gary's great american pastime trips thread

Nice Gary! How many stadiums can you cross off now?

 

Nice series as usual, Gary. Thanks for taking us along with you via the photos

 

atlanta was #20 of 30, the next order in the pipeline is kansas city, #21, then 2015 trips so far, #22, houston, and #23, arlington, hopefully all to be posted within the next 2 weeks, then july sees me in toronto, and sometime this season, its a probable trip to new yankee stadium, for the 3rd yankee stadium for me as i was at the original yankee stadium as a child in the 60's although i barely remember the game, and quite a few indeed during the late 70's early 80's at the renovated stadium.
some of the many pennants won by those great atlanta teams of a few years ago



todays lineup


the rockies did not have a fun day, this was a pretty frequent scoreboard announcement



gotta shake the team hands as you cross the plate



mascot vs something, not quite sure what, oh wait a minute it's a home depot paint brush



and i don't care in todays pc climate we have to live in, i still remember the tomahawk chop



and this man was worth the ticket alone, a baritone star of the atlanta opera, and a full professor of voice performance at spellman college, doing a stirring rendition of america the beautiful



?????????



big corporate presence in atlanta



atlanta takes the win

 

The Chic-fil-et cow sign says that Burgers are Busch League, eat more chicken. Great photos by the way.

 

Great shots! You are running out of stadiums to visit, what is next, NHL?

 

triple A, and AA at least

 

If you ever make it all the way to Independent League Stadiums, I'll treat you to two rocking chairs behind home plate in Normal...

 

independent leagues are good, they have a lot of nice stadiums, we have a 10 game ticket package at the local atlantic league long island ducks
good cheap entertainment

 

moving on from atlanta, next up is a trip to kansas city, i've already last year posted a lot of photos from my great midwest ramble, so now its time to go to kansas city, to kaufman stadium, when i originally decided to attend the national railroad historical society annual convention in northwestern arkansas, as i started looking for a gateway airport, the closest major city turned out to be kc, and when i discovered the royals were home the weekend before the convention started it was a done deal. i did not do the I-70 double as its called the year i did st louis, opting instead for the side trip to marceline missouri, to the walt disney hometown museum, so this was a good piece of timing. first up, the hotel i stayed at, got to love it when the stadium is within walking distance of your hotel, second best is a direct mass transit line move, 3rd best is a mass transit move with a transfer, my least preferred, having to rent a car and deal with the exiting traffic.
my hotel



and literally a 180 pivot and here's kaufman stadium



the layout



the famous fountains, which i actually saw before i had my traditional field view



this guy could play, and i still remember the pine tar incident, one of the best baseball tantrums i ever saw, right up there with the best of earl weaver



the Q was better than any other ballpark so far, but not on the level of the kc area places of renown, such as jack stacks, oklahoma joe's, gates, and believe me i sampled a few on that trip



and some miniature golf



with unique holes



and obstacles



and some kids entertainment





the kaufmans, who apparently deeply loved and were major benefactors to sports, art and culture in the kansas city area

 

continuing with kansaas city, here we look down into one the bullpens, starter warning up



the view of the field



the royals hall of fame



the royal pig



and craft beer, mmmm beer



pork rules, especially in the midwest



yankees lineup



starting fielders for the royals


decent view from my seat



and this, well i'll let it speak for itself, i'm not quite sure i have words for this



i believe he was out



good fielding, and good pitching, i like those games,



pitching change, the line on the new pitcher atop the hall of fame



those guys in the cat outfits are still at it

 

the royals win, 2-1, it was right about then that they started the run to the world series



final line on the game



the fountains again



and i haven't been including it here, but i make sure i get the paper the next morning and bring home the box score, i have most of them from my games, and i scan them in at the tail end of the online gallery

 

Gary, not sure if you saw this interview, but I guess this is the newest "game" for athletes. Was based off a scene from the movie "Super Troopers". So that would explain the cat tank tops and subsequently the signs that say "right meow".

 

well ok that explains some of it, he did a very good job slipping meow into that

 

so its time to get a move on, get along little doggies, get along to texas, first up houston, home of the surprisingly good astros, and the really nice minute maid park. first up photo is from my hotel room window, i stayed right across the street in the downtown westin, and while it wasn't cheap, the ballpark convenience certainly made it worthwhile
from my window

home plate grill, where i had a great burger and a great kolsch style craft draft before the game, its that building across from the far end of the park in the above photo

entrance to home plate

welcome plaza

pitcher

catcher

and we will see this train later from inside

my first view of the field

 

More great stuff Gary. I would not be able to pass up The Home Plate Grille!

 

no, the wretched astrodome is just a memory
mickey made it to houston


and i tried to win this car, but haven't heard from the raffle people, unless it goes at the end of the season


i quite often arrive early enough to watch the grounds crew go through the final prep for the game, the crisp white new looking base covers, the smooth infield dirt


the limeing of the base lines and the batters box



some kind of talking head doing a tv interview/commentary


something to do with eating more chicken thing



the astros did have a few great players, including smithtown ny's own craig biggio



all the games i've attended, and i have yet to catch a t shirt fired into the crowd



tonights starting lineup, seattle mariners vs houston astros, and i have to give props where due, altuve is one hell of a ballplayer, the only other 5 tool player that comes to mind with him is andrew mcutcheon of pittsburgh



and we'll close tonights post with this shot of that weird little hill up to the left field foul pole, which i understand is gone as of next season, does add a little character

 

so of course we have the mandatory character race, astronauts instead of hot dogs or hamburgers, at least something different


another sidearm pitcher, i'm still waiting for one of them to have his arm just fly off towards the crowd


and the mascot and the mascot harem, for lack of a better term, and the lighting got a little weird for awhile, this was the first major league game for me using the sony A6000, plus the new to me FE 24-240, and houston has a retractable roof, which they left open tonight , so some of my images were a little dark until i figured it out


every time a houston player hits a home run, the train moves right to left, parallel to the left field baseline up on top of the stadium, the tender is filled with oranges, and there is actually a person dressed on old railroad engineer overalls, bandana and hat riding it waving to the crowd, pretty neat, and due to houston scoring all their runs on home runs, i got to see the train a few times


oh happy day, the home team wins, some good baseball, nice pleasant evening, and 20 minutes after the last out, i'm relaxing in my hotel room, tonights box score

 

so we continue with the texas two step as i like to think of it, moving back up the road to arlington texas, to global life stadium, home of the texas rangers, open air, thus the only team in major league baseball allowed to have an 8:00 pm start on the sunday game of the week. and that is why this trip took place when it did, no way was i going to an outdoor game in texas after june 1st. another easy transit, if you stay in a hotel along the arlington shuttle route you do not have to drive to the game, although you cannot stay for post game concerts when they have them, in this case i had to miss out on trace atkins, bummer.

arriving at global life

window by the entrance to the team store

and it was a fundraiser day for the local animal shelter


they have these neat sandstone relief scenes over various portals around the stadium


first view of the field


they have a pretty large diamond vision


my doctor would not approve, but hey, he wasn't there, some sort of frito pie/barbeque thing. sinfully delicious


and i did not have this, but the counter worker was gracious enough to hold someone else's up for my photo, the true 2 foot long hot dog, $26.00


wish i could remember who this commemorates, maybe nolan ryan??


and the view from my seat, once again stub hub gets me where i want to be

 

ok, so i just realized i am behind on posting on this thread, so since 6/10 i travel to toronto, for park #25 of 30, let me catch it up. 8/8/15, toronto blue jays vs ny yankees, at what for me is my 3rd yankee stadium, although i can no longer remember the original, according to my mother i was there when i was about 9, yankee stadium #2, my favorite memory, 1978, red sox vs yankees, luis tiant on the mound for the yankees, pitches and loses a 1 hitter, hung a slider that i believe dwight evans tattooed into the seats. and now new yankee stadium, yanks lose 6 - 0, john smoak hits a grand slam. great sunny warm day, mass transit all the way, in fact made such great time getting the D train after the game, 45 minutes after last out, i was on the LIRR train home towards ronkonkoma.
first view of the stadium walking from the subway stop

nyfd, 44 truck, the local truck company for the neighborhood

walking up to the facade

my traditional first view of the field photo

and it's warm, i'm not driving, and i can afford 1 ny priced beer, except i forgot this one was blurry

view from my seat, and it was pepsi cowboy hat day