Damn this Traffic Jam! Houston

(Penny's perspective)

Remember the James Taylor song Damn this Traffic Jam? How I hate to be late, It hurts my motor to go so slow. Well, that sums up Houston. We sat in traffic for hours. If you go, give yourself lots of time!

And give yourself even more time to get through security. Hands up going through metal detectors, pockets empty, serious stuff in Houston.

Shame on  me for assuming there would be no vegetarian food options. Found something at both Texas stadiums.

I wanted to do this but Randy said it was for kids! 

Home Run Alley

Need a haircut?

How cool is this? Randy got us seats on the club level and this is the concourse. Pretty nice!

There has been talk of getting rid of Tal's Hill and the train for several years. I actually like the train (cheesy as it is) and hope it stays. It is a nice homage to the original Union Station which the park is built around. 

Here it is in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLjViLZxNAI

After Take Me Out to the Ball Game, don't sit down! Sing along with the crowd to Deep in the Heart of Texas. 

There is plenty of nightlife after the game to take advantage of. Several blocks from the stadium we found this fun little place with a rooftop bar and games projected onto the walls of nearby buildings. 

Thumbs up
stadium
crowd and overall atmosphere
mascot- Orbit, a little alien looking creature who shoots out t-shirts to the crowd
food options
cleanliness
security
Texas-sized scoreboard

Thumbs down
Can't think of a thing!

Loved the park, loved Houston. Hated the traffic!

The Texas Tour: Part 1, Arlington, the Orioles and the Rangers

Texas 6, Baltimore 3
April 14, 2016
(Randy's perspective)

The last thing I heard before we got on a plane for DFW airport came from my wife, Penny, a West Virginia lifer who loves almost everything about her home state but the winters. Her words: "I'm really looking forward to Texas because I'm ready for some sunshine and warm weather. I don't even care if it's hot. Eighty-five degrees would be fine."
It had snowed on us the previous weekend, you see. Snow in April. Almost as bad as snow in May, which we have also experienced.
We landed in Dallas. It was cloudy, with a chilly breeze and a hint of rain. The temperature was 60.

My daughter, Kelli, left West Virginia a few months after her 18th birthday. She was bound at that time for the University of North Texas, in Denton. I was with her when she checked in to her dorm. This is no exaggeration; as we unpacked the car and lugged boxes inside her dorm on that August 2005 day, it was 109 degrees. If only it had been a dry heat.
In spite of the heat, Texas grabbed and kept her. After graduation from UNT, she moved to Dallas and has been back to the Mountain State of West Virginia only to visit. She's in Year 11 in North Texas and Year 7 in sprawling, big-monied Big D.
I mention all that because we three - Penny, Kelli and I - have changed during the past decade. Grown ... that's what I hope we've done. Now I understand the basic tenet that seeking new experiences as you tick off birthday after birthday usually means you're going to change, but the point of this story is that baseball has been a growth catalyst for Penny and me. Maybe even Kelli, after now spending a couple of baseball experiences with us. (Probably not, but I can hope.)
Penny has learned to love the game. Her interest level has evolved from boredom to apathy to low-level interest to keen interest - maybe even devotion. She keeps a scorebook, for heaven's sake. Still, even more than enjoying the artistry and competition of the games, she loves how the senses kick in

Penny's hands, Penny's scorebook

we get to the ballpark: the three-ring circus of sights (which are endless), the smells, the sounds (such as the crack of the bat, the thud of ball reaching glove, the mood swings of the crowd, the music - all those cool things, even though they've become cliche-ish).
I, on the other hand, after loving baseball as child and reading all the box scores in the morning paper, had become a boring, only-truly-interested-in-one-team (the Braves) casual fan. I have on this wonderful journey rediscovered all of the jewels that Penny is soaking in for the first time.
Kelli knows little-to-nothing about the game. But she's a good sport, so she got in on the fun and attended two games in Texas with us. Night 1 was in Arlington, night 2 in Houston.
Either she had a great time, or she's a clever and enthusiastic actor. ... Actually, she is a relatively talented actor and a nice person - but I still think she had fun.

We arrived in Dallas on Thursday afternoon, kicked back for roughly an hour, then headed to the suburban cluster that is Arlington, Texas. The stadium is right off Interstate 30, essentially next door to both AT&T Stadium, aka Jerry's World, and Six Flags.
We later had a discussion about the merits of urban vs. suburban parks. Penny and I vote for urban. I voted a second time for urban parks as I plunked down $20 to park in a big-ass, blacktop parking lot outside the Ballpark at Arlington.
Once we reached the park itself, though, we had a "big ole time."
There are a few quirky and fun features outside and inside the stadium. You can go to a big spell-Texas display outside the stadium, only it's a T-E-(blank)-A-S. You can step up between the E and the A and improvise the X. It was a popular spot.
I know Penny's wrapup will talk about the perimeter aspects of the park, so I'll leave that to her because she's good at it.

I found going to Arlington a tad different. Often when I write about the baseball journey, I offer comments about my expectations for this park or that team, all based on childhood or earlier-life games I've seen on television. For example, last season Penny and I traveled to Minneapolis for a Twins game. The Twins now play at Target Field, but I shared what I knew of Minnesota, which included thoughts about the late Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome and Harmon Kellibrew and Kirby Puckett, who once broke my heart with a home run dagger he delivered in the 1991 World Series to vanquish my team, the Braves.
In fact, every city we've visited and every team we've witnessed brought back some thought or two that made seeing that team or place a kind of bucket-list experience.
The Texas Rangers? I got nothing.
Texas is a fine franchise, and the BallPark at Arlington was dandy. I just don't have Texas Rangers memories.
The closest I could come to symbiosis was thinking about Nolan Ryan, the fabulous, flame-thrower who pitched for five years for the Rangers and later worked for the team. Ryan, who threw six no-hitters in his career, is a Rangers legend. Has his own stadium statue.
Funny thing, he's also got a statue in Houston, where he's also a legend. We saw the Ryan statue in Houston the next night.

The Rangers beat the Orioles on this night. The Orioles had been hot. They were 7-1 coming into this game. But five Rangers runs in the sixth inning put them toward a 6-3 win.
Mark Trumbo homered for the Orioles. His homer was one of only five extra base hits in the game.
It was early-season baseball.
Nice crowd for a Thursday night.

Texas Rangers and the Cotton Eyed Joe

April 19, 2016

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
(Penny's perspective)

Randy and I, accompanied on this trip by Texas musician (and my stepdaughter) Kelli Coleman, headed to Arlington to see the Rangers and my favorite team, the Orioles.

We got to Arlington with enough time to grab a bite to eat. Kelli suggested Mariano's, home to the first frozen Margarita. It is close to the park, the service was quick and the food was good.

There was a lot to like in this park. If you are a fan of amusement parks, you'll be happy to know Six Flags over Texas is just next door. You can also see AT&T Stadium, home of the Cowboys, to the west.

You might be able to tell from this picture that the park is below street level due to wind. 

The Nolan Ryan statue on Vandergriff Plaza. He is the only player to have his number retired by three different teams (Angels #30, Rangers #34 , and Astros #34)  http://baseballhall.org/hof/ryan-nolan

Can you tell it is our first time here?

And I thought I'd go hungry in Texas!

Shannon Stone died when he lost his balance catching a ball for his son. He fell headfirst 20 feet. He was a firefighter and loved the game of baseball. More on his story can be found here:

http://www.nbcdfw.com/blogs/red-fever/Fan-Falls-Out-of-Stands-at-Rangers-Ballpark-125190279.html

Most parks now have a race and this one is no exception. In the middle of the sixth inning there is a dot race. I have no idea why dots, but there they were. I understand sometimes there is a legends race with prominent Texans.  

I'm going out on a limb here and saying the Rangers have the creepiest mascot I've seen. He walked down our aisle and I'm sure I got a better picture but can't find it. 

Before we started on this baseball journey, I never realized that the seventh-inning stretch was going to be such a big deal everywhere. In Arlington, after Take Me Out to the Ballgame, I loved dancing to the Cotton Eyed Joe. I actually sang, even though it was the traditional version. The crowd loved it, and so did we!

One thing I especially liked was that we weren't constantly bombarded with games and announcements between plays. (Hello Pittsburgh!)

I was happy to see the Orioles play outside Camden Yards. I had to sing "J-J-Hardy" all by myself - to the chagrin of the little girl siting in front of me. We also got to see former Nat Ian Desmond, a player I like who is now playing for the Rangers. Unfortunately, the O's couldn't pull off a win, with a final score of 6-3, Rangers.

Thumbs up
Park atmosphere
food selection
Scoreboard
easy access in and out

Thumbs down 
Ushers allowed fans and vendors in aisles during play
creepy mascot

Overall, this was a great experience and a fun park!

The Texas Two-Stop; Ready to see one daughter and two Texas MLB teams

April 10, 2016
(Randy's perspective)

When Penny and I married, we each had two children - all kids were in their twenties. For the record, we are plenty proud of all four. They're all on the early stretches of what we hope will be long, happy and adventurous lives.
In their young adulthood, they have fanned out across the country. This is in chronological birth order: Kati lives in Pittsburgh; Rachel is in Davenport, Iowa; Kelli is in Dallas; Derek resides in San Diego.
This being a baseball blog and all - and with Penny and I on a journey to visit all Major League stadiums - I will point out the obvious: Three of our four kids have had been deferential enough to live in Major League cities. Rachel lives in a Minor League city, which is also good. Davenport is home of the Quad Cities River Bandits.
We have been to several games with our kids. We have been to two Pirates games with Kati, a Cardinals game with Rachel, and Derek went with us on a jaunt to Baltimore to see the Orioles.
We've also attended Minor League games with the kids. Until recently, Rachel and her fiance, Marc, lived in Evansville, Indiana. When Penny and I visited them, we also took in an Evansville Otters game, which was played in the third-oldest active baseball stadium in the country. That stadium in Evansville is where "A League of Their Own" was filmed.

That information about kids was a platter-setter for this coming weekend. The only child that hasn't yet joined us on a baseball adventure is Kelli, and we're going to see her in Dallas this week. We're looking forward to Kelli joining us for games in Arlington and Houston. We've got the Orioles and Rangers on Thursday and the Astros hosting the Twins on Friday.
These games will be numbers 18 and 19 on our quest to visit all 30 MLB venues.

It should be a great weekend. In addition to baseball, we're looking forward to seeing and hearing Kelli - who for a living plays stand-up bass, electric bass, guitar, trombone and/or whatever others she'd playing with need - during a gig on Saturday afternoon.

I don't have a great deal of preconceived notions about this Texas adventure. Here, however, are a few random pre-game thoughts I have:

• The Texas Rangers were once the Washington Senators. I'm old enough to remember the Washington Senators, who in 1971 became the Texas Rangers.
• That's not to be confused with a previous team named the Washington Senators. That team became the Minnesota Twins.
• We'll be visiting the favorite teams of the Presidents Bush. George W. owned the Rangers and George H.W.'s favorite team is the Astros.
• Daughter Kelli first went to Texas 11 years ago. She was a music performance graduate of the University of North Texas in Denton, which is not far from Dallas. Shortly after she got there, she said, "Dad, don't be surprised if you go somewhere and hear Deep In The Heart of Texas. Texans seem to love that song." ... Sure enough, it's a regular 7th-inning stretch feature in Houston.
• I've been to Texas enough times to know Penny and I won't take a vegetarian meal for granted. 
• A 7th-inning stretch feature for the Rangers is Cotton Eyed Joe, which is tamer traditional, country folk song that was later turned into Cotton Eye Joe by the Swedish folk group Rednex. I've heard the Swedish version in Pittsburgh at a Penguins game, at West Virginia University's Mountaineer Field and (from a telecast) at Yankee Stadium. Truth be told, the deejay at Penny's and my wedding reception party played it.
• Although the place hasn't been the Astros' home for a long time, every time I think of baseball in Houston, I still think of the Astrodome, which is still standing. I understand that only maintenance crews and certain certified people are allowed inside. In fact, it is still standing only because demolition would likely create serious environmental issues. But ... I'd kind of like to go by and see it.

Time to quit. Looking forward to the Lone Star State.

Two for Texas

We are starting our 2016 ballpark tour with the two stadiums in Texas. We love taking family members with us on our baseball trips, and in Texas we will meet up with Randy's daughter, Kelli, who lives in Dallas. Our plan is to fly to Dallas, drive to Arlington and see the Rangers play my Orioles. The next day we will drive to Houston and see a game. After the two Texas games, we will have gone to games with all four of our children and my sister- and brother-in-law.

I have never been to Texas, so I don't know what to expect. As a vegetarian I somewhat expect to go hungry! I've researched ballpark food, and it seems there is a lot of BBQ and Tex-Mex. I will let  you know if I find any vegetarian options. I did hear that they have a three-pound pretzel (repeat of the one in Detroit?)  at Arlington, and I totally expect to try it, even though it has a reportedly 3,700 calories! Yikes!




We missed Opening Day due to work commitments, so this will be our first games of the season. We chose Texas before it gets too hot and because we don't want to freeze like we did at the beginning of the season two years ago in Cleveland.

In Arlington, I'm looking forward to the Cotton Eyed Joe at the end of the 7th-inning stretch and seeing what the heck the claw-and-antler actually is. We will also visit the Hall of Fame at the park, look for the Nolan Ryan statue and, of course, find superfan Cowboy Wayne. I'm rusty on my scorekeeping skills and will spend a night or two refreshing my memory on that.

Randy, practice these moves!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32TUDaJAYTg

Arlington is also home to the Bowling Hall of Fame. Should we fit that in the schedule?
http://www.bowlingmuseum.com/

In Houston, we will look for the statues of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Since I love those big screens, I'm excited to see one of the largest ones in an MLB park. Food looks iffy at this park, too, but you never know until you get there.

Toronto-Chicago on a night when the Blue Jays and the Cubs are hosting playoff games

(PC)
Randy and I are more than halfway down the road on our journey to visit all 30 Major League Baseball parks, but we're still much closer to halfway than we are to the finish. So it seems logical that out of four teams left in the playoffs, we've been to two of the parks: the Rogers Centre in Toronto and Wrigley Field in Chicago. (No trips yet to see the homes of the Mets or the Royals.)

Since Randy and I have visited both parks that are hosting playoff games tonight, we thought it was an appropriate time to do a little review of our trips to Toronto and Chicago.

Here is the Rogers Centre. (And, just for the record, "RC" is Randy and "PC" is Penny.)

And the view from our hotel room. BTW, this room was one of our favorite Ballpark Chaser experiences.

(RC)
Penny and I were on a walk today, and we discussed how it's cool to actually see places (sports venues, especially) on television AFTER you've been there live. You have a feel for the place.

So I thought it was interesting that two of our trips, to the Rogers Centre in Toronto and to Wrigley Field, were two of my favorites. Totally different, but excellent in both cases.

It's probably a good thing we're doing this blog tonight. Right now the Blue Jays are getting hammered by the Royals, and the series is going to be 3-1 in favor of Kansas City. Maybe there will only be one more game in this series. I hope not.

The Rogers Centre looks kind of dead. I'll bet those outstanding Blue Jays cheerleaders can't even get this crowd going tonight.


(PC)
I went back and looked at our previous entry for Toronto. I had forgotten how dead the crowd was when we were there. The atmosphere around the stadium was nothing compared to Wrigley.
Randy failed to mention it wasn't really the cheerleaders he liked but the skimpy outfits!


(RC)
Now, now Penny. I liked the dancing. And those young ladies are called the J Force, thank you very much.

Penny is right about the atmosphere around the Rogers Centre. There was none to speak of. The CN Tower is next door. But nothing screams "baseball hotbed."

Still, I liked the vibe inside the Rogers Centre. I thought they were decent and relatively lively crowds for midyear Friday night, Saturday afternoon games.

The highlight of theToronto trip, though, was watching the Friday night game from the right-centerfield window of the Renaissance Hotel.


(PC)
Don't forget the little old ladies who ignored me while I was waiting for you to get food. I left you alone with them for a few minutes and you guys were best friends when I came back.

We did have great seats on Saturday, and I'm really glad we went, but it is not on my list of places I want to revisit.

The Cubs game is coming on TV right now. Now that was one place we said should be a yearly trip. If you want to revisit our Wrigley trip, it is on our old blog, :So, Is the Scoreboard Big Enough?"

Here are some pics to remind you.

I loved the excitement around the stadium. The music, crowd, history! I hate to even mention the things I didn't like.

(RC)
It makes me happy to read what I just read from Penny. I notice she mentioned history and Wrigley Field in the same concept. ... Now I wouldn't ever want to give her grief about anything, but I think for the sake of accuracy I should mention that she has her own "history" with Wrigley Field.

It's a piece of recent history - a story about an elementary school principal (named Penny) that visited Wrigley Field in 2011 and called me FROM THE PARK to say the following: "I can't believe you think this place is so great. This is a DUMP! It's the worst place I've ever seen. Why do you like this place? We can't get out of here fast enough."

Ok, I'm done. Couldn't resist.

But here's part 2. She had lousy seats four years, she sat on the top row far down the rightfield line, and her view was obstructed by a post. We actually walked up to where she sat in 2011 before we took our seats about 20 rows up from the first-base dugout.

Her second trip to Wrigley was far more enchanting, she said.

(By the way, the guy at home plate in the picture above is the late Ernie Banks, who was honored that night by the organization.)

(PC)
More enchanting the second time mainly because you were there :)
Really. One of the things I really didn't like was the scoreboard. On tv it looks like the new ones are much better and not so creepy! I also enjoyed actually seeing the game the second time. Seriously, here is where my seats were the first time.

As you know, for me, the atmosphere is the deciding factor in whether I like a park or not, and Wrigley was a win for me on that one.
I'm surprised Randy didn't mention that there were no cheerleaders!

The food is another story. Nothing here for us vegetarians! (Unlike across town at U.S. Cellular; the White Sox do the food thing right!)

(RC)
Regarding our trips, there were two versions of baseball "Mecca" for me, and they are obvious: Wrigley and Fenway. We've seen both.

Fenway was a mixed bag. Terrible seats, a fading and bad Red Sox team and claustrophobic conditions in and around Fenway made it merely an 8. 5 on a 10 scale for me. Wrigley was a strong 10 out of 10.

The more familiar Penny gets with the game, the more she seems to appreciate what we found at Wrigley, which was the following:

• A true neighborhood stadium, with fantastic bars and restaurants all around
• History and more history inside and outside
• Ivy walls that were just as impressive in person as they were to me almost a half-century ago, the first time I saw them on television
• One of the best traditions in baseball, the seventh-inning singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

When we visited Chicago, Penny really got into the history of the Cubs. All that losing. The "billy goat" curse. The across-the-street, rooftop seats. Etc., etc.

This is fun tonight watching the Cubs and the Mets. People are standing and stomping and yelling because they have a terrific team to watch. This - playing for a spot in the World Series - is a scenario Cubs fans could only dream about on the 2013 night we saw the Cubs and the Reds playing on a chilly, windy night. That night, the last-place Cubs lost in 11 innings to the playoff-hopeful Reds.

This year, the last-place-in-the-division Reds are sitting home watching the Cubs try to secure a spot in the World Series.

Go Cubbies!

Miami: A fun time and an entertaining baseball series

Miami 12, Atlanta 11
September 25

Miami 6, Atlanta 2
September 26

(Randy's Perspective)

It was nice to experience a couple of days of actual vacation. Those are hard to come by (for me at least, not so much for the recently retired Penny), but we had set aside September 24 through 27 for just that: leave West Virginia behind and head for a "beach and baseball" vacation. Our destination(s): Miami and Miami Beach.
South Beach (the daylight and after-dark versions), Little Havana, Lincoln Road, Adventura (the country's second-largest) Mall ... we took in what we could during the hours that we weren't hanging out at Marlins Park.
About the baseball games, Penny and I had an interesting discussion about the significance of watching a late September series between the fourth-place-in-the-division Marlins and the fifth-place and worst-version-of-a-Braves team in two-and-a-half decades. With two teams holding no chance of advancement, there was a distinct possibility that they could be mailing in the last few games.
Penny, as I have mentioned in this blog, has always enjoyed the "experience" of going to baseball games. But, as she would be the first to tell you, until two seasons ago she knew little to nothing about the game itself. She enjoyed going to the park - just didn't care about the fine details of baseball.
Times and situations change, though. Now, she sees the big picture ... she asks questions ... she keeps a scorebook, for heaven's sake ... she's mastered the differences between a sacrifice and a fielder's choice and she almost understands how a wild pitch differs from a passed ball. Bottom line, she now appreciates and gets into the game itself. And as she has suggested to me on many occasions, I am a lucky man because of that. (Each time she offers this suggestion, I respond in this manner: Penny, you are soooooo right.)

With that as background, here are the nuts and bolts of the discussion we had.
She asked if I had enjoyed the first of the two games we saw. I told her that I had, indeed, enjoyed the game, which so happened to be a 12-11 Marlins victory that featured 36 hits and a Braves comeback from a 12-6 deficit to an eighth-inning, bases-loaded-with-one-out rally (with the tying run on third, the go-ahead on second). Of course, the 2015 Braves being who they are, they failed to get even the tying run home, much less the potential winning run.
I told Penny that I was surprised by a few things, such as the enthusiasm and energy of the fans in the park, as well as the intensity the teams brought to a late-season game that meant little to either team.
She asked what I meant by that?

Not a bad crowd for a late-season game in Miami

For starters, I told her that I had expected about 3,000 fans. There were probably closer to 11,000 or 12,000. The upper decks were closed, but the lower tiers were maybe half full.
I added that I would have been more intrigued had either the Marlins or the Braves been involved in a pennant race. I said "baseball is great, no matter when or where" - but teams in playoff contention create more drama.
Penny thought about this and said, "Hmmm. I'm surprised to hear you say that."
Her assessment is this: She doesn't care if there's a pennant race or not. We're in a Major League Baseball park watching professional players play a game that we love. My enthusiasm, she figured, was not what it should be. Third, she couldn't understand why I didn't seem to care whether my favorite team won or lost.
"If it's my favorite team, I don't care whether they are in first place or not, I'm happy to see them and hope they win," she said.
My turn to say, "Hmmm." Because I immediately thought about what she said and determined that she's right about everything she said.
To make a long story short, "Go Braves!"

Yes, well, we lost the second game, too. It was 2-1 in the eighth, when the unimpressive Braves bullpen gave up four runs. The story of a season.
Early in the season, right after the Braves had traded Craig Kimbrell to the Padres, I flew in from a out-of-town trip. I arrived at the Columbus, Ohio airport shortly after 10 p.m. and got to my car in time to tune in (via Sirius/XM) the end of a game between the Padres and the Diamondbacks. I heard (recently traded Brave) Justin Upton homer and (recently traded Brave) Kimbrell save the 2-1 game for the Padres.
I figured it would be a long season for the Braves.

Back to Miami for a moment.
As usual, Penny has produced a fun blog with a lot of pictures. She captured a lot of the nuances of the park

Here's Penny following a tradition: home team apparel

As I mentioned, I hadn't "read up" enough on the Marlins still-kind-of-new park. My expectations were low, but it was a fun place to watch a game. I would go back.
I didn't realize before going to Miami that the park was built on the site of the old Orange Bowl stadium. As I watched the baseball game, I tried to conjure images from some of the thousand or so great games I have watched on tv from the Orange Bowl.
But the images wouldn't come. It just looked a hip 2015 baseball stadium.