and was greeted with a harsh reality.

At almost every other park I’ve been able to just walk up to the ticket window, wait a minute or two if at all, and purchase a ticket. This was a little different in that it was a Friday night, very close to game time and this was the gate that greets fans emptying out from the Metro. Also of note is that the line to get into the park at the center field gate, albeit more swiftly moving, was about double the length of the ticket line pictured above. I don’t know where I would have been without my newly found “park savvy.” Thinking quickly, I circled the stadium and headed over to the home plate entrance. Sure enough, my instincts were right!

I walked right up to a window after taking this picture and headed into the park in time for the anthem. Who’s a genius? It’s THIS GUY!!

Something the Nationals did very well inside the stadium was facilitating movement among the fans. Like Milwaukee, Philly, and a few other stadiums, when you have the room to build it right it can make all the difference in the world. Have a look at some of these shots:

You can really see some of the expansive concourse areas provided at the park. I never felt overcrowded or like I was being herded in with all of the other cattle; it was really nice. Also, this meant Nationals Park was yet another stadium with plenty of cool standing room areas. They didn’t have quite the amount of countertops and tables the Phillies provided but the vantages were still pretty great. That also had to do with the shape of the stadium. It’s hard for me to describe but there is something very unique about the physical structure of Nationals Park. From the upper deck behind home plate the field doesn’t look that different from most others in the country, but when you walk around underneath and in the outfield of the stadium it definitely is different. Some of that is the wide open spaces and some of that is, how do you say, je ne sais pas?

Let’s do food next, who doesn’t like food, right?

Again, not to repeat myself but I’m definitely back on the east coast. I have yet to make it to New York or Boston but the Nationals have the highest food prices in the country. $4.50 for a hot dog, $7.00 for a sausage, $6.00 for a pretzel in the shape of a cursive W?! Everything seemed to be at least .50 higher than at other parks.

The beer was rather intriguing though. So, I know I’ve ranted a bunch about people paying more and getting less for canned or bottled beer. Well, I can’t be 100% certain but I think the Nationals are the first team to charge the same amount for a beer whether it came from a draught or in a bottle (16oz of each). Also, their “premium” drafts (i.e. Amstel Light, Heineken, Sam, etc.) cost the same amount as Miller or Bud products!! That is DEFINITELY a first and I can’t imagine it will be long before they change those prices. Either way, everything was $7.50 for 16oz and that’s pretty high for the light stuff but actually a decent deal for the darker beers.

Pat and Diana told me about Ben’s Chili Bowl and it’s a good thing they did because I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this gem:

This was called the “Ben’s all the way” and actually was nowhere near as bad as it looks. If I hadn’t got the heads up I probably would have skipped it but I guess Ben’s is local and famous so, according to my rules, I had to try it. This was very comparable in ingredients to the thing I had in Cincinnati (chili, onions, cheese, hot dog and mustard) but the Nationals version, or more correctly, Ben’s version, was WAY better. Even though it tasted good I’m getting pretty tired of the baseball food group. How about a “Washington’s Apple” or some “Lincoln’s Lettuce” fercryinoutloud?!

I have to share just a couple of other notes about the fare at Nationals Park. Most of the concession stands played up the DC theme with names like “Senators Sausages” and “Capitol Candy.” At every park there usually is one place to get mixed drinks. The Nationals have at least FOUR and drink prices reached up to $13.00. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but it’s worth mentioning. The beer and food vendors walking around the stands could not have been more disinterested in their jobs. They were meek, barely audible and did not even wear price buttons so you didn’t know if you were getting the screw job or not. I certainly did not give them any of my business. Finally, they had this in San Fran too and I really cannot believe a sign like this is warranted anywhere, in any situation. Note the background though…points for spicy mustard!!

Before we get to the high and low points of the stadium we need to talk about the luxury space. I’ve got three separate notes about it being far too much and I think, in the end, it was. Take a look at this picture:

First, you should notice the cursive “W” in the outfield grass. That’s really impressive no matter who you are. Dad saw this on TV and told me to check it out. Most teams haven’t been doing too much with their lawn designs but the Nationals took it to a new level. No block letters for our nation's capitol, this is the big leagues! More important though is comparing the seating area directly behind home plate to its surrounding areas. You can see maybe 50% empty blue seats behind the plate and otherwise the stadium is pretty full, right? I guess this has been an area of controversy in DC lately. The amount of luxury space in the stadium is just absurd but you’d think with all the politicians, law firms, lobbyists, etc. the city would be able to support it but many games look like this one or worse (and this was a Friday night!). I bet they can support it and that those seats may even have been paid for, but when you don’t put a winning product on the field nobody “important” is going to show up and that's really too bad for baseball. For virtually every pitch of the game this is what viewers on TV are going to see. They’ll be looking at seats that are 50% full and that’s not going to make anyone want to come to the game. I wasn't as bothered in DC as I've been elsewhere about the amount of luxury space in the stadium, it was the fact that nobody USED those seats that really pissed me off.

High Points:

-The ushers all around Nationals Park went out of their way to be friendly and helpful and I was allowed to take pictures from wherever I wanted. They’re right up there with the top ushers in the country. One guy even left his post to offer to take my picture when he saw me snapping away. Here’s me. GO CELTICS!!!

-I definitely covered this above but the amount of space around the park really opened things up and lead to a positive experience. Also, there was a whole area dedicated to video games at the park. There had to be 30 machines and they were all free to play. I didn’t end up playing but it looked like a good time for the kids who were.

-In the lower seating bowl there were more TVs than at any other park. San Diego also had the flat screens but nothing like what Washington provided for fans. From any seat angle in the lower deck you had a TV to look at.

-Arizona is another one that stands out in my mind but I think the Nationals have taken over as “best video board” in the country. Look at how much information is on here in terms of statistics. Plus, the video portion is in HD and it’s huge. Also, very few areas of the park cannot see the board which is always a concern as well.

-There is a bar in left center field called the “Red Porch.” I didn’t hang out very long there but it’s a great place to catch the game. Pretty much every stadium has a pub or bar to order drinks and watch the game but what made the Nationals version unique was its location. It has seating areas below but the actual bar is set high enough that when you’re standing in line to order a drink you can turn around and still watch the game. Usually these bars are set back behind the seating areas or down with the concessions and you can only see the game on TV. This bar was under an overhang but otherwise you had an unobstructed view of the action. Good place to catch the game.

-The “President’s Race” the Nationals had was pretty sweet. Instead of using typical condiments, participants were dressed up in the oversized heads of former presidents.

Abe Lincoln won when I was there but it was a handicapped event in that Teddy Roosevelt never stepped foot on the field! Instead, poor Teddy was shown in a video montage during the race being…let’s say… “distracted”

Low Points:

-The prices at Nationals Park were a thorn in my side the entire night. I know things generally were only about .50 more but that just seemed magnified when you consider how high the prices are in the first place.

-I mentioned this briefly but the Nationals have a host. This wasn’t an egregious offense like it is in the other stadiums because, for some reason, I almost expected it in DC what with the prevailing “corporate” atmosphere found all over the park.

-The Nationals were selling a foam claw hand like the Tigers do. First, the Tigers version is way more scary, it has all five digits and it actually makes sense because their mascot is…a TIGER! I have no idea why the Nationals were doing this or why it had 3 fingers/claws and it absolutely was a low point of the stadium.

-The Nats know this, but they really need to fix the transportation issues.

-The fan distribution (other than the luxury boxes behind home plate) reminded me of being back in LA. Fans showed up incredibly late (2nd-3rd) inning and left by the 7th-8th. I will admit though, yours truly didn’t stick it out for all 14 innings…I had a bus to catch back to VA before they shut down for the night!

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Nationals vs. Rangers
Final Score: 4-3 Nationals
Extra Innings: 5
WP: Joel Hanrahan
LP: Jamey Wright
Time: 4:10
Announced Attendance: 30,359
Ticket Price: $18.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 19-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10193
States Visited: 25
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 30
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: New York Mets
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B

Citizens Bank Swindleville!

2008-06-30T14:42:00.019-04:00

So let’s see, where did I leave off? Ah yes, I was looking like a disheveled, disease-ridden, homeless vagrant in the train station at 6am heading to Logan to catch my flight back to Philly to see the Sox play an afternoon game. In an ideal world I would have had more time at the airport, and it sure was a good thing I wasn’t checking baggage, but under the circumstances, can you blame me?

I made it back to Philadelphia, picked up my car and headed over to Citizens Bank Park. Even though this was the 26th park I’ve visited on my trip it still was able to impress me quite a bit. That’s a good thing for two reasons; first, I think it validates my other recent critiques in that I’m not just giving out lower grades due to boredom/repetition and second, I’m pumped that this will be my “home” ballpark for the next three years while I’m at school at Villanova! Also, by way of background, the Phillies did not sell tickets to individual Red Sox games. They capitalized on the opportunity and only sold the Sox games as part of larger ticket packages. Since I’m moving to the area I decided to buy a 4-pack of tickets and ended up going to see the Phillies play the Sox and Angels within 5 days of each other (the other two games are for after I move down in later August and September). I’ll include some things from both games in this post but for statistical purposes below I’m counting the Red Sox game as my “official” review game.

Game Notes:

Three observations about the outside of the stadium need to be passed on before “heading inside.” First, the baseball field is located in a giant complex with all of the other major Philadelphia sports (football/hockey/basketball). That works well because they are able to have dedicated parking lots and the infrastructure is in place to facilitate easy in-out experiences for fans. Second, Citizens Bank Park is extremely uninviting and very “inaccessible” from the outside. More than a handful of stadiums have had areas on the sidewalk or otherwise where you can see parts of the game or at least see onto the field a bit from outside the stadium. In Philadelphia they make sure nobody on the outside can have any idea of what’s happening on the other side of their walls. I’m not sure why they do this but it’s very noticeable. The third observation regards the scalpers. Virtually every park has them and I still struggle to understand how they make a living when games aren’t selling out but I need to share my experience with them.

When I bought the 4-pack of games I decided to order two seats per game figuring I may be able to make a new friend or two when I get to school so maybe I’ll want to invite somebody (side note - I really struggled with punctuation on that sentence...there should be at least one comma, maybe more, but I'm not really sure where...help??). That left me kind of up a creek for the first two games though so I thought I’d just scalp the tickets. I was prepared to take a hit because, as I mentioned, the games don’t sell out. The first game I got $15 for a $22 ticket; not terrible. The second game I had an extra $17 ticket and I wasn’t going to take less than $10 for it. The first guy offered me $5; no sale. The next guy had a proposition. He wanted to trade me a single $22 ticket and $10 for my two $17 tickets. As he explained, “runnin’s hawhd” and I agreed to the deal. The only problem was he didn’t have $10 for me and couldn’t break my $20. Street smart Matt would have taken his tickets back and told the guy to find the money and only then do we have a deal. Instead, real Matt walked around behind this guy like a puppy dog going from scalper to scalper to try and break the $20. Long story short, it didn’t happen, he handed me $6 and said to wait while he went to get the other $4 from “his guy.” I’m sure you can all predict what happened next…yup, I waited about 10 minutes and then went inside. Technically, you could argue that with my $5 seat upgrade and the $6 cash I had actually got an extra dollar over the $10 I had wanted but since I didn’t sit in that seat anyways I say that’s a moot point and I got swindled! Live and learn…don’t deal with Philly scalpers (or don't be a pansy)!!

On the way into the park the Phillies scored points for having a self-scanning ticket taker. About a half-dozen parks have had this and it’s definitely the wave of the future. It works the same way as the self-checkout counters you see in grocery stores now. You just walk up, slide your ticket under a bar-code reader and head in. There are real people to oversee things but I think it’s much quicker than the old fashioned way and once the technologically inept figure out what they’re doing the process will be expedited even further.

Kind of like what happened in Detroit, I could tell immediately when I walked into Citizens Bank Park that it was going to be different and special. First, I was able to walk to pretty much every area of the park, which always helps to get a full picture. I found the sightlines to be rather unique (the park is pretty close to Seattle in shape), the outfield concourse was one of a kind, the food selection was unrivaled and the buzz was palpable. I thought that last one had a lot to do with the Red Sox being in town and the fact that the Nation travels well but even when I returned for the Angels game the Phillies fans again impressed me with their dedication and spirit.

A few cool things need to be mentioned about the outfield concourse.

Most of the area you see is standing room. Something the Phillies did which some other teams have not was to provide countertops for fans to set down their food and drink while they’re standing during the game. I know the other side of the argument is not encouraging fans to hang out on railings the whole game but the Phillies had enough room in the park that it was not a big deal and a lot of people took advantage. You can see a stairway leading up to the blue bleachers and that entire area up there (minus the bleachers) is just standing room with picnic tables, etc. and it’s a great view of the action! In the distance you can see “Chickie’s & Pete’s” which served french fries as their main course. The kicker in Philly is that those came with a cup of mayo! I didn’t end up trying them as there was plenty of other heart-attack-inducing fare to get my hands on but that certainly was unique! To the left of Chickies there is a gathering of fans who are just above the visiting bullpen. If you’re a player or coach for the opposing team there is very little room to hide from these fans. The Phillies bullpen is set down a level (to the right) and much less “heckleable.” In the foreground you can see three brick walls. Well, on the other side of each of those walls is a “Memory Lane” timeline documenting the history of the franchise. Those are always cool to see and read about the “old times.” Example below:

Also near the memory lane exhibits are plaques commemorating the Centennial Phillies team as well as brass baseballs with instructions for how to throw various pitches. Cincinnati is the only other stadium to offer something like this and I think it’s a great idea. If they could somehow make it interactive with a coach or professional that helped people throw the pitch and get results that would be even better but something tells me there may be underlying liability issues when fans start suing the club to pay for their Tommy John surgeries.

I should have got a better picture of the lines later in the game but something else in the outfield that needs to be mentioned are the steak houses.

Everyone knows about the famous Pat’s and Geno’s rivalry in Philadelphia, right? I haven’t been myself but I guess there are two competing cheesesteak places at the same intersection that each claim to be the first to add cheese to a steak sandwich and thus lay claim to the title of "inventor of the cheesesteak.” Anyway, there were two "famous" steak houses in center field at Citizens Bank Park as well and these things had lines that were 50+ people about 10-15 minutes after the gates opened; once the game was underway it was just absurd...there had to be 100+ people waiting for cheesesteaks! Have a look at the picture above. If I walked in without anyone else in the park I may have been drawn in by Planet Hoagie’s non-threatening “planet with rings and star” logo but based on patron distribution the choice is clear: when you see locals lining up that early you know it must be good. Plus, it turns out Planet Hoagie is a distant third to Tony Luke’s and Rick’s Steaks (not pictured). I decided to try a sandwich from each of these places during the two games I went to. The first, Tony Luke’s seemed to have the longer lines and I ordered mine “wiz, with” which means they use cheese wiz and put fried onions on as well (that’s the “with”). The second game I hopped online at 12:45 and it wasn’t until 1:14 that I was able to order my “works” from Rick’s (side note - I don’t think any food I’ve ever had is worth a wait like that...good thing I bought a beer beforehand!). Rick’s Steaks is a third generation shop from the “Pat’s” family chain. It’s hard to compare the two sandwiches and I think they were equally unhealthy. The works at Rick’s came with mushrooms, peppers, provolone, onions and pizza sauce!

OK, I just spent 728 words writing about the outfield concourse at Citizens Bank Park. By contrast, my ENTIRE Marlins post was 839 words. I think it’s time to move on.

Like I said, the food in Philadelphia was incredible. Everything I tried was great but what made it really special was the selection available. There was an entire BBQ shack, 4 different “name” steak places, the aforementioned and other unique french fry places, sausage carts (tasted just like Yawkey Way), “Schmitter” sandwiches, “water ice” which was pronounced “wooter” and really just Italian ice or frozen lemonade (pick your region of the country), plus various bars and then all of the typical ballpark fare (dogs, burgers, nachos, regular fries, etc.).

The rest of my trip around the park yielded some good, some bad, some hot chicks and some wholly unacceptable.

High Points:

-I mentioned this above but it helps SO much when I’m given free access to walk about the whole park without ushers bein all up in mah grill. Some teams get it and some don’t. The Phillies get it.

-Red Sox nation was represented at the game very well. We’re not quite talking Baltimore where we take over the entire stadium but there were lots of cheers for the Sox throughout the game. By contrast though, the Phillies fans were totally into the game against the Angels. They really surprised me. Again, I’m thrilled this will be my “home” park for the next 3 years.

-The northeast prices were in effect in Philly but so were the fans. Starting with the White Sox (with the exception of a Pirates Thursday day game) I’ve really noticed a difference in the “buzz” at each park. People really care in this part of the country and that makes games really fun. Along the same lines, there is much more “team wear” in cities with a passion for their teams. The Cubs and Phillies fans were impressive in the amount of jerseys, tee-shirts, hats, etc. they wore.

-I mentioned this above too but the tabletops and counters all over the park, all with great vantages, made for an enjoyable standing-room experience. Like Milwaukee, Philly had enough space to build a facility large enough to “do it right” and they did.

-She had nothing to do with Citizens Bank Park or the Phillies but Heidi Watney was a high point of the game :-)

-The very top row of the upper deck had cup holders! Way to think of the common fan!

-There are two tiers of luxury space at Citizens Bank Park but they are hardly noticeable – always a good thing.

-The Philly fans were merciless with J.D. Drew. For those of you who don’t know, he was drafted by the Phillies as the 2nd overall pick in 1997 but spurned them when they did not meet his demand of $10 million to sign. Keeping true to his word (or more likely, that of his agent Scott Boras), Drew did not sign with the Phillies and played a year in the independent league before being selected by the Cardinals the following year. Philadelphia fans have never forgiven him for this and during the game they let him have it whenever he was up to bat or made a play in the outfield. This was a high point because I hate that the Sox gave Drew a contract for $14 million per year and also it was nice to see the commitment to resentment shown by the Philadelphia fans.

-I have not seen the grounds crew at any of the previous 25 stadiums raking the dirt at home plate before placing it down. They always rake around the plate. This was new, and thus cool.

-Since I had already been to the stadium once and got most of my pictures, I really got to enjoy the Phillies/Angels game without the pressures of having to move around, make sure to notice special things about the game and think of witty repartee to complete a proper stadium review. It was so relaxing! I hadn't noticed before but I'm under quite a time crunch at each of these games as I only have one shot per stadium to get it right. I hope you all appreciate the stress I'm putting myself through just to provide a modest amount of entertainment for you all!

-The Phillies win the award for “best music guy.” In complete contrast to the Baltimore debacle, the guy in Philly knew his role within the game and had fun with it at the same time. When the opposing catcher went to talk to the pitcher he would play songs with lyrics like “let’s go, time’s a wastin’” and “say what you need to say” and then on a few high foul pop-ups he played the high pitched whistle sound like a bomb was falling. Kudos to that guy; he kept fans entertained but showed restraint when it was called for.

-I kept score during the Sox game.

Low Points:

-During my pregame trip around the field the National Anthem was sung, in its entirety. The only problem with this was that it was about 90 minutes before game time and fans were just confused. Obviously it was just a sound check but I think that’s kind of bush league. No other stadium had this problem and if you hire a singer that can’t make it to the park early enough to do a dry run then you’ve hired a diva and she shouldn’t be singing anyways. Turns out it actually was someone who had just opened on broadway. Pish, just get a nice amature with a nice voice like Tampa Bay did, ya know? That was my second stadium and nowhere else has come close to the anthem that young lady belted out.

-A lot of fans would be able to enjoy a very nice view of the Philadelphia skyline except that there is this ugly, outdated Phillies logo sign in a parking lot outside of dead center field. Kind of ruins the shot, no?

-I found myself getting incredibly annoyed at fans who arrived late to the game. I’m always on time or early for things and this is a problem in my life other than at baseball games. Then I remembered last year when I went to the Phillies/Sox exhibition and we took the subway and ended up not getting there until the 2nd or 3rd inning. I guess things happen…but I still had a problem with it.

-Within 2 minutes of each other at the Phillies/Angels game I saw two Darren Daulton shirts. That’s far too many for an oft-injured, career .245 hitting Dutchman who had two good seasons in the bigs.

-Finding the pitch count on a scoreboard was a difficult task.

-Before the Angels game Turkey Hill ice cream was giving away free samples. That certainly didn’t help the hips!

-Citizens Bank Park is a veritable band-box: 329/334/374/409/401/398/330 (left to right).

-The aforementioned swindling incident was a low point.

-The Red Sox fans at the game could cheer their hearts out but they sure couldn’t take a picture to save their lives! I wanted to get a picture of me with the scoreboard. Not hard, right? There were plenty of Sox fans in attendance and I wanted to get one with me decked out in Sox gear in the Phillies stadium. The first lady I asked came back with this:

Look lady, if I wanted to just zoom in and take a picture of myself in my room I could have done that but it sure as hell wouldn’t help anybody out. The next guy I went to had a huge camera around his neck so I thought I might have better luck and that he might be able to follow directions. I handed him the camera the “tall” way and said “can you just get me and the scoreboard?” Obviously this proved to be too difficult, even for a guy who looked like he knew what he was doing. He flipped the camera around so as to capture as many empty seats as possible and came back with this piece of trash:

It’s a little better, zoomed out and at least I’m centered but you can’t see the scoreboard with the Phillies logo! Ugh. I tried one more time and the third Sox fan only got half of me in the picture so at that point I gave up.

I did make a deal with a beer vendor during the Angels game though in that I said I’d buy a beer from him if he took my picture. This one came out OK but I had to lighten it a little. Of note is my Phillies hat.

I figured that since I was going to be near Philadelphia for the next 3 years it was OK to support the Phillies during non-Sox games. I was a bit peeved about my hair color though because it prevented me from getting a more traditional maroon-colored Phillies hat. The green works for me but it’s just frustrating when you have to think about things clashing with your hair color, you know? Oh, right, most of you don’t! :-)

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:

Teams: Philles vs. Red Sox
Final Score: 7-4 Red Sox
WP: Justin Masterson
LP: Kyle Kendrick
S: Jonathan Papelbon
Time: 3:09
Announced Attendance: 45,187
Ticket Price: $22.00
Parking Price: $11.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 18-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 9878
States Visited: 25
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 30
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Washington Nationals
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-

BEAT L.A.!! BEAT L.A.!!

2008-06-23T11:52:00.013-04:00

It has come to my attention that I’ve recently increased my average word count per post by over 100% from when I first started this blog. For those of you who like to see the “pretty pictures” you’ll be in for a treat with this post. As I’m not what I would call a “skilled wordsmith,” I’m going to let the pictures do much of the talking this time around.

By way of background, yours truly was the proud 1/5th owner of one half-season Celtics ticket package. That meant I got four regular season games. When it came time to draw for playoff spots I was EXTREMELY LUCKY enough to draw “round 4, home game 3.” That means game 6 of the NBA finals for all you laypeople out there. Adam, Josh and Don were nice enough not to make up some story about losing the tickets and I actually got to be there to see the Celtics win their first championship in 22 years. Thanks guys!

Getting there was a little tricky as I was staying in DC and had to be in Philadelphia the next day for a Red Sox/Phillies game. So on Tuesday morning I drove up to Philly from DC, flew to Boston, picked up the tickets and headed to the game with Riley. We were out until two in the morning smoking cigars and drinking with the rest of the city then I was up at 5:30 for my 7:15 flight back to Philly in time to get to the stadium early enough to complete a proper review. I’m afraid if I provide any further details about the charmed life I’m leading it may mean my demise at the hands of a jealous assassin. Although, I have to mention that Riley and I won some money on the Celtics scratch tickets we played that night :-)

Without further ado, here’s the highlight reel…

High Points:

Looking more “towney” than ever, I prepared to witness history.

Of course we needed to take a picture with the trophy. Also, it was a gorgeous night.

Riley rocked the Larry Legend jersey and methinks it was good luck.

The energy was palpable from the second we walked in. I’ve never in my life been to a sporting event that had the energy the Garden had that night. It was incredible. I’d like to say these were our seats but alas, we were in the upper deck. Much closer to midcourt though, which was nice.

Tip off! (Somehow Perk forgot to jump in the most important game of his life…)

Pretty closely contested first quarter…which makes the final score all the more impressive!

We did it!

Half way home, boys!

Almost there!

I loved how EVERYONE was decked out in green. It was just like St. Patty’s, but better.

Awww…sad Lakers bench :-(

What’s that, Bill Russell? Why yes, the Lakers ARE choking!

Hondo!

GINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I caught it on replay.

OK, ready?

THREE…TWO…ONE…

Euphoria is the only word I could use to describe this atmosphere.

We win.

Kobe doesn't.

Spark 'em up, boys!

Outside there was mahem...

And riot police...

And the Hulk?!

And banner number 17...

And more smoking...

And SWAT vans with random chicks!

Pretty much, greatest night ever!!

Low Points:

I had to get up on two hours sleep to catch my flight back to Philly. This is me in the train station and I look better in this picture than the couple of others I took…and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

“OOHHHHH say, will you please knock it off??”

2008-06-22T08:55:00.008-04:00

I think most of you know that I’ve been on the road since mid-April and haven’t worked since the first week of that month. I’ve been driving across all the different parts of our country for the last two+ months and have rarely encountered any kind of traffic jam or slowdown that wasn’t construction/accident related. Drivers around the rest of the country are a different breed from those in the northeast and nowhere was that made more apparent than on my drive from Pittsburgh to DC. There I was, humming right along driving across Pennsylvania and into northern Maryland singing along with my old middle school CDs and having a grand old time. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the beltway was upon me. Now, I lived in the greater Washington area for almost 2 years so I know all about the beltway traffic but I was WHOLLY UNPREPARED to hit it when I did. I’ve been in leisure mode for the last 9 weeks and I hit that thing at 5:30PM. Immediately I realized that everyone around me, in all four lanes, was trying to win. So of course, I had to win too! If one guy zigged, I zagged. If someone changed lanes without a using their directional, you bet they got the finger. I think the only thing that saved me from being completely devoured by the competition was the fact that I have Massachusetts license plates. People tend to give a little more leeway to the spirit of America. For all the fuss and the stress I think I shaved about 4 minutes off my drive and, like everyone else, I was damn proud of it!

Northeast traffic is something else though. I remembered it, but not fondly. Kind of like the distant relative you haven’t seen in a few years who has the uncanny knack to immediately put a sour taste in your mouth. Either way, I’ve been fighting it a lot lately and trying to get up to Baltimore for the Orioles game wasn’t what I’d call a nightmare but it still took a while. Pat came with me though so that was cool because it’s always nice to have company at these games.

Game Notes:

We attended the game on Father’s Day – happy Father’s Day Dad, love you!

Before we got to the ticket window we passed by the vendors outside the stadium who were obviously upset with the team’s ownership. Peter Angelos has had a rough ride in Baltimore and has come under much criticism. These vendors outside decided to help the situation by screaming things like “help screw Angelos! Peanuts only three bucks, $5.00 inside!” Nothing like working towards the greater good, eh?

The promotion the Orioles were running was “golf umbrella(ella, ella, eeh!) day.” These things were pretty sweet but I’m sure if I use it I’m going to get ridiculed and met with funny looks like when I use my gym bag. Side note – When I lived in the area I would try to make it to as many Red Sox/Orioles games as possible and at one of them they gave away Orioles gym bags and I still use mine. I always get guff from people back in Boston or those that see me wearing a Sox hat and carrying an O’s bag. Either way, it’s not going to stop me, just foreshadowing an annoyance is all. Most people used their umbrella(ella, ella, ellas) for shade because it was a sunny day game and nobody likes cancer.

As I mentioned, I’ve been to Oriole Park at Camden Yards (aka, Camden) many times already but because of this trip I did my best to complete a full and proper stadium review anyways. And that leads me to another tangent. Pat brought up a salient point and I want you all to know it’s something I’m aware of. Game to game, each park is going to be different. As objective as I’ve tried to remain, I know that a particularly good matchup or well played game or the weather, duration, day/night start times, etc. all play a factor in my review. I can tell you right now that I enjoy night games at Camden much more than day games but I’ve done my best not to let those kinds of factors influence me too much one way or the other.

Moving on, Camden usually has a pretty good atmosphere. Red Sox games don’t count (too much of the Nation skews the true “vibe”) but I’ve been there for non-Sox games too. Sunday was no different. Eutaw Street is an outdoor walkway that runs between right field and a giant warehouse that is a staple of the Camden landscape.

While we’re at it, here’s the entire field so you’ll know what I’m talking about…I found a “super expansion” lens view on my camera and got this great shot.

OK, no, just kidding. The above is only a picture of a picture. I bet I fooled some of you though!

So as I was saying, Eutaw St. is pretty cool. They have food and beer vendors with the staple being “Boog’s BBQ.” This is a place run by former MLB first baseman Boog Powell and it’s wildly successful. I’ll come back to this more later. The most unique part of the street are the baseball-shaped copper plaques that dot the sidewalk. If you look closely you can see names, dates and teams listed on them. Well, they mark the spots where home runs have landed! I found one from old friend Troy O’Leary, the most un-Irish Irishman ever to don a Sox uniform.

The last note about Eutaw St. and the warehouse is that during the 1993 home run derby Ken Griffey Jr. became the first (and only!) player to hit the warehouse on a fly. That’s INCREDIBLE distance. Supposedly there is a plaque somewhere commemorating the accomplishment but I didn’t see it.

Walking towards center field, before you get to the rest of the seats you can walk through this really nice picnic area. It provides fans with a great respite from the hot sun (for day games at least) and is a nice informal area where you can eat your food. Some of the tables can even still see the game action. Pat and I ate lunch here and it was a nice part of the stadium.

Camden was really the first park built in the “modern” era and laid important groundwork for many of the other stadiums in the league. It opened in 1992 and you could definitely tell many other teams stole some ideas. I don’t want to call Camden a rough draft but it was still lacking in some respects. A problem I’ve had at the park before is how far away some of the seats are from the field. It’s not like there is a ton of foul ground and I’m not sure exactly why this phenomenon occurs but at some parks you just feel incredibly removed from the action.

Another problem with Camden are these seats right here. Terrible picture you say? More like terrible memory! It was here, in the late spring of 2006 that I received the worst sunburn of my life (not counting the two times in elementary school when Dad forgot to put sunscreen on my legs at the beach and I literally fell over the next day when I hopped out of bed because I couldn’t walk – Happy Father’s Day!). Anyways, I was commuting up to InterGen at the time and on the Monday after the game I was sitting at my desk when Susan came over to me, took one look at the right side of my face and my right arm and just burst out laughing. I’ll admit, it was funny even at the time. It was totally “attack of the killer tomatoes.” I looked absolutely ridiculous and the burn lasted over a month. So I needed to share the memory.

Aside from that the day went off without a hitch and as always, this place had some good and some bad.

High Points:

-I’ve always loved driving to and parking at Camden Yards. There is a dedicated exit ramp off the highway that spits you out right in front of the park, you make a simple right hand turn, pay your $10 and go to a lot not far from the stadium. On the way out it’s always smooth sailing and I commend them for a great setup.

-The infield was groomed like that in Cincinnati with the little cart making about 40 circular revolutions (can you have a revolution that isn’t circular?) dragging a mat around the base paths. I swear the person has to get dizzy doing that but it looks great!

-There were a lot of food stations offering some unique fare. I wanted a crab cake (due to being in Baltimore) but at $14.00 I wasn’t going to blow the budget. So we went to Boog’s instead and I got a nice BBQsomethingorother that was presented well and tasted pretty good too.

While we’re on the food topic, and specifically Boog’s, I need to mention the beer prices at Camden, which were fascinating. A typical beer at the park is served in a 16oz cup for $5.50. There is one station out in left field that serves 24oz cans (which are then poured into a cup for you) for $10.00 and this place had a LINE!! What the hell? Aluminum tinted beer cannot taste that much better that you sacrifice that kind of price per ounce. What’s more, at Boog’s if you ordered a beer it came in a 24oz cup for only $6.00!!! I was incredulous. How was the line at Boog’s not taking up the entirety of Eutaw St.? If I, a casual fan on a road trip, can make this kind of discovery, how hard is it for the regular fans? Yikes. PS, I only had water because I was driving.

-A handful of stadiums have mirrored what I would call the “2nd tier, first level” seats at Camden. They are seats under an overhang (which provides great shade) above the lower box seats in the first level seating bowl. They are set up a bit higher but instead of just turning that area into luxury space I think it gives the common fan even more access to seats closer to the field.

-Speaking of luxury boxes. Those areas in Camden were tucked away nicely and while they still provided patrons a great view of the game, it didn’t ruin or take away from the experience for the rest of us.

-There was a particularly humorous concession worker in dead center field. Pat bought a bottled water and she kept asking if I/we needed anything else…she even offered up a cup of ice because it was so hot. That was a nice, albeit creepy, touch.

-For some reason I think I look particularly awkward/uncomfortable in this picture. High Point? More like High Comedy!

-The brick motif/décor around the park fits nicely with the surrounding area and Baltimore in general.

-The mascot is an Oriole and nothing else!

-During the condiment race I was reminded of a very fond memory from one of the Red Sox games I attended. Maybe we had all been drinking a little bit but I found it hysterical to receive a text message from a friend in another part of the park who, after the Relish was victorious, sent me the simple message that read “Effin’ Relish…” It’s the little things, ya know?

-The scoreboard contains relevant info and plenty of it. One of the top video boards in the country.

Low Points:

- By far and away the most terrible thing at Camden Yards that I’ve always hated has been during the national anthem. When the singer gets to the part where they say “Oh say, does that star spangled banner…” all of the fans in the park yell “OOHHHHH say, does…” and it pisses me off beyond belief. At one Orioles road game I saw on this trip some out of towners did that and it made my skin crawl. This was one hundred times worse. They ruined a perfectly nice men’s acapella anthem. It may have been the 4th best on the whole trip if not for those stupid fans.

-Second most terrible thing at Camden is the scoreboard/sound effect operator. He absolutely earns his money every time he comes to the park and the Orioles fans eat it up. I can’t tell you how often they play “Charge!” and it gets ten times worse if the O’s are in the midst of a rally. The fans will do whatever they are prompted with such vigor that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them start throwing beer or food at each other if instructed.

-On a related note, I’ve talked about stadiums playing relevant songs around the 7th or 8th inning (i.e. Deep in the Heart of Texas, etc.). Well, the Orioles chose “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and, frankly, that doesn’t work for Baltimore, sorry.

-On the whole, the ushers at Camden weren’t too strict but they all wanted to see your ticket. The taking pictures line worked pretty much everywhere. The weird one was the guy at the escalator going UP who absolutely needed to see your ticket to these horrible seats before you were allowed to go up. That was a bit odd.

-$4.50 for a hot dog, $5.00 nachos, $4.00 water…aforementioned $10.00 for 24oz beer…I’m definitely back in the northeast.

-We had to park a little further away because the awesome parking lots around the stadium were mostly taken up by an X-Games like event where they had built a motor cross track, skate park and other such things of a tubular and radical nature.

-I mentioned how far away some of the seats felt at the field. Check out this shot.

-It’s hard to find a balance between catching the game from different vantages and not missing too much by moving seats around or getting food. I missed the baseball shuffle where they put a ball under one of 3 crabs and move them around and you have to guess which one it’s under. I always have been stumped by Baltimore’s version as I think it’s the hardest in the country but I missed it this time around. I was very curious to see if my skills had increased over the last couple of months!

-Pat and I saw ONE beer vendor in the stands. That was just weird.

Here’s a full view of the stadium, and this is a REAL picture.

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Orioles vs. Pirates
Final Score: 5-4 Pirates
Extra Innings: 1
WP: Matt Capps
LP: George Sherrill
Time: 3:03
Announced Attendance: 31,107
Ticket Price: $9.00
Parking Price: $10.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 18-7
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 9530
States Visited: 24
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 30
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Philadelphia Phillies
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B

ARRRRRRRRGH!!

2008-06-20T14:17:00.009-04:00

I had quite the drive from Chicago to Pittsburgh. There was one road closure after another and Karen was having an absolute fit. There was nothing I could do though, so she just had to deal with a lot of “recalculating.” I saw some interesting stuff on the way over though. Have you ever seen a truck with THREE trailers?? I’ve seen a lot of double trailers but these things were massive and they were everywhere. How do they take corners?

I drove past the exit for Notre Dame and legitimately thought about stopping by. I was obsessed with the school/football team growing up (to the point that my 7th grade wardrobe consisted of nothing without an Irish logo or blue and gold colors) but grew a bit sour on them once they didn’t let me into their school…twice.

You know what’s a good idea? Electronic billboards. I’ve seen a bunch of these things now but not yet in the northeast. I think whatever company is putting them up could make a lot more money due to the multiple sponsors thing and we don’t have to see the faded, peeling advertisement for “County Fair ’98!”

West Virginia has HILLS. I decided to stay there for a night just to add another state to the trip and I was only an hour outside of Pittsburgh for the game the next day. Well, my little V4 pissed off a lot of people behind me. I’d be flying down a mountain into a valley and when it was time to make it up the next mountain I stayed to the right, closed my eyes and prayed. My engine got a workout that day the likes of which hasn’t been seen before and may never be seen again.

As for PNC Park, I think the best part was the Pittsburgh skyline in the background, and that’s being generous.

Game Notes:

Parking in downtown Pittsburgh was a bit tough for a day game in the middle of the week but once I realized I wasn’t supposed to be trying to find a space in the middle of the city my life was made much easier. I walked around the entire outside of the park first because I remember when the home run derby was there a few years ago it looked really cool on TV being right on the water and with all the bridges in the background, etc. It was pretty nice, like I mentioned, the skyscrapers make for an impressive backdrop.

Once I got into the park it immediately struck me that I had been there before, except not. The layout on the inside was remarkably like Detroit’s Comerica Park. The scoreboards are in almost the exact same location and built the same way, and both parks use the city skyline as a backdrop. I thought this was a nice shot.

Also, both stadiums have very open concession areas which always help with traffic/congestion. If I was in for a repeat of my Detroit experience I would have been pumped! Unfortunately, PNC Park was severely lacking in most other areas.

Looking back over my notes for this game I have five separate lines dedicated to the same basic idea. “No special places to watch game.” “No fan activities.” “Not a lot to write about.” “Shell of a stadium, looks OK but just nothing to do.” “Nice setup, new, etc. but nothing to draw you in.” Even all the pictures I took were boring and I struggled to find anything worth including. I can tell you right now I’m not getting bored with reviewing stadiums as a park still to come really blew me away so I think PNC just didn’t have a lot going for it.

The highlight of the day, whether good or bad, was the “Pittsburgher.” I can’t believe I initially didn’t know this was a hamburger, that’s my bad. Anyways, I ordered this thing and holy crap did I regret it. I think this ranks right up there with the half-pound hot dog in Arlington, TX. I asked what came on the Pittsburgher first so I knew what I was getting into and I was met with a harsh reality: hamburger, cheese, French fries and cole slaw served on white bread. UGH. Oh well, when in Rome, right??

It was a disaster. The ketchup and mustard cart I went to had been sitting in the sun all day and I think that somehow affected the pressure inside because those condiments came exploding out. Then I added the jalepenos for flavor and found a seat (btw, ushers didn’t care where I sat as there were roughly 15,000 people there for a mid-week, day game) to enjoy my bounty. In the words of Simon Cowell, it was a complete and utter mess. I should have taken a picture in the immediate aftermath but food was everywhere. This was taken after a trip to the bathroom and using multiple paper towels soaked with cold water. I think you get the idea.

Since there wasn’t much else to do I checked out some other food options. I found an “all you can eat” section (and there has to be one of these in at least half the parks in the country) and I really want to try one but I’m not sure if the remaining stadiums will afford me that opportunity. I’ll let you know. Otherwise there was the “Bucco Taco” but, as you can see below, that looks like a disaster waiting to happen as well so I steered clear of that and went for a simple hot dog. I have to hand it to Pittsburgh on that one; $2.25 was their regular price and that’s one hell of a deal. No other stadium has come close. Granted, it was served on a stale bun and it sure as hell wasn’t real meat, but it was only $2.25!

I think that’s about it. I saw a barge on the river pushing tons of coal but otherwise my lap around the park yielded nothing else worth wasting key strokes.

High Points:

-They had a pierogi race! I remember grandma used to make pierogies. I’m not sure what kind of population Pittsburgh is known for but that was pretty cool to watch! They mixed it up a bit from the standard condiment fare.

-The scoreboard did include a lot of relevant information. I like the new boards with the newer statistics included as well as the scoring of the last play and who might be up next and all of the pitchers season and in-game stats. Good stuff.

-Fans were allowed to bring snacks and one bottled beverage into the game (providing it was factory sealed – that means you 20 year old Matt trying to sneak in a mixed drink!).

-Everywhere around the stadium the “Let’s go Bucs” slogan can be found. For $20, what other team name/nickname can be found across at least three professional sports (Milwaukee Bucks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh “Bucs”)?

-I’ve now seen this at a handful of stadiums but Pittsburgh is yet another to use a tee shirt launcher to shoot hot dogs into the crowd! I think that is so neat.

-The Pittsburgh mascots were a pirate and a parrot. That works.

Low Points:

-Hey Freddy Sanchez, did you forget about your cup of coffee with the Red Sox? If you want to come on the PNC video board and say that Pittsburgh fans are the best in baseball you go right ahead but I know, and you know, and I know that you know that I know, you’re only fooling yourself.

-The bullpens at PNC Park were close enough together where coaches could check out the opposing relievers and see what kind of stuff they had that day. Also, they were close enough that I expected a brawl to break out. Unfortunately, no such brawl materialized. Seriously though, look how close these things are!

-I don’t know if there were any more specific low points about the stadium, it was just lacking in general.

That’s a bad way to go out though. Here’s a high school band (they weren’t very good).

Ahhhh…much better :-)

Overall Grade: C+

Game Stats:

Teams: Pirates vs. Nationals
Final Score: 7-5 Pirates
WP: Tom Gorzelanny
LP: Jason Bergmann
S: Damaso Marte
Time: 2:59
Announced Attendance: 16,306
Ticket Price: $9.00
Parking Price: $10.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 18-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 9108
States Visited: 21
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 28
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Baltimore Orioles
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+

Wrigleyville

2008-06-19T13:09:00.006-04:00

Not too much happened in between the White Sox and Cubs games. I got to hang out in Chicago (which felt like a much bigger city than I had remembered) and generally had a good time for a few days. Pran’s roommate Rob had an old school Nintendo so I got back in touch with Contra. That kicked ass. What kicked less ass were the gas prices in the city. Luckily I had enough in the tank that I could wait a bit but I saw prices generally in the $4.36/4.46/4.56 range. That’s just scary. That’s about all I have to report on though.

Game Notes:

Pran actually lives within walking distance of Wrigley Field which is key because parking around the stadium would have been a nightmare. I suppose I could have taken the train as well but being a few blocks away just made life easier. Once I got close to the field I noticed the surrounding buildings all had bleachers on their roofs. I had heard a bit about this and I think a few years ago a legal battle was won and the buildings were allowed to construct the seats to allow fans to look directly down onto the field. I forget which stadium I was at but someone told me the people in Chicago were really friendly and I’d be able to just knock on a door or two to check out the “Wrigleyrooftops.” Not so. I knocked or rang the buzzer at four different buildings but didn’t get an answer. Maybe it’s the beard? Or maybe I was there around 4:30-5:00 in the afternoon and some people actually have jobs!

On the buildings across the street you can see the seats I’m talking about. I think it’d be really cool to watch a game from up there. Also, if I’m not mistaken, I think the high-rise in the background is Pran’s building.

In terms of old-timey charm, Wrigley is right up there with Fenway.

You can tell the stadium has a lot of miles on it, everything feels a bit too cramped and there are poles everywhere. Also, the Cubs do not use a video board! Intentional or not, I thought that was a nice nod to tradition. Another nod to tradition can be found below.

Even Fenway has upgraded its facilities in recent years. Nice job Cubs!

Not everything is comparable to Fenway though. The grandstand seats at Wrigley are all plastic instead of those wooden nightmares and they have scoreboards and TVs hanging from the rafters in the lower seating bowl and all the way up in the upper deck, which isn’t even very “upper.” When I took a walk through the seats I was shocked at how close everything was to the field. For the first few innings of the game Pran and I ended up sitting in the very top row of the upper deck and we were still SO much closer than I have been at most games on this trip. Every seat in the house makes you feel like you’re right there on the field and I love that. Of course, there are tradeoffs…but this just reminded me of home…and it wasn’t my seat, so it was OK.

Continuing on, I was met with a harsh reality. I had heard Rob mention something about this before I went to the game but I wasn’t sure how true it was. Apparently, as I found out, fans with tickets for grandstand seats at Wrigley ARE NOT allowed to be walking around in the bleachers section but fans with tickets in the bleachers ARE allowed into the rest of the stadium. So as I made my way over to the bleachers I wasn’t sure what type of resistance I’d be met with. When I noticed the ticket checker person get temporarily distracted I seized my opportunity and walked right up the stairs; all in all, pretty easy.

Something I was very curious about at Wrigley Field was seeing a shot of the stadium that didn’t contain ivy (which, by the way, was in full bloom and really pretty spectacular). On Sportscenter it seems like you only see shots of the outfield and that’s it. So without further ado, I present to you a shot of Wrigley Field FROM the outfield!

The fans in the bleachers were amazing. I got to the game shortly after the gates opened and they had almost packed the bleachers by the time I made my way over. They were all dressed in blue and white team shirts and were merciless when it came to heckling the Braves players during BP. Usually you hear kids screaming “right here! right here!” when a player catches a ball near the wall. Nine times out of ten the guy will just throw the ball back to the bucket and that’s the end of it. Well, at Wrigley if that player didn’t flip the ball up to a kid he was practically crucified! If the fans were that into BP I wondered what the game was going to be like. Answer: equally insane.

Satisfied with my bleachers experience, I tried to finish my loop around the field. That’s when my trip to Wrigley almost was cut extremely short. Trotting down the stairs to head back to the left field grandstand I was met with a girl who wanted to scan my ticket. “Ut oh” I thought. “Sure!” I said. She informed me my ticket was to the grandstand and asked what I was doing in the bleachers. I explained I just wanted to take some pictures (my go-to line!) but she wasn’t buyin’. She told me I wasn’t supposed to be in the bleachers and that my ticket was no longer valid. I kind of looked at her with a blank look on my face and she called her supervisor over. He admonished me about certain “rules and regulations” that have to be followed and confirmed what Rob had told me earlier. I wasn’t supposed to have been in the bleachers in the first place and blahbiddy blibbidy bloobidy. He didn’t give a lick when I told him about my big summer trip and, sure I was getting kicked out, I was THIS close to just using Pran’s ticket to get back in (he was meeting me after work). In the end, after the lecture I asked “so what am I supposed to do?” and, oddly, it seemed to catch him off guard. He just gave me a simple “well, you got away with it…enjoy the game.” I couldn’t believe it!

Before moving on, does that make sense? I know at Fenway the opposite used to be true. If you had tickets to the bleachers you were not allowed into other areas of the park. I assume this was to keep the rowdy drunks away from the high class grand stand? Or maybe if you paid a small price to sit in the bleacher seats you weren’t supposed to sneak into more expensive grand stand seats? Either way, Wrigley is the opposite. Maybe those are more coveted seats and they don’t want thousands of people overcrowding the bleachers every game? I’m not really sure what the reason is but to be sure, there ARE rules and regulations.

Speaking of which, those of you who know me, know I play by nobody’s rules but my own, my own and nobody else's, not even my own. Have a look at this.

Drunk off his newfound sense of power and entitlement (and maybe beer), Matt has decided to write the following paragraph in the third person! Matt was surprised by the concession prices at Wrigley Field. When Matt was at US Cellular for the White Sox game Matt thought the prices would be higher due to Chicago being a large city. Well, the prices at Wrigley were even cheaper! Matt got to have another “Chicago dog” for a mere $4.25 (for what it’s worth, Matt liked the Comisky dog a little better). A pretzel was $3.00, a regular hot dog $3.75 and beers ranged from $5.75 to $6.50. Those are not the best prices in the country but for Chicago being such a big city, Matt was impressed.

OK, that’s over now, I promise.

High Points:

-I forget which city I was in but I recently saw a TV special on the Cubs and their winning ways (best record in baseball at the time of this post). For those of you who don’t know, a big part of their success this season is because of Japanese import outfielder Kosuke Fukudome (Foo-Koo-Doh-Mee). On the show they highlighted some of things fans are doing in Chicago this year. Well, I saw this shirt and knew when I got to Wrigley I had to have one!

-Related to the above, this thing was a hit! No less than three people came up to me and asked where I got the shirt. They don’t sell them at the official Cubs store but I found a few street vendors with different takes on the same slogan. I was a veritable social butterfly; two people asked me to take their picture and the guy sitting next to me for a while was taking a trip to Boston with his family in July and racked my brain about what to do in the city. I gave him some ideas but emphasized the duck tours. The kids were in the 7-10 range. Thoughts?

-The luxury space at Wrigley is secluded and while it provides its patrons a nice, close view of the game, it does not interfere with other fans' enjoyment.

-Pran seemed to think it was normal but I was surprised by all of the Red Sox hats I saw at the game and in Chicago in general. Red Sox Nation!

-The “CUB”house! I get it!! It’s a play on words!!!

-I mentioned this before but the upper deck was still SO close to the field. I’ve never been in the highest deck at a park and seen so many foul balls come my way. Even if you were near the top of Wrigley you still had a legitimate shot at getting a ball.

-At Wrigley, fans are known for throwing back home run balls hit by the opposing team. It’s a tradition. There are no repercussions for fans who take part in this practice. Kudos to the Cubs for allowing this, despite the potential dangers. In Arizona I saw a fan throw a home run ball back onto the field and then watched him get tailed the entire way around the outfield by two security guards. I didn’t see it but I’m assuming they kicked the guy out. I’m sure they waited until he was far enough away (in distance and time) from the event and then asked him to leave. I understand that it’s a potential hazard and players could be injured if fans in every park start throwing balls back onto the field but it's still kind of too bad.

-The Bud Light guy was able to pour two 16oz cans of beer simultaneously. That’s much easier said than done.

-I thought this was a pretty nice shot of the stadium. It was great to be there with a sellout crowd of passionate fans.

Low Points:

-The ushers around Wrigley were VERY strict. In the upper levels the taking pictures excuse worked before the game but not during. Obviously the aforementioned “bleachergate” was an issue. They were friendly enough, but they definitely did not want you sitting in the wrong seats.

-There was a general lack of standing room at Wrigley Field. It was very cramped quarters but I think they had room to expand the standing areas in some places if they wanted. Also, not that I’m a stadium architect, but it seems like they had enough base and support to build up if they wanted to expand. Just sayin.

-As much as the poles around the stadium felt like home, they were still a bit annoying if you got stuck behind one.

-During a pleasant 5-part acapella national anthem the Cubs fans started cheering and applauding before “star spangled banner yet wave?” That’s just too early for this guy.

-The peanut vendor “threw” his peanuts to people who bought them but never more than 2-3 rows. They ain’t got nuthin on Fenway!

Overall Grade: B+

Game Stats:

Teams: Cubs vs. Braves
Final Score: 10-5 Cubs
WP: Ted Lilly
LP: Tom Glavine
Time: 2:50
Announced Attendance: 41,624
Ticket Price: $60.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 17-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 8564
States Visited: 19
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 27
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Pittsburgh Pirates
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+

, , go away, come again another day!

2008-06-16T14:11:00.015-04:00

I didn’t expect anything cool to happen on the way from Milwaukee to Chicago and I was right. The only thing worth reporting is that I got my oil changed and saved $10 thanks to the Brewers who held a Valvoline promotion on the day I attended a game there. That’s another point for them!

When I got to Pran’s place in Chicago I discovered he lived on the windiest street in the windiest city in the country. Yes, you do need to know that.

Game Notes:

We took a straight shot on the red line train to the south side of Chicago and there is a stop right at US Cellular Field, which is always convenient. The White Sox have only won three championships in their history but boy do they let you know it! All around the outside of the park there were signs and statues and banners proclaiming the franchise’s victories in 1906, 1917 and 2005. Less common were banners singing the praises of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox who were busted for throwing the World Series and subsequently banned from baseball.

UGH, not this shit again. We had to buy $36.00 tickets because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to move to the lower levels of the stadium and complete a proper review. Dodger Stadium is the only other place I’ve encountered this practice. I’m not going to go off on a big rant about the bourgeoisie and the proletariat again but I still think it sucks. Also, due to this rule it meant ushers were extremely strict and checked our tickets at many locations on the lower level. Side note – there really are only two levels from which the common fan can watch the game at US Cellular Field. There is the lower seating bowl then the next two or three levels up are luxury space and then the top level. Like Progressive Field, this place had far too much luxury space but we’ll get to that later.

On a related note, our ticket also had a designated gate entrance. I’m over twenty parks into this trip and the White Sox are the first team to have this rule. Even though we bought tickets to the lower level, we still weren’t allowed in on the third base side and had to go over to the first base side of the stadium. That’s just lame and the White Sox certainly did not make a good first impression.

Once we finally got inside the first cool thing I found at US Cellular were these chair tilter things. It was readily apparent that the seats originally all faced straight forward but someone had the idea to tilt them towards the game action a bit. I thought this was a great idea. Many of the new parks have seats that are built facing more towards the game but obviously ,if a team really wants to, they can change their straight-facing seats (*cough*redsox*cough*).

The food options at US Cellular were a little better than I was expecting. I finally got to try a “Chicago Dog” IN Chicago. They called it a Comisky dog but we’re really just splitting hairs at this point. Their take on it was exactly the same as Detroit, right down to the poppy roll. I don’t know what the hell was going on in Atlanta with the cucumber slices and whatnot. Then we found corn off the cob!

They had ears of corn they shaved right in front of us, just like mom used to do so I wouldn’t burn myself or hurt my little teefyweefies. (I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it’s staying). Then they had all kinds of toppings for the corn (cheese, butter, salt, garlic, etc.) and it was actually quite good. The White Sox’ battle cry has always been “win ugly” and their ice cream booth was called “Winning Ugly is Sweet.” As we kept on our loop I made the insightful discovery that, while aptly named, each of the food booths was called something different but for the most part, they all served the same products! That somehow has to tie in with my recent marketing lesson from Minnesota, right? If the budget allowed I’m sure I would have checked to see if the hot dogs at the Carlton Fisk booth were better than those at the Robin Ventura stand. The last thing about the concessions is that the prices were pretty good. Their standard hot dog was only $3.25 and the rest of the fare was pretty reasonably priced. I was definitely expecting a hike in a big city like Chicago.

The White Sox provided a lot of cool things for their fans to do around the park and I took full advantage. Here’s me pretending to be over 6 feet tall, and a pitcher. If you’ll notice though, I’ve taken the liberty of pointing out my revenge for the ticketing screw job. I used their fancy display other than for its intended use. Who wears a Red Sox hat with a White Sox uniform?! I showed them!

We took a lap around the outfield and there are all kinds of statues and fan activities and cool decks to watch the game from. I found our friend Carlton but he was in the wrong pose. I tried to help him out but he was having none of my antics that day.

A couple of other things I liked were, on the left, the Miller Lite Bullpen Sports Bar which seemed like a great place to watch the game from and, on the right, the Plumbing Council sponsored shower thing that allowed fans to drench themselves if they so chose. It was pretty hot but, as it turned out, I didn’t need to use the shower thing.

OK, so we completed our loop downstairs, we finished upstairs; we just needed one last picture to prove we were both there at the game. Annnnndd bam!

Ready for the game, right? Not so fast.

First rain delay of the trip! It lasted an hour and a half and it POURED. We’re not talking about a little shower, these were grown up rain drops and some people got drenched. We rode out the storm in the upper deck under an overhang wondering aloud about various things baseball, the stadium and where the tipping point was for teams in terms of profitability during a rain delay. If it’s a fast moving storm and the game is delayed for an hour and a half (like ours) not a lot of people are going to leave and the team will get to sell 90 minutes more of beer/concessions and the concessionaires have a very captive audience. But when does a team start to lose out on profits because the fans give up and go home? 2 hours? 3 hours? If anyone can find this answer I’d be very curious to know.

Like I said, the storm was fast moving and we soon were underway again with the sun returning by the 2nd inning. I know I’ve put a lot of pictures in this post but I have to include just a couple more. At every stadium I’ve been to the grounds crews have been the most meticulous groups of people I’ve ever seen. They all have that quality about them where they have to get it just perfect. Guys will rake the same spot over and over again until it’s just right. The White Sox crew was no different. Before the rains came and when the tarp was removed they spent a lot of time grooming the field and it looked great. Then just before play was to begin a guy came out with a bag of dirt and flung it haphazardly about the infield. I thought they would blend it in with the damp ground but they just left it, even when play resumed. For guys that are so hung up on any inch of soil that is higher/lower than the rest of the infield, this struck me as a very odd move.

High Points:

-The White Sox are the first team I’ve seen to offer a 50/50 raffle. The previous nights winner took home ~$6800. Not too shabby, kind of felt like a high school football game though.

-The fans at US Cellular were really good. It was kind of a shock to see how into the game they were, right from the starting lineups. Throughout the game there was that healthy buzz/chatter in the background and that definitely has been missing at the last handful of stadiums. Also, I found out you can’t be a fan of the White Sox and of the Cubs. At US Cellular fans had tee shirts with inscriptions like “Friends don’t let friends root for the Cubs” and “I bleed black, not blue.” At Wrigley there were similar sentiments expressed but we’ll get to that next post.

-In Seattle and a few other places I’ve seen vendors walking around the stands with coffee in a big pack on their backs. I hadn’t yet seen the tequila guy doing the same!

-The organist at US Cellular is an extremely talented individual. He or she played songs from just about every genre you could think of. There was hard core rap, Britney Spears and famous baseball classics rolled into one. Nice job.

-This high point goes to me: A few years ago my friends at Eastgate had offered to pay me $200 to dye my hair jet black and leave it for two weeks. I didn’t take them up on the bet and now I’m thankful. I saw a redhead in the stands who had done just that, only his roots were showing and what with the pale skin he just looked ridiculous. I didn’t take a picture but trust me, it was awful.

Low Points:

-The aforementioned ticketing/gate debacle was downright terrible.

-Like Cleveland, the White Sox wasted way too much of their prime real estate on luxury space. Taking up multiple levels, the entire mid-section of the ballpark is filled by boxes. Maybe when my company has one of those boxes I won’t care but for now, as a common fan, I’d like to see teams cater more towards fans who are going to show up and care about the team as opposed to those that pay their (very good) money but never make it to the game. For some reason the Indians and White Sox really stand out in my mind as the worst offenders.

-The fireworks display at the beginning of the game was FAR too long. Many children were upset.

-The girl who sang the national anthem belonged on star search, in a bad way. She was the typical over-theatric, over-coached, over the top annoying little ten year old whose parents, I’m sure, were very proud.

-He’s pretty much despised by most of the league (see picture below) but White Sox fans love them some AJ Pierzynski. He’s got to be one of those guys that you hate, unless he’s on your team. Like Rasheed Wallace in Detroit.

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: White Sox vs. Twins
Final Score: 12-2 White Sox
WP: Gavin Floyd
LP: Kevin Slowey
Rain Delay: 1:29
Time: 2:54
Announced Attendance: 30,565
Ticket Price: $36.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 16-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 8564
States Visited: 19
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 27
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Chicago Cubs
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B

Home of the High Life

2008-06-10T15:56:00.010-04:00

On the way from Minneapolis to Milwaukee I made some pretty interesting observations. First, I had no idea how close Minneapolis is to Wisconsin. After I dropped Dad off at the airport I crossed the state line in about a half hour. Maybe that’s not very cool for the rest of you but I just don’t know my geography as well as I thought I did. Also, on the way out of town I saw one of those neon signs in front of a bank. You know the ones that rotate displaying the date, time and temperature? Well this was normal except for the fact that in front of 55 degrees there was a giant “+” sign! Good old north country, eh? Finally, I grew extremely depressed when I filled up my car with gas and it cost more than our hotel room for the previous night. That’s just terrible.

Anyways, remember how I reserved the right to go back and change San Diego’s grade from an “A” to an “A+”? Well I’m pretty close to doing that and very well may decide to do so by the end of this post. The reason for this is something I’m sure teachers/professors struggle with all the time. Originally, I didn’t want to assign a numerical grade to each stadium because I think that was just getting too nitty gritty and too many factors on a given day could influence the number a few points, one way or the other. However, my initial reaction to Miller Park in Milwaukee was to give it an A- but it completely blows the Giants' stadium out of the water, it compares favorably to Comerica Park but it isn’t quite on par with Petco Park in San Diego. So what do I do? Do I downgrade San Fran? Do I upgrade San Diego? I guess most of you out there are thinking “if these are the day to day problems facing this spoiled brat, he really doesn’t have anything to worry about” whereas I’m completely distraught over this conundrum. I promise I’ll let you know how it turns out though.

The hotel I stayed at in Milwaukee was close enough to the stadium that I was able to walk over, which is always a plus. Also a plus was the retractable roof at Miller Park. This game took place on quite a shitty day and the other fans and I were very lucky to be indoors to see it. When I saw the park rise over the tree line though, it really was quite impressive.

I didn’t fully appreciate this until I was inside but something that set Miller Park apart from most of the stadiums in the league was the sheer physical space it occupies. Milwaukee isn’t exactly the most bustling metropolis in our nation and on top of that the Brewers play in “West Milwaukee” which has even more undeveloped space. It turns out when you have enough space to build something right it can make all the difference in the world. The grounds Miller Park occupies is completely separate from everything else but it’s complete with park, playground, parking lots and attractions. When I got closer and saw the top of the stadium with its retractable roof I thought it looked like something out of Transformers. Feel free to agree or disagree.

The other cool thing I saw in the parking lot was all the tailgating. I think I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve been shocked by the amount of tailgating that goes on at baseball games around the country. This is because Fenway doesn’t allow it and I have no frame of reference other than football games. My incorrect assumption was that it’s appropriate at football games but not at baseball games. Regardless, the Milwaukee fans have been the primo tailgaters of our nation to this point. I think they get a lot of practice at Packers games but these folks were prepared with full spreads consisting of brats, salad, pasta, chips, beer and anything else you could think of. The whole parking lot was dotted with grill smoke, good times and Wisconsin accents (you know… "get the chayhre dowwn from the ruff", etc.). Side note – I struggled with how to type out a Wisconsin accent for about 15 minutes and I still don’t think I got it right. Here’s what I’m talking about.

When I finally entered the park I was a bit surprised at how small the field was…

HAHA, no, just kidding. This was a little league field outside Miller Park. I got you good, huh?!

Game Notes:

When I entered Miller Park for real I stood in the same spot for at least 3-4 minutes. That’s a LONG time. There is just SO much to take in about the stadium. I snapped a good 20 photographs from that first spot alone. Even more than 20 stadiums into my tour I love that I still can be stopped dead in my tracks. The last few stadiums have been in the “B” range because they may have provided their fans with a decent experience but they had no “wow” factor. It’s along the same lines as what separates a great actor/musician/performer from his or her peers. They just have IT.

Let’s get me out of the way first. After those first few minutes I finally realized there was an usher standing right next to me and I eventually asked her to take a picture of me. On the left is Bernie the Brewer’s slide (which we’ll get to more later) and on the right is the main scoreboard.

By the way, she didn’t ask to see my ticket which is always a plus in my book. And always a negative are games with huge amounts of kids in attendance. I know, I know…America’s pastime, etc. but I just don’t like fighting my way through 40 kids who all go to get a hot dog at the same time because the coolest kid in class decided he wanted one. Speaking of class, I saw this game on a Thursday afternoon on June 5th, why weren’t they in school?! Oh well, no bother.

Another thing I noticed while dumbfounded for a while was the deck formation inside the building. Starting from field level the seats basically proceeded upwards as follows: lower bowl, luxury, second deck, third deck, luxury, upper deck. That’s a fair way to do it! They had two levels of luxury seating but they were interspersed with the rest of the seats around the stadium and didn’t stick out as an eyesore at all.

A great phrase to describe the rest of Miller Park is “nooks and crannies.” It was very similar to Petco Park in this way because they each offered fans so many different vantages from which to catch the game. If I try to get tickets to the green monster seats or the Budweiser pavilion in right field at Fenway it would cost me an arm and a leg. At Miller Park there are so many unique places to watch the game; from the “Dew Deck” to the “Dream Seats”, to bullpen seats, table top seats all over, luxury boxes, various restaurant views, right field ground level buffet seats and more. I checked out most of these areas and I had to go up special stair cases over and over again but I was allowed access to nearly all of them, at least to snap a few photos. Here is the right field buffet. I’ve seen this view at some other parks but never together with an “all you can eat” section.

And here’s another example of what I was just mentioning. You can see the fans eating at tabletops overlooking not only the outfield but also the bullpen. At the top of the photo is a couple of comfortable chairs that two fans per game are selected to sit in.

Continuing on my loop around the park (which took forever, by the way) I found some more gems. Bob Ueker, everyone’s favorite announcer, has his number and microphone retired along with an acknowledgement of his more than 50 years in baseball. Then came the activities. I really wish someone could have been with me to take more pictures with me in them but there were so many that I felt a little bad asking people over and over again. You could get your picture taken with two current player manikins standing on the top dugout step or with your hand in a glove catching a ball right atop the centerfield wall. They had a setup where you could race a player to first base based on his average time. I had heard of this before from Steve but hadn’t yet found one in any park. Then of course there were various activities and statues featuring the famous sausages from the Milwaukee sausage race. It all was pretty cool and, much like Cincinnati it was geared towards every fan as opposed to just kids or just adults.

Just a few other things I’d like to mention before we get to high and low points about the park. I haven’t seen this anywhere else but the Brewers offered a free speed toss. This is the thing where college kids try to blow out their arms by getting drunk and impressing their friends with how fast they can throw a baseball. Of note is that I saw a kid throw 76 miles per hour which is the fastest I’ve seen at one of these things. That also gives you a bit of perspective on how fast major league players throw. I know Curt Schilling once gave an interview in which he said the thing that the common fan would be most impressed by is how fast MLB players throw. These athletes are really the crème of the crop in the world (just think about how many levels of baseball in which you have to succeed to make it to “the show”) and I know I, for one, have never played catch with someone throwing 80 MPH before, no less 90+.

Miller Park was so big it had its own smoking deck INSIDE the park. This place could be found in the far right field corner of the stadium but it had open air walls, picnic tables, televisions and it served beer/snacks. There were probably 20-30 fans enjoying themselves there when I checked it out and although I don’t agree with smoking in public facilities, the Brewers did it right. These fans could still enjoy the game and other peoples’ company, yet they weren’t bothering any of the other fans. Nice job.

Finally, this wasn’t a high point or low point so I guess I should include it here. See the picture below. It’s of the entire stadium but in it you can see the funky dirt formation near home plate. I thought this was worth mentioning since I haven’t seen it anywhere else. Also, as a “PS”, I forgot to mention it before but the Tigers and Dbacks stood out for having an entire strip of dirt from the pitcher’s mound to home plate. That was unique and cool, apologies for my neglect.

High Points:

-Even though it was a crappy organ version, the Brewers were playing “Sweet Caroline” before the game. That’s always going to score points with a member of Red Sox Nation.

-Ushers stayed out of my business completely. Even when I was walking down by the field in the home plate area I never once was asked for my ticket. They made an announcement before the game that ushers would be checking tickets all over the park but that just wasn’t true and made my experience more enjoyable because I could move about freely.

-You know how I get mad when stadiums have more than one “first” pitch? Well, the Brewers made an announcement something along the lines of “Fans please turn your attention to the playing field for our ceremonial first pitches.” At least they acknowledged there would be more than one so people don’t get heated when they think they’ll be throwing out the FIRST pitch and discover 7 other people are doing the same thing.

-Going into Milwaukee I knew I had to get a “brat.” I had found out at other stadiums that a brat is basically the same size as a hot dog with the composition of an Italian sausage and a somewhat unique taste. That’s fine; I still had to get one in Milwaukee with the secret stadium sauce. I’ll tell you what, that made all the difference in the world! Also of note is the fact that they did not even OFFER plain yellow mustard! The condiment bars at Miller Park had ketchup, spicy brown mustard, secret stadium sauce, sauerkraut, onions and relish. A brilliant setup if I do say so myself.

-Despite the fact that the roof is often kept open and there were many pigeons inside I was impressed with the lack of bird shit on the seats. Unlike Houston, I didn’t have to wipe anything off the seats before I sat down!

-The Brewers are very into a “go green” initiative sponsoring various promotions and hocking a new “all green” cable channel in the area. Good for them, I support that too.

-For some reason this stood out to me…the music throughout was apt. Whatever the situation the organist or the music guy always had the right song to play.

-Miller Park is extremely handicapped accessible and there were an inordinate number of fans in wheelchairs at the game. That was nice to see as well. Like I’ve said, when you have the space it’s easy to do things right.

-I was waiting for it for about 6 or 7 innings but eventually the famous sausage race happened and I was there to capture all the action. The German somethingorother won the race but that wasn’t as important as the fact that I was there to see it. Remember a couple of years ago when that guy on the Pirates hit one of the participants in the head and knocked her down and there was this big story on ESPN? I do.

-The baked potatoes at Miller Park had real cheese! See Oakland, it can be done!

-I got to see old friend Gabe Kapler. He had a great game 4-5, 2B, 2R, 1 RBI and his intro song was “Soldier” by Eminem. I love finishing my runs with that song…it’s just relentless and easy to kick it in with.

-Another intriguing part of Miller Park was the mascot. Bernie the Brewer (which makes complete sense!) is known for sliding down a big slide every time a Brewer hits a home run. Well, this slide starts at the very top of the stadium and I was infinitely curious about how he made it up there so quickly after a home run. I was convinced there were two people dressed up in mascot costumes and one would just come out when it was time for a slide. It turns out he just heads up there at the start of the bottom of every inning instead of “entertaining” fans with lame antics down on the field. I support this. However, for the guy in the costume it must get pretty boring. The Brewers have hit 68 home runs at home this year but keep in mind they’ve played over 250 innings at home. That’s a lot of time for that guy to be spending up there without a lot of reward, at least relatively speaking. Anyways, the point I was going to make was that I caught Bernie in mid-slide! The Brewers hit an inside the park home run so I wasn’t sure if he was going to slide and didn’t catch him right but the very next batter parked one and I got a good shot. Check this out!

-I picked up a sweet bright yellow shirt that says “Cervaceros” which, in Spanish, means “Brewers.” It’s really awesome.

Low Points:

-The lower level seats had very large aisles at the top of each section but in terms of leg room between rows there wasn’t much. I’ve talked a lot about how much room the Brewers had to build their park and for an extra few feet per section I think they could have greatly improved fan enjoyment. Not that I’m a tall guy though, so I wasn’t too broken up about this.

-As promised, I paid attention to the beers vended at Miller Park. There were no Budweiser products to be found anywhere.

-I had an inkling before this game but it’s been solidified in my mind now…I hate national anthems performed by elementary and middle school choirs.

-I don’t think Citgo has any official affiliation with the Red Sox but there would be a full scale riot should the famous neon sign ever be torn down. Well, in Miller Park they have a Citgo sign/display that keeps track of the home runs hit by the Brewers. Even though it was totally unwarranted I was deeply offended by this and even felt betrayed.

-Even with the indoor acoustics and a double digit home town score the fans were still pretty quiet. Of course they cheered when the team scored but otherwise there wasn’t that “buzz” that has been found in numerous other stadiums.

-The infield raking/grooming job before the game has been one of the poorest I’ve seen.

-The cap shuffle during the 3rd inning was particularly challenging. It’s a fine line for those graphics operators to walk when trying to find a cap shuffle that is both entertaining and challenging.

-I know the Brewers haven’t won a lot in their team history but couldn’t they do a little better than this? They may as well put up a bright blue and yellow pennant with “Pathetic” in the middle.

-The sections in the upper deck were relatively small. This could be a good thing in that every seat was pretty close to the action but I think, given the room they had to build, they could have done a little better and increased some of the nicer sections. Especially directly behind home plate.

-Speaking of which, there are two GIGANTIC poles (think Fenway grandstand, but 3 times as wide) in the upper deck right behind home plate. Maybe they were structurally required but they sure do hinder the view for a lot of fans.

-The concession lines were too slow for such a great park. That’s an easily fixable problem and I hope the Brewers take note.

I don’t usually do this but I just wanted to talk briefly about my after-game activities. Miller Park is about a mile away from the Miller brewery so I took a walk over to get a tour and free tasting. I discovered that High Life is brewed right there and it is, in fact, the home of the High Life. See? I’m not lying!

They also gave us some other neat tidbits like the fact that they ship out 500,000 cases of beer PER DAY from the warehouse. All the beer we saw in this multiple-football-field-equivalent warehouse had to be out by the next day. Also, the Miller Park fans got very into the polka song “Roll Out the Barrel” in the middle of some inning…do you know that one? Well, apparently it started in the caves below the Miller Brewery. Before refrigeration they used to store beer below ground in these cave/cellar type places with ice and hay. When it was time to send out a shipment they would “roll out the barrel.” Then I got to taste 3 free beers. That was cool too.

**Still haven’t made up my mind about what to do with the grades…**

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:

Teams: Brewers vs. Diamondbacks
Final Score: 10-1 Brewers
WP: Manny Parra
LP: Micah Owings
Time: 2:46
Announced Attendance: 27,539
Ticket Price: $14.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 15-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 8473
States Visited: 20
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 26
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Chicago White Sox
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-

One Day Honey, One Day Onion

2008-06-09T16:49:00.007-04:00

I’m not sure what put the notion in my head but for some reason I was expecting Missouri to be filled with wide open plains and farmland as far as the eye could see. Not the case. On this trip I’ve seen the east coast, the west coast, the gulf coast, the Rocky Mountains, northwest forests and plenty of desert. The one thing left, in my mind, was expansive farmland; the breadbasket of America. I was beginning to worry I wouldn’t see it, especially after we left Kansas City to drive north and Iowa wasn’t helping anything. After Des Moines though, that all changed. Northern Iowa quenched my thirst as at times on the road we could look left and right and see farmland all the way to the horizon. We didn’t get to stop at the Field of Dreams because it was 200 miles out of the way but we got a feel for what we’d find. Also, wind farms are just gorgeous. I love those things.

We rolled into Minneapolis a bit early to check out the city before the game. We picked up some Twins tickets (which were general admission…hadn’t seen that yet) and headed off to explore a bit. The coolest thing about the city, by far, is the elevated/covered walkways between all of the skyscrapers. A lot of people and businesses had to buy into this idea for it to work and it does. I assume the main reason for this setup is the frigid Minnesota winters. Either way, good job Minneapolis. We twisted and turned through all of the mini malls and shopping/eatery areas on our way to check in.

When we finally got to what I thought was our hotel I discovered the first chink in my armor on this trip. Apparently I made our Embassy Suites reservation for the Monday before, they didn’t have a room for us and I was out over $100. I actually made the reservation online for Monday the 26th, on Monday the 26th, at 10:30PM. Yes, completely my fault and their website directly says they’ll charge you the fee even if you don’t show up but I still think that sucks. There needs to be some sort of “ARE YOU SURE?!?” button when you’re making an online reservation at 10:30 the night you want to stay somewhere. I just clicked on one of those calendars and got the wrong week (side note – I also did this in Milwaukee because when I showed up their computer said I wasn’t supposed to be there for another week! They had extra rooms though so no big deal.). Those of you who know me and how anal I am about spreadsheets and planning and everything running smoothly should appreciate how heated I was. Anyway, I’m not staying at an Embassy Suites again and I don’t think you should either. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Of course, there was a silver lining. Since there was some big conference in the city that week we had to stay a bit further out. We decided to go right near the airport because Dad was flying out the next morning. We ended up staying at a place right down the street from the Mall of America. Tourist trap, sure, but we still had to check it out. It was big enough that they had an entire amusement park right in the middle of everything! I’ll always remember our trip to the Mall of America… :-)

Game Notes:

When we went to the Metrodome to pick up tickets earlier in the day the weather was nice enough and we saw a street that we assumed would get closed off and filled with vendors. Well, when we made it back for the game it was raining…pretty hard. True soldiers to the end though, we had to hit up one of the vendors due to my “I have to try unique foods!” decree.

They were OK. It was just fried mozzarella, much like what I would call a “cheese stick” except sans breading. We were told that in Wisconsin you could pretty much get any kind of cheese in “cheese curd” fashion. I took the guys at their word and didn’t go on any kind of extensive hunt when I got to the cheese state.

We headed inside and were met with revolving doors! I found out why after the game but I hadn’t seen those at a park before. Even when I was trying to buy the tickets the draft coming out of the ticket office was incredible (which made it hard to deal with the exchange of paper money for paper tickets). After the game the wind drafting out of the stadium was really strong. I’m not sure exactly what created it but it was real and it was terrifying. On the upside, it wasn’t a tornado.

The above probably looks like what you’ve seen on TV. I don’t really know how to describe it but when I walked inside the Metrodome it looked nothing like what I was expecting. I think the roof played a role in that and also some of the proportions were different. I thought the “baggy” in right field was much bigger and I wasn’t prepared for how much space was taken up by the retired numbers in the upper deck.

Did I mention the Twins were playing the Yankees? As fun as it is to root for the home team and get into the game with the crowd, it was more fun to have an actual rooting interest in the game. I actually cared that the Twins won and the Yankees position in the standings was hurt that little bit. Also, this game was way up there as far as “best games” go. The Cubs and Rockies played a good one at Coors Field and this is the other one that sticks out in my mind. It was back and forth all night with the Twins playing catch-up until they took a one run lead in the bottom of the 8th inning, which Joe Nathan was able to preserve for the Twins victory. High drama and, like I said, it’s always fun to watch the Yankees lose. I thought I would get at least some acknowledgement of my Sox hat like “Hey, we’re all in this together against the Evil Empire!” but no such luck in Twins country. Oh well. Here’s me happily rooting on the Yankees during BP.

And just for the hell of it, here’s dad with Harmon Killebrew.

Like I said, the tickets we bought were “general admission.” I guess you can build that into your business model if you rarely sell out. The entire outfield portion of the upper deck was on a first come, first served basis. That was cool. The people in the outfield looked like they enjoyed the game too but Dad and I used the “I just want to take a few pictures” line to head up directly behind home plate. And thank God we did because we got prime seats for the “no rules fish race!” The fish in the lead was by far the dirtiest contestant and T.C. the Bear (Twins mascot) tried to stop him but he still ended up winning. They did say no rules though…

I just have a few more pregame observations before we get to some good and bad things about the game/stadium. The prices in Minnesota and Kansas City have been the best so far. The Twins were only asking $6.50 for a large beer and their hot dogs, like the Royals’ were priced at $3.50. They had the same popcorn tub gimmick but, as we found out, did not accept an empty KC tub to refill, even if you put it on your head and spoke like Darth Vader. OK, nojustkidding but that would have been funny, huh? The Metrodome is also home to the Vikings and if we were there for a football game I don’t think there would have been a bad seat in the house. I could see some of the higher sections being too far away for baseball but to watch a football game from just about any seat would have been a great time. Many of the players sponsor sections of seats (i.e. “Nathan’s Nest”, “Lamb’s Flock”, “Everett’s A-Team”, etc.) to raise money for various charities. That’s cool and I’ve never seen so many players sponsor sections before.

Finally, this was a bit odd. Outside at the cheese curd stand we found out that the Twins are building a new ballpark to be opened in 2010. First, it’s going to be an outdoor park…in Minnesota…and they’ll still play ball in April and September (maybe October?). I predict disaster right there. Second, the countdown they had going was just silly. I want to know whose idea it was to put the countdown in weeks. Technically, it may make sense. If you go with days you’re at something over 900 and that just discourages fans. If you go with months you don’t always have a whole number and 32.75 might confuse some people…but to say “Hey fans, there are one hundred thirty one weeks left until the new park opens!!” just seems off to me. Anyone else??

I just double checked and if that’s weeks that means they don’t get done by opening day 2010, right? OK, I give up I have no idea what the number 131 stands for.

High Points:

-Since we were in a dome and fans didn’t have to have a skyline to look at in center field the Twins had luxury boxes ringing the entire stadium. I haven’t seen that yet and I thought it looked cool.

-As an intro song before the game the Twins played some campy old-timey baseball tune and it originally was going to go in the Low Points section but then they mixed it unbelievably well into “Shorty Got Low” and I thought that was a fantastic blend of old and new.

-This was a high point I neglected in Kansas City but the Royals and Twins are the only team I’ve seen to use punctuation (specifically, question marks) while displaying the anthem lyrics on the video board. I didn’t think about it but Mr. Scott Key poses some questions in that famous poem of his.

-I didn’t try it because I’ve had plenty in my day but vendors were walking around selling milk and cookies! No joke. They were the little personal cartons of milk that you’d get in elementary school and a few chocolate chip cookies. Awesome!

-I was fascinated by this. Check out the staircase and the two levels you can see. This was all you had to navigate to make it “upstairs” at the Metrodome. From the lower level the seats went way down and from the upper they went way up but instead of having switchback ramps that take 10 minutes to get up or down the Twins made everyone’s life more simple. Kudos to them for that.

-When you don’t see things for a while you tend to forget they can be a part of a baseball game. This is sort of what happened when I was in Detroit and remembered that the peanut vendors at Fenway actually throw the product up to you! Not so anywhere else. Another thing I haven’t seen that is a staple of the Fenway bleachers is flying beach balls! Well, I saw two at the Twins game. Way to go. Even though the usher came down and popped them after about 5 minutes it was still nice to see.

-During “take me out to the ballgame” the fans counted and pointed along with “one, two, three strikes you’re out” and also said root root root for the “home team” instead of something else. Who doesn’t appreciate tradition?

-In between many innings the scoreboard will show fans in their seats and usually everyone waves once they notice they are on the video board. Well, one kid looked up and saw he was on the big screen and immediately went to the move where you hold your hands close together and curl one thumb and put the other behind your fingers. Then you slide your hands so it looks like your thumb is becoming detached on one hand. Do you know what I’m talking about? Well, this was his go-to move. REALLY? Initially I was put off and thought he could have done better but if it were me I guess I would have just waved with a dumb look on my face like everyone else. So good job to that kid, even though the move was lame at least he thought quickly on his feet.

Low Points:

-My new go-to line about taking pictures worked again but the ushers at the Metrodome were pretty attentive. They were only found in the “better” sections though. If you wanted access to the lower bowl or the seats behind home plate in the upper deck you had to show your ticket or flash a camera and a smile. I chose the latter :-)

-The microphone placement on the anthem was terrible. There was some small high school choir group with about 15 kids and you could only hear 3-4 of them because someone didn’t know how to set up the microphone’s properly. On the funny side though, all these Minnesota kids said “flaaahGGG” and it was funny. I don’t know if I’m typing that correctly but just picture a Fargo accent saying “flag” and you’ll get the idea.

-The Twins had no cheerleaders. Just two guys and T.C. the mascot bear shooting tee shirts and trying to pump up the crowd. Lame.

-The fan distribution at the game was a bit odd. It didn’t ruin my experience by any stretch but it still looked pretty weird. I guess the Twins sell certain tickets in certain sections and just try to pack the people in like sardines.

-The crowd was about 50% Yankees fans. Boo that.

-The scoreboard was far away and had a lot of old graphics and it was hard to find any relevant information when you needed it. The Metrodome felt like the Rogers Centre in that regard.

-I bought a Michelob Golden Light which is a new type of Michelob Light. Now, I really like Michelob Light and, frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference with this “new” stuff. Dad explained the concept of “marketing” to me and that if you put a new label on things you can get a bunch of suckers to buy it and increase your profits. Dammit.

-Another annoying “host” trying to make a living. I really dislike these people.

Aaaannnnnnd, me again.

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:

Teams: Twins vs. Yankees
Final Score: 6-5 Twins
WP: Matt Guerrier
LP: Kyle Farnsworth
S: Joe Nathan
Time: 2:54
Announced Attendance: 20,168
Ticket Price: $12.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 14-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 8124
States Visited: 19
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 25
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Milwaukee Brewers
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-

Great Googly Moogly!

2008-06-06T17:25:00.013-04:00

Heading across Missouri over to Kansas City Dad and I made such good time that we beat the ETA Karen had given us by an hour and fifteen minutes! I was elated but also pretty shocked she could be so far off. Then I realized I didn’t switch her over to Central time so we were only about 15 minutes early. Wouldn’t you think if this thing – sorry, Karen – can pinpoint me on a rural road in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, she could realize she’s crossed over into a new time zone? My old cell phone could tell right away and would adjust itself. My new one can’t but the technology is there. I’m just sayin…

Anyway, we were early to check into our hotel so we headed out for a real middle-of-the-country-steak at the Hereford House. This place was good. I got the Kansas City Strip along with a side of cheddar ranch potatoes. Basically they take scalloped potatoes and add cheddar and ranch somehow. I’m sure it was tremendously unhealthy but it was GOOOOOODDDDDDDDD.

When we finally checked in we had the added bonus of being able to see both Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadiums from our window. For those of you who don’t know, those are the homes of the Royals and Chiefs respectively. Side note – do you remember that snickers commercial where the guy paints “Chefs” in the end zone and a player comes up to him and says “That’s great, but who are the Chefs?” and the guy says “great googly moogly.” I think that commercial is great. Relive the magic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U_EfE-mqgE

So the next morning we crossed the “George Brett Bridge” to get over to the stadium about 2 hours early. I’m not lying. This guy is as close to a saint as you can get in Kansas City. He had the most prominent display in the Royals Hall of Fame, he’s got a big statue out in front of the stadium and his retired name and number are listed dead center on the scoreboard. Check this out.

Game Notes:

We got up to the stadium and, like I said, we were about 2 hours early. We had to wait in line for about 15 minutes to get tickets. To the Royals. 2 hours early. Wow! And this is a team that had just the previous night snapped a 12 game losing streak! I’ve waited in line for tickets at exactly 2 other stadiums and each time there were only 2-3 people in front of me. There had to be 50 people in line in front of us at the Royals game. Later I found out they had all kinds of promotions going on but I’ll get to those later.

Before the gates opened Dad and I had some time to kill so we checked out the construction going on all around the stadium. I guess there are all kinds of changes at Kauffman Stadium planned for opening day 2009 including a brand new concourse ringing the home plate side of the stadium as well as an expanded outfield concourse with fan friendly activities and some new seating areas as well. Dad was pretty curious and took an up close peak. For what it’s worth, you can also see the new stadium design in this picture.

Finally we were let in and I started to find out what all the commotion was about. We walked right in the right field gate but fans were lined up 200 deep at the home plate gate to get in and get on line for Royals autograph day. They got in, waited in line for about a half an hour and were lucky to get one autograph because players were made available for less than a half hour. And really…they’re the Royals…I don’t know, it just didn’t seem worth it to me. This is what I’m talking about though.

As I mentioned, there was lots of construction everywhere. That means cramped quarters and concessions, especially with the hoopla surrounding the autograph sessions. The Royals even had to set up temporary concession tents and bathrooms to accommodate fans in certain areas of the park. It’s too bad they couldn’t have made these changes in the offseason but I can’t fault a team like the Royals for finally spending some money to give back to its fans. Here’s what I’m talking about though, the walkway was maybe 10 feet wide?

Initially I wanted to include 17 pictures in this post so I’m trying to find those that capture multiple points I wanted to make. This next one happens to include yours truly. It also happens to include the cool fountains you often see on TV during Royals highlights. Some of the different displays they had throughout the game were pretty impressive. And these things were going the entire time too. Also, I’m sure it was somebody’s great idea but I thought the shape of the scoreboard was a classy way to pay tribute to the Kansas City logo. It is in the shape of the crown that backs the famous “KC.” Also, and I may have been foreshadowing a bit in the St. Louis post, every fan in the ballpark can see this scoreboard from his or her seat! What a great idea!

The grass looks pretty good in the background as well, huh? Well, the credit for this next observation goes to Dad. Have you ever been on a TV show or movie set? I’ve been around some low quality productions before and things that don’t have to be perfect for the cameras often aren’t. Check out the grass behind the outfield wall. On TV you wouldn’t notice this imperfection but to the casual fan sitting in the furthest left seats of the furthest left sections of the ballpark it creates quite the eye sore!

High Points:

-No matter where I was in Kauffman stadium I felt closer to the game than in St. Louis. There are essentially 2 decks in Kansas City with a small middle area dedicated to some luxury boxes. The upper deck truly is massive but you still get the “homey” feel of being close to the game.

-The prices at Kauffman stadium, overall, have been the best so far. $6.75 for a 24oz beer; $3.50 for a hot dog; $2.50 for sunflower seeds and $6.25 for a brat which I’ll get to in a second. The other point I want to make is about draft vs. bottled beer. Usually the draft is more economically viable in terms of price per ounce of beer. At Kauffman Stadium the beer vendors charge $7.00 for a 16oz bottle! I’ve seen prices close before but never inverted. I’ll stick with the draft please (if I didn’t have to drive). Now, as promised, here’s the Sheboygan brat I had.

I will tell you this has been the best food item purchased at any park. That’s 19 parks in and I’m saying that. This thing was MASSIVE, cheap and delicious. Also, they had pale ale mustard which was a unique take on spicy brown mustard that complimented the brat and kraut extremely well.

-The mascot again fit the bill. It was a lion with a crown but lions are the “kings of the jungle” and the team in Kansas City is called the “Royals”…not that much of a stretch.

-Circle K convenience stores were running a promotion where your ticket stub was worth a 32oz soda or small coffee AND a snickers bar if the Royals pitching staff, as a whole, struck out 6 opposing hitters. I know it’s the Royals but that’s a pretty easy target and I’d love to know how many times they have to pay out during the year. Needless to say they ended up reaching the goal while we were there but the only bad part was the promotion didn’t start until the next day and Dad and I had to drive to Iowa right after the game. Somehow I managed to persevere sans snickers bar.

-Remember I mentioned all the Texans singing “Deep in the heart of Texas” during the 7th inning? Well, via the massive video board in center field Garth Brooks did the honor of leading the Kansas City crowd in a stirring rendition of “I’ve got friends in low places” and everyone in the stands got quite into it.

-I wasn’t so into the song but I sure loved me this bucket of popcorn. For $10 you could buy a giant popcorn tub and two small sodas. The popcorn tub was refillable not only at the current game but you could bring it back to any Royals game you attend and keep getting refills that way. GREAT promotion!

OK, OK...I suppose I should address the elephant in the room regarding the picture above. I know you’re all thinking it and some of you have emailed me questions about it. I may as well take this opportunity to acknowledge publically that the rumors are NOT true. I did NOT finish this entire tub of popcorn. Are you crazy? This thing was massive. Dad loves popcorn and the two of us together didn’t even finish it. Maybe that was out of courtesy for having to sit together in a car for the next 5 hours or so. Either way, let this statement be the answer to all of your questions. I did NOT finish the tub of popcorn. I hope that ends it.

-Almost every stadium has a “kiss cam” on the scoreboard in the middle of some inning where they put a heart graphic around two people and they are supposed to kiss. The Kansas City fans were the most attentive to this promotion, by far (mayhaps because fans can actually SEE the scoreboard?!). The best part was towards the end when a heart was put around a young guy and his girlfriend. Well, before either of them could react the guys friend comes out of nowhere from off camera and plants one on his cheek. The crowd went nuts!

-Dad noticed this one too. If you look to the right of the Royals dugout you can see a second dugout with fans in it. I’m sure this was some sort of promotion and you had to win your way in but wouldn’t it be cool to have a dugout view of a game, even if only once??

-The Royals scoreboard was big enough that they could put as much information as you would want up there. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention at other stadiums but at Kauffman they provided the last play at the end of the lineup. So if you’re keeping score and say to yourself “shoot, did he ground out to third or short” you can just look at the bottom of the lineup and find out. I don’t think other stadiums keep it up there as long.

-You should all know by now that I love the condiment races. Well, Kauffman was another stadium that does a live version. It wouldn’t have been funny except that Mustard had a brain fart and totally didn’t get the concept of the race. Basically the condiments had to run a hundred yards on the first base side dirt. You can see the finish line in the picture on the left. You can also see mustard taking off for parts unknown. In the picture on the right you can see the aftermath where the race is over and everyone is wondering what the hell mustard was thinking. High comedy.

Low Points:

-The Royals rolled autograph day, free stuffed otter day, family and friends day and everyone runs the bases day all into one. It’s a long season guys, couldn’t you spread it out a bit to keep the hysteria at a dull roar?

-Given that it’s an understandable necessity I’m not going to dock the Royals points for the construction and cramped nature of the stadium but it still was a low point of the day.

-The Royals had a luxury restaurant and “luxury” picnic table area down the left field line. Dad and I got to check out the views from these places and, to be honest, I was left very unimpressed. I was much happier with our upper deck view of the game.

-At many stadiums across the country the scoreboard has to get fans into the game. The Royals fans have been the worst offenders to date. They would start cheering when prompted by the scoreboard but as soon as the graphic was gone, so was the noise. It was uncanny, it’s like the cheering had an on and off switch. Usually the scoreboard will start fans cheering for a bit and it will gradually die out but for the Royals fans it was all or nothing, no grey area for them!

-Again with the annoying host. These things need to stop. When I own a major league team we will never ever employ a “host” for a baseball game.

-The tops of my feet got sunburned. Not the Royals fault but it was still a low point of the day.

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Royals vs. Indians
Final Score: 6-1 Royals
WP: Brian Bannister
LP: Paul Byrd
Time: 2:32
Announced Attendance: 22,345
Ticket Price: $9.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 13-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 7654
States Visited: 17
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 23
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Minnesota Twins
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B

A Wicked Tall Ahhch

2008-06-06T11:51:00.008-04:00

Dad decided to fly out and meet me for the Cardinals-Royals-Twins stretch of my trip, which was totally awesome! I had an uneventful day driving through Indiana, Illinois and some of Missouri on my way over from Ohio. There’s a whole lotta nothing going on in the middle of the country, except for the 65MPH speed limits. I wasn’t such a fan of that. If Texas wasn’t up at 80 it certainly was giving you 75 or 70 at worst.

Our hotel in St. Louis was right across from the Rams stadium and next to a giant casino. I don’t know the entire history of riverboat casinos and all the laws surrounding them but to me they seemed pretty lax. The casino in the hotel next to us was in the middle of a free standing building about 200 yards from the river. I’m guessing they started by gambling on a moving boat, then on a boat tied to a dock, then maybe you had to be able to spit to the boat and so on until they eventually could build a free standing building in sight of a river.

Speaking of a river, on the way over to the Arch we walked along the Mississippi and I’ve never seen waves breaking on a riverbank before. I was so impressed, in fact, that I’m posting a picture on my blog. Here I go, ready?

BAM!!

St. Louis seemed like a pretty cool city with a lot of history. We found a big red stripe winding around the streets which Dad discovered to be similar to the freedom trail in Boston. We visited the arch and watched a movie about Lewis and Clark (side note – we bought tickets to the 11:30am movie but it turns out we showed up in time for the 10:30 show. We very nicely asked the usher if it would be possible to sneak in to the earlier show. He took our tickets and we thanked him profusely. Upon entering the theater we discovered only 2 other people in the whole place! Boy was that usher nice! (second side note – a minute or two before show time an entire field trip worth of kids (somewhere north of 100) filed in, filled up the theater and ruined what would have been a funnier story)).

Even though we were at the top of one of the nation’s most famous landmarks, this trip is about baseball after all so here is me with Busch Stadium.

Game Notes:

In looking over my notes for this game, I have to say Busch stadium was kind of a letdown. I was looking forward to seeing a Cardinals game and much like what happened at some other stadiums, it was a nice enough place for a fan to watch a game but there just wasn’t a lot to draw you in or make it memorable compared to the rest of the stadiums around the league.

Outside of Busch Stadium they have statues dedicated to all of the retired Cardinals. For example, Stan “the man” Musial and Jack Buck, the longtime Cardinals broadcaster.

I want to know what they’re going to do with Mark McGuire. He only played four and a half seasons for the red birds but they were a pretty hyped four and a half seasons. Does he get a statue or does everyone want to just forget that era and move on? The only reference to McGuire I found in the whole park was “Big Mac Land” out in left field.

Frankly, you could argue that’s a McDonald’s related promotion and nobody would fault you for it. I wanted to do some bit about a steroids version of McGuire and then take a picture of me as the “after steroids” version but I couldn’t find him anywhere! Oh well.

I did manage to find a Busch beer though. They sold 24oz cans for $8.75 which was a bit pricey, especially when you consider the Mobile gas station I stopped at earlier in the day had the same size cans on a 2 for $2 special. No, that’s not a typo. Also related to this was the lack of any Miller or Coors product in the entire stadium. I bring this up because at Coors Field in Denver you had to do a bit of looking but you could get a Bud or a Bud Light if you wanted one. I’ll have to let you know what happens at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The suspense is just KILLING me, how about you?

High Points:

-Even though it was an overall letdown, Busch Stadium still offered some cool things too. I liked the open concession areas and tabletop seating offered. It seemed like around every corner there was another bar or all you can eat or other special section that had high table and chair setups. They were all good vantages as well.

-I got to enjoy this and the next two games with Dad!

-The mascot is “Fredbird” which is a giant red cardinal. At least it looked right.

-Like Texas, St. Louis has an open grass area in dead center field where kids run out and retrieve the ball should a home run land there. I’m not sure why I like this idea so much but I do.

-FINALLY a park with a Bank of America ATM inside! I hate paying all these fees for using other banks ATMs and I try like hell to avoid it but I’m somewhere north of $20 in ATM fees and that’s just unacceptable. It was nice to watch other people squirm as BoA informed them of the $37.50 charge they were about to incur for the convenience provided.

-The entire lower bowl is comprised of the comfortable seats usually reserved for the best box areas. That was a nice gesture by the team.

-Tony LaRussa has been experimenting this year by having his pitchers bat in the 8th spot. I’m not going to pretend to know more than I do about the numbers behind a move like this but I’m still intrigued to see if it works out in any significant way. Tony always thinks outside the box.

-I thought it was pretty funny that the Cardinals make you sign a waiver before stepping in a batting cage to face 55-60MPH pitches. This was the first time I saw something like this. Here is some poor young soul signing his life away before entering the ring of death, I mean batting cage.

-Joe Mather made his major league debut during the game we saw. A few things to note here. Early on in the game he made a great diving catch to rob old friend Doug Mientkiewicz of extra bases…and I got it on film! Also, the fans in St. Louis gave him a standing ovation after his first major league hit, which is always a nice gesture. Finally, you may have seen this on Sportscenter recently and it happened at this game. I’m talking about the bit where a veteran player takes the “first hit” ball from the field, quickly switches it out, flips the new one into the stands and acts like he just threw away the “first hit” ball. That cracked me up the first time I saw it. Anyway, here’s the catch.

-The Cardinals have a really rich baseball history. This next picture shows some of it. On the right you can see a flag for each of their 10 world championships. Where are they going to put the next one? Then below the Budweiser scoreboard you can see 10 retired numbers, one retired logo for the guy who played before they had numbers and also a retired microphone for Jack Buck. I can’t remember another park with that many retired players. Also of note is the aforementioned centerfield grass area in the middle and one of the patios with the high tables below the retired numbers.

Low Points:

-A major complaint was how far away from the action we were almost at all times. Even doing a lap around the park we were far away from the field. Throw in the fact that you could say St. Louis has FIVE decks and by the time you’re up in the nose bleeds you don’t know if you’re at a baseball game or a bingo tournament.

-The vendors were selling Italian ice and calling it “frozen lemonade.” Come on, that’s bush league. At this level concession items deserve a fancy name, don’t just call it what it is. That’s like when New Englander’s call a water cooler a “bubblah” or a directional a “blinkah” (“What? It bubbles, it blinks…wannafightaboutit?”). Yes, the contents are just frozen lemonade but feel free to jazz it up a bit!

-25 minutes before game time there were all kinds of loud, unexpected fireworks that were really over the top. We then were greeted with the announcement that “it’s 25 minutes to game time!” Uhhh, thanks chief.

-Have a look at this picture. I zoomed in and we were still extremely far away from the field. Also, below the big Bud Light is one press box and then below that is another. I’m assuming they split up the local press and the national/out of town guys. That doesn’t seem fair to me.

-Remember the annoying whistles that the cheerleaders in Houston had? Well, the cheerleaders in St. Louis had them as well but they weren’t nearly as bad. I think it was an acoustics problem.

-After the third one I started a running tally. The number of "first" pitches thrown before the game reached seven. Actually, eight, if you include the first pitch thrown by Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer. That's just excessive.

-Our tickets cost $27 to sit about 4 miles from the field of play. Also, many seats at Busch Stadium were unable to see the scoreboard. There’s got be some stadium out there where all fans can see what’s going on during the condiment races and other such non-baseball related activities!!

Here’s the big guy!

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Cardinals vs. Pirates
Final Score: 5-4 Cardinals
WP: Todd Wellemeyer
LP: Zach Duke
S: Ryan Franklin
Time: 2:38
Announced Attendance: 42,791
Ticket Price: $27.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 12-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 7399
States Visited: 17
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 22
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Kansas City Royals
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B

Mr. Redlegs and a Crazy Mascot

2008-06-05T09:58:00.010-04:00

Since I did back to back games for Cleveland and Cincinnati I don’t have that much to report on other than the Reds game so I guess I’ll get right to it.

Game Notes:

Just after I get done ranting about corporate sponsorship I find myself arriving at the “Great American Ballpark” to catch a game. How “great” is that!? “Wladyka Field” doesn’t have a ring to it but maybe I could name my park the “Awesome United States Field” or something like that, no? Bottom line, the stadium only opened a few years ago and it hasn’t yet given in to corporate sponsorship pressures. Kudos.

PLEASE STRIKE OUT THE LAST PARAGRAPH IN YOUR MINDS. I JUST DID SOME RESEARCH TO MAKE SURE I WASN'T TELLING TALES AND I FOUND OUT THE FIELD IS NAMED AFTER THE GREAT AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY. WHATEVER, I'M STILL CALLING MY FIELD "AWESOME UNITED STATES FIELD." GRRRRRRR.

The best part about the Reds’ stadium were the extracurricular activities offered. Most stadiums have areas for kids and lord knows I’ve covered those. Well, the fan activity zones in Cincinnati were geared towards the common fan, both young and old. They had booths for picking up different players’ bats and testing their weight, racing to first base, checking out 6 different grips for different pitches, Nintendo batting and pitching tests and many other activities that kids and adults could both enjoy. Then there was this gem.

Originally I had a great idea worked up where I was going to say how great this quintet was (better than the Planeteers, the Power Rangers and He-Man and friends combined) but then I made a disappointing discovery. So let’s take a quick time out. Can you name every player in this picture? I thought I could. I guessed, from left to right, Paul O’Neil, Barry Larkin, [manager], Chris Sabo and Sammy Sosa. Almost right. It’s not Sammy Sosa but a young Eric Davis. Couldn’t he pass for a pre-steroid Sosa though? I could have sworn Sammy started his career with the Reds. Anyway, the manager is Lou Pinella and this picture was taken during the 1990 title run. Once you put me in there it still is quite the imposing quintet if I do say so myself.

I took a ton of pictures in Cincinnati and limiting myself for this post was a challenge. I don’t want this to become a picture book but at the same time there were so many cool things about the Great American Ballpark! This one had to make the cut, I haven’t seen anything like it in any other park. At each position the Reds had removable 8X11 photos of that day's starter. This isn’t an over the top idea, it’s just something unique and cool about the park that can add to a fan's (aka, me) enjoyment.

I’ve mentioned that there were a lot of things out on the concourse for fans to enjoy and this is the last thing I’ll show you. I really cannot imagine this setup being displayed in a west coast ballpark and certainly never on the east coast.

Continuing on my initial loop of the park I was pretty impressed. The concession concourses were wide open. They had a countdown going for Griffey on his way to 600 home runs. The Park was built on the Ohio River and that provided some nice sight lines looking out from center field (more on that later). During batting practice I got to see some old friends including Freddy Sanchez, Doug Mientkiewicz and Bronson Arroyo. The Reds also have a lot of history going on what with the Big Red Machine and five world championships. Walking around further I noticed there were a lot of ushers all around the stadium. Most of the time there were TWO per section and unless I used my now “go-to” excuse of “I just want to take a few pictures” they didn’t let me into any section of the park save for the upper deck. I was asked to see my ticket no less than 4 times, each of which I was shooed along after snapping a few photos.

The last thing I’ll mention is the National League flags. The Reds had three stanchions (there’s that word again!) with the flags from every National League team in order based on their current divisional standing. Other teams have had similar setups but never so obvious. I think that’s a great idea, especially for season ticket holders who may come to the ballpark every day and can see the changes made. Granted, most season ticket holders are going to be big enough fans of the game that they’ll be up on the standings from day to day but I still think it’s a cool idea!

High Points:

-In direct contrast with Progressive Field there was only one level of luxury seating at the Great American Ballpark and, being a common fan, that resonated.

-The national anthem had a real chance to give the Tampa Bay girl a run for her money but the guy needed to turn up his guitar a little bit. He did a really nice acoustic version but his singing voice was just a hair off and I think he could have “covered his bases” so to speak by turning the guitar up just a smidge. Oh well, he ties Dodgers Stadium for the 2nd best anthem to this point.

-The Reds dugout had its own “bleachers,” if you will. This has nothing to do with me as the common fan but it still looked pretty neat for the players. There were 3 of them in each dugout and the players took full advantage throughout the game.

-There was a restaurant in dead center field that gave fans a very cool perspective on the game. I hear Fenway has installed something similar this year but we haven’t visited there yet so I will refrain from commenting. In Cincinnati they angled and tinted the glass so the batters were not affected, yet patrons still had a fantastic opportunity to catch a game.

-Ken Griffey Jr. has the prettiest swing I’ve ever seen. I watched some BP and it’s just a sight to see. He’s never been mentioned in any steroids conversation and we can only pine for what he may have done should injuries not have got in the way over the last 5-6 years.

-The pregame infield preparation at the Great American Ballpark is the most unique I’ve seen so far. This guy on an ATV spent a solid 10-15 minutes going around and around in overlapping circles. By the end of the exercise he had a very nicely groomed infield but I’m sure he was dizzy as hell!

-The barges pushing gravel down/up the river seemed to fit. Captains of industry are always a high point in my book!

-I’ll put this one last since it’s half a high point and half a low point…the first Reds mascot was named Mr. Redlegs and had a giant baseball head. That’s tradition and I’ve seen him all of my life. Good stuff. Then there was a crazy cartoon character (much like the thing in Cleveland) named Gapper, supposedly for the kids, as a co-mascot. Boo that, I wasn’t a fan.

Low Points:

-A myth dispelled. At every stadium I’ve seen the grounds crew wet the infield down before the game, that’s pretty standard. Also standard is the 5-6 guys it takes to hold the hose for the main guy to wet the whole infield. HOWEVER! At the Great American Ballpark a guy completed the first half of the infield solo! I guess those extra guys just want to look busy??

-The Reds Rally Pack tried to pump up the crowd by jumping around and shooting tee shirts into the stands but for the most part nobody was there! Check this out.

-Not the worst thing in the world and other stadiums have been worse offenders but the Reds still let three “first” pitches be thrown before the game.

-They tried to sneak this one by the fans but I caught it. Many of the food vendors had unique names but for the most part sold the same concessions! Ha…BUSTED!!

-As I’ve mentioned, I’m trying only to get food now when it’s warranted. The Reds offered a “coney dog” which I thought would be like something from Coney Island, New York. Not that I know what they have there but apparently this was Ohio’s take on the coney dog. It came with a small hot dog and bun, mustard, onions, chili, a pound of shredded cheese and I added hot sauce. This thing was disgusting and nobody is better off for eating one of these. Bleck; definitely a low point.

-Tom Gorzelany of the Pirates was given an awful quick hook. He let up 6 runs in 2/3rds innings pitched but I thought he should have at least been allowed to complete the first inning.

-There were a LOT of kids at this game and many of them were shouting to each other in very thick southern accents. I didn’t realize it but Kentucky is just across the river and I’m pretty sure that had something to do with it.

-Many fans showed up late to this game…as late as an hour people were still finding their seats! To me that’s just unacceptable.

For some reason I just end up putting these shots at the end of posts…here’s the full view of the Great American Sellout, I mean Ballpark.

Overall Grade: B+

Game Stats:

Teams: Reds vs. Pirates
Final Score: 9-1 Reds
WP: Bronson Arroyo
LP: Tom Gorzelanny
Time: 2:36
Announced Attendance: 15,797
Ticket Price: $7.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 11-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 6954
States Visited: 14
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 21
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: St. Louis Cardinals
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-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+

Jacob's Field! Except not...

2008-06-03T19:44:00.005-04:00

To be honest, I’m not sure if it was a cry for attention or a legitimate problem we’ll have to work through but Karen and I did not get along while trying to leave Detroit. Chip was kind enough to offer his apartment for 4 days so I was trying to get to Ohio after the Tigers game and Karen kept “losing satellite reception.” Again, I’m not sure why this was happening. We were in an urban area and I don’t think there’s any good excuse for poor performance at a time like that. She blamed it on the skyscrapers but I don’t really buy that. It hasn’t happened in any other city. The one plus of getting lost was I eventually ended up passing the building where I worked on the Tigers deal!

We finally were able to get on the same page and I made it out to Columbus and used that as a base camp to visit the Indians in Cleveland and the Reds in Cincinnati. By the way, when I started this trip, there was no way I was spelling Cincinnati correctly. By now though, I’m a pro. Go me. Also, stanchions. I think I’ve used that word on this blog a good half dozen times and now I know how to spell it!

Game Notes:

HUGE letdown as soon as I got off the highway. I had been so pumped to see “the Jake” (aka Jacobs Field) in Cleveland yet it wasn’t there! In its place I found a cold imposter known as “Progressive Field.” That sucks. If and when I ever own a big time stadium or venue I’ll do my very best not to sell the naming rights to a corporate sponsor. I think we can all agree that “Wladyka Field” doesn’t have the greatest ring to it but I’m creative enough that I’d come up with something good. FYI, Jacobs field was named after the Indians’ former owners and only had its named changed prior to opening day of this season. Crappy start to the day.

Cleveland did something pretty cool by opening the outfield gates at 4:30 for a 7:05 start. However, only the outfield bleachers and one area of concessions were open to fans. The rest of the park did not open until 6:00. This was good and bad. I got to the park around 5:00 but in hindsight that was a bit too early because I was done checking out the outfield by 5:30. Anyways, out there they have “Heritage Park” which is a really nice two-level “park” of monuments and the Indians hall of fame. I found Manny Ramirez’ plaque saying he’s one of the 100 greatest Indians players of all time (1901-2001). They also play up Bob Feller’s accomplishments and have a statue of him out front. If you Google him I bet you’d be impressed too. I liked 1946 when he pitched 378 innings and had a 2.18 ERA.

I noticed a few things while killing a half hour in the outfield bleachers. First, the seats out there are very similar to Coors Field (most likely because the parks opened within a year of each other) and I liked that. Second, the two youngest, cutest kids (two brothers) kept getting ball after ball from the outfielders during batting practice. That makes sense. What didn’t make as much sense was after they each got a ball they started passing the balls off to other kids and even an adult. How’s that for good parenting?! I’m an only child so sometimes I struggle with the “sharing” concept but these kids had it down pat from an early age. That’s good to see.

My last observation was the luxury space at Progressive Field. Wow! I was extremely unimpressed with how much pure physical ballpark space was taken up by luxury boxes, many of which were not even in use! In the right field corner there had to be about 20-25 boxes, hardly any of them open and in use. Then, ringing the entire infield, there were three levels of suites PLUS a nice restaurant. Take a look at this.

I can’t believe it. I know the Indians can make a lot of money with these boxes but what about the common fan? If you can’t afford to sit in the lower bowl you’re damn far away from the action in the upper deck at Progressive Field. Despite this, the fans in Cleveland set a major league record by selling out 455 consecutive games from ’95-’01. I should have taken a picture of the retired number 455 along with all of the other famous Indians. Oh well.

I had flip-flopped between attending the Indians game on Monday the 26th or the next night. If I had gone on Monday I would have taken advantage of $1 hot dog night AND 80 degree weather with a breeze. Instead, I watched the Celtics lose on Monday and ended up paying $4.25 for a hot dog at a game that started at 54 degrees and dropped precipitously. Live and learn I guess, right? Still though, 54 degrees at the end of May?? Ugh.

High Points:

-Much like many teams have a single letter on their hats (i.e. “B” for Boston or “P” for Phillies) the Indians have a cursive “I” on their hats. Well, the concessions sell pretzels in the shape of a cursive “I”! I couldn’t tell at first but it soon became apparent. I didn’t buy one but I thought that was really cool.

-So far the Indians have had the best fireworks display after a home run. I don’t like the idea in general but if you’re going to do it, do it right.

-It was $22 and I only had a couple of hours so I didn’t go inside but I got some pictures of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which is right down the street from Progressive Field. I took about 4 pictures from a moving car and they all came out great!

-I moved about frequently during the game and I was not once hassled by an usher or even asked for my ticket. I LOVE places like that.

-Creepy but cool at the same time: I had heard about and seen on TV the guy who beats the big drum at Indians games. Well, I heard the thing but I could not for the life of me spot him in the bleachers. I could have walked over across the park but I decided it was cooler to let it be a mystery and play up the “drums in the distance” mystique of it all.

-On my FOURTH attempt I finally found an usher to take a semi-decent picture of me. I still had to lighten it afterwards though. Isn’t it just point and shoot? I don’t understand how people can mess up taking pictures. Anyway, here is me and my coffee due to the extreme temperature drop.

Low Points:

-The field itself was in the poorest condition I’ve seen. Granted, outfielders often camp in the same spot and sometimes a patch is worn down but that was the least of the problems with the grass at Progressive field. There were dirt patches in the most random areas and the grass looked like it was cut during amateur hour. Definitely a low point; this is the MAJOR leagues, not the bush leagues.

-This phenomenon occurred in San Francisco as well but it didn’t bother me there for some reason. When I was in the upper deck the seagulls arrived in anticipation of their end of game feast. They were quite the distraction. Obviously this is the Indians’ fault.

-Yet another park with an annoying “host.”

-Despite the fact that “Chief Wahoo” was mentioned and/or shown on the video board on several occasions, he was not the mascot on the field. The Indians had some weird pink spotted character they call Slider. I know there is a big fight about the whole politically correct thing and “Chief Wahoo” is offensive to certain groups. Fine, if that’s the case, shouldn’t his image and any references to him be stricken from the park completely? All or nothing, right? This is Slider hugging someone from the condiment race.

-Both teams played extremely sloppy defense. They combined for 3 errors but it should have been more.

-It was a freezing cold night but the fans were really out of it the entire game. Even when the scoreboard tried to pump them up it didn’t have too much of an effect. All this while the Indians were scoring 8 runs en route to winning the game! (PS, did you know “en route” was two words? MAN I cannot spell!)

-On the second level I thought the Indians had a pretty cool viewing area they called the “party porch.” It jutted out from the luxury boxes and was the only non-luxury space in the middle level of the stands. When I tried to check it out I was turned away, reason being it was only for luxury box people. Damn! This place looked pretty cool.

In conclusion...the full view.

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:

Teams: Indians vs. White Sox
Final Score: 8-2 Indians
WP: Aaron Laffey
LP: Mark Buerle
Time: 2:50
Announced Attendance: 25,426
Ticket Price: $8.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 10-6
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 6472
States Visited: 14
Countries Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 21
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [4.81 if you count Canada]
Worst Rode Conditions: Michigan
Next Stop: Cincinnati Reds
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-
Indians: B-

Comments and Feeback

2008-05-31T19:28:00.002-04:00

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!!!!

2008-05-31T18:12:00.020-04:00

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?

2008-05-29T07:24:00.007-04:00

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

2008-05-23T11:24:00.002-04:00

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.

Summer of Matt

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Comments and Feeback

IT’S UNANIMOUUUSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Nice night for a game, eh?

Update

, , go away, come again another day!