I took in two minor league games and with those, I've seen minor league baseball at every level this year. I went to a Triple-A game in Albuquerque. I went to a Double-A game in Birmingham. I even went to an independent league game in Fargo. Before making my way to southern California, I went to a Rookie League game in Billings, Montana. After my trip to California, I went to a Single-A game in Boise. Actually, I still haven't been to every level. Single-A has Short Season, regular A, and Advanced levels. And I think there are different levels of Rookie ball also.
So let's start with Billings. With a population of around 110,000, it's the largest city in Montana. I got there too early to check into my hotel room so I walked about a mile from my hotel to Uberbrew. I had a soup, salad, and a pint of their Golden Ticket. It was all good. After that, I went back to my hotel and took a nap since I had gotten up at 3:15 in the morning for my flight at 6:10. Then I went to the game. It was the Ogden Raptors against the Billings Mustangs. The Raptors are an affiliate of the Dodgers so it was the first time I've seen a Dodgers' affiliate play. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of the players. I would have at least heard of some of the prospects and/or former Major Leaguers if it was a Double-A or a Triple-A team. Anyway, the Mustangs play at Dehler Park, which is pretty small. Capacity is 3,071, but apparently attendance was 3,391. There was a lot of standing room, so it is possible. One interesting thing about the stadium was that the screen extended farther than I've seen it in most places. They had it over the dugouts rather than just behind home plate. The stadium had a pretty cool location. The Billings airport is up on top of a cliff and you have to drive down into the city. From the stadium, you look out toward that cliff. I didn't have anything to drink since I went to Uberbrew earlier in the day, but I did have the Stang Burger, which is a grilled burger with brisket on top. It was really good. As for the game, the Raptors won 5-0. Ivan Vieitez pitched five shutout innings and gave up two hits and a walk. Logan Landon had two doubles in five at bats. Matt Jones hit a home run. If any of those guys ever do anything with the Dodgers, I can say I saw them play Rookie ball.
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| My view at Dehler Park |
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| Ken Giraffey, Jr. and Derek Cheetah. Oh minor league baseball. |
After Los Angeles, I went to Boise. My roommate from my last semester at Notre Dame, Nick, is from Boise and he now has a house near the city. Nick was the unfortunate victim of some drunken freshman stupidity when we lived together, but I won't go into that story. I got in to Boise around 3:00 in the afternoon and headed to another Man vs. Food spot, Big Jud's, which is right near Boise State. Adam Richman had a burger with two one-pound patties, bacon, mushrooms, swiss cheese, and blue cheese. And that wasn't the challenge for his Boise episode. There was no way I was tackling that so I just had a cheeseburger with blue cheese. It was very good, but they did something that New Yorkers do not like. They put mustard on the burger. No good. As I said, the burger was very good, but it would have been better without mustard (especially because it was yellow mustard). Then I took a walk to Boise State. The football team was practicing on a field next to the stadium. The stadium has a little museum attached and you can walk out and see the field. It was pretty cool to see. By the way, Notre Dame just hired Boise State's offensive coordinator/quarterback coach Mike Sanford for the same job. He was only at Boise State for one year (he had also been at Stanford on two occasions, Western Kentucky, Yale, and UNLV), but I hope he brings Boise State's winning percentage over the last 17 years (.836) with him.
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| The blue turf |
After that, I went to Nick's house to drop off my stuff and then we were off to the game. Before the game we stopped at the Crooked Fence Barrelhouse right by the stadium. I had a Welcome to Idaho Amber (appropriate enough). It was really good. At the game, I had a Grand Teton Ale 208. It was also really good. Idaho beer, I wasn't prepared for it to be so good. The average Idaho beer I've had is probably better than any other state. I love most Sam Adams beers, but even they make some stuff I don't like and I've had other Massachusetts beers that haven't been that good. I've only had two beers brewed in Idaho (I don't think I've ever had any other than this trip) and both were really good. While we were at the bar, there was a big dust storm outside. I had never seen anything like that. It was very windy during the day.
The game was the Boise Hawks against the Eugene Emeralds. It was not a well-pitched game. Eugene won 15-8. They outhit Boise 22-12. The teams combined for five home runs. It was loss number seven of an eight-game losing streak. Attendance was listed at 3,220, but it didn't seem like that much, especially considering that capacity is 3,452. According to Weather.com, the high in Boise was 100 on Tuesday. Before the game, they announced the temperature at game time was 100 (although the stadium isn't actually in Boise). It was warm, but it really wasn't that bad. Nick told me that the seats in the first base side are right in the sun until it sets. Fortunately I just happened to buy seats on the third base side. And it wasn't humid. It did remind me a little bit of my trip to Phoenix three years ago. The Hawks play at Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1989. It's the oldest minor league stadium that I've been to and it looked like it. But I actually liked it. There are three seating areas (and they're actually all behind the screen). The seats go up a little higher than most minor league stadiums. We weren't up that high, but I liked our view with a little extra elevation compared to other minor league games that I've been to. There really is no concourse. You walk around on the ground and then go up stairs to your seats. The food options were a little limited (Nick said it was better in years past), but we both had Idaho cheesesteaks. It was a cheesesteak with hash browns on it. It was pretty good. The beer was good. The other thing that you notice is that the mascot and bat boys wear uniforms that don't match the team's. Nick said that was because their ownership and affiliation changed recently. They used to be an affiliate of the Cubs (Jeff Samardzija pitched there). Now they're affiliated with the Rockies. So the team wears Rockies colors, but the mascot and bat boys wear their old uniforms, which had green and red in them.
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| Our view for the Boise Hawks game. It was good to catch up with Nick. I think I had only seen him once since I graduated. |
I was leaving the next day, but my flight was in the afternoon. Nick and his wife both leave for work early, but that was fine with me since I wanted to take a drive to Oregon anyway. I drove about an hour to Ontario, Oregon. I had strawberry pancakes at a diner there. They were good. There's also a museum that I was going to check out, the Four Rivers Cultural Center, but I got there around 9:00 and it didn't open until 10:00. So that was my trip to Oregon. I've now been to 43 states. I just have Maine, Vermont, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, and Hawaii to go.
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| This was in the diner where I had breakfast. |
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| I found this as I was driving around Ontario, Oregon. Fortunately, it's not how I got to Oregon. |
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