gary's great american pastime trips thread

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Awesome (non) stolen base sequence, Gary!


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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!!!

 

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

 

Bull Durham

Great stuff 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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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