gary's great american pastime trips thread

Very good seats at this one? ; Love the look of the pitchers arm in the second one!

 

yeah, i was in the 3rd row back from the field, on the home plate end of the visitors dugout. i've been doing pretty good this year via stubhub for seats
this next set is a little dark, but i managed to capture the pitch coming in






i believe this was a hit



and the pitcher's arm generating a little ball speed



a couple of baltimore stars





baltimore has some offense, they just didn't show it this game






it was a foul ball

 

well some signs of spring are starting to show up, karen has already been spotted on the tractor, although i think she was just riding it around for something to do. spring training games are on tv, everybody has an equal chance to be in the world series at this point, and my 2014 baseball tours are starting to shape up
5/24-5/26, 5/25/14, 5;10PM atlanta braves at turner field, rockies vs braves, i wasn't going to do this, especially since it seems a done deal that the braves will be out of turner field to cobb county for the 2017 season start. but i just cannot reward a teams coffers when they are deliberately moving to a new stadium built over 10 miles from the nearest marta station, now the current system isn't ideal, you have to go to 5 points and take a free shuttle bus to turner, but at least this trip can be done without a rental car. this new stadium is just wrong, and one of the braves excuses has always been that they lack parking at turner, only having 8500 spots, well the new stadium will only have 6000, although since the announced seating is 40-42000, about 8000 less than turner, and using the rule of thumb for sports/entertainment events of 4 per car, it might just be a wash. i could understand if atlanta had no mass transit at all, but they have a pretty decent rail system, this deal was made in secret with the cobb county politicians before being announced, and one of the leaders of cobb county has sworn that mass transit will never be welcome or come into HIS county, so THOSE people stay out. this is atlanta, draw your own conclusions as to who THOSE people are.


6/8/14, 1:10 pm kansas city, yankees vs royals for stadium #22 of 30, this will be a 9 day odyssey starting and ending in kansas city, involving barbecue, baseball, massive amounts of railfanning, dirt track racing possibly as many as 4 nights on 4 different tracks, the national railroad historical society convention in springdale arkansas, rides on alco powered trains, steam ride and shop tour at the branson railroad, 1 dinner train, 1 day off to be spent driving across into oklahoma to railfan some ouichita mountain scenery, and finishing up 6/15 dropping off the beaten, dirty rental car and dragging my tired butt onto a flight home. notice no rant about mass transit access to the stadium, that's because kansas city doesn't have anything other than a very rudimentary bus system. i'm not aware if they ever had a streetcar system or not, if they did, i'm sure it was one of the ones killed off by the gm/goodyear efforts in the 40's and 50's, ala the los angeles red car


LATE BREAKING SCHEDULE NEWS
;


5/10/14, return to camden yards, astros vs orioles, listed at 7:05 on the orioles site, TBD at stubhub. i'm hoping for the scheduled time holding as this is an amtrak trip, half the price of a flight, about same as a drive with gas & tolls. camden is a return, it actually was the first of the modern stadiums for me, but was well before my digital rebirth, so i have no photos for my website/flickr collection. besides a little boogs barbeque cannot be a bad thing.



SAY IT, COME ON, YOU KNOW I WANNA HEAR IT: PLAY BALL!!!!!!!!!

 

GAME ON


5/18/14, 1:35, reds vs phillies, field section 131, row 4, seat 1, a return trip to citizens bank park, last seen in 2002, again predigital, as a short stop on the way down to the dover nascar race. so a return trip was in order, to get photos. the beauty of this trip is that i can do this as a 1 day only train trip, amtrak penn to philly is only 1 hr 20 minutes, with return service hourly, so i can stay for the whole game and still be home at a decent hour.

 

how's the cheesesteak at the park, is it worthy of the name? i'll need something for lunch, and i usually try to do something uniquely local. although it's already a given that i'll be getting my Q in kansas city outside the park, there's too many really high end rated Q shacks around that town to waste the break from the usual dietary restrictions on less that the best Q i can find. a meetup would be outstanding

 

well it's baseball time again here in america, leading off for this years great american pastimes adventure, a return to the place that started it all, my quest for all 30 major league parks, camden yards, home of the baltimore orioles and the first of the modern retro look parks, it wasn't the best weather, in fact it rained in the bottom of the ninth, so i beat a hasty retreat back to my hotel, only to find out that they waited it out, orioles tied it in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the bottom of the tenth. by then i was warm and dry 2 blocks away in the sheraton inner harbor, a hotel perfectly placed for baltimore tourism.
the view from my hotel room on the 7th floor


eutaw street, address of camden yards


boogs barbeque, it wasn't bad but relatives who are season ticket holders later told me the korean stand is better

and followed by a leinenkugel wheat beer, very tasty indeed

more to follow

 

Gary, I always love "going" on these trips with you. Have not been back to Camden Yards in almost 20 years and I am planning a return trip soon!

 

I haven't been to Camden in about 5 years. Now that the O's don't totally suck at playing baseball, it may be time for a return trip.

 

well provided the O's do not play bush league ball, caught off base in the majors, shouldn't that be embarrassing


but then the astros made it last longer than it should have


finally, it's over

now its the astros turn to attempt it

he pops to his feet

he's safe


going to be posting to this thread pretty steady all week, finish out the orioles, then it's on to philadelphia, and then atlanta that i just returned from this morning

 

wall of fame at camden yards

and the plaque for mike mussina, i was there, there at camden yards, may 14, 1998, when catcher sandy alomar hit a screaming line drive right into mussina's forehead. he dropped face first onto the pitchers mound, i turned to my friend kenny and said, we just saw a ballplayer get killed. he didn't move at all for a couple of minutes, but recovered for a fine rest of his career.

and i found this today, the famous baltimore sun photo that ran front page the next day
that was one nasty gash

and no, i did not have a national bohemian, aka natty-boh. i don't think beer belongs in a can, and from what others have told me i didn't miss anything, it's more tradition than taste. my leinenkugel wheat was just fine thank you

brooks robinson, aka the human vacuum cleaner, what else needs be said, considered the greatest defensive 3rd baseman of all time

 

and i should post the starting lineups

and the hometeam

nice clock in the outfield

 

and it outa here

 

the rains came shortly thereafter so i retreated to the dry warmth of my hotel room, the orioles waited it out, tied the score with another run and went on to win it walk off in the tenth, oh well such is life as a traveling baseball fan

 

I was there later in '98 when Mussina took a perfect game into the 8th inning. That was a lot of fun to watch.

 

That video is priceless! Too funny! I need to get back to Camden Yards, been almost twenty years for me!

 

i haven't seen any no hitters or perfect games yet, but i was there, bronx ny, summer of 1977, luis tiant, on the mound for the yankees pitches and loses a 1 hitter against the hated red sox, 1-0, a solo home run his only mistake of that game. talk about a pitchers duel

lunch, aquarium, camden yards is something i'd be happy to do