gary's great american pastime trips thread

starting lineups for the game

like them or not, like or dislike the steinbrenner family, that is one large amount of world series appearances

a little game action

runner on first

and we all know the ballpark experience just isn't right unless we can order dessert from our seat via our phone, pay for it electronically, and have it magically show up

 

and he's out, and it's by a full step, and baseball is a game that rewards the observant, dedicated viewer. you start to see the truths of the game, a well hit ball to the shortstop, the average grade shortstop makes the play, the runner is out by a half step, above average it's a full step, even the fastest runner, 90% or better of the time, there are just things that hold true, true enough to allow the observant to acquire an appreciation for the better than average, to savor like a fine wine the play of an ozzie smith, or a robin yount in the infield,

first base can be a demanding position, which is why i always question teams sticking a good bat, no field aging player there. here the 1st baseman is moving off with the pitch, while still trying to hold the runner close so as not to give away the free stolen base.

runners do beat the high throw

everytime i see this i think of that scene in bull durham, if you know the movie you know candlesticks always make a good gift

and ny does not have running hot dogs or astronauts or presidents, or running anything, instead they have a diamond vision subway race of the 3 lines that go to yankee stadium from downtown

well that just sucks, giving up some runs, like a grand slam worth

slides to break up the double play were still legal last summer, at least in august.

last batter, nothing good happened, end of game


coming in a couple of weeks, toronto, the rogers center, baltimore orioles vs toronto blue jays. some jamaican food, hopefully some nice flower shots from the edwards gardens and a stunner night shot of the toronto skyline from the toronto islands.

 

fenway is interesting, even with the upgrades there is still a real old school feel to the place. closest experience to wrigley left in baseball.
any day game either sat or sunday works for me, as long as i know enough in advance. i'd be taking the train down and back from ny, it's a nice relaxing way for me to get there, since i don't have to pay attention to driving i can doze in the seats, and if i know far enough in advance, i can gt a business class seat, those on the northeast corridor trains are pretty roomy and comfortable.

 

so it has been too long since i posted any baseball, 2016 only saw 1 trip in the quest for them all, a weekend trip in june to toronto to watch the blue jays pummel and i do mean a beat down of the baltimore orioles. toronto has long been a favorite city of mine, and now that they have a 1 seat train ride from pearson airport right into union station in the heart of downtown, i can see myself making the occasional trip back there. this post may go off course a little bit as i am going to include just a few shots of toronto, because we all know i just cannot go to any city with a transit system and not do the tourist thing, so first up a little teaser about the edward gardens, part of the toronto botanical park, and formerly a private estate english garden. this photo does not do it justice, i was there in high sun unfortunately, but still a lovely place to take a nice contemplative walk

oh what the heck, let's poach a wedding

and thanks to an efficient transit system, let's go back downtown, i'm hungry, so let's go to a funky neighborhood called kensington market, to rasta pasta, where i had the best curried goat i have ever had, and i have had it on at least 3 caribbean islands

my primary mode of transport, a little metro, 1 use of a bus, but a lot of streetcar, toronto has one of the largest streetcar networks in north america.

and a street performer right outside my hotel, interacting with a young man

i even on my first night was able to get one of my must do shots, by taking this ferry

over there, to centre island, one of the toronto islands a little chain of islands connected to downtown by ferry boat, and people do live there year round, very very popular in the summer with families on day trips

where i went here, to this que and beer joint, got myself a very good local beer, and sat out on the deck in the beautiful evening

and got this, the toronto skyline at night from centre island, i actually liked this last of the blue hour over the pure dark shots i got

 

So it's saturday, game day, a beautiful day, so let's go do a little walkabout along the waterfront before game time. toronto fire services, the fireboat

the station where the boat crew, an engine company and an ems unit are stationed, right across the dock from the boat. and i asked the boat engineer , who let me come into the house for a couple photos, who crews the boat?, a captain, an engineer, and the rest from the station engine crew, if they are out on a run, the nearest available engine comes in. and like all firemen everywhere, the meal is important, and family style, the engine was out shopping for the evening crew meal.

and the reason i rang the doorbell, this, a 1942 ford fire engine, used for ceremonies and dept funerals, the brother even opened the bay door so i could have better light.

still had a lot of time until game time, so i took a sightseeing ride out to the end of a streetcar line that parallels the lakefront, through a very hip neighborhood called the beaches. this is the streetcar loop turnaround at the end of the line, and you have to love blind obedience to the rules, the driver made me get off. so i went across the street, took this photo, she waited until it was time to depart on the next run, pulled around the loop and picked up the only passenger at the first stop, and guess who that was?? and there you go dennis, some of the clrv streetcars remain inservice, toronto is changing over to the breda and kawasaki low floors over the next few years

next post the game itself

 

and it's play ball time, rogers centre, home to the toronto blue jays, retractable roof no real breeze, and it was hot. but the folks in toronto love their jays, the crowd was loud and rocking all game

couple of the toronto 5-0, pulling front gate duty

i usually follow the gate number recommended on the ticket, only because i like to get in early enough to get the feel for where i sit in relation to bathrooms and food, oh and draft beer, preferably draft craft beer.

and the traditional first view of the field

and food, did i mention food, heart attack on a plate, better known as poutine, in this case chicken poutine, hide the women and children, rouge diabetic on the loose

and i'm not actually going to post a lot of the game,mostly because i did not take a lot, it was so hot by the 5th inning, that i actually had to take a 2 inning shade break on the mezzanine

and yes, that is 3rd base, and a lot of blue jays had a passing acquaintance with that base

and for some reason, not sure why, i usually take a photo of the talking head cages

his form looked good, but to no avail

i like it when i can grab nice shots of the jumbotron, and make no mistake, if you haven't realized from the al playoffs yet, toronto is the real deal, i would not be surprised if they go to the series or even take it all

 

give it up, for the hardest working band in baseball, the groundskeepers, oh and there's jay, the team mascot

and this runner got to third

and the next batter got to watch it leave the park, and i cannot help but wonder how painful his next at bat would have been if the pitcher had been the great but definitely strong willed bob gibson

home run

the game is still close at this point

but not for too long, the jays started doing this pretty much every inning

and again

in fact they liked it so much, they did it 11 times that game, final score 11-6 blu jays, pretty wild game where you can score 6 runs and still get a beat down

the winners traditional team high fives

game totals

 

and some post game shots
wandered around, the thai food smelled good in front of here

tasted as good as it smelled, i love thai food, wish disney had a thai restaurant

ventured off on the metro line again to walk around the provincial capital building

off to my left was this pretty neat monument with world war 2 photos of canadian troops etched into the stone


and that concludes our toronto trip. leaving just 5 ballparks left, seattle, oakland, san francisco , anaheim, dodgers. however due to the cost and flight times, these may take awhile to score, particularly since i would like to hit both los angeles teams, and disneyland all in one trip, with a side trip to cajon and tehachapi passes, preferably in spring when they are green hills, not dry brown.

 

ok 2017 did not see any new parks added, but we have a new one on deck, when i originally was plotting out trips i somehow got confused and thought portland was over 300 miles from seattle, so imagine my chagrin when 3 weeks before the trip i checked out mapquest and found it is only 153 miles from my hotel to the angle lake stop on link, seattles light rail line that stops right across the street from safeco field, i check the schedule, and hot dog, seattle is home on wednesday 5/16, with a 12:40 game against the texas rangers, over to stub hub i go, and 5 minutes later i have a ticket. so here it is park #26 of 30, safeco field in seattle.
so let's have nice easy interstate drive, find the light rail station, park, and take the train, which is free if you have a game ticket, courtesy of the mariners



water everywhere around seattle



stadium stop, because well, that's what's there, both football and baseball, one of each, and that gray sky, does not matter, safeco field has a retractable roof



cool mural on a building as you walk to safeco from the light rail



the stadium where they play that other sport



safeco field from near the entry



and the traditional first view of the field

 

manicuring the bullpens



lunch, a cubano sandwich and a can of soda, oh that's right, pop



and i know i have heard of this guy, but cannot recall the circumstance, a long time seattle announcer



ball parks do not generally sell 24 ounce cans of beer, and one of the reasons i so love cities with ballparks served by mass transit is that i can try a craft beer or two, without worrying about driving



national anthem time



play ball, and let's get down to it, section 123, row 7, seat 4, great seat at the first base end of the mariners dugout, unfortunately this will be the last game from those seats, due to to the new netting now in place at all mlb parks, it runs from the old backstop netting out to the end of the dugouts, on both sides, apparently all stadiums have this, more of the nanny state, you are at a major league game, it's called hardball for a reason, headsup, pay attention to the game, foul balls and liners are a fact of life PAY ATTENTION, so now so that my camera does not keep trying to focus on the netting i have to move out past first base and carry a longer lens, although all these were taken with the consumer grade 70-300 f4.0-5.6 with with that lightning fast autofocus of the a9 is not a bad combo, here is shin-sin choo, from texas with a strike coming in



and too bad he was pitching for texas, it would have been the perfect literary reference, bartolo colon, the ancient mariner. baseball is a game that adapts well to literary essays.



he's 46 years old, and he still can pitch good enough to make a roster, of course he has about 10 different deliveries. he does it with guile and putting the ball into play, not with speed



yeah they have a mascot, and he had to come to right in front of me to do one of those in-between innings giveaways, and oh, there's that new netting i detest



and here you can see the faint influence of that netting, i should have just moved, it wasn't like the park was packed

 

ok, let's show a little of the seattle team, their pitcher, who did not last past 5



safely back to the bag, colon has a pretty quick and sneaky move to first, he has picked off a few in his time



and the force at 2nd



and a texas bunt attempt



take it in kid, your'e done today

 

i like how the a9 frame rate lets me catch the ball coming into the plate



i believe it was the first run scored of the game



he teed off on this one



another ball in play





safely back to the bag



another pitching change, and yes, that is alan banister, a name from the past

 

the effort on his face curing his 8 warmup pitches, and it is a fine line between overthrowing and putting something on it



and rounding third, for the only seattle run, on a home run



good form, even fully through the swing



coming over the top with a high release



swing and a miss, i know this because you're ou can see the ball behind the batter, almost into the catchers mitt

 

and that is a hit coming off the bat



swing and a miss



running hard, trying to leg out a hit

 

delino deshields, swing and a miss



the throw from the shortstop



and he is out by a step

review of the call at texas request, call on the field upheld



and for once i was ready, the start of the double play





and game over, alas no joy in mudville today, the home team lost



rangers 5, mariners 1, no announced attendance, but i would place it as maybe 20,000, half a ball park, so we are going to call it a day and a game, uneventful light rail ride back to the car, and a very slow boring rush hour ride back to portland, 1 hour and 17 minutes to go the first 31 miles, after that it got to highway speed, arrived at hotel by 8pm, tired, early to bed, tomorrow is another full day