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

Park #18

September 11, 2005: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Those people in Philly know what they are doing. Let me tell you something, all major cities can learn a lot from Philadelphia. Did you know that all four major sports complexes in the city are all within like half a mile from each other. The baseball stadium (Citizens Bank), the football stadium, the Wachovia Center (where the Flyer and 76ers play) and the Spectrum are all together. It was really cool to see all this in one area. It made me wonder how crazy it gets traffic-wise when more than one sport is going on at once, but when there is only one sport there is lots of parking that is spread out, so the traffic wasn’t bad at all. I went to the game with Koosed, and on our way from the parking lot to the stadium, we passed the Rocky statue which is located outside the Spectrum. I got a really cool picture of me punching Rocky below the belt, it was great. Also, as you get to the stadium there are many statues of former Phillies greats around the outside of the park, like Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. The outside of the stadium itself is very cool, there is a ton of brick on the exterior walls, coupled with giant steel girders. This was reminiscent of a certain Boston area ballpark. The parallel between Citizens Bank and Fenway continued when I got into the main concourse. I say this because as you walk around the main concourse, you see that the whole thing is covered in brick. This defined much about the ballpark: that it combined both the old-time ballpark feel with a modern touch.
As you get to the field, the wonders continue; you should’ve seen this scoreboard, it was friggin huge and the picture quality was great. Koosed and I were sitting in left field, like 20 feet to the left of the left field pole. One thing that disturbed me was that on top of the left field fence, there was a five foot wide flowerbed that contained a whole bunch of purple and green flowers. This was weird, and didn’t really seem to fit with the baseball.
As you go around the stadium behind the entire outfield is known as “Ashburn Alley”. This place was like a giant baseball carnival. There were games for kids, all sorts of places to eat, and a whole buttload of areas devoted to Phillies history. There was also a Phillies Wall of Fame, that also had a “Phillies Centennial Team”, and everywhere you look you could see so much devotion to Mike Schmidt that you would think he were a god. There was also a statue of Richie Ashburn, but it was the most unflattering statue I’ve ever seen. They posed him running, which was decent, but he is posed with his head down, and he is kind of slumped over. I don’t know what they were thinking with this move.
I did get to see one of heroes though: the Phillie Phanatic. Well, at least he used to be my hero. When I saw how this guy conducted himself at a ballgame, I realized that I can no longer look up to him. This guy ran around like a maniac and would grope and grab every single person he could find. This guy grabbed more butts than a chain-smoker. This guy was even grabbing kids, eight-year olds. Not only was he a molester, but this guy must’ve had ADD or something because he could not sit still for more than three seconds. He would sit down and then right away would jump up and start flailing his arms like the world was coming to an end. It was messed up. Then a few innings later, the guy drove around on a hot dog cannon. That’s right, you heard me, a hot dog cannon. Now I’ve seen mascots with hot dog cannons before, but those were handheld ones. This was an entire car that had this ginormous cannon mounted on it, and this thing could launch a dog 200 feet. It was pretty cool.
As for the game, this was my third Phillies game that I’ve seen on the tour. I saw the Phillies beat the Padres in San Diego, in which Jon Lieber pitched. I saw the Phillies lose to the Giants in San Fran in which Lieber also pitched. Well, at this game against the Marlins, Lieber pitched as well. Pretty strange coincidence, huh? Well, the Marlins jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after a few scattered hits; then the craziness began. The Phillies put up nine runs over the next four innings, including 6 runs in the 3rd inning, including a monster home run by Pat Burrell that had to be at least 430 feet. The Marlins didn’t know what hit them, after they gave up this 6 run third inning, the team just rolled over and died. I think they got 3 hits over the next seven innings; it was pathetic. It was hard to believe that this team was only a half game out of the wild card race. Well, the Phillies ended up winning 10-1 (or maybe 11-1, I don’t know). So Jon Lieber was 2-1 in my presence this year. At this point, I need to point out that Koosed fell asleep during the game, for like a whole inning, he personally gets an F for the day, and will remain in F-town for a good long while.
As for food, I got my token hot dog. It was good, but not great. It was a footlong dog, but it was a really thin dog, and the bun they gave me was huge. It was like for every one bite of dog, I got three bites of bun. Plus, the peppers and onions on the dog were so sweet that they overpowered the taste of the hot dog. After this sub-par hot dog, I had to let Philly redeem itself, and it did with a Cheesesteak. Holy crap, this thing was great. I mean, I’ve had what were called cheesesteaks in Cleveland, but none of them could compare to the tasty deliciousness that Philly provided me with. It was all sorts of awesome.
I thought that Citizens Bank Park was great. It really did a great job of combining the old school classic stadiums and the new modern fields. It was quite reminiscent to Fenway, which is always a plus. And they did a good job at showing the history of the Phillies. I’m gonna give the park an A-.
Next stop Shea stadium.
18 down, 2 to go. Oh yeah, Go Tribe.
Laz

Park #17

September 9, 2005: Washington, D.C.
It is blatantly obvious that RFK stadium where the Nationals play was built for football and football alone. The stadium is where the Redskins played for a number of years, but do not play there now. The outside of the stadium just looks like baseball is not welcome there. That being said, the inside of the stadium is still pretty nice; they did a good job at converting it to a baseball field on the inside. I think this shows the differences between the beauty of a baseball stadium and the practicality of a football stadium. I could write a 20 page paper on the differences between the two, but I wont bore you with such drivel.
Anywhoo, so you get into the stadium and all you see is concrete. I mean there is really nothing inside the main concourse to look at, or do, other than get food. There really isn’t much to say about the inside of the stadium at all. However, the field itself was pretty nice. Unlike most other baseball stadiums, RFK had seats that went all the way around; your typical coliseum style. Now, I had seen this at places like McAfee (Oakland) and not been impressed, but RFK (and Toronto as well) really do a much better job. It seemed as though most of the seats in the stadium were a pretty good view of the field. Some of the seats were high up, but it didn’t seem like these high up seats were too far back that you couldn’t see anything. The bullpens for each team were crammed into the corner between both the left field and right field fences, further showing that this field was not built with these things in mind.
One of the advantages of having a baseball field that used to be a football field is that you know that the scoreboard is gonna be nice; RFK’s followed this trend. Also, in right field, they had a giant banner commemorating those have made the “Washington Hall of Fame”, which is Washington players in all the major sports, and even some of the minor ones. This was good because it was the only indicator that showed any remembrance of Washington’s former baseball franchise, the Washington Senators.
As for the game, the Nationals played the Atlanta Braves, who have been on a tear since the All-Star Break. The Braves got out to a quick lead, and after a three-run homer by Andruw Jones, the Braves were up 6-2. Well, seeing the Yankees lose to the Devil Rays was a great thing a few days earlier, but the next best thing after that is seeing the Braves lose. Well, in the 7th inning (I think) the Nationals got a 6-run rally in which I think the Braves used 4 pitchers. It was great to watch, Bobby Cox was pissed. Those Nationals just kept hitting extra-base hits all over the place. The highlight of this rally was seeing Carlos Baerga, who is apparently playing for the Nationals now. Despite the fact that he has put on quite a few pounds (what we in the business call Bartolo Colon Syndrome, or also C.C. Sabathia Disease), Baerga did get the rally started with a walk. Also, in the ninth, the Nationals brought in their closer Chad Cordero. Now, I hadn’t seen this guy pitch live until now, but this guy is good. For some reason I never saw it when I saw the highlights on TV, but this guy throws a ton of gas, and has a lot of movement. After seeing him throw to the first batter, I looked up and saw that his ERA is 1.30, and after seeing him pitch, I was not surprised in the least. So, the Nationals won 8-6, which was great.
As for food, the polish sausage there was amazing. It was clearly the best one I’ve had (excluding Chicago of course). The cooked it on the grill, but they cooked it long enough that it was really crispy and juicy, definitely worth the 20 minutes I waited in line for it. And of course it had peppers and onions, oh man, I can still taste it. Also, I got nachos, for the sole reason that the nacho stand was called “Nacho Revolution”. I thought this was great, I had to restrain myself from the desire of asking for extra “Cheese Guevara”.
Overall, I’m gonna give RFK stadium a C+. I liked the field itself and I thought the coliseum style was nice, and the food was great, but the stadium itself is clearly nothing special. I know that its temporary and stuff, but oh well.
Well, 17 down, 3 to go.
Next stop Philly.
Laz

Park #16

September 7, 2005: Baltimore, Maryland
Camden Yards was one of the few parks I had previously seen before I began my tour, I had actually seen it twice previously. The first time I saw it was about ten years when I accompanied my dad on a business trip to Baltimore, and we went to the game. The other time was when I spent the summer in DC and my program went to an Orioles game one night. Well, all I can say is that time is a bitch, cause I did not remember how SWEET this park was. First and foremost, the Orioles do not have a long history, they’ve only been a franchise for fifty-one years, but the stadium does a GREAT job at showing their history as a club. They do wonders around that ballpark at preserving their traditions and immortalizing their great players. For example, out on Eutaw street, outside the stadium’s main gates they have a statue of Babe Ruth. This is truly extraordinary because Ruth never even played for Baltimore. Babe Ruth did grow up in the Baltimore area and so the city decided to honor him for that by building him a statue. I think that is really cool, it made me think about how really no other cities honor the players they spawned, but only the players who played for them.
Secondly, in this same area in front of the main gates, they have a three foot high metal number for each of the players for Baltimore who have had their numbers retired. Also, right next to the stadium, there is building that is the Baltimore Legends or something like that. It is a small museum honoring Baltimore sports as a whole. So I went in, and it looked cool, but it was like $15 to get in, so I just went to the gift shop; good times.
As you get into the stadium, you see that there is a whole street that goes from the main gate on Eutaw to the other main gate, and the whole way down is concession stands and shops. It was really cool. It was like Yawkey way in Boston, but it was in the park, so it wasn’t too crowded. But there was a lot to see on this makeshift street; they had an Orioles Wall of Fame. Also, there were picnic tables in this area so you could sit down and eat, and still be able to see the game.
Also, if you’ve ever seen Camden Yards on TV, you probably noticed the giant warehouse behind the ballpark. And as you look from the field out into centerfield, you can see this warehouse on one side, and a pretty good view of the city on the other side. This was a really cool thing to see. The brick warehouse really adds to the décor of the stadium, and you guys know how I love brick in baseball stadiums. Secondly, as indicated by previous posts, being able to see part of the city is a wonderful thing. The only thing that confused me was that next to the scoreboard, there is a huge blank green wall, I’m not really sure what it was for, but it seemed unnecessary. If anyone knows what its purpose is, I would appreciate the enlightening.
The most exciting part of the game for me was during batting practice. The visiting team was warming up and hitting batting practice, and I was over on the third base line, about 2/3 of the way up the line watching the players hit. I think Orlando Hudson was hitting (who later had to leave the game after he did something to his knee sliding into home), and he hit one down the line. Well, I saw that it was rolling down the line towards where I was standing, so I reached over the stands and stretched onto the field. Well, fully extended (and with no glove) I managed to catch the ball and to not fall onto the field. This was pretty cool, my first foul ball!!!!
Okay, back to the stadium. There really is a lot of brick in the stadium, but its not overwhelming. Also, the edge of the seats, bordering the field is made of brick, but they cover over it with that plastic green stuff, which I think is the perfect combination. As for the seats, there really didn’t seem to be too many bad seats in that park. I mean, most of the seats seem to be pretty close to the field. Also, there was almost no one at the game; they said the attendance was 20,000, but I think only about 15 showed up. So, Rusty and I went down to the field level about 12 rows back for most of the game. Good stuff.
As for food, the hot dogs were out of this world. On that little street I mentioned, they sell hot dogs, sausage, and brats that are all made on the grill, and they put grilled onions and peppers on there as well, MMMMMM. That dog I had was great stuff. I also walked by a few of the other places, they had BBQ beef, pulled pork, grilled hamburgers, ribs; they really had a lot to choose from. I was most impressed. I also saw that they had a stand that only sold Icee drinks. Now, I absolutely love those things, getting the blue and red mixed together, its friggin awesome. So, I ordered one, but the 16 year old running the stand said that they were closed. In a rage and fury, I actually looked him right in the eye and said “WHY?”, well he was kinda scared and only managed to respond by saying “Machine…….broke”. Well, I walked all over the stadium looking for another Icee stand, I found one, but it was broken too. I was heartbroken. For the next three innings, I couldn’t think about anything except trying to get my hands on an Icee, but it was not meant to be. Man, I needs me an Icee.
As for the game, what a sloppy game. I think both of these teams (Orioles and Blue Jays) have a lot of talent, but I honestly believe that they have poor leadership and that they are both just prone to lots of errors and big mistakes. The game clearly reflected this. The Orioles made two errors, and the Jays made three, it was pretty nasty. However, even with three errors, a lot of walks, and a bunch of hits, the O’s only managed to put up 4 runs. They just had no clutch hitting whatsoever. The game was pretty close until the 7th inning when the Orioles gave up 4 runs to the Jays on a bunch of bad pitches. The Jays ended up winning 7-4. One of the highlights of the game was when Miguel Tejada hit a high fly ball to the right field corner. The right fielder went back and got under the ball, but for some reason at the last second, while still going back, he tripped over air and fell on his butt and completely missed the ball. Tejada ended up with a triple. It was kinda funny to watch.
Overall, Camden Yards is a beautiful park with mucho brick and mucho history to it. I think the food (even with a broken Icee machine) was great. I’m gonna give the park an A- and highly recommend that you check it out.
Well, next stop, our nation’s capital for the Washington Nationals game.
16 down, 4 to go.
Laz

Park #15

September 7, 2005, New York City, New York
Oh what a glorious day, not only did I get to see Yankee stadium for the first time, but the Yankees lost as well. The outside of the stadium, just like everything else in New York city, was just swarmed with people, it was crazy. And not only that, but there are just massive amounts of people selling things: food, shirts, and tickets. It was crazy, I think there were more scalpers at the game than people actually going to the game. I felt like I was waiting outside a castle, the place just looked like the grand bastion of baseball, it was pretty cool. It was very intimidating of a place as well. I mean, you look around, and you just know that this is where the Yankees have won 26 world championships, it’s like the stadium was one giant trophy. Then I started thinking about how much I hated the Yankees, how their payroll is like the same as the combined payroll of the entire national league minus the Mets (or something ridiculous like that). I began to hate the stadium solely for that, and then I started to feel like Luke Skywalker walking into the Death Star; I could hear the Imperial March playing in my head.
So, I went to the game with Koosed, and we got bleacher seats, which I thought would complete the Yankee experience. Well, it would have, but if you have bleacher seats, you aren’t allowed to go to the other parts of the stadium. I started to fear that this would turn out like my Dodger stadium experience, then I talked to a security guard. He said you could get a ticket upgrade and you could go to the other parts of the stadium. So, for $4, Koosed and I got ticket upgrades into right field. This was cool because then got to check out the rest of the stadium. There are a few things I noticed. First, Dewar’s Scotch is the official drink of the Yankees. This of course is hilarious. Secondly, it explains a lot. Third, its cool because they are giant pictures of Scotch all over the ballpark, it really made thirsty.
Second, almost every concession stand is the same. Every concession stand had hot dogs, pretzels, soda, and beer; nothing more, nothing less. Before the game started I wanted something to eat, but I wasn’t yet ready for my token dog, so I walked to the concession stand. Well, the above four choices didn’t do it for me, and I wanted to see what the stadium had to offer. So, I kept walking from stand to stand, and realized they were all the same. Kind of ironic that New York (the cultural diverse capital of the world) would have such a homogeny of stadium food.
Third, and most shockingly, New York fans aren’t as big of assholes as I thought they would be. Not a single person gave me shit about wearing an Indians hat. It was kind of disappointing, but oh well.
The stadium itself is glorious. I was surprised how high the stadium goes, there is a lower, a middle, and an upper deck, but the upper deck just goes up forever. I really wanted to go see the Yankee museum in left center field, which has a whole bunch of plaques and stuff regarding the Yankees history, but I got there too late. I guess the thing closes half an hour or so before the game, oh well. But, I could see part of it from my seats and it looked pretty good.
As for the game, I got to see Randy Johnson pitch, which is always a treat. Johnson pitched 6 1/3, giving up three runs (one of which Tom Gordon inherited) and only struck out five. Johnson still can dazzle them though; that guy’s slider is just phenomenal. The game was tied at 3 going into the ninth, and the Yanks brought in Mariano Rivera to pitch. Well, it didn’t turn out to be his night; an error by Robinson Cano allowed the go-ahead run to score. It always fun to watch the Yankees lose on a fielding error in the 9th. And then Yanks went quietly in the bottom of the ninth. There were three truly amazing things that happened during the game. First was Bernie Williams; he was on second base and John Flaherty hit a single to right. Williams decided to try to score and I knew from the minute the right fielder picked up the ball that he was gonna be out (and probably Williams did too). So, Bernie decided to fly full speed, shoulder first into the catcher. The catcher held onto the ball and Williams was out, but I give the guy credit. The guy is on the tail end of a great career, he’s been fighting injuries all season, and he still gives it his all with a very physical play; that is classy.
Second amazing thing was the crazy kid in our section. There was some kid who was clearly a few pounds on the heavy side, and he was about 16 or 17, and he looked like Napolean Dynamite after a solid month of eating at Mongolian BBQ. Well, for some reason between every inning, the guy decided that he was gonna do the worm in the aisles for a minutes and then get up a dance like a madman. It was pretty funny, it looked he was having a seizure. Picture a full body dry heave set to music and you have this guy.
Okay, the third thing that was amazing was the fans. These guys would cheer for a Yankees player like he was Greek God one minute, and as soon as gets out, they would treat him like SHIT. These fans turned on players faster than anything I’ve ever seen before, it was truly crazy.
As for food, I already said how the selections were less than good. The hot dog was nothing special, I mean it had flavor, but I’m starting to really see how a lot of hot dogs can be categorized as “your typical stadium hot dog”; this was clearly in that category.
Well, the Yankees lost, which was good, and the stadium was pretty cool and I definitely felt a wave of history overtaking me. I guess that I’m gonna give the stadium a B+.
Well, next stop Baltimore. 15 down, 5 to go.
Laz

Park #14

August 30, 2005: Boston, Massachusetts.
Well, I have been a faithful congregant of the church of baseball all my life; I have adamantly followed its traditions and rituals, but have never been touched by the divine words of the baseball gods….that is until today. The deities of baseball have reached down and spoke out to me in a unique way, by showing me the unparalleled and wondrous baseball-Mecca that exists here in Boston, that’s right, Fenway Park. Needless to say, I was blown away by this place. Being there was like having a koala bear crap a rainbow all over my brain. First of all, as you come a half a mile within the park, there is a certain aura in the air that grips your body. I also felt this aura when I was at Wrigley. This aura exists in two forms. First, that every person that is near the park has a certain baseball-laced feeling about them. This is not only in wearing Red Sox apparel and whatnot, but just a sense that smatterings of baseball is present in everyone’s mind and in everyone’s eyes. Secondly, all the buildings and streets around the park have a baseball theme to them (this was also everpresent in Wrigleyville).
As you get to the park, you see the great Boston icons, like the Citgo sign, and the lights that loom over the park, and the green. However, there is also the amazing sight of brick as far as the eye can see. The brick exterior of the park, capped at the top with the green is just an amazing thing to see. Furthermore, there are street vendors selling hot dogs and sausage and all sorts of amazing food that just fills your nostrils with the smell of baseball. We did a lap around the stadium, and I got to see the statue of Ted Williams, which is more than a simple baseball statue. It shows Ted Williams (the greatest hitter EVER) with a small child, signifying the Red Sox ongoing and historical dedication to the Jimmy Fund. I really like this, it’s both baseball and philanthropic. I mean, it isn’t the most exciting pose for a statue, but it has a great message.
Okay, so as you go into the park, you feel like you are entering a baseball carnival. As soon as Doug and I got into the park, we see a small crowd of people gathered around this old man in a Red Sox uniform. Then it hits me, that’s Johnny Pesky. Pesky was a great shortstop for the Sox in the 40s and early 50s. He has to be 80 years old now, and he still shows up for all the games in a Red Sox uniform and signs autographs for fans. I waited a bit for him, but I must have caught the tail end of his session, because he left after a few minutes.
So as I went out to see the field, it only got better. I mean, how do you describe baseball heaven into words? Well, I’ll give it a shot. I do have to admit that the Green Monster looks a lot smaller (and less intimidating) in person. I mean, on TV it looks like this thing could stop an army of German soldiers. Maybe it’s the fact that the installed seats on top of the thing, but it just looks smaller. I don’t know, its still farking awesome. I don’t know what to say, I went all around the stadium taking pictures of the place, and it is just amazing. You stand behind home plate, and you look out into center field and it just looks like it’s a mile away. And the dichotomy behind left field and right is almost laughable. In left, you have the green monster just staring down at hitters, daring them to just attempt to scale the wall with their hits. Then, in right field, you have barrier between the field and the stands that is only waist-high. Could they be any more opposite?
As you may know, most of the seats in the stadium are not set like seats in modern stadiums. Most of the seats are not angled towards the field, but are set in such a way, that you have to turn your entire body just to see the game. Furthermore, the seats in the stadium are either blue or red. Each section is completely blue, or completely red, except one. Out in right field, where most of the section is blue, sits one single red seat. I guess that in the 1940s some Yankees fan was sitting out there and wasn’t paying attention, and Ted Williams pegged the guy in the head with a home run, which was like over 500 feet, so they enshrined that spot by changing the seat to red so it would stand out. Oh, those crazy Bostonians sure do know how to stick it to the Yanks.
Everyone at the stadium (especially me) was worried about whether the game was going to be played or not. It rained all day in Boston and the tarp was still on the field at about 6:25. Neither team hit batting practice, and I was starting to get worried. Then at 6:30 or so, the field staff came on and removed the tarp. There was a ton of water on it, I weighed it……five pounds…...six pounds……seven pounds. Right after the tarp came off it was like the whole stadium woke up; fans starting rushing in, the rain stopped, Schilling came out of the dugout to warm up, it was going to be a great day.
By gametime, the place was jammed. Now, just so you know, the place holds only 35,000 or so, but these Bostoners make it sound like there’s 80,000. Curt Schilling started the game, and did not look good in the beginning. In the first 2 innings, he allowed 5 runs; his splitter wasn’t doing anything and the Devil Rays got like 7 hits, 6 of which went off the Monster. The fans were not happy and they let Schilling hear it. What was truly amazing about the Boston fans is that every single one of them was into the game. Now, I’ve been going to Tribe games for years, including more than my share of games when the Tribe was selling out (we do still hold the record for most consecutive sellouts-455). However, at those games, you had a number of people who really didn’t pay much attention, but only went to the game because it was the cool thing to do. Not true in Beantown my friends, everyone was wading in the velvet sea. Every eye was fixed on that game. I saw a pair of 70 year old women who were focused on the game like the result was going to impact the fate of their lives (and knowing Bostonians, they might have actually believed that). But when Schilling began to falter, one of those sweet old ladies jumped and yelled “Curt you bum, you better learn to pitch”. These fans were ruthless and well-informed, a dangerous combo.
At the end of the second inning, the Devil Rays had a 5-0 lead, and it was looking bleak from the get-go. However, the Sox slowly wittled away at the lead, scoring 2 runs in the 3rd and 2 more in 4th, with a steady diet of singles and doubles. Schilling improved much himself. In the 3rd-6th innings, he allowed no runs, and only 2 hits, looking like the Schilling of last year. In the 7th, they relieved him, and Mike Myers allowed one run. In the bottom of the eighth, down 6-4, Terry Francona made a great move. Johnny Damon was not starting in the game, but Francona decided to let him pinch hit the 8th to lead off. Holy marmalade, when Damon’s name was announced, you should’ve heard that stadium erupt. You would’ve thought John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and James Brown had all run on the field the way this crowd was yelling. These people are crazy over him. Some of the women started fanning themselves and saying “Oh, Johnny Damon, what a dreamboat”, it was pandemonium. Well, Joe Borowski walked Damon, which led to the Red Sox scoring two runs and tying up the ballgame. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied, David Ortiz drew a walk, and Manny got a single. What was amazing to watch was Ortiz legging it over to third on the single; he ran like an antelope out of control. I think Veritek walked, and the Sox has bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The next hitter (I want to say Olerud, but I’m not sure) got a hit to win the game. A thunderous eruption bellowed through downtown Boston. It was amazing to watch.
The food was the one thing that didn’t blow my mind. I had me a Fenway Frank, which was nothing special. It was juicy, but the color had definite parallels to the Cincinnati hot dog disaster (the flesh colored hotdog). I just wasn’t impressed. I did however get fried dough, which some of you may know as an Elephant Ear. It was bought for the price of a flagon of rice. I want to know how fried dough got started; was someone sitting around looking at a piece of bread and thinking “this is too healthy” and then decided to fry it? And then did they look at that and think “nope, still too healthy” and then decided to cover it in fried sugar? Well, it had been a few years since I had one of those, and it hit the spot. Also, at the stadium that had a stand that sold “steak tip sandwiches” and “turkey tip sandwiches”, for $9 each. I looked at the steak tips, and they looked tasty, but I didn’t feel like spending $9 on it. I am still confused as to what the hell a “turkey tip” is, anyone know?
Overall, I’m giving Fenway an A, with future considerations for an A+. I am still in awe of the amazingness I saw at that park. It is just baseball heaven. The game was great, the fans were great, the food was adequate, but the stadium itself was just unparalleled by anything I’ve seen yet. The hard part about writing this is that I hate the Red Sox, but I’m trying to be objective.
Well, 14 down, 6 to go. And if you can find all four Phish references in this article, I will be most impressed. Next stop, I’m going to Cape Cod for six days to hang out with my family, then it’s on to Yankee Stadium.
Laz

Park #13

August 28, 2005: Toronto, Canada
Those Canadians aren’t very good at being baseball fans, but they sure can build a stadium. First off, I went with Mike Holender, and if you know him, you should be aware that he is quite the tour guide, he knows his stuff. If you don’t know him, you should, he is lord of Badassery. Now, the Toronto Blue Jays stadium was called the Skydome, but I guess sometime in the recent past, they changed to the name to the Rogers Centre. I had no idea they changed the name until I arrived at the park, and this bothers me for two reasons. First, I have no idea what this Rogers company does, and Second, they spell Centre, C-E-N-T-R-E, and not the typical C-E-N-T-E-R way. The way they do it just seems snooty, and I will not stand for that.
For those of you who have never been to Toronto, they have this thing called the CN Tower, which is just a giant tower and it makes Seattle’s Skyneedle look like a toothpick. This CN Tower is HUGE, and it sits right next to the stadium. This is cool because when you are in the stadium, you see the CN Tower right overhead, glaring down on you. As you walk around the stadium, there really is nothing to make you even remotely aware that there is a baseball game played inside. There isn’t a single banner or statue, or anything to indicate who plays there, or even what sport is played inside the stadium. Now, I know I’ve complained about this for a few other stadiums (Oakland, the Dodgers), but this was even worse. You didn’t see the word “Blue Jays” or “Baseball” anywhere on the outside of the stadium, it was as if these were obscene words that could only be uttered once you were inside the safe harbor confines of the stadium. As you continue to walk around the stadium, you can see various parts of the city, which is nice, because Toronto does have quite an impressive downtown. Also, they some street performers, including people walking on stilts. It kind of reminded me a circus, but a little better because they didn’t have any clowns. For those of you don’t know, I have a slight phobia about clowns, and that phobia is that they scare the bejesus out of me. So, no clowns were a good thing. They also had a bunch of guys selling hot dogs on a grill outside the stadium, which looked extra tasty, but I could not have my token hot dog outside the stadium, that would just be stupid.
So, as you get into the stadium, you see some magic and wonder. First of all, the field is turf, and not the modern turf-grass that most places use, this is the old school turf, I mean, it looks like a living room carpet. Because of all this carpet, there is very little dirt used on the baseball field. In fact, the only place the field has dirt is like a 5 foot radius around each of the bases and home plate. It was very weird, compared to all of the other stadium which have their infields composed of mostly dirt. Mike and I did a lap around the stadium, and I saw one of the coolest things. They had a vending machine which dispensed baseball cards; not only packs of cards, but also individual players’ cards. It was very cool, I wish I was 7 again so I could have a reason to use it. Also, did you know that they have a Hard Rock Café IN the stadium, I liked that. They also have a Renaissance Hotel connected to the stadium, and in center field there are a number of hotel rooms which overlook the stadium. Now, just picture this: you’re in town on business, and you go to your hotel window, open the blinds, and BAM, there is a baseball game being played right outside your window. I mean, that is so impressive, if Jesus had seen that, he would’ve said “Oh my Dad!”
So before the game started, they had some dude stand in center field and announce the J-Squad, which was a group of 10 cheerleaders (both male and female). Holy crap, did they suck. And the Jays’ mascot, some giant bird named Ace came out to dance too. The worst thing was that one of the male cheerleaders had the sole job of holding the mascot’s cape while he danced (it must suck to be that guy).
On to the foooooooood. The hot dog was weird. IT was very juicy and was the right color, but it had a weird aftertaste to it. It kind of tasted like it was soaked in relish for a little while before they served it. It tasted good at first, but then like five seconds after each bite, I would get this crazy aftertaste in my mouth, quite the anomaly. Also, the nachos were crap on a cracker. They served the chips in a vacuum sealed plastic container, and then they give you a plastic pouch on nacho cheese. So, its pretty much make-your-own-nachos. You have to open the chips and pour the cheese onto the plastic container, this was way too much work. And OF COURSE there was not nearly enough cheese per chip, it was atrocious.
It was good to see that the Jays were playing a quality ballclub, that’s right, THE INDIANS. It was Jake Westbrook who started, and he did GRIZZEAT. He got off to a rocky start, throwing 40 pitches in the first two innings, but a well-executed double play made it so the Jays only got one run. After that, Westbrook was on fire, he pitched the next 4 1/3 innings only giving up two hits and no runs. The offense was on top of things too. Both Blake and Boone hit home runs (which were of course solo shots). Also, have you noticed this: all of the Tribe’s first six hitters are hitting .285 or above, I mean, that’s really impressive. These guys are friggin sweet. The bullpen came in and pitched 2 1/3 innings, only giving up two hits (I think). Wickman surprisingly looked good, he had a ton of movement on his pitches. In the end, the Tribe was victorious 4-1.
Overall, the architecture of the stadium itself and its placement around the city is phenomenal. However, some of the crap that went on at the game was ridiculous, and the lack of baseball enthusiasm both by the fans, and in the baseball theme (or lack therof) was pretty bad. The food was not good, but the game itself was exciting. I’m gonna give the Rogers Centre a B.
Next stop is Boston. 13 down, 7 to go.
Laz

Park #12

August 22, 2005: San Francisco, California
Before I begin, I updated my pictures, they are located at photos.yahoo.com/jefflazarus. Then just click on the baseball pics. There’s also a bunch of pictures from the cities I’ve been to, as well as the baseball stadiums.
SBC Park has to be the best park on the left coast. This place is pretty bad ass. As you get to the stadium, there are two things right off the bat that peak your baseballian interest. First, the address of the stadium is “24 Willie Mays Plaza”, and second, there is a giant statue of Willie Mays himself at the front entrance. Now, the park is very interesting because there is a strict divide in the park’s loyalty. On one hand, there is much devotion to the Say Hey kid (that’s Willie Mays), they do a lot to honor him on the exterior of the ballpark, but the inside of the park is a veritable shrine to Barry Bonds. Now despite all the steroid “allegations”, Barry Bonds is not the player that Willie Mays was. I just thought I should go on the record with that.
Okay, back to the park. I walked around the stadium, and as I approached the front gate, this couple that was probably my age asked me to take their picture. They were on a baseball tour too. They gave me a little insight about the stadium, but then when I asked what their favorite park was, and they said Dodger Stadium, I figured their opinion had no merit. Plus, they were Yankees fans, strike 2. Anywhoo, as I walked around the park, I went to McCovey Cove. This place is fantastic. First, there is a giant statue of Juan Marichal, showing his high leg kick that makes Dontrelle Willis look like a paraplegic. Also, as you stand behind the stadium, you are behind the right field wall known as the “Splash Zone”. This is because if someone hits a home run over right field, it will most likely go out of the stadium and into the water behind the stadium. This area behind the stadium is great. First of all, it leads to this giant marina, which is just a great view. Secondly, the whole sidewalk in this area is covered with little bronze Giants milestones (most of which included Bonds, but oh well). Thirdly, there is place next to the stadium where you can put your bikes, not just a bike rack, but a small complex where they guard your bicycles, which I think is a great idea.
As you get into the stadium, the awesome continues. Now, call me crazy, but I think brick and baseball go together like chicken wings and beer. They are just made for each other. As you get into the field area, there is the perfect amount of brick: enough to make you feel good, but not too much so that the place is showing off. The whole right field wall, the “Splash Zone” is a brick wall. This is just a great sight. In center field they have a giant scoreboard, and right next to it, there is a kids’ playground. This playground has this ginormous baseball glove and this huge coke bottle that is a slide…….which security of the park has informed me is for children only (I may have stretched out the slide a little bit). What really shocked me about the park was how small it looked. I mean, the place probably holds like 48,000, but it didn’t look like it at all. Then I figured out why, because there are very few seats in the outfield. There are almost no seats over the right field wall, and in left and center, there is only a set of lower bleachers. Because the outfield isn’t completely covered with seats, it makes the stadium seem more open. Also, there did not seem to be many bad seats in the place. I got a bleacher ticket for $15.00, and my seats were hella good.
SBC park, just like in Oakland has the bullpen on the sides. However, this is even weirder because SBC doesn’t have much foul ground at all (not like McAfee). In fact, there isn’t even enough room to put benches in the bullpen area. This means that whenever a pitcher is going to warm up, he has to run out of the team’s dugout and runs down the foul line to the bullpen area. This was kind of funny to watch. One thing I did not expect about the park was the weather. I knew that San Fran had fog, but I didn’t know it would be so cold. I mean, it is mid-August and it had to be 50 degrees, it was crazy, I had no idea. I guess that’s one more thing that TV has left me ignorant about.
Well, I got to the game early and watched batting practice, and I got to see something great. A lot of home runs come into the bleacher area where I was sitting, and someone hit a home run into the stands. Well, as it was coming, like 10 guys were converging on the ball, pushing people out of the way and all of a sudden this middle-aged woman jumped up and caught it. These guys were all so embarrassed; I had to laugh. One thing that did piss me off was that there were no replays on the jumbotron EVER. I don’t think they played a single one, which sucked.
As for the game itself, the Giants were playing the Phillies. Jon Lieber was pitching, who threw a great game when I was in San Diego. He didn’t look so hot. He gave up a three-run homer to Moises Alou in the 3rd inning. The homer landed only about 15 feet away from me, it was pretty cool. It was really great seeing Omar Vizquel again, I miss that guy. You can really tell that he has lost a step or two since he left Cleveland, but the fans love him and he is still exciting to watch. Would you believe that he has 20 stolen bases this year? Also, he was wonderful (as usual) in the field. But the real story about the game was their pitcher, Noah Lowry. This guy was great. He pitched 6 solid innings, only giving up 2 hits and walking none. In the 7th, I thought he was gonna crack, he gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases with no one out. But then he struck out Abreu and got Burrell to ground into a double play, it was amazing. I can’t believe he got out of it. The Giants left him in for the 8th and the beginning of the 9th. In the ninth inning, he got the first two batters right away, but then gave up a single. Felipe Alou (the manager) then took him out. Now, the fans were pissed that he got taken out with one out left to go, and I was too at first, but the kid had thrown 130 pitches at this point, and even though we all wanted to see him stay in, he needed to come out. So, LaTroy Hawkins finished the game. It was a great game. And that Lowry kid ended up with 8 2/3 innings, giving up only 5 hits, no runs, and I think only one walk. I heard on the radio afterward that in the month of August he has pitched 32 innings and only given up 2 runs!
For the food, oh boy oh boy, their hot dogs were fantastic. They were made on the grill and were very thick footlongs. And they put onions on them. I thought it was one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. They also had churros at the game, and of course, I had one. Now, these weren’t as good as Chicago, and they didn’t have the different flavors to choose from, but I don’t think that a bad churro exists yet. I was also surprised to see that they sell sunflower seeds at the ballpark, which I had not seen before.
Overall, I think the ballpark is fantastic, they really did a good job with it. Also, San Fran is a hell of a town, I got to spend the whole day running around the city checking out all sorts of places. I think I’m gonna give SBC ballpark an A-.
Well, now its back to Cleveland for a few days until I hit the east coast.
12 down, 8 to go.
LAZ

Park #11

August 21, 2005: Oakland, California
Title: “I met the nicest guy in the history of time”. Well I decided to title this post, because I did meet the nicest guy in the history of time at the Oakland Athletics game. We’ll get to him in a second, because I want to talk about the stadium first. As I rolled up to the stadium around 11:30 today, I had severe flashbacks to my thuggish-ruggish experience at Dodger stadium. As I got there, all I saw was concrete parking lots and a highly indiscriminate stadium. The only difference between this concrete jungle and Dodger stadium was that next to the Oakland (well, now it’s called “McAfee”) Coliseum was what I believe is the convention center. Well, if you had unknowingly wandered into this vast and veritable wasteland that was called a parking lot, you would have no idea that this was a baseball stadium. Until you get about 50 feet from the main gates, there are no banners displaying the team name, nothing about the players, no statues, no nothing. I was thinking that here we go again with a giant blob of poop that has been disguised as a baseball stadium. I went to will-call to pick up my bleacher seat, and I saw a teeny tiny little fountain that had small bronze plaques that were like two feet by one foot commemorating the A’s retired players and World Championships. Oh, the despair, I started feeling bad about this game.
Then it happened, an event that allowed me to rise, like a mighty Phoenix out of the ashes of baseball-stadium-mediocrity, I was approached by an old man. No, he did not molest me. This guy, who looked to be in his late 50s comes up to me and says “Are you here alone.” Well, bells went off that I was in trouble, I immediately thought to scream “I need an adult”, but instead I just said “Yes”. He then told me that his wife was supposed to go to the game with him, but had to leave town right away, so he had an extra ticket and wanted to know if I wanted it. I told him I already picked mine up from will-call. He then asked where I was sitting, and when I told him, he said “this is a great upgrade.” So I said “how much?” He then pulled out the ticket. Now, for those who don’t know, with baseball tickets, AND ONLY BASEBALL TICKETS, size DOES matter. Shitty tickets are small, but the good seats come on these big tickets. This guy pulled out a ticket that was the size of a beer bottle. He showed me the ticket, the price was $170.00. I started to say how I couldn’t afford that, and he said it was his pleasure, and that he didn’t want the ticket to go to waste. I was shocked, I didn’t know what to say. So, I agreed.
He then takes me down to the “special entrance” where these “Diamond level ticket holders” go. This was unreal, we went in the players entrance, and down a long ramp that passed like 8 security guards, THEN went past both the A’s and visitors locker rooms, and then went to the seats. All the ushers and security guards knew this guy by name, and he introduced me to all of them, and by the end of the game, they all knew my name too. Well as we are passing the visitors’ locker room, Mike Sweeney comes out and literally pushes me out of the way. It was awesome. So we get to our seats, they are right behind home plate. You wouldn’t believe it, I was actually closer to the batter than the pitcher was. Also, all the food/beer/snacks was free and in abundant supply, it was awesome. I could go on and on about this, but you get the picture. The seats were great, and this guy was a real mench (that’s Yiddish for a gentleman). He was really cool and such a nice guy.
Anyway, I could digress for a while about the seats and the guy who gave me the seats, but I won’t. The stadium itself was very interesting. As you look into center field, you see a number of levels, including some really high seats where no one sits. Since McAfee Coliseum is also used by the Raiders, these really high seats are kept out even though no one sits there for baseball. However, this giant section of unused seats really makes the whole field look small and closed in. It was really weird, but the stadium just looked tiny under this massive block of unused seats. I also think that the stadium is a perfect circle, it looked like a giant donut with green in the middle (we’ve all had donuts like that, right?). After I got to my awesome seat, I decided to walk among the commoners and view the rest of the stadium. I noticed two things. First, about 1/3 of the inner part of the stadium was just nothing, no concession stands or things to do, its like that whole part of the stadium is meant to suppress all human contact. Secondly, for every one Men’s bathroom, there are like 4 Women’s bathroom; which is quite an anomaly. However, the Men’s bathrooms did have the giant tubs you piss in, which get two thumbs up from me.
What I thought was really interesting about the stadium is the baseball field itself. Since it doubles as a football field, and the dimensions are quite different, there is a LOT of foul ground territory. First of all, both teams bullpens are in foul ground. I think that is great, because it scares the crap out of your starting pitcher when your possible relief is warming up in your direct line of sight. Second, the foul areas for the first baseman, third baseman, and catcher are HUGE. You could fit an entire army of penguins in the area that the first baseman can cover in foul ground.
I gotta say, other than that, there is nothing special about McAfee coliseum itself. It has some weird features, but it really doesn’t scream “baseball”. I mean, you couldn’t tell that the team which has the best record in the 2nd half of the season over the last 5 years plays there. The fans adopt this apathy. There were about 26,000 people there, and at teams, the stadium was eerily quiet. I was not impressed with Oakland fans.
The game itself was pretty cool. For the first six innings, nothing happened at all no runs. But then the A’s scored three runs in the bottom of the 6th. Well,. Joe Blanton pitched a hell of a game, pitching 7 scoreless, with only throwing 94 pitches. So, for the 8th, they pulled him: STUPID. The bullpen gave up 4 runs in the blink of an eye, capped off by Mark Kotsay losing a fly ball in the sun to give up 2 runs. After that the A’s managed to tie it. The game went to extra innings, and in the 12th, the bullpen cracked again, giving up a run. I gotta tell you, even though the Royals just lost 19 straight, they looked pretty good against the A’s. Their bullpen was almost perfect, their fielding was great, and they were very patient with the A’s bullpen. The A’s, however, did not impress me. They could not hit at all with runners on base, and their bullpen was awful. The A’s one strong suit is that their players have really cool names. Here’s a few notable ones: Nick Swisher, Kiko Calero, Marco Scutaro, and Huston Street (which I think is a Bruce Springsteen song).
As for the food, since it was all free, its really hard to complain. The hot dog was really good, it was grilled right, and the bun was not one of those crappy ones you usually get, it tasted like a Kaiser roll, but for a hot dog. The A’s also have a few of their own microbrews, I had one called “Pyramid Curve” which was pretty good, but I think might have just been Killians with like one extra hop or something. The pretzel I had was stale, so that sucked ass. But I also got mini egg-rolls, which were quite tasty.
As hard as it is to equate a poor rating with the amazing seats I had, I’m gonna have to give McAfee stadium a B-. I had a great time, and those seats were primo awesome, but the stadium itself was nothing great, and I did not enjoy it. Well, I’m sitting in my hotel at Berkeley right now, this place is so ghetto. I think it may be that hotel room from the movie “Big”, you know the one where Tom Hanks starts to cry and pushes the dresser in front of the door. Oh, good times. Well, next stop is San Francisco.
11 down, 9 to go.
LAZ