gary's great american pastime trips thread

[gary]

so saturday, 4/12/13, after a nice relaxed 47 minute flight to phoenix, skytrain to the light rail and across the street to my hotel, it's late afternoon and we are taking the lightrail westbound to chase field for the dodgers vs the diamondbacks

it was a beautiful 87 degrees just before gametime, nothing at all like an 87 degree day in the east, such low humidity.
chase field

apparently mickey is a fan in more than 1 league

and bobbleheads cruise the crowd

first world series trophy i've ever seen

first view of the field, and about 10 minutes before game time they opened the rood and let some light in

 

[gary]

so let's roll back the roof on this 85 degree evening in phoenix and play some ball

out by a step, and because it's the distance for so many outs it's why the great players always hustle it, never can tell when it can go wrong for the throw to first

hey ump, you sure about that strike

your'e outta here

past 2nd, did he get back??

don mattingly, dodgers manager did not think he was safe, not at all

dodgers get their first run enroute to victory

 

[gary]

out of town scoreboard

restaurant out in left field

i like it when i'm not too far from the dugout, i can get shots like this row of dodgers watching the action

runner stopped at 2nd because he saw the umpire sognalling ground rule double, the ball hit on or above the outfield marker line. caused the first replay i've seen in mlb.

umpire crew goes off the field to watch the replay, interestingly this only involves the field crew, home plate ump is not involved as it's a call made by the line umps or the middle infield umpire

the scoring decision, double

 

[gary]

trying to finish up this game, we have our first ducks game of the season tonight, a rain postponement from last night. and i have to get the miami marlins game up here, esp since 6/8 sees me in tampa for the orioles vs the rays. that'll leave me with an even 10 parks left.
dodgers bringing it home here

and this is the stuff that gives managers ulcers

bobbleheads running amok

this game had a little bit of everything, including the other thing that drives managers crazy, a balk

 

[Tim]

Petco Park is right down the hill from where my aunt lives. ; Go through the Gaslamp and up 8th Ave to the top of the hill and you would be there. ; It's where we stay when we go to San Diego... ; been there many times. ; Awesome city, isn't it?!

 

[gary]

it's one of my favorites, the zoo was as awesome as i remember it. i don't hold the latop theft against the city or the hotel, sometimes stuff just happens in life. i will be making another trip back some day, and it won't be 35 years between trips next time. i'll post up some zoo photos once i get caught up with the ball games. i probably walked not too far from your families neighborhood, and definitely rode past there as i took the #7 bus to the zoo. it was so easy to get around on the bus and trolley system. a very liveable city indeed

 

[gary]

so let's finish out arizona, as we have to get a move on to miami, since in 6 days it's tropicana field for the orioles vs the rays
the dodger pen closing it out

and the traditional team high five after a win, i almost didn't recognize this anymore, given how my mets have been this year

 

[gary]

5/18/13, marlins park

arizona diamondbacks vs miami marlins, the marlins are drawing so poorly at home that they don't even announce the attendance anymore, and it's a shame as it's a beautiful ballpark, although due to the persistent threat of afternoon thunderstorms the roof was closed for my entire game
taking the metrorail into the city, where they have a shuttle bus from culmer station starting 2 hours before game time

giving me plenty of time for a nice 15 minute walk into little havana for some great cuban flavored seafood.

it might be a walk in in a strip mall, but the shrimp was fabulous

marlins park, built literally right in amongst a neighborhood, a neighborhood which the owner swore would support him with 47% of his attendance and that's why he absolutely had to have this taxpayer funded new stadium, he built it, but they do not come. the marlins ownership is despised and severely reviled in miami for this, for dumping the stars, and for fielding a team of unknown, triple A level talent at best.

the unique rails system for opening the moveable roof

20 minutes to first pitch and as you can see, where is the crowd?

first view of the field

and the interesting sculpture in center field

 

[gary]

so i'm working my way to my seat, and the first pitch to the first batter of the game is hit over the centerfield wall for the only run in an arizona 1-0 win

miami skyline from the mezzanine walk way windows

the sculpture from the side

runner caught off 2nd base

and the call, he's safe

 

[gary]

i didn't know dennis had switched gear and would be working the game

it felt like it was hit good

snagged by the first baseman,dive to the bag for the out

syracuse has the crunch girls, well the marlins have the duckface dancers

i though steve sax, the first base coach made too many trips to the runner, i was pretty certain the steal was on

and i was right, and i was ready

and so was the marlins catcher

2nd base ump was in excellent position

and he was out

and yes, that's the steve sax that was an all star 2nd baseman for the dodgers in the 1980's

 

[rickenmartin78]

Awesome (non) stolen base sequence, Gary!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gary]

thanks, i try to pay attention to the coaches, especially the first base coach and to the pitcher, a long windup and a coach whispering several times to the runner always means somethings up. on to tampa tomorrow, this storm should be blown out of here by early am so i don't anticipate any flight delays, have a 4:10 game, and i just discovered a bonus while checking tampa's website, a post game concert by martina mcbride. SCORE!!!

 

[gary]

the home plate ump works the hardest usually each game of the crew, he has to call all the pitches, and keep time and keep the official lineup changes, here a pitching change is being recorded to his lineup card

look at the torque on that arm,

throw some ground balls, strikeouts are fascist
bonus points for what movie

billy marlin doing the booty bump at a fan

diamondbacks take the win

and even though this was a 1-0 game, it was not a classic pitchers duel. there were scattered hits, a few base runners, some steal attempts, the marlins starter really only made 1 mistake early in his game, he hung a slider belt high on the first pitch to the first batter, my momma could have put that one out of the park
marlins park does have the first bobblehead museum i've ever seen

 

[jbwolffiv]

Bull Durham

Great stuff Gary!

 

[gary]

ok, so we've returned to florida. to tampa/st pete for stop #20 on our baseball tour. saturday 6/8/13 for teh baltimore orioles vs tampa bay, 4:10 gametime at tropicana stadium. one of the finer things to living here on long island is that i am within 3 hours travel of 4 airports, with a lot of transportation choices, and one of those airports happens to be macarthur airport in ronkonkoma area, only 35 minutes drive from my house, served by southwest with a number of nonstops to orlando, tampa, ft lauderdale, west palm, and bwi where are there many other southwest connections. i mention this because this particular travelogue section will have a little other stuff outside of just the ballgame. my 0800 flight hit tampa a little earlier than scheduled, there was no line at the budget fast break window, and gps got me the short distance to ybor city, for a lunch at the columbia restaurant, a well known and respected spanish restaurant still run by the original founding family

there are a bunch of interesting mosiacs around the outside walls

there was even some history to the area

 

[gary]

lunch finished i walked the 3 blocks to the end of the ybor/tampa streetcar line. where for $2.50 and an hour of my time i rode a genuine streetcar line to the other end in downtown tampa and back. streetcar lines in the early 1900's where everywhere in america, literally hundreds of small cities and larger town areas had them, and many of those wish they still had them. they were cheap,frequent and they got the working class where they needed to go, and served many a middle and upper class neighborhood too

careful there, do not want to become known as sparky while switching over the trolley pole

 

[gary]

ok, lunch and streetcar ride over with, i still arrived pretty early for the game. i truthfully cannot say that tropicana field is attractive, they need a new stadium, i knew it wasn't that old,1990, so i did some research and found out it was designed for multisport use, something that never seems to make for an attractive baseball field, and in fact did not have a tenant for the first 3 years, and no ball club until 1998. which would explain why the modern mezzanine/food ring is missing. and there was no unique food, no salad bar, none of the local stuff that makes so many of today's ballparks an evening out experience.

although it was country night at the park, so there were groups playing all over the place

i was so early the batting practice cages were still out there

on display in front of the main beer stand, i don't know if the stadium is stuck with a budweiser noncompete supplier clause or if tampa just has no worthy craft beer brewer, but this was one of the only stadiums i did not see a craft beer available

 

[gary]

tropicana did have one very cool feature, a small museum dedicated to ted williams and to other hall of fame hitters

there were a lot of little window type displays dedicated to various aspects of williams career and life, here is a display about his military service. since it's been so many years now, people tend to forget he lost 6 years of prime playing time to 2 separate wars.

and one of his silver slugger awards. i can't even recall seeing one of these at cooperstown

 

[gary]

rays girls dancing in the rotunda, which is reminiscent of ebbets field

interesting little tidbit about spring training in florida

and they did have a unique feature, there's a 35 foot long saltwater tank with a bunch of cow nose rays in it that guests can touch for free, and feed baitfish to for $5

and another baseball mickey

and the t-shirt shooters were out, although it seemed the team is pretty stingy with how many they give away in a game
some teams such as the brewers probably give away in excess of a hundred a game

the pressbox

tonights lineup

lineup cards exchanged, let's play ball

 

[gary]

my arm hurts just watching some of these young pitchers

sometimes you take one, and watch it all the way into the catchers mitt, just to see if you can get an idea where the pitcher is aiming for

there seemed to be an awful large amount of fouled back balls this game, from both sides