Day 58: Chase Field

All photos of Taliesin West, Phoenix, and Chase Field available on Flickr.

We started the day by driving a few miles up the road from where we are staying in Scottsdale to tour Taliesin West, the home and studio of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright split time between this home and his home in Spring Green, Wisconsin throughout his life and the fellowship program that Wright started in the 1930s is still in existence today. I had visited Spring Green last summer, so it was cool to see this one and compare how Wright employed his philosophies in two extremely different climates. The tour was nearly two hours long, and although it was about 110 degrees outside, it was definitely worth it and we took tons of pictures. After the tour, we made a quick stop at the Phoenix Public Library downtown, which Erik and I had seen in architecture magazines and heard was cool. The outside was neat, done in all copper siding that ages over time, but I wasn't that impressed with the interior. Phoenix is the nation's largest city in terms of square footage and is sprawling beyond belief, but I'm glad we got to see at least the two things we really wanted to in this huge city.

The game had an unusual start time of 6:40, so we headed over towards the ballpark around 4:30. We were really excited to go to this game despite the heat because the Diamondbacks were playing the Brewers! This was our 6th game on the tour we'd be seeing them, seven if you count the AAA Sounds we saw play in Portland. We were also looking forward to the game because we got free seats from the team, so we knew we'd have a good view of the field. We ended up being about 20 rows up on the lower deck behind the 3rd base dugout. Before the game however, it was time to fundraise. We found a good spot right across the street from the stadium, near a misting machine in the shade, so it really only felt like a cool 95 degrees - however, we only made about $20.

Chase Field, formerly Bank One Ballpark, is in downtown Phoenix and is already in its 10th season of operation and is a pretty nice park. It features the first retractable roof built in the United States, and the second in baseball after Rogers Centre. As you can imagine, the roof is pretty much closed every game between Memorial Day and Labor Day due to the desert heat. A unique feature of the stadium besides the roof is the Pool Area in right-center, where fans can actually go swimming during a D-Backs game. The stadium reminded me a lot of Miller Park actually - the concourses are set up similarly, and the outfield wall/scoreboard configuration is incredibly similar. The bleacher configuration is similar to the "Dew Deck" in right, and there is a Friday's in left like in Milwaukee. Also, the retractable roof necessitates a wall beyond the outfield to hold up the roof, just as at Miller Park. I really wish that the D-Backs still had their rancid purple and teal uniforms from when the team first started out, but otherwise the game was enjoyable experience.

Our time there was made even more enjoyable because the Crew dominated and won 9-0! Yovani Gallardo struck out 6 over 6 and Carlos Villanueva got the 3-inning save from the Brewers in the victory, while Yo-Go's counterpart Doug Davis, a former Brewers only lasted 2 innings and gave up 6 runs. Bill Hall, Prince Fielder, and Gallardo all homered for the Brewers in the game, and Rickie Weeks and 3 hits. The highlight of the game for us though was definitely when newly acquired former Brewer Jeff Cirillo got to pitch the 9th inning of the lopsided game. He actually faired well; he walked two but tossed a scoreless inning, and he even got his first career strikeout against Craig Counsell. Craig will definitely be hearing it from his teammates in the clubhouse for awhile on that one, but I guess that's what happens when you're hitting .221. With the Cubs losing, the Crew is once again tied for the lead in the NL Central.

Tomorrow we're off to Albuquerque to watch some minor league ball before heading up to Coors Field this weekend. We'll be staying with my old roommate Ben and stopping off at the Grand Canyon on the way, and I'm really excited about both.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 5
views from park - 2 (can't see out)
view to field - 7 (seems like there would be a lot of obstructed view in some areas)
surrounding area - 5 (downtown Phoenix nearby, bars next door)
food variety - 6
nachos - 4
beer - 5 (good variety but pricy)
vendor price - 7
ticket price - 10 (ours were free)
atmosphere - 7 (a lot of Crew fans!)
walk to park - 2 (hot!)
parking price/proximity - 8 (3 blocks away for $7)
concourses - 7
team shop - 7

best food - andouille sausage
most unique stadium feature - Pool Area in right-center
best jumbotron feature - "7th inning stretch" animation
best between-inning feature - hot dog race

field dimensions - 340/407/336
starters - Yovani Gallardo (MIL) v. Doug Davis (ARZ)
opponent - Milwaukee Brewers
time of game - 2:51
attendance - 26900
score - 9-0 L
Brewers score that day - 9-0 W

Day 57: Heading Back East

All photos of the drive to Arizona available on Flickr.

Today was the start of Week 9 of the tour and the beginning of the home stretch back east as we made our way into Arizona this morning. Aside from a random border patrol booth we had to stop at since I-8 is so close to Mexico, it was a pretty smooth ride through the desert and mountains. We arrived in Scottsdale around what we thought was 2 PM Mountain Time, but as we found out, southern Arizona is apparently independent of the entire time zone system, so we are actually still in "Pacific Time" until we hit New Mexico on Tuesday. Today we are just relaxing and doing some laundry here, and possibly hitting the pool later since neither of us has showered today and it is 105 degrees outside.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting Taliesin West and exploring Phoenix a bit during the day before heading to the game at 6:40 PM.

Day 56: Last Day in California

All photos of Day 5 in San Diego available on Flickr.

As indicated by the title of this blog, today was our 14th and final full day in California. San Diego has definitely salvaged my opinion of this state. It was nice to not have to do a lot of driving for the past 10 days (and I'm sure Old Yeller appreciated that as well), but I know that Erik is anxious to get back on the road and starting snapping shots of state welcome signs again.

After saying goodbye to our awesome hotel and dropping Mary off at the airport, Erik and I took care of some very important business - repairing our Habitat donation box, which we have dubbed "Roxy Boxy." After 8 weeks of being shoved, stuffed, crammed, and blown over repeatedly, she got a much needed rehabilitating packing tape job to keep it together for the remainder of the tour. It has certainly made it much longer than we thought it would, and I for sure thought we'd be using tin cups by this point. After repairing Boxy, we headed for one of the few areas we haven't seen of the city yet, Little Italy. Just about every major city has a Chinatown and/or a Little Italy and this one was really no different. We had some really good pie at a local pizzeria and then headed towards the stadium to a sports bar to watch FOX Saturday baseball and Little League World Series. We decided to attend another Padres game so that we could fundraise and get a souvenir tote bag, which was the sweet giveaway on this particular evening. The game was sold out because of the giveaway, and because it was originally slated to be an Oswalt v. Peavy duel on the mound, but the Padres ended up putting Justin Germano on the hill instead. Our seats were for the GA lawn section in center field, but we ended up sitting near where we sat on Wednesday in the upper deck after watching an inning from the roof of the Western Metal Supply Company building. Once again, the Friars could not muster much offense and lost 3-2. The only reason they scored any runs at all was because they hit up Roy Oswalt before his exit in the 5th after he had clearly injured himself earlier in the inning. Roy O helped himself out with his first RBI of the season and Ty Wigginton had 2 hits in the win for the Astros.

One thing that was cemented after attending our second game at PETCO was how horrible Padres fans are, which is a major contributing factor as to why Erik hates the park. Not "horrible" in the traditional sense of the word like Cubs or Phillies fans, but "horrible" as in very indifferent and uninformed. Padres fans come to the game from the 3rd to the 7th, don't watch any of the game, and get very angry if one is not sitting in their assigned seat. Aside from the two games we watched, the Pads have a pretty decent team, but I doubt anybody in San Diego is aware of this. After the game we drove about two hours and stopped at a rest stop for the night, just west of the Arizona border. Tomorrow we complete the drive to Scottsdale to stay with a friend of the family of Erik's before seeing the Brew Crew battle the D-Backs in Phoenix on Monday.

Day 55: Tijuana

All photos of Old Town and Tijuana available on Flickr.

Mary and I got another early start on the day while Erik slept. After leaving the hotel shortly after 7 AM I initially envied Erik's position, but it turned out to be a nice little morning of walking around Old Town and revisiting Mission Beach on another gorgeous San Diego day. Old Town is part of the original settlement of San Diego, and it kind of has a "Colonial Williamsburg meets Santa Fe" feel to it. It is full of old saloon, apothecaries, general stores, and the like, and was quite interesting to walk around in. The beach was packed once again. Mary did some more work on her tan while I just sat next to her, staring at the crashing waves, and still in fear of ever removing my shirt again after getting second degree burns in Puerto Vallarta two months ago.

Around 12:30 we made it back to the hotel and met up with Erik to head to TJ. We picked up the blue line trolley at the Amtrak station, which is actually a pretty cool little historic preservation project in and of itself. It was $5 round trip and about 45 minutes each way - not bad at all. The trolley let us off in San Ysidro, and after one of us asked the obligatory "Hey, where's Mexico?" question, we headed over the bridge to Tijuana. We were met by border patrol upon our crossing, which consisted of a metal gate and a rent-a-cop reading a magazine on a folding chair, which made us feel really safe.

TJ is a pretty special little town - or at least, we thought it was little. We learned from the cab driver who took us into downtown that it is actually a city of over 4,000,000 people. After already visiting three cities in Mexico, I kind of knew what to expect. Tons of little souvenir stands that all sell the same 12 items, tons of jewelry stores teeming with silver and turqoise goods, shady bars that have happy hour all day, and a few cool churches here and there. Things unique to Tijuana included donkeys on display on the street. Whereas in America we have ceramic representative animals in every city, such as the crabs in Baltimore or the cows in Milwaukee, TJ actually employed the use of live mules, painted in zebra stripes for some reason ("zonkeys"). There were also many cool Aztec statues strewn about the city. I really thought the city would be a lot dirtier, all things considered and from the stories I've heard, but it really was not that bad except for the food vendor area of the city, where boxes of day-old meats and fruits covered in bees, flies, and maggots were set up all around. The gauntlet of insects was not even the worst part; the smell was incredibly putrid. We spent about two hours walking around and concluded the day with some tequila shots at a local bar while waiting for our return cab trip home. A quick stop back at the border to pick up a TJ hat for my brother and we walked through the line back into the states. Compared to walking into Mexico, security was CRAZY here - they actually looked at your ID and had a scanner for backpacks and purses. I was pretty disappointed in myself that I didn't bring any Cuban cigars with me, because I clearly would not have been caught unless I was actually smoking it in line.

We got back into San Diego around 8 and grabbed some dinner downtown at a Rock Bottom. Tomorrow is our last day in California before we head back east on Sunday morning.

Day 54: San Diego Zoo

All photos from the San Diego Zoo are available on Flickr.

Besides the game, the thing I was looking forward most to seeing while in San Diego was the Zoo. While Peter and Mary woke up early to go tanning in nearby Balboa Park, I had gotten enough sun the day before and remained in bed. We got on our way to the zoo at about 11:00 AM. On our way in we posed for souvenir photos and made our way through a very short ticket line. As we were getting our bearings inside the main entrance, Peter immediately noticed that the Zoo sold soda in souvenir cups and bought one. We made our way towards the Hunte Amphitheater to watch one of the zoo's two shows to get our day started. The show was called "Legends and Lore and the theme of the show was dispelling the myths that exist about some animals such as pigs are dirty and dogs and cats don't get along. After the show, we walked around the zoo for awhile looking at all the interesting animals. After a bite to eat, we headed for the sea lion show. This show is definitely designed for kids but I enjoyed it immensely. Following this show we hit the trails again to see the pandas, giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, kangaroos, and koalas. After 7 hours we finally wrapped up our day and headed back to the hotel. Peter and Mary immediately fell asleep while I ran out for a quick dinner. Upon waking up a couple of hours later they were both still to tired to leave the room, that's what happens when you get up at 8 o'clock to go tanning, so we ordered in a pizza and watched movies until we all fell asleep.

Today we're taking the trolley down to Tijuana, making Mexico the third country we'll have visited on this tour.

Day 53: PETCO Park

All photos of Day 2 in San Diego and PETCO Park available on Flickr.

Today we visited major league stadium #26 of the tour, but before that, we started the day by traveling a few miles up the coast to La Jolla to visit the Salk Institute. The Salk Institute is a building designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, my favorite architect. Mary and I as architects, and Erik as a former one, were all excited to see this nearby masterpiece, and it was definitely worth the trip. Kahn's architecture is known to evoke a spiritual response, and its terminus overlooking the Pacific Ocean certainly demonstrated this well.

I could write a much longer piece on my feelings on the building, but it's not really what this blog is about, so moving on - after the Salk Institute, we drove around looking for a good beach. We heard that Mission Valley Beach was the place to be, and although it took us awhile to find, we eventually made it there in the early afternoon. This was one of the most active and largest beaches I have ever been to (cut me some slack, I live in Wisconsin), and it definitely reminded me of Baywatch - bodies laying out on the sand as far as the eye could see. The three of us spent a bit laying out in the sun, and although the water was a bit cold, we spent awhile battling the crashing waves of the San Diego Bay as well. We concluded our stay at the beach with a drink at a bar nearby that had a man-made wave machine that people were surfing on, and it was pretty cool to watch while enjoying a frosty beverage.

After waking up early and spending a long time in the sun, we all immediately fell asleep upon our arrival back to the hotel. We actually overslept a bit and so Erik and I did not get a chance to fundraise, but the Padres are home through the weekend and Erik and I plan on going to the game Saturday anyways, so we'll definitely make money in San Diego for Habitat. The park is near the bay on the south side of downtown and is now in its 4th season of operation. Erik and I have mixed feelings on the park - namely, he hated it and I loved it. Erik did not appreciate the lack of an escalator to the top floor, nor the poor view we had from our original bleacher seats, among other things. I loved the park because it had some of the most unique features we've experienced than at any other stadium. In left field, the pre-existing Western Metal & Supply Company building serves as the left field foul pole. Instead of being torn down, it was gutted out and is an integral part of the park, featuring decks for watching the game, a restaurant, rooftop bleachers, and a giant team store. Another cool part are the two stair towers, done in adobe. The whole stadium features the colors of navy blue and sand, which are the team's colors. All of the concourses on every level are different and not continuous, creating a more active space. Lastly, the right-center field area beyond the outfield wall is awesome. I'll agree that the view from the bleachers out there wasn't the best, but the seats are arranged on a lawn with a children's sandbox area below. There is also a general admission area in the outfield that is just a large park where people cuddle up with blankets and watch the game on a big screen TV for $5.

We ended up moving from our original bleacher seats to the upper deck for a better view. Instead of view issues, we ran into problems with the crowd up here. The people around us were more concerned with playing with a beach ball and getting a wave started than with actually watching the game, so are experience there was not as pleasant as it could have been. ML ERA-leader Chris Young got the start for the Pads and tossed 6 scoreless innings, including striking out the first 4 batters he faced, but received no run support and got a ND in the Padres' loss. San Diego only mustered three hits the whole game and seemed to be baffled by starter Ubaldo Jimenez, who struck out 9 and only gave up one of those hits. Pinch-hitter Ian Stewart broke the scoreless tie in the 7th with a 2-run single.

We are in the SD area until Sunday morning waiting for the Diamondbacks to return home. Tomorrow we plan on going to the world-famous San Diego Zoo!

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 8 (downtown SD)
view to field - 4 (lots of obstructed view)
surrounding area - 9 (downtown SD/Gastown)
food variety - 6
nachos - 9 (chili + cheese)
beer - 3 (expensive, low variety)
vendor price - 5
ticket price - 6 (about average)
atmosphere - 2 (obnoxious crowd)
walk to park - 10 (walk through downtown and Gastown, and the outfield park)
parking price/proximity - 6 (we walked, but parking next door for $15)
concourses - 9 (very unique)
team shop - 7 (huge one in Metal Supply building, one in stadium as well...could use more retro Pads gear though)

best food - fish tacos
most unique stadium feature - Park in the Park, bleacher/sandlot seating
best jumbotron feature - "Wild Pitch" animation
best between-inning feature - Friar mascot shoots t-shirts out of cannon

field dimensions - 336/395/320
starters - Ubaldo Jimenez (COL) v. Chris Young (SD)
opponent - Colorado Rockies
time of game - 2:41
attendance - 36865
score - 3-0 L
Brewers score that day - 12-2 L

Day 52: Sunny San Diego

All photos of Day 1 in San Diego available on Flickr.

LA had his highs and its lows, but Erik and I were both glad to finally leave the City of Angels today. We left around 9:30 AM and found a reasonably priced hotel near downtown relatively quickly. After checking in, we went to pick up my friend Mary at the airport, who flew in for the week since we're here for 5 days, and who wouldn't want to go to San Diego if presented the opportunity? Today was another off day, and the three of us spent the afternoon walking around downtown San Diego and an area known as Gastown. We saw a pretty secluded and outstanding outdoor mall down there and it was definitely the highlight of the day. We also got to preview PETCO Park a little bit before we visit it tomorrow for the game.

After exploring downtown, we stopped at a little old movie theater on the way back to the hotel and saw the Simpsons Movie, which ended up being pretty good and long overdue. After a quick bite to eat and a half-price bottle of wine at a nice tapas restaurant in Gastown, we arrived back at the hotel around 8pm. Mary was pretty beat since she's still mentally on east coast time and immediately fell asleep, and Erik and I stayed up for a bit blogging. Tomorrow we plan on heading to the beach and doing a bit more sightseeing before going to the Padres game at 7.

Day 51: Dodger Stadium

All photos of USC and Dodger Stadium available on Flickr.

Today was our final day in Los Angeles (finally) and we spent the afternoon touring the USC campus, which Erik attended for a year before transfering to UW-Milwaukee. Before heading into the city, we made another deposit into the Habitat account and we are now up to nearly $1200 - quite a bit below our goal of $3000, but still a good amount of money raised. It was another one of those 30-mile, 1.5 hour drives that we've been encountering all week, and we are definitely glad to have experienced the last of our LA traffic jams today.

USC, as Erik warned me, is in sort of the ghetto area of Los Angeles, a bit northwest of downtown and really close to Dodger Stadium. This is the main area where the 1992 riots occurred and Erik took the Liberty of pointing out to me which buildings were burned down and since rebuilt. We saw the Shrine Auditorium (former home of the Oscars), the LA Coliseum where the Trojan football team plays, the main pedestrian walk, Heritage Hall where the Heismans/trophies are kept, the bookstore, and of course the architecture building. We also saw the California Science Center and the Rose Garden, which are adjacent to campus. Erik was a very good tour guide and told me a lot of the stories of his time there and some USC traditions.

Around 5pm we headed to Dodger Stadium, which was only a couple miles up I-110. Dodger Stadium was built in 1962 upon the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn. Much like Angel Stadium, it has undergone significant renovation over the past decade, including 8 new rows of seats closer to the field, expanded dugouts, and 56000 brand new seats. The park is located in Elysian Park, a beautiful 200-acre landscape in an area known as Chavez Ravine. The stadium is perched up on top of one of the highest points in the city, and patrons park at the bottom and ascend the hill to the entrance gate. The main gate is known as the "Top of the Park," and unlike most major league parks, you enter the stadium at the very top row instead of on the first level. This provides for a spectacular view over the rest of Elysian Park, including mountains in the background and a giant "Think Blue" sign built into the hillside, much like the Hollywood sign. Our seats were up here and we had great views of the sunset during the game. We didn't really get to see any of the bottom level, but we were there in time to catch a little BP since it was impossible to even attempt to set up for fundraising at Dodger Stadium, since this would involve us descending the hill and setting up by a freeway off-ramp. We spent a good hour before first pitch watching "Did You Know?" fun facts about Dodger Stadium and Carlos Lee pounding balls over the left field bleachers.

Los Angeles did not represent themselves well on national television, as the game was another woeful offensive output for the Dodgers. They have lost 9 of their last 11, including 4 shutouts and a dreadful 28 innings without scoring a run last week, with over half of those innings coming against the cellar-dwelling Cincinnati Reds. They lost 4-1 behind a lackluster pitching performance by Chad Billingsley that included 4 walks and a hit batsman. Roy Oswalt tossed 8 strong innings and Jason Lane homered in the win for the 'Stros. The lone eventful inning for the Dodgers was the 5th, in which Rafael Furcal hit a sac fly to score their only run, and Nomar Garciaparra was tossed in an animated exchange. He has since been placed on the DL, possibly for pulling something on the way back to the locker room.

Tomorrow we head two hours south for sunny San Diego!

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 4
views from park - 9 (Chavez Ravine)
view to field - 7 (not bad for how high up we were)
surrounding area - 3 (USC is relatively close, but stadium is perched on a hill)
food variety - 4
nachos - 5 (chips tasted weird, salsa was good)
beer - 3 (very pricy - 8 and 11 bucks - but souvenir glow cups are available...only Bud and Tecate on tap)
vendor price - 3
ticket price - 6 (about average)
atmosphere - 5
walk to park - 1 (very confusing and tiring)
parking price/proximity - 1 (down the hill, $15)
concourses - 4 (concourses on top have nice view)
team shop - 9 (three huge ones)

best food - Dodger Dog
most unique stadium feature - "Think Blue" sign in the hills
best jumbotron feature - "Did You Know" and player facts
best between-inning feature - "California Girls" spotted on jumbotron

field dimensions - 330/395/330
starters - Roy Oswalt (HOU) v. Chad Billingsley (LAD)
opponent - Houston Astros
time of game - 3:02
attendance - 49510
score - 4-1 L
Brewers score that day - off

Day 50: Going Back to Cali

Bonus Game #3!!! Today was supposed to bring an off day in sunny southern California, but while we were at the Angels game on Thursday we found out that my Twins would be in town over the weekend. So I decided to crawl out of bed early for a Sunday matinee. Peter, on the other hand, decided to stay in bed. I got to the park and purchased my typical cheap seat, then waited for 15 minutes for the gates to open. Once inside I headed down to the rightfield corner where the bullpens are. I waited in the sea of Angels' fans seeking autographs for Twins starting pitcher Boof Bonser to come out. After shouting some encouragement to Boof, Mike Redmond, and Matt Guerier, I headed for the left centerfield bleachers. I took a seat in the sunny third row and settled in for the afternoon.

There is not too much positive to say about the Twins performance this afternoon. Angels P Jarred Weaver allowed only two runs on 5 hits over 7 1/3 innings and the bullpen finished the Twins off very easily. Boof Bonser did have a better outing than any I can remember from the start of the season. He was saddled with the loss, lasting 5.2 innings and giving up 5 runs. His command was a lot sharper though. He did not go deep into the count with two many hitters and only gave up 4 walks, one of them intentional.

After the game, I drove back to the hotel to shake Peter awake and we are now headed out to watch some Sunday Night Baseball.

Day 49: Blair Field

All photos from the Getty Center and Blair Field are available on Flickr.

On Day 5 in the LA area, we decided to drive up to the Getty Center. This is museum complex designed by Richard Meier that is up in the hills, north of downtown Los Angeles - in fact, there is no personal vehicle access up to the museum, you have to take a tram. We only had an hour to spend here because it was yet another 57 hour drive to get there, but we got to walk around the outside for awhile. Erik had already visited this museum when he lived out here for a year, so he was more apt to pass time at the bar, where he spent $11 on a sammich and a Diet Coke. I thought the building was pretty cool aside from some odd architectural details, and it had some amazing views to Los Angeles from the top, as well as an awesome garden.

We left the museum around 4:30 anticipating that we would once again hit traffic, which we did. It cleared up as we neared Long Beach and we made it just in time to meet Jay Klein, the general manager of the Armada, at 6 PM. After making $1.75 in three days in LA, we were excited to have a fundraising table here. We did really well and made $81, a new minor/independent league record for the trip (it was actually $76, but upon leaving, Jay gave us $5 so that his team would be in the lead). Jay and the Armada were the most gracious and hospitable team so far on the tour by far. They hooked us up with free seats, some giveaway items, a replica model of the stadium, a PA announcement about our tour, and $15 of free food coupons. A lot of the staff contributed to our cause, and Jay even offered to let us stay at his place - unfortunately, we had already paid for our hotel in Anaheim and could not take him up on this offer. I walked out of the park with a full belly and a bag full of stuff for only $12.

The Long Beach Armada is another Golden League franchise, and we have now seen 2/3 of the league's teams in two days. This is definitely our favorite independent league thus far, unless you can count the Northwoods League as such. The Armada were founded in 2005 and are famous for being host to the attempted comeback of Jose Canseco last year as a pitcher - they even sell his t-shirt jerseys in the team shop for $10, and Erik of course acquired one promptly. The stadium seems to be a bit on the older side, but we definitely had better views that at the OC game since Blair Field chose to leave a large portion of seats unprotected by nets or fence. The food was little pricy for the portions you get, and a large beer cost $12. Other than that, this was our best minor/independent league experience of the trip thus far.

It was Asian-American Night at the Armada game on this particular night. Why? Because GM Jay was looking to unload some Samurai Bears merchandise. The Bears were apparently a former Golden League team that was "homeless," roaming around the area playing exhibition games. Since they had no home park and were owned by the League, there are boxes of their apparel and team gear laying in some storage locker somewhere, and our friend Jay took it upon himself to apprehend a few boxes of it and give it away at the game. Between innings, there was a group of kung-fu artists that would act out fight scenes with plastic weapons, and all the staff members wore old Samurai Bears gear. As for the game itself, it was action-packed, full of cheerleaders and hit batsmen, and it was the first home team win we've seen in awhile. Four players had two hits each for the Armada, and Gary Mayorga hit a towering shot to left to secure the victory. Starter Saenz for the Silver Sox was all over the place all night and was allowed to stay in for five innings, despite surrendering 7 runs on 8 hits, 5 walks, and a hit batsman.

After the game, Erik took me to a place he frequented while attending USC called the Yard House. Last time he was there, it was merely a local establishment by the pier with a few drafts on tap, and today it claims to be the "world's largest selection of draft beer" with 251 and is a national chain. We spent an evening sampling here before heading back to our shady hotel room for the evening. Tomorrow is an off day, and we're at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 2
views from park - 2
view to field - 10
surrounding area - 3 (the actual beach is further away)
food variety - 4
nachos - 4 (square chips, ran out of cheese)
beer - 6 (they do have Pabst on tap, but they ran out, and a large costs $12)
vendor price - 3
ticket price - 10 (ours were free)
atmosphere - 5 (decent crowd for Asian-American night)
walk to park - 2 (it is right next to a park)
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent street for free)
concourses - 2
team shop - 6 (very small, but they did have Canseco t-shirt jerseys)

best food - tri-tip steak sandwich
most unique stadium feature - Long Beach State Dirtbags banners
best jumbotron feature - "walk" animation
best between-inning feature - kung fu fighting

field dimensions - 348/400/348
starters - C. Saenz (REN) v. D. Gobers (LB)
opponent - Reno Silver Sox
time of game - 3:18
attendance - 1625
score - 10-4 W
Brewers score that day - 7-4 W

Day 48: Goodwin Field

All photos from Hollywood Blvd and the Orange County Flyers are available on Flickr.
We finally shook ourselves awake in time to do some sightseeing in Los Angeles yesterday. And what did we see? A classic LA traffic jam. After spending an hour and a half on I-5 and the 101, but only covering 30 miles, we finally arrived at Grauman's Chinese Theater. We walked down Hollywood Blvd, looking at all the stars on the Walk of Fame. Apparently, they don't have very high standards to get your name down because some people with very questionable talent, such as Judge Judy and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, had stars. Its not all TV judges and 80s sitcom stars though, TV's and films luminaries are there as well, like Chevy Chase and Big Bird. After a quick lunch it was back onto the freeway to head to the Orange County Flyers game. Guess what? More traffic! This time it took us 2 hours to get from LA to Fullerton and we arrived just in time for first pitch.

We grabbed some food and drinks and took our seats down the third base line. Shortly after we sat down, two members of the Flyers dance team, the Fly Girls, asked if we wanted to be the seat upgrade fans of the game. Of course we jumped at the opportunity and were lead to the Islands Patio. It was just a couple of camping chairs located at the top of one of the infield sections but was decorated with fishing nets and lanterns to give it a tropical feel. Here we also got to meet the Flyers mascot - Coal Train. He is a sorry excuse for a mascot. First of all, the letters and numbers on his jersey are falling off. Secondly, he talks. While we were waiting to be introduced Coal Train was carrying on a conversation with the PA guy the whole time. The PA guy even informed Mr. Train that he was not supposed to talk, to which he responded "whatever" and proceeded to block Peter's view of the field for an inning.

After finally getting settled in, we got to take in the stadium and see some exciting Golden League baseball. When not hosting the Flyers, Goodwin Field is the home of the Cal State Fullerton Titans, a perennial college baseball powerhouse. Instead of retired numbers on the outfield wall, Goodwin Field has the years the Titans won the College World Series. There is also a bar area that has a list of all the years they made it to the World Series and another Wall that has a long list of National Players of the Year and All-Americans.

So far this trip Peter and I have seen a wide range of bad independent league baseball. In Evansville, it was all pitching and no hitting, but in New Jersey it was just the opposite. We expected big things from the Golden League because we only knew about the league because Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson both played here last season. We expected to see a lot of old washed up pros still playing for the love of the game, but we didn't recognize anyone and the oldest player was 28. It was a lot better of a game than our two previous independent league stops. The Flyers scored in every inning but the fourth and fifth but the Yuma Scorpions kept battling back, briefly taking the lead twice. The star of the game was Peanut Williams, the oldest player on the team, with 2 Home Runs, 4 RBI, and an Hit-By-Pitch. The Flyers booster club - the "Caboosters" have a nice tradition of passing the hat after a player hits a home run. They do the same thing at Saint Paul Saints games but in Saint Paul the money goes to charity. In Fullerton the money goes to the player. After Peanut's second homer of the evening, Peter threw in $1.46 to buy him a beer. Both starting pitchers fared pretty well. The Scorpions starter Roger Luque, who wears number 22 and looks an awful lot like Roger Clemens, last 7 innings and gave up 6 runs while the Flyers Mike Wollery also went 7 and gave up 5. Things got interesting when the Scorpions went to the pen. Reliever Marc Sikora hit a batter, gave up a triple to Gray Templeton II, then hit another batter before being lifted and Ray Devaul gave up 8 more runs over the final two innings to provide the 14-5 Flyers' victory.

Tomorrow, we're still waiting for the Dodgers to get home, so well check out the Getty Center and watch some more Golden League action in Long Beach.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 2
views from park - 2
view to field - 3 (views were blocked by fence posts throughout most of the park)
surrounding area - 4 (would be higher if school was in session)
food variety - 5 (they had a large variety, but were out of everything, so points deducted)
nachos - 5
beer - 3 (poor quality! decent price.)
vendor price - 6 ($5 for 2 tacos?)
ticket price - 7
atmosphere - 3 (trying to give away tickets for remaining home games does not bode well for this category.)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 9 (free, next to park, would be a 10 if there wasn't a fence to walk around)
concourses - 1 (disconnected, have to walk around the press box or through seats...also acts as a dual concourse with neighboring field)
team shop - 2 (you mean team table?)

best food - tacos
most unique stadium feature - "Pass the Hat" for player homeruns
best jumbotron feature - witty sayings after each out typed on board
best between-inning feature - us being "seat upgrade fans of the game"

field dimensions - 330/400/330
starters - Roger Luque (YUM) v. Mike Woolery (OC)
opponent - Yuma Scorpions
time of game - 2:47
attendance - 801
score - 14-5 W
Brewers score that day - 5-4 W

Day 47: Arrowhead Credit Union Park

All photos of Arrowhead Credit Union Park available on Flickr.

Today was another relatively lazy day for us in the Los Angeles area. Tomorrow we definitely plan on doing some sightseeing, but pretty much all on the agenda for this afternoon was catching up on the blog and visiting an In 'N' Out Burger, an awesome California chain that only has like three things on the menu, but makes a damn fine burger. We left for San Bernadino around 3:30 because we figured we'd hit traffic. We were correct in our assumption, and we arrived at the park at 5:30 for what was supposed to be a 45 minute drive. San Bernadino is on the fringe of the LA metropolitan area to the east, and is home the the high-A affiliate of the Dodgers, the Inland Empire 66ers. This team has been around for quite awhile and has fluctuated affiliation between the Mariners and the Dodgers several times. The team of course takes its name from Route 66, the famous former transcontinental highway.

Much like the park in Orem, this stadium has a very simple layout with only a couple of vendors and about 20 rows of seats, but there is a nice view to center field. It's certainly not as spectacular as the view in Orem, but had we not been there on a hazy day, we definitely would have had a nice view of the mountains here as well. The entry has a lot of pizzazz, as it is designed in a sort of Spanish style with lots of palm trees around. What set the park apart from some of the other A-ball stadiums we visited was the food. They had an awesome menu and variety, which included a taco stand, Italian cuisine, and bacon-wrapped hot dogs - not to mention it was $1 beer night!

There were several highlights to this night that had absolutely nothing to do with the game. First off, our seats were awesome - first row, right in front of the 66ers bullpen. Erik and I were so close we could investigate whether or not the players were wearing actual stirrups, or just the painted-on kind that Greg Maddux wears. The players all warmed up right in front of us, and I really wanted to go up to some of the guys and tell them that they had a hole in their swing, but I decided to refrain. We also were pleasantly surprised to see that journeyman Charlie Hough was the pitching coach. Secondly, immediately upon our arrival, we were chosen to be in the 3rd inning Keg Roll competition. Erik had to roll the keg from 3rd base to 2nd, and then I rolled it to 1st, while we raced a team running in the opposite directions - we ended up winning by DQ. The best part was before the race when we got to sit in the dugout with the players for a half inning. Chewing seeds in the dugout watching ball was awesome, and it reminded me of all my years riding the bench in Little League and high school. Lastly, perhaps the coolest part of the evening, MLB ambassador and former great Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda was there. Erik and I both bought Dodger baseballs in the team shop and waited in line for 2 innings to get his autograph. It was great to meet a living legend, even though he was visibly agitated to be getting bothered the whole game by fans. He did have a soft spot in his heart for the kids though and seemed to get a kick out of posing for photos with them and talking about baseball.

Between watching pitchers warm up and standing in line to see Tommy, I really can't say that I was as attentive as I would have liked to have been at this game. From what I did see, it was a very sloppy defensive game, and the 66ers starting pitcher Marion Arias got rocked for 6 runs on 10 hits in 4 innings. The Sixers could never really muster any offense the entire game. DH Josh Blanks was the star of the game for Lake Elsinore, going 3-5 with 3 RBI. He was by far the best statistical player in the game and I expect to see him in AAA by the end of next year. We also got a kick out of the fact that the 1B for the Storm was named C. Cooper (he had two hits as well, by the way).

Tomorrow we hopefully get to see a bit of LA before heading to Fullerton to watch the OC Flyers of the Golden League.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 4
views from park - 7 (would be better if it wasn't hazy)
view to field - 10
surrounding area - 2
food variety - 9
nachos - 6 (tons o' cheese left over)
beer - 10 (Miller Lite for $1)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 9
atmosphere - 7 (Tommy Lasorda and the Dodger cheerleaders salvage this category)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 7 ($3 in A-ball?)
concourses - 4
team shop - 4

best food - bacon-wrapped hot dog with fried onions
most unique stadium feature - Tommy Lasorda
best jumbotron feature - video feed to jumbotron was totally just a guy who walked around with a small handheld camera
best between-inning feature - us in the keg roll

field dimensions - 330/410/330
starters - Steve Garrison (LE) v. Marion Arias (IE)
opponent - Lake Elsinore Storm
time of game - 2:39
attendance - 1530
score - 3-2 W
Brewers score that day - off

Day 46: Angel Stadium

All photos of Angel Stadium are available on Flickr.

Last night after our PCH adventure, we had intended to meet up with my old friend Fionnegan out in Woodland Hills, which is just east of LA. Unfortunately, taking the scenic route took us nearly 11 hours to complete instead of 6, so we instead drove to Anaheim, the site of our first game in the LA area, to find a hotel. As expected, there was a strip o' hotels near Disney Land, which greatly reminded me of Wisconsin Dells, all of which looked a little shady and definitely in our price range. We ended up taking a room for a week for $335 at the Covered Wagon Motel (although the sign was partially burned out, so it was the "Covered Wa Motel"). After a long day of driving, you kind of want to arrive at a place slightly nicer than what we walked into - no lamp, paint chipping off the walls, and sheets of questionable character. But we soon became accustomed to the best deal we could find, and what would be our home for the next 7 nights.

We spent our first day in nearly 7 weeks doing what Erik and I do best but have unable to do the whole trip - NOTHING. It was all that I thought it could be and more. I personally just needed a day to lounge around and nap and watch movies, and that's exactly what we did until around 4pm when we had to take off for the game. We have plenty of time to be tourists before we leave for San Diego on Tuesday.

The ballpark is of the semi-urban, large parking lot variety, and we typically do not do well fundraising at these parks, but we set up anyways. We made an incredibly disappointing total of $1.75, but we are seeing a game in Fullerton later this week that goes to the same Habitat affiliate, so I am confident we'll make some more cash for the Orange County HFH.

Angel Stadium was built in 1966, although most probably do not realize this since the Angels have changed names and uniforms so may times. The park has gone so many major renovations in the past 10-15 years that it seems like a totally new park anyways - much like Pamela Anderson, it is a 40-year old, with many of its parts being half that age or less. The most significant architectural feature is definitely the rocks in center field. There is a large pile of rocks that sprout geysers and running water between innings that was installed back in the Jim Edmonds/Edison International Field era of the stadium. We were right by the right field foul pole and really couldn't see it in all its splendor, but it did look pretty awesome from what I did see. The outside of the stadium is lined with palm trees and the concourses are very spacious. There are also two huge team shops. Driving in on I-5 seeing the outside of the park and the giant "A" metal sculpture alongside, the stadium doesn't look like much, but it was actually pretty decent - good views and two large scoreboards. I did expect it to be much more corporately influenced than it was, since it was so close to Disney Land. We were also fortunate to be at a game which the Angels played the Red Sox, so it was a full house and a very rowdy crowd. Much like the Cubs, or the Packers in the NFL, the BoSox faithful follow their team everywhere and packed the stadium with at least 1/3 Boston fans. The competitions between "Let's go Angels!" and "Let's go Red Sox!" being chanted over one another were incredible.

Besides a belligerent crowd, we knew we had one other thing to expect from watching the Sox - a long game. The Red Sox won 9-6 in probably the longest 9-inning game I've ever seen, over 4 hours. Both starters left early (3.1 and 4.2 innings respectively), but when Lester left with the game tied, one kind of expects the bullpen combo of Okajima, Papelbon, and newly-acquired Eric Gagne, and the potent offense of the Sox, that they would pull it out, which they did. Mike Lowell went 4-4 in the game, Dustin Pedroia hit a solo shot, and Manny Ramirez hit a 2-run double and still has not washed or cut his hair in a couple of years. Chone Figgins had 2 hits and 3 RBI in a losing effort. We have now seen the Angels 5 times with five different starters, plus one of their minor league affiliates in Orem.

Tomorrow we start a series of three games in the LA 'burbs to kill time before the Dodgers come back home.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 5
views from park - 2 (parking lot)
view to field - 7 (most seats are good)
surrounding area - 7 (Disney Land, Ducks arena, Knotts)
food variety - 6
nachos - 5
beer - 4 (very pricy, low variety)
vendor price - 9 (excellent except for beer)
ticket price - 3 (we paid a lot, they played the Sox)
atmosphere - 10 (very rowdy crowd with the Sox in town)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 8 ($8 is pretty good for the majors, right next door)
concourses - 7
team shop - 10 (two huge ones)

best food - i can't speak to this, I only had a hot dog...they did have several Chinese food vendors though
most unique stadium feature - rocks in CF
best jumbotron feature - Rally Monkey!
best between-inning feature - t-shirt toss

field dimensions - 330/400/330
starters - Jon Lester (BOS) v. Dustin Moseley (ANA)
opponent - Boston Red Sox
time of game - 4:02
attendance - 44240
score - 9-6 L
Brewers score that day - 19-4 L

Day 45: Pacific Coast Highway

All photos of our trip down the PCH are available on Flickr.

When we planned the trip in March we used MapQuest to get directions from stadium to stadium. Unfortunately, these directions only give you the most direct route. Knowing we would see some incredible scenery if we took California Highway 1 rather than I-5 from San Francisco to LA, we tossed the directions out the window and headed down the Pacific Coast Highway. What was supposed to be a six hour freeway drive turned into a 10 hour odyssey along America's western shore. It was completely worth it, tough, as we saw amazing vistas of mountains and surf.

Shortly after leaving San Francisco, we stopped for lunch in the tiny oceanside city of Davenport. As we sat waiting for our waiter, we studied the map of California to see where the PCH would take us next. When our waiter walked over he inquired where we were headed. Peter and I really enjoy telling people we meet about the tour and there response is always, "That's awesome, I want to do that some day." This guy turned out to be a huge ball fan too and we talked to him about Bonds and the record chase for awhile. We enjoyed some delicious wood-fired pie and cheesecake before getting back on the road.

The afternoon brought us even more amazing sights including what Peter thought was a whale but was actually just a pile of rocks, and an odd red foam that covered most of the shoreline along the whole route.

Day 44: AT&T Park

All photos of San Francisco and AT&T Park available on Flickr.

Today was our 2nd day in the Bay Area and we had a lot of sightseeing planned before the 7:15 Giants game. After checking out of our fabulous (but much too short) stay at the Downtown Mariott, we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf. It was very similar to Pike Market in Seattle - lots of local vendors, right on the water, many tourist shops, and of course, tons of seafood restaurants and stands. We walked around for about a half hour and then grabbed a bite by Pier 39, which only 30 years ago was little more than vacant warehouses and is now a thriving commercial district. Whereas Seattle restaurants seemed to feature oysters, here in San Francisco they were big on salmon and crab. The coolest part of Fisherman's Wharf was definitely the awesome views of the bay and Alcatraz Island.

After lunch, we headed a bit west to Ghirardelli Square. I'm sure most of you out there have heard of Ghirardelli chocolate, and this particular square used house the main factory when the company started even before SF was a city. In the 1960s the plant was moved and the many buildings on the block were left vacant. Today, it is a model historic preservation and adaptive reuse project that has condos and shops, and not to mention many places to eat chocolate. This was the thing I was looking forward most to seeing in SF and I thought it was really cool, and I hope I can come see it again someday when the whole project is finished. After a few chocolate samples and a walk around, we ended our afternoon with a drive through Lombard Street (the world's crookedest street) and Golden Gate Park. After checking in to a hostel downtown, it was off to the ballpark.

Parking was kind of a nuisance at AT&T Park. The lots are located right on the other side of McCovey Cove for $30! We parked about 6 blocks away and it was still $20. Granted I am sure most people take a boat or the train, but the price was still ridiculous. We had a pretty good spot right by the cove, but we ended up having to compete with a lot of hobos and made only $18. I don't mind setting up by vendors and scalpers; in fact, we always look for them because we know they know the rules of where you can and can't solicit. However, it is usually the homeless that provide distractions when fundraising. They always linger around and read our signs, requesting that we build them a house instead of raising money. Today in particular I got grief from a guy who didn't seem to understand that we were actually raising money for people in the Bay Area and not a corporation. We got into kind of a tiff and he yelled at people for a few minutes telling them not to donate before he finally decided to wander off. I can't get too angry though, because in the end, I realize that Erik and I are invading their turf - they were here collecting money before we were.

But, I digress. The park is already in its 8th season, but it still seems to be incredibly new. I really enjoyed it, although in comparison to where we were yesterday, any park would seem nice. The most unique part of the park is Levi's Landing in right field. Above a 20-foot wall, there is only about three rows of seats and a walkway that separates the field from McCovey Cove, where there are always tons of boats, rafts, and kayaks camped out to catch homerun balls. Despite the fact that there have only been 44 "splash hits" in 7 1/2 years, people still seem to enjoy hanging out in the cove. Also, the thing with AT&T Park is that the worse your seat, the better your view out is. We had about 5th row seats in the upper deck behind home plate, and our view of the bay was amazing.

Erik and I both expected there to be many more boats in McCovey Cove than there actually were, because we were lucky enough to be attending a game in which Barry Bonds had a chance to break the most hallowed record in all of sports - the all-time homerun record. Bonds hit #755 in San Diego on Saturday, and there were thousands of flash bulbs going off with every pitch he saw (myself included) hoping to catch #756 in action. We bought these seats in March in anticipation of possibly being in San Fran for this moment, and so we had excellent seats for only $20 each. I'm sure we could have sold these seats for at least $100 each if we really wanted to. Bonds did not hit a homerun, but being at that game was very surreal and I was glad to get the opportunity to potentially witness baseball history. Unfortuantely for all the people who left in the 7th when Bonds got taken out of the game, they actually missed a pretty good conlcusion. The game went into extra racks, and just when it looked like the Nationals would win it in the 10th on a Dmitri Young HR, the Giants responded with a run in the bottom half. They ended up winning in the 12th on a bases-loaded single by Randy Winn, who had 4 hits in the game. Young phenom Tim Lincecum went 7 innings for the Giants and struck out 8.

Tomorrow we're making another stop at the bank and for an oil change before heading down the Pacific Coast Highway toward Los Angeles. It's a day off and we plan on meeting up with my friend Fionnegan near Valencia for dinner and trying to coax him to let him sleep on his floor.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 10 (SF Bay)
view to field - 7 (good from most areas, upper deck has staircase obstruction like at Miller Park)
surrounding area - 7 (downtown Frisco)
food variety - 6
nachos - 6 (very simple, small and cheap)
beer - 7 (good variety, Pabst on tap, souvenir cups...major points deducted for price)
vendor price - 8 (excellent except for beer)
ticket price - 6
atmosphere - 10 (best crowd so far, at least until Bonds came out)
walk to park - 4
parking price/proximity - 1
concourses - 8
team shop - 9

best food - Louisiana Link w/ pepper and onions
most unique stadium feature - Landing in RF/McCovey Cove
best jumbotron feature - there was a jumbotron, but nothing of note occurred on it.
best between-inning feature - Lou Seal tosses t-shirts

field dimensions - 330/399/307
starters - John Lannon (WAS) v. Tim Lincecum (SF)
opponent - Washington Nationals
time of game - 3:19
attendance - 43050
score - 3-2 W
Brewers score that day - 6-2 L