Arizona Baxters

The drive from San Diego to Arizona was pretty uneventful. There were many mountains similar to the aforementioned “beautiful landscapes” and otherwise a whole lotta ‘nottin. I made it to Scottsdale where I stayed with Dino for a couple of nights and only drove into Phoenix for the Dbacks game so I don’t have too much to report on the city. I will say though that there is a lot of sprawl in the area. Instead of things being built up, they are built out. Also, the Diamondbacks nickname is not spelled “D-backs” but instead, “Dbacks.” The more you know, right?

Game Notes:

There was plenty of parking for the game. Granted, I showed up a couple of hours early but there truly was a plethora of parking lots in the vicinity of Chase Field (that’s right, it’s no longer called the “Bob”). When I walked inside it was pretty surreal. I know a few stadiums have them but I’ve not yet been to a park with a closed roof that didn’t quite “close” the stadium off from the elements. The sun still shone through onto the field in some spots and there was a breeze but yet the air was conditioned and the music echoed off all of the walls and the ceiling. Also, the grass was natural but we were still “indoors.” It was all kind of weird.

I have to get this story out of the way first, mainly so I can feel good about myself for the rest of this post. OK, so I’m walking around and doing my thing when a couple of Rockies pitchers (by the way, I’m starting to feel like I’m just following the Rockies around everywhere they go…) started to throw their side sessions. I had seen a similar coaching session when I went to spring training ’04 with Brandon and Riley. You actually get to see coaches posture and demonstrate and then watch the young pitchers execute; it’s pretty cool. Anyway, I’m watching this session and then I sit down to break out the old notebook when lo and behold a ball jumps up from the bullpen and lands in the seat next to me! Nobody was around so I just picked it up and took a glance around to make sure I wasn’t on candid camera. I wasn’t, but there was a kid about 9-10 yrs old in the next section so I walked over to him and his family and handed over the ball. My rational was that I’m not checking luggage and only have so much space when in reality I was hoping on hope that the karma gods would somehow smile upon me in another way. We’ll see how that one plays out. That kid eventually ended up throwing the ball back down and got it autographed. I didn’t mind so much, bottom line: I’m a good person :-) BUT THEN…I’m still taking some notes and watching the side session and when it’s over a coach points to a guy with a glove and throws him a ball, he then throws a ball to a kid standing about 20 people to the right (at this point there was a large crowd watching the pitchers). Fine, right? Wrong! Turns out the guy and kid were father and son! If I’m that father I’m looking to get a ball for my kid and if my kid gets one I give it up to another 10 year old who wasn’t so lucky. That guy is a jerk and I hope karma found a way to get back at him.

Before getting to the rest, here is the full stadium.

Some quick observation notes: there isn’t a lot of luxury space at Chase Field; there are a lot of exposed steel beams like in Seattle; in the lower seating bowl there is more leg room than I’ve seen at any other stadium; the upper deck is VERY steep and only Tampa may be steeper to this point; the outfield is exactly symmetrical with a bullpen down each line then 376/413/407/413/376 from left to right…or right to left, whichever you prefer :-)

There were some other cool things I stumbled upon on my lap around the stadium. The outfield wins, hands down. They have a pretty tall wall in left field; I wouldn’t say Monster height but the thing has to be somewhere in the 20-30 ft. range. Well, on top of it they have seats and tables that resemble the Monster Seats at Fenway. Above that is a walkway and then higher is a section of picnic tables for families and then a section of high-back chairs and tables for smaller parties to watch the game. Here are the picnic tables.

Continuing on I found some unique displays. One area highlighted all of the local ball fields the Diamondbacks and their players have sponsored since their inception. This is a picture of Curt Schilling throwing out the first pitch at “his” field.

Next stop was the deconstruction of a bat, ball and glove. I also saw this at AT&T Park and I think one other stadium but I couldn’t fit it in the pictures section of those posts. I’m sure if I had given 2 minutes of my time to the people from Rawlings they would have explained all about the process each element of the game goes through but I only arrived to the park 2 hours early, I had to be economical with my time, you know??

This was pretty unique. Every beer in this fridge cost $10.

My immediate reaction was outrage but once you think about it, it actually makes sense from a fan perspective. All of the beers are 24oz and you could waste your money by buying a Miller Lite or Bud Light for $10 but you could also get a 24oz draft of the same for $8.00. So then you look elsewhere and you see things like 24oz Sam Adams, Sam Light, Stella Artois, etc. for $10.00 and no other stadiums can compete with that. However, I bet the majority of fans aren’t looking to get the good beer though so it makes sense from the Dbacks' perspective as well as the fans. Kudos, good job Dbacks.

Just a couple of other observations before we get to some high and low points. This pool was sick! I know San Diego had their great little hill in right field and the sandbox for kids to play in but I think Arizona was catering to a more sophisticated crowd. They had seats for adults directly behind the right field wall as well as a pool in center field that could be rented out for larger parties or you could buy single tickets if you just want to go and have a good time. Now THAT’S a way to watch a ballgame!

The last thing I saw that was kind of interesting was during batting practice. Usually the home team hits and fields and then the visiting team does the same after the home team is all done. Well for a solid 5 minutes both teams were on the field at the same time trying to hit, catch, throw, run, etc. It really was pretty odd to watch and I don’t know if there was a scheduling mistake or if the Rockies were just trying to get in the Dbacks' heads or what. It definitely struck me as odd though.

High Points:

-Something I was told would be cool was the roof opening. I have to say I built it up in my mind too much but it still was OK. I guess about 20 minutes before game time they open the roof, weather permitting. I was told by a couple of the ushers there would be heavenly music and it would be quite the spectacle. Well, there was some faint music playing in the background and it took FOREVER for the damn thing to open but I guess it was still cool to watch. I took pictures and two videos but frankly, I don’t think they’re worth your while.

-When the roof did open the stadium was still all shaded. That was really nice. I’ve been loading up on sunscreen while in the desert (even while driving!) and I was ready to get fried again but the way the stadium is set up it was all shaded and I’m sure the fans all appreciated that gesture. Well, the fair skinned Irish ones anyways...

-Randy Johnson was pitching. I’ve barely missed John Smoltz’ 3000th strikeout, Greg Maddux’s 350th victory and a couple of other fairly significant milestone moments. Johnson wasn’t going for a milestone but any time you can watch a future hall of famer pitch it has to be worthwhile.

-I don’t know if this is a high point or a low point but it was a funny point. All of the Diamondback players had their picture on the scoreboard when they were at bat; pretty typical. However, they were all looking “towards the heavens” or, at least, towards something…a championship mayhaps? Here’s Eric Byrnes posing in the typical shot, looking up towards something.

Well, they all do this except for poor Conor Jackson who just does a regular pose. Then again, with those eyebrows, who are we to judge??

Another thing to note about this is the amount of information the scoreboard provides you with. It was HD and there was everything you needed to know, right there. Info about the hitters, the lineup, the pitcher as well as past history. Good job on that one.

-I’ve been reporting on the random race that most stadiums have between innings where it’s just a computer simulation but the fans get totally into it, right? Well, at this park there’s actually human interaction! Three kids dressed as hot dogs race their character around the bases based on how fast they can move their feet on a Nintendo running pad type thing. I think this picture is absolutely priceless. Maybe you had to be there but if you look closely you can see that Relish was the winner; however, the mustard kid in the middle throws his hands up in victory. The aftermath was classic but I don’t have a picture. He lost and was absolutely devastated!

-Got to see old friend Brandon Lyon closing games in an efficient manner.

-Finally, I didn’t test it that much but I still was able to move about the park freely and was not hassled by the ushers.

Low Points:

-OK, I know I’ve bitched about mascots before but this is really starting to irk me. The Arizona Diamondbacks are named after a snake. Hell, the scoreboard under the luxury boxes “snakes” around the ballpark. That’s unique and cool….run with it people! But no…the mascot that is on the field, pumping up the fans is none other than “Baxter”, a freaking cat. What the hell? The scoreboard doesn’t “cat around”, it’s SNAKES around! The Mariners should have a gruffy sailor yelling at the fans like a pirate and the Dbacks should have a damn snake squeezing the life out of its opponents. If you pick a name, stick with it.

-All of the food vendors had unique names but they served the same food. All of it was what you’d think of as typical ballpark food and all of it was pretty crappy and overpriced except for a regular hot dog which was only $2.75.

-Along with the previous point, all of the vendors on the upper level exactly mirrored those on the level below it. That’s just lame. You want to at least TRY to make it seem like they’re different, no?

-This is only the second park to do so (Tampa is the other one) but I absolutely cannot stand a host/hostess or both at a ballgame. It’s absolutely uncalled for and these people should be shot. They “host” the various tee-shirt flinging and credit card winners throughout the game and ask fans to cheer on the team in their most fake, detached news anchor voices and I really can’t believe the management for any team thinks this is a good idea. Terrible.

-The bathrooms were very plain and, to be honest, pretty dingy.

Overall Grade: B

Game Stats:

Teams: Diamondbacks vs. Rockies
Final Score: 7-4 Dbacks
WP: Randy Johnson
LP: Jeff Francis
Time: 2:40
Announced Attendance: 27,292
Ticket Price: $6.00
Parking Price: $5.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 7-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 3750
States Visited: 8
Beds slept in: 14
Next Stop: Texas Rangers
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

PETCO: where the pets go

First, I nearly broke the sound barrier on the way from Vegas to San Diego. I left early Saturday morning after dropping Steve off at the airport and I didn’t hit a lick of traffic. I know there are mothers and small children out there reading this blog so for their sake I won’t tell you how fast I was going. But for all my boys out there, I made it in under 5 hours!! Super duper! Neato!

I’ve done the Grand Canyon and some national parks out west before so I’ve seen the landscapes…but they still impress me. It’s just nothing like what you find back east. I clocked some straightaways at over 10 miles! That just made me think of the course we used to run for high school track and how long it seemed…and now here it was, laid out directly in front of me. Plus all the mountain ranges and how they dwarf anything I had known as a “mountain” (i.e. the white mountains in New Hampshire). It’s all pretty cool.

Second, San Diego is INCREDIBLE! If you’re looking for a travel buddy, I really want to go back. While we’re at it, I’d also go on a trip back to Denver or Las Vegas. Keep me in mind! So I stayed near the “gaslamp district”… any of you San Diego-ites (San Diego-ins? San Diego-uns? …San Diegans!) might know what or where that is. It’s right by the water and they have street after street of nice restaurants, wine bars, pubs and attractions. I wanted to try them all and even ended up extending my stay in the city by a night. The weather was always perfect and the people were really friendly and wanted to know all about my trip. I need to get myself to a convention back there or something.

Third, I must apologize in advance for the length of this post and to those of you who haven’t seen the movie Anchorman with Will Ferrell. I’m mildly obsessed and I’ve been looking forward to writing this San Diego post for quite some time. If you have seen the movie, great! If you haven’t, go rent it and make sure to watch it more than once because I absolutely hated it the first time I saw it.

With that in mind, the following is based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed…

Game Notes:

I’m going to put something out there. If you like it you can keep it, if you don’t you can send it right back. Petco Park was absolutely breathtaking, I mean, that thing was good. I’m having a hard time believing anywhere else will top it. I did not give the park an “A+” because I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to hand out that grade. If I do decide to use that grade I reserve the right to return to this post and in my sole discretion change Petco’s grade to an “A+”.

Where do I start? To give you a bit of an insider’s look at these posts, I’ve taken roughly a page of notes per park and about 50-75 pictures. I then narrow down the pictures and try to touch on most of the notes in each post. Well, for Petco Park I filled two pages completely and took about 150 pictures! To give you perspective and maybe help hammer home a previous point, Dodger stadium started to spill onto the back of the first page and Angels stadium barely came through with 2/3 of one page…there just wasn’t that much to grab my attention.

Before we do anything else I think you should look at this picture. Obviously I wasn’t going to fit all of the cool things into one picture but this one does the best job. I may refer back to it a few times.


I found the right field gate and immediately upon entering the park I knew this place would be different. There were horses, a live band, people spread out eating picnic food on a grassy knoll and a man on fire! OK, no horses or burning people but this is a tremendous idea by the Padres. They charge people $5.00 and families can go sit together with their kids to eat (yes, they allow food in) and watch a game. Also, there is a full size little league field right next to the knoll for kids to get all the energy out of their system prior to first pitch. Here is their view.


Behind the grassy knoll are condos and office buildings that provide tenants/employees with great views of the game. There had to be a half dozen buildings (all fairly tall) that had great views of the stadium. What better way to spend a Thursday afternoon procrastinating then by watching a live baseball game? In front of the grassy knoll are bleachers with grass floors and a sandbox! No, I don’t have a family yet but when I do we’re coming back here. Everything you need is within a 200 ft. radius and to top it off they have a kids menu with exceptionally priced ballpark fare.























I HAVEN'T GOT 100 FT. INTO THE STADIUM AND ALREADY I'M WORKED UP! (lower your voice, Matt…)

Next…it had a theme! San Diego is pretty much the most south-westerly city in the country. When you walk into Petco, you know that. The entire stadium has a desert feel to it yet still welcomes you with open arms. The concession areas were filled with unique (if overpriced) food and drinks and for the most part had an open air element to them. Even the plain walls were dressed up with Padres paraphernalia or flowers or brightly colored trees.
























As I walked around the park I kept stumbling across more and more cool things. Take this picture for instance. There are two things to note. First, how great is this idea?! They had one of these scoreboards under every section on the lower level. Second, notice off to the right the HDTV that complemented every one of these scoreboards. I mean, by the beard of Zeus, I haven’t seen anything like that yet!

Another aspect of Petco Park that immediately grabbed my attention was how many unique viewing areas there were. If you look at the stadium view picture up top you can see a brick warehouse in left field, the private viewing party deck on top of that, the seats with flowers (similar to where Monster Seats at Fenway would be) in left center, the grassy knoll, bleachers and sandbox in right center as well as some of the condos that surrounded the park. Below, looking in the other direction you can see the awesome seats that stick out under the press box, some of a tower that sticks up above the stadium on each of the baselines and another view of the warehouse seats.

And on top of these there were so many more clubs, pavilions, decks, etc. to make fans feel special and give them a unique vantage of the game. I thought the Giants had done a lot with a “typical” stadium…but I did NOT see this coming; the Padres blew them out of the water.

How about the food? I can only say “well done, sir.” The drinks were overpriced, but that has been a bit of a theme, no?

Remember how I cut myself off from generic hot dogs or fake gimmicks like the “coliseum dog”? Well, the Padres offered a Diego Dog. It’s made with bits of real Padre, so you know it’s good. Get this…spicy sausage on a French bread roll with “secret sauce”, cabbage and salsa, then I added my own jalapeños. Tremendous! I’ve never had anything like it, especially at a baseball game. Definitely got an A.


When I sat down to enjoy my purchase I knew I wasn’t in the right section and, apparently, so did the ushers. I prepared to put my charm face on and tell the guy I was kind of a big deal. That my apartment spells of rich mahogany and that I’m friends with Riley Ohlson, who comes over on occasion…but I didn’t need to! I sat in the lower bowl on the third baseline in the middle of a section. An usher immediately came over to me and asked to see my ticket. I told him that wasn’t my section and he replied with “oh, that’s OK sir, can I just ask you to move to the end of the row?”!!!!!!! What the hell?! I wasn’t even mad, that’s amazing! We needed the Atlanta Nazis to take a break from their pledge drive to kick some ass, am I right? Of course I heeded his request and moved down the row. Then another usher came down and asked not to see my ticket but why the first usher had moved me there! She didn’t care that it wasn’t my section either, she was just curious as to why he had put me on “her half”. We all shared a chuckle (myself, the second usher and the two girls in front of me who had bought the $5.00 GA seats) and I went back to eating my Diego Dog. Way to stay classy and keep the fans happy San Diego!

After that I walked around a bit more and found out it was “adoption Sunday.” I hadn’t quite put together that “Petco Park” is the namesake of the PETCO pet store. Well, it is and they had a few “pound puppies” at the park waiting to be adopted. A great idea, compelling and rich.

I suppose I should wrap up the notes section and get to the high and low points…but I’m tellin ya, there weren’t too many low points.

High Points:

-I attended this game on Mother’s Day – happy mother’s day, mom! Love you :-)

-The whole park was clean and felt like new. The bathrooms were spotless, there was no trash in the concession areas and all the ushers were friendly and seamed to genuinely enjoy their job. What can I say? I like the way it’s put together.

-Kevin Kouzmanoff at the plate aaaaannnnnd, WHAMMY! He got a hit but was booed by the fans?? No wait, they’re not saying boo, they’re saying “KooooooooZ”, just like Kevin Yooookilis!

-I walked to the game but the parking garage directly next to the stadium only charged $10 to park and was half empty. Wow!

-Unlike the two LA games, fans were in their seats for the first pitch. It wasn’t a sellout but the number of fans did not dramatically increase over the first 3 innings. Also, everyone was really into the game. Fans again SANG take me out to the ballgame during the 7th inning stretch and they were right there with every pitch. At the end of the game people knew to stand up with 2 outs and 2 strikes without being prompted by the scoreboard. That was nice to see. Also, the place went bonkers during God Bless America for the Marines that had come to the game; loudest cheers all day actually.

-Every stadium has an area where you put your own condiments on your hot dog or hamburger or whatever. Well, Petco Park is the first one to include jalapenos standard. Also, 60% of the time, the regular hot dogs came on a sesame seed bun, every time.

-I noticed some people in the upper deck trying to get the wave started. It took them TWO (2) tries and the thing goes all the way around the park! I’m not the biggest fan of the wave and don’t participate all the time but that was damn impressive.

-The Diego Dog was delicious but boy was it filling!

-I got to catch up with old friends Cla Meredith and Bryan Corey who both pitched in the game

-Luke Carlin was called up and got his first major league hit during the game. Don’t you know the nice San Diegans gave him a standing “O”?

-Tony Gwynn shirts were everywhere. I know he’s an all around good guy but he retired years ago. It was nice to see he’s still remembered so fondly. They even gave him a statue.

-I’ve been to 10 parks now and the tickets at each of them have been the same, roughly, except for the background logo of each team. It may seem like a given at this point but even the Padres ticket was larger, on different paper and just cooler overall than any other ticket. It’s like they paid attention to every single little detail!

-I’ve seen this practice at other stadiums and sports but I’ve never seen one of these signs. It’s annoying to have to wait when returning to your seats but it’s 10 times more shitty to have someone returning to their seats with a full count and a runner on third, you know??

-This next high point goes to me. I learned a thing or two about “due diligence” from all of my mentors over the last few years. Well, I stumbled upon this place right outside the stadium.


Initially I was going to write a big thing about how they’re ripping off Cold Stone Creamery and how the similarities were too apparent and blah blah. Well, after I did a little research it turns out that Marble Slab was founded in Houston in 1983 while Cold Stone was discovered by the Germans in 1904. No, just kidding, it was born five years later in Tempe in 1988! Good thing I covered all of my bases on that one, eh? That way I can get it right when I say “Hey Cold Stone, you look like a blueberry!”

-This post is really getting long so I’m going to skip down to the low points. The bottom line though, when it comes to Petco Park is that I love, bleachers…I love, ushers…I love, Diego Dog (Matt, do you really love the Diego Dog or are you just saying that because you want one right now?) I LOVE DIEGO DOG!

Low Points:

-This section is not going to be easy to write, let’s see…

-They didn’t offer spicy mustard (though the jalapeños kind of made up for that).

-It was so damn hot that milk would have made for a poor choice.

-The drinking water in their fountains didn’t taste the best (I’m really grasping at straws here…).

-The aforementioned drink prices were a bit high but hot dogs were only $4.00. Not outrageous. Plus, the Diego Dog was Diegoliscious!

-I didn’t really like “Mrs. Padre” or whatever her name was. They should just stick with the friar and be done with it.

-The scoreboard again had to get the fans involved a little too much for my liking. They were into the game enough though.

-There were no commercials, nor was there any mercy.

-AND THAT’S IT!

Thanks for stopping by…

Overall Grade: A

Game Stats:

Teams: Padres vs. Rockies
Final Score: 6-1 Padres
WP: Chris Young
LP: Greg Reynolds
Time: 2:53
Announced Attendance: 28,624
Ticket Price: $14.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 6-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 3280
States Visited: 7
Beds slept in: 13
Next Stop: Arizona Diamondbacks
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

Area 51

I’m temporarily going to go against the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” creed and report on the Las Vegas 51’s game I made it to. The 51’s are the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Steve and I took some time out from Sin City and met up with Liam and Shana for about 6-7 innings of what turned out to be a 12 inning game!

Game Notes:

We took a cab ride from the strip to Cashman Stadium which is right near Downtown Las Vegas and all of the older casinos. The funny part was when we walked up to get tickets and there were about 100 people in line. The line moved quickly enough but everyone killed time by drinking the beers they were holding in their hands, out in the open, in public. That was something I didn’t quite get used to in Vegas…the fact that you can walk down the street with an open container. Wild stuff.

Anyways, Steve and I had each just won some money (I won on the Sox and Celts and he won on the Red Wings) so we happily shelled out $8.00 for a game ticket and then found our way to the dollar beer station! Yes, that was a huge selling point for Liam to get us to come out. The food prices though, were not much better than the majors. I think the chicken fingers and fries basket ran us $6.00?

The stadium itself is small and cozy. It definitely feels like a minor league park. The outfield walls are littered with advertisements but the mountain backdrop certainly paints a pretty picture. I didn’t pay too much attention to the game but it was still nice to get out and see the stadium.

I took two shitty cell phone pictures:

Of the infield

And the outfield

High Points:

-Dollar Beer Night!

-John “WAYBACK!” Wasdin picked up the save for the Memphis Redbirds

Low Points:

-We didn’t stay until the 12th inning to see Wasdin get his save

-The cabbie on the ride back from Downtown to the Strip had an open bud light in his center console – oops, that’s not baseball! I guess what happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas…

Overall Grade: N/A

Game Stats:

Teams: 51’s vs. Redbirds
Final Score: 4-3 Redbirds
WP: Not Sure
LP: Who Cares
S: John “WAYBACK!” Wasdin
Time: 3:19
Announced Attendance: 6,420
Ticket Price: $8.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:

Home team record: N/A
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: Not Sure
States Visited: N/A
Beds slept in: N/A
Next Stop: San Diego Padres
Favorite Park: AT&T Park (Giants)

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

Hollywood Hills

***Editor’s Note: Just so we’re all clear, I’m not very good at this internet programming thing so I can’t really fix it but I want to make sure everyone is aware that if you cannot see some details in any of these pictures I’ve been posting you can click on it and it becomes mega-ultra huge in your browser. I’m not sure exactly how to get that right but at least you can see what I’m talking about!***

Steve and I made sure to leave plenty of time to get to the game because of the infamous LA traffic. We actually got there wicked early and were lead across acres of parking lot to go get tickets. I mean, this thing was BIG. I had heard a rumor that if one purchases a ticket in the upper deck at Dodger Stadium, one cannot view any of the park from any point other than that deck. Well, turns out to be true! You can enter at any gate with your section or higher (i.e. field level can enter via levels 1-4 but upper deck can only enter on level 4). I asked the ticket sales person about this and she informed me that they would not be able to keep tabs on people moving lower who had not paid for those seats. Fine, it makes complete sense and here we go again with the “running a business” thing but I had an immediate flashback to my Atlanta experience. Anyway, we decided to jump up in price a bit to get down to the 2nd deck from the field so we’d have access to 3 areas of the stadium.

We were still incredibly early so we went for a drive to kill time. We headed down Sunset “boolevahd” where I was able to snap a photo with a fantastically small HOLLYWOOD sign WAY in the distance. We also took a spin up in the Hollywood Hills. That was actually rather incredible. We were winding this way and that on the streets and some of the views that these people have are just sick. We were trying to guess how much some of these palaces would cost and no number seemed out of the question. Side note: the streets up there are so windy and narrow that I feared for my life around nearly every bend.

After enough time was killed we went back to the expanse of land that is the parking lots at Chavez Ravine and tailgated while we watched the Celts game. So what if we only had a bottle each and the blackberry was on “auto refresh” with score updates? We had a damn good time!

Eventually we met up with Vinny and headed into the game. Vinny is a Mets fan and was wearing the colors; more on that later.

Game Notes:

Dodgers Stadium is a bit older and out of the way and I really wasn’t expecting too much but the overall experience kind of surprised me, in a good way. Instead of sticking with the eyesore that is exposed concrete, the concession area is completely decked out with banners, pennants, logos, and posters with pictures of past and present player/manager types. Of course, this guy was featured prominently:

Immediately upon entering the Stadium the class separation becomes apparent. However, before we get to that…check out the colors here. I know the Dodgers go with the blue and white so they’d need to add more colors but is this the scheme they really want to go with? Seems a bit odd…maybe “chalk it up to the 70’s” and move on? OK, let’s do that.

Anyway, it was clear they were the Bourgeoisie, we were the proletariat (and who said I couldn’t get to use my Sociology degree?! Oh, right, that was me…). They lived out their champagne wishes and caviar dreams in first class luxury while we were stuck with “3 hots and a cot” down in steerage…or in this case, the upper deck.

“Matt, calm down, these people were 20 feet below you at a baseball game and they probably didn’t even pay for their tickets, I’m sure they knew a guy.”

“But these seats look so cool!”

My favorite part was the guards that were stationed outside all of these field boxes. Even if some of us commoners managed to wrangle our way down a level, weren’t none of us folk getting anywhere near them fancy seats! And while we’re on this point, check out the exotic vendors these people get to throw their money at:

After I cooled down a bit we checked out the rest of the stadium. I immediately started to get worked up again, this time about beer prices. Then I realized they served almost exclusively 24oz. portions (for $10…not bad). Dodger stadium has an extreme lack of public transportation access so it seemed a bit odd they’d want to serve that much alcohol…oh well, not my call. The rest of the concessions repeated themselves over and over again. Panda Express, Carl’s Jr. and the California Pizza Kitchen were around every corner. Definitely the most fast food joints I’ve seen at a stadium to this point. Of course they had standard ballpark fare as well and tried to get me on a “Dodger Dog” but after my “Coliseum Dog” in Oakland I was a more savvy consumer and found out that this time it would have been a regular hot dog again. No dice, buddy!

We had tickets right by the Mets’ bullpen, which Vinny was down with, so we didn’t move around too much until the later innings. Interesting to note the ushers had no problems with us taking the stairs UP.

High Points:

-I haven’t mentioned a national anthem in a while because the girl in Tampa really “blew it out da box, dawg” but the woman at Dodger Stadium was a very close second. She seemed like the type that came out to LA with big recording contract dreams but is still stuck in “the second deck” so to speak. Not quite “bourgeois,” if you will.

-Andruw Jones getting booed during pregame introductions, his first at bat and at every subsequent mention of his name. The Dodgers just agreed to give this guy $30M for the next two years. We’re a month into the season. He’s batting somewhere south of .200 and the fans are livid. Wow.

-The concessions not only had spicy mustard (I’m such a sucker), they also showed the Celts/Cavs game which we crowded around for the last 2 minutes.

-OK, I’m gullible. They got $12.00 for it but it was 24oz. and it lit up!

Wait…here it is in the dark:

-A graphic about Luis Castillo was shown on the scoreboard in an early inning. It said something to the effect of “During 2003, 2004 and 2005 Castillo hit….” Well, later in the game that same stat was put on the board but this time it read “From 2003 – 2005 Castillo hit…” Way to go scoreboard guys! Someone was paying attention.

-We moved up to the very top deck for the 9th inning and when the Mets started to mount a comeback Vinny started a “let’s go Mets” chant! We were loud and banging on the seats so of course we immediately drew the ire of the LA fans. They were not pleased with us and told me I was wearing the wrong hat but I’d say that was a high point :)

Low Points:

-When Steve and I showed up really early we were actually trying to find out which gate to go in for the game and the stadium was completely open. We walked right into the concession area and I’m pretty sure we could have hid in the bathroom until game time if we had wanted. The security was pretty lax overall I’d say. (low point because we wasted money on tickets!)

-Remember the bullpen oasis in Colorado? Dodger Stadium tried to make their own and it didn’t come out nearly as well. Also, doesn’t the pitcher’s arm look cool?

-I’ve mentioned the shuffle game that happens at pretty much every stadium. A ball is hidden under a hat and they are mixed up and the fans need to choose which hat it’s under with their cheers. This was the easiest freakin’ hat shuffle I’ve ever seen! The hats went so slow yet everyone was patting themselves on the back when they chose correctly. That was just kind of weird.

-After my great bathroom discovery in Oakland the Dodgers go and pull the same trick. So much for that idea…I’ll spare you the visual this time.

-The LA fans again lived up to their “show up late, leave early” reputation. The 3rd-7th innings were crowded though!

-They spelled Dippin’ Dots wrong!

-Not really a low point again but the outfield looked like a minor league stadium. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Here’s the full thing:

Overall Grade: B+

Game Stats:

Teams: Dodgers vs. Mets
Final Score: 5-4 Dodgers
WP: Hong-Chih Kuo
LP: Nelson Figueroa
S: Takashi Saito
Time: 3:21
Announced Attendance: 43,927
Ticket Price: $30.00
Parking Price: $15.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 5-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 2660
States Visited: 6
Beds slept in: 10
Next Stop: San Diego Padres
Favorite Park: AT&T Park (Giants)

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

California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County Los Angeles

Karen and I have had our first fight. When I was leaving San Francisco to drive down to LA I knew I wanted to take the highway that runs along the coast because everyone says it’s so gorgeous. Well, Karen did not think this was the best way for me to head south because of the much quicker freeway that cuts down the middle of the state. She was rather indignant when she would announce “recalculating” after I’d miss yet another turn off. This was my one chance to see the California coast though and I wasn’t going to miss it for some machine. Eventually Karen got so angry with me that she shut herself off! And I don’t mean emotionally, I mean literally, just turned off. I knew she probably needed some time for herself so I waited until the afternoon when I was much closer to LA before I turned her on again. Things are better now but that first fight is always a bit rough, you know?

The coast road was all I was told it would be. I can put up some pictures in that “miscellaneous adventures” post I promise I’ll get to. I picked up Steve at LAX and we were off to his aunt and uncle’s house for a few days to see the Angels and Dodgers games.

Game Notes:

I went to the Angels game early with Steve and his uncle Harry (and we met up with the rest of the fam later at the game because they have season tickets (by the way, buy 2 get 2 on those tickets…wow!)). It was a day game that started at 12:45 and I’ve been trying to get to the stadiums early to check them out. We were trying to find a little food for brunch and quickly found our options to be limited. We were forced to go to the Hooters near the park. Such a shame. We all ordered wings; I went with the 3-mile island (2nd hottest) and in retrospect should have got the 911 (hottest). The waitresses were nice though, all 27 of them.

OK OK, on to baseball. The stadium and its grounds reminded me a bit of LA generally, just a lot of sprawl. The surrounding parking lots were massive and it took a while to walk to the stadium. The entrance is pretty cool though.


As you approach the gate you walk onto a full size baseball field with red and green bricks laid out to mirror the grass and dirt of the field. At every position there is a section of the bricks with the names of the opening day starter for the last 40+ years. Here’s 3rd base:



We went to the game on McDonald’s Family Sunday. Ironically there was not a McDonald’s anywhere at the park. That also meant the place was filled with kids and families. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of little leaguers wearing their uniforms as they got to walk in a parade around the warning track. To go along with that theme, Angels Stadium was another that was very kid/family oriented (most likely due to the whole Disney affiliation thing). They had games and activities just like a lot of the other recent parks but I’ll spare you all the visual this time!

The game itself was pretty good. The Angels jumped on Steve Trachsel early and everyone loves offense - side note, how does this guy still have a job? It seems like every year he catches on with someone and he’s given ANOTHER shot. He’s horrible! (http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/trachst01.shtml) We were able to move around the upper deck pretty easily without getting hassled by the ushers. The food and drink prices were fairly reasonable ($6.50 for a 21oz beer and $3.00 for a hot dog) and the concession areas were all very clean and “new” feeling.

I know I have a lot of people reading this who are Angels fans and I don’t want to step on any toes but I have to say there was nothing about the stadium that really grabbed my attention and drew me in. I didn’t have any big problems with anything but there also was no signature “thing” to make the park memorable compared to anywhere else.

While we’re at it…

High Points:

-This was really funny. Erica pointed it out to me after the game. For those of you that don’t buy fitted hats you may not be in on the joke but for those that have, share a chuckle with me.

-For some reason I really liked the bleachers in right field. They’re pretty big and reminded me a little of Fenway. It seems a bit odd that this would be a high point but I just liked them, so there.

-This was pretty cool. They had about 6-7 current Angels players with their little league photos and stats from when they were just starting out. I haven’t seen that anywhere else and I thought it was a good idea.

-Everyone had their rally monkeys ready to go. Turns out they weren’t necessary but it was certainly a pervasive feature of the park. Erica had hers ready just in case.

Low Points:

-One of the first things you see when you walk up is a big "No Scalping" sign…you can’t resell your tickets at ANY price! How about if your friend has to bail and you just want to unload the ticket for $10? Nope.

-I know this happens at a lot of parks but the scoreboard was leading most of the cheers in Anaheim

-The anthem itself was OK but a.) they shot off fireworks that I really was not prepared for and b.) the stupid Orioles fans in attendance all shouted their signature “OHHH” when it’s time for “O say, can you see…” I got so sick of that when I’d go to Sox/Orioles games in Maryland. Not the Angels fault but still a low point of the day for me.

-It’s an LA thing and it happened at the Dodgers game too but let’s just say the stadium was MUCH more crowded for innings 3-7 than for the others.

-Mr. Scoreboard operator was having a bit of an off day. Note the stats large in the center and on the lower right…supposed to be the same guy.

Overall Grade: B-

Game Stats:

Teams: Angels vs. Orioles
Final Score: 6-5 Angels
WP: Joe Saunders
LP: Steve Trachsel
S: Francisco Rodriguez
Time: 2:53
Announced Attendance: 39,273
Ticket Price: $12.00
Parking Price: N/A (drove to the game but parked at a nearby bar for free)

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 4-4
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 2660
States Visited: 6
Beds slept in: 10
Next Stop: Los Angeles Dodgers
Favorite Park: AT&T Park (Giants)

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