Been around God's country and there's one thing I know...

...There's no better place for a baseball game than San Diego!  If you get the reference, um, yeah, I changed the lyrics a little bit.  So I went to San Diego by myself.  Why?  Because ... well ... why not?  I realized that I had a four day weekend and I wasn't going to do anything with it.  That would have been a missed opportunity.  I thought about going to Toronto, but then I realized the Dodgers were playing in San Diego on Thursday, so this was an easy decision.  And my first trip out of the country really should be for the Notre Dame game in Ireland.

This is going to be a long post, so you might need more than one sitting for this one.  But if you like baseball and/or me, I recommend reading the whole thing.

I got to San Diego on Thursday around noon.  My hotel was a mile from the USS Midway and two miles from Petco Park.  I walked to the Midway and it was really cool.  The Midway was commissioned in September 1945 and decommissioned in April 1992.  If you're ever in San Diego, it's definitely worth checking out.  Right next to the Midway was the USS San Diego, which is being commissioned today.  There was a line with a two hour wait to see the San Diego.  I didn't have time for that.

I took lots of pictures on the Midway, but this one is probably my favorite.  It's the Chain of Command in 1982.

After the Midway, I was pretty hungry, so I got a fish taco at the nearby Anthony's Fish Grotto.  It was awesome (much better than the one I had at Marlins Park, which was also good).  I remember whenever Joe Morgan called a Padres game in San Diego he would always talk about the fish tacos.  He might have been the worst baseball broadcaster I've ever heard, but he was right about San Diego's fish tacos.

Yep, that's one taco.  I had to start it with a fork.

I went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit and then I walked to Petco Park.  At the suggestion of former roommate/native Southern Californian Kyle, I went to one of the bars near Petco before the game.  It was Tivoli Bar, the second oldest bar in San Diego.  It was kind of quiet.  Perhaps I was too early for the San Diego crowd (about an hour before game time) and it was a Thursday.  But I had a Sam Adams for $4, so that was better than what I would have had to pay inside the stadium.

Then I got to the stadium and it was awesome.  It totally made up for the fact that it was 60 degrees and cloudy all day.  I walked around the lower concourse, which was really nice.  I loved the vines that were growing and hanging down from above.  Then I came across this:

Among the names I found were Joe DiMaggio, Tommy Lasorda, Duke Snider, and Ted Williams.

Ted Williams would have hit at least 100 more homeruns (a very conservative estimate, hold on) if he hadn't served in World War II and the Korean War.  It made me think of how in my time we've had scumbags like Barroid who broke records because of steroids and decades ago we had baseball players who risked their lives defending the country.  If Ted Williams hadn't spent five years in the military, people would have been talking about how he had a chance to break Ruth's record.  He probably wouldn't have gotten there, but he would have come fairly close.  He totally missed 1943-1945 and then he hit a total of 14 homeruns in 1952 and 1953 because of the Korean War.  If he averaged 35 homeruns during those World War II seasons and 30 during the two Korean War seasons (very reasonable expectations, check his stats), and the rest of his career was exactly the same, he would have hit 672 homeruns, the second most ever at the time.

Anyway, back to Petco and the game.  I asked Kyle what percentage of the fans would be rooting for the Dodgers.  He said it would be about 50-50 on a weekend, but about 35% during the week.  He might have underestimated, but it was hard to tell because the Padre fans never had anything to cheer about.  It was Aaron Harang vs. Edinson Volquez (I love listening to Vin Scully tell the story about how he was Julio Reyes, then Edison Volquez, then Edinson Volquez, he also had a great story about Carlos Beltran buying a monkey last night).  Volquez and the Padres pitchers couldn't get a big out.  Bobby Abreu started the Dodgers scoring with an RBI triple in the first  (I definitely didn't think he had anything left) and the Dodgers never looked back.  The view from my seat was great and I think it was in a place where the wind was blocked, which was clutch.  I was in shorts and a sweatshirt with the hood on.  It was pretty cold.  I've been to much colder games, so it was tolerable, but I'm sure the southern Californians thought it was freezing.

Awesome view

I moved down and watched the last inning and a half right by the field.  With the Padres down 8 runs, a lot of fans left.  The Padres ended up scoring a run, but it was an easy 8-1 win for the Dodgers.

Tony Gwynn Jr. at bat for the Dodgers

Despite the cold weather, I loved Petco.  It is my favorite of the new stadiums that I've been to (so far I've been to eight that have been built during my lifetime).  But I did think of a few things that could be improved.

Petco Park even has a statue of the Dodgers' fourth outfielder's father.

I love a good pitchers duel (I'd rather see a 2-1 game than a 10-9 game), but the fences should be brought in.  Surprisingly, this game had the most runs of the three games I've been to so far this year (but it was the first without a homerun).  I'm shocked to see that there are seven stadiums that have been better places to pitch so far this year (last year there were only two).  I also didn't like that the visitors' bullpen was on the field in foul territory.  I've never like that.  So move in the fences and find a place to put the visitors' bullpen beyond the fence.

You couldn't walk around on the upper concourse and still see the field.  And the food options were limited on the upper concourse.  That could be because Padres crowds aren't too big, so there's not a need to have many and varied concession stands up there.  But the fish taco before the game made up for that anyway.

And the biggest thing that could be improved is the atmosphere (the biggest edge I give Fenway over Wrigley is atmosphere).  That would require the Padres to win more.  I don't get why they don't.  San Diego is the 8th biggest city in the country and the weather is amazing (except when I'm there).  The Padres should spend some money and built a great team.  It's the Giants that should be terrible.  Why would anybody want to live in that city with all those dirty smelly hippies?

So yeah, that was San Diego.  A couple of other things:

I sent in my Notre Dame ticket application.  I applied for Michigan and BYU at home, though I certainly won't rule out going to other games.  I applied for Navy in Ireland and Oklahoma on the road.  So why did I apply for Oklahoma when they're probably going to kill us?  Because I've never been to the state of Oklahoma.  I'm guessing I won't win anyway, so my other thought is that if I don't win, I'll go to Oklahoma City at some point next year to see Kevin Durant and the Zombies.

My next trip is to Pittsburgh in late June.  I don't really want to do anything else before that so that I don't miss any more Rangers or Celtics playoff games (hopefully there will be many).  In July, I go to Phoenix.  And I think I'm going to Fenway in August.  I'd be up for doing something else in July (it would have to be a really quick weekend trip).  And I have a few other possibilities for late August:

1.  The weekend of August 18, both the Cardinals and Royals are home.  So my thought was to fly to one city and go to the game and then drive across the state and go to a game there the next day and fly home from there.

2.  A roadtrip that would include a trip to Gettysburg National Military Park and then the Reds game on August 25, the Tigers game on August 26, and the Indians game on August 27.

3.  A trip to Denver to see the Dodgers play the Rockies on August 27 and/or 28.

If anybody is interested in getting in on any of that, let me know.

And today I officially graduate with my Master's degree.  Yay for me!  I had absolutely no interest in going to the ceremony, which worked out well since I would have missed the Ranger game if I had gone.  Solid win for the Rangers today, but we all know this is going seven anyway.