Jim vs. Philadelphia

I went down to Philadelphia for some food and Dodger baseball.  The Dodgers were playing July 23-25.  My father’s birthday is July 23 so that was out.  But the July 25 game was at 12:35.  So I was able to go down on Tuesday, July 24, stay one night, and get to two baseball games.  These were my third and fourth games at Citizens Bank Park, which ties it with Nationals Park for seventh place on the list of stadiums where I've seen the most games (behind Shea Stadium, Citi Field, Old Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, New Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park).  The last time I was at Citizens Bank Park, Clayton Kershaw was great.

This was my view for Chase Utley's last game at Citizens Bank Park (unless the Dodgers play the Phillies in the playoffs).

Man vs. Food has done two Philadelphia episodes (one with Adam Richman, one with Casey Webb).  There have been two New York episodes, a Brooklyn episode, a Long Island episode, two Boston episodes, and two Philadelphia episodes.  I’ve been to a lot of Man vs. Food places across the country, but the only place I had been to out of the somewhat close places was the Barking Crab in Boston, but that was only to drink.  I was able to change that with this trip.  I arrived around 1:30 on Tuesday.  My first stop was Mac Mart, which was about a mile away from 30th Street Station.  I got the Crabby Mac, which had cream cheese, jumbo lump crab meat dip, Old Bay, and potato chip panko crunch.  It was really good.  I wish I could try some of their other offerings.

Mac Mart would be the Philadelphia Man vs. Food spot I'd want to go back to the most.

I’ll finish up with Man vs. Food spots and then get to baseball.  When I arrived at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, I went straight to Tony Luke’s.  I got the cheese steak with sharp provolone and grilled onions.  It was a little underwhelming.  It seemed like it was the Citizens Bank Park version of Shake Shack in Citi Field.  It’s out in the outfield and the line is always really long.  It’s the thing to get at Citizens Bank Park.  I have to say, I would get Shake Shack more frequently at Citi Field if the line wasn’t always so long, but I would definitely be more likely to check out the other options at Citizens Bank Park even if the line wasn’t an issue.  I’m not saying that the cheesesteak was bad, but I was expecting it to be better.  I also got some edible cookie dough, which definitely wasn't as good as the edible cookie dough at Citi Field.

The other cheese options were American or Cheese Whiz.  I feel like I made the obvious choice.

The next stop was Spread Bagelry on Wednesday morning.  They do Montreal style bagels.  They boiled and wood-fired or something.  I had a whole wheat everything with cream cheese.  It wasn’t a bad bagel, but I can get a better one on Long Island.  The good was that all the everything was very densely packed on the bagel.  The bad was that it wasn’t quite an everything bagel.  There was no salt.  Or at least if there was, I didn’t notice it.  I don’t need too much salt, but salt is an important component of the everything bagel.

Not bad, but not as good as New York bagels

After Spread, my last Man vs. Food spot was Franklin Fountain.  It was about two miles away.  So I walked and did a little side tour because I passed Independence Hall.  I’ve been there before so I didn’t feel the need to do a tour or anything, but I stopped to take some pictures.  Near Independence Hall is the site of the president’s house from 1790-1800.  And a couple of blocks away is Benjamin Franklin’s grave.  The cemetery is usually open to the public, but because of threatening weather, it was closed.  However, Benjamin Franklin’s grave is right on the edge of the cemetery and there’s an opening in the brick wall covered by bars that lets you see in.  So I’ve now been to the grave sites of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, and a few US presidents (I was at Mount Vernon probably over a little over 20 years ago so Washington plus Truman, Nixon, and Reagan).  After checking all of that, I stopped in at Franklin Fountain.  I was their first customer of the day (it was the combination of wanting to avoid the crowd and the 12:35 baseball game that had me there early).  I got a scoop of peanut butter and a scoop of chocolate with hot fudge.  It was very good (I liked the peanut butter ice cream better than the chocolate).  My one criticism was that the scoops were huge.  This was a whole lot more ice cream than I should be getting if I ordered two scoops.  I didn’t finish it all.  I would prefer a more reasonable amount of ice cream for slightly lower prices.

Independence Hall

This is where the president's house was from 1790-1800.

Benjamin Franklin is buried here.

Yep, it's ice cream in a Chinese food container.

Now let’s get to baseball.  On Tuesday night, the Dodgers got off to a good start.  They were up 4-1.  Yasmani Grandal hit home runs from both sides of the plate.  Kenya Maeda looked very good, but then the seventh inning happened.  The Phillies scored a run to make it 4-2 and then Jorge Alfaro homered to tie the game.  And then nobody scored for a long time.  The game ended up going 16 innings over 5 hours and 55 minutes.  It’s most likely the longest game I’ve ever been to.  The Dodgers had their chances, but they couldn’t score.  Phillies fans were excited when Chase Utley got a pinch hit single in the 12th.  They were also excited that it didn’t lead to the Dodgers scoring.  In the 16th inning, Rich Hill ran from the dugout to the bullpen and started to warm up.  It turns out that he was only going to come in if the Dodgers took the lead.  Instead, Kike Hernandez pitched the bottom of the 16th.  I don’t think I had ever seen a position player pitch.  He got the first batter out and then walked two and gave up a home run to Trevor Plouffe.  Some Dodger fans were upset with Dave Roberts for not using Rich Hill, but I understand it.  With the game tied and the Dodgers on the road, once they got to the bottom of the 16th, the Dodgers had to record at least six outs to win the game.  That would be asking a lot from Hill.  Roberts did something else that nobody really seemed to notice (or at least they had forgotten about it by the time the game ended).  In the bottom of the 9th, JT Chargois got one out and left with a man on second to bring in Zac Rosscup to face a lefty, Nick Williams.  Rosscup walked Williams and then Roberts took him out to have Daniel Hudson to face a switch hitter and a righty.  Now, Rosscup came in with a runner on second in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth.  The batter at the plate meant nothing.  If the guy on second scores, the game is over.  Putting the batter on first base doesn’t hurt you at all (and it would actually kind of help because it could set up a double play).  If Rosscup was only going to face one batter before putting in another righty, why not just walk Nick Williams and have Chargois face the next two guys?  You would have saved two relief pitchers.  They could have helped later in the game.

This was where my ticket was, but I ended up sitting in several different places.

A couple of other notes about the Tuesday game.  As the game went on and people left, I kept moving down.  I watched the last five innings from about 15 rows behind the Dodger dugout.  And I have a few complaints about Citizens Bank Park.  One is that there are two many straight lines in the way the stadium was built.  Besides being a little aesthetically unpleasant, it leads to some sections of seats being weirdly angled to the field (like your seat would be facing foul territory).  And the other complaint is that I remember the beer selection being better.  There was a whole lot of Yuengling.  It’s Philadelphia, I get it.  But they needed more variety.  In the first game, I got a Troegs DreamWeaver.  I bought some Troegs HopBack Amber Ale before the Super Bowl as my pro-Eagles beer and it was pretty good.  But the DreamWeaver was bad.  I think it was the worst beer I’ve ever had at a baseball game.  It reminded me of other bad beers I’ve had, like the Sam Adams Hefeweizen. Sam Adams used to make a good Hefeweizen years ago, but for the last two years they’ve had this version of the Hefeweizen in their summer variety pack and it’s terrible.  I don’t know how to describe the taste of these beers, but it’s like they were stinging my taste buds.  No good.

I watched an inning or two from here.

I watched the last five innings from here.

The Wednesday game got off to a nice start.  A single, a walk, an error, and a sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.  But the Phillies tied it in the bottom of the first.  Walker Buehler looked pretty good after that until the fifth inning.  He gave up four runs and couldn’t get out of the inning.  That was pretty much the game.  Max Muncy hit a home run later to 6-3 and the Phillies ended up winning 7-3.  At this game, I just had a hot dog to eat, which was fine.  To drink, I had a Victory Summer Love, which was fine, but it was further evidence to support my theory that Sam Adams is the only brewery that makes a really good summer beer.  Also, they did a Christmas in July theme because it was five months until Christmas.  They played mostly decent-good Christmas songs.  It was a good reminder to everybody to get all their Christmas shopping done before it’s too late.

The Dodgers just finished their ten-game road trip against three good teams and went 6-4.  That was pretty good, but I saw two of their losses.  In the battle of Jim vs. Philadelphia, Philadelphia won.

Let’s finish off with an updated list of all the Man vs. Food spots I’ve been to:

Syracuse- Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.  I went there with Brother Robert on our trip there for a camping conference in January 2007.  I'm pretty sure it was really good, but it was more than a decade ago and I was really sick so I don't remember it too well.

Washington- Ben's Chili Bowl (Nationals Park version).  I think that’s the only place I’ve had it (and I’ve had it there a couple of times).  It was very good.

Boston- The Barking Crab.  I went with John in 2009 or 2010, but we were only drinking.  It was a great summer day and I was drinking Summer Ale.  So if I did power rankings, this might get the top spot.

Chicago- Gino's East and Lucky’s Sandwich Company.  I think we wanted to go to Gino’s when we were in Chicago for a Cubs game in 2008, but the wait was too long.  But I did get there in 2010 with my brothers.  It's probably my only real experience with Chicago pizza.  It's kind of hard to consider New York pizza and Chicago pizza the same food.  Chicago pizza is kind of like a cheese pie.  If I had to pick New York or Chicago pizza, it's easily New York pizza.  But if I had to pick between pizza from Gino's or pizza from the best spot in some random city, I'd go with Gino's.  Other cities probably try to do an imitation of New York pizza and don't come close.  As for Lucky’s I had their 2 Bagger Sandwich, which has corned beef, pastrami, coleslaw, and fries all on the sandwich.  It was very good.

Los Angeles- Felippe's and El Tepeyac.  I went to Felippe's in 2011 with my brothers and El Tepeyac in 2015 with Pete.  Felippe's had some good French Dip sandwiches.  El Tepeyac was good Mexican, but I feel like there are lots of places where you can find good Mexican food.

Pittsburgh- Primanti Brothers.  I went with Jon in 2012.  They have sandwiches with fries on the sandwich. This is one of the few places where I had exactly what Adam had.  I remember it was good, but there was a fried egg on the sandwich, but the meat kind of overwhelmed the egg so you didn't really notice it.  Pittsburgh is high on my list of cities to get back to because I’ve only done one game at PNC Park, which is great.  Maybe next year.

Phoenix- Alice Cooperstown.  I remember that Adam had the Big Unit Dog, which was a two-foot long hot dog with all sorts of stuff on it.  I had a burger, but I can't really remember it.

Atlanta- Vortex Bar and Grill.  I went with Dennis in 2013.  Adam had the Triple Bypass Burger.  I had a burger with blue cheese.  It was really good, probably the best food of all these places that I can remember.

Detroit- American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island.  I went in 2014.  These two compete with each other.  I had the Coney Island Dog at both places and liked Lafayette's better.

Salt Lake City- Bruges Waffles and Frites.  I went in 2015 and had what Adam had, the Machine Gun sandwich, which also has fries on the sandwich.  I didn't love the sandwich, but the fries and sauces were good.  But they weren't quite as good as European Republic's fries and sauces.

Cincinnati- Tom and Chee.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dipping.  It was simple, but good.

Minneapolis/St. Paul- The 5-8 Club and Mickey’s Diner.  I went to the 5-8 Club with Dennis in 2015.  I had the Juicy Lucy with blue cheese.  It was good, but not as good as the burger at Vortex in Atlanta.  On that same trip, Dennis took me to Mickey’s Diner for breakfast.  I’m pretty sure this is the only place I went to before it was on Man vs. Food.  I don’t remember what I had, but I’m pretty sure it was good.

Boise- Big Jud's.  I wish I had known to ask for no mustard on my burger.  The burger was good, but New Yorkers do not like mustard on burgers.  It would rank behind Vortex and the 5-8 Club.

New Orleans- Mother's Restaurant.  I had the Ferdi Special, which was what Adam had when he went.  It had ham, roast beef, their debris with real au jus sauce (I tried to find the video of Kramer celebrating selling his stories to Peterman, but I don't think it's on YouTube).  It was good, but it's not like I'd make a point of going there again if I was in New Orleans.

Honolulu- Helena’s Hawaiian Food and Mac 24/7.  I had what Adam had at Helena’s Hawaiian Food, laulau and pipikuala ribs.  The ribs were very good.  I had the short stack of blueberry pancakes, which was the almost normal sized version of what Adam had (that was the challenge).  They were good, but I couldn’t finish them.

Charleston- Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park.  This was on the ballpark episode, but I didn’t have what Adam had so I don’t really count this one.

Hartford- Woody’s.  I had the Deputy Dog (which is what Adam had).  They take a hot dog and top it with pulled pork, cheddar cheese, and barbecue sauce.  The bun is grilled and it was like the bread on grilled cheese.  It was really good.  The dog was excellent and so were the toppings.

Denver- Cherry Cricket.  I got a burger with hot jack cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, and grilled onions.  It was good, but not as good as the burger at Vortex in Atlanta.

San Francisco- Ike’s Place and Taqueria La Cumbre.  I’ve been to Ike’s Place twice.  I got sandwiches named after Adam Richman (fried chicken, ham, Swiss, pesto, honey, and avocado) and Joe Montana (chicken, bacon, Asian sesame dressing, avocado, havarti).  The Joe Montana was better.  I had a vegetarian burrito at Taqueria La Cumbre.  It was fine.

Memphis- Gus’s Fried Chicken.  It was tasty, but I don’t think it lived up to the hype from Adam Richman and Bill Simmons.

San Diego- Lucha Libre (Petco Park version), Broken Yolk Cafe, and Phil’s BBQ (San Diego Airport version).  I had what Adam had, the Surfin' California burrito.  It has shrimp, steak, fries, pico de gallo, jack cheese, avocado, and chipotle sauce.  It was pretty good, but I would prefer just shrimp or just steak rather than both.  At the Broken Yolk I had a veggie omelette.  I didn’t like it that much.  And I had what Adam had at Phil’s BBQ, the El Toro Sandwich, which has tri-tip and barbecue sauce.  I didn’t particularly like the barbecue sauce, but it was still a pretty good sandwich.

Las Vegas/Reno- Hash House A Go Go.  Adam went to the Las Vegas location.  I went to the Reno location.  I got the Healthy Start Scramble.  It was egg whites with tomatoes, onions, and peppers served with fruit.  It was pretty good.

Philadelphia- Mac Mart, Tony Luke’s, Spread Bagelry, and Franklin Fountain.  You just read about them.

Home Under the Dome

After Little Rock, it was time for the main event of my trip.  I was headed back to Notre Dame.  I flew from Little Rock to O’Hare on Thursday morning.  The bus I was going to take to Notre Dame got canceled so I had to wait an extra two hours.  O’Hare is a decent enough airport (I’ve complained about it before, but that was mostly because I got stuck there overnight).  But the bus/shuttle center is by far the most depressing part of the airport.  If you ever find yourself waiting for a bus there, just walk across the street and sit in the lobby of the Hilton.  I’ve stayed in that Hilton on a few occasions and this time I made use of it for a few hours to relax and listen to podcasts while I charged my phone.  Anyway, I finally made it back to campus around 5:30.  It would have been nice to get there earlier, but Dennis was in class all day and I still had the next day with Dennis in class to explore campus on my own.

It's always good to be back home at Notre Dame.

So I met Dennis and dropped off my stuff in his room and then we went to dinner at Rohr’s in the Morris Inn.  To drink I had a Space Station from Indiana’s largest brewery, 3 Floyds.  When I had a second beer, I ordered the other one they had from 3 Floyds, but I suspect that the waitress brought me another Space Station.  But it was good.  And now Alaska is the only state I still have to drink a beer from.

My 49th beer state

After dinner, we went to mass at the Grotto.  I think I once went to the Rosary with Jim Caviezel at the Grotto when I was a student, but I don’t think I had ever gone to mass at the Grotto before.  Jim Caviezel also once drunkenly made his way through the student section at a football game.  I'm pretty sure I had a picture of me next to him, but I couldn't find it.  Anyway, the mass was at 8:00 and it was still very light out when it was over.  The sun sets more than 50 minutes later there than it does on Long Island so that’s pretty cool.  What’s not too cool is when you have an early class in the winter and it’s still dark outside when you’re going to class.  After mass, I headed to my hotel.

On Friday, I got to campus around 11:00 and walked around for a bit before going to the 11:30 mass in the basilica.  Then it was more walking around campus for a little bit.  I checked out the Duncan Student Center, which is one of the new buildings attached to the football stadium.  That is quite an impressive building.  I tried to go all the way to the top to check out the view of the field or of the rest of campus, but the elevator wouldn’t go past the 5th floor (there were nine floors).  For old time’s sake, I got lunch at Subway in LaFortune.  When I was a student, I pretty much had free Subway thanks to the flex points that were part of the meal plan.

Before mass in the basilica

Touchdown Jesus

Then it was time for my stadium tour.  The last time I was in the stadium was pretty miserable.  We lost to Duke.  We went 4-8 in Brian Kelly’s 7th year.  He’s coached eight years and is 0-2 in major bowl games.  But he’s still our coach.  Great.  Anyway, this was my first time in the stadium since the renovations were complete.  I had done the stadium tour while the renovations were going on in February 2016.  This was very different.  We started at the Frank Leahy Gate (on the south end of the stadium) and walked on the west side of the stadium.  Our first view of the field was from the student section.  Then they took us outside the stadium to the Knute Rockne Gate (on the north side of the stadium) and back inside.  From there, we got to go into the tunnel and touch the Play Like a Champion Today sign.  Last time, we got to go into the locker room and touch the sign on the way out to the field.  But the locker room was not included this time.  And then we got to go out to the field.  It was cool that we got to run all around the field if we wanted.  Last time, we just came out of the tunnel and stood on the end of the field (but the field was covered with snow that time).  But I would gladly give up the ability to walk all around the field if we could get real grass back in the stadium.  The video board was not on while I was in the stadium, but I noticed earlier when I was walking around in the library that it was one and it was showing highlights from our Citrus Bowl win over LSU (I could see the top of the board from the windows on the second floor of the library).  So the tour was cool, but I would include the locker room if possible and they definitely should have taken us up to one of the suites at the top of the one of the buildings on the side of the field.  They should be trying to show those off.

My first view of the field since the renovations were completed.

Not the best camerawork by one of the tour guides, but I'll take it.

You can see the video board on the other end of the field.

I'd gladly give up the opportunity to stand on the field and a Garth Brooks concert if we could get real grass back in the stadium.

After that, I went back to LaFortune and watched some Wimbledon and charged my phone while I waited for Dennis to get done with class.  I had watched a little of the Isner/Anderson match before the tour.  Unfortunately I missed the end of it during the tour.  I was hoping it would keep going.  It was frustrating to be so close to having an American male back in the Wimbledon final and then lose 26-24 in the last set (but he probably would have fared as well against Djokovic as Anderson did after that match if he had won).

Then I met up with Dennis for some Single-A baseball.  It was the Beloit Snappers against the South Bend Cubs at Four Winds Field.  The stadium has been around since 1987, but I never went as a student (it’s a few miles from campus).  We watched an inning and then took a lap around the stadium.  We saw a couple of kids walking around like they had just gone swimming and we were confused.  Then we saw a little area out in right field with water shooting around that kids could play in.  In left field, there were buildings that had seats on the roof like you have outside of Wrigley Field.  The beer selection was pretty good.  We both had a Bell’s Amber Ale.  Bell’s is from Michigan.  The beer was good and there were a few other craft options.  But they should get some Indiana beer in there.  There were a number of food options and the lines were not too long.  We both got cheesesteaks from a stand called Steakadelphia.  They were pretty good.  The video board was the nicest one I’ve seen at a minor league stadium.  Attendance was listed at 6,720 even though capacity is listed at 5,000.  So it was a good crowd in a good-looking stadium with good, but not great, food and beer options.  I am going to put it at fourth on my minor league ballpark rankings.  It’s really close between this one and Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, but that one gets the edge for the superior food and beer options.  But I am putting this one ahead of Dickey-Stephens Park, which I had visited two days earlier and liked a lot.  I have one more minor league game on the schedule for this year and that will probably be the last one.  I’ll give you complete updated rankings after I get to that one.

We were in the second row behind the dugout and nobody was sitting in front of us.

I stopped by the Grotto after the game when it was dark because that was the only time I was on campus when it was dark on this trip.  The next morning I get breakfast with Dennis at the South Dining Hall (I almost always ate at the North Dining Hall when I was a student).  Then he had some work to do and I walked around campus a little bit more before getting on the bus to head home.  It was the third time since I graduated that I was back on campus for something other than a football Saturday in the fall.  The first time was in 2009, which was sort of a football weekend.  I was there for the Blue-Gold Game, which was combined with my first trip to Wrigley Field.  The next time was in 2016 for a stadium tour, a basketball game (a win over Louisville), and a hockey game (a win over Maine).  I love going to football games (you know, when we aren’t losing to Syracuse or Duke), but it is nice to be on campus when there aren’t 80,000 people there.  This was the first time that I was ever on campus in July (June is now the only month I haven’t been on campus).  It looks like I won’t be going to a game on campus this year so I don’t know when I’ll be back.  But it was great to see Dennis and be back on campus this time.

One of my favorite spots on campus

I’ll finish up with an updated list of beers I’ve had from 49 states plus Washington DC (in the order that I've been to each place):

1. New York- Bluepoint, Sand City, Brooklyn, Bronx, etc.
2. New Jersey- Twin Elephant
3. Connecticut- City Steam Naughty Nurse
4. Pennsylvania- Yuengling, Troegs Hopback Amber Ale
5. Ohio- Great Lakes Brewing Company, Rivertown Brewery
6. Florida- Cigar City Tampa-Style Lager
7. Rhode Island- Narragansett Lager
8. Massachusetts- Sam Adams, Harpoon, probably others
9. Delaware- Iron Hill, Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company
10. Maryland- Flying Dog Brewery
11. Washington DC- Right Proper Raised by Wolves
12. Virginia- Port City Optimal Wit
13. Indiana- 3 Floyds Space Station
14. Illinois- Goose Island, possibly others
15. Kentucky- Kentucky Vanilla Barrel Cream Ale
16. Tennessee- Memphis Made Lucid Kolsch
17. Georgia- Sweetwater Grass Monkey
18. Michigan- Bell's Oberon, Bell’s Amber
19. New Hampshire- Moat Mountain Every Night IPA
20. California- Point the Way IPA (Golden Road Brewing), Coronado Brewing, Lagunitas, others 
21. North Carolina- Olde Hickory Pale Ale, Foothills
22. Nevada- Brew Brothers Redhead Amber Ale, Brew Brothers Carano Extra
23. Arizona- Four Peaks Kilt Lifter Scottish Style Ale
24. Colorado- Boulder
25. Wyoming- Melvin IPA
26. Wisconsin- Leinenkugel's
27. Texas- Shiner (probably some other stuff too when I visited Wilhelm)
28. Washington- Fremont
29. Missouri- Schlafly, Boulevard
30. Arkansas- Diamond Bear Pale Ale
31. Oklahoma- COOP Alpha Hive
32. Kansas- Defiance Fuzzy Knuckles
33. West Virginia- Almost Heaven Amber Ale
34. Utah- Moab Rocket Bike Amber Lager
35. New Mexico- It was probably something from the Sierra Blanca Brewing Company, I remember there was local beer with baseball-themed tap handles, my googling indicates that something from the Sierra Blanca Brewing Company is most likely what I had
36. Alabama- Yellowhammer Rebellion Red Ale
37. Minnesota- Surly, Summit
38. Iowa- West O Blackberry Coco Stout
39. Nebraska- Prairie Pride Trouble in Dublin
40. South Dakota- Crow Peak IPA
41. North Dakota- Fargo Brewing Company
42. Montana- Uberbrew
43. Idaho- Crooked Fence Barrelhouse Welcome to Idaho, Grand Teton Ale 208
44. Oregon- Widmer Brothers
45. Maine- Shipyard
46. Vermont- Long Trail
47. Louisiana- Courtyard Blanch de Orleans
48. Mississippi- Biloxi Beach Blonde
49. Hawaii- Waikiki Brewing Company
50. South Carolina- Palmetto Amber

Little Rock, Ugly Tree

After knocking out beer from several states with trips to Omaha and Harpers Ferry, I was down to three states to drink a beer from.  One was Indiana, which has to be the state that I’ve spent the second most time in (after New York and Indiana, the next few would have to be Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts in some order).  It’s quite possible that I’ve had an Indiana beer before, but I don’t remember it.  I googled the biggest breweries in Indiana and didn’t see anything that I recognized.  When I was in college, it was mostly Sam Adams, Guinness, and cheap beer (not necessarily in that order).  The other two states were Arkansas and Alaska.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Alaska beer out west a couple of times, but I’ve been holding off until I actually get to Alaska (maybe next year).  I made the mistake of not drinking any Arkansas beer when I was there in 2014.  It was just a stop on my trip where I went to games in St. Louis and Kansas City.  I also used that trip as my excuse to get to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  Arkansas was the only state other than Missouri where I spent the night.  I went to a minor league game in Springdale and I’m pretty sure I had a Sam Adams.  Even if there was no local beer, I should have just stopped at a bar or something.  Anyway, I wanted to visit Notre Dame this summer, but I used that trip as an excuse to get back to Arkansas.

I flew to Little Rock and got to my hotel around 2:00.  My first stop was the Clinton Library, my seventh presidential library.  The design was inspired by the library at Trinity College in Dublin, which I’ve been to.  But the museum was underwhelming.  Maybe I’m just not remembering the other ones I’ve been to, but this one seemed more political and less historical.  It kind of presented things as “Bill Clinton would have solved all the world’s problems, but the Republicans kept getting in the way.”  Of course, Clinton is the only president with a presidential library that was impeached (they only go back to Hoover).  They had the presidential limo, but that wasn’t as cool as Air Force One and Marine One (we couldn’t go in the limo).  There was a recreation of the cabinet room so that was kind of cool.  They had Clinton’s Oval Office, but you couldn’t take pictures inside.  You could have a professional photographer take your picture and then buy it for $30, but I wasn’t going to do that.  There was a lot of information, but I was expecting to see more stuff.  The temporary exhibit was on music and the country.  That was interesting, but it seemed incomplete. They showed a bunch of presidents with their campaign songs and what the popular songs were when they became president, but it only went up to Carter.  What up with that?

The presidential limo

The cabinet room

There was a football signed by Joe Montana, but that didn't make for a very good picture.  The ugliest Christmas tree I've ever seen makes for a better picture.  Apparently that thing was in the White House one of the years that Clinton was president.  I assume that it wasn't the official White House Christmas Tree.

So here are my updated presidential library rankings:

7.  Bill Clinton
6.  Jimmy Carter
5.  John F. Kennedy
4.  Richard Nixon
3.  Harry Truman
2.  George W. Bush
1.  Ronald Reagan

And here’s how I’d rank the ones I haven’t been to in terms of how much I’d want to get to each one (Obama’s hasn’t been built yet):

6.  Gerald Ford- The mid-70s, not a fun time.
5.  Herbert Hoover- The Great Depression, and even worse time, but at least more interesting than the mid-70s.
4.  George H.W. Bush- He’s the first president that I can remember being president, but I don’t find him that interesting.  There’s probably some interesting stuff about the Cold War coming to an end, but I’ve argued that the Cold War actually ended before he was president (even if it did end during his presidency, he doesn’t deserve any credit for it).
3.  Dwight Eisenhower- I’m more interested in Eisenhower in terms of World War II than as president.  They probably have some World War II stuff.
2.  Lyndon Johnson- He has a very mixed legacy.  Civil rights- good.  Vietnam- bad.  It would be interesting to see how that’s handled.
1.  Franklin Roosevelt- The Great Depression and most of World War II.  Lots of interesting stuff.  It’s also the presidential library closest to me (much closer than any of the other ones I haven’t been to).  I don’t know if I’ll get to any of the other ones that I haven’t been to yet, but I should get to the Roosevelt Library at some point.

After the Clinton Library, I went over to Central High School, which is famous for the Little Rock Nine.  When Governor Orval Faubus tried to prevent integration in 1957, Dwight Eisenhower sent troops to escort the black students to school.  There are benches outside the school with the names of the students engraved in them.

The sun made it difficult to get a decent picture of Central High School.

At night I was off to Dickey-Stephens Park for some Double-A baseball.  The Arkansas Travelers beat the Springfield Cardinals 3-2.  It was an impressive minor league stadium.  The crowd was good (attendance was listed at 7,700 even though capacity is 7,200).  The beer selection was very good.  I had a Diamond Bear Pale Ale, which was solid.  There were several other local options.  The food selection was decent.  I had a barbecue sandwich, which was fine, but nothing that stood out.  I had a nice view of downtown Little Rock from my seat.  The other thing that stood out was that the right field fence was very low and that short fence extended most of the way to center field.  You can find some short fences in the corners at some places.  Dodger Stadium’s fences are short in the corners, but they don’t extend nearly as far toward center.  Fenway Park has an extended short fence in right field, but I think Fenway’s is at least a foot taller (the short Dodger Stadium fences might be taller also).  I was struck by the combination of how short the fence was and how far it extended.  The stadium reminded me a little bit of Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, but not quite as good.  Two things keep that one ahead of Dickey-Stephens Park.  The food was not as good at Dickey-Stephens Park.  And Dickey-Stephens Park had the worst video board I can remember outside of the pre-renovation Nassau Coliseum.  When they showed replays, it was like you were watching baseball from the 1970s.  They were seriously lacking in pixels.  But it’s a minor league park, so whatever.  I was ready to slide Dickey-Stephens Park in at number 4 on my minor league stadium rankings, but I had another leg of my trip to go.  I’ll get to that trip soon.

My view for the game

My 48th beer state