Nobody Knew My Name

I recently went up to Boston to see the Dodgers play only their third regular season series at Fenway Park.  I’ll get to that later because I decided my Boston trip should be two posts.  This post is going to be about everything other than the game and Fenway Park.

But first, what led to this trip to Boston?  I knew I wanted to go up to Boston to see the Dodgers, but I didn’t know what day until I saw the Dodgers’ rotation after the All Star break.  I was hoping to see Clayton Kershaw, but it turned out that he wasn’t going to be pitching in Boston.  The other desirable pitchers to see were Hyun-Jin Ryu or Walker Buehler.  Since all three of those guys pitched in the All Star game, the Dodgers wanted to give them all some extra rest after the break, so Ryu was the only one to face the Red Sox and that was in the last game of the series.  So Sunday it was for my trip to Boston.

Ordinarily, John is my guy in Boston, but he was on vacation with his family.  So I was on my own for the day.  I originally figured I’d get a hotel room, but I realized I could save some money by just taking the bus home after the game.  Megabus had a 1:00 am bus to New York and the game was at 7:00.  What could go wrong?

Anyway, I got into Boston a little after 2:00.  My first stop was Cheers.  I recently watched all of Cheers.  It was a good show, but it’s kind of amazing now to think that people once had it on the same level as Seinfeld.  The outside looks like what you would see on the show.  The inside does not.  You go down the stairs and there’s a little bar there that doesn’t look like the show.  You walk down a hallway and there’s a dining room.  Then there are stairs that go up to the Cheers set bar.  That one does look a little like the show (it’s nowhere near as big as it looked on the show), but considering it was a bright day and it was above ground, it definitely didn’t have the feel of the show.  I was going to get a beer, but both bars were so crowded that I decided to just leave.  That turned out to be fortuitous.

As it turns out, nobody knew my name.

My next stop was the Boston Burger Company, which was on Man vs. Food and a few other shows as well.  I had what Casey Webb had on Man vs. Food, the Pilgrim.  It was a turkey burger with cheese, stuffing, and cranberry mayo.  It’s Thanksgiving on a bun.  Not getting a beer at Cheers was fortuitous because my plan was to drink two beers during my day in Boston and one was going to be at the game.  If I had a beer at Cheers, I would have passed on one at the Boston Burger Company.  Not getting one at Cheers allowed me to order a Sam Adams Summer Ale.  And as you may know, that is my traditional Thanksgiving beer (just like it was for the Pilgrims).  How was the burger?  Pretty good.  I would definitely recommend it.  But if I were going back, I’d want to try one of their other options.  A lot of them looked a little too crazy, but there were some that I’d be interested in.  Hopefully the next time I’m enjoying turkey, stuffing, and cranberry I’ll also be a couple days away from watching Notre Dame finish a good regular season with a win over Stanford (it’s been far too long since we’ve won there).

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Summer Ale.

I had some time until the game.  I stopped at the mall at the Prudential Center.  There’s a chapel at that mall that I’ve made use of to go to mass twice before, but I had taken care of that with a vigil mass on Saturday.  I was really just there to find a place to charge my phone and do some reading.

What was I reading?  I recently listened to one of the many Notre Dame podcasts I listen to and they interviewed Jamie Reidy.  He recently wrote Need One! A Lunatic’s Attempt to Attend 365 Games in 365 Days.  Not only was he going to attend an event each day, he was going to travel around the country and get to at least one event in each state.  You can see why this would appeal to me.  It’s pretty close to what the original idea of this blog was.  I bought the book right away, but I hadn’t starting reading it yet.  I debated bringing it with me since I wasn’t bringing a bag and it might be annoying to carry around a book all day.  As it turns out, it was a good decision.  It was about 25 hours from the time I left on Sunday morning to the time I got back on Monday morning.  The book is almost 300 pages (pretty easy reading, but still, it’s not short) and I read the whole book.  From beginning to end.  In that order.

I’m not spoiling much because it says it right on the back cover, but Jamie didn’t make it the entire year.  But he did plenty of traveling and going to sporting events.  He didn’t get to Hawaii and Alaska (he planned on going to the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks), but he might have seen an event in the other 48 states (I’m definitely not sure on that one, there were many days that he didn’t detail, but he went from coast to coast and did plenty of stuff in the middle).  I attended at least 3.5 of the same events that he did.  His Sports Year started in September 2013 and he was at Notre Dame-Oklahoma (no blog post because that was miserable), Notre Dame-USC , and the Pinstripe Bowl.  I said 3.5 because he also went to Frozen Fenway, but he only stayed for the first game of the doubleheader.  He was just there because hockey at Fenway Park was interesting and he wanted to count it as an event that he went to.  Kyle and I went because hockey at Fenway Park was interesting and because we wanted to see Notre Dame.  Notre Dame played the second game of the doubleheader and we didn’t feel like sitting through the first game in the cold.

As one of the maps in my last post showed, I’ve been to sporting events in many of the 50 states, but not all.  So I was thinking about what sporting events I would want to attend that I haven’t before and what events I would want to go to in the states where I haven’t been to sporting events.  Here are some North American events I’d want to go to:

World Series at Dodger Stadium
World Series at almost any other stadium
NBA Finals in Boston
Super Bowl
Rose Bowl
A game at Lambeau Field
An SEC football game
Final Four
US Open tennis
The Masters- I don’t care about golf at all, but this is the one golf event I’d have some interest in doing.
NHL game in Canada

Even if I wasn’t limiting it to North America, no soccer event would ever be on the list.  Baseball in Japan or any other country where it’s popular would be pretty cool.  A number of Olympic events (winter or summer) would be cool.  Aussie Rules Football would be interesting.  I’d go to see cricket because I would love to understand how cricket works (I have no idea other than it involves hitting a ball).  I can’t really think of any other international events I’d want to go to since I’ve already been to Wimbledon.  What events on that list are realistic?  If the Dodgers and Yankees play in the World Series this year, I’ll definitely look at tickets.  I’m not saying I’m definitely going, but I’ll look.  In 2009, the Dodgers were three wins away from making that match up happen and I was ready to go.  Now, it would definitely depend on the price.  If it had happened in 2009, I would have been more willing to spend the crazy money because it would have been the first World Series for the Dodgers since 1988.  If it happened this year, it would be their third straight World Series appearance.  Of course, they lost the last two years.  If they had won one of those, I think I definitely wouldn’t spend the money on the World Series.  Of course, a lot has to happen before we have a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.  I don’t really care who the Dodgers play in their next trip to the World Series (hopefully this year) as long as they finally win it.  I definitely hope to make a game at Lambeau Field happen in 2020 since Notre Dame is playing there.  The US Open is always a possibility since it’s in Queens (I really should go one of these years).  I wouldn’t rule out the Masters if I knew somebody that wanted to go and it lined up with my Easter vacation.

Now how about the states where I haven’t seen a sporting event?  Here’s what I’d want to see in each state:

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island- Minor league baseball, I guess

West Virginia, Mississippi, Iowa, Oregon- College football

North Carolina- College basketball, but only if I could guarantee seeing Duke or North Carolina losing at home

Kentucky- Again, college basketball, but only if I could guarantee seeing Kentucky or Louisville losing at home

South Dakota- Sioux Falls has an independent league baseball team so I guess that would be my choice

Kansas- Kansas basketball, I don’t despise them so I don’t need a guaranteed loss

Oklahoma- You were expecting college football, but I’m saying minor league baseball as long as the Dodgers have their double-A and triple-A teams there

Wyoming- I guess Wyoming football, it’s one of three states that doesn’t have a professional baseball team (Alaska and Hawaii are the others)

Hawaii- Hawaii Football or the Hawaii Bowl

I am going to the Notre Dame game at Duke in November so I will cross North Carolina off the states to see a sporting event in list.  I might get to a Pawtucket Red Sox game before the end of the summer (we’ll see on that one) so that would be Rhode Island.  There’s a decent chance I’ll never see a sporting event in many of those states.  I’m fine with that.  I would kind of like to go to a football game in Hawaii, but that might never happen.  I’m unlikely to be in Hawaii for the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve.  A regular season Hawaii game doesn’t work because of school, unless Hawaii has a home game during Week 0 (the week before Labor Day).  I don’t anticipate seeing college football in any of the states I mentioned unless they host Notre Dame (even then, it wouldn’t be easy to get tickets for a price that wasn’t crazy).  Sure, I could just go to some random game, but that would involve spending a Saturday not watching Notre Dame.  Even if it was a Notre Dame bye week, that would involve spending a Saturday not watching all the other games.

My real sports fan goal was to get to every Major League Baseball stadium and I did that (but the Rangers will have a new one to get to next year).  Jamie Reidy didn’t accomplish his goal, but I still recommend his book.

Our 49th State, My 50th

The final frontier for me was our biggest state.  When I started the blog seven years ago, I had been to 21 states (and four of those had been added less than a year before I started the blog).  I had been sitting on 49 states for more than two years after visiting South Carolina.  I have wanted to go to Alaska for a long time.  I had my eye on the Alaska Baseball League.  It’s a league for college players to play in during the summer.  The event that I was interested in was the Midnight Sun Game played in Fairbanks the day of the summer solstice.  The problem was that I’m usually not out of school by the time of the summer solstice.  But this year, not having any snow days worked out well for me.  I was done on June 19.  I ended up not going to Fairbanks for the Midnight Sun Game for a few reasons.  I wanted to combine this trip with Oakland and getting to Fairbanks on June 21 would have meant going to Oakland on June 20.  But I didn’t feel like going away on the first day of summer vacation.  The NBA Draft was June 20 and I wanted to watch.  And going to Fairbanks would have been significantly more expensive than going to Anchorage.  Also it turned out that Anchorage had a summer solstice doubleheader on June 22 (which was the day after the actual summer solstice).

I got to Anchorage around 7:00 on June 22.  The doubleheader started at 8:00.  So after checking into my hotel, I walked to Mulcahy Stadium.  I got there shortly after the first game started.  I watched an inning and then went to buy food and a beer.  I got a hot dog, which was very good, but unfortunately they only had yellow mustard.  I went to get a beer and the good news and bad news was that the guy asked for my ID.  I didn’t have it.  I called my hotel and fortunately the guy at the front desk still had it.  So I walked back to my hotel to get my ID and then went back to the game (of course, if you leave your ID in the car when you go to a Yankee game, they’re not letting you leave the stadium to get it and then come back in).  Besides getting to all 50 states, I wanted to drink a beer from each one.  I’m pretty sure I have seen beer from Alaska when I’ve been out west, but as far as I know, I still hadn’t had one before going to Alaska.  So I made it official with a Midnight Sun Wolf Pack IPA.  It was pretty solid.  I watched the Anchorage Glacier Pilots defeat the Matsu Miners in the first game.  The Glacier Pilots have home uniforms that are kind of a cross between the Dodgers and the Hank Aaron Era Atlanta Braves.  The second game started at 10:35.  The sun didn’t set until 11:41.  I was really tired so I waited until after the sun set and then I left.  Even though the sun had set, it was still very bright.  They did turn the lights on though (apparently they never turn them on at the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks).  The sun was below the horizon for about four and a half hours at night, but it never seemed to get totally dark.

50 states and a beer from each one.

This was first pitch of the second game at 10:35.

I took this picture at 11:43, two minutes after sunset.

Anchorage has two teams in the Alaska Baseball League (by the way, the Fairbanks team is no longer part of the league, they seem to be an independent team, my guess is that it was because of high travel costs because Fairbanks is pretty far away from the other teams in the league).  Besides the Glacier Pilots, Anchorage also has the Bucs.  They both play in Mulcahy Stadium and I saw the Bucs as the home team against the Glacier Pilots on my second day in Alaska.  The two teams operate different concession stands in the stadium and have different food/beer selections.  The hot dog for the Bucs was 50 cents more, but it was much bigger (although not quite as good).  My guess is that they have different concessions and food for inventory purposes (each team buys and sells its own food and keeps the profit for themselves).  At the Bucs game I had an Alaskan Amber Ale.  I had some good beer in Alaska and that was probably my favorite one.  As for Mulcahy Stadium, it reminded me a little of Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.  It’s not really fair to compare it to any of the minor league stadiums that I’ve been to.

On Sunday, I went to mass at Holy Family Cathedral.  I did not realize that Pope John Paul II had been there in 1981.  I recalled that John Paul II had met with Ronald Reagan in Alaska, but I googled it and that happened in Fairbanks in 1984.  It seems that both of his visits to Alaska were quick stops while traveling between the Vatican and the Far East.  Besides visiting the Cathedral, there was a mass in Delaney Park in Anchorage.  I found a memorial commemorating the event.  That was the largest gathering of people in the history of Alaska.  The cathedral was smaller than any Long Island Catholic church that I can think of.  Also, Anchorage is a moderately sized city with around 300,000 people.  Alaska does not have other big cities.  In land area, Alaska is more than 12 times the size of New York, but if you could move Hicksville from Long Island to Alaska, it would be the second biggest city in the state.

One of my favorite people in history.

I saw some amazing scenery in Alaska, but unfortunately it wasn’t as nice as it could have been.  Denali is the tallest mountain on land in the world (yes, Mt. Everest has a higher altitude, but if we’re going base to summit, Denali is the tallest) and there are some spots where it is supposedly visible from Anchorage on a clear day.  I tried to see it from a couple of places, but I had no luck.  I found out later on that it was because of smoke from forest fires that had been going on since early June.  One of the coolest parts of my trip was taking a bus down to Portage Lake to do a little cruise of the lake to see a glacier.  The drive is mostly along the water of the Turnagain Arm.  Across the water is the Kenai Peninsula with lots of mountains.  Unfortunately the smoke prevented much better views.  On the lake, you see lots of waterfalls created by snow melting in the mountains.  You get up pretty close to the glacier so that was cool.  The lake is in the Chugach National Forest, which is the second biggest national forest in the country (the biggest is the Tongass National Forest, also in Alaska).  I just hope Notre Dame doesn’t decide to play a Shamrock Series game there because it was quite windy and Brian Kelly would have a game plan calling for 50+ passes.  After the glacier cruise, the bus took us to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  I saw bears, moose, reindeer, bison, and other animals.  So that was pretty cool too.

It was low 60s-mid 70s in Anchorage, but it was much colder and windier on Portage Lake.

Portage Glacier

Alaska has a solid state flag.

I was much farther away from the bear than this picture would make it seem.  Also, there was an electric fence between us.

I got my best views of the mountains from the plane.

I got to some good food spots.  The first one I went to was another Man vs. Food spot, Humpy’s Alaskan Ale House.  That’s where Adam had his challenge.  I was just there for breakfast.  I had scrambled eggs with reindeer sausage.  Another stop was the Moose’s Tooth Bar.  I will usually refuse to eat pizza outside of the Pizza Belt (approximately New Jersey to Rhode Island), but somebody named this place the third best pizzeria in the country in 2015 (behind Juliana’s in Brooklyn and a place in Florida) so I gave it a try.  I got myself a small macaroni and cheese pizza with reindeer sausage.  I have a place by me that makes a very good macaroni and cheese pizza and this was right up there with it.  I liked the addition of meat.  Really it could have been just about any kind of meat that would have added something nice.  Reindeer meat was readily available in Alaska.  It was fine, but it’s not like I’m going to wish I could have it again.  They served beer from the Broken Tooth Brewery.  I had a Pipeline Stout, which was pretty good.

I would have been interested to try other pizzas, but this one was very good.

On my last day in Alaska, I had two things I wanted to do.  First was go to the Anchorage Museum, which was pretty good.  The first exhibit I saw was on food in Alaska.  They had a thing comparing the cost of food in different places in Alaska to Seattle.  Doritos cost about $7.50 per bag in Anchorage and Fairbanks.  In one of the places shown, a six-pack of Coke was around $12.  It makes sense because of shipping costs.  I remember in Australia the food was pretty expensive, but when I was going places to eat in Alaska, the prices really didn’t seem crazy (maybe a little high, but not crazy).  And the other thing I wanted to do on my last day was go to the 49th State Brewery.  I might never travel farther north than I did on this trip (I mean, maybe I’ll go to Fairbanks someday, but probably not, Norway would be another possibility to see the birthplace of Knute Rockne).  So if I never travel farther north, the farthest north that I will ever have gone will be the 49th State Brewery.  I had a king salmon burger (I figured I should have salmon in Alaska, I wanted to have crab at some point, but this was pretty much a grilled salmon sandwich, which seemed healthier than any of the crab options I was seeing).  And I had a Baked Blonde as my final Alaskan beer.  There were one or two other options that I might have liked more, but I wanted to go with a different style from the other beers I had during my trip and I ended up liking this one more than I was expecting.

I didn't even realize there was a 49-star flag.  Alaska and Hawaii both became states in 1959, but the new flag takes effect on July 4.  Alaska became a state in January and Hawaii became a state in August.  So the 49-star flag lasted for a year.

This crab was in the Anchorage Museum.

If I saw Alaskan beer out west, I avoided it so that I could drink some for the first time when I finally went to Alaska.  I will not be purposely avoiding it anymore.

I’ll finish up with some maps showing different things about my experiences in the 50 states.  Do not read anything into the colors (I strongly dislike both major political parties these days).  I used more blue as the primary color in most of these maps because the Dodgers wear blue and I strongly dislike many teams that wear red (USC, the Cardinals, Stanford, the Heat, the Diamondbacks, Louisville).

States where I've lived (sort of, I've only lived in New York other than college), states where I haven't

States where I've spent a night, states where I haven't

States where I've seen a sporting event, states where I haven't

States where I've been to mass, states where I haven't (to the best of my knowledge)

I would have thought I had been to mass in more states, but I'm fairly confident that map is accurate.  I've pretty much made a point of going to every state except for Rhode Island (we stopped there when my brothers were visiting colleges in the mid-90s and I've driven or taken the train through it several times since then), Kentucky (I drove through it on the way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006), Kansas (I drove from Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma north through Kansas on my way to Kansas City in 2014), and South Dakota (after going to Nebraska for the first time, I drove north through South Dakota on my way to Fargo in 2015).  In each state, I spent several hours driving (actually I think I paid attention one time and it only took 39 minutes to drive through Rhode Island) and stopped and did something (although in Kentucky, I think it was only eating at Arby's) so they count.  Minor league baseball games in Kentucky and Kansas are possibilities in the future (Wichita is getting a triple-A team next year).  I can't really think of a reason why I'd go to South Dakota again unless I ever went to Mount Rushmore.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to a minor league game later this summer in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  Oklahoma is another possibility for minor league baseball in the future, especially because the Dodgers have both their double-A and triple-A teams there.  And I will be going to a sporting event in North Carolina this year.  I'll be at the Notre Dame-Duke football game in November.  Wyoming is pretty high on the list of states I'm least likely to get back to (but I would have said that after I went there in 2012 and then I ended up driving through it with Tom in 2017).  But the 50 states are officially done.  It's been three years since I left the country.  A trip to Europe could be my big trip next summer.  We'll see.

33 for 30

I’ve finished the Major League Baseball stadiums.  For now.  Of course the Rangers get a new stadium next year so hopefully I’ll get there next year, but I made it to the Oakland Coliseum on the first stop of my first summer vacation trip.  I had resisted going there, but I finally decided to just do it.  Tropicana Field was the other one I had resisted until this year.  I had planned on waiting until they got new stadiums, but that’s still not close to happening so whatever.  I think Tropicana Field met my very low expectations.  Oakland Coliseum was worse than my very low expectations.  Oakland Coliseum is an ugly looking stadium from the outside.  You go inside and it’s not much better.  Before the Raiders came back to Oakland, it was a decent looking stadium inside (certainly not great).  Now it looks terrible.

This is what it looked like before Mt. Davis was built.  I wanted to start the post with a nice picture.

This is the back of Mt. Davis.  Even Shea Stadium looked better than this.

I started my trip by watching Game 1 of the 1988 World Series on the plane to San Francisco.  Of course, that game was at Dodger Stadium, but the Dodgers ended up winning the series in Oakland.  The fact that the Dodgers won the World Series there, natural grass, and the fact that it’s outdoors are the only things keeping the Oakland Coliseum from being last in my stadium rankings (we’ll get there).

I remember my brother telling John about how you get off the BART train and take a bridge that takes you across the sewage moat.  John wanted that included in the blog post so here it is:

Look at the sewage glistening in the sun.

You can't really tell from this picture, but there was random stuff floating in there.

Side note, I strongly dislike almost everything about San Francisco, but one thing that I like is the name.  I wish some better place in the American Southwest was named for St. Francis and that San Francisco instead had a name that started with B so that their mass transit system could be called the BORT (B__-Oakland Rapid Transit instead of Bay Area Rapid Transit).

I was sitting way up high behind home plate.  The ticket I had included a $6 food voucher so that was nice.  The food selection was probably slightly better than early 1990s Shea Stadium so I just went with a hot dog.  I’ve had hot dogs at Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, Citi Field, and Oakland Coliseum this season.  Oakland Coliseum’s was clearly the worst.  Also I had to go down to the lower level to get it.  On the upper level, there was only one concession stand open.  They had hot dogs, but they only had yellow mustard up there (that’s bush league) and there was no craft beer.  On the lower level I got a Drake’s Pilsner.  One of the beers available was the Denogginizer IPA.  Between the name of the brewery and that particular beer, it seems like they’re Seinfeld fans, but I checked their website and there don’t seem to be any other beers named with Seinfeld references.  The pilsner was nothing special.

My view for the game

They should have beers called Headso and Son of Dad.

It's an empty concourse.  During a Major League Baseball game.

Anyway, the A’s were playing the Rays.  If only they could play a series where the winner got a new stadium in Portland or something.  They played a wild game the night before I went.  It was 1-1 going into the ninth.  The Rays scored three in the top of the ninth, but the A’s scored four and won a home run in the bottom of the ninth.  This game was not so exciting.  Tampa Bay went up 2-0 in the third.  They A’s kept it close, but they never tied it and the Rays won 5-3.  Attendance was 16,126.  That was a small crowd, but still much bigger than the game I went to at Tropicana Field.  The lights flickered a few times late in the game.  Also there was an announcement at the end of the game that there were no BART trains running north (I had planned on using Uber/Lyft after the game anyway).  This led to speculation in the stadium that there was an earthquake even though we hadn’t felt anything in the stadium.  But I did some googling afterwards and it seems that there was just a 1.6 earthquake near San Jose that morning.

The Rays used a starter who pitched two innings and gave up no runs.  I hate the idea of the opener so much.  I have the solution to that.  You have to designate pitchers as starters or relievers.  There would have to be flexibility, but if you’re designated as a starter, you can’t pitch for at least three days after starting a game and your designation can’t be switched from starter to reliever for at least three days (you can make it four and I’m totally fine with that also).  You have five pitchers designated as starters at all times.  Starters can only pitch in relief in extra inning games or if their minimum days of rest have passed.  Teams are not going to be using openers if they have to designate them as starting pitchers who can’t pitch for the next three days after using them as an opener for two innings.

By the way, there’s talk of the Rays splitting games between Tampa and Montreal.  I really hate this idea.  Instead of having a team play in one city that shouldn’t have a baseball team, you’re going to have them play in two cities that shouldn’t have a baseball team.  In their last five seasons in Montreal before splitting games with San Juan (1998-2002), the Expos averaged 10,048 fans per game.  In the last five seasons, the worst the Rays have averaged is 14,258.  Baseball does not belong in Montreal.  If you’re going to have baseball in Montreal, it should be the Blue Jays.  I’ve said this before, but they should become Canada’s team.  I would have them play 65-68 home games in Toronto and then split the rest between Montreal and one other Canadian city (rotating each year).  I really don’t get this rush to go back to Montreal.  They had baseball and it didn’t work.  Obviously Tampa-St. Petersburg isn’t working for the Rays.  I kind of doubt that a new stadium in the area would change that, but maybe it would work better in Tampa.  The A’s should stay in Oakland or go to San Jose.  The Rays should go to Charlotte, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Austin, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, or Portland and then put two expansion teams in two of those cities as well.  The Marlins are the other team that really should move, but they just built a new stadium this decade so that's not going to happen soon.

Anyway, let’s get to my updated stadium rankings (click on the Suntrust Park link for my previous rankings):

33.  Tropicana Field
32.  Oakland Coliseum
These two are legitimately worse than Shea Stadium was.

31.  SkyDome
If it was renovated, it might be in the strong to quite strong range.  Get some natural grass in there.  But we can’t fix the problem of it being in Canada.

30.  Chase Field
I moved this one down a few spots because they took out grass and replaced it with artificial turf.  What up with that?  If you read that post, I said that I liked it a lot better than Marlins Park, but I've heard bad things lately and the artificial turf is bad (especially considering it's not like it always had artificial turf, they made a decision to make a bad change).

29.  US Cellular Field
28.  Marlins Park
We have opposite problems here.  US Cellular Field is too boring.  Marlins Park is too weird (but I think they have toned down the weirdness).  Fenway Park is weird, but that’s because they made it fit the land they had to build it.  Marlins Park is just weird for the sake of being weird.

27.  Minute Maid Park
Speaking of weirdness and boringness, Minute Maid Park went from interestingly weird to being boring when they got rid of the hill.

26.  Turner Field
25.  Progressive Field
24.  Angels Stadium of Anaheim
Angels Stadium was built long before the other two, but they all feel kind of similar.  Turner Field is no more.  Progressive Field was kind of boring.  And the Angels have to be thankful that they play in the same state as the A’s because if not, they’d clearly have the worst stadium in California.

23.  Miller Park
22.  Coors Field
Two stadiums named for bad beers, but we’re into the stadiums that I would consider nice.  But both feature baseball where it shouldn’t be played, indoors (sometimes) at Miller Park and at altitude at Coors Field.

21.  Shea Stadium
20.  Comerica Park
I know I just said we were into the good stadiums, but Shea Stadium will always hold a special place in my heart.  With these two we have a bad stadium and a bad city.

19.  Globe Life Park
18.  Suntrust Park
We have the stadium in its last year and our current newest stadium.  The Braves made a clear upgrade with Suntrust Park.  Hopefully I’ll get to the Rangers’ new stadium next year and we’ll see if that’s better.  But I have two reasons for concern:  a retractable roof and artificial turf.  I get the roof, I just want to know how frequently they’re going to close it.  But why artificial turf?  Why?  Globe Life Park wasn’t anything special, but I don’t think they needed to get rid of it.

17.  Citi Field
16.  New Yankee Stadium
I would have Yankee Stadium probably two spots lower, but the fact that it’s Yankee Stadium means something.  No it’s not the House that Ruth Built, but it has the facade and the monuments (in a bad location).  Citi Field is probably nicer, but as I’ve said before, there’s a reason why Notre Dame plays Shamrock Series games in Yankee Stadium and not Citi Field.

15.  Citizens Bank Park
14.  Oriole Park at Camden Yards
13.  Nationals Park
12.  Busch Stadium
We’re in the mid-Atlantic region plus St. Louis with this group.  Most people like Oriole Park a lot more than I do, but I actually moved it up a spot after revisiting Citizens Bank Park last year.  Citizens Bank Park is fine, but the other three have it beat in location.  After revisiting Nationals Park last year, I noticed that the area around the stadium has definitely improved over the years.  Busch Stadium has a great location (even if the inside was a little disappointing).  Citizens Bank Park is still surrounded by parking lots.

11.  Great American Ballpark
10.  T-Mobile Park
9.  Target Field
We’re into the stadiums where I really liked the inside.  I moved Great American Ballpark down two spots because if I owned a team, I’d rather have my team play in the other two parks because those two are better for pitchers.

8.  Oracle Park
7.  Kauffman Stadium
6.  Petco Park
Petco Park has by far the best location of these three.  Kauffman Stadium is surrounded by parking lots and Oracle Park is in a city full of dirty smelly hippies, but it is in a spot where Max Muncy can hit a Madison Bumgarner pitch into the ocean.  There have been talks of moving the fences in at Oracle Park and moving the bullpens.  I think having the bullpens on the field in foul territory is silly, but we don’t need to do anything to make things easier for the hitters these days (I know, Oracle Park is one of the few places where it’s not easy to hit home runs, let’s keep it that way).  Both Kauffman Stadium and Petco Park are excellent on the inside.

5.  PNC Park
4.  Wrigley Field
3.  Old Yankee Stadium
I got to PNC Park again this year and I was reminded of how good it is.  It’s the best of the new stadiums.  I got to Wrigley Field this year for the first time since they finished the renovations and they did a great job.  I moved it up three spots.  I still wish they had just renovated Old Yankee Stadium.  You look at what they did with Wrigley Field and Fenway Park and I wish they could have just done that with Yankee Stadium, but Big Stein had to have a shiny new stadium.

2.  Dodger Stadium
1.  Fenway Park
These two are the best.  I will never get tired of going to either one.

Let’s look at some averages.  I’m using my numbers, but I’m only including the current stadiums.  So the American League is not getting any credit for Old Yankee Stadium.

National League:  14.3
American League:  19.8
The National League wins.  That comes as no surprise.  The NL stadiums are better.

NL West:  13.6
NL Central:  11
NL East:  18.2
AL West:  22.4
AL Central:  18
AL East:  19
The AL West is the worst.  The AL East has two of the worst ballparks in baseball, but they also have Fenway Park.  The real takeaway here is that the NL Central and NL West are clearly the best.  The Central has two fantastic stadiums and no glaring weak links.  The NL West has three excellent stadiums, Coors Field, and one bad one.

Eastern Time:  17.6 (14 stadiums)
Central Time:  16.25 (eight stadiums)
Mountain Time:  22 (Coors Field is the only one, Arizona thinks they’re on Mountain Time, but during baseball season they’re on Pacific Time.)
Pacific Time:  16 (seven stadiums)
It’s interesting how this one turned out.  Every time zone with multiple stadiums has its weak links.  Eastern Time is hurt by Tropicana Field and SkyDome, but Pacific Time is able to survive having Oakland Coliseum and Chase Field to get the win here.

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