The Jake

Well, this was a interesting game. We'd been looking forward to going to Progressive Field. We'd heard good things about it - it was voted best ballpark in Sports Illustrated last year, the All-Star game was there about 10 years ago. (Side note: we noticed that even though the two Ohio ballparks had naming rights bought by insurance companies, they actually turned out to be decent-sounding names despite that: Great American Ballpark, Progressive Field). We were sure we'd actually get to this game on time because we left in plenty of time for a place only 15 minutes from our hotel. However, the parking situation was atrocious. We were directed into a garage attached to Progressive and the adjacent Quicken Loans Arena (an unfortunate result of naming rights and where the Cavs play) and then were led up to the very top of the garage - passing many Quicken Loan Arena staff and basketball operations reserved spots along the way - and then led all the way back down to the basement where we had to park in a Quicken Loans Arena staff reserved spot after all. So we ended up getting in 45 minutes after the game started even though we were at the arena before the game started. Then it took forever to get food.

It's a very pretty park, though, definitely. For those of you who don't know, its nickname is The Jake because up until this year it was called Jacobs Field after former team owners Richard and David Jacobs. They offer quite a few affordable seats, too, which is great except that they're miles from the field. Our seats were fine, though I had a bit of an obstruction with the foul pole. If there was a left-handed batter, this was my view (right):

But if a righty was at bat, this was my view (below):

For some reason we couldn't figure out, this particular game seemed to go ON and ON - and that's just the beginning of the story. There wasn't much action. It was tied 2-2 until the 4th and then the lead went back and forth by one in the following innings. We really didn't want to have another parking garage fiasco when we left and felt pretty okay about leaving with the Indians leading 5-3 in the 8th during another former Cub sighting:

But guess what? We found out after we left that Kerry Wood blew the save! Huh. Anyway, we laughed and laughed when we got back to the hotel and saw the game was still going on. And laughed more when we learned it didn't end until the 13th when former National Jamey Carroll RBI singled to score JHonny Peralta. Indians win 6-5 over the Tigers. We wondered if they ended up canceling the promised post-game fireworks since it was so late. We did get to hear some fireworks early in the game because they shoot them off to scare away the seagulls that have taken to hanging around the outfield.

Tough game for the Indians, despite the win. Tough day for them because their all-star catcher Victor Martinez was traded to the Red Sox. He's been with them literally since he was a kid and was like a captain to them.

Here's another cool mobile Google maps shot - it shows me right inside the park!



Our last self-portrait of the trip! Tomorrow I get to sleep in my bed for one whole night before the 3rd leg of my 3-week vacation, a relaxing week in Okoboji. Kris has a long drive home unfortunately, but may stop by the Nationals at Pittsburgh in one of our favorite parks, PNC. THANK YOU to Kristina for another wonderful baseball park adventure! This one didn't go the most smoothly as far as travel and weather, but it still was incredible fun.



A couple shots to leave you with - the hot dog races (mustard wins!) and Heritage Park, the home of the Indians Hall of Fame.

Great American Ballpark

As you may be able to see from this photo, it was raining as we entered the stadium. We decided to forgo our ticketed seats that were exposed to the elements to sit up in a higher section because it was under cover. There were touchy moments, but the game never delayed and eventually the sun came out and we moved down to our real seats. It's sort of amazing the difference between one section level in how good the view is. Plus since it was a noon weekday game in the rain between the NL West last-place team and the second-to-last team in the Central, we pretty much could have sat wherever we wanted. Our seats were situated so that The Gap, this 35-foot gap between 3rd and home, was to our backs.

Our opinions on this ballpark was that it was a'iight. It opened 6 years ago but sort of seems much older than that, not in a good way. It has some fun features.
The Power Stacks - it was a bit disappointing because supposedly when a Reds pitcher strikes out a batter smoke is supposed to come out of the stacks, which are a nod to the steamboats that used to travel the Ohio River behind it. But there were actually quite a few strikeouts - one inning even three in a row! and no smoke. So we were hoping (but not feeling it was likely) that there would be a Reds homerun so we could see the other thing the Power Stacks are supposed to do - shoot out fireworks. But that did happen! Adam Rosales hit a 3-run homer in the 9th, a bit late, with two outs left. Wasn't enough to beat the Padres - really - and they lost 7-4. I was kind of hoping to catch a glimpse of Dusty Baker but I didn't. I did have another former Cub sighting, however:



Oh, we did get to see fireworks and finally smoke emitted from the stacks, as you can see in the photo.

I know I always mention the out of town scoreboards but since I'm almost never seeing a Cubs game, I want to see what's going on with their game. Same with Kris and her Nationals, though she actually gets to see them more than I get to see my team. This one was pretty good:



Their league standings setup was cool, though the Cards were AGAIN in an unfortunate position (darn you, Pujols!!) though if we were there tomorrow, we would find that situation remedied.



Cueto was pitching and didn't do so well. Something like 6 earned runs. I like this shot of Joey Votto, who I was just trying to photograph batting but accidentally got a better shot just after he doubled.

When he turned up, I was reminded how annoyed I get whenever I see LaYnce Nix or his brother JaYson, who plays for the White Sox.

Think that's all except for our self-portrait. We have enjoyed our time in Cincinnati, on to Cleveland tomorrow.

Cooperstown, Niagara, and a long danged drive

Right now it seems like so long ago, but on Tuesday while wending our way toward Ohio for our last two games, we stopped over in Cooperstown, New York where you can find the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We wished we'd had more time to spend in the town because it seemed like a cool community with lots of cute little shops and other attractions in addition to the Hall of Fame.

I should mention that the TomTom gps that Steph and Kris gave me for my birthday has done an EXCELLENT job getting us around so we've depended completely on it. We changed it from my kids' preference of Tim, the British dude who says cool stuff like, "...then enter the motorway..." to Samantha, the American computer voice, because it's the only one that reads out loud a lot of detail while navigating. We question a bit the route Samantha took us through to get to Cooperstown. It seemed kinda backroady, despite her assertion that she takes us the fastest way possible. The good thing was we went through some BEAUTIFUL countryside and I found a very small New York town west of Albany called Schenevus. It looked like the type of town where you could go to if you wanted to disappear from your old life and start over, like in that Julia Roberts "Sleeping with the Enemy" movie. Oops. Now you'll all know where to find me should that ever happen.

Here's a few photos from the HOF:



Sorry about the lame formatting but this website is not very user-friendly in that regard. That last photo shows a Quad City Swing duffel bag that was used in the movie "Sugar" which was filmed a bit in Davenport. I haven't seen it yet but it was made by the same people who did "Half-Nelson" which is another good well-regarded sports film.

On Wednesday we made another non-baseball stop in Niagara Falls. I've been there a few times, but Kristina has never seen them. We got to view the New York side American Falls and Bridal Veil before it rained. Have we mentioned it's rained this year? A lot?



Then there was a 7 hour drive to Cincinnati where we've been able to stay put for almost a whole day now. Our hotel is right on the Ohio riverfront. We're actually in Kentucky but can see the Cincinnati downtown where there are lots of sporting venues and lots of fun things to do. We've been happy with Cincy - it's friendly, safe-feeling, easy and cheap to get around. Maybe still tonight we'll get to posting about the Reds game today. I can hear thunder outside. What a surprise.

Citi Field, which doesn't have a good nickname other than the suggestion by a couple NY city council members: "Citi/Taxpayer Field"...

...which is a comment on Citigroup getting a little help in more than one economic bailout, of course.

When it was raining very heavily in the afternoon we worried we might have another rain delay or even a rainout on our hands. Instead, it rained while we were at Times Square which was a bummer mostly because they had put away the lawn chairs on Broadway because of it. Speaking of that, there was more than one instance when we encountered a jaded New Yorker who assumed they knew better than us but were actually mistaken. Like this girl who said, when we asked where the lawn chairs were, "They're out on Broadway. They go all the way down to 42nd." with a face that read "Idiot tourists." We were like, "Bitch, don't look at us like we're stupid. We came from 42nd, there are no chairs out." at which point she said maybe they put them away when it rains. Here's a tip, lady, if you work at a place called "Times Square Information" maybe you should know the policies of stuff that the Times Square Alliance sponsors.

Anyway, so Citi Field. It has a facade built to be reminiscent of Ebbet's Field, as do a couple other neo-classic ballparks. When you enter, it's through the gorgeous Jackie Robinson rotunda that makes you feel like you're walking into the lobby of a luxury hotel.


It's a beautiful tribute to Robinson and features the character traits he embodied. It's kind of fancy at this park in general. They even have elevator attendants who wear suits. Not very ballparky feeling until you reach your seats, but nice. There's much less seating there than Shea had (I think like 15,000 less) but Shea was just way huge so it's still a decent size.

We were hoping that a Met would get a home run because we wanted to see the Home Run Apple rise up from in front of the batter's eye. This apple is much bigger than their previous apple in Shea (which I guess is by the bullpen, but we didn't see it). So then Jeff Francoeur did hit a home run in the 4th but they didn't raise the apple!! Everyone protested and chanted, "Ap-ple, ap-ple..." until finally they did bring it up and all was well. Poor Cory Sullivan, the next batter, probably wondered what he did to deserve the booing that occurred as he went to bat.











The out-of-town game scoreboard was very nice. I like ones with detail that would allow you to follow the game, as I had an eye on what was going on with Chicago and Houston.

As I said in my Facebook status, Kris and I were both happy that Josh Willingham of the Washington Nationals hit not one but TWO grand slams in their game against Milwaukee, who I am always happy to see get beaten. Our Mets/Colorado game had its own grand slam, from Fernando Tatis, which occurred in the 8th right as I was reading on the big screen that he is the only batter in MLB history to have hit two grand slams in one inning (1999 vs. Dodgers as a Cardinal) and the first Met since 2000 to hit a pinch-hit grand slam. It was very cool and finally silenced the loud Rockies fans seated behind us a couple rows. Nice to see the home team win. They've been in a bit of a dry spell, and they'd had a bad day in that one of their front office guys, VP of player development Tony Bernazard, was fired, which was accompanied by some weird stuff regarding a Daily News Mets reporter and his connection with it, which could have been distracting to the team. Final score was 7-3.



I'll leave you with our self-portrait - looks like it's sunny but that's just the big stadium lights. Also, a photo of my phone showing my GPS location using mobile Google maps Latitude (the program that theoretically allows me and Ed to spy on each other's location whenever we feel like it). It's accurate! Mostly. In this case anyway. It shows me in an empty lot next to Shea Stadium.




Actually, one more photo, for David Wright fans:

Oh no, it's raining again

It's funny that both previous baseball trip blogs have had weather themes (The Nor'easter and The Lake Effect) based on the region we were traveling in. This year I had a lack of time and a lack of brilliance, and never came up with a good weather theme that would span DC, New York City and upstate, and Ohio.

You see the generic result of my lack of creativity and time. Well, it turns out I could have used a rain theme. As everyone knows, we got rained out in DC. Yesterday's Yankees game had beautiful weather (I had to buy sunblock from one of the souvenir stands in the stadium) but then there was a torrential downpour afterward with hail and everything. And a rainbow afterward. Now we're sitting in the hotel -- we're slow to get going, and that's fine with us -- watching it pour rain outside. See photo at left, the view out the window. Hope it stops well in advance of tonight's Mets game. If not, you'll get pictures of us staying in the room and playing parcheesi.

Oooh! The rain stopped and the sun's out now. Let's hope it holds up because I have no idea how to play parcheesi and we don't have it with us anyway.

P.S. - read the previous post first!

Kristina did an excellent job recounting our first game of the trip but I wanted to throw in the self-portrait we traditionally take:

If you are one of our readers from previous years you will notice this looks pretty much exactly like many of our others. I suppose that's good; maybe we haven't aged much in the last two years? Notice I didn't specify WHICH birthday Kris celebrated the other day? She is younger than me, is all I'll say. But not much.

I don't know what Kris was talking about with the rude fans - I thought everyone we encountered was surprisingly friendly and the staff at Yankee Stadium was extremely helpful. (When she gave me examples I did recall some obnoxious drivers, though, and the rude chick she ran into I didn't encounter because I was taking a picture for a group at the moment, which is what the chick was annoyed about but she should chillax, man). But we took full advantage of the staff with their "How can I help you?" shirts and fans by asking each one along the path to pick up our tickets and then to our seats in the folding chair row in the bleachers (awesome, by the way, and cheap) where to go next. And then there were the dudes who helped me when I was out of quarters for the smashed-penny machine (my boys collect them) by giving me quarters and refusing to take my equivalent money for them. It cost a dollar! Everywhere else in the world I've done those it was only 50 cents, yeesh. So after I already took a quarter from him, I actually was ill-mannered enough myself to ask him for more. The crowd's rudeness was kind of traditional. The guy wearing the Red Sox stuff was looking for trouble, I imagine.

Here's a photo of the Cubs flag - they fly both AL and NL teams' flags in order of league standings. Unfortunately, the Cubs hadn't won their game yet so St. Louis was still ahead of it:


Half game up, baby!

Tomorrow night, the Mets. Now, when we went to Shea, I found everyone we encountered to be very rude - maybe their new stadium has improved their attitudes? We shall see.

The House That Ruth Rebuilt

I'm so impressed by my title for the photo I posted on facebook earlier today from Yankee Stadium that I had to use it again for this blog post.

The new stadium in the Bronx is pretty nifty. It took a hundred thousand years to park, and eight hundred thousand years to leave the parking garage, and it was four hundred thousand degrees in the sun, but it was a cool experience. Some of the fans were rude, but I think a certain percentage of the populace in NYC is required by law to be that way.

They had their tomfoolery, like harassing the foolish soul wearing a Red Sox cap and being extremely unkind toward the visiting team's right fielder (we were in the bleachers in right field; similar shenanigans were probably taking place on the left field side), but it's kind of exciting to be in a stadium full of people who feel passionately about their team.

A full stadium?

Of passionate fans?

Almost all supporting the home team?

This Nationals fan is not terribly familiar with the concept. (See contrasting photo from Nationals Park earlier in the season, at left.)

I enjoyed seeing the infield dirt sweeper guys put their little sweepy rakes down during "YMCA" so they could do the dance made famous by gay men and adored by Americans everywhere in all sorts of gatherings. I saw part of a Yankees spring training game in Tampa last March and the dudes did the same thing there, so I was hoping they'd do it today too. They didn't let me down.

Poor Oakland A's right fielder Ryan Sweeney must have a complex after this series in New York. The fans are completely merciless, and told him many times in many ways and in many decibals how much he sucks. I don't know that he does actually suck as a baseball player. He seemed fine to me, and got a hit and scored a run. Granted, this Nationals fan may not have the best perspective on baseball talent. But you'll see, at right, how lonely it was to be Ryan Sweeney today, with nothing but the voices in his head to comfort him. Note the well-worn patch of outfield where the Yankees right fielder seems to stand all the time, perhaps scuffing his feet against the turf when he gets bored.

For anyone not paying attention to the MLB scoreboard, the Yankees won the game, 7-5. It was fun to hear "New York, New York" as we departed the Team Store at the end of the game (and might I note that Ms. Brown was extremely pleased to see a separate women's shop full of girly little shirts of the type she likes. Incidentally, for anyone who seeks a gift for our fair lass, note that she was especially fond of the Derek Jeter #2 dark blue girly t-shirt.) I've included a little action shot for ya.

And I leave you with the photo below, which I like to call "Sunburn Waiting to Happen."

3 a.m.? Really?

Well, this has been an interesting first day. Looks like we'll be getting to bed at about 4 a.m. for the second night (morning) in a row. At least we're in Jersey, and close to New York City where we need to be for the 1 p.m. Yankees game. Hmm, guess that's in about 10 hours.

So, although the Nationals WON their game, we didn't see it. By the time we were getting to the game there was a storm a'brewin' and the radio guys were talking delay. Even before it started raining, they covered the field and started what ended up being a 3 hour rain delay. We had to drive four hours post-game so had to decide if we would wait out a delay and by 9 p.m. decided, yeah, that's not gonna happen, especially because there was still pretty nasty lightning flashing. They eventually beat the Padres 13-1 in what was probably a really enjoyable game. Wonder if anyone was actually there to see it, since the concessions closed sometime during the delay? We've actually never had a weather problem like this in all our past games, so probably shouldn't complain too much.

Getting to our hotel was interesting too. Kristina knew the route most of the way but just needed assistance navigating the last little bit to the town near Jersey City where we're staying. We always have Jason, her old-model Mio GPS, to help, but he sometimes does wacky things because he's not always aware of minor and major road changes since whenever it was his maps were installed, so he had us get off the Jersey Turnpike in a seemingly random way. We also had the mobile Google maps. However, it was extremely confusing coming into the area around the hotel. Jason and the Google maps differed. As Kristina said, "I think this situation is a result of a perfect storm that includes: my not being totally aware and missing nuances of the roads; Jason taking us off the turnpike just because apparently he thought we'd like to see the Jersey Gardens Mall; and Google maps' tendency to say, 'Oh, you're gonna want over there somewhere, I'll tell you more once you get over there. Let me know..." I said, "Yeah, and if TomTom was on, he would have said, 'Eff you all, you should listen to me, who has the newest maps?'" (TomTom is my new birthday gift GPS from Kris and Steph but we didn't figure we needed three guides. Apparently we did). Jason came through in the end. He actually usually does despite his quirks.

Anyway, sorry if this sounds grumpy. Need to sleep. We'll hopefully be writing about the new Yankee Stadium tomorrow (later today, I guess).

The merriment commences

Well, I'm going to start this blog even though I am not the one who is a writer. First of all, we should wish Kristina a merry Krismas as her birthday is today.



Soon we'll be off to our first game - San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals so I'll get to see the new Nationals Park. I've never seen it but I believe Kristina has visited it a time or two.

Otherwise today I've been visiting with our friends the Rasmussens and thank them for hosting us here late last night and today. It was good to see all their dogs again too and hang by the pool. It's much hotter here than in northern Minnesota so pool-able.