Bats and Temps Go Cold in Wisconsin

All photos from Appleton & Fox Cities Stadium available on Flickr.

This past weekend was my first "multiple ballgames in multiple cities" weekend of the year and offically pulled me ahead of Erik in the "Most Ballgames Attended" race for 2008. Friday night was game #2 of our Brewers 10-pack against the Marlins. The seats my dad got were excellent and worth every penny, and smuggling in free beer from the tailgate (which isn't always a sure bet to get past security these days) was an added bonus. As for the game action, YoGo gave the team yet another outstanding starting pitching performance, tossing 7 innings of shutout ball against the Marlins ace Scott Olsen. The bad news was that the Brewers' offense was once again embarrassingly bad and provided no run support for Gallardo, as Olsen matched him pitch-for-pitch, going 8 scoreless innings. It was nodded at zero going into the 10th (you can pretty much assume the Crew will go extra innings now) when the most recent bullpen goat, Guillermo Mota, surrended 3 runs and the game ended at that score. It's unclear to me how much of the bullpen's inconsistency is due to overuse/poor bullpen management or just the pitchers themselves. On paper, all of our relievers except Turnbow look good - and even he has had his bright spots. But in reality, one day a guy will toss 2 outstanding innings and the next game will blow a lead. Gagne has 7 saves and a win, but also has an ERA around 7. Mota, Riske, and Torres all have ERAs under 4, but all have surrendered the lead in at least one game in the past week. It seems to be all a game of chess at this point with Yost, trying to figure out who he can rely on and when, and at this point it's pretty clear he really only trusts Eric Gagne and Brian Shouse, as he seems to rotate all other relievers strictly based on availability and not situations. The Brewers could only muster 6 runs in 3 games against the Marlins and are now 9th in the NL in runs scored and are batting an anemic .244 as a team. Some of this I feel has to do with Ned, who I am beginning to question more and more, particularly when we have guys on 1st with less than two outs before the 9th inning and there is rarely a sign to bunt, hit & run, or steal. If it were not for our starting pitching, this team would be well below .500.

Saturday I finally used my free Timber Rattlers tickets and drove 100 miles up north to watch a little Midwest League A-ball with my brother and our friend Brian who lives in neighboring Neenah. Erik and I had visited the T-Rats on the 2nd to last day on the tour on the way home to Milwaukee and it was a great time. I wish I could say the same for Saturday, but it was so cold that I had to focus all of my energy on staying warm. Being so close to the field at a minor league game, and with the temps being so cold which produce a lot of broken-bat foulballs, I also had to concentrate on not getting hit in the face, which proved exceedingly difficult while also eating cheese fries out of a helmet and drinking a 152-oz beer. I make it sound like it was a horrible time, and I'll admit it was ridiculously uncomfortable being in 40-degree weather with strong winds (we actually left in the 7th), but its minor league baseball, and you can never go wrong with that. It's always fun to identify amongst yourselves which prospects look really promising and which will be working at a car wash in a month. The starting pitcher for the T-Rats, Josh Adcock, stood out most in my mind, as he seemed to command the plate well. There were so many seeing-eye singles in the game that I couldn't really say if any position players really jumped out at me. Overall it's a great park and Nick and I look forward to returning when it warms up a bit.

After the game the three of us went to an NFL draft party at the local BW3s, and between that and the ballgame, we acquired an entire bag of free stuff, so the day turned out to be pretty positive - if you ignore the fact that the Packers had a horrible draft, but that's not a story for this blog. After listening to another heartbreaking loss on the radio Sunday, I look forward to the return of Ben Sheets and Mike Cameron against the Cubbies on Tuesday.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.28:

Brewers 14-11 (3 @ Cubs, 3 @ Astros)

Reds 11-15 (3 @ Cardinals, 3 @ Braves)

Twins 11-14 (2 v. White Sox, 3 v. Tigers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 9

Sheets Out, Yo-Go In

This past weekend, I watched my current and former city's teams duke it out at the GAB in Cincinnati. The Brewers ended up taking 2 of 3 from the Reds and going 5-4 on a roadtrip that seemed to last a year. On Friday, Ben Sheets had another dominant start and made Reds hitters look foolish for 5 innings, and then Neddy finally decided to shut him down with tightness in his right tricep. Saturday was an extra-inning affair in which Jeff Suppan looked pretty outstanding in the Crew's eventual 10th inning win on a fine all-around game by Bill Hall. Sunday the Brewers should have locked up the sweep, with Reds ace Aaron Harang battling the first start of the season by Yovani Gallardo since coming off the DL following offseason knee surgery. But, Eric Gagne gave up a couple of gopher balls in an attempt at his 7th save, and Salomon Torres eventually gave up the GW single to Ken Griffey Jr in the bottom of the 10th, allowing the Reds to salvage some dignity in the series. Gagne seems to be pretty lights-out this year aside from his first start in Chicago, so if I had to make an excuse for his poor performance, it would be that it was his 5th consecutive day pitching. The jury is still out on this guy, who coming into the season had the highest career save percentage in major league history (min. 175 attempts) at just over 96%, but is 1-1 this year with an ERA over 7, saving 6 of 9. I feel that he will right the ship, based solely on what I've seen the last 3 Brewer closers of Turnbow, Kolb, and Cordero struggle through before eventually succeeding. (I'm also a little biased because I've been told by at least 5 people now that I look like him...what is THAT all a-boot?)

The Brewers are in an interesting situation now, as they temporarily have to carry a league-high 14 pitchers (staffs normally have 11-12) due to the ambiguity of Sheets' latest injury. Utilityman Joe Dillon was optioned to AAA to make room for Yo-Go, and it appears right now that a day after being removed from the rotation, Dave Bush will start for Sheets on Wednesday, but it is unclear right now whether Big Ben is just moving a day or two back in the rotation or a full turn. Sheets is 3-0 with a sub-1 ERA and 24 Ks this year, and losing him for any length of time will dramatically hurt this ballclub, whose bullpen is struggling to find an identity, whose bench is reduced to three players, and who is anxiously awaiting the returns of Tony Gwynn Jr and Mike Cameron to the lineup next week.

As for the Reds, I feel from the three games I've seen them play this season that they could put together a .500 club this year if they stay healthy and continue to get quality starts from their youngsters Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, and eventually Homer Bailey. Back that up with Aaron Harang dominating the league and Arroyo and Josh Fogg at least keeping their team in the game, there's no question this offense can put up 5-6 runs a game when running on all cylinders. Griffey looks as agile and focused this year as I've seen in awhile, and Edwin Encarnacion may be taking a page out of Pat Burrell's book by attempting to look less embarasssing at the major league level this year. Most importantly to any Reds fan of the past decade, the bullpen actually seems respectable and not just a hodgepodge of has-beens, with CoCo of course being the major offseason acquisition - even though it does look like David Weathers will be out for a bit with elbow problems, I think they have enough talent at Louisville to hold it together. Offensively, the Reds really only lost J-Ham in the offseason, but Joey Votto and Jeff Keppinger have definitely emerged to at least be adequate substitute bats in the lineup.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.21:

Brewers 11-7 (2 v. Cardinals, 2 v. Phillies, 3 v. Marlins)

Reds 8-11 (2 v. Dodgers, 2 v. Astros, 3 @ Giants)

Twins 9-10 (3 @ Athletics, 3 @ Rangers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 6

Jason Kendall for MVP

It was the first Red Sox/Yankees series of the year featuring the two statistically worst hitters in baseball, Jason Giambi and David Ortiz. Pedro goes to the DL, Randy comes back, and Doug Davis makes a courages 6-inning start two days before having his thyroid gland removed. The Cardinals are still raking, the young D-Backs are going yard at a record pace, and so far it looks like AL East MIGHT be more than a 2-horse race this year for a change. Much like Stephen Drew coming onto the scene last year and rivaling his much-hyped-never-quite-delivered bro J.D., "J-Up" looks poised to be even better than his older brother, B.J. Upton. Dice-K came back down to earth with a typical all-over-the-place start on Sunday Night.

I attended one game last week, a battle between the Reds and Brewers at Miller Park, the only game of the series the Crew won and their only lost series to date so far. Jeff Suppan gave a solid performance, and despite blowing another save, Gagne looked pretty stellar (he's never shaking off Jason Kendall again). Bill Hall continued his dominance of Reds pitching, and Ryan Braun still refuses to take a walk. The story of that night though was the amazing pitching of rookie Johnny Cueto. This kid has kind of come in under the radar (except to the die-hard Reds fan), particularly with the expectations surrounding Homer Bailey. Although he struggled a bit in his start yesterday, in his previous two he had pitched 13 innings, gave up no walks and struck out 18. It's gonna be fun to watch this kid and Yovani Gallardo develop this year.

At this point I should probably write something about Kendall since he's in the subject of this post. Jason Kendall has probably single-handedly gotten us at least 3 wins and has vastly improved the morale, defense, and hitting approach of the entire team. He has thrown out every runner attempting to steal 2nd this year, he is a superb caller of the game, and did I mention he is DESTROYING all opposing pitchers!?!? The man is still leading the majors with a .406 average, which was brought down slightly this weekend, as he only could muster a measely 3 hits against the Mets. This is what I love most about the game - guys like Gabe Kapler and Mark Reynolds have just as much chance to go yard on any given day as Big Papi, guys like Jason Kendall can out hit guys like Ichiro - as Jason says, "see the ball hit the ball" - and in the ultimate parody, teams like the Royals and White Sox can come storming out of the gates. Any team can win on any given day with any payroll, and any team is perfectly capable of winning 80 games in any given season. Not even the most devout and informed fan could have predicted that the Brewers would get embarrassed by a guy who hadn't started a game in 3 years (Nelson Figeroua), but that we would beat arguably the best pitcher in baseball Johan Santana and that we would dominate Oliver Perez the next day, who hadn't given up a run all year up to that point.

A couple things in closing:

(1) Evan Longoria got called up this week by the Rays - keep an eye on this kid.

(2) Watch as the Cards and Brewers make history this week, as they may very well be the first two teams ever to meet that both batted their pitcher in the #8 spot.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.14:

Brewers 8-4 (3 @ Cardinals, 3 @ Reds)

Reds 6-7 (3 @ Cubs, 3 v. Brewers)

Twins 6-6 (2 @ Tigers, 2 v. Rays, 3 v. Indians)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 4

Opening Week 2008

All photos from Miller Park Home Opener available on Flickr.

Major League Baseball rang in the new season in a very unique fashion this year - a set of games in Japan between the Red Sox and Athletics, and the unveiling of a beautiful new ballpark in Washington on the first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the season on March 30th. Teams picked to finish near last like the Cardinals, Royals, and Orioles are all at the top of their divisions, while teams with high expectations like the Rockies, Mariners, and Tigers are all at the bottom (apparently $138 million can't buy even one victory for Detroit). Even the Mets and Cubs, who I'm sure most of America picked one of these teams to represent the NL in the World Series, are .500. Even though the season is young, as a famous manager once said, "You can't play your way into the postseason in the first week, but you can certainly play your way out of it." Perhaps the only team in the high-octane first week of the 2008 regular season that has actually achieved what they were expected to - whether good or bad - was the home team, our Milwaukee Brewers.

After coming out of a dramatic series against the Cubs in Chicago with two wins, the Brewers started their home schedule on Friday, April 4th at 1:05 PM. I was one of the 45000+ fans in the standing-room-only crowd that day, and I was again in attendance on Saturday. The weekend drew the highest 3-game weekend total in club history - over 119,000 people. It was my first Opening Day game I could remember, not counting times I tailgated in the parking lot with AM620 on the radio, and it was a blast. Of course drunken debauchery was to be expected - multiple beers spilled on row in front of us, and a fight in the parking lot, to name a couple incidents - but it was awesome to see the support for the team in such numbers. The Brewers ended up sweeping the Giants on three dandy pitching performances by Carlos Villanueva, Manny Parra, and Ben Sheets (CG, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K on Sunday against SF "ace" Barry Zito). The bullpen was a tad shaky at times, but for the most part the revamped relief core delivered as advertised. The Brewers acquired Guillermo Mota, David Riske, Salomon Torres, and Eric Gagne this off-season, and I got to see all four pitch this weekend. All have incredibly different styles, but what they do have in common is that they all pound the strike zone and walk few, and they all can pitch multiple innings except for maybe Gagne. Lastly, the bats were also in full force in Friday's and Sunday's games, and when everyone on the team is destroying the ball EXCEPT arguably their most dangerous hitter Prince Fielder, you know that spells trouble for the rest of the league. As in the bullpen, the two big contributors thus far in the lineup have also been off-season acquisitions - Jason Kendall, who coming into Sunday had the Majors' 3rd highest average, and Gabe Kapler, who is tied for the team lead with 2 HR and is playing a great center field in place of a suspended Mike Cameron and an injured Tony Gwynn Jr. The Brewers are currently 1st in the Majors in RBI, stolen bases, runs, and doubles, and are 2nd in hits.

I will be attending the game against the Reds tomorrow for the Crew's first night game of the '08 campaign. Let's hope we keep running on all cylinders towards the NL Central banner!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.07:
Brewers 5-1 (3 v. Reds, 3 @ Mets)
Reds 4-2 (1 v. Phillies, 3 @ Brewers, 3 @ Pirates)
Twins 3-4

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 7
Peter - 3

Tour 2008: Civil Rights Game

All photos of Memphis and the Civil Rights Game available on Flickr.

This past weekend, Erik and I met in Memphis to attend the much-anticipated Civil Rights Game. We spent three days and three nights drinking on Beale Street, touring museums, eating great food, and of course watching ball, and we had a great time. There were a surprisingly large number of people in town for the event, including fans from New York and Chicago, local reporters, and MLB.com camera crews and news anchors.

There was so much to do that we decided to start the weekend a little early. I arrived via automobile from the North, about a 9.5 hr drive through scenic Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. By scenic, I mean not at all scenic. The interesting thing about the drive was that by the time I got to around Carbondale IL, all the farms on either side of the road were all covered in water. The same amount of snow we got in Wisconsin, the Mid-South got in rain, plus all the melted snow from the north came down the river to equal major flooding. The Mississippi River was unbelievably high and dangerously close to the power lines connecting Arkansas and Tennessee.

I arrived at what I expected to be a shady hotel around 5:30 - Econo Lodge, 10 miles east of down town, Waffle House across the street, misspelled words on the display board, broken sign. However, once inside, it actually proved to be pretty nice - it featured amenities such as a fridge, microwave, and front AND rear entry. I unpacked a little and went to pick up Erik at the airport. His flight got in around 7 and I killed time taking back some $8 beers at the not-so-Irish Pub inside the airport. After a happy greeting and making fun of E's new Pete Vuckovich moustache, we were off to Beale Street. Beale St is in the heart of downtown and is generally known as the "Home of the Blues," and we pretty much didnt leave the same 9-block area the entire weekend, nor did we want to, since most of the city looks pretty run-down. Most of the original Beale St was actually razed during the "Urban Renewal" program instituted in 1960s America in an effort to rid city centers of slums. Sadly, a lot of rich cultural neighborhoods and great buildings were lost during this time, but Beale St has since then rebuilt itself as the #1 tourist destination in all of Tennessee. Our first night on Beale we grabbed a quick bite and watched a band we had seen 8 months prior on the ball tour, Delta Highway, at the Juke Joint.

We got a relatively early start to our Friday in an effort to see the Civil Rights Game symposium at the National Civil Rights Museum at 10 AM, but when we arrived we found out it had been moved to 4. So, after taking some illegal photographs inside, we headed towards the Gibson guitar factory, but the tours there were full. Third time's a charm - we finally made it into a museum, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum. It was a pretty outstanding little museum that reminded me a lot of the EMP in Seattle - a long history of music and blues in the Mississippi Delta, featuring the history of radio in Memphis and all the great artists that recorded at the Memphis studios of Sun, Hi, and Stax Records, some of the places where Rock & Roll was first recorded in the 1950s. After the tour we grabbed a bite at B.B. King's where we acquired souvenir glasses, and then we headed back to the CR Museum. We started out walking around the museum slowly, reading every word of the intense history of the Civil Rights Movement. But by the time we got to the "Brown v. the Board of Education" section, we had to speed up a bit in order to make the symposium at 4, so we kind of jetted through the rest and got to walk through the room where MLK was staying the morning he was assassinated.

The symposium was amazing. The actual auditorium was full, but we snuck into a room upstairs where they were showing the live feed onto a projection screen. The discussion was obviously on the status of civil rights in America, more specifically in baseball, and was moderated by Harvard Professor Dr. Charles Ogletree. The panel was comprised of Hank Aaron, the general managers of the Mets and White Sox (who are Dominican and African-American respectively), and children of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Jackie Robinson. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ruby Dee, and one of the daughters from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were also in attendance. I particularly thought that Ambassador Shabazz (daughter of Malcolm X) and Kenny Williams (White Sox GM) were particularly sharp, and every panelist had very interesting things to say on the topic. It lasted about 90 minutes, and afterwards Williams, Omar Minaya (Mets GM) and Martin Luther King III came upstairs and we got to meet them. Mr. Minaya in person seemed like a very vibrant character - when Erik asked if he could get a picture with him, he responded with an enthusiastic "Yeah! Let's do that!" After the symposium, we capped off the evening with BBQ ribs and about 8 hours of drinking, finally stumbling into bed near 4 AM, as bars do not close until 4 on Beale Street on weekends. We saw our second awesome blues band of the weekend at the Juke Joint, the Dr. Feelgood Potts Band, and a pretty good funk/pop cover band at Albert's. Erik took quite a liking to Dr. Feelgood, with his flashy attire, multiple assorted harmonicas, and a crowd-pleasing song called "Tip the Band," which went a little something like this:

If you haven't tipped the band

Why don't you...tip the band

Thank you for the tip

Thanks for not givin' us no lip

Bands do not get paid to play on Beale Street, but rather volunteer to play for the exposure, so the only way they make any money is by passing a tip bucket and selling CDs, one of which we bought (I have now bought a CD at a bar all three times I have gone to Memphis).

We understandably got a late start on Saturday, and finally left the hotel around 1:30 for the 4PM game. After a stop at Hooters for lunch, we entered the park around 3:30, where we shockingly found people scalping tickets to the Civil Rights Game. Upon entering, everyone was given a free souvenir program and a plastic ticket case/holder that you could wear around your neck, kind of like how a backstage pass looks. We then visited the team shop, which had tons of cool Memphis Redbirds (AAA team that also plays at AutoZone Park) stuff but sadly a limited amount of Civil Rights gear, some of which was held over from last year. It had been raining hard all day, but we knew from our ball tour last year that we'd have luck on our side, and sure enough about 5 minutes into the 1st inning, the weather held up, although it was about 15 degrees colder than it was forecasted to be. Our seats were near the right field foulpole and were pretty good. The pregame festivities included three Beacon Awards given to prominent Civil Rights activists, MLK III throwing out the first pitch, and the U of Memphis marching band performing with the Memphis RedHot cheerleading squad. Every half-inning, a MLB profile of a celebrated minority player would be shown, including greats like Satchel Page, Larry Dobie, and Frank Robinson. Despite the stadium being half-empty because of the weather (7717 in attendance), it was a great experience and was neat to be around for such an amazing event celebrating 60+ years of progress in the integration and success of the minority athlete in Major League Baseball. And besides that, I am told I was on TV at least three times. The game itself was a pitchers duel with the Mets eeking it out 3-2. Jose Contreras and John Maine got the starts for their respective teams, and both faired pretty well, going 5.2 and 4 innings each. Contreras' only 2 runs allowed came on a Carlos Beltran homerun in the 4th. The Mets' Scott Schoenweis almost blew the game with a horrible 7th inning, but the Mets ended up re-taking the lead for good in the home half of the inning on an RBI groundout by backup catcher Raul Casanova.

After the game we went out for a couple drinks and saw the Dr. Feelgood Potts Band play the same exact set from the night before, and got to bed around 1:30. The following morning we stopped for a quick breakfast at the Waffle House across the street and parted our separate ways around 10:30 AM. Overall we had a great time and felt honored and lucky to be a part of the weekend's festivities, particularly since today I've been reading that the game might be moved to a regular season game in either KC, Atlanta, or Arlington next year, so we were definitely glad to be in Memphis while the event was still held in that city. Our next planned trip is to the new Nationals Stadium in June, with stops in the Bronx for the last year at Yankee Stadium, and a minor league game in Aberdeen MD. I caught a glimpse of the new park on Sunday Night Baseball last night when I returned home and can't wait to see it in person. Happy Opening Day to everyone!

24 Days 'til Opening Day

But since we can't wait that long, we are officially attending the 2nd annual Civil Rights Game in Memphis TN, at 4 PM on Saturday, March 29th. We're both really excited for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that we haven't attended a ballgame in 5 1/2 months. Since my last post, Erik has taken a job in Farmington NM, which effectively puts him about 3 hours from any baseball team (Albuquerque Isotopes) and about 90 minutes from anything resembling civilization (Santa Fe). So he undoubtedly will be ecstatic about seeing one of his few baseball games until mid-June when his job ends, and about seeing buildings over 3 stories tall not made of adobe. Nothing much has changed with me, still working a lot; I am particularly excited for the trip because average temps in Memphis for that time of year are near 70, which will be a 40+ degree difference to what the weather is like in Milwaukee in early March. Also, bars close at like 4 or 5 in the morning every weekend on Beale, so we are very pro-that.

Of course the game will be amazing. Even though I already have 21 games slated to attend this year at minimum, the first is always special. But the atmosphere of this place for this weekend, one of the birthplaces of civil rights in America, should be really unique and unparalleled. I have previously been to Memphis in the dead of winter and in the ungodly heat of summer, and even at both extremes the pride of the city is apparent. The game is followed by a dinner at the National Civil Rights Museum, and there will be guest speakers and events all weekend that I'm sure we'll attend. Besides the token Graceland trip (we'll actually go inside this time since Erik was never there), we're looking forward to celebrating how far this country has come the past 40 years since Dr. King's tragic death in Memphis (the Civil Rights Museum actually flanks the hotel where he was shot). The weekend is also, sadly, about recognition about how far we still have to go. Thankfully, there are many awesome blues cafes and bars within walking distance of the museum and the stadium, so as not to put too somber a tone on the festivities. It should be a wild weekend, hopefully crowded with tourists and fans that we can meet and talk to about our life's ambition to see baseball in just about every form all over the world.

Erik will obviously be flying in, and I have chosen to navigate Old Yeller down yet another stretch of American highway for 9 hours, since our hotel is like 12 miles from the park...although I'm sure it will be left downtown most of the time anyways since we'll clearly need to cab it back to the room. We leave on Thursday the 27th and return the 30th, hopefully in time to catch the first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the spring. Next post after we return!

End-of-Fall Update

So, it's been awhile. I'm not sure who or how many of you still read this blog, but I'm on my lunch at work and thought I'd keep everyone up to date with what's going on in the lives of Erik & Peter. Yes, you read that correctly, I'm at work. Erik and I have traded in our lives as bums for real paying jobs. I work at a large architecture firm in Milwaukee, Eppstein Uhen, and was even so broke from the ball tour and subsequent student loan payments that I've taken on a second job at a fish market. Erik moved out west to Las Vegas, one of the few places we didn't go on the trip. He is working on the John Edwards primaries campaign, and hopefully he will get elected in January so he can remain employed.

In baseball news, Erik and I spent the remainder of September going to Crew games before we got jobs, and after the playoffs came and went, we have started to focus our attention on the Winter Meetings, off-season roster moves, and the Dominican & Hawaiian Leagues' scoreboards. I also am going to a lot of minor league hockey games, the other sport Erik and I frequent.

The main reason I decided to write a random blog entry today was that Erik and I are starting to kick around our ball tour plans for 2008. While on the "big tour," we more or less decided to visit all the new parks that are opening, Spring Training, and many other baseball events in the following years as an annual means of keeping in touch, and as a way of stretching our ball tour out until the day we die. Our main event next year is going to be a trip out to DC to watch the Brewers battle the Nationals over Memorial Day weekend in their new still-untitled ballpark, which is set to open in April. This trip may or may not include a train ride up to New York to see a game in the last year of Yankee Stadium, and/or a ride up to Boston to watch the Crew play at Fenway Park in an interleague series the week before. This all depends on our cash situations, and if we can get free places to stay in each of the cities.

Right now we are leaning towards only going to DC, because we also want to return to Memphis in March to watch the Civil Rights Game at beautiful AutoZone Park. The CR Game was inaugurated last year as a part of a weekend-long series of events to commemorate MLB's drive towards racial equality in the game throughout the years. It would be my third time to the city and Erik's second; we both had a blast there in July and hope to make the return trip in three months. That's about it on the newsfront...more to come as plans get finalized, and when I start watching the Series de Caribe on my computer in February.

Peter's Final Reflection

I had originally intended and looked forward to writing a reflection on our trip upon returning home, but I realized soon after I started that it is impossible to write a summary of our amazing 71-day journey in just a few paragraphs. In lieu of not having time to write a book right now, we culminate the tour portion of this blog with our final rankings and statistics. Hopefully this can be of some service to people who someday look to take this trip themselves!

Best MLB Stadiums:

1. PNC Park, Pittsburgh

2. SAFECO Field, Seattle

3. Fenway Park, Boston

4. Camden Yards, Baltimore

5. Comerica Park, Detroit

Worst MLB Stadiums:

1. McAfee Coliseum, Oakland

2. RFK Stadium, Washington

3. Metrodome, Minneapolis

4. Dolphin Stadium, Miami

5. Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg

Best MiLB/Independent Stadiums:

1. Louisville Slugger Field, Louisville

2. AutoZone Park, Memphis

3. John O'Donnell Stadium, Davenport

4. Isotopes Park, Albuquerque

5. Haymarket Park, Lincoln

Favorite Cities:

1. Portland, OR

2. Seattle, WA

3. Memphis, TN

4. Toronto, ON

5. Boston, MA

6. Savannah, GA

7. San Diego, CA

8. Oklahoma City, OK

9. Vancouver, BC

10. Milwaukee, WI

Top Ballpark Foods:

1. Crabcake sandwich, Camden Yards

2. Tony's Philly Cheesesteak, Citizens Bank Park

3. Sushi, SAFECO Field

4. Fish Tacos, PETCO Park

5. Prime rib sandwich, Frontier Field

Best Nachos:

1. Louisville Slugger Field

2. AutoZone Park

3. Miller Park, Milwaukee

4. Wrigley Field, Chicago

5. Comerica Park

Best Games:

1. Day 2, Wrigley Field

2. Day 69, Metrodome

3. Day 62, Coors Field

4. Day 60, Isotopes Park

5. Day 15, Yankee Stadium

Longest Drive: 875 miles from Orem to Seattle

Most Money Raised: $96.31 in Washington

Nights slept in car: 10

Total number of Miles Driven: 16,105

Total amount of Money Raised: $1485.76

Day 71: Miller Park

All photos of Miller Park available on Flickr.

Well, this is it. Our amazing and unforgettable journey ended today at the place we call home, Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Today was no doubt a bittersweet day for the both of us. We were both glad to be back home and not have to worry about where we were driving or sleeping today, and it was a special treat for me to not be waking up next to Erik for the first time in 10 weeks. But at the same time, if we both had the money and the time, we would totally just do this every summer. We have already discussed at least a dozen small baseball-related vacations we want to take in the coming years, just to gather more material for the book we for sure have to write someday. I'd personally like to wait about 10 years after we have forgotten most of the details and can embellish facts in a "based on a true story" novel of some sorts. For now, we'll always have this blog and our 5000 photos as a way of keeping these memories alive in our minds and hearts forever.

Another token we'll have to remember this trip forever is the news story that was aired about our trip by the local FOX affiliate here in Milwaukee. My mom was kind enough to get in touch with somebody at the station and Erik and I were met by a news team at our "Welcome Home" pre-game tailgate today. We spent the better part of an hour talking about the tour, answering questions, and mingling amongst our friends while wearing microphones. The entire process was editted into a nice 5-minute story that aired at 5 and 10 PM that night, and once again at noon the next day. The whole tailgate, as with most days at Miller Park, was the best part of the whole day, and the reporters there and about 20 of our friends made it even more special. The stadium is nice and the Brewers are a fun team to watch, but no Brew Crew game is complete without a tailgate. Sometimes fans will just tailgate, listen to the game on the radio, and then drink afterwards, and never even go inside. It is just what we do in Wisconsin; it combines our state's two passions of beer and eating. Besides my family and the familiarity of home, the thing I miss most when I am away from Milwaukee is tailgating at Brewers games, because it is a sports spectacle unmatched anywhere else, kind of like how most college campuses have unique football gameday traditions.

So I will try to be objective and jump outside of myself for a moment to describe Miller Park, but it is hard to not talk fondly of a place I spend about a month a year at. I guess the main beef that we have with the park is the viewing angles. Because the architects tried to bring the seating levels closer to the field and reduce the incline of the bowls, it compromises views and there are very few seats at the park where you have an unobstructed panorama of the entire field. There could also be a few more bleachers that are actually close to the field of play, but a lot of parks have this problem. But besides these things and occasional roof leaking problems, the stadium is a gem. It has the most unique retractable roof, which opens like a fan instead of a door. It has the best batter's eye and one of the best team shops. But most importantly, it has the best beer and food in all of baseball, including a TGIFriday's in left field that is open year round.

The game itself was a pretty good showing for the Crew, who are in the midst of the most exciting race in the major, the NL Central race. They beat the Pirates 7-4 behind Jeff Suppan, who earned his first win since June 22nd. This happens to be the last game we saw at Miller Park before leaving on the tour 10 weeks ago. Rookie of the Year frontrunner Ryan Braun and MVP candidate Prince Fielder both homered for the Brewers, and Kevin Mench and Bill Hall also contributed RBIs. The bullpen was lights out for once, and the combination of Shouse-Linebrink-Turnbow-Cordero tossed 4 scoreless innings, with Coco getting his 39th save of the season.

Please continue to read this blog this week for final reflections, tallies, and/or rankings! Be sure to check in periodically for big Brewer/baseball news, Habitat for Humanity information, and any blog entries of Erik and my future baseball trips. Thanks to everyone who has been reading along on our journey of a lifetime, and particularly anyone who has given us a place to stay, donated money to us and/or Habitat, or helped us along our trip in any way whatsover; it is greatly appreciated. Lastly, please note the email address on the sidebar of this blog to which you can direct any future questions or comments about this blog.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 4 (okay when side panels are open)
view to field - 4 (many obstructed seats)
surrounding area - 2 (VA Asylum, brownfields)
food variety - 8
nachos - 9 (bowl o' 'chos!)
beer - 8 (good price, they have Miller and Pabst)
vendor price - 7
ticket price - 10 (ours were free...thanks Dad)
atmosphere - 9 (huge crowd, we were in a big group)
walk to park - 6 (fun to walk past all the tailgaters, but it can be a long hike)
parking price/proximity - 8 ($7 general parking, Erik and I have a secret free spot when we don't tailgate)
concourses - 7
team shop - 8

best food - any sausage (chorizo is new this year)
most unique stadium feature - the retractable roof, Bernie's slide
best jumbotron feature - Cingluar text in lights
best between-inning feature - Klements Sausage Race

field dimensions - 345/400/345
starters - Tom Gorzelanny (PIT) v. Jeff Suppan (MIL)
opponent - Pittsburgh Pirates
time of game - 2:58
attendance - 39340
score - 7-4 W
Brewers score that day - 7-4 W

Day 70: Fox Cities Stadium

All photos of Leinenkugel's Brewery and Fox Cities Stadium available on Flickr.

We left Minneapolis (albeit temporarily for Erik) around 8 AM and finally crossed back into Wisconsin for the first time in nearly 10 weeks. We had originally intended on attending a Snappers game in Beloit on the way home, but since neither of us had seen Wisconsin's other minor league franchise, we decided upon Appleton instead. I have been to the Appleton/Oshkosh area, and so I knew that arriving there 5 hours before first pitch would be incredibly boring. Thus, when we noted yesterday that the freeway exit to get from I-94 to Appleton put us right through Chippewa Falls, we knew that it would be a disservice to ourselves if we didn't stop and tour Leinenkugel's Brewery.

Leinenkugel's (or "Leinie's" to most) is considered a craft brewery, which falls somewhere between a microbrewery and a macrobrewery. It is the 4th oldest craft brewery in America, behind Yuengling in Pennsylvania, Sierra Nevada in California, and New Belgium in Colorado. My family had visited the brewery about two months and Erik and I were both very sad that we could not attend, because they told us it was awesome - not to mention free! Erik and I had an great tour guide and a great time at the brewery and definitely share my family's sentiments. The tour guide we had was actually an elementary school teacher that just got back from Iraq and has been working part time at the brewery on and off for many years. He was much more interested in telling us how tasty all the beer was, smelling the hops, and frollicking in the fermentation chamber than telling us important facts about, say, the brewing process. This was what made the tour outstanding and Erik and I both hope we run into him someday while touring another brewery so we can have a pint with him. After the hour-long tour, we decided that 11 AM was not too early to start drinking and took back a couple free samples before we hit the road.

We arrived in Appleton at 3 PM, just in time to catch the kickoff of the 1st Badgers game. We stopped at the local Hooters and took down a few pitchers while watching Wisconsin dominate for three quarters. We arrived at the park around 5:45, only to find that it was sadly surrounded by a large parking lot, which meant that we would once again not be able to fundraise. Fox Cities Stadium looked to be relatively new and it reminded me a lot of Security Services Field in Colorado Springs - very plain and cheaply constructed, about 15-20 rows of seats, wall full of adverstising with only a few bleachers in right field. Like a lot of teams that host minor league cities, Appleton has a long lineage of baseball, most notably the old Appleton Foxes team. The team shop was huge (the Snake Pit) and there was a large variety of food and beer, which made up for the lack of aesthetics at the stadium. I was annoyed that I had to wait for 20 minutes to order, but I was pleasantly suprised upon my arrival to the front of the line to see that they had local beers and Leine's on tap for a dollar and cheese fries in a helmet! Both were delicious.

The Timber Rattlers' slogan this season is "Come for the Fun, stay for the Game." Erik and I are still waiting for the latter part of that phrase to occur. The Rattlers put together a pretty pathetic offensive effort in their 7-1 loss to Kane County (Illinois, near Chicago). DH Greg Dowling and starting pitcher Henry Rodriguez were the stars of the day for KC. Dowling went 3-5 with 3 RBI, and Rodriguez gave up only 1 run over 7 innings, striking out 8 batters. Reliever Walters for KC was also lights out, striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced in his two innings of work. Catcher Juan Beltran provided the lone highlight of the day for Wisconsin with a towering solo shot in the 7th.

Immediately following the game (and I do mean immediately) we saw our fifth fireworks extravaganza of the trip, which was probably second to Cincinnati, even though the fireworks were clearly being lit one or two at a time by hand. After the game we drove the 90 minutes south to Milwaukee and got to sleep in our own beds for the first time since June 23rd. Last official game of the odyssey is tomorrow at Miller Park!

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 2
views from park - 2 (freeway)
view to field - 5 (batter obstructed by fence, but we were close)
surrounding area - 2 (downtown Appleton and the mall...yay)
food variety - 7
nachos - 4
beer - 10 ($1 and much variety)
vendor price - 9
ticket price - 9 ($5 GA)
atmosphere - 4
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 3 (only $3, but paying for parking in A-ball should be illegal)
concourses - 3
team shop - 8

best food - cheese fries
most unique stadium feature - Timber Rattlers hall of fame wall
best jumbotron feature - none worth writing about
best between-inning feature - boxing match between two fans with no protective pads and giant gloves

field dimensions - 325/405/325
starters - Henry Rodriguez (KC) v. Matthew Renfree (WIS)
opponent - Kane County Cougars
time of game - 3:00
attendance - 5150
score - 7-1 L
Brewers score that day - 12-3 W

Day 69: Metrodome

All photos of games 1 and 2 at the Metrodome available on Flickr.

Today we got to see a rare doubleheader in Minneapolis. Since the Twins play in a dome, games obviously get cancelled very rarely, but due to the I-35W bridge collapse last month, a game against the Royals was rescheduled for this afternoon. After a stop for breakfast, we arrived at the park around 10 minutes before game time and mingled with some of Erik's co-workers. Erik has been working part-time as an usher in the suites at the Metrodome for three years and was very anxious to talk to as many people as he could find and tell them about the tour. He even got us into the suite he works in and we got to watch both games there, which included free food and drink. I only spent about $15 total the entire day.

If Erik and I didn't attend games at the Dome many times a year, we probably would be less accustomed to its many nuiances and would loathe the stadium. I guess the same could be said for old County Stadium in Milwaukee, which we were both also fond of. Speaking objectively though, the stadium really is a dump. It is built for football - 343 down the left field line and less than 300 feet down the right field line is a good indicator of this, as well as the fact that seating angles are horrible. There are many seats in the upper deck that are covered by banners to make the emptiness of the large dome less apparent, but it doesn't really help. The two things that suck most about domes are obviously astroturf and the roof. The Metrodome roof in particular is notorious for the havoc it wreaks on outfielders. Many times players lose balls in the grayish roof and players like Prince Fielder end up getting inside-the-park homeruns. A lot of times fly balls hit speakers and land elsewhere, or maybe the ball even hits the roof and never comes down at all (this actually did happen once). It is atrocious not only to watch a player lose a fly ball in the roof, but then also to see the ball bounce up 12 feet in the air off the turf when/if it finally lands. With all that being said, sitting in the suites and seeing at least one really good game did make the visit more enjoyable than some previous ones.

Game one was an early struggle for Twinkies pitcher Matt Garza, and the team could never really recover from the three runs Garza surrendered in the 1st. Overall, he was charged with 8 runs, 4 earned. The 3-6 hitters for the Royals went a combined 9-18 with 6 RBI, including a HR by 1B Ross Gload. Torii Hunter provided the lone offensive highlight for the Twins with his homerun in the bottom half of the 1st in the 9-4 loss.

Game two was considerably more exciting - and even if it wasn't, we at least got a sweet Kirby Puckett bronze statue giveaway. We left the park around 4:30 after the first game and had a couple drinks at a bar next door, and we fundraised. As has been a common theme lately, we had a really good spot and thought we would fair a lot better than we did. Returning to our suite around 6:30, we saw Twins pitcher Scott Baker toss a perfect game through 8th. It was only fitting to us that the trip was bookended with the two best games - game #2 at Wrigley, and the 3rd to last game in Minneapolis on Friday. By the 6th inning, Scotty had distanced himself from the rest of the dugout and the stadium proceeded to go crazy for the remaining hour of the game. Baker walked the first batter he faced in the 9th, but he still had the no-hitter going so the crowd was still really fired up to see him close out the game. The no-hitter was spoiled by newly acquired pinch-hitter Mike Sweeney, brother of the venerable record holder of all-time pinch hits Mark Sweeney. Baker ended up going the distance however, tossing a one-hit CG shutout with 9 K's. It was unreal to watch and the third time I have seen a pitcher take a no-hitter past the 7th.

After the game we followed Erik's co-worker Joe to his house and passed out early because he had to be back at work early the next morning for an 11 AM first pitch. This works out well for us anyways, because if we leave early enough tomorrow, we can tour Leinenkugels in Chippewa Falls on our way to Appleton, Wisconsin.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 2
views from park - n/a
view to field - 3 (very good from our suite, otherwise not)
surrounding area - 6 (downtown)
food variety - 3
nachos - 4
beer - 7 (free, but Bud Light)
vendor price - 7
ticket price - 9 (game 1 $7 GA, game 2 free)
atmosphere - Game 1 gets a 2, Game 2 gets a 10
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 7 (2 blocks away for $6.25)
concourses - 3
team shop - 2

best food - steak sandwich
most unique stadium feature - the "baggie" in right field
best jumbotron feature - T.C. Bear "walk" animation
best between-inning feature - Hormel Hot Dog song in 4th

field dimensions - 343/408/295
starters - Kyle Davies (KC) v. Matt Garza (MIN); Gil Meche v. Scott Baker
opponent - Kansas City Royals
time of game - 3:01; 2:16
attendance - 15735; 24985
score - 9-4 L; 5-0 W
Brewers score that day - 3-2 W

Day 68: Minneapolis

All photos of the Minnesota State Fair and new Twins Ballpark groundbreaking ceremony available on Flickr.

You know you're from the Midwest if you're as excited to go to the state fair as we were today! The Minnesota State Fair was in town, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity. I was looking forward to eating a lot and harassing as many animals as possible since I have missed the last three Wisconsin State Fairs due to attending school/work outside of Milwaukee. The only real fair comparison I have is the one in Wisconsin, and the Minnesota fair was pretty similar - tons of food, giant slide, animal barns, exhibit houses, parades, and straw everywhere. I took down some smothered 'tato skins, some corn, and a cream puff. The puff did not really compete at all with the ones in Wisconsin in terms of taste and size, but at the Minnesota fair, you can get different flavors of cream, so bonus points for that. I also acquired another non-baseball souvenir cup. Erik had another fair staple - cheese curds.

The Minnesota State Fair did not have nearly the array of animals that the Wisconsin one does, nor does it have as much live music. There also seemed to be fewer places to buy useless stuff. The worst thing though is that there was no type of animal race anywhere! The unique thing to the Minnesota fair is that you can get any food imaginable on a stick. Waffles, spaghetti & meatballs, pizza, you name it. There are also two buildings that Wisconsin does not have - a live-berth house and a ride-a-horse house. Although I was extremely disappointed that the pig and cattle barns were closed for the day, I had a great time at the fair. Unless the Brewers are in the playoffs or the Admirals have a sweet giveaway, Erik and I have already discussed me visiting in mid-October to attend the Minnesota Beef Expo, which is also held on the fair grounds.

After the fair, we headed downtown to the warehouse district to be a part of Minnesota history. We got to watch the new Twins Ballpark groundbreaking ceremony. Many Hennepin County and Minnesota politicians were there, Twins front office folk, current and former players (including a tipsy Kent Hrbek, who was handed a beer and subsequently took it down during his speech), T.C. Bear, and even the commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, was in attendance. He got booed by some fans because he tried to contract the Twins a few years back, but overall it was a good ceremony. There were about 10 speeches, five groups of people who did ceremonial digging, a WWII jet fly-over, and even a 7th inning stretch where everyone sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" The event was catered and everything, and it was really cool to be there for this important event. There were some angry protesters outside the gates with signs saying that Minnesota was wasting its tax money, but I was easily distracted from their signs while I was looking at the free poster I was given featuring an awesome rendering of what the new park will look like. Erik and I are both excited for the return of outdoor baseball in Minneapolis in 2010.

After the game, we went to a bar downtown and capped our evening off by putting a few drinks back and watching the Brewers lose again. Tomorrow it's a doubleheader against the Royals! And as a side note...my mom has been in contact with Ted Perry from the local FOX affiliate in Milwaukee since the start of the tour, and he and/or someone from the network has agreed to come interview us while tailgating in Milwaukee on Sunday! Anyone in the Milwaukee FOX 6 viewing area be sure to watch the news on Sunday!

Day 67: Field of Dreams

All photos of Dyersville and the Field of Dreams available on Flickr.

Today was our final day in Iowa. People make fun of Iowa for having nothing but cornfields and pigs (which is true in most cases), but it was great for me at least to be in this state for four days, because I have now finally feel like I am close to home. After growing up in Wisconsin for most of your life, you certainly develop a certain comfort level for driving through exurban farming and manufacturing towns that wreak of manure and yeast. Even though I hope to move out to one of the 50+ amazing cities we have seen on this tour someday, the Midwest will always be home to me.

Dyersville was really no different than Des Moines, Davenport, or Clinton; just at a bit smaller scale. The Field of Dreams exit is off of US-20, about 20 miles west of Dubuque, and is about three miles off the highway, past several farms and fields. In fact, the Field of Dreams was once a farm and cornfield itself before becoming immortalized in the movie that shares the same name in 1988. Today, it serves as one of the biggest tourist attractions in Iowa. The lot is simple - the field kept intact from the movie, the adjacent house where Kevin Costner's character lived, and two souvenir stands. Admission is free, and Erik and I spent the better part of an hour playing catch, running the bases, and taking many action photos. I planned on getting a picture of myself sliding, but when I noticed the infield dirt was about 50% gravel, I thought better of it. This did not deter Erik one bit, and now he as a couple souvenir scars and a dirt-covered t-shirt to remember his experience - I, however, settled for a $4 baseball. After working up a good sweat, we talked to a nice lady who ran one of the souvenir stands, who was obviously lonely from working there by herself all day every day in a hot trailer.

We left the Field of Dreams around 3 PM and finished our drive to Minneapolis, where we'll be staying with a friend of Erik's for a few nights. Tomorrow we'll probably both be incredibly sore, but we will try to tough it out and make it to the Minnesota State Fair!

Day 66: Alliant Energy Field

All photos of Davenport day 2, Clinton, and Alliant Energy Field available on Flickr.

Today was bonus game #4 for me and #5 for Erik on the trip. Not to say that we needed an excuse to watch more ball, but the prospect of spending another 24 hours exploring Davenport did not particularly intrigue us. We did, however, spend a little bit of time walking around, since we were sure that the small town we were headed to up the river would not be much cooler. We walked through the lobby of the local art museum, the tourist center, and across a strange "bridge to nowhere." We also walked along the riverfront that was substantially less algae-rific than yesterday. As is the case in almost every city we've been to, by 3 or 4 PM we have seen all that we want to see and are tired of walking, so we end up pulling up a stool at a local tavern for Happy Hour (one of man's greatest inventions besides the wheel and delivered hot food, by the way). Today's bar was Shenanigan's, which was the only Irish pub that Erik and I have ever been to that did not actually serve Irish beer.

Around 4 PM we headed to Clinton, Iowa, which is about 30 miles north of Davenport and is home to the LumberKings, an A-ball affiliate of the Texas Rangers. We thought the game was at 7:05, but apparently the final Clinton homestand got moved to 6:05 starts, which only gave us about 30 minutes to fundraise. We have not been doing so well fundraising lately, so we decided to give it a crack in Clinton, even though we don't typically do so at "bonus games." We had only made $1 when the General Manager rolled up to us in a golf cart and ask us about what we were doing. Instead of telling us to move, he proceeded to tell us that he supported our cause and wished we would have called him. We told him that we only knew we were coming here as of yesterday, and he felt bad and hooked us up with some free food inside.

Like in Davenport, and as a matter of fact a lot of Iowa cities, there is a long tradition of minor league baseball in Clinton. Although the team has changed names and affiliates many times over the years, the city has hosted a team continuously for the past 54 seasons. Alliant Energy Field (which we determined was probably originally Clinton Municipal Stadium) was built in 1937 and resembles a lot of the old minor league parks, such as the ones we have seen in Evansville, Savannah, and Vancouver. It has its wide open concourse, covered seats, and no outfield seating. This stadium did, however, feature a neat little pavilion in left field near the pole that terminated in a "bump-out" that jutted about 10 feet into the field, kind of like a mosquito bite on the wall, so to speak. We were hoping we'd get to see someone hit it off that wall and watch it careen back into center field for a triple but such was not the case. The game was actually pretty decently pitched for an A-ball game. Both starters did very well, despite the fact that they only went 4 and 5 innings respectively. In the end, the walks hurt the LumberKings, as the staff gave out nine total free passes and one hit batsman. The Timber Rattlers also must have had the scouting report on Clinton's catcher, because they were stealing at will all night, swiping 7 bags in 8 attempts. These two things, plus a combination of timely hitting and a lackluster umpiring crew led Wisconsin to victory despite a 2-run 9th by the LumberKings. The best part of the game was once again the Racing Sausages, who I guess are apparently doing a tour of minor league parks in Iowa until the Brewers return home.

After the game, the original plan was to have a few drinks at the local Applebees and sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but the latter portion of the plan proved to be most uncomfortable, so we found a $40 hotel room for the night nearby. Applebees was awesome though - we got to watch the season finale of The Bronx is Burning and watch the LumberKings, who came in for a meal, converse with the staff. Clinton actually reminded me a lot of Cudahy, for those of you from Wisconsin, so you can imagine how anxious we are to get out of here and head up towards Dyersville tomorrow after a quick oil change for Old Yeller.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 2
views from park - 2
view to field - 5 (net obstructs view, but we did have 4th row seats)
surrounding area - 3
food variety - 6
nachos - 3 (low cheese to chip ratio)
beer - 9 ($4 for a large Old Style! lots of variety)
vendor price - 10 ($1 food on Tuesdays, plus we got free eats)
ticket price - 6 ($6 GA)
atmosphere - 3
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10 (across the street for free)
concourses - 3
team shop - 4

best food - brat
most unique stadium feature - left field bump-out
best jumbotron feature - n/a
best between-inning feature - Racing Sausages make another cameo appearance
field dimensions - 330/395/325
starters - Steven Richard (WIS) v. Evan Reed (CLN)
opponent - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
time of game - 2:49
attendance - 650
score - 4-2 L
Brewers score that day - 5-3 L

Day 65: John O'Donnell Stadium

All photos of Davenport and John O'Donnell Stadium available on Flickr.

Today was Day 2 in scenic Iowa, as we made our way east to the Illinois border to watch the Swing of the Quad Cities, an A-ball affiliate of the Cardinals. The team/region is called the "Quad Cities" because there are four cities around of similar size all next to each other, two on each side of the Mississippi River. After a lunch with Karl and a stop to blog, we parted ways and headed to Davenport around 2:30. We arrived at around 5:15 and walked around the park, which is right on the river, and then set up for fundraising. We only made $8, which was to be expected from an A-ball game I guess.

The park is annually voted one of the best in minor league baseball, which is the main reason we came - that, and the Swing of the Quad Cities have the coolest name and uniforms ever. There is only a grass berm in the outfield and no seats, so the park boasts breathtaking views of the Mississippi and the Centennial Bridge from just about everywhere in the stadium. It was really cool to watch the bridge inning by inning as the sun was setting. Davenport has a rich history of minor leaugue baseball and has had teams nearly every year since the 1900s, and John O'Donnell Stadium has seen a lot of these teams come and go - the Dav-Sox and the Quad Cities River Bandits to name a couple. Besides being located right on the river and the bridge, the park is also conveniently located adjacent to train tracks and two methadone clinics, which certainly all contribute to the overall din and atmosphere of the stadium in their own unique ways.

I visited this stadium almost one year ago to the day while I was working in Madison, and I seem to remember having a much better time last year. First of all, the river was ridiculously contaminated with algae and the field was swarming with these strange large bugs that looked kind of like dragonflies. Secondly, the team shop was horrible - no helmets, no balls, and no jerseys smaller than an XL. I guess this was kind of a blessing in disguise though, because I would have definitely purchased one and I don't have the money to do so. There were also no souvenir cups. This all put me in a pretty bad mood before the game even started, but once play started, I perked up a little. The team features two very active and entertaining mascots, Rookie Raccoon and Clyde the Monkey, and the Swing put up five runs on the starting pitcher for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The Kernels were a little slow all evening, as their bus arrived only 30 minutes before first pitch because it broke down on the Interstate. Also, the between-inning entertainment was pretty special, and I caught a homerun ball in the 9th inning! Also, the first baseman for the Swing was named Dorn, so we both had a pretty good laugh about that the whole game. The best and most surprising part by far was when the Klement's Sausages made an apprearance in the bottom of the 7th for a race, albeit only three of the five.

The Swing won the game 6-3 behind a solid pitching performance by Brandon Dickson. He went 7 and gave up only 2, and it was certainly a relief to see a starting pitcher in the Cards organization finally toss a decent outing. Lead-off hitter Jose Ramirez for the Swing had two hits to finally bring his average over .200. Despite a lead-off homerun by Matt Sweeney in the 9th (which I caught) the Kernels ended up falling short. Tomorrow we're sticking around the Davenport area and have decided to drive 20 miles to attend another bonus game in Clinton, as it should be an inexpensive way to kill time before heading to the Field of Dreams on Wednesday.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 6
views from park - 10 (Centennial Bridge/river)
view to field - 9
surrounding area - 5 (downtown and rehab centers nearby)
food variety - 6
nachos - 6
beer - n/a (we did not have beer because it was expensive and a hassle to get a wrist band)
vendor price - 7
ticket price - 5 ($7 GA is pretty pricy for the minors)
atmosphere - 4
walk to park - 7 (can walk along river)
parking price/proximity - 10 (across the street for free)
concourses - 7 (nice views to bridge)
team shop - 2

best food - pork chop sandwich
most unique stadium feature - the view!
best jumbotron feature - random zooming in by camera guy on people
best between-inning feature - Racing Sausages make a cameo appearance
field dimensions - 343/400/318
starters - Kellly Shearer (CR) v. Brandon Dickson (QC)
opponent - Cedar Rapids Kernels
time of game - 2:28 (plus 17-minute delay for broken-down bus)
attendance - 1505
score - 6-3 W
Brewers score that day - off

Day 64: Omaha & Des Moines

All photos of Omaha and suburban Des Moines available on Flickr.

We spent yesterday exploring two Midwestern farming cities - Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa. Omaha was only about 30 miles east of the rest stop we were at that night, so we stopped there for about three hours to work on the blog, grab lunch, and of course visit Rosenblatt Stadium. This is the home of the Men's College World Series, and is also home to the AAA affiliate of Kansas City, the Omaha Royals. We circumnavigated the park and checked out all the plaques of past champions, and it actually looked like a really nice stadium. Although I certainly don't regret stopping in Lincoln, if we would have known that the Omaha Royals played at the same stadium where the College World Series was held, and that they were home this weekend, I'm sure we would have saw a game here instead. Omaha was a decent little town, from what we did see of it. It actually reminded me a lot of Dayton, and I apologize to any of my Ohio friends who are reading this now and may have just experienced a shiver up their spine.

Around 2 PM we completed the rest of our day's drive to Des Moines. My friend Karl lives in a suburb just west of the city and we spent the rest of the day watching the final of the Little League World Series (Georgia beat Japan) and catching up over dinner, drinks, and movies. The highlight of the evening (besides drinking) was when Karl took the liberty of showing us an interesting house near a subdivision that had a functional bomb shelter and outhouse, two things which I'm sure are not up to current building codes and were somehow grandfathered in. Tomorrow we'll probably hang around here a bit before heading to Davenport to watch the Swing of the Quad Cities.

Day 63: Haymarket Park

All photos of Haymarket Park available on Flickr.

Yesterday we said goodbye to the Rocky Mountains and hello to the Great Plains. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive from Denver to Lincoln, NE with nothing to look at except the flat land, corn, and cows. After making a quick stop in downtown Denver to make another deposit (we've raised nearly $1300 so far) we got on our way.

We arrived in Lincoln at about 6:15 for a 7:05 game. The ballpark was on the campus of the University of Nebraska with Memorial Stadium where the Cornhusker football team plays across the street. The stadium also serves as the home to Cornhuskers baseball and there were plenty of "big block Ns" and Cornhusker Big 12 Championship and College World Series appearance banners hanging throughout the stadium. Unfortunately, Haymarket Park is the type that is just surrounded by parking lots and we were unable to do any fundraising.

The Lincoln Saltdogs play in the American Association, the same league as the St. Paul Saints. The two teams will actually be facing each other in the playoffs which start on Monday. This game was the fourth independent league that Peter and I have seen on the trip, and having attended several Saints games over the past couple of years I knew it would be the best baseball of any of the indy leagues.

Yesterday was the last day of the American Association regular season and the Saltdogs presented their team awards between innings. Last night's starting pitcher Jarrett Gardner was voted pitcher of the year by the season ticket holders and gave another fine performance last night. He went 6 innings, only allowed 3 hits and struck out 5. If he keeps that up, there may be a place on an A-ball roster for him next year. The Saltdogs scratched out single runs in the 4th, 5th, and 6th, then broke the game open with a Grand Slam from Pichi Balet in the 7th.

Saints games are always a blast and Lincoln was no different. Last night was the finals round of a season long promotion to give away a car. All night long, people who had qualified throughout the season were eliminated until there were only four. After the game each choose a key and the one that started the car won a year's lease. But that wasn't the best between innings game. Once again, Peter and I were selected to compete in the keg roll. This time, however, we would be competing against each other, not another team. At the end of the eighth inning we were escorted onto the field and squared off to see who could roll a keg from home plate to first or third base, and back, the quickest. Of course, I completely dominated but Peter improved significantly over last time - he didn't fall down yesterday.

After the Saltdogs wrapped up the victory with a 1-2-3 9th, we headed to an area called Haymarket Square for some post-game drinks. We had a few pints at Brewsky's where the whole Saltdogs staff also showed up. Tomorrow it's off to Iowa to stay with Peter's friend Karl near Des Moines.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 6
views from park - 5 (Nebraska campus)
view to field - 9
surrounding area - 8 (Nebraska campus and Haymarket Square nearby)
food variety - 6
nachos - 8
beer - 9 (good price, two sizes souvenir cups, Leines on tap)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 9 ($5 lawn)
atmosphere - 7 (last game of season)
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10 (on lot for free)
concourses - 5
team shop - 4

best food - fries
most unique stadium feature - lawn seating areas
best jumbotron feature - n/a
best between-inning feature - keg race featuring us, Homer the mascot tosses stuff into the crowd from the bullpen car
field dimensions - 325/395/325
starters - N. Cebula (SC) v. J. Gardner (LIN)
opponent - Sioux City Explorers
time of game - 2:10
attendance - 4414
score - 9-0 W
Brewers score that day - 6-2 L