Park #20

Well, the tour is over, and what a great way to end it, at home with the Tribe and Jacobs field. You know, I've been to Jacobs field for probably 100 games, so I'm not gonna go through the inner workings of the field, because they are nothing new to me. If you want a detailed report, email me.
First of all, I want to talk about the food. A Jacobs field dog is excellent. There are two kinds you can get at the Jake. First are the typical hot dogs at the concession stands, those are nothing special. But the good ones are the ones on the grill. They put chopped onions (also cooked on the grill) on the dog. This dog was great, it was kind of smoky and well done, but not too well done (where it gets too crunchy). The only downside of these dogs are that they are much smaller than other hot dogs at other stadiums. Also, I got french fries. Now, I wouldn't think that Cleveland was a place for french fries, but the Jake has quite a french fry selection. You can get either regular fries, seasoned curly fries, or ranch flavored fries. Now, I love seasoned curly fries, so i pigged out on those. Scrumptious.
As for the game, there was a 45 minute rain delay in the 2nd inning, the first rain delay on the entire trip. Well, the Tribe (who is leading the wild card race-BOOYAH), was playing the As. Jake Westbrook pitched and didnt give up a hit for 5 innings. This guy has really improved a ton since the beginning of the year, he has really settled down a ton. However, Westbrook did give up a 3 run homer in the 5th inning, but he still pitched a good game. So, in the 7th, Barry Zito was still pitching for the As. At this point he had thrown about 110 pitches, and they left him in. Well, Peralta singled and Hafner walked. Then Zito managed to get Martinez to strike out. At this point i couldn't believe Zito was still in the game. Ken Macha (the manager) came out, and everyone thought he was gonna pull Zito. But we were all wrong. And no surprise, on Zito's 122nd pitch, he left some meatball out over the plate and Ronnie Belliard jacked a 3 run homer that has yet to land.
Well, with a 6-3 lead the tribe brought in Bob Howry, who has been fantastic all year, and managed to keep the game at 6-3. In the ninth, the Tribe brought in Captain Fitness, also known as Bob Wickman. This guy is like 300 pounds and looks like he hasn't done a situp since Carter was in office. But, he's leading the majors in saves. Although, he has NEVER gotten a 1-2-3 inning, and this game was the same. He gave up a homer to make the game 6-4, but managed to get the save. So, the tribe rules, and I'd just like to say that I went to 3 tribe games on my tour, and they won all 3.
Well, the game was great, and I was with some great friends. The Jake is great, but there are so many better stadiums in this country, I think the Jake will have to get a b/b+ rating.
Now, I'd like to take this time to end my blog:
When I first came up with the idea for this trip it was in October of last year. And over the winter, all the crap about steroids came out and got me (and a lot of others) down about baseball. I started to worry about the future of baseball due to people like McGwire, Bonds, Giambi, etc. Well, the more I thought about it, the better idea it seemed to do a baseball tour. This trip totally made me forget about the steroid contraversy and realize that baseball is as strong as its ever been and cannot be hurt by a stupid thing like a few steroid users. If anyone out there needs more convincing, you can email me.
I would like to rank all 20 stadiums from best to worst:
1. Fenway
2. PNC Park
3. Citizens Bank (Philly)
4. Wrigley
5. SBC Park
6. Camden Yards
7. Miller Park
8. PETCO Park (San Diego)
9. Comerica (Detroit)
10. Jacobs Field
11. Safeco Field
12. Yankee Stadium
13. The Rogers Centre
14. Anaheim Stadium
15. Shea Stadium
16. RFK stadium
17. US Cellular field
18. The Great American Ball Park
19. McAfee Coliseum
20. Dodger Stadium

Well, it was a great trip and i loved your comments. Be sure to keep commenting and you can view my pictures at: photos.yahoo.com/jefflazarus
there are three albums for the pictures, i think they are each under "Baseball tour pics"
Well, talk to you all soon,
Laz

Park #19

September 13, 2005: New York, New York
Shea stadium is nothing special. There is really nothing on the outside of the stadium. The whole exterior of the stadium is just a giant blue dome, with no real discernable life of baseball. I walked around the outside of the stadium and everything looked exactly the same. There was nothing cool to speak of. As you get into the stadium, I thought I was transported into a football stadium, like RFK or Oakland. I mean, the place was just not impressive. All i could see was concrete ramps as far as the eye can see. I walked around the lower concourse and finally after a minutes of searching for signs of baseball, I found a ramp to the field and seating area. Well, no dice. Apparently if your seats are in the Mezzanine area, you are not allowed on the field level. As I said when I was faced with such a situation in LA, "this is crap". I'm sorry, but I think its idiotic to forbid ticketholders from entering certain seating areas before the game. This is especially true when there is no one at the stadium, I mean there were only like 10,000 at the game. What a load of horsepooh.
So, after my failed attempt at trying to see the field (how ridiculous does that sound), I went to the Mets team shop. There was not much to see there, and I wasn't gonna buy a Kaz Matsui teddy bear or crap like that. However, they did have a bigger than life size "Mr. Met" statue. Well, after my being denied seeing the field level seats, i decided to take out my anger on a larger than life mascot. So, I began punching the Mr. Met statue in the groin. You can see the picture at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jefflazarus/detail?.dir=8bba&.dnm=9091.jpg&.src=ph
This made me feel like a big man, and I felt better.
Okay, so eventually we went up the ramps and went to the seats. We were sitting right behind home plate, in the Mezzanine section. First I need to comment on the guy sitting in front of me. He had one of the best mullets ever. The guy was about 5'4", but his mullet made him look like a giant. In addition to the normal mullet hair in the back, he had the hair on the top of his head completely spiked up. It was almost as if a mullet and a moehawk had come together to serve a higher purpose in life, like as if they had been created to work together to solve crimes.
So.....the stadium.....okay, there was so much orange and blue, I thought I had taken a time warp to the 1988 Cleveland Cavaliers. I swear, orange and blue everywhere in the stadium, it was crazy. I did think that the outfield was nice. In right you had a pretty good scoreboard, and in left you had the bleacher area, which i'm sure is a trip to see a game in. And then out in center field they have that big hat with an apple in it. That thing is pretty cool.
One little thing about Shea, it's like right next to Laguardia airport, which means that every 5 minutes an airplane flies right over the stadium. This was a little weird, and a lot annoying. At points, the noise of the plane going by was just as loud as the noise made by the fans. Not cool.
So, the stadium itself was not very impressive, but what was impressive was some of the people at the stadium. Now, there were very few fans at the game, and i already mentioned captain mulletman, but i need to let you know about the Great American Hero that is alive in our time. This man spends everyday at Shea Stadium-he is, The "Cowbell man". This guy goes around to all the sections of the stadium (he must be privileged for this honor), and he has a cowbell that he plays to get the crowd pumped up. He also lets kids play the cowbell too.
Not only does this guy have a jersey that has the #10, and has his name "CowBell Man" on the back, but he has a t-shirt underneath that says "More Cowbell". You can see pictures of this guy at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jefflazarus/album?.dir=8bba&.src=ph, and go to picture #s 1421, 1422, and 1423. You will be most pleased.
Okay, so food. The hot dog was really good. It had the peppers and onions, which were extra tasty. This is because they didn't overcook the peppers and onions so they get stringy, they were actually a little crunchy which was very good. The dog itself was good too, the right bun:dog ratio. Also, they sold knishes at the stadium. Now, for those of you who dont know what they are, a knish is a jewish food that is mashed potatoes wrapped in a doughy pastry. I think this was the first time i had one (or at least the first time i could remember having one), and it was really good.
As for the game, the Mets SUCK. The Mets played the Nationals, and Tom Glavine really pitched a good game, he got into a lot of jams, but managed to get out of most of them. He pitched 7 innings and gave up only 3 runs. But the Mets hitting is just terrible. I think they got only five hits the entire game. They were lucky that the score was 3-2 in the 8th inning, then the dumbness kicked in. Jose Offerman pinch hit for Glavine (who by-the-way got an RBI single earlier in the game) and Offerman walked. So, the mets were in a good spot, no one out with a runner on first. Well, the next hitter, Reyes hit a grounder up the middle and Offerman just stood a first. He didn't run on a grounder. Well, of course they threw him out at second, and after that the offense went back to being anemic and didn't score. It was pathetic. They ended up losing 4-2.
Overall, Shea was not too great, it had a few good points, but I was not impressed overall. I'm gonna give it a C.
Well, 19 down, 1 to go.
Next stop: Home, Cleveland, Ohio.
Laz