2012 Ultimate Baseball “Fantasy” Adventure – A look back part 3

This portion of the review will actually cover 9 days starting on June 16th with the trip from Detroit to Toronto and going thru the game on the 24th at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. In between those dates we went to Cleveland, Chicago to see the White Sox, Washington, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, uh, twice in 2 days, and Cincinnati. Before the full review just a note that we abandoned the car in Washington DC to take Amtrak thru the 3 cities in the northeast. However, when we got to the final game of that portion in Philadelphia we were greeted with rains that were heavy enough to rain the game out and scramble our plans that would affect the trip in the final week. First though it was a Saturday morning to travel to Canada. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Canada and over 30 years since I’ve been to Toronto. The city has grown and the stadiums have changed since I was there last. While in Toronto and before the game that afternoon we hit the Hockey Hall of Fame, which started a trip plan of hitting other halls of fame. As a good hockey fan that was a lot of fun. As I noted in the original blog post what interested me most had to do with the historical perspective of Seattle’s winning the Stanley Cup in 1917. There was a lot of traffic coming back into the US so it took us longer to clear customs than what I had been planning. We wanted to get to Cleveland for the night to ease the next day and what we had planned in Cleveland. Sunday morning in Cleveland dawned bright and sunny and before the game we hit Hall of Fame number 2, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that is very close to Progressive Field for that days game. The weather got worse as the day progressed and there was a fear that we might have rain problems. But we got thru the game, barely, before the rains came and they kept us company most of the way to our next stop, Chicago. It was our first major brush with weather and unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last. For the most part we had warm, if not outright hot weather for a great part of the trip. We had a good time in Chicago with my buddy Dave Brown and we spent the whole Monday together before heading to US Cellular Field for the cross-city game with the Cubs. It was an all night trip in the direction of Washington DC with an early morning stop at Hall of Fame #3, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio. I was there in the early 1980’s so it obviously has changed in the 30+ years since. After that it was the drive to Washington DC to watch the Nationals and to follow thru with our plan to abandon the car for a few days. It’s been around 40 years since I road Amtrak so that was a very cool change in our original schedule by leaving the car and taking the train first off to New York. Our hotel was close to the train station in Washington that we had no problem leaving the car there, as the plan was to spend a night there after the game in Philadelphia. It was however an early wakeup call for the trip to New York and for us, basically a triple-header. We got there early enough to drop off our bags at the hotel where we would stay, do a preliminary check-in and head down to where we would catch a boat to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another surprise was in store that I knew about, but no one else in the trip did. My wife Sandy took the red-eye flight from Seattle to JFK Airport then took the subway to meet us at same place to go see the Statue. When we got there and saw Sandy Shawn was very surprised, some might say shocked, to see his Mom. Of course his first question was “What are you doing here, you don’t travel anywhere by plane?” to which she answered to see the Statue and to catch a ballgame at Yankee Stadium before heading back to JFK and the flight home that evening. For the rest of us after the trip to the Statue and then to Yankee Stadium we had to go back to formally check in to the hotel for the night and head to Citi Field for the Mets game that evening. Having the 2 games in New York the same day was one of the things that made this trip work. Before heading to Boston on Thursday we had a bit of time to see some of the sights on New York. Between Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, and Time’s Square we were able to see a small amount of what New York has to offer, but alas it was time to get back on the train and head to Boston. There is nothing like a visit to historical Fenway Park to take in a Red Sox game. I kept looking for Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones, but I think they were still in Dyersville Iowa. We didn’t have nearly enough time to do Boston as it should be, but we did go by the “Cheers” bar before heading down to Philadelphia on Friday. Like so many other cities on this trip time just wasn’t on our side in terms of seeing things other than a ballpark. We did whatever we could wherever we were and enjoyed it all as good as we could. While heading for Philadelphia we could tell that weather might be an issue. There were thunderstorms on a good portion of this leg of the trip and it would be so bad that millions of people in the mid Atlantic region would lose power for a significant period of time while temperatures were at near record high levels. We got ourselves to Citizen’s Bank Park well before the planned start of the game and it was already raining. Got a good view of the tarp on the field, but alas at the end of the day, no baseball. At that point we welcomed “panic mode”. What were we to do next? Our van was still in Washington so we had to get there. They postponed the game in time for us to catch our scheduled train back to Washington. While on the way back to Washington we came up with a work around to cover for the postponed game. We would go back to Philadelphia on Saturday rather than Pittsburgh and pick up Pittsburgh early in the final week after they return from a week on the road. It looked very doable, but not without 1 very long trip in the final week. We got back to Washington DC and our hotel very late, but we had a little time on Saturday morning before we needed to hit the road back to Philadelphia. The weather in the morning was much better than the night before and it looked like we’d get our game in today in Philadelphia. The trip back to Philadelphia was fine as was the game, but then it was back on the road to head to Cincinnati. Originally we were going to drive to Cincinnati direct after the game, but that was when we would be coming from Pittsburgh and not Philadelphia. We made it to Wheeling Ohio before calling it a night then on to Cincinnati in the morning. Another beautiful day for a ballgame, but the road beckons immediately after the game for a long trip to Arlington Texas that will kick off part 4 of the look back at this trip.

2012 Ultimate Baseball “Fantasy” Adventure – A look back part 2

This portion of our look back covers the first 7 days of the trip, going from Seattle to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Detroit. The weather in Seattle wasn’t great, otherwise typical for Seattle, for the first day of our journey. Like I noted in the blog driving to Safeco Field isn’t something I do much. It was an unusual 4:15 PT start and before we headed to the stadium it was a quick trip to Puyallup to pick Mom up for her first game in years. She doesn’t miss many games on the TV, but going to the game in person was a lot of fun for her. After the game and dinner at the Metropolitan Grill it was back to Puyallup to drop Mom off and head back to I-5 to head down to San Francisco. I took the initial shift behind the wheel (and control of the radio) as we headed out of Washington and into Oregon. With the amount of driving in this trip to get the first shift out of the way was good. Traffic at that time of the day was no problem and we did a good job of hitting the speed limit (and a little bit more) until we got to Eugene where we filled up for the first time and Pat took over. He took the balance of the overnight drive and was still driving when the sun came up, and we entered California where we had to gas up again and Steven got behind the wheel to finish the trip to San Francisco. We were all running on adrenalin and didn’t want to sleep so we pretty much had a good visit all the way there. Shawn and Steven dozed a bit early on and I grabbed a couple hours while Pat was driving and Pat napped as we headed toward the bay area. Not much sleep but with the excitement not much sleep was needed. We got a hold of Corey in San Francisco and set up where we would meet at AT&T Park before Sunday’s game. Corey is a heck of a guy and we had a great time with good seats that we picked up from scalpers before the game. We won’t be able to or need to do that often but Sunday was one time we did. After the game we went to our hotel for the night and decided to get a good night rest before heading to Los Angeles on Monday morning. Once we got up we headed for Los Angeles with Pat behind the wheel. It was a good drive there and we tried to do our best to avoid rush hour traffic. I was the navigator on this leg of the trip, but it wasn’t that hard. Like Pat said in his “Pat’s Thoughts” post it might have made more sense to go to Staples Center to watch the LA Kings wrap up the Stanley Cup over New Jersey, but this trip was about baseball, not hockey. For a low scoring game it was like the game wouldn’t end which threatened to put our trip behind the 8-ball as we were heading to Denver after the game with an all night drive staring us right in the face. We finally got out of Los Angeles with Steven driving to Las Vegas where we got some food and some gas and turned our trip into Shawn’s hands. I was up for his shift while Pat and Steven slept. Shawn drove us out of Nevada thru the northwest portion of Arizona and into Utah before I took my shift behind the wheel. Shawn stayed up with me and we had some good father/son time in the middle of the night into the early morning hours. We made some pretty good time until we made it to I-80 when it was time to gas up again and change to the final driver of this leg of the trip Pat. Shawn and I napped for a while on this portion of the trip. The weather was hot and we were very concerned about the wildfires that had just recently broken out both in New Mexico and north of Denver area in Colorado. Those fires got much worse after we got thru the area but you could tell it might get bad. We made it to Coors Field, which I thought was pretty cool with the plan to stay the night in Denver. We needed to get some good sleep, even if it wasn’t the longest sleep time. While in Denver I tried to talk Shawn into eating one of Colorado’s delicacies, Rocky Mountain Oysters, but after he did a Google search, he decided that wasn’t a good idea. We got off to an early start on Wednesday as we headed to Kansas City. Pat and I shared the drive right down the middle with me driving to Hayes Kansas and Pat driving the rest of the way to Kansas City. We had a good time at the home of the 2012 MLB All-Star Game, Kaufman Stadium. We had a busy day ahead with a diversion in our route so I drove us to Des Moines Iowa after the game for a long nap until we left on Thursday morning. Once we got up in the morning I got back behind the wheel and drove us to Dyersville Iowa to where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. That was really cool and Shawn and I, along with Pat and Steven had a little catch and went thru all that there was to see there. When we left we had one of those rare trips that was mostly devoid of interstate highways on the way to Minneapolis to make a stop at Target Field. We made a couple of quick diversions before we made it to Target Field, seeing the Mall of America, along with the statue of Mary Tyler Moore who made her TV home in the Twin Cities. There was a bit of threat of weather in Minneapolis, but we avoided it and had the chance to see Philadelphia for the first of what would be 3 times in the trip. With another all-night drive to face we left the stadium right after the game. We were going to go thru Chicago 3 times in this trip and decided against a 4th time so we took the “scenic” route via the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the trip to Detroit. We filled up our bellies and the gas tank, as we would be on the road for about 7 hours before it would get light again. Steven took the first shift and drove out of Minnesota and into northern Wisconsin where we gassed up and changed drivers. Pat was the co-pilot for Steven on the first leg and vice/versa on the 2nd leg with Pat doing the driving. Shawn and I snoozed as well as we could. When morning had broken we were well into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan very close to the north end of Lake Michigan. We would see the southern portion of the lake in a few short days. We got onto I-75 for the first of many times in this trip and crossed the toll bridge into the lower portion of Michigan. We gassed up again and Shawn took his 2nd shift of the trip driving us to Saginaw before he let me take over for the balance of the trip into Detroit. We did get there in time to check into our hotel for the night and since we were very close to Comerica Park we were able to walk to the game, which frankly was a lot of fun. We headed out right after the game to get as much sleep as possible before we made the trip to Toronto that will be recapped along with the next week in the next post. Enjoy!

2012 Ultimate Baseball “Fantasy” Adventure – A look back part 1

This begins a review of our adventure over the next few days. I will have the chance to look at the trip again with the benefit of knowing how the trip went from beginning to end. There are some highlights that didn’t make the original blog postings that I will try to get into here. I’ll try to break these up, a few days at a time. I will also be reviewing the games we saw during the trip and bring up some interesting notes from them as well in separate postings. There were also some questions that came up during the trip that we really didn’t have the time to get to that I will go thru in a posting of its own. The genesis of this trip goes back into early May when for fun I tried to put together an itinerary that would allow us to do a trip like this if we could make it work. I’ve tried in the past to do these, as has Pat as he noted in one of his early “Pat’s Thoughts” postings. Putting a trip itinerary like this together is like trying to do a maze. You could be going as smooth as the Titanic before it hit the iceberg and then literally get blown out of the water because you have no place to go for the next game. So I sat down with access to an MLB schedule at my fingers with the only prerequisite that the trip start near my hometown of Federal Way Washington. I would have preferred the trip end in Seattle as well, but with the way the trip fell into place the all-star game came at the end of the trip, but I did end in the MLB city closest to Seattle. It took me 2 shots to hit upon a workable schedule, or about 90 minutes. I was able to tweak it a bit to make some of the trips a bit shorter (and which also caused me a problem with the rainout in Philadelphia. I originally had us in Pittsburgh (from Boston) on the fateful Friday, then Philadelphia on Saturday, but thought going to Philadelphia first then Pittsburgh on Saturday made more sense based on where we were on Thursday and Sunday). That tweaking bit me in the butt. Having a good feel for the schedule helped when we had the rainout in Philadelphia and gave us the opportunity to shift the schedule a little bit to make everything fit in. It was between weather and long extra inning games before a long trip that had us most concerned during the trip. Once I hit on the schedule I thought about how cool it would be to
actually do a trip like this. Being someone in my mid 50’s (or so) I should be beyond having a midlife crisis, but I guess not. I talked with my older brother in Austin and talked about what I had come up with and how I thought it would be cool to actually do the trip and he thought so too. Brothers can definitely think alike. We decided we needed a couple of more to help with the driving and so forth. Pat invited his son Steven to join us. I think he was kind of bored with the trip, but he is between jobs, so he decided why not join us. My son Shawn was our 4th. Shawn was just wrapping up his junior year of high school with another year of straight A’s and with him being the same type of sports fan like I am, he was ready to go (although his mom, my wife, was not in favor of it). Shawn showed his sports knowledge with the quality of his posts recapping the games we were seeing. Pat and I had both had good success with our investments over the year and we figured this trip would cost about 20 grand to pull off, so we put our heads and our cash together and said what the heck, let’s do it!! Pat works for the State of Texas and has plenty of vacation/leave time so he could go. I have a regular job, but my boss said he could save a little on his bottom line by not having to pay me for a month and had my work covered so he was behind it. The 2 younger ones didn’t have those types of responsibilities so the plan was put into place. The trip would start on June 9 in Seattle and even though we had our tentative itinerary
there was still a lot that had to be done before we left. We made the decision to rent a Dodge Caravan as the official vehicle of this trip. It was appropriate as this was basically our caravan that we were doing. We wanted a vehicle that had plenty of room so those that needed to be sleeping on the road could be. We knew there was going to be many long days so we ended up not having specific drivers at specific times, but Pat and I were the main drivers with Steven pulling some good shifts and Shawn taking the odd shift as needed. We had 2 main laptops with us, and a 3rd to use as a backup if needed, but it wasn’t needed. Besides using them to do these posts we also kept track of things as we went from city to city. We knew that we would be pounding down a lot of fast food and ballpark food, so I knew it would be a tough trip to control my weight. We were looking at certain ballparks to eat specific foods, but the rest of the trip we would eat whatever we could wherever. A lot of times we combined food with gas refills to cut the amount of time off of the road particularly when we had big miles to cover. In the next post I will review the first 7 days from Seattle thru Detroit. I hope you will enjoy reading these posts.

Pat's Thoughts - Day 31

Well, we made it. In a way, it was good that the truly long distance driving was toward the end of the trip, since if it had been at the start, it might have taken a great deal of the shine off. But we made it, and looking back, it was quite the trip. By my count, we went through 39 of the 50 states missing Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Some states like Deleware, Rhode Island and Alabama we barely hit, while there were many states we hit more than once. And we saw so many different places in such a short time. To do this properly, you would need to take at least 2 months. But we did it in 30 days, and did it all by car, except for the train part.

- The drive across the desert from Phoenix to San Diego was the most desolate portion of the entire trip. Plus we didn't have the advantage of other desolate areas that we hit during the night. This was in full 110 degree daylight. I think that's why so many people love San Diego - it seems like a huge oasis compared to the Arizona and California desert.

- I got the others to join me in wading in the Pacific Ocean. Then it was downtown to Petco, which is a really nice ballpark. It's within walking distance of the Gaslamp area of San Diego, which is the entertainment area of San Diego. It was a very nice evening when we were there, and having spent the past 3 weeks in the sweltering weather of the eastern 2/3 of the US, it was a very nice change.

- I was in the minority - I just wanted to sleep in on Saturday and blow off Disneyland, but I finally gave in, especially with the noon check out time. Disneyland doesn't exactly cater to old timers like me, and I've been to both Disney parks. Like I have said before, it's not the first 10,000 time you hear "It's a Small World" that's the killer, it's the next 10,000 times. We made it
to the Big A in plenty of time. It's the third time I have been to that stadium. The first time was for a bowl game between Colorado and Washington many years ago. Then my wife Peggy, Steve and I went to a ball game several years ago while on vacation. That game was memorable for us losing the parking place of our rental car and taking about 30 minutes to find the darn thing in the dark after the game. Then it was out of the LA area and on the road to - what, Bakersfield???

- It figured that the last game of the trip would feature the Mariners. And it would also figure they would waste a great performance from King Felix. Typical. And the one game we really wanted to not have go into extra innings did so. Oakland gave Tampa Bay a run for the worst stadium on the trip, but the Trop won the award by a narrow margin.

- I thought it was somewhat cool that the first sunrise we saw on this trip was near Mt Shasta, and the last sunset we saw on the trip was also near Mt Shasta. The trip back to Mike's house was uneventful, and it was nice that we took Mom out to breakfast to symbolically end the trip.

I will try to write my overall impressions after Steve and I get back to Austin. We are going to be catching the non stop Alaska Airline flight and will hopefully be home Tuesday afternoon. It was a once in a lifetime trip.

Day 31 – July 9 – Federal Way, Washington (The journey home)

After a long nights journey into day we are home. Finally. The drive back from Oakland got off to a bit later start than what we had planned with the Mariners vs Oakland game going 13 innings. This trip just didn’t want to end. When we finished eating at Scott’s Seafood Bar & Grill we headed out. We thanked Corey for his Bay Area hospitality and headed out on I-80 working our way to Vacaville where we left I-80 and hit I-505. We went almost due north about 50 miles until we ran into the road we’ve been looking for, I-5, that we will be on for almost the entire trip home. Pat started the drive and pulled a decent shift until we got across into Oregon and to Medford. It was time to gas up and with the late start it was already about 1:30 AM. Steven took over with the plan to drive to Oregon’s capitol of Salem for his final turn behind the wheel. We got there about 5AM. Finally it was my turn to get behind the wheel and bring it home. We were getting into the Portland area around rush hour on a Monday morning so I wisely got on I-205 and took the bypass around the Portland/Vancouver area and avoiding most of the traffic and getting back on the freeway about 15 miles north of Portland. From there it was a good straight shot up I-5. We decided that it would be nice to take Mom out to breakfast to celebrate this great trip and the way it was looking we were going to get there around 9AM. We got off of I-5 just south of Tacoma and headed on Highway 512 toward Puyallup. We got to Mom’s place right after 9AM and she was very happy to see her boys and grandsons doing so well and returning to Washington safe and sound. We took her out to Denny’s for Breakfast and to have a good visit and a bit of reminiscing about the trip. But we still weren’t home so we got back into the van and headed up to Federal Way. When we got home it was a great relief. We dropped Shawn & Steven off and Pat drove the van and I drove my car so we could return the van and check the rental place to see if medics would be needed once they saw how many miles we put on it in a month. I saw the guy do a double take when he processed the paperwork, but he didn’t say a word. We wrapped up the transaction and then it was back to Federal Way to get this post out and to sleep most of the day away. Pat and Steven will be flying back to Austin tomorrow, Shawn will begin his summer vacation before his senior year of high school and I will be going back to work. Keep visiting the blog over the next few days. There are a lot of things to review regarding the trip, but I need to rest a bit before I put them out. We’ve kept some good notes during this trip and there are many good facts to look at. I’ve had some questions come in during the trip that we haven’t had time to answer due to all of the traveling that I will try to get to over the next few days. I’d like to thank everyone who has taken time to visit the blog and hope they have enjoyed our efforts at bringing this trip to you. It was most definitely a labor of love and something that was much more hard than I, or any of us, thought it could be. But, we survived the trip and look forward to talking about it.

Day 30 – July 8 – Oakland, California (continued)

Nothing like a little extra inning baseball to make it seem like the trip that would ever end. However the game did end and we have accomplished what I didn’t think was possible. The 4 of us have been to all 30 major league ballparks and watched 30 baseball games in 30 days. And to do this with my son, brother and nephew has made it even more special. But the trip isn’t over yet. We still have to negotiate the nearly 800 miles up Interstate 5 back to Washington State and the home base in Federal Way. We had a great time again today with Corey who joined us earlier in the trip when we were in San Francisco and came back to help us celebrate the finish of the trip. After the game we decided to celebrate at a restaurant that Corey really wanted to go to, Scott’s Seafood Bar & Grill at Jack London Square in Oakland. It sits right on the bay so the view was fantastic. It was without a doubt one of the best seafood dinners I have ever eaten. We all just loved it and spent plenty of time winding down and reviewing the trip with Corey. I’d like to give a special thanks to Corey for being there at both ends of the trip. I decided to get this out before we hit the road. I will post about the trip home when we get there.

Game Recap #30 Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics

Today's starting pitchers have seen more of each other this season than they'd like to. Oakland's Bartolo Colon and Seattle's Felix Hernandez, the de facto staff aces for the two teams, made their first three starts this season against each other. First, they opened the MLB season in Japan, before coming back stateside for the second game in Oakland, and then the third game in Seattle. Today, both pitchers will go at it once again in the Oakland Coliseum, wrapping up the games portion of the Ultimate Baseball "Fantasy" Trip. Hernandez ran into early troubles, giving up a single to Coco Crisp and a bunt single to Jemile Weeks in the first inning. The runners advanced a base each when Josh Reddick grounded out, and Crisp was able to score easily on a Yoenis Cespedes single in the next at-bat. Cespedes stole second to get into scoring position, but it turned out to not matter, as Brandon Moss popped out to get Hernandez out of the jam. Hernandez gave up another stolen base in the second inning to Derek Norris, but he was bailed out of this potential problem as well. Oakland again put on more pressure in the fifth inning, with Cliff Pennington and Crisp singling back-to-back, but Pennington was picked off at third base, and the next two batters were retired, as Hernandez walked a dangerous line. Seattle tied it with two outs in the sixth inning, beginning with a Dustin Ackley single, followed by another single from Ichiro Suzuki that got Ackley on third, allowing him to score when Michael Saunders singled off Colon. Hernandez got better until the eighth inning, where he walked both Weeks and Jonny Gomes, which prompted Lucas Luetge to take control for the final out of the inning. The Mariners did the same to Colon in the ninth inning, as Kyle Seager singled before getting on third when Justin Smoak doubled, but Ryan Cook spared Colon from the mess in relief. Hernandez left after 7 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and three walks but just one earned run, striking out six, while Colon had a line of 8 2/3 innings, surrendering seven hits and an earned run, while striking out five. The bullpens worked well for the most part, as Brandon League finished the ninth inning for the Mariners, while Charlie Furbush and Shawn Kelley worked the tenth, working out of a mess that saw Crisp get caught stealing while Weeks was successful in stealing a base. Cook pitched the tenth for the Athletics with no trouble. Kelley continued into the eleventh and twelfth innings, while Sean Doolittle did the eleventh while Grant Balfour handled the twelfth for the Athletics, followed by Jordan Norberto in the thirteenth, also a spotless effort. Oliver Perez wasn't as lucky, as he finished the twelfth but was caught up in a mess in the thirteenth, giving up the winning run after Weeks singled, setting him up to score on a Reddick double. The final was 2-1, with Norberto getting the win and Perez taking the loss.

Day 30 – July 8 – Oakland, California

The end is at hand. We got up shortly after 6AM to check out, have a large breakfast and hit the road to Oakland. I called Corey who we met when were in San Francisco 4 weeks ago (my it seems like so much longer than that) to coordinate getting together for the game today. He is totally psyched to do another game with the 4 of us. The promotion for today’s game is “turn back the clock day” and they are giving away 1955 Oakland Oaks hats. They were very big back then in the Pacific Coast League in a league that included the Seattle Rainiers. It will be interesting if the Mariners will wear old Seattle Rainiers jerseys. I knew we would be seeing the Mariners at the end of the trip and hoped it would be a game for Felix Hernandez and he is pitching today. I am going to break out my bright yellow King’s Court shirt I got at a game that Felix pitched in at Safeco Field earlier this season. They have a section of seats set aside at Safeco Field for whenever Felix pitches. The fans have their large K signs for when Felix strikes out an opponent and they wear the bright yellow shirts that really make them stand out. It will be a very small King’s Court for Felix’s start today. We head up to Oakland in pretty much the reverse of our trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on day 3 of the trip. We were on I-5 until we hit I- 580 around Tracy. We stay on that until we turn onto I-880 that drops us right by The Coliseum. We actually find a Starbucks where we are meeting with Corey and then we will make our way to the game. Without a doubt there are plenty of good seats available. We are planning a post game celebratory meal before we hit the road and I will have more info about that when we stop after the game.

Game Recap #29 Baltimore Orioles @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

It takes a lot for a pitcher in the Major Leagues to stand out from the rest of his peers. Many pitchers hover around an average level, but for some, true greatness is what they're made of. Tonight, a well-established pitcher plying his trade with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Jered Weaver, goes against a rising star for Baltimore, Jason Hammel. With these two on the mound, a low-scoring game seemed likely, and through the first three innings, that was especially true. Very few found their way on base in the early parts of the game, and in the fourth inning, Hammel finally let the score open. The Angels used a Mark Trumbo single to get a man on, followed by an error from Xavier Avery to put Trumbo on second base. Trumbo found third on an Alberto Callaspo fly out. That allowed Howie Kendrick to get the RBI single when Trumbo scored. Two batters later, Bobby Wilson put runners on the corners for the Angels, but Hammel avoided further damage by getting rookie phenom mike Trout to pop up. Weaver, meanwhile, was working on another of his many gems from the mound. Hammel ran into more trouble in the seventh inning by walking Wilson, but Wilson was taken out at second base on a Trout fielder's choice. This proved to work well for Los Angeles, as a Torii Hunter double gave the speedy youngster time to score. An intentional walk to star slugger Albert Pujols set the stage for another run, as Kendrys Morales hit a single that was good enough to bring in Hunter. This ended Hammel's day on a line of 6 2/3 innings, six hits and four walks yielding three earned runs with four strikeouts. Pedro Strop finished the inning with no trouble. After eight innings, Weaver was done, giving up three hits and one walk but none of the runners scored, and he struck out five. Dana Eveland pitched the eighth for Baltimore and worked a spotless inning. Scott Downs did the same in the ninth, shutting down the Orioles offense to preserve a 3-0 win for Weaver and a save for himself. Hammel had no run support, thus giving him the loss in the second-to-last game of the trip.

Day 29 – July 7 – Anaheim, California (continued)

We had a great night at Angel Stadium (to me it will always be “The Big A”). Getting to meet Jasiel and Sara was cool and we had a really good time. When we looked for something to eat I found a hotdog called the Boston Dog that has maple glazed baked beans and chopped bacon. To me, that sounded almost like a perfect hotdog. After the game we said our goodbyes to Jasiel and Sara, left the stadium and got right onto Interstate 5 heading north. We made it to our destination for the night, just outside Bakersfield, at shortly after midnight, with time for a fair amount of sleep then we will hit the road for the trip home via the game in Oakland. It’s been an incredibly long trip but we can now see the finish line.

Day 29 – July 7 – Anaheim, California

It was a good night sleep for all of us on this penultimate day of the journey. We didn’t even start to stir until after 10AM. We called room service to bring us breakfast and then got moving around noon. After much discussion we decided to spend a few hours in a very crowded Disneyland and hit a few rides. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m getting too old for this stuff. Regardless it was fun, but done in moderation. We had enough food for breakfast that we determined we are good until we get to Angel Stadium. The plan is after the game tonight we will head out on the way to Oakland for the final stop of this amazing journey. We found a spot to send this out and now it’s off to the game where I have some business acquaintances that work in Orange County and we’ve decided to get together and go to the game tonight. Jasiel Delgado and Sara Vida work for my main supplier and I was keeping them up to date with this trip and they thought it would be cool to get together since we’ve actually never met. I look forward to that and will talk about it in the post game post that will hopefully find us just outside of Bakersfield.

Game Recap #28 Cincinnati Reds @ San Diego Padres

On December 17th, 2011, the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds negotiated and made a blockbuster trade in the early parts of the trading off season. Heading to Cincinnati was one pitcher, Mat Latos, a well-regarded right-hander that the Padres were not absolutely pleased with trading. Heading from Cincinnati to San Diego were four players. The well-established Edinson Volquez, a right handed pitcher who had a promising early few years but was caught up in an illegal substance suspension was the biggest asset. Another big player, Yonder Alonso, was never given a shot by the Reds at first base, considering having all-star stud Joey Votto manning the position. Two minor league players, catcher Yasmani Grandal and right-handed pitcher Brad Boxberger also came over in the deal. Grandal would not play in the majors for Cincinnati for the same reason as Alonso: Devin Mesoraco had control over the catcher position. As for Boxberger, he is the lone of the players in the deal to not see notable time in the majors. This weekend, the players have one of their infrequent reunions with their old teams. At this point in 2012, Grandal has displaced Nick Hundley as Padres catcher, Alonso frequently mans first base for the Padres, and Volquez has established himself as a veteran presence in the rotation as well as the staff ace. Latos hasn't been quite as good for the Reds, but he has been good enough to keep them strong in the National League Central. We did miss the real reunion game by just a day, as on Thursday Latos and Volquez took the mound, but today we saw Bronson Arroyo pitch for Cincinnati against Kip Wells for San Diego. Cincinnati was able to get an early lead as lead off rookie shortstop Zack Cozart took the sixth pitch from Wells over the fence in left field after working to a full count. Wells continued to struggle, depositing hits throughout the field in all but the second and sixth innings (although he walked two in the second). Wells was finally punished for the lack of control in the seventh inning, walking Todd Frazier before the next batter, Ryan Hanigan, homered over to left field to extend the lead. Wells was pulled, turning the ball over to Brad Brach, and leaving with a final line of six innings, seven hits and three walks to produce three earned runs, alongside two strikeouts. Brach gave up a Cozart double and wild pitch before being pulled for Alex Hinshaw, who walked Joey Votto, and was replaced by Miles Mikolas who finished off the inning. Mikolas was sent out to work the eighth inning, but he struggled here, allowing a Jay Bruce double and a two-run Frazier home run to put the game a little farther away before finishing the inning. Ross Ohlendorf was called by San Diego to take the mound in the ninth inning, and like many before him, struggled with the pitching, giving up consecutive doubles to Drew Stubbs and Votto, who scored Stubbs with his hit. This made it 6-0, and as Arroyo went out to finish his shutout in the ninth inning, he allowed just one more hit, finishing the day with a complete nine inning shutout, with just three hits and a walk to go with eight strikeouts in what may be the pitching performance of the trip. Wells was given the loss.

Day 28 – July 6 – San Diego, California (concluded)

It was a nice game at Petco Park tonight. It is just a few short blocks from the stadium to I-5 and the trip up north to Anaheim. It was about 90 minutes up the freeway until we got into the Anaheim area. We got to the Disneyland Hotel a little before midnight to get checked in and get this post out. It’s hard to believe this is the final weekend but it is here. We will sleep in tomorrow and figure out what to do before the game Saturday night that has Baltimore playing the Angels.

Day 28 – July 6 – San Diego, California (continued)

We are now in San Diego prior to the Padres game tonight against the Reds. It was about a 6-hour trip and I did the driving. We headed westbound on I-10 out of Phoenix and drove around 40 miles until we hit US 85 and took it south to Gila Bend where we picked up I-8 that we would be on for the balance of the trip into San Diego. If we hadn’t driven the whole previous day just to get to Phoenix it would have been wise to drive to San Diego overnight as we were now driving the southern Mojave desert in the middle of the day. To fulfill Pat’s wishes I drove us to Ocean Beach just a bit north of San Diego where we all can step out into the Pacific Ocean before we make our way to Petco Park for tonight’s game. Before we go to Petco we drive thru the Gaslamp section of San Diego. I find what I am looking for when we drive past Jim Croce’s Jazz Bar. We take just enough time to snap the picture and take a look at the cool things in the Bar. Jim Croce was one of my all time favorite musicians and storytellers who died much too soon in the early 1970’s. The stories he told are still with me after nearly 40 years. It is a very short drive to Petco Park from there. We found a place with wifi before we got to the stadium to get this out. We had so much to eat before we left Doug and Julie’s we aren’t even hungry yet and will probably dine a little at Petco. Just hope they don’t expect us to eat dog food. We will be driving up I-5 to Anaheim after the game and overnight at the Disneyland Hotel before tomorrow’s game at Angels Stadium.

Game Recap #27 Los Angeles Dodgers @ Arizona Diamondbacks

Many people had the Los Angeles Dodgers pegged as a breakout team, led by star outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, as they went on a rampage throughout the National League in the early parts of the season. With both players now injured, Clayton Kershaw has the burden of keeping his team respectable, but since he plays every five games, there's a lot of times where the Dodgers look absolutely pitiful. Going up against hotshot rookie Wade Miley and the Arizona Diamondbacks at the hitter-friendly Chase Field in Phoenix likely won't aid the cause too much. However, it was Los Angeles who got the lead in the first inning as Mark Ellis, fresh off a nasty leg injury, was able to double his way aboard before moving to third on a Jerry Hairston, Jr. single, and then scoring on another double from Juan Rivera. A Luis Cruz single brought Hairston home before Miley calmed down to finish the inning. Arizona was next to score, as Dodgers starter Nathan Eovaldi got a little wild in the second inning, walking Jason Kubel, before giving up a Paul Goldschmidt double and another walk to Miguel Montero to load the bases. It looked as if Aaron Hill's double play would diffuse the situation, but Goldschmidt did score on a Stephen Drew single to make it 2-1. Los Angeles extended the lead to 3-1 with a Scott Van Slyke solo home run in the fourth inning. Scoring was at a premium from here on, with the Dodgers again striking in the seventh inning on a solo shot by Elian Herrera, which chased Miley from the game with a final line of 6 2/3 innings, eight hits and two walks yielding four earned runs and four strikeouts. Brad Ziegler finished up the inning with a walk and a strikeout. Eovaldi was not sent out to pitch for the seventh inning, ending with six innings pitched, allowing five hits and three walks but just one earned run and he struck out three. Scott Elbert pitched a perfect seventh inning, as well as Ziegler for the Diamondbacks and Ronald Belisario for the Dodgers in the eighth inning. Craig Breslow struggled for Arizona in the ninth inning, but kept the game within reach by allowing no runs. It didn't matter when Kenley Jansen shut the door with another perfect inning of relief for Los Angeles, securing a save for himself and a win for Eovaldi. Miley was stuck with the loss, proving that sometimes, even a little offense is enough to win.

Day 28 – July 6 – San Diego, California

Before we get to San Diego, we must first leave Phoenix. This is going out just before we leave. We got a good night sleep and woke up to an absolutely fantastic breakfast that Doug and Julie put together for us. I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality. We had bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, hotcakes, and orange juice (none of the 4 of us drink coffee). They are great friends and we’re talking about the next time they make it up to the Seattle area. But all good things have to end and it is shortly after 10AM and it’s time to head out and get on the road to San Diego. I don’t think there is anything that will be able to top this leg of the trip. It’s on a par with the New York City leg with my wife Sandy flying in from Seattle and spending time with my buddy Russ. It’s been fantastic. Until we reach San Diego….

Pat's Thoughts - Day 27

It's been a few days since I last shared my observations. We have put a lot of miles behind us, and the main portion of the trip is in our rear view mirror. As I write this after the longest day of our trip from Doug and Julie's house, before I drift off to sleep, a few observations.

- I've been to several games at Minute Maid Park. Heck, I remember it when it was Enron Field. Whatever happened to those nice boys that ran Enron anyway? It's a nice park, and the dome makes it livable. I have always said that Houston was the answer to the question "can 4 million people be wrong?" But the ball park is nice and right downtown.

- The Houston - Miami leg of the trip was a very long drive. At times, I felt like the toughest part was not the drive, but the ride. I had to remind myself that I am no longer a kid of 55 any more. It helps, on these long drives, that we have gotten along so well. The main thing was to always stick to the schedule as much as we could. And an all nighter got us to Miami in plenty of time for the game. The Marlin's stadium is the newest one in baseball, and it's got to be better than sharing the Dolphin's stadium. It's a bit garish for my tastes, but the locals seemed to like it okay.

- As the other 3 slept in on the morning of June 28th, I secretly slipped out and went for a quick drive to the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to dip my toes in the surf off South Beach. I kept my eye open for Lebron, but I'm guessing he and I frequent different areas of South Beach. I got back before any of the others were stirring. The goal is to also dip my toes in the Pacific near San Diego.

- Crappiest stadium of the trip so far is the Trop in St Pete. Reminds me of a cheap Kingdome, which for those of you familiar with the late Seattle stadium, that's a world class insult. I know they need an indoor stadium in tropical St Petersburg, but yeesh, what a dump. I have read that there are plans to replace the Trop, and it can't come too soon. I was hoping for a fly ball off the cat walk, but no such luck.

- The drive up the east coast to Baltimore was uneventful, but it was a long drive indeed. I drew the short straw and got the early morning duties for the drive up to Fayetteville North Carolina before Mike took over for the balance of this leg. Camden Yards was a really cool park. It's the model that the new ones are built around, and it shows. Good crowd that knows their baseball. I grew up an Oriole fan, and Brooks Robinson was my boyhood hero.

- We dodged a bullet with the storms that blew through that part of the country shortly after the game. We got a bit of a break in that we missed the really heavy stuff. But we were on our way to Milwaukee. I always have disliked the Brewers. I hold Bud Selig personally responsible for screwing the city of Seattle when he stole the Pilots after their one and only year, and the ghost of Dewey Soriano will forever jinx the Brewers. They have never won a World Series, and they never will as long as Butthead Selig is above ground. Plus regardless of what the arbitrator said, Ryan Braun is a cheater who got away with it. Still, Miller Park was very nice.

- It was a short drive to Wrigley Field, and I posted the day at Wrigley and the drive into Pittsburgh earlier. We dodged another rain delay in Chicago, but they got the game in between the Cubbies and the Disastros. Then it was to Pittsburgh to watch the Buccos take their turn beating up on the Lastros.

- I used to live about 2 hours south of Atlanta, so I was anxious to see the city for the first time in about 30 years. It has changed quite a bit, but there was still a lot of traffic in Atlanta. I would have enjoyed exploring the city after so many years, but we were headed due west for the next two days. I got to drive into St Louis, and I chose to make a very brief side trip to O'Fallon Illinois, where we spent 3 years in the early 1980's. Steve was too young to remember much about O'Fallon, so I drove past our former home then on to downtown St Louis and beautiful new Busch Stadium, packed with red clad Cardinal fans. Again, no time to really enjoy seeing the area where we had lived in the past.

- The best thing you can say about the overnight drive from St Louis to Phoenix is that it went exactly as planned. Mike drove to Tulsa, Steve drove to Amarillo, Shawn drove to Albuquerque, and I drove the rest of the way to Phoenix. Glen Campbell was right - by the time I got to Phoenix, I was sleepy. But we made it safe and sound. It was cool to include the corner in Winslow Arizona on the trip. I remember it from seeing it years ago. We made good time into Phoenix and got to Doug & Julie's right about 5PM. Had time to take a break and then it was off to the game.

The long days are now behind us. We have a relatively short trip to San Diego tomorrow, a very short trip to Anaheim after the game in San Diego, and a medium sized trip to Oakland to be followed by the end of the journey in Federal Way sometime Monday morning. Still enjoying the adventure, but I am very tired.

Day 27 – July 5 – Phoenix, Arizona (concluded)

This is a record 3rd blog post of the day. It was a day that actually started last night in St. Louis watching the Cardinals and a 21-hour drive across half the country to tonight’s game at Chase Field in Phoenix. It was a fun time at the game with Doug and Julie and I had another surprise at the game. I had a call from Marty Skelly who also lives in the area and came to the game and we got together. Marty is Jerry Skelly’s dad who we spent the better part of a day with on the trip Tuesday into Atlanta and watching the Braves that night. Jerry made sure that Marty knew what was going on, but I didn’t know if he would call or not. We spent most of the time with our visit talking about our respective fantasy football seasons that are just around the corner. I met
Marty about 20 years ago when he was recruited into the fantasy football leagues I was running at the time. The first time we met was in one of the skyscrapers in Seattle at 2 Union Square where the draft was being held and we’ve known each other ever since. After all of the travel we just took it easy eating a bit of the ballpark food trying to regulate our systems a bit. We’ve kind of been all over the place with the extreme amount of travel in the last 4 days. Since Sunday it’s been Chicago-Pittsburgh-Atlanta-St. Louis-Phoenix. We should have a show on the Travel Channel with all of this traveling. After the game it was back to Doug and Julie’s for a limited amount of visiting before we crashed for the night. I will have a bit more about our visit in a post before we leave Phoenix tomorrow morning.

Day 27 – July 5 – Phoenix, Arizona (continued)

Pat had the balance of the trip to Phoenix. It wasn’t exactly the most direct route however and added a fair amount of miles to the leg. We stayed on westbound I-40 to Flagstaff where we got onto southbound I-17 to Phoenix. Before we got to Flagstaff we went thru the town of Winslow Arizona made famous in the song Take It Easy by the Eagles. There is a line from the song about “Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona” that is noted in town. As we drove thru Winslow (Pat had been there before so he knew about this) we took a picture of the corner. It was a nice drive from the elevation of Flagstaff down to the valley and into Phoenix. Before we got to Phoenix I called my friend Doug Kahl so we could plot our getting together before tonight’s game. We are going to the game with Doug and his wife Julie. Doug and Julie have also graciously offered their home for us to stay at tonight after the game, so we decide to meet at their house. Doug gave us excellent directions and we got there with no problem and plenty of time before the game starts. We are very tired but it going to be a lot of fun seeing Doug and Julie. I’ve known Doug since 1995 when he did a cold call where I was working at the time and helped negotiate a good freight deal for our small package needs. The business arrangement led to a great personal relationship where we saw each other frequently until Doug’s work had him relocate to the Phoenix area. Thus, it’s been years since we got together so having this opportunity to spend some short, but quality time with Doug and Julie is going to be really cool. Well I’ve got just enough time to get this blog post out then it’s off the Chase Field for tonight’s game between the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers. It will be the 2nd time we’ve seen Arizona in the last 5 days and we’ve seen the Dodgers twice earlier in the first 3 days of the trips in Seattle and at home against the Angels. We should have another short post after the game and hopefully before we collapse of exhaustion.

Day 27 – July 5 – Phoenix, Arizona (enroute)

This is another short post letting you know about the trip to Phoenix from St. Louis. We are currently in Albuquerque, New Mexico where we have stopped for a bite of food, gas for the van and switch over to the last driver of this trip to Phoenix. It took a bit longer than expected to get out of the St. Louis area on I-44 due to so much 4th of July fireworks activity. Finally, however we were on the freeway heading in a southwesterly direction. I was driving and we had a good run to Tulsa where it was time to gas up and go to driver number 2, Steven. Daylight wasn’t too far away as we got to Tulsa around 4AM. When Steven took over we stayed on I-44 until we neared Oklahoma City where we skirted around the city and hooked up with I-40 west of town.
As Seattle Sonics fans I couldn’t see us driving into OKC so we made sure to bypass the city as we were already as close to Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clayton Bennett than we wanted to be. We continued on I-40 crossing into north Texas and made our way to Amarillo where it was time to gas up and change drivers so that Shawn could get his turn at the wheel. By then it was 9AM so Shawn would have all daylight on his leg to Albuquerque. It was a straight shot there as we crossed into New Mexico and stayed on to Albuquerque where we are now and it is high noon as we stop for the food, gas, change drivers and get this post out. We are doing very well with the schedule and should be in Phoenix shortly after 5PM for the game tonight at 6:40PM. I’ve got another friend that we are hooking up with in Phoenix for the game tonight so I have more about the trip into Phoenix and try to get a pre game post out.

Game Recap #26 Colorado Rockies @ St. Louis Cardinals

Many people believed that the defending World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, would be yesterday's news when the face of the franchise, Albert Pujols, left for nine figures and sunshine in Anaheim. Many people believed that they could crumble facing an uphill battle as their well-known manager Tony La Russa retired at the end of their run. People thought the team would lack an identity, and with many injury risks, not be healthy enough to challenge anyone in the often competitive National League Central division. Maybe to some extent, those people are right, but as the numbers go, these Cardinals that host the Colorado Rockies on the evening of Independence Day are just three games out of first in the division, with many players stepping up to lead one of the highest powered offenses in the majors. Trying to prevent the offensive breakout is Rockies starter Jeremy Guthrie. He didn't fare so well with that task in the first inning, walking Jon Jay before Matt Holliday doubled to score Jay. Guthire also struggled against the lower end of the Cardinals lineup in the second inning, allowing singles to breakout star catcher Yadier Molina, utilityman Skip Schumaker, and shortstop Rafael Furcal to load the bases before plunking Jay to force Schumaker home, as Molina was out at third when St. Louis pitcher Adam Wainwright grounded into a fielder's choice. This was all the damage that would come early, with Wainwright suffering the next show of offense in the fifth inning, as a Jonathan Herrera triple put him in prime position to score when Wainwright's counterpart Guthrie singled. Despite allowing Dexter Fowler on with a fielder's choice and Marco Scutaro and Carlos Gonzalez with singles, Wainwright would not allow the tying run to score. Both Guthrie and Wainwright finished their starting tasks at the completion of the sixth inning, with Guthire's line reading six hits and a walk to yield two earned runs while striking out two, and Wainwright showed up with eight hits and walk producing one earned run with seven strikeouts. Both Matt Reynolds of the Rockies and Maikel Cleto of the Cardinals pitched spotless seventh innings. St. Louis reliever Marc Rzepczynski also pitched a perfect eighth inning, but Colorado reliever Adam Ottavino, a former Cardinal, struggled against his old team, yielding a Holliday single with a stolen base, a Carlos Beltran single and another stolen base (with the only other stolen base coming an inning earlier from Daniel Descalso), and an intentional walk to Molina to fill the bases up, which backfired on a David Freese single that scored both Holliday and Beltran. After a walk to pinch hitter Matt Carpenter, Carlos Torres was called on to finish the inning, which he did without trouble. St. Louis entrusted Jason Motte with the ninth inning and a 4-1 lead, and while he did give up singles to Jordan Pacheco and Michael Cuddyer, he avoided a meltdown by striking out Fowler to end the gave and give himself a save while preserving Wainwright's win. Guthrie was stuck with the loss, and Cardinals got one game closer the division leading Pittsburgh Pirates.

Day 26 – July 4 – St. Louis, Missouri (continued)

This will be a very short blog post as we need to be on the road and stay on it. We are just west of St. Louis on I-44 where we’ve found a McDonalds to food up and a gas station to gas up, or maybe vice versa. I took the initial shift and I plan to make it a long one before Steven takes over. St. Louis was pretty much how I remembered it since the last time I was there, over 25 years ago. Had a fun time at new Busch Stadium, much nicer than the older version. Alas, we are now truly on the homestretch. We’ve seen plenty of fireworks from out the car. Hope everyone is being careful with them. We will try to post tomorrow morning when the gas/food thing happens and give a short review of the overnight activities.

Day 26 – July 4 – St. Louis, Missouri

Happy Birthday America!!!! You’re 236 years old today and you don’t look a year over 225. This morning was the beginning of a very long 36-hour stretch that sees us now in St. Louis getting ready to go to the Cards game vs Colorado. After tonight’s game, thanks to the rainout in Philadelphia closing in on 2 weeks ago, we are set for a marathon drive of over 1450 miles to our next destination, Phoenix Arizona. But before we get to that let’s review today’s activities. We started with Pat behind the wheel for the trip into St. Louis. When we left Chattanooga we left I-75 for the final time in this trip. From northern Michigan to south Florida and a lot of area in between we saw a whole lot of I-75. We got onto I-24 heading in a northwesterly direction up to Nashville. We continued on into Kentucky past Paducah and into Illinois until we got to where we met up with I-64 by Mt. Vernon Illinois and that took us directly to St. Louis. But first, Pat had to drop a little "local knowledge" on us and stopped at O'Fallon Illinois where he stayed back in the early 1980's while serving in the US Air Force out of Scott Air Force Base just outside of O'Fallon. The game tonight in St. Louis is an hour earlier than normal with the holiday and a blessing for us with our next game in Phoenix. We crossed the Mississippi River right at St. Louis and had some time before the game so wedecided to take a trip inside the Gateway Arch. If you are the least bit claustrophobic this isn’t the site to see. We had a little time for this sightseeing visit before we got to a Starbucks to get this message out. After the game tonight we will gas up and hit a fast food place to get us loaded for the road and get the post game message out. Until then…

Game Recap #25 Chicago Cubs @ Atlanta Braves

Very few players in sports nowadays stay with one team throughout their entire career. Motivations to move along from the only team players have ever known can be money, better life for their families, closer to their homes, or any other reason. Even fewer players have the ability to decide when they will retire. Despite many recent injuries and a fading skill set, Chipper Jones falls into both categories. He has played for the Atlanta Braves for every game in his career, since its outset in 1993, a year before my own birth. Throughout his career, he has been a symbol of solidarity at the hot corner for the Braves, and a very reliable ballplayer with outstanding stats in a considerable number of categories. Tonight, we have the pleasure of seeing Jones in his final lap through the season with the Braves as they host the Chicago Cubs. Immediately, Jones gave us something to look at when he singled in Michael Bourn in the first inning to open the scoring and put a stain on Chris Volstad's day. Bourn had gotten aboard on a walk. Right after that, Jones had one of the two stolen bases in the game today, as he swiped second, no easy feat for a deteriorating forty year old. Chicago would be the next to strike though, getting to Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens in the third inning after a bit of spotty defense. The rally started with a David DeJesus single, and things turned ugly when Dan Uggla committed a throwing error during Starlin Castro's at-bat, which got DeJesus home. Anthony Rizzo then reached on a fielder's choice, and two batters later, Castro came home on a Bryan LaHair single, and he was followed in on the next play, as Steve Clevenger singled Rizzo home. Things were smooth from there until the fifth, when Jurrjens worked out of a jam as Alfonso Soriano singled his way aboard and stole second base, the other steal in the game. He retired the next three batters, and that turned things back to Volstad, who was not so lucky to work out of his jam. He surrendered singles to Brian McCann and Andrelton Simmons before walking pinch-hitter Eric Hinske, who hit for his pitcher Jurrjens, effectively ending his day. The scoring started as Bourn tripled all three of McCann, Simmons, and Hinske home, before scoring himself on a sacrifice fly by Martin Prado. With the bases clean, Jason Heyward took Volstad out of the game on a solo home run. A Jones double was all reliever Manuel Corpas would give up here before finishing the inning. Jones had gone 3 for 3 at this point, with two singles and a double. Volstad's line read 4 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two walks to yield six earned runs while striking out three, while Jurrjens was slightly cleaner at five innings, nine hits and no walks to produce three runs, none of which were earned, while fanning two. While Corpas was effective for pitching, the next reliever, Rafael Dolis, had a messy third of an inning, walking McCann before getting Simmons on board with a fielder's choice to get rid of McCann, and then he walked both Braves reliever Kris Medlen (more on him in a second) and Bourn. Jairo Asencio took over for Dolis, but it might as well have been the same person, as Asencio walked Prado to force in Simmons, and two batters later gave up Jones' second double and fourth hit of the night that scored Medlen, Bourn, and Prado. Two more walks were issued by Asencio, as Freddie Freeman and Uggla reloaded the bases, but McCann made his second out and the team's third out of the inning to end any further conflict. The next hit for either team came in the eighth inning, and naturally, it was the star of the show tonight, Jones, with a single, good for his fifth hit of the evening. It should be noted that after that jam in the sixth, Asencio, as well as Medlen (three perfect innings of relief) and Jonny Venters (one hit in the ninth) kept things relatively clean. The final would wrap up at 10-3, handing Jurrjens the win and Volstad the loss, but all eyes were on the man they call Chipper tonight with a vintage performance so indicative of what has made him an icon of Atlanta sports for the past 20 years.

Day 25 – July 3 – Atlanta, GA (continued)

We had our 2nd chance in 3 days to see the Chicago Cubs. It was the 3rd time we’ve seen the Cubs on the trip. When the game ended we planned to stick around for the fireworks show that was scheduled for tonight. We’ve had plenty of fireworks opportunities in this trip and tonight’s the night to indulge in them. That was until the thunderstorm delayed the start and pushed the game back. With a huge travel day tomorrow and Thursday we decided getting on the road and getting a decent night sleep overroad the Fireworks. We know that staying after won’t be possible tomorrow night in St. Louis. When the game was over it was on the road again. We gave Jerry 10 bucks so he could take the MARTA out to Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport and fly back to Charlotte because I don’t think he wanted to walk all the way back. It was good seeing Jerry after several years and he showed us a couple things on the Bojangles’ menu that were really good. Looking at the map we decided to make the trip to Chattanooga Tennessee before calling it a night. So it was back on our favorite Interstate highway, I-75 to Chattanooga. It is a little after midnight here so we should be able to get a decent night sleep before hitting the road again in the morning. The plan has us heading out around 9AM, as it is only about 440 miles to St. Louis. But first, sleep beckons.