West Virginia Power

(From Penny)

We have been meaning to get to Charleston, West Virginia (it's only 70 miles from us) to see a MiLB game for so long, I didn't think we were going to get to it. I looked at the schedule and realized that if we were going to get there, we only had two dates to choose from. So on a recent Thursday night we took off for a short road trip.

West Virginia Power is Class A  affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Appalachian Power Park opened in 2005 and seats 4,500 people. If you are interested, a brief history can be found at http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?ymd=20090206&content_id=40993740&sid=t525&vkey=team1

It reminded me of a mini Camden Yards. Can't you see Eutaw, the walking street beyond the right field wall, when you see this shot? There are also warehouses around the stadium that add to that feel. I know it is a stretch, but I was surprised the park was as nice as it was. As is the case with many Class A teams, it is pretty tiny.

We ate at the stadium, because we didn't have time to get there after work and eat out, too. I was pleasantly surprised to find a stand selling fresh veggies and veggie burgers. Go Charleston! It was Thirsty Thursday and beer was a buck, which was a nice treat.

Randy and my son, Derek, enjoying the game. It doesn't look crowded, but the stadium did fill up closer to game time.

This is the hardest working mascot I have seen in a while. He was busy the entire game - and it was HOT!

I didn't practice scoring this game since Derek was only in town for a couple of hours. But I plan to get right back at it next game!

Fenway Park: A great night for me; a really bad night for the Red Sox

Blue Jays 14, Red Sox 1

July 29, 2014
(Randy's Perspective)

Fenway Park. Mark it off the the bucket list.
When I write these travel/baseball stories, I usually don't know where they're going when I start writing. Inevitably, I end up reminiscing about the ballpark and the city - which is kind of silly, since I've never been to most of these places. But still, I have memories and thoughts based on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and first-hand stories from friends.

Penny and our friend, Kathy Hinkley, who joined us at the park

Anyway, with that as background, there is no place in the country I felt that I knew better than Fenway Park. I've seen a hundred thousand games on television from Fenway. I had the dimensions in my head. I could describe the layout. I felt that I knew the history, the players, the city.
On a separate note, I even have a hometown connection to the Red Sox. Hall of Famer Jim (Ed) Rice graduated from my high school: T.L. Hanna in Anderson, S.C. Rice was five years ahead of me in school, but there was one day when I was on a team with him. I ran varsity track as an eighth grader, and our coaches recruited Rice one time for a weekend meet. He didn't have a baseball game that day, so he went with us and ran the 100.
The guy was a legend even then. We expected he would win the 100 and get us some points. He didn't win, but I think he ran on a 440-relay team that did. ... I should mention, though, that Rice was a hellacious wide receiver and likely could have played college football anywhere he chose. But since he could hit a baseball about 425 feet every second or third time he came to bat, he chose baseball - as you or I likely would have done.
(While on the subject of famous people from my high school, here are two more: Chadwick Boseman, who plays Jackie Robinson in "42," and Radio. ... just Radio - made famous by the movie "Radio." Radio attended Hanna with our class, which graduated in 1975. He is still a senior at Hanna.)
But back to Boston.

I had actually seen Fenway Park (live) twice, once outside and once inside. But neither of those days counted, because there were no home games on those two days.
In fact, it was a football game led me to Fenway the first time. So... interruption for a football story.
Slightly more than three decades ago (wow, that sounds like a long time), when I was a sportswriter for the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail, I covered a rather fascinating college football game between Clemson (which two seasons before had won a national championship) and Boston College. It was 1983.
The setting was this. Clemson was tough; I mean "kick ass, take names" tough in the eighties. In fact, from 1981 through 1983, Clemson's record was 30-2-1. The tie, however, came during a 1982 home game with none other than Boston College.
The following season, Clemson visited BC, and that's where one of those two Clemson losses came. I was there at Alumni Stadium, when Clemson's demise came at the hands (and feet) of none other than Doug Flutie, who rallied BC from a 16-3 deficit early in the second half to a 31-16 win. Flutie was a wonder. He had been good the year before when he played at Clemson's "Death Valley," but he was Johnny Manziel at his best on that night in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Funny follow-up to that story.
Later that year, during one of his regular weekly press conferences, Clemson coach Danny Ford was taking general questions. David Davidson, a writer from the Atlanta Constitution, started pelting Danny with questions about schedules, including the future of the Clemson-Georgia football series.
At one point Davidson asked, "Why do you want to play an out-of-conference game against a team as good as Georgia? Surely, there are easier teams to play."
Ford, in his most pronounced Alabama drawl, said, "Well, I don't really know about that. We're oh-and-two against Boston College. I don't want to play those bastards again."

Sorry, enough football. Except to say that on the trip to Boston for the BC-Clemson game, I stayed in the Back Bay Hilton, which was just a little less than a mile from Fenway Park. I had carried my running shoes and shorts, so after I checked in I embarked on a run toward Fenway. After a few lefts and rights, I hit the park. I circled it twice, running on Landsdowne and Van Ness and Yawkey Way. I

Not crazy about the ads, but the Green Monster is still incredible

kept trying to find some gate or door that might be open. No luck that time.
Twenty-one years later, I happened to be in Boston again, this time for a conference. Again, it was in the fall, and this time the Red Sox had just completed an epic comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS, coming back from an 0-3 deficit (trailing in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, even) to win the American League Pennant.
The club held an open house party at Fenway to celebrate the championship. So that night I got inside. I had about 15 minutes inside the park - but that was enough to breathe it in. I stood there and just stared at the Green Monster for at least five minutes.
While I was in my mesmerized funk, some guy looked at me and said, "I guess you've never seen it before, huh?"
I said, "No. Maiden Voyage inside Fenway."
He said, "Well, too bad there's no game. You should this place on game night."

Which leads me to Penny's and my trip to Fenway to see the Red Sox host the Blue Jays.
Holding a slim, slim chance at moving back into the wild card race, the Red Sox clearly needed to sweep the Jays in this series.
Well ...that plan went awry. Early and often. The Blue Jays had two runs on the board before they recorded an out. And it never got better. In fact, it got really ugly in the top of the sixth inning, which featured 14 Toronto batters and nine runs.

Penny and I enjoying our cramped centerfield bleacher seats

Penny, who was just beginning to get the hang of keeping a scorebook, said "What, what ... wait, what do I here?" when the 10th batter of inning stepped to the plate with only one out gone.
Ok, coincidence or irony? Two weeks earlier, the Red Sox had breathed new life into their season when they went to the Rogers Center in Toronto and hammered the then-struggling Blue Jays, 14-1.
On the night in Boston, Toronto, three games out of first place in the AL East, probably nailed the coffin shut on Boston's season by beating the Red Sox - yup, 14-1.

I'd say Fenway was everything I had dreamed - even expected. And in a sense, that's true. Before the game, the feel was great. Energy everywhere. History at every turn.
I could visualize Carlton Fisk waving that home run fair in the 12th inning of the 1975 World Series: Famous Fisk home run. In my mind, I could see Carl Yastrzemski roaming the outfield, and then Fred Lynn and hometown guy, Jim Rice. I could hear the fans in righfield shouting "Daaarryyylll" as they taunted Darryl Strawberry. And, more recently, I understood how Fenway could have felt in 2004 when the Red Sox were coming back to win that first World Series in almost a century.
But on our night in Fenway, reality didn't help. The bad baseball interrupted the memories.
The Red Sox got smacked around and booed by their loyal fans. We had tickets to see the defending champs, hopefully in an important
game in a pennant race. What we got was a lackluster effort from a struggling team.
Except for the boos, the fans were uninvolved. Unless you want to count the thousand or so Blue Jays fans, who were pretty noisy. It's nice to follow a contender.
You have to hand one thing to the Boston fans, though. They hung around until the middle of the eighth, where the stadium mood changed as soon as Neil Diamond and "Sweet Caroline" came through the PA system.
It's only a decade old, but what a cool tradition. We all sang.

One last thing.
Penny was appalled at seeing the Green Monster covered with ads. I agree.

Cheers to Boston

(From Penny)

Boston is a great city! This is the view from my room at the Sheraton. I highly recommend it for your Boston trip. It is close to the park and walking distance to many restaurants, bars, and the most famous (arguably) bar of all: Cheers.

The walk up Beacon Hill is beautiful!

And, of course, you should take a walk along the Freedom Trail.

Randy found this great little bar/restaurant, McGreevey's, (named after "Nuf Ced" McGreevy) close to the Sheraton that has a Boston baseball museum. There are tons of pictures and memorabilia to look at. (They also have vegetarian entrees to choose from.) We liked it so much we went back the second day for lunch. It was started by the Dropkick Murphys' (Tessie) lead singer, Ken Casey. If you aren't familiar with the song, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR4tTQVjHUI
I'm pretty sure it didn't sound like this in 1903 when the Boston Rooters went to Pittsburgh.

If you are going to Fenway, go really early. I can't stress this enough! The crowds two hours before the game are unbelievable. There is such a small space to pack everyone in, the bars and restaurants fill up early. It probably doesn't help that they don't open the gates until 90 minutes before the game. We absolutely couldn't get in anywhere, and we were there two hours early.

Yawkey Way is a carnival atmosphere. Don't worry if you hadn't picked up your souvenirs, there are shops everywhere!

You may remember, I wasn't a huge fan of Wrigley. I had a great time there, but to me the park was just old! Of course it is old, the oldest active park in the country. So, my thoughts before heading to Fenway were to expect about the same. Yes, Fenway was old. Yes, there is a lot of history, and I enjoyed that aspect. As far as a park I would want to return to, not so much. The seats are tiny and our seats in the bleachers did not allow me to see the scoreboard, which was behind us. There is plenty of food. which is a good thing since you would have to go to the restaurants three or four hours before the game to get in. I recommend the kettle corn. My friend, Kathy, who went with us enjoyed the fried dough.

The retired Red Sox numbers are attached to the wall right of the scoreboard. They are Ted Williams (#9), Joe Cronin (#4), Bobby Doerr (#1), Carlton Fisk (#27), Johnny Pesky (#6), Jim Rice (#14) and the universally retired Jackie Robinson (#42).

I didn't take a picture, because we were not at a good angle to get a decent shot and it was just too tight and cramped to really move around to get one.

 You know I've been keeping score, and I had a good scoring lesson at Fenway. The Blue Jays scored nine runs in one inning, so I learned what to do when there are 14 batters in one inning!

This statue is outside the ballpark. This is a terrible picture because I was using my phone to take pics. There are several statues outside including one honoring Cy Young.

Kathy and I (Randy flew back a day before us) decided we really wanted to go to the Cask and Flagon, so the next night we walked back to the park, figuring everyone would be inside the game. We were right. We sat at this table where we could see the park and hear the noises from inside. They had good food, and we enjoyed sitting outside and taking in the atmosphere. I actually enjoyed the area much better without the huge crowds.

Thumbs up
Atmosphere outside the park
History of the park
Help inside the park
Randy's excitement at being at Fenway! He was like a kid in a candy store!

Thumbs down
The Monster- why in the world did they put all those ads on it???
Mascot - I don't even remember seeing one
Crowd enthusiasm - a 14-1 loss to the Blue Jays had to be a factor here, but they did enthusiastically sing Take me out to the Ballgame and Sweet Caroline, after which most of the crowd left.
Tight space for a lot of people
Music/entertainment- we did see a proposal which everyone seemed to enjoy, though I guess that really doesn't count as entertainment!
Still waiting for a free program :)

We couldn't leave Boston without trying Boston Cream Pie. It was a sweet ending to a great trip!

Detroit: I love this park!

(From Penny)

I wasn't especially looking forward to Detroit. I had been there several times for crew meets when my daughter was a rower. The crew members were teenagers, and we didn't have the right information on where we should have stayed. Let me put it another way. We stayed in places we could afford, and we didn't feel especially safe. So my experiences then made me a little leery of going back. I just wanted to check Detroit off the list and move on. Imagine my surprise when I loved the park! From the time we parked the car, people everywhere were extremely friendly and helpful. We talked to a group of Cleveland fans in the parking lot that had even been to my hometown, Fayetteville, West Virginia. http://www.nps.gov/neri/planyourvisit/nrgbridge.htm

Ok, I like bells and whistles and yes, I feel kinda guilty that I like the new parks with lots of entertainment, instead of the classics like Fenway. Does that make me a terrible fan? 

I do enjoy the history of the parks, however, so in that respect I enjoyed studying and learning about Wrigley and Fenway. However, I like it when they make it easy for me by putting it right in front of me. I think these displays are genius. A nod to the motor industry mixed with baseball history.

These statues are made to show the players in motion. I love them! There is one for Charlie Gehringer, Hank Grenberg, Ty Cobb, Willie Horton, Al Kaline, and Hal Newhouser. They really are beautiful.

Love the history displayed throughout.

This fellow can be found in the food court.

I really wanted to take a ride on this but was too busy eating the biggest pretzel ever made.

Throw some coins in to make a wish. Oh, how I wish we lived close to this park!

Here it is... a pretzel like none other. We couldn't find where to get these, so I asked our very friendly usher. She said we had to be sitting in the chairs with wait staff - but she hooked us up. If you want to meet people and make new friends, order one of these and sit down at a picnic table. We ended up sharing this with at least three different families!

Randy got us great seats again.

Nick Swisher, our hometown boy, had a pretty bad day.

Of course, you would expect racing cars in the motor city.

Home run!

Photo bombed....again.

Thumbs up

Beautiful park

Atmosphere

Crowd enthusiasm

Food selection- vegetarian and vegan options available. 

Scoreboard

Thumbs Down

I can't think of any, I loved this park!

Detroit's Comerica Park: There's a lot to see ... including a good team

Sunday, July 20

Tigers 5, Indians 1

(Randy's Perspective)

(Note: My wrap text mechanism is not working. I wanted to post a few more photos, but Penny will post a picture-filled blog.)

Detroit is bankrupt. Its population is essentially half what it was 50 years ago. Six years ago, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News became the nation's first newspapers to end daily home delivery. The automotive industry, Detroit's calling card for almost a century, is down, then it's up, then it's down. 

The bottom line: Detroit, a great American city, has struggled for a long, long time.

But, here's a small bit of good news. You wouldn't have known that if you were coming into the city on Saturday night, July 19, and you were looking for a downtown hotel room.
Penny and I had taken a rookie's gamble. We headed from an excursion in Toronto, where we saw two Blue Jays games, to Detroit that Saturday without a room reservation. We'd planned on stopping in Windsor, Canada, for the night, but we figured: How hard could this be? Let's go ahead and pass through customs tonight and find a place near the park. We'll splurge for hotel near Comerica Park (since we had tickets for the Tigers' Sunday afternoon game with Cleveland.)
Sooo...
The Westin? Full.
MGM Grand? Full.
Greektown Casino? Nope.
Holiday Inn Express? Sorry.
Double Tree? Not a chance.
Eventually, with the help of a kind clerk at the Westin, we got a room at the Adoba Hotel in Dearborn, a suburban city about 10 miles from downtown. Dearborn is the home of Henry Ford and the headquarters of Ford Motor Company.
The clerk said, "I hate to send you out to Dearborn, but there's nothing, and I mean nothing, in town. You'll like the hotel. It's the first hotel I ever worked in."
We did like the hotel, actually. It is a reasonably priced, nice hotel/conference center that was no doubt a showpiece at one time. What we didn't like (picky, picky) was the roughly 100-member family reunion party that took place up and down the halls outside our room most of the night. And, no, we couldn't move to another room. Long story. Wasn't happening.
Anyway, Sunday was a new day.

On Sunday we discovered Comerica Park. Sweet.
After checking out the scene at a couple of bars, restaurants and shops near the stadium - and looking at the largest array of artsy statues of tigers that you can imagine (outside the stadium) - we entered Comerica, home of the Detroit Tigers.

Some artsy tigers, with a flagpole obstructing the view

There, we found more artsy tigers, a ferris wheel, museum pieces throughout the stadium celebrating Tigers history, a centerfield fountain that can be choreographed, and a pretty astonishing food court. We also found out that if you ask the right person - an usher near the "catered section" seats - you can buy the largest, best-tasting, hand-rolled pretzel you can imagine. Really, I've seen kitchen appliances smaller than that pretzel.
The park is a nine-ring circus and "clean as a whistle," as my father used to say.

The scene is a far cry from what I'd heard about Detroit. Granted, Comerica is certainly an oasis, but it is definitely in and all about Detroit. And I would go back.

To me, Detroit has always meant three (reasonably obvious) things: Cars, Motown and historic sports teams (the Tigers, the Lions, the Pistons, the Red Wings). ... If I were paying deference to my sister-in-law Peggy, I would add a fourth local landmark: Eminem. But that's another story.

And since this trip was about the Tigers, I throw in a few of my past recollections...

I remember the great Al Kaline and Gates Brown, who was signed right out of prison, and Denny McClain, the last pitcher to win 30 games and who wound up IN prison (for racketeering, I think it was). I remember the incredible run of Mark "the Bird" Fidrych, the pitcher in the late seventies who became a national phenom because he did things like talk to the baseball, stalk around the mound and shake everybody's hands after the game. He also won a bunch of games.

I also remember, of Detroit's four World Series titles, that great Tigers team in 1984 that beat the Padres in the Series.

There were two moments in that World Series that I thought were especially cool.

One involved Kirk Gibson, whose most famous moment in baseball was an indescribable home run he hit for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, while batting basically on one-leg because of injury. One of the great scenes in baseball history was Gibson limping around the bases after that walk-off home run.

But before he was a Dodger, Gibson was a Detroit Tiger. And before that 1988 home run, Gibson had hit another famous clutch World Series homer. It was in 1984 off San Diego's sensational closer Goose Gossage. Gossage talked manager Dick Williams into letting him challenge Gibson when an intentional walk might have made more sense. Gossage intended to strike him out. San Diego was leading 5-4 at the time, and there were runners on second and third. Well, Gossage threw his heater and Gibson crushed it. It landed way up in the Tiger Stadium upper deck.
This is a great clip: Kirk Gibson's 1984 World Series homer

There was a second thing that I remember about that 1984 World Series that actually is a seque into something we saw on Sunday at Comerica.

In 1984, the Wave was an up-and-coming fad. At the end of the Game 2 of the '84 Series against the Padres (the first two games were in San Diego), a reporter asked Detroit manager Sparky Anderson how he liked San Diego's Wave.

Anderson said, "Their Wave is kindergarten. Come to Detroit. We'll show you what a Wave looks like."

Sparky was right. Those Detroit fans killed it.

Now, I understand that all those Detroit memories were from the Tiger Stadium era, which lasted from 1901 until 1999. 

And it was a grand old stadium, replete with huge columns in the upper and lower decks that probably obstructed the views of at least 50 percent of every crowd.

So, finally, in 2000 the Tigers moved to Comerica. And man, to me, there is nothing historic looking about Comerica. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, the museum pieces scattered around the stadium fit right in.

In fact, I guess what struck me as most interesting is that Comerica is now 15 years old, and in most ways it looks as if it were built yesterday. Baseball in Detroit moved to a different planet in 2000. It is a fine baseball stadium.

Another difference about baseball in Detroit these days is that the Tigers are consistently good. In the past, they had some success, such as a good run back in the eighties and some other random successful seasons during the past century. But the Tigers are a force now. They've won the past three division titles and lead the American League Central now. They won the pennant in 2012.

All that said, we hit town on a day that the Tigers had lost a day-night double-header to the Indians. The Indians, left for dead a few weeks ago, had crept back to within 4.5 games of the lead.

But on Sunday, the Tigers woke up. 

Hunter homered and Smiley pitched seven strong innings. Cleveland only had four hits, including a solo homer by Gomes. The Tigers won 5-1.

As we've experienced many times before, it was a mild-mannered Sunday afternoon baseball crowd. It was as if the stadium is so nice, the crowd doesn't want to get too rowdy. It might get dirty. (But then again, it was a warm Sunday afternoon.)

The crowd even took a few half-hearted attempts to get a Wave going. No deal. Of course, it's not the eighties anymore.

So here are my personal takeaways from Detroit.

• Tiger Stadium was great, but it's long gone. The only thing remaining is a tribute park and the original diamond.
• If you want a room downtown on a Saturday night, plan ahead.
• The scene inside and around Comerica Park is clean, pretty original and fun.
• The Tigers are a solid team.
• The Tigers' fans were polite.
• Their Wave sucked.