NY Yankees @ Cleveland Indians 4/26/08 & 4/27/08

We drove to Cleveland this morning to see the Yankees play the Indians today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday). We saw a good game, except for the fact that the Yankees lost 4 - 3 on a Victor Martinez walk-off single in the ninth. The Yankees have issues this year ... not enough clutch hitting and a very shaky middle relief. Oh well, maybe next year (unless something dramatic happens in a trade). Here's a link to the box score: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?id=2008_04_26_nyamlb_clemlb_1&mode=wrap

We saw Sunday's game. Much better (for the Yankees). They won 1 - 0 on Melky Cabrera's homerun and Chien-Ming Wang's pitching. Here's a link to the box score:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_27_nyamlb_clemlb_1&mode=wrap


Here's a link to the pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/sets/


My general impression of Progressive Field (AKA The Jake) ... it's a very nice stadium. Good aesthetics. Great scoreboard. However, I was unimpressed with their amenities. Not enough bathrooms; long lines at the concession stands.

I was very unimpressed with their Hot Dogs! I gave it a "2". Very ordinary dog. We had one with grilled onions (little flavor) and one with sauerkraut (they charged $1.25 extra for it) and it came pre-packaged (so I had to put it on) and the kraut was cold. I did give them one extra point for having their own stadium mustard which was pretty good, but not great. Follow-up: Day 2 hot dog was better, but not enough to move it up the ranking! Nancy did, however, really enjoy her Leinenkugel Draft (The Pride of Chippewa Falls) ... yummy

April 23rd -- Trip #1 Summary

Well, we've been home for a week. I thought I'd put together a bullet point summary of the Southeastern baseball stadium trip.

-- We live in a beautiful country. There are so many things to see and do. I know I don't think about it often, but our drive thru the southeast was wonderful

-- We put on 4900 miles and spent just over $4000 ($600 on tickets; $160 on museums and gardens; $800 on eating out; $700 on gas -- average price $3.25/gallon; $1200 on hotels; and $550 on groceries and miscellaneous knick-knacks -- we bought a Budweiser mirror at Anheuser-Busch to hang behind our bar)

-- We have made great friends during the course of our lives. We met with many of them on our trip and will meet with many more as we travel the rest of the United States.

-- Minute Maid Park (Houston) was our favorite stadium followed by Busch Stadium (St. Louis), Turner Field (Atlanta), Arlington Stadium (Texas Rangers), Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay) And Dolphin Stadium (Florida Marlins in Miami)

-- The best beer and the best hot dog were both at the Florida Marlins game ... Brahma Beer and the dog from the Kosher Hot Dog guy

-- The strangest thing we saw (there was a tie) -- as we were entering Oklahoma (it was the first time I've ever been there), there wasn't a "Welcome to Oklahoma" sign. We saw a "Come on in to the Choctaw Nation Casino and Hotel". I suppose it's a sign of the times in the US. And, as we were driving north of Dallas towards Oklahoma on Rt 75 , We saw a statue of Sam Houston, the biggest statue I've ever seen on the side of the road (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/TXHUNsam.html)

-- The song of the trip: Sara Bareilles -Love Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR5xv3pt7KI) We must have heard it 100 times.

April 15th St. Louis Tour

Before we went to the Cardinals game, we took in 2+ attractions in St. Louis ... the City Museum, a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, and a drive around The Arch Park.

The City Museum is a combination of interesting art, an aquarium, weird memorabilia, and 3 stories of climbing and sliding that kids 8 - 13 can play in/on for hours. Nancy and I tried some climbing and sliding, but we just don't bend like we used to. I highly recommend the City Museum if you have the right aged kids.

The Anheuser-Busch tour is a free 1 hour walk thru their facility. They start with the Clydesdales' barn, lead you on a walk thru beautiful garden areas to see the architectural features of their 1800s buildings, show you their making rooms and bottling lines ( for you P&Gers, 1300 bottles/min. and floors you can eat off!!) and finish with samples in their brew pub. And, yes, I had my first beer in 21 years --- something called "Bare Knuckle Stout". It tasted great. This doesn't mean I'm going to start drinking. It was a one time thing. Nancy had a Michelob Ultra and a Sun Dog Wheat. As you'd expect, the beers were served at the perfect temperature with the perfect amount of foam.

We also drove around the Arch to take some pictures. Quite an impressive structure. However, the near flood stage Mississippi was just as impressive.

Here's a link to pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/photolibrary/t_=98074769

Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals 4-15-08

Busch Stadium is a very nice park in downtown St. Louis. It gets extra points for a spectacular center field view of the St. Louis skyline and the Arch. According to the stadium thermometer, the temperatures were in the low 60s at gametime and dropped to the mid-50s by the end of the game. I think they lied. It was cold enough to wrap ourselves in the Astros blankets. I bought Club Level seats ($60), glass enclosed area behind the seats with premium concessions, so we could have a warm area to sit if we needed it. WE NEEDED IT!

The game was close till the 8th inning. The Cards won 6 – 1 using good base running and lots of singles to score their runs. They got surprisingly good pitching from Braden Looper. It was Jackie Robinson Day throughout the Major Leagues today, so all the Cardinals wore 42. It made it hard for us out-of-towners to tell who the players were even with a scorecard.

Here’s a link to the boxscore:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_15_milmlb_slnmlb_1&mode=wrap

Here’s a link to the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

The hot dog rating – an “8” mine was a “7” and Nancy’s was a “9”. Lots of veggies, fresh bun, mustard in a gravy boat to spoon it on. Mine got downgraded 2 points because the hot dog was a bit on the cold side. Nancy went to a different vendor and heat wasn’t an issue.

Toronto Blue Jays @ Texas Rangers 4-13-08

We left Houston early yesterday (Sat 4/12) morning and stopped by Steve and Pam Bell's home in Tucker, Texas. It's a very beautiful home in the middle of nowhere ... just the way they like it.

We stopped in Plano to see our friend Joan Pennella.

We arrived in Dallas (actually Mckinney) late yesterday and stayed with our friends, Ted and Pat Baumgartner.

Onto the game. We heard nightmarish stories about the traffic at the Texas Rangers stadium primarily due to the construction of the new Cowboys stadium. Not true. Easy in; easy out! We did, however, have the worst ticket seller ever. It took him 20 minutes to figure out how to use the computer to get our tickets. We ended up with great seats ... 4 rows from the field behind homeplate.

It was a gorgeous day and a great game, too! Toronto won 5-4 in 10 innings. An aside --- the Star Spangled Banner was sung by kids from the Levine Academy, a Jewish Middle School; which was only fitting since the Rangers' starting pitcher was Scott Feldman. For you Reds' fans, Josh Hamilton (ex-Red) hit a homerun and made several nice plays in right field.

Here's a link to the boxscore:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2008_04_13_tormlb_texmlb_1

Here's a link to the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

The hotdog --- I rated mine a "6", good, but nothing special. Nancy rated hers a "3" -- it was cold, as was the Coors Light!

Florida Marlins @ Houston Astros 4-11-08

Minute Maid Park in Houston is a beautiful and distinctive stadium in downtown Houston. Easy to get around, plenty of parking. The stadium doesn’t look like a stadium except for the numerous, bright lights. It’s gorgeous inside as well. Wide aisles, comfortable seats, lots of food choices. Two distinctive features …. The train that runs along the left field wall and an office building past left field that allows rooftop viewing of the ball game (and there were about 100 people watching this game from there). Oh, and they’ve put up a sign on the office building showing it is 422 ft from home plate. Very cool.

They had a giveaway at this game. We are now the proud owners of 2 Astros stadium blankets

It was an absolutely gorgeous night. A beautiful sky; temps in the 70s at game time. The game was a homer fest. The Marlins out-homered the Astros 6 to 2 and won the game 10 – 6. Roy Oswalt, the Astros ace, gave up a career high of 4 home runs. My favorite was a Jorge Cantu (the ex-Red) shot that went out of the stadium over the left field wall. The left fielder never moved. The blankets came in handy as the temps dipped into the 50s by the 8th inning (I’d like to thank the Houston Astros for being so considerate).

Here’s a link to the box score:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_04_11_flomlb_houmlb_1&mode=wrap

Here’s a link to our pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14772189@N03/

Now, for the all important hot dog rating: "8" -- lots of goodies, grilled peppers and onions. Slight downgrade because my bun fell apart and I had to eat the dog with my right hand and the veggies and bun with my left.

New Orleans 4-10-08

On the way to Houston, we stopped in New Orleans to recapture the memories of too many Mardi Gras weekends so many years ago. Nancy and I walked the French Quarter and the riverwalk. We heard some calliope music from the steamboat Natchez (I’ll bet most of you didn’t know I love calliope music – there’s just something about the sound that reminds me of summer and it’s just so light and bouncy). We stopped at Café Du Monde for coffee and beignets – the best. We then went to Pat O’Brien’s Piano Bar, our favorite haunt during Mardi Gras. Nancy had a Hurricane; I had a Sprite (how times have changed). The old “trayman”, Eddie Gabriel, is no longer there. He passed away in 2005 at age 95. He’s been replaced by Alvin Babineau, so the tradition continues.

We then went to a new place, Café Beignet, an open air place for jazz and jambalaya and gumbo. We had a great time just sitting and listening and eating. I love New Orleans.

Here’s a link to our pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/photolibrary/t_=98074769