Yes Cincinnati

I planned on getting to a game in Cincinnati last year.  That didn't happen so I went during my four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  With my trip to Cincinnati, I have now been to every stadium in the National League.

My view at Great American Ballpark

I started the day in Cincinnati by going to Tom and Chee, a grilled cheese and soup place that was featured on Man vs. Food Nation (I know, I probably shouldn't acknowledge the existence of that season, but I needed a place to go for lunch).  They had lots of grilled cheese sandwiches with all sorts of different stuff, but I just had a simple grilled cheese with tomatoes.  You can also get a very small soup for dipping for $1 so I did that.  It was very good.  I wish I could try some of the more complicated sandwiches too.

Tom and Chee

After that, I walked down to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  I had about two hours there before it closed.  I could have spent at least another hour there.  I've been teaching the build up to the Civil War and this would have been great for my students.  Most of the museum was on the struggle against slavery, but they also had exhibits on Auschwitz and human trafficking today.  I spent most of my time looking at all the stuff on slavery, but I had to rush through the stuff on Auschwitz and human trafficking.  Outside the museum they had a piece of the Berlin Wall.  So I definitely recommend checking this out if you're ever in Cincinnati.

A slave trying to escape

A piece of the Berlin Wall

After recharging my phone at the hotel, I walked to the stadium.  I took a lap around the stadium before going in.  The Reds Hall of Fame is outside the stadium, which I didn't have time to check out.  There are also statues of Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, Joe Nuxhall, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench outside the stadium also.  I took pictures of all of them except for Joe Morgan.  Inside the gates, they have Mr. and Mrs. Red.  They're pretty much Mr. and Mrs. Met, except with Reds uniforms.  Mr. Met made his debut in 1964.  Mr. Red wasn't a person until the 1970s, but there was a cartoon version on the Reds' uniforms in 1955.

Johnny Bench

Mr. and Mrs. Red

I had high expectations for the stadium and it exceeded them.  The food selection is outstanding.  There are so many different options.  Skyline Chili is a chain in Cincinnati that had Cheese Coney Dogs.  It was a hot dog with chili, mustard, onions, and cheese.  It really wasn't anything special.  But almost none of the concession stands had lines.  The only place where there was a long line was the one concession stand on the upper level where they were selling hot dogs for $1.

There's a hot dog, chili, onions, and mustard under there somewhere.  I took a lot of the cheese off.

The beer selection was the best I've seen in baseball.  There's a huge bar on the lower concourse on the third base side.  There was a very wide selection.  They did have Sam Adams Summer Ale, but once again, I wanted to try a local beer (actually Sam Adams was all over the place in Cincinnati because a lot of their beer is brewed there).  So I had a Rivertown Blueberry Lager.  It was fine, but I've had better blueberry beers.  But there was an area on the lower concourse between home plate and third base with plenty of room to stand and watch the game.  I watched about an inning there as I drank my beer.  It was a very good view of the field.

Blueberry Lager with the field in the background

The game was not entertaining.  It was Jason Marquis against Madison Bumgarner.  Marquis pitched three and gave up six.  Bumgarner pitched seven and gave up two.  Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Zack Cozart, and Billy Hamilton hit home runs.  The Giants were up 6-1 after three and ended up winning 10-2.  The most interesting part of the game was the fire.  The Reds have these two smokestacks out in right center where they shoot flames and/or fireworks when they strike somebody out or hit a home run.  At one point, one of the smokestacks started firing when nothing was happening.  And then smoke started drifting across the field toward third base.  They cleared out the two sections of seats by the smokestacks and the fire department came in.  A couple of firefighters went up on the smokestack and put out the fire.

Smoke coming from the smokestack on the right

I could have written some title for this post like "Not So Great American Ballpark" or "Average American Ballpark."  But Great American Ballpark lives up to its name (which is actually a corporate sponsor name).  I'm sliding it in at number 6 on my rankings.  Wrigley Field is a mess with all the renovations going on.  I'll probably have to reevaluate Wrigley whenever those are done (which I think is a couple of years down the road).  I really liked Kauffman Stadium, but Great American Ballpark has a much better location.  You could make the case to put it ahead of Petco Park also.  I'm going to keep Petco ahead because the dimensions at Great American Ballpark are much smaller and it's more of a hitters' park (although not as much as I expected before going through years of park factor data).

Since I've finished the National League, I'm ranking the National League West the best division and the National League East the worst.  I think a lot of people would say the Central was the best, and I would say it's close.  Dodger Stadium, Petco Park, and AT&T Park get the nod over PNC Park, Great American Ballpark, and whoever you put at third in that division (Busch Stadium or Wrigley Field).  If they finish the Wrigley renovations and it's one of the top five stadiums in baseball, then the Central probably wins.  As for the worst NL division, it's easily the East.  I like Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Citi Field, but they can't compete with the top three from other divisions.  And Turner Field and Marlins Park are the two worst in the National League, but the Braves are getting a new stadium soon.

Hopefully I'll get to Target Field and Angel Stadium this summer, but I don't have anything planned yet.  There might some more minor league games in my future too.  We'll see.

15 States to Go

Last week I had a four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  So for the third time in four years, I used that to take a baseball trip (San Diego three years ago and Toronto last year).  This year, I was going to Cincinnati (more on that in my next post).  But I've been combining trips to Major League games with trips to states I haven't been to, so I went to the Deep South this time.  I wanted to go to New Orleans and then drive to Mobile.  I really want to get to the World War II museum in New Orleans and then I would have crossed off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  But the schedule for the Mobile BayBears didn't work so I settled for just getting to Alabama and seeing the Birmingham Barons, the team that Michael Jordan played for.

I was hoping to get to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but my flight was a little delayed so that didn't happen.  I just spent some time at the hotel before the game preparing to teach about the Civil War.  I walked to the stadium about an hour early and walked around.  According to Baseball America, Regions Field is the third best stadium in the minors.  I've been to three in less than a year now (including number 9 on the list) and I would agree that Regions Field is the best one I've been to.  The design is a little funky, but it works for Birmingham.  The food and drink selection is outstanding.  They have a barbecue concession stand where I got a sandwich.  It wasn't anything special, but it's nice to have some options.  I was eating that by the bullpen before the game and some guy from Alabama came up and started talking to me.  He had a great Alabama accent.  He had gone to the same high school as the Barons' pitching coach, who had apparently played in the Majors for a little while.

Outside the stadium

The crowd was easily the best crowd I've seen at a minor league game.  At 8,500, it was a sellout.  One reason for that was that it was Thirsty Thursday.  They had bad beer for $2.  Of course, I would gladly pay extra money for good beer.  And the beer selection was easily the best that I've seen at a minor league stadium.  There was a bar out in center field that had a wide selection, including my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale.  But I can drink Summer Ale whenever I want from March until November, so I figured I should drink a local beer.  Although I didn't like the name, I had a Yellowhammer Rebellion Red Ale.  It's brewed in Huntsville, Alabama.  And it was excellent.

I watched an inning from right field as I drank a beer.

As for the game, it was the Chattanooga Lookouts against the Birmingham Barons.  Once again, I was a year too late to see a Dodgers' affiliate.  Chattanooga switched from the Dodgers to the Twins this year.  Their uniforms still look like they should be a Dodgers' affiliate.  The Barons are a White Sox affiliate (which they've been since 1986).  Chattanooga had the top prospect in baseball, Byron Buxton.  He led off and played center field, but he only went 1 for 5 with a single.  He was only hitting .244 after the game.  We'll see if he lives up to the billing.  Last year, it looks like he was hurt because he only played in 31 games.  He did put up really good numbers the year before.  As for the game, Chattanooga was up 3-0 after four and they ended up winning 5-1.

Byron Buxton at the plate

This gives you a better view of the entire field.

So I have 15 states left to go (here's my current map).  Here are my Power Rankings of how much I want to get to each state:

15.  North Dakota.  Fargo has an independent league team.  I can't think of anything else to do in North Dakota.

14.  Montana.  There are some minor league teams.

13.  Idaho.  Boise has a Rookie ball team.  And one of my roommates from Notre Dame lives there.

12.  Nebraska.  It has the College World Series.

11.  Oregon.  It has the Trail Blazers and some minor league teams.

10.  Mississippi.  Biloxi has a minor league team and it's about an hour and a half from New Orleans.

9.  Maine.  Portland's Hadlock Field has the Maine Monster in left field.

8.  Vermont.  Vermont has charity wiffle ball at Little Fenway, Little Wrigley, and Little Field of Dreams.

7.  South Dakota.  I would love to get to Mt. Rushmore, but it's not easy to get to.

6.  Iowa.  It has the Field of Dreams.

5.  Alaska.  It would be really cool to go to Alaska, but I don't know what to do there.  I would love to go to the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, but with my school schedule, I don't think that would ever work out.  I can't really think of what else to do in Alaska.  If anybody has any ideas, let me know.

4.  Louisiana.  I don't care about New Orleans, except for the World War II museum.

3.  South Carolina.  Notre Dame plays at Clemson in the fall.  I applied for that game in the lottery.  I probably won't win though.

2.  Minnesota.  It's the only state with a Major League team that I haven't been to yet.  I'm going to a wedding in St. Paul this fall, but hopefully I'll get there this summer for a Twins game.

1.  Hawaii.  I really want to see Pearl Harbor.  I'm sure there's lots of other fun stuff to do.  I also have in mind that I'd stop there on my way to Australia.  Then I could take a shorter flight to Australia rather than the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles.

Harry Truman's Other Neighborhood

Last year, I visited the Harry Truman Presidential Library and his house in Independence, Missouri.  This year, I visited another house where Truman spent 175 days during his presidency.  It was part of my trip down to Florida for my friend Vin's bachelor party.

I was expecting a really crazy bachelor party.  Vin's brother Tommy rented a house in Key West.  I was kind of scared.  My goal was really just to make it home alive.  John and I had joked about how the bachelor party might be unbloggable because it might not be appropriate for the blog and/or I wouldn't remember some of it.  That didn't happen.  I think I remember everything and there's nothing that happened that I would consider out of bounds for the blog.

After going to the Met game the night before, I got up really early to get to LaGuardia for a 6:00 flight.  I met John and some of Vin's friends at the airport in Miami.  We had breakfast/lunch/whatever it was at that point in the airport and then rented a van to drive down to Key West.  Speaking of airports, John asked me to rank the best airports I've been to.  I've been to a lot.  Midway and MacArthur are probably my two favorites.  They remind me of going back and forth to Notre Dame.  Midway would be number one.  There were lots of times that I would get there really early since I had to take that long bus ride from Notre Dame and I didn't want to take any chances.  I'd be going home for a break (usually with no work to do) and I'd go to this Irish bar and drink Guinness to pass the time.  I also knew exactly where the best bathroom in the airport was.  And they have mass on Sunday there (which I went to at least twice, including the day after the Bush Push game).  Unfortunately, Southwest doesn't go from MacArthur to Midway anymore, so I haven't been to either one since 2011.  Kennedy might be next on my list.  You'll see why after I unveil my Bad Airport Power Rankings:

5.  Newark.  It's on the list even though I've never been to Newark.  Because, you know, it's in Newark.  Jon once emailed Kyle and me to tell us that there were going to be direct flights from Newark to South Bend.  We just didn't care.  Whenever I search for flights on Kayak, I put in NYC and then filter out Newark.  I wish I could just always fly from Kennedy and MacArthur.

4.  DFW.  I was only there on my way to and from the Shamrock Series game in 2013.  I just didn't like the way it was laid out.  All the terminals seemed exactly the same and there just wasn't much space to navigate.  Love Field, on the other hand, is very nice.

3.  Fort Lauderdale.  I've only been there on my way too and from the National Championship Game in 2013.  The terminal I was in was being renovated and parts of it smelled weird, but maybe it's nice by now.  But I'll always associate it with that trip.  On the way back, my flight was delayed and I got home around midnight and then had to go back to work the next day.  I was not happy.

2.  O'Hare.  It's not that bad, but I just remember having to spend a night there and the bars closing before I got there.  And they don't have Guinness.

1.  LaGuardia (the link for O'Hara has information on why I hate LaGuardia too).  It's no contest.  Laguardia is awful.  Actually, terminals C and D are pretty nice now, but terminal B is by far the worst airport terminal I've ever been in.  There are separate concourses that aren't connected to each other.  So once you get past security, you don't have many options for places to eat or drink.  In fact, in one of those concourses, they didn't have a single bar.  I don't often drink much at airports anymore, but when I was stuck there back in 2012 when my flight to Chicago was delayed, a beer would have been fantastic.  And unlike Kennedy, it's not easy to get to.

Anyway, back to Vin's bachelor party.  Driving to Key West is really cool.  I didn't realize how many islands there are.  Most of them are very close together.  I think the longest bridge on the nearly four-hour trip is about seven miles.  We stopped one one of the islands at this outdoor bar/restaurant.  One of the guys had been there before.  You could feed tarpon.  I had never heard of tarpon before, but they're pretty big fish.  We walked out on the dock and a couple of guys were feeding the tarpon.  John was asked if he wanted to and his response was, "I have no interest."  That probably would have been my response too, but it was interesting to watch.

Feeding the tarpon

We got to the house a little before Vin, Tommy, and Sean arrived.  That first night, we drank and John grilled up some meat for dinner.  I think beer pong started after we ate.  This seems like a good time to tell the story of my incredible beer pong run in the summer of 2006.  I kept track of my record that summer and I think I was 38-16 (it was nine years ago and there was lots of alcohol involved, but I'm pretty sure it was something like that).  I also think I was 19-3 with Vin as my partner (which would mean I 19-13 with anybody else, pretty good, but not great).  Early in the summer, John had a party at his apartment.  I wasn't planning on sleeping over, but then Vin and I started playing beer pong.  And we won ten games in a row.  We never lost.  John just cut us off at one point.  We were unbeatable that night.  I think there were at least two games where we needed to send it to overtime and we just took care of business.  It truly is one of my greatest accomplishments.  Later in the summer, there was a beer pong tournament.  It was World Cup style since it was a World Cup year.  We had 12 teams so there were three groups of four.  You played everybody in your group once.  The top two teams from each group plus two wild card teams made it to the elimination round.  Vin and I cruised through group play, going 3-0.  We were the only team to go undefeated.  So we were the number one team going into the elimination round.  This was where the controversy started.  One team that made it to the elimination round had to leave (I think they were either the 3 or 6 seed).  I didn't really think about it at the time, but they just should have been replaced (make that new team the 8 seed and bump everybody else up).  But that's not what happened.  Instead, one team was given a bye.  If you were going to give anybody a bye, it should have been us since we were the 1 seed.  Instead, the team that was supposed to play the team that left got a bye.  Again, we just should have added another team, I didn't want a bye.  The team that ended up getting the bye won one game in the elimination round made it to the finals against Vin and me after we won two elimination games.  Now on this team was a girl that was notorious for playing beer pong and not drinking.  Vin tried to make the rule that if you were playing, you had to drink.  And I was with him.  If you're just playing for fun, then whatever.  But if it's a tournament, you have to be drinking.  But it wasn't his house, so that rule wasn't made.  We ended up losing by one cup.  I'm pretty sure I had the last shot to send it to overtime and my shot either hit the rim or was right on line, but just slightly long.  Vin was so upset about losing to that team that he refused to accept the prize money for second place.  I'm still bitter about it to this day.

Anyway, Vin and I played two games of beer pong on Friday night.  We were down four cups before we even took a shot in our first game.  But we came back and won.  Vin was better than I was and he hit the last shot, but I played a solid game.  In the second game, however, Vin played much better than I did.  I think I only hit one cup and we lost.  The next day, Vin and I took on his brothers.  Vin hit the last cup and it looked like we'd win, but Tommy sent it to overtime.  We started overtime, but we didn't finish before going out to dinner.  So for the weekend, Vin and I went 1-1-1.

Tommy, John, Vin, and I.  I think this picture was taken between our beer pong tie and going out to dinner.

After eating and playing some beer pong, we went out pretty late on Friday night.  John was talking about staying in.  I was totally ready to stay in with him.  I had gotten maybe three hours of sleep the night before between getting home late from the Met game and getting up early for the flight.  But John went out so I had to as well.  It was fun.  We ended up at this karaoke bar where Vin and Sean put on a good show.  But the real highlight of the night was Alex and T-Dog.  Lots of jokes about that the next day.

On Saturday, once we finally got up and ate breakfast, Vin, John, Ronnie, and I went to Ernest Hemmingway's house.  I think he lived there with his second wife.  John is a big Hemmingway fan.  He was not a big fan of our tour guide.  Vin and Ronnie decided early on to just chill out by the pool instead of staying with the tour.  There are cats all over the place there because Hemmingway had this cat with six toes that he thought brought good luck or something and now they have 50 descendants of that cat living there.

Ernest Hemmingway's house

We also went to the southernmost point in the continental US, which is apparently not the southernmost point in the continental US.  Looking at the map, it's really somewhere else in Key West.  There were jokes about hiring a boat to take us to Cuba.  It's as far south as I've ever been.  The farthest east I've ever been would be Canterbury, England.  The farthest north I've ever been is Dublin.  And the farthest west I've ever been is San Francisco, which is just slightly west of Seattle.  Hopefully someday I'll get to Australia.  That would be the farthest south easily.  And is that the farthest east or west that I would ever be?  I'd be traveling west to get there, but it's in the eastern hemisphere.

The southernmost point in the continental US, but not really.

We went back to the house and I watched the end of the Ranger game while everybody else was outside in the pool or just chilling in the sun (I did get in the pool later).  The Rangers won and eventually overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the series.  Hopefully they'll take care of business quickly in this series because Game 7 would be the night of Vin's wedding.  And then they need to win their first Stanley Cup in 21 years.  Later we watched the Kentucky Derby.  I'm no animal rights nut and I will watch the Kentucky Derby and maintain interest in horse racing as long as a triple crown is possible, but I do find it a little odd that the athletes in the sport are the ones that are least aware of what is going on.  We went out to dinner at this nice restaurant on the water.  After that, we were trying to figure out how to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.  We went back to the house to see if we could get it there.  I went up to my room to charge my phone for a little bit.  I put on a podcast and passed out.  By the time I woke up, the fight was over.  I didn't care.  I have no interest in boxing at all other than Chris Algieri (only because I went to school with him up until high school).  I just went back to sleep after that.

After getting a pretty good night of sleep, I got up early so that I could go to mass on Sunday morning.  I went to the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.  It's a pretty small church, but it was nice and crowded.

There was a little grotto right outside the church.

After that, I went to Harry Truman's house.  I didn't realize he had a house there until John texted me about it maybe a week before we went down there.  Actually, it wasn't really his house.  It's been used by several presidents going back to William Howard Taft.  Truman just used it more than anybody else.  He spent 175 days there as president (about three weeks per year).  You can take a tour, but we were told that the secret service wouldn't let us take pictures inside because the president always has a standing invitation to use the house whenever he wants.  I think Carter was the last president to go there while he was president, but Colin Powell used it for official business when he was Bush's Secretary of State.  The house was definitely dated, but it was interesting.  There was a poker table that had a cover to make it look like a regular table because Harry Truman's wife didn't approve of him gambling.  Our tour guide said that the press knew about it, but they never mentioned it because the public wouldn't approve of it either.

The Little White House in Key West

By the time I walked back to the house, it was just about time to make the drive back to the airport.  I had a late flight and I had been dreading going to work the next day after the bachelor party, but it turned out to be not too bad.

I've known Vin for a long time, so I'll leave you with this picture of the two of us and our bartender from January 2005:

This was from the last time I went out drinking underage.  It's funny for many reasons.

First Citi Field Game of the Year

Last year in Detroit, I met a baseball fan from England named Rich.  Like me, he's been working on getting to all the stadiums.  We were supposed to be at the same game in Cincinnati later that week, but I never made it.  He emailed me a while back to let me know he'd be on this side of the Atlantic in late April and early May.  He went to games in Miami, Tampa, and Atlanta before making his way to New York.  He finished his trip in Boston and then Toronto.  So we we met at Citi Field for the Mets and Nationals on April 30.  Rich was also going the following night, but I was in Florida.

I took the train from Manhasset and I got a later one than I had planned, but I made it there shortly before the first pitch.  I didn't do any walking around the stadium though.  I would have liked to since it was my first game of the year there.  I think there are some new things, like a grilled cheese stand from Chef Josh Capon of Bar Rescue fame.  I should have other opportunities.

As for the game, it was Stephen Strasburg against Jason deGrom.  Rich is a Met fan and apparently they haven't done well with him in attendance.  I'm not a Met fan, but they have done well with me in attendance the last ten years.  According to my MLB Ballpark app, they were 14-5 going into this game with me in attendance going back to 2005 (there's a chance I might have missed a game or two as I was going back and entering all the games I've been to since 2005).  Things looked good for Rich early on.  The Mets scored two in the second and led 2-0 going to the fourth.  But then the Nationals scored three in the fourth, two in the sixth, and three in the ninth.  Their 2-6 hitters of Yunel Escobar, Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, and Wilson Ramos combined for 10 hits in 23 at bats and had all eight RBIs.

It was pretty cold, but I was well-bundled.  The crowd was only 21,689.  But I had a good time.  I bought the tickets, so Rich bought the beers at the bar in the Promenade Club, which was right behind our seats.  I remember getting Summer Ale there early in the season last year so I was hoping for that again, but they didn't have it.  I had two different beers.  I don't really remember which ones they were.

It was a small crowd to begin with, but it cleared out late in the game.

Rich got to see the Mets win the next night.  I've been to Citi Field for 15 games now since it opened in 2009.  I only went to one game each of the last two years.  I went to four back in 2012.  I will be there for at least one Dodger game, but possibly more.  They have four games against the Mets in July.

I only had a hot dog at the game.  So on my way home I stopped at Little Vincent's and had a slice with cold cheese in honor of my friend Vin.  I'll explain that and my trip to Florida in my next post.

"Cold cheese is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Benjamin Franklin