A Stadium Down By the River

Thanks to Adam Sandler for reminding me of Chris Farley, who provided the inspiration for the title of this post (by the way, I recently learned that Matt Foley was named after one of Chris Farley’s friends from college who became a priest).

I went to Pittsburgh on Memorial Day Weekend for a couple Dodgers-Pirates games.  Of the top 17 in my stadium rankings, the only ones that I hadn’t been to more than once were PNC Park, Kauffman Stadium, Great American Ballpark, Safeco Field, and Busch Stadium.  Of those, PNC was the highest ranked so I definitely wanted to get back and the Dodgers were playing there on a holiday weekend so it worked out (I’d love to get back to Kauffman Stadium and I think the Dodgers are playing there next year so that might happen).  So I was off to Pittsburgh on an eight-hour bus ride on Saturday morning.  I got to Pittsburgh around 4:40 and considered going to a vigil mass, but my bus got in just late enough that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the 5:00 mass at the church closest to my hotel.  So I relaxed for a little bit and then headed to the ballpark.

The forecast for both days was questionable.  It wasn’t raining when I got there, but after taking a lap around the ballpark, I went to my seat close to when the game was supposed to start and they still had the pitcher’s mound and home plate area covered.  Nobody was warming up so I knew the start would be delayed.  They probably could have started the game on time and played an inning or two, but the rain did come.  There definitely would have been a delay and both teams might have lost their starting pitchers because of that.  So I figured I might as well get some food while I was waiting for the game to start.  I got boneless wings from Quaker Steak and Lube, which was on the Adam Richman Pittsburgh episode of Man vs. Food.  I got the wings with the Louisiana Lickers sauce (partially because they were listed as LA Lickers and I was rooting for the LA Dodgers).  The wings were pretty good (I liked the LA Lickers much better than the LA Lakers), but they could have been a little bit hotter (as in temperature).  When the rain came, I moved up to covered seats but the wind kind of nullified the point of sitting there, but I had a poncho that I bought at a Notre Dame football game years ago that came in handy.  They were showing the Braves-Cardinals on the video board during the delay so that was cool.  When the rain stopped, I watched the grounds crew get the field ready for a little bit.  They took off the tarp and you could see the infield dirt stuck to the underside of the dirt.  I’ve seen that before, but what I don’t think I had ever seen before was the grounds crew salvaging the dirt (I tried to find the clip of Kramer salvaging the barbecue sauce, but that doesn’t appear to be on YouTube).  They used leaf blowers, shovels, and wheelbarrows to recover the dirt from the tarp.  I timed my trip for a beer so that I’d be at my seat in time for the start of the game.  I got a Firehouse Red from the North Country Brewing Company in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.  It was pretty solid, but I do have a criticism of PNC Park’s beer selection.  It’s not bad, but there weren’t enough options on the upper level where I was sitting.  There’s one bar behind home plate that had a pretty good selection (it could be better, but it definitely wasn’t bad), but that was pretty much it.  On the lower level, there were little stands that had other options.  They could use that on the upper level as well.

This was the second straight game that I went to with Hyun-Jin Ryu facing the Pirates.  In Los Angeles, he gave up two runs in seven innings and got the win.  He gave up one run in his next start and was coming in with 31 consecutive scoreless innings.  He got to 32.  The Pirates scored two in the second to take a 2-1 lead.  Ryu allowed ten hits in six innings, but those were the only two runs he gave up.  Ryu gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead with an RBI double on a deep fly ball to right center in the fourth.  He didn’t miss a home run by much.  The Dodgers took control of the game in the fifth.  They started the inning with back to back to back doubles by Max Muncy, Corey Seager, and Cody Bellinger.  The Dodgers ended up winning 7-2.  This was a weird game for 2019.  The teams combined for 24 hits, no home runs, and only eight strikeouts.

It would have been nice to watch some of the game from this view before the sun set.  You can see the Roberto Clemente Bridge crossing the Allegheny River.

This is what it looked like by the time of the first pitch.

On Sunday, I went to the 10:30 mass at St. Peter’s in Pittsburgh.  Again, the forecast was bad.  It rained during mass, but that was done by the time mass ended.  After mass, I walked down to PNC Park and took pictures of the statues outside the park.  They have statues of Honus Wagner, Bill Mazeroski, Willie Stargell, and Roberto Clemente.  The game didn’t start until 1:35 so I got a ride to the Church Brew Works, which was on the Casey Webb version of Man vs. Food.  The building was St. John the Baptist Catholic Church until it was closed in 1993.  In 1996, the building became the Church Brew Works.  They kept all the stained glass windows.  To drink, I had the Pious Monk Dunkel.  I think a Dunkel is pretty safe.  I’m probably going to like it, but I probably won’t love it.  It was good, but nothing special.  To eat, I had the same thing Casey had, the buffalo chicken pierogi sauté.  It was pretty tasty, but it could have used some blue cheese chunks in there.

Honus Wagner is a Hall of Famer.  He was the anti-Ty Cobb, but he's probably best known for having the most valuable baseball card of all time.

A meal straight out of Man vs. Food.

It's sad when a church closes, but at least the building is being put to good use.

Then I headed back to the stadium.  The forecast kept improving.  On Saturday night and Sunday morning it had been like 80-90% chance of rain/thunderstorms in the afternoon and cloudy when it wasn’t supposed to be raining.  My bus back to New York wasn’t until 11:00 so a rain delay wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, but the rain held off.  Actually, there was a decent amount of sun.  After the second inning, I had to buy overpriced sunscreen at the team store.  I had packed sunscreen, but I didn’t bring it with me and I didn’t think to put it on because of the forecast.  It was definitely needed.

Anyway, this game was Kenta Maeda vs. Chris Archer.  I saw the Dodgers beat Archer in Los Angeles so I was hoping for the same result again.  I was also hoping that Clayton Kershaw would be pitching.  Maeda was on the injured list (his injury was that the Dodgers had four off days in two weeks and only needed four starters) and this was the first day he was eligible to come back.  Kershaw would have been on regular rest.  So I figured they’d either bring back Maeda as soon as possible or they’d wait until they needed a fifth starter again.  But they went with Maeda and Kershaw pitched the next day back in Los Angeles.  The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead on a home run by Corey Seager in the second.  Again, the Pirates came back and took the lead.  Josh Bell hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second.  Again, the Pirates couldn’t hold the lead.  Matt Beaty had a two-run single in the fifth and Corey Seager followed with an RBI groundout.  Chris Archer was fortunate to only give up four runs in five innings.  He allowed six hits and six walks.  The Dodgers took control in the sixth.  They scored six in an inning that featured a Joc Pederson home run and consecutive batters being hit by pitches with the bases loaded.  The Dodgers ended up winning 11-7.  Justin Turner had five singles in five at bats plus a walk.  I’ll just note that I like Dave Roberts, but I have my questions about the lineup.  Cody Bellinger has been hitting fourth pretty consistently.  That’s better than when he was hitting sixth in Chicago, but you have to make sure he comes up in the first inning.  Also, in this game Matt Beaty was hitting ahead of Corey Seager.  Both are left handed, Seager is starting to hit (he was struggling for a while), and Matt Beaty has never done anything in the Majors.

My view on Sunday

I didn’t have anything to eat or drink at the game because I went to the Church Brew Works before the game and I was planning on going to another Man vs. Food spot, Primanti Brothers, after the game.  There’s one across the bridge and fairly close to the stadium.  That’s the one Jon took me to seven years ago.  I decided to take the longer walk (about a mile and a half) to the original location because I figured there wouldn’t be as big of a crowd.  I had the same thing Adam had (the same thing I had seven years ago), the capicola and cheese with a fried egg.  Like Lucky’s in Chicago, they put fries and coleslaw on the sandwich.  It’s very good, but the egg doesn’t add a whole lot because it pretty much gets overwhelmed by everything else on the sandwich.

Another meal right out of Man vs. Food.

After going to Wrigley Field in April (for the first time since the renovations were complete), I said I had to wait and see if I would put it ahead of PNC Park.  My stadium rankings are not based on any mathematical formula or anything like that.  I might have explained this on the blog before, but here’s how I rank them:  Imagine that all 30 teams were eliminated and replaced with 30 completely new teams using the current stadiums and I own one of the teams.  Which stadium would I want my team to play in?  The obvious answer would be Citi Field since I live on Long Island, but let’s assume I can live anywhere I want.  Which stadium would I pick?  That’s based on location, design of the stadium, food and beverage, history, atmosphere, and whatever else I want to throw into the mix.  Based on all that, PNC Park is the best one built during my lifetime.  But I’m taking Wrigley Field ahead of it.  So since my last rankings, I’ve moved Wrigley Field ahead of Kauffman Stadium, Petco Park, and PNC Park.  The renovations were helpful.  They definitely improved their beer selection (which could still be better).  The history isn’t as great as you might think since Wrigley Field went 101 years between championship baseball teams playing there (the 1915 Chicago Whales of the Federal League and the 2016 Cubs), but it gets points for being around since 1914.  Since the Cubs have been good for a while now, the atmosphere is definitely better than the three that I moved it ahead of.  Petco Park and PNC Park both have great locations, but so does Wrigley Field.  The ivy gives Wrigley Field something unique.

Other than the Dodgers, I want to see teams with good stadiums do well and make the playoffs because I don’t want to watch playoff games at Tropicana Field or wherever.  So here’s my ideal group of playoff teams:

NL West:  Dodgers
NL Central:  Cubs
NL East:  Nationals Park
NL Wild Cards:  Pirates and Padres (the Giants would be next according to my stadium rankings, but they’re still last on the list)

AL West:  Mariners (it’s been a long time)
AL Central:  Royals
AL East:  Red Sox
AL Wild Cards:  Twins and Yankees (I do have Camden Yards one spot ahead of Yankee Stadium, but come on, the playoffs are more fun with the Yankees involved, and my dream World Series would be the Dodgers beating the Yankees, followed by the Dodgers beating the Red Sox)

It was a good time in Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh is an underrated city.  They have a great ballpark.  I went to my first college football game there (a 42-21 win for Notre Dame over Pittsburgh to start the 2005 season).  And it was Gotham City in the Dark Knight Rises.  It was fun to be back.  I’ve now seen the Dodgers play in 10 National League stadiums.  The ones I haven’t seen the Dodgers play in are Marlins Park, Suntrust Park, Busch Stadium, Great American Ballpark, and Miller Park.  I don’t really need to see the Dodgers play in any of those stadiums, but it would be cool to see Dodgers-Cardinals in St. Louis.  Maybe if they play the Cardinals and Royals on the same road trip and it’s during the summer next year, I might have to make that happen.

I’ll finish up with this.  It was just announced that the Braves are getting the All Star Game in 2021.  The Indians have it this year and the Dodgers have it next year.  The Phillies get it in 2026 to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.  Here’s how I would do the next decade plus of All Star Games:

2019:  Cleveland- this was already decided.  The last All Star Game in Cleveland was in 1997.
2020:  Los Angeles- this was already decided.  Dodger Stadium is overdue as the last one there was in 1980.
2021:  Atlanta- this was already decided.  The last one in Atlanta was 2000, but that was at Turner Field.
2022:  Baltimore- the last one there was in 1993.
2023:  Wrigley Field- I would have had this in 2022, but I decided not to go with three straight in NL stadiums.  The last one at Wrigley Field was 1990 and the last one in Chicago was 2003.
2024:  Texas- the last one there was in 1995.  This would be the fifth year of their new stadium.
2025:  Boston- the last one there was 1999.  It would also mark the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts.
2026:  Philadelphia- this was already decided.  The last one there was 1996.
2027:  Seattle- I wanted an AL stadium and I didn’t want three straight in the Northeast.  The last one there was 2001.
2028:  Colorado- It’s a nice stadium even though baseball at altitude doesn’t work.  The last one there was 1998.
2029:  Yankee Stadium- It will be the 20th anniversary of the new Yankee Stadium.  The last one at the old stadium was 2008.  The last All Star Game in New York was 2013.
2030:  Pittsburgh- I certainly would have used Pittsburgh earlier, but I was ending some longer All Star Game droughts.  The last one there was 2006.
2031:  Expansion city or new stadium for the A’s or Rays

Jackie, Dodger Dogs, and Fireworks

My last stop on my Easter vacation trip was Los Angeles.  I had a flight at 5:00 in the morning central time to Phoenix and then I flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles.  I did not sleep well the night before.  I had barely gotten any sleep and the guy at the front desk set my wake up call for an hour before I wanted it.  Usually I just use my phone as an alarm, but when I’m at a hotel and I have to get up that early for a flight or something, I’ll go with the wake up call also.  I’m reminded of this:

After the early wake up call, I wasn’t getting back to sleep.  So I got to Los Angeles early in the day, but I was ridiculously tired.  Sean picked me up from the airport.  Between how tired I was and Catherine not feeling well, Thursday was a quiet day.  I watched the end of the Dodger game on TV (after losing two games in Chicago, they avoided the sweep), took a nap, and then Sean and I watched the NFL Draft.  After that, we got some late night In-N-Out.  So I did one California thing on my first day there.

We had a lot more planned for Friday.  First up was a tour of the Rose Bowl.  The Rose Bowl is the one bowl game that I’ll always be interested in regardless of whether or not it’s a playoff game.  The stadium has so much history.  The Rose Bowl game has been played there every year since 1923, with the exception of 1942 (when it was played at Duke because of the start of World War II).  There were five Super Bowls played there.  John Madden won Super Bowl XI there with the Raiders.  The Rams lost to the Steelers in the only Super Bowl that a team got to play at home (sort of, the Rose Bowl was not the Rams’ home stadium).  Notre Dame alum Joe Theismann led the Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XVII.  Phil Simms had a record-setting performance and Bill Parcells won his first Super Bowl in Super Bowl XXI.  The only Rose Bowl Super Bowl that I remember is Super Bowl XXVII when the Cowboys blew out the Bills.  They’ll probably never play another Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, but I’d much rather see one played there again rather than the new stadium being built for the Rams and Chargers (the Chargers should move back to San Diego and the Raiders should move to Los Angeles instead of Las Vegas, but that’s a whole other story).  I did some quick research and as far as I can tell, Notre Dame is 2-0 in games played at the Rose Bowl.  Knute Rockne finished the 1924 undefeated National Championship season with a 27-10 win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1925.  And we beat UCLA 20-6 in the disastrous 2007 season.  I think that’s the only Notre Dame football game that wasn’t shown on TV in New York since I graduated.  That season was a complete disaster, but I still listened to the radio broadcast on the internet.  It was the same night that Stanford beat USC when they were 41-point underdogs (that was a Stanford team that we later beat that season, amazingly we were 2-1 against the Pac 10 that year).  And after going to the only current Major League Baseball stadium where Jackie Robinson played, I wondered if he played at the Rose Bowl for UCLA.  The answer is no.  UCLA didn’t play their home games at the Rose Bowl until 1982.  UCLA made the 1943 Rose Bowl, but that was after Jackie Robinson’s time (he was on the team in 1939 and 1940).  But Jackie Robinson did play football at the Rose Bowl before he went to UCLA, when he was a student at Pasadena Junior College.  So yes, I visited two stadiums that still stand where Jackie Robinson once played.

Me and Sean outside the Rose Bowl

Knute Rockne and the Four Horsemen led Notre Dame to victory and a National Championship in the 1925 Rose Bowl.

As for the tour, we were there at the wrong time.  I was definitely getting to Los Angeles at some point this year for a Dodger game, but the only question was when.  I’ve wanted to do a Rose Bowl tour for a while.  I figure I’m most likely never going to see a game there (if Notre Dame makes it to the Rose Bowl when it’s a playoff game after the 2020 season, that would be pretty cool because it would be a Friday so I could go to the game and come back home without missing work).  They only offer public tours of the Rose Bowl on the last Friday of the month, when seems a little weird.  I guess it’s not like a baseball stadium.  It doesn’t have games 81 times a year.  It’s a little out of the way.  Even if the Cubs are away, a Wrigley Field tour is something you might do if you’re in Chicago.  If you’re in Los Angeles, going to Pasadena for a Rose Bowl tour is not going to be something that a lot of people are going to do.  So the reason Los Angeles was included on my Easter vacation trip was that it let me get out there on the last Friday of April.  The only other month where the Dodgers are home for the last Friday of the month is May.  Actually, I guess I could have used Ascension Thursday and taken that Friday off and gone out that weekend, but that thought never crossed my mind.  I might have done the summer if that would have worked with a Rose Bowl tour.  Anyway, on this particular Friday, they were getting ready for some concert at the Rose Bowl.  So we couldn’t go on the field and they didn’t even want us to take pictures of the field as they were setting up.  The field was covered because of the concert, unfortunately.  The tour guide said that they keep it painted for UCLA football throughout the year (I guess except for when they’re getting it ready for the Rose Bowl game), possibly for recruiting purposes.  It would have been cool to see that.  They took us up into the broadcast booth, which is at the 50 yard line and way up there.  There were windows that were closed, but apparently they’re open for games and the broadcasters are required to be tethered into the booth because it would be a very long fall from the booth if they fell out.  We also saw the press box where reporters would be during games.  And then we went down to the original 1923 locker room, which was very small.  Now they have all sorts of Rose Bowl history stuff on display there and they show you a video about the Rose Bowl in there as well.  So I’m glad I got to see the Rose Bowl, but it would have been cool to go on the field, or at least see the grass.  They also never took us into the seating area.  I noticed a statue maybe 100 yards away from the gate that we had entered.  It was obviously a football player so I was curious if it was Jackie Robinson.  It could have just been a random football player, but it was in fact Jackie Robinson.  Of course, everybody knows him as number 42 (which is apparently retired across UCLA sports), but his football number at UCLA was 28.  The statue has him wearing 55, which I guess was his number at Pasadena Junior College.

Jackie Robinson never played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he played multiple sports at UCLA.

The weekend I was out there, MLB FoodFest was going on in Los Angeles.  They had food from all 30 stadiums in the Majors, plus Tokyo, Monterrey, and London (which have hosted or will host Major League games this year).  I kind of wanted to go, but with my schedule, Friday was the only day where it was a possibility.  We would have had to go shortly before the Dodger game (I think it was starting around 3:00 or 4:00).  The cheapest tickets were $45, which allowed you to pick eight different items.  That would have meant you’d really have to eat a good amount to get your money’s worth.  The problem was that I was going to the Dodger game that night and I would have had to eat a lot of food shortly before the game.  Of course, I had to enjoy some Dodger Dogs at the stadium.  So as much as I was interested in MLB FoodFest, I passed.  They’re doing it again in New York and London later in the season.  I might go to the one in New York if it’s at a convenient time (they haven’t announced the dates yet).

Later in the day, we went to Philippe’s before heading to Dodger Stadium.  We met Pete and Lorenzo there.  It was my third time at Philippe’s.  I had the lamb double dip.  I’ve been there twice before and I’ve had the beef both times so I wanted to try something different.  The lamb was good, but it was more expensive than the beef and I don’t think it was better than the beef.  So if I ever go there again, I’d go with beef or one of the other options.

Then we were off to Dodger Stadium.  We were in the third row of the reserve level, one section over from being directly behind home plate.  For $33 per ticket on Stubhub, that was a great value.  The bad thing about being on the reserve level was a lack of beer options.  This is my biggest criticism of Dodger Stadium (which I love).  They need better beer options (especially local beer options).  On the loge level (the one below us, which I don’t think we were allowed to go to with a ticket on the reserve level), there were bars at each end that had a decent beer selection (it could still be better).  The only thing that we could find that was sort of local was and 805 from the Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, which is kind of like halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Of the four beers I drank at the four games I went to on my Easter vacation trip, this one was the blandest.  Also it was served in a 24 ounce can for $17.50.  So Dodger Stadium needs a wider variety of beer and they need more options in terms of sizes.  If I’m only going to get to one Dodger game a year, I’ll drink a 24 ounce beer for $17.50.  But if I lived out there and I went to several games a year, I’m not going to have a beer at every single game.  If you gave me the option of getting a 12 ounce beer for $10 and I went to five games a year, I’d probably get a beer at each game.  I’m just trying to help the Dodgers make money.  Sell good beer for in a 12 ounce size for $10 (you might even be able to charge a little more than that for good beer) and you’re going to make more money.  I had two Dodger Dogs.  They were quite good, as always.

For the game, it was Hyun-Jin Ryu against Christ Archer.  The Pirates took the lead in the first with a double play that scored a run.  Cody Bellinger hit a home run in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1 because of course he did.  That gave the Dodgers home runs in 33 consecutive home games, which is a Major League record (which was snapped the next day).  But that’s over the course of two seasons and it’s just regular season games.  They didn’t hit any home runs in three home games in the NLCS against the Brewers.  So they didn’t really hit home runs in 33 consecutive home games.  Anyway, Austin Barnes hit a home run in the second to make it 3-1.  The Pirates scored a run in the top of the fourth, but the Dodgers answered with three in the bottom of the fourth and that was all the scoring.  Justin Turner had three hits, Barnes drove in three, and Ryu went seven innings and only gave up two runs and struck out ten.  Attendance was 50,748, which is more than five times the attendance at the Rays game I went to.  Another reason to want to go to a Dodger game on a Friday night was Friday Night Fireworks.  Sean, Lorenzo, and I made it down to the field after the game.  I’ve been on the field at many different stadiums for tours, but they always just let you on the warning track and that’s it.  For Friday Night Fireworks at Dodger Stadium, they let you onto the outfield grass.  I did this two years ago with Pete and Katie and it was cool to be on the field again.  The win broke a five-game losing streak for the Dodgers with me in attendance (two in Philadelphia, one in Los Angeles, and two in Chicago).  During my Easter vacation, they went 7-3, but 1-2 with me in attendance.  I guess if I had to pick a game for them to win of the three that I went to, it would have been the one in Los Angeles.

Our view for the game

Sean and me on the field after the game

I was supposed to be headed home on Saturday, but that didn’t happen.  On our way to the Dodger game on Friday, I got an email saying that a winter storm in Chicago might affect my trip (I had a layover in Chicago) and that I might be able to change my flights without a fee.  So I tried to change on the American Airlines website on my phone, but that wasn’t working.  So when we got back to Sean and Catherine’s house, I tried to do it over the phone.  I was told there was no way they could get me back to LaGuardia on Saturday or Sunday on other flights because there were no open seats on flights to New York (I was flying to LaGuardia because that was cheaper, my preference is always Kennedy).  I had checked on their website and it looked like you could book a route to LaGuardia going through Dulles.  So I asked about that, but apparently the Dulles to LaGuardia flight was like American Eagle operated by American Airlines or something so technically it wasn’t the same airline so I couldn’t do that.  So I asked about going to Kennedy and they said it had to be to the same airport.  Anyway, my flights were still supposed to be in time so it looked like I would just have to take my chances.  As I was about to get ready to go to the airport on Saturday morning, I got an email saying that my flight had been cancelled and they had put me on a flight on Sunday to Kennedy (the bad news was I had to go to San Francisco first and I wouldn’t get to Kennedy until around midnight).

So I had an extra day in Los Angeles.  Sean had an all day event and was out of the house from about 8:00 in the morning to about 7:45 in the evening.  So I just took it easy.  I guess MLB FoodFest would have been an option, but I didn’t think of it at the time.  I thought about going to the Dodger game that night.  Clayton Kershaw was pitching so of course I wanted to go.  I looked into it.  The problem was that my flight from Los Angeles on Sunday was early enough that I couldn’t get to mass before going to the airport (and of course, I’d be getting back way too late to go to mass in New York).  My other option was a vigil mass.  That might have worked if the game was at 7:10, but most Saturday home games for the Dodgers start at 6:10.  There were a couple of churches within a few miles of Dodger Stadium with 5:00 vigil masses, but with Los Angeles traffic, I might not get into the stadium until like 6:45 or something if I was going to a vigil mass that got out around 6:00.  So I decided just to watch on TV at Sean and Catherine’s house after going to the vigil mass at their church at 5:00.  Clayton Kershaw pitched seven and gave up one run on four hits and had eight strikeouts.  The Dodgers scored three in the bottom of the seventh to put him in position for the win.  Caleb Ferguson loaded the bases without recording an out in the eighth, but Pedro Baez came in and got out of the inning without allowing a run and the Dodgers held on to win 3-1.  It would have been a cool game to go to, but oh well.  It reminded me of my first trip to Los Angeles.  I ended up spending two extra days there because of Hurricane Irene back east.  I had gone to two Dodger wins with Sean and Tom.  They had to stay one extra day because of the hurricane.  On the day that I was by myself, I could have gone to see Clayton Kershaw against the Padres.  I didn’t have a car and I definitely didn’t know about Uber back then (it was before I had a smart phone anyway).  The Dodgers won 4-1 and Kershaw pitched a complete game.  So I’ve still only seen Clayton Kershaw pitch at Dodger Stadium once, but I have seen him at Nationals Park (before the blog), Citizens Bank Park, Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field in 2009 (before the blog), 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018.

I always love being in Los Angeles.  My first trip there was in 2011 and this was now seven times in Los Angeles in nine years.  In those seven trips, I’ve been to ten Dodger games and they’ve gone 6-4.  It was good to see Pete and Lorenzo.  And thanks to Sean and Catherine for having me.  There’s a good chance I’ll be back in 2020.