Ballpark at Arlington

This is one of the back to the future parks built in the early 90’s. When you approach the stadium it’s by a large pond and not near any other large buildings so it stands out. The outfield has an adjacent office building that overlooks the field. Behind center field is a statue of Nolan Ryan and a kids play area. Unfortunately you can’t see the field from the play area. Right field has an upper deck with front seats almost flush with the outfield wall. At the top of these seats is a Friday’s restaurant. The rest of the stadium is pretty basic – but nicely done.

My first visit to the park was a non-game experience. I was visiting my sister [who at the time was living in Wichita Falls Texas] for Thanksgiving. We drove into Dallas for a few days to see the Redskins/Cowboys game and a Stars game. While we were there we decided to drive by the ballpark to look at it. It happened to be open. They had a bunch of people on the field singing Christmas carols. We walked down to the field and sat in the dugout for a while. The first of my two times to sit in the Texas dugout. The second time was during a ballpark tour in 2000.
I have attended a total of seven games at this park. Al happened in a one week time span in July 2000. I stayed with my sister, now married and living in Dallas. There was really no other reason for the visit other than to see my sister and go to games. I picked a week when the Rangers were in town and went to a game a day. My brother-in-law was not into baseball but seemed to feel obligated to attend all of the games despite my assurances this was not necessary. He only backed out of one game. During this week we sat all over the park. Cheap seats in left, field level seats on the first base side, a luxury suite, and the Friday’s restaurant.

We saw a bad Rangers team that had pretty good offense in Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Gabe Kapler, and David Segui – before he was traded later that season. They also had no pitching with a starting rotation consisting of Ryan Glynn, Rick Helling, Esteban Loaiza, Darren Oliver, and Kenny Rogers. John Wetteland was the closer in his last year in the majors. They also had Francisco Cordero in the bullpen in his second year.

We saw three games against the Angels, three against the Tigers, and one against the White Sox. The Angels were mediocre finishing third in the division above the Rangers. They had Darrin Erstad, Mo Vaughn, Garret Anderson, and Tim Salmon on offense and Troy Percival in the bullpen. The first game was a 12 inning victory for the Angels. The Rangers took the next two. I watched the third game from the skybox. My sister was working for a rehab hospital and they would receive tickets from the law firm that represented them. She got tickets for us and we watched from just above first base. As usual with luxury suites, the attendee’s were more interested in being in being in the box than being at the game. This was a close one-run game with the Angels tying it in the ninth and the Rangers getting the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. By the end of the seventh, the box had cleared out and the owners seemed upset that we wanted to stay and watch the end of the game. We stayed.


The next three games were against the Tigers who finished third in the Central that year. They had Juan Gonzalez [signed as a free agent that year] and no one else of particular note. The Rangers would split the four game series. I only saw the first three of four, none of which were close.

The last game I saw there was against the White Sox which we watched from the restaurant. The deal with seeing the game from Friday’s was each ticket cost $50 and you had to buy them pairs. For each ticket you received a $50 credit at the restaurant. We got a table of four – my sister invited a friend from work. When it was all over our final bill [including tip] was $201.

One of the biggest benefits of watching from Friday’s – it was air conditioned. I’m sure this doesn’t come as a shock but Dallas is hot in the summer. Overall this was a nice stadium. If you’re going to a game there in the summer, try to get tickets in the first base side.


UPDATE AUGUST 2010: I was on travel for work and was able to catch the Yankees in town. I went with a colleague from UT Arlington who used his ‘ticket guy’ to get us seats about 10 rows above the Yankee dugout. It was a great game to see. The Rangers won in 10 innings. The rare event for this game was Mariano Rivera, arguably the best reliever in the game right now, took the loss for New York. 

I learned some new things about the park. First, the Friday’s restaurant above right field is closed. It’s now part of the club level. Also [and more interestingly] if you drive a Lexus to the park, you get complimentary valet parking. I don’t know how or why Lexus got this deal as opposed to BMW, Mercedes, or another high-end car maker but there is a drop-off/pick-up right by the home plate entrance. I suppose the Kia valet service may be near the outfield entrance. One thing that’s the same about the park, get seats in the shade.

Anaheim Stadium

I lived in San Diego for 15 years. The Big A was about a 1.5 hour drive away. Not bad by SoCal standards. It was a fairly straight shot from work but traffic could get pretty bad so we’d try to go up early, have dinner in a nearby sports bar before heading into the game. I averaged about a game a year, most of which I attended with my friend John.


The original park was dual purpose splitting time with the LA Rams. It was ugly and mostly empty. Disney bought the team and remodeled the stadium. They did a phenomenal job! There is the little stone A in center but focusing on that really downplays how much the stadium was improved. They destroyed the upper deck seats in the outfield which created a much more open feel. Entry to the ‘original’ park used to put you into the bowels of the stadium. Disney put up a fence around the physical stadium creating open area to walk around and enjoy the Southern California weather. Currently at the home plate entrance there is a brick layout of the infield (actual size) with bricks at each position noting the opening day started for all previous Angel teams. There are also giant hats on pedestals with the Angels logos. On a hot day they're nice for the shade in case you're meeting someone at the ticket window. In addition to the stadium change, the Angels changed from the California Angels to the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim along with even more logo changes.


There were some themes to the games I attended. I would usually go with my friend John who had two strong connections to AL teams. First, he grew up in Minnesota and was a huge Twins fan. He also went to High School with Terry Steinbach. Thus half of the games we would see would involve the Twins or A’s. Having been to a number of games I won’t describe each one but I will mention some highlights.

 
From 1992 to 2001 (the bulk of my attendance) the Angels had some pretty good players: Gary Gaetti, Bert Blyleven, Chuck Finley, Tim Salmon, JT Snow, Jim Edmonds, Bo Jackson, Garret Anderson, Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson (as an Angel), Troy Percival, Cecil Fielder, Mo Vaughn, and Troy Glaus.
Players from opposing teams that I got to see play in Anaheim include Terry Steinbach (I would be remiss if I didn’t mention him first), Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Rickey Henderson (as an A and a Padre), Robin Yount, Rafael Palmeiro (as a Ranger and an Oriole), Nolan Ryan, Kevin Brown (as a Ranger), Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Don Mattingly, Paul O’Neill, Wade Boggs, Darryl Strawberry, Cecil Fielder, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn, Carlos Delgado, Joe Carter, Cal Ripken Jr., Paul Molitor, Todd Helton, and David Ortiz.

 

Here are some of the game (and non-game) memories I have of the stadium.

• In 1993 Nolan Ryan announced he was going to retire and this would be his last season. John and I looked at the schedule, did some math and estimated when he would pitch in Anaheim. We were not alone in this. We bought tickets two months in advance and got mid-level tickets along the first base side by the foul pole. As the day got closer, an alteration in the rotation moved Nolan’s start date up one game. We scrambled at the last minute and got tickets in the upper deck in straight-away left field. Way up there under a giant scoreboard. We were a long way from the pitcher’s mound, but during this game Nolan had five strikeouts. The last five of his career. Nolan had one more start but he was injured during that game and had zero K’s. An odd thing about Nolan’s exit from the game I saw was that he went 7.0 innings, came out in the 8th, threw his warm-up pitches, then walked off the field. [Craig Lefferts ran in from the bullpen.] Less than a month later, there was a big earthquake and that scoreboard fell down on to the seats we were in for the game.
  
• As I mentioned before, my friend John went to high school with Terry Steinbach. While Steinbach was with the A’s John and I would go up early and walk down to the field during batting practice. During one time, there was a rain delay. We walked down to the field, Terry was stretching out, John yelled, “Steiner!” Terry looked up, nodded, and ran in the other direction. An action I have never let John forget.
• One year John and I went to opening day. As we walked into the stadium I handed our tickets to the attendant. She tore off the stubs, handed the tickets back to us, and reached behind her back and gave the stubs to someone standing behind her. No explanation. We headed up to our seats in the upper deck on the third base side. We grabbed some hot dogs, showed the tickets to the usher and this guy in a jacket looks at the tickets and says, “You won!” For some unknown reason [other than good Karma] we had won the U.S. Air ticket upgrade. Between the top and bottom of the first inning, they announced as winners, put us on the JumboTron, and moved us to seats behind home plate.
• One year a group of us went early to a game to tailgate. The rule of the stadium is no charcoal grills. Propane only. We had the illicit charcoal variety. In the parking lot they had employees on scooters riding around checking. We were harassed by The Man. As he was pulling away John asked, “Are you a Nazi?” The guy said, “Yes I am,” and left.

UPDATE AUGUST 2010: I was visiting San Diego for a conference and went to a game with John and his 2 kids [Tyler and Nicole]. We had seats on the first base side between the bag and the foul pole. We saw the Blue Jays in a game that probably won’t mean anything to either team. An interesting thing during the game, I was talking to John about cities that had a AAA franchise and a major league club. I was listing the minor league teams around the DC area and the guy next to me starts naming some as well. Turns out he lives about 10 miles from me in the DC area. He was attending another convention in Anaheim. What are the odds that two people from suburban DC would end up next to each other at a game on the west coast. 

 

Coors Field

I have made two trips to Coors Field. It is a very nice park located in what I have been told is a gentrified area of downtown. The park is one of the Back to the Future designs. The unique stadium aspect is the mini-arboretum in center field. It has an impressive red brick façade at the main entrance. They also have a general admission section in center called the ‘rock pile’. Overall it’s a nicely designed park.


My first trip to the stadium was in 1996 while I was driving my cousin from Chicago to LA. This was the Rockies second season in the park and tickets were tough to get. Ironically my cousin and I stayed in a hotel adjacent to Mile High Stadium. We bought tickets the morning of the game and sat in the front row of the upper deck behind home plate. It was a pretty good seat to see the game. The Rockies had Vinny Castilla, Andres Galarraga, Larry Walker, and no pitching. This game was against the Pirates who would finish last in their division that year. The Bucs had Jason Kendall, Al Martin, Jay Bell, and an equal amount of pitching talent as the Rockies. The Pirates also had Tony Womack – but this was a year before he became a regular starter. The Rockies won that day on a strong performance by starter Kevin Ritz. There were two home runs [one for each team] and Eric Young had a stolen base.



My second game was opening day 2001 right after the BRBL draft. I attended with John, CJ and Grace. The Rockies would finish last that season while the Cardinals would finish tied for the division lead with Houston. The Rockies had Larry Walker, Todd Helton, and Juan Pierre. The Rockies had just signed Mike Hampton. The Cards had Mark McGwire, Edgar Renteria, Jim Edmonds, and Bobby Bonilla. Rick Ankiel was still a pitcher following his meltdown in the 2000 playoffs. They also had the Rookie Albert Pujols appearing in his first game. Thus began the ‘Pujols Incident’. During the BRBL draft we just completed 2 days earlier, one of the owners [Marc] wanted to draft Pujols near the end of the draft and would have had him for $1. No one at the draft had internet access except the one owner who was participating by phone [Mendoza]. He announced that Pujols had been sent down to the minors making him ineligible for the regular draft. As we sat in Coors watching the game [upper level first base side] CJ says, “Isn’t that the guy Gue tried to draft? I guess he wasn’t sent down to the minors.” The Cards lost that day 8-0 on a great Hampton outing. Cardinal ace Darryl Kile gave up 6 ER and 14 H&W in 5 IP. Todd Walker and Larry Walker each had a home run. Pujols was 1-3.

Coincidentally the BRBL draft that year also produced the ‘Kaz Matsui incident’.

Candlestick Park

This was a dual purpose stadium that wasn’t really good for either. For football, some seats were completely view obstructed and unusable. For baseball they would fence in left field and put up some generic stands behind them – with unusable permanent seats behind them. Access to the park was poor. There was one road from the freeway to the parking lot. The parking was adequate but mass transit was virtually non-existent (one bus line, no BART). The stadium sat (or still sits) close to the SF bay just south of the city. During the day it’s a nice park temperature-wise but night games could be brutally cold. I fully understand what When Mark Twain meant when he wrote “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” I don’t know the actual dimensions but I think this park had one of the smallest screens behind home plate.

My first game at Candlestick was in 1992. We sat in the upper deck on the first base side. We saw them play the Padres in a day game. Neither team would challenge for the NL West that year. The Padres had Tony Gwynn, Gary Sheffield, and Fred McGriff. The Giants had Will Clark, Matt Williams, and Robby Thompson. The Giants got the 3-1 victory on a good Bud Black performance and Rod Beck save. Willie McGee, a long way from his speedy St. Louis days, stole a base in this game.

In 1996 my friend John and I took a trip to the bay area (SF/OAK) for a long weekend and to see some baseball. We saw three games at Oakland and two at the Stick including a day/night double header with the day game in Oakland and the night game in SF. Please see the Oakland Alameda Coliseum entry for the other games on this trip [this is also the trip I cured John of his bridge phobia]. For the double header, the game in Oakland was warm, sunny, and we were dressed comfortably in t-shirts and shorts. On the way to Candlestick I changed into jeans, put on a sweatshirt, and brought a jacket. It was not nearly enough. This was [prior to Veteran’s Stadium] the coldest game I ever attended. We had tickets for the upper deck but we sat in seats on the lower level and the ushers never bothered us. This was a bad Giants team playing slightly better Reds team. The Giants had Barry Bonds at this point but no one else on offense. For perspective the Giants opening day outfield consisted of Bonds, Stan Javier, and Glenallen Hill. Rich Aurilia was still a rookie for the Giants. The Reds had Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Vince Coleman, and Bret Boone. Neither team had much in the way of pitching other than Rod Beck and Jeff Brantley in their respective bullpens. As I mentioned before this game was COLD. I bought a Giants scarf which I still use today. The Reds won the game 4-3 (Brantley save, SB’s by Larkin and Aurilia). We came back the next day for a day game, which the Reds won again. Brantley got a save after Rod Beck blew a one run lead in the top of the 9th. Bonds hit a home run and Eric Davis had 2 SB’s.

 

One of the most interesting things about this trip was where we stayed. I was dating Myra at the time and she said she had friends in Berkeley we could stay with. About a week before we left she called and asked if it would be OK for John and I to stay at their place. John and I had never met these people but they said yes, but they were going out of town that weekend. When John and I arrived we had dinner with the husband, wife, and daughter. The next morning the wife and daughter left for the week. The husband, who owned a liquor store, had to work that night so John and I saw him after the game briefly. The next morning he took off for the week leaving John and I the keys to the house. At the end of our trip we left the gifts [book on the NY/SF Giants, Bath & Body Works gift basket, and a stuffed animal] which they said they really liked.

Kingdome

While I was living in San Diego, my brother moved to Seattle and my friend Joe’s family lived in the area. One day Joe and I are talking and we decide we need to see a game at the Kingdome. This was one of the better Seattle lineups (1996) with Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Jay Buhner, Randy Johnson, and Dennis Martinez. Raul Ibanez was a Mariner September call-up. We flew up and saw the last three regular season games against the A’s. The Mariners had already won the division by then and were just resting up against last place Oakland. This was the year Mark McGwire went to St. Louis from Oakland but they still had Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, and rookies Miguel Tejada & Mark Bellhorn. The A’s took 2 of 3. Nothing spectacular happened in the games. In the second game Griffey hit #56 for the season and the big unit got the win #20 – pitching in relief.

This was my first domed stadium and it was bad. There was no natural light from the outside. When we walked out of the park it was weird seeing daylight. It was also really dark inside. The lighting in the seating area was particularly bad. Otherwise it was really no different than any other generic dual purpose stadium. When they destroyed the park, I didn’t really see it as a loss to baseball.

Veterans Stadium (Philadelphia)

This was another of the dual-purpose concrete donuts devoid of any charm. If I had a blackout during a game in the Vet and woke up in Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, it would have taken me a while to notice based on the architecture. I attended one game at the Vet before it closed: opening day 2002 against the Marlins. This was easily the coldest game I have ever attended. It snowed in Philadelphia that morning and temperatures were in the 30’s. I went with my friends Joe and Marc. I had ordered tickets online and we needed to pick them up at will call. We arrived at the stadium about 20 minutes before game time. Will call was underneath this walkway and the line was massive. We stood in line for over an hour before we got our tickets. The crowd was unruly (shocking for a Philadelphia crowd) and when we got to the ticket window Marc says, “We’re here for InSync tickets.”


The Phillies looked good on paper coming into the season with Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, Doug Glanville, Scott Rolen, and closer Jose Mesa. The Marlins were a year away from their second world series title and had Luis Castillo, Cliff Floyd, and three young pitchers in Brad Penny, AJ Burnett, and Ryan Dempster. By the time we got to our upper deck seats (3rd base foul pole) it was the 4th inning. By this time all we had missed was a 3-1 Phillies lead including an Abreu home run and Rollins SB. In the bottom of the 4th, Philadelphia scored three more runs which ended starter Julian Tavarez’s day. During the game I was freezing and went to use the men’s room. The bathroom was packed…and warm. As I washed my hands I thought for a moment, “it’s warm in here…but do I really want to hang out in the men’s room at the Stadium?” I promptly returned to my seat and continued my journey to hypothermia. In the ninth inning it’s a 6-2 Phillies lead. Florida put Vladimir Nunez [the 6th Marlin pitcher of the day] on the mound where he gives up two hits after getting two outs. Marlins Manager Jeff Torborg comes out to talk with Nunez while the bullpen gets loose. By this time I had lost feeling from the waist down and I remember yelling, “It’s two outs! Leave him in!” Unfortunately Torborg was unable to hear me from our seats in the adjacent zip code to the field but he did leave Nunez in for the last out.


We made the slow walk back to the car. We drove to Jim’s to get a cheese steak. After the drive out of the parking lot with post-game traffic, going through downtown, finding a parking spot, walking to Jim’s, and waiting in line to order, by the time we sat down I could finally feel my feet again.

One final note on the will call experience. To the Phillies credit, they knew they screwed up and made amends. I had ordered the tickets in advance using my credit card. A few weeks later I received a letter of apology for the excessive wait along with coupons for three tickets, three hot dogs, and three soft drinks. Unfortunately I lived in San Diego at that time and had no plans to return the Philadelphia area. I ended up giving them to a friend who was going to visit family there and he used them.

Three Rivers Stadium

This was one of the concrete donut 1970’s dual purpose monstrosities. The artificial turf made it even worse. This stadium was virtually identical to Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and I’m told it was just like the old Busch Stadium. One of the things I liked about the park were the Honus Wagner and Roberto Clement statues. Wagner has a very classic look while Clemente is larger than life. Both appropriate for the people they represent.

I attended my first two games in Pittsburgh against the Braves at the end of my 1993 ballpark tour. [Also the first time I had a Permani Brothers sandwich.] This was a very good Braves team who had lost the World Series the year before and would easily win their division this year. Deion Sanders, David Justice, and Ron Gant on offense with Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz. This was the year after Barry Bonds went to San Francisco. It was also the year after Barry was unable to throw out Sid Bream in the NLCS who scored FROM SECOND BASE! SID BREAM!

The first game I saw was a come from behind victory for the Pirates who scored 4 runs in the ninth for the win (a no decision for Smoltz). We were staying at the same hotel as the Braves and after the game a few of us went to the hotel bar to hang out. Several players made it down to the bar as well as some baseball groupies. One of the groupies came over to our table and asked my friend if he was on the Braves. Without missing a beat he said, “Yes I am. I just got called up from the minors.” She was so excited and asked if he could introduce her to David Justice. He made some excuse for Dave and she returned to her friend. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I’m 99.9% sure the conversation went something like, “That guy is on the team.” “THAT guy? No he isn’t.”

The next day was a night game and while hanging around the hotel in the afternoon several players would come and go. As the arrived/departed they were mobbed by autograph seekers. Here was some of the worst autograph experiences I’ve ever had. First, as Ron Gant was getting into a taxi, he politely stops to sign some things and one kid gets a card signed and as he’s walking away says, “Who wants to buy this signed card!” Second, I was standing by the hotel entrance with three younger kids (around 12-14 years old). David Justice gets out of a cab and there’s just the four of us looking for autographs. Dave signs for the first kid, signs for the second kid, looks at me and walks into the hotel. I said, “Come on Dave! At least sign for the other kid!” He kept walking. Dick. On the other hand, John Smoltz was really nice as were Francisco Cabrera, Steve Bedrosian, and Don Sutton.

For the second game we had decent seats (lower level, third base side by the bag) but we walked around the stadium and watched an inning from the upper deck in straight-away center. It is by far the worst seat I’ve ever been in. It was so far away that the play was over before you heard the crack of the bat. The Braves won 6-2 and all runs in the game were scored in the ninth inning. Stan Belinda gave up all 6 runs for the Pirates.

One more thing I’ll mention about these two games. Fred McGriff played for the Braves in both of them. The significance of that is that when I began this trip Fred was a Padre and as a season ticket holder I received a letter from the team owner that assured the fans that no star talent would be traded this season! This is when the San Diego GM earned the nickname Pinocchio.

My next two games there were against the Cubs as the first games on my 1994 ballpark tour. The Pirates were now without Bonds and they would finish fourth in their division – just above the Cubs. The Bucs had Al Martin, Andy Van Slyke, and my namesake Dave Clark. The Cubs had Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, and Sammy Sosa although Ryno didn’t play in either game. The Cubs won the first game 8-4 scoring 7 of their runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. Dave Clark had a home run. The second game was a 9-4 win for the Pirates in a relatively uneventful game.

Shea Stadium

In 2002 my fantasy baseball league (the BRBL) drafted in New York. For me it was a phenomenal baseball weekend including opening day at Shea, opening day in Philadelphia, the second home game of the season for the Yankees, and a trip to Cooperstown. This was the only game I saw at Shea. The Mets had just signed Mo Vaughn and Roger Cedeno. Other Mets included Mike Piazza and Roberto Alomar. Despite the free agent signings the Mets underachieved that year finishing last in their division. They played the Pirates who had Aramis Ramirez and Jason Kendall (while Kendall was still good). While the Mets underachieved that year, the Pirates managed to finish fourth in their division while winning three fewer games than the Mets. Of the 8 opening day position starters for Pittsburgh, 4 had major league careers that lasted less than 10 years.

The night before the game, most of the league owners went out to dinner at a nice Italian place. There was a lot of good, and expensive, wine consumed by my friends. I don’t drink alcohol but when the bill came everyone decided to just split it evenly rather than figure out who owed what. At the game, one of my friends realized that I spent a lot of money on wine that I didn’t drink. So as a way of making amends he bought me (and another friend) Mike Piazza bobble head dolls. While I certainly appreciated the sentiment, Mike stayed in the original packaging until I threw him away in a move.

Why all of this discussion without mentioning the stadium? Because Shea was a boring stadium. We sat in the upper deck on the first base side. The game was uneventful. The Mets won on a good outing by Al Leiter. The only event of significance for this game is that BoCJ bought Basu (a Mets stuffed rally monkey) at this game and someone took pictures of the monkey sticking out of the zipper of BoCJ’s pants. Basu has attended every BRBL draft since then but to this day, BoCJ’s sister-in-law Grace refuses to handle the monkey.

Wrigley Field

My parents grew up and lived in Chicago through undergrad. Between grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins I have travelled to Chicago many times. My first memory of Wrigley was seeing the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1978. Back when they had the tall black hats with the yellow piping. We sat in the bleachers and I remember leaning over the ledge (above the netting) and asking Dave Parker for a ball. He faked a throw several times but never gave me a ball. Prick.


I have been back to Wrigley a few times over the years. It continues to be a great park. In 1993 I went to Wrigley as the first game on my first big ballpark tour. We had view obstructed seats down the 3rd base side almost to the foul pole. The Cubs were mediocre that year finishing fourth in the NL East. They had Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Sammy Sosa, Willie Wilson, and a terrible pitching staff. The Cubs were playing the brand new Colorado Rockies with Dale Murphy, Andres Galarraga, Dante Bichette, and Vinny Castilla in his first full season. The Cubs won 5-1 on a great Mike Harkey outing.


In 1996 I helped my cousin move from Chicago to Los Angeles. In short, I flew out to Chicago and drove cross-country with her. I took the opportunity to go to Wrigley and Coors Field during this trip. The Cubs game was against the Marlins. This was a pretty good Cub team on offense with Sammy Sosa, Ryne Sandberg, and Mark Grace, but they had no pitching and finished fourth in their division. The Marlins had Gary Sheffield (who hit a home run in this game), Terry Pendleton, and the rookie Edgar Renteria. Despite having Kevin Brown and Robb Nen they finished third in their division. This game was an 8-7 win for the Marlins in 11 innings.

The last game I attended there was in 2006 with my friends John and Marc as part of a ballpark tour. The Cubs have a comfortable 8-3 lead going into the 9th. The Cub bullpen gives up 6 runs to give the visiting Rockies a 9-8 advantage. During this meltdown a fan jumps on to the field, runs up to Bob Howry and yells, “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” The fan was escorted off the field, but the crowd was wondering the same thing. In the bottom of the 9th Alfonso Soriano hits a walk-off 2-RBI single for the win. After the highlights and recap on sports center, the announcers said, “It’s the kind of game you wish you were at!”

Fenway Park

I lived in Boston as young child my first trip to Fenway was in 1973. That team had a lot of talent but no rings. The early 70’s was a great time to be a Boston sports fan. The Bruins had Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (Tony for a bit too). The Celtics had John Havlicek and Dave Cowens. And the Sox had Carl Yastrzemski, Orlando Cepeda, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, and Luis Tiant. My older brother and I had the All-Star Baseball board game (the one with the circle player cards and the photo of the baseball field with the two spinners.) We would fight over who got the Rico Petrocelli card. We also collected baseball cards. Lots of 70, 71, and 72 Topps – all gone (thrown away by my mother) when the family moved to Phoenix in 1974.
But I digress…

I went back to Fenway in 1994 as the last game of my second ballpark tour. The Sox were mediocre this year as were the Brewers. Both finished under .500 in a strike shortened season. The Red Sox had Mo Vaughn, Mike Greenwell, and Andre Dawson. They also had Roger Clemens and Frank Viola (neither of whom pitched that day). The Brewers had Greg Vaughn and Cal Eldred, and the rookie Jeff Cirillo. The game I saw that day was a 5-2 win for the Brewers. Jaime Navarro got the win after Milwaukee started Rickey Bones got injured in the 2nd inning. The down side is that it’s a crowded stadium. I’m 6’2” and my knees were jammed into seat in front of me. This also happened to be the walkway for people to get through. Around the 5th inning me and another guy got sick of missing most of the game while people went back & forth in front of us so we got up and walked to this small open air box high above first base. We go up the stairs into the box and everyone there stops and looks at us. Someone asks, “Who the hell are you guys?” We said we’re just trying to watch the game and were stuck in an aisle. There was a brief pause as they digested this and then, “Come on in!” This was a group travelling from Milwaukee for the game. Not surprising, they were friendly and had drinking heavily most of the day. I’m not suggesting that Milwaukee, alcohol consumption, and a friendly disposition are causally related – but the three seem highly correlated.

One more thing about Fenway I want to mention. This is the most ‘original’ of the old ballparks. When you walk under the stadium to concessions or bathrooms, you know it’s an old park with a lot of history. It is a very cool experience.

Update May 2017

After 23 years I finally made it back to Fenway Park for 2 games. Much has changed since I was last here…

The Red Sox have won three world series and the park has undergone substantial renovations. They cordoned off Yawkey Way and made that part of the park which opened up more opportunities for the team to sell food, alcohol and merchandise. The old ticket windows are now just a display. They completely renovated the upper deck seats. The open-air box I met my friend from Milwaukee was removed and of course they added the seats above the green monster. Don’t get me wrong, the updates were necessary and they made the park better. The downside is that each renovation and update is one more step away from the original feel of a pre-world war II park. I do appreciate that they still have many wooden seats in the stands.

 

(old) Yankee Stadium

My first time in the ‘old’ Yankee Stadium was 1994 against the Indians. This was the year baseball split the AL and NL into three divisions. The Yankees would win the east that year while the Indians would finish second in the central, 1 game behind the White Sox. (The following year Milwaukee went to the NL. Coincidentally, Bud Selig was the MLB commissioner at that time.) We got to the stadium early enough to walk through monument park. Back then there were only three statues; Ruth, Huggins, and Gerhig. [Mantle and DiMaggio were still alive.] This particular game included Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, and Paul O’Neill on the Yankees and Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, Eddie Murray, and Sandy Alomar Jr. on the Indians. The game did not disappoint. Jim Abbott started for the Yankees (no decision) and the Yankees won 6-5. Steve Howe, who led the majors in lifetime suspensions, got the save.


I did get to a few more games at Yankee before it closed. Even though the Old Yankee was originally built before WWII, the structure was remodeled in the 1970’s successfully removing any original charm.

Cleveland Municipal Stadium

I went to one game at the old Cleveland stadium the last season the Indians player there. This was a pre-WWII park that opened in the 1930’s that still had wood seats. It was huge by today’s standards with over 70,000 capacity for baseball. I went in July as part of my first baseball tour. We arrived at the stadium about 2 hours before game time. The gates were closed but we managed to find one that let some fans in anyway. We walked down to the field on the third base side while the A’s were taking BP. Dave Henderson came over and signed autographs for the crowd. As he was signing I asked how his road trip was going. He joked about not playing well, but despite not being in the lineup the night before had a hit in every game on the current trip (5 for 16 overall). The game was relatively uneventful. A’s won 7-2. Rickey Henderson stole a base. Dennis Eckersley pitched the 9th despite it not being a save situation.

After the game we asked if there was a good spot for autographs. The usher pointed us to the player parking lot. Since this was an old stadium, players didn’t have an isolated lot away from fans. From the locker room exit there were some saw-horse barricades set up and that was about it. Kenny Lofton came out, signed a ball, walked 20 feet, signed a program, walked 20 feet, signed something else, and was gone. During the game Jeff Treadway swung at a pitch, the bat came out of his hands and flew into the stands. A kid (probably 10-12 years old) ended up with the bat. As he came out of the locker room, he asked if the kid with the bat was there. Sure enough he was and Jeff made sure to sign the bat. It was also the only thing Jeff signed before the left. Finally Albert Belle walks out. There are a lot of kids around and one of the ones next to me groans as he sees Belle. I asked why. The kid says, “Albert never signs for anyone.” As the door closed behind him he paused, looked at the crowd, walked to the start of one side of the barricades and signed for everyone. Didn’t matter what they had; ball, program, bat, jersey, other. At this time in his career, Belle was developing a reputation for being an asshole. On this night, Albert was the coolest player in the game.