Random TV Awesomeness

It's a random great night of TV.  I love random great days/nights of TV.  My favorite was probably St. Patrick's Day 2005 when we had the NCAA basketball tournament starting, the steroids hearings in Congress, and Shaquille O'Neal with the Heat playing the Lakers.  Kyle and I had stolen cable in the middle of the night and had it in our room for a week, which included that day.  Another great night of TV was the last day of the baseball season in 2011.  It was possibly the greatest regular season day of baseball ever.  I was working the remote and saw every big moment except for Evan Longoria's home run to put the Rays into the playoffs.  Tonight probably isn't as great as those days, but we have the Dodgers going for their 15th straight road win in an NLCS preview, night 2 of Shark Week, and A-Roid's return.  It's time for another running diary.

7:09- Hanley Ramirez is out tonight for the Dodgers.  This isn't good.  As good as Yasiel Puig has been, Hanley Ramirez has been the best everyday player for the Dodgers.

7:12- Carl Crawford is leading off against Adam Wainwright.  Wainwright against Greinke.  Good match up.  Carl Crawford gets on with a bloop single.

7:14- Mark Ellis grounds into a double play.  Nuts.

7:17- Yasiel Puig is second in the NL in slugging since he came up.  Who's ahead of him?

7:19- Puig strikes out to end the inning.  I'm trying to answer that question I just asked.

7:24- Matt Carpenter leads off with a triple for the Cardinals.

7:25- Nope, it's scored a double and an error.  And then Nick Punto tries to throw Carpenter out at home plate on a ground ball.  A good throw might have had him, but it's the first inning, just take the out at first.

7:26- Carlos Beltran tags up and gets to second on a fly ball to center.  Good baserunning.

7:29- I tried ESPN, Baseball Reference, and MLB.com, and I couldn't figure out who is ahead of Puig in slugging since June 3 (Puig's debut).  The best I could do find the leaders for the last 30 days on MLB.com.  Jonathan Lucroy leads with a .741 slugging percentage.  And the Dodgers stranded Carlos Beltran on third.  The Cardinals lead 1-0.

7:33- The ESPN guys are talking about Alex Rodriguez's refusal to deny using steroids.  We all know he used steroids.

7:34- Rick Sutcliffe calls Rodriguez's press conference a waste of time.  Well said, Rick.

7:37- ESPN is going to A-Roid's first at bat.  Nice, I don't even need to change the channel.  They show the headlines as the New York newspapers.  The New York Post has the best one:  "Just Go."

7:38- Juan Uribe singles.  On Opening Day, I clapped my hands together one time for Juan Uribe when he was introduced before the game.  I decided it was a new season and I would give him another chance, but I applauded for everybody more than I applauded for him (except for hitting coach Mark McGwire, I booed him).  Uribe has been a pleasant surprise.  He's gone from being terrible into being a solid Major League Baseball player again.

7:40- During a commercial, I flick into Seinfeld.  Jerry doesn't know if he's invited to Tim Whatley's Thanksgiving Eve party and George has John Voight's LeBaron.

7:47- They're showing the brawl started by Carlos Quentin.  If not for players like Ryan Braun and A-Roid, Carlos Quentin would be my least favorite player in the Majors.

8:00- Curt Schilling is talking about how different the players are now when it comes to steroids.  That's a great development.  It used to be that so many of them were cheating so they didn't want to get caught.  Now the guys that are clean want the cheaters caught.  It gives me hope.

8:01- Nice catch by Andre Ethier in center.  He's not the player he was a couple years ago, but he's doing a very solid job filling in for Matt Kemp in center.

8:03- They're still talking about steroids, so ESPN focuses on Mark McGwire in the Dodgers' dugout.  At least he later admitted what he did.

8:04- Rick Sutcliffe points out that everything Jose Canseco said was true.  He was an unintentional hero for baseball.

8:10- Greinke gets out of a bases loaded jam.  And the Yankee game is starting.  Get ready to boo.

8:13- Adrian Gonzalez walks on four pitches to lead off the inning.  Always a good way to start an inning even if he is the slowest man in baseball.

8:15- A-Roid didn't get to bat in the top of the first for the Yankees.

8:16- Puig just doubled into right center.  The good news about Adrian Gonzalez not scoring is that he prevented Yasiel Puig from being thrown out at third base.

8:17- Andre Ethier singles a run in.  We're tied.

8:18- It says on the bottom line that Santonio Holmes expects to miss the first four games of the season.  With Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez around, I sometimes forget how much I despise Santonio Holmes.

8:19- A.J. Ellis reaches on a fielder's choice and drives in Puig from third.  2-1 Dodgers.

8:21- Juan Uribe grounds into a double play to end the inning.  Come on, Juan, I was saying good things about you before.

8:22- I check Shark Week for the first time.  My TV says a program called "Sharkzilla:  Sharktweeto" is on.

8:26- Andy Pettitte is in a bases load, nobody out jam in the bottom of the first.  It's going to be a little while until we get to boo.

8:28- Jayson Stark says it was a good day for Major League Baseball.  Agreed, except for the fact that A-Roid is playing tonight.

8:30- The Cardinals successfully execute the run and hit (3-2 pitch).  Runners at the corners, nobody out.

8:33- Commercial in the Yankee game.  That means that it's just about time to boo.

8:34- Zack Greinke just threw a pick off throw to third base.  I can't remember ever seeing that before.  Of course, the fake to third, throw to first move is now illegal (a rule change that I hated).  Wainwright shows bunt.  Then he bunts on the first pitch and moves the runner at first to second, but the runner at third can't score.

8:35- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8:36- Yeah, Tom, nobody cares about steroids.  They're just booing A-Roid for no reason.

8:37- A-Roid gets on with a bloop single.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!  I wouldn't be surprised if he injects himself with steroids as soon as he gets back to the dugout (I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but after the way he's acted, it's not that hard to picture him going to the clubhouse when he gets back to the dugout and doing that)  I don't root for guys to get hurt, but I might have to make an exception for A-Roid.

8:54- I took a little break.  Sutcliffe was just talking about how Greinke hasn't been relying on location as they showed a montage of Greinke getting guys out with perfectly located pitches.  Oops.

8:57- All time series between the Dodgers and Cardinals:  1,009 wins for the Dodgers, 1,008 wins for the Cardinals.  That's amazing.  They are the two best franchises in NL history.

8:58- The Dodgers throw out Allen Craig at the plate to end the fifth inning..  It started with Yasiel Puig hitting the cutoff man.  He's learning.

9:08- I'm arguing with my brother on facebook.  For some reason, he has no problem with steroids in baseball, but at least he hasn't said anything as ridiculous as he said the other day when he compared using steroids to using caffeine.  Fortunately, my brother is so incredibly wrong and we don't have to worry about Major League Baseball allowing steroids in the game again.  But if they did, I would seriously consider boycotting Major League Baseball.  And there aren't may bigger baseball fans than me.  But like I said, there's no way that's happening when owners and now most of the players want a clean game.

9:16- Adam Wainwright is at 95 pitches in the seventh.  He's pitched well, but I'm guessing this is his last inning.

9:18- I'm drinking a Sam Adams Irish Red.  If it had been warmer today, I'd be drinking Summer Ale.  Octoberfest is coming soon.  It's a really good beer, but it always makes me sad when it comes out.  Fortunately I have a supply of Summer Ale to last me for a few months.  I stocked up last weekend after my friend John warned me that it was almost time for Octoberfest.

9:20- 6-0 White Sox.  The game might not be exciting, but we can still boo A-Roid.

9:21- Zack Greinke drives in a run with two outs.  He's hitting .405.  3-1 Dodgers.

9:24- Greinke's at 93 pitches as we start the bottom of the seventh.  This is probably his last inning.  The Cardinals are pinch hitting for Wainwright.

9:31- First and second, nobody out for the Cardinals.  Time for a triple play.

9:32- Mattingly goes out to the mound, but he's leaving Greinke in.

9:33- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm reminded of this exchange from the classic movie Major League:
Harry Doyle:  Heywood's a convicted felon, isn't he Monty?
Monty:  Uh, doesn't really say it here.
Harry Doyle:  Well, he should be!

9:34- It's 7-0 White Sox so I'm kind of expecting A-Roid to hit a steroid ball over the left field fence right now, but instead he flies out to center.

9:35- It appears that Greinke got somebody out, but now he's coming out of the game.

9:37- Ronald Belisario is in for the Dodgers.

9:38- Allen Craig grounds out to Adrian Gonzalez and drives in a run.  3-2 Dodgers.

9:39- Nick Punto makes a nice play to throw out Matt Holliday and end the inning.

9:40- If the Yankee game hadn't just come back from commercial we would have had a triple Urkin.

9:43- The Little League World Series is about to start.  I suppose my brother would be cool with the Little Leaguers using steroids.

9:59- Nick Punto starts an excellent double play to end the eighth inning.  Mark Ellis made a nice turn.  I joked about Punto being included in the Adrian Gonzalez/Carl Crawford trade last year, but he's had a solid year.

10:00- I've been neglecting Shark Week, but the Dodger game has been too good.  "Voodoo Shark" just started.

10:05- I think I just heard that there's a guy named Blimp in this Shark Week show.  Okay.

10:07- Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig are enjoying themselves in the dugout after Puig had gotten made at Gonzalez for not scoring on his double earlier in the game (there's no way Gonzalez was going to score from first).

10:10- Yep, a guy named Blimp.  And he's underwater in a cage and surrounded by sharks.

10:12- Paco Rodriguez finished the eighth and now he stays in to start the ninth.  Kenley Jansen has been pitching a lot lately with the Dodgers winning all these games.  He could probably use a night off.

10:16- They just said that if the Dodgers win, they'd tie the all time series at 1,009, but I'm pretty sure before they said the Dodgers had the one game lead.  They might have made a mistake before.  I'll see if I can google it.

10:18- Andre Ethier makes the catch in center for the final out.  100th win for Zack Greinke.  Great job by Paco Rodriguez in relief.  15 straight road wins for the Dodgers.

10:24- The St. Louis Post Dispatch says it was Dodgers 1,009, Cardinals 1,008 going into this game, which would make it Dodgers 1,010, Cardinals 1,008 now.  But Baseball Reference has it at Cardinals 1,077, Dodgers 1,044.  So I don't know what the answer is.  If Baseball Reference is right, the .492 winning percentage is the worst record the Dodgers have against any team that they've played at least 100 times.

10:36- Back on Shark Week, we have a guy in a cage in murky water at night.  How insane do you have to be to do this for a living?

10:44- They just took a little bull shark on their boat.  Even that thing would terrify me.

10:47- A toothless man is telling a story by a campfire.

10:56- They just got a tracking device on a shark.  I'm not really paying attention.

11:00- Shark After Dark is starting.  I have a Yankee Stadium tour tomorrow, so I think it's time to say good night.  If you read this whole diary, thanks for reading.

11:02- Wait, I just had a great idea.  Alex Rodriguez swimming in a tank with every species of shark shown on Shark Week.  That should be the main event of Shark Week.  And with that, good night.

Get Alex Rodriguez Out of Baseball

My feelings about Alex Rodriguez remind me of this classic youtube clip (which led to this classic youtube clip).  I'm not mad at Major League Baseball as Mad Dog was at the NFL, but I do want Alex Rodriguez thrown out of the league.

I already posted about steroids after Ryan Braun was suspended, but I have some more thoughts.  I've always despised Ryan Braun for stealing Matt Kemp's MVP Award so I have some thoughts about guys that set records and win awards.  Melky Cabrera did the right thing and said he shouldn't be eligible for the batting title after he was suspended last year.  Ryan Braun should not have been eligible to win the MVP in 2011.  Surprisingly, I think Major League Baseball should kind of take the NCAA approach:  vacate awards and records for cheaters.  You can't vacate the 2000 World Series for the Yankees (for Roger Clemens and probably a bunch of other guys) because every team had guys on steroids.  There's nothing you can do about teams.  But you can take stuff away from individual players.  Take the MVP away from Braun, but don't give it to Matt Kemp (even though he should have won it).  Matt Kemp shouldn't get it for two reasons.  First, if I was in that position, I wouldn't want to win it that way (which is what Kemp said himself also).  He should have gotten it in 2011, not two years later because the guy that beat him got caught cheating.  The second reason is that we can't prove Kemp was clean.  What if it came out later that he wasn't?  Are we going to keep giving it to the next guy on the list?  It seems impractical.  Let's just say there was no 2011 NL MVP.  (For the record, I don't think Kemp is a cheater.)  And wipe out records for cheaters.  If you set the world record in the 100 meters and then fail a drug test, your record doesn't stand.  Roger Maris and Hank Aaron are the home run kings.  Let's agree on this.

As for Alex Rodriguez, it made me so angry that I had to hear him on ESPN this morning saying that he wants PEDs out of baseball.  Alex Rodriguez, you sir are a cheater, liar, scumbag, and a disgrace to the great game of baseball.  He should have gotten a lifetime ban (in effect, it might very well be a lifetime ban because he won't be worth anything after missing two years of baseball, but he's enough of a scumbag that he'd probably come back and make the Yankees pay him the money).  The Collective Bargaining Agreement says "Players may be disciplined for just cause for conduct that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests of baseball, including, but not limited to, engaging in conduct in violation of federal, state or local law.''  Alex Rodriguez certainly fits that description.  Unfortunately he was suspended under the drug policy and not the CBA.  If Selig had used that clause to suspend A-Roid, he wouldn't be able to play while he appeals.  Selig might have have good pragmatic reasons for suspending him under the drug policy, but it's a joke that he's going to be playing in a Major League Baseball game tonight.  Alex Rodriguez, go away.

Not-So-Hotlanta

After finding the best retractable roof stadium in baseball, I flew from Seattle to Atlanta.  By getting to Turner Field, I finished off my first division.  I only have three more stadiums to get to in the National League (St. Louis, Cincinnati, and San Francisco).  Ideally, I'll finish them off next year.  I still have a lot of work to do on the American League.  This was my second trip to Atlanta.  I was there in 2006 for Notre Dame's season opener against Georgia Tech.  Wilhelm drove Jon, Dennis, Chris, and me.  On the way down there, we all wore suits except for Wilhelm (I won't get into that story, but it was worth it).  It was about 12 hours to get there and 11 hours back.  Dennis sat in the trunk of Wilhelm's SUV on the way back.  Oh, college.  This trip ended up being fun.  The weather was good, mostly sunny and in the low 80s.  When I came back to New York (completing approximately 15,000 miles of traveling in 19 days), it was in the 90s for the whole next week.

Anyway, Dennis lives in Atlanta now and he was my host for the weekend.  I arrived on Thursday and the first thing we did was go to the original Chick-fil-A.  It was a combination of a diner and a fast food restaurant.  They also served hamburgers, which you don't usually find at Chick-fil-A.  At night we went to a barbecue place that was very good.  My favorite meal came the next day when we went to the Voodoo Bar and Grill.  Yes, Adam Richman went there on Man vs. Food.  He sampled several burgers and then had one called the Double Bypass Burger.  I had a much simpler burger that had blue cheese on it that was really good.

This is the original Chick-fil-A.  There's a tiny door that you're supposed to go through if it's your first time there, hence the name.

This doesn't look like a place I would go to, but they have some really good burgers.

Before going to Voodoo, we went to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.  Now, I think Jimmy Carter was a terrible president, but I'm glad we went.  There was a replica of the Oval Office, so that was cool.  The best part was an exhibit on presidential photography that went from Lincoln to the present.  Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize was there.  It's ridiculous that he won it, but they once gave it to a terrorist, so whatever.  I definitely hope to get to a few more presidential libraries.

Jimmy Carter's Oval Office

There were lots of famous pictures, but I thought this one was the funniest.

Later on we went to the World of Coca-Cola.  If I could drink any beverage constantly without any negative health repercussions, obviously my drink would be Sam Adams Summer Ale, but Coke would be the first non-alcoholic beverage on the list.  These days I very rarely drink regular Coke, but I will drink a Coke Zero from time to time.  So I was pretty excited about this part of the trip.  There were lots of old advertisements and stuff.  All there Coke Santa artwork was cool.  One of the most interesting parts was their thing on New Coke, which lasted for 79 days in 1985 (actually it did last longer than that, it was 79 days without the original Coke).  There was a lawsuit filed by the Coca-Cola Drinkers of America against the Coca-Cola Corporation.  The highlight of the World of Coca-Cola was the tasting room, but the disappointing part was that they don't have New Coke in there.  I would have liked to try it.  They did have soft drinks from around the world.  I did some research and found out that a drink from Italy called Beverly is widely considered to be the worst one.  According to wikipedia, an employee estimated that 5 out of every 2,000 people that visit like the taste of Beverly.  Armed with this knowledge, I had no interest in trying it.  Dennis tried it and didn't like it.  He compared it to bad beer.  Our trip to the World of Coca-Cola ended with a free 8-ounce bottle of Coke.

Just a small sample of what you find at the World of Coca-Cola.

From the World of Coca-Cola, we headed to Turner Field.  Dennis's girlfriend and her brother were doing the same things we were, but they were ahead of our schedule.  She texted Dennis that they had their Coke bottles confiscated at Turner Field.  Dennis and I put our Coke bottles in our bags so that you'd have to dig through the bags to find them and we were able to get them in.  I enjoyed my free Coke the next day.  Before going in, we saw some statues of Hank Aaron and other famous Braves outside the stadium.  Once inside, we walked around for a little bit before going up to our seats.  It was pretty nice where we entered the stadium in center field, but on the whole, Turner Field was not that impressive.  On the lower concouse, the only place you can see the field as you walk around is the outfield.  You can see the field from the middle concourse, but you can't see it from the upper concourse.  We were sitting up high, just to the first base side of home plate.  The other disappointing part of Turner Field was the food and beer selection was very underwhelming.  I had to go down to the middle concourse to get whatever the Blue Moon summer beer is.  As for the game, the Reds jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.  Bronson Arroyo (Mike Francesa's favorite pitcher) cruised for the Reds, allowing one run on three hits in seven innings.  Aroldis Chapman pitched the 9th and consistently hit 100+ on the gun.  His fastest pitch was 104.  He gave up a run, but got the save and the Reds won 4-2.

The True Home Run King.

Me, Dennis, and Dennis's roommate James

After the game, we stayed for fireworks.  It was a good show.  We saw more fireworks the next night at Stone Mountain.  Stone Mountain is the Confederate version of Mount Rushmore (it's smaller, but it has Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee).  I like Atlanta, but it is weird and disconcerting that the Confederacy is celebrated.  In the middle of the fireworks/laser light show at Stone Mountain, there was a tribute to the Confederacy.  I definitely didn't like that.  But it did end with a longer tribute to the United States.  That was good.  After missing the Fourth of July, I enjoyed the two nights of fireworks.

You can kind of see the carvings below the fireworks.

With that, it seems like I've made it to my last new stadium of the season.  I still have 12 more stadiums to get to (but really 10, I'm not going to Tampa or Oakland until they get new stadiums).  I still have a few things I hope to do before the summer is over, but I'll save that for later.  Football season is coming up and I have tickets to the Notre Dame games against Oklahoma, Arizona State (in JerryWorld), USC, and Navy.  Hopefully this season at least comes close to matching the awesomeness of last season.

I'll end with an updated list ranking the stadiums I've been to:

1.  Fenway Park

2.  Dodger Stadium

3.  Old Yankee Stadium

4.  Petco Park

5.  Wrigley Field (although if Hanley Ramirez is going back on the DL, that might warrant moving Wrigley Field down on this list)

6.  PNC Park

7.  Citizens Bank Park

8.  New Yankee Stadium

9.  Safeco Field

10.  Citi Field

11.  Nationals Park

12.  Oriole Park at Camden Yards

13.  Shea Stadium

14.  Coors Field

15.  Miller Park

16.  Chase Field

17.  Turner Field

18.  Minute Maid Park

19.  Marlins Park

20.  US Cellular Field

Walla Walla. Keokuk. Cucamonga. Seattle.

I made it to the funniest sounding city in America.  With this trip, I've now made it to 27 states.  I think I've linked this map before.  The Mariners are the most isolated team in the Majors.  The closest team is the A's and Oakland is 678 miles away.  So unlike many other stadiums in the Majors, you can't easily combine it with other stadiums into one trip.  I did anyway.  I had wanted to visit my friend Dennis in Atlanta and go to a Braves game.  The Braves are the most isolated team in the densely baseball-populated eastern half of the US (the Reds are the closest team, Cincinnati is 370 miles away).  So I made a big triangle across the US.  I went from New York to Seattle to Atlanta and then back to New York.  I'll get to my Atlanta trip in another post, but let's talk about Seattle and Safeco Field.

I started my day in Seattle by walking to the Space Needle.  At 605 feet tall, the Space Needle was the tallest building west of the Mississippi in the US when it was completed.  (Interesting facts that I just learned doing some research right now:  The nine tallest buildings in the US are all in New York and Chicago.  The tenth tallest building in the building in the US is in Atlanta.)  Now Seattle has buildings that are taller than the Space Needle, but they're in a different part part of the city so you still get really good views from the observation deck of the Space Needle.  You can see the water and downtown and then some mountains off in the distance.  It's worth doing if you're in Seattle.

The Space Needle is cooler than I thought it would be.

I think that's Puget Sound

Downtown Seattle is on the right.  It might hard to see, but there's a mountain off in the distance on the left.

After the Space Needle, I walked the two and a half miles to Safeco Field.  I walked through downtown.  Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field (home of the Seahawks and their dirtbag head coach) are just a little bit past downtown.  They're actually in a not so nice part of Seattle.  That's about the only bad thing I have to say about Safeco Field.  It's by far my favorite stadium that has a retractable roof.  Somewhere on the interweb I saw their roof described as an umbrella.  It just covers the stadium rather than completely enclosing the stadium and they only use it when it's raining.  I'm totally fine with that.  Once inside Safeco, I did a lap around the lower concourse.  They had a very wide food and beer selection.  I got a Fremont Summer Ale because I was worried that they wouldn't have such a good selection on the upper concourse (it turned out I had nothing to worry about, great selection upstairs as well).  The Fremont Summer Ale was nothing special, but I give them credit for their wide selection.  A pretty cool feature on the lower concourse was the Mariners Hall of Fame.  Besides stuff on some of the great Mariners players, they had some other good things in there.  They had a thing set up where you could pick up a phone-type thing and hit a number and listen to calls from several legendary broadcasters.  Of course, I listened to Vin Scully's call of the final out of Sandy Koufax's perfect game.  They also had displays on the baseball and bats that players use.

Ken Griffey, Jr. is the greatest hitter I've ever seen, assuming I'm right and he didn't use steroids.

Of course, there was lots of Mariners-specific stuff, but I enjoyed stuff like this.

The game was kind of like the one I went to in Houston.  I sat up high just a little to the first base side of home plate.  The visiting team won easily and I moved down late in the game and sat on the first level between home plate and the first base dugout.  Of note was David Ortiz (not one of my favorites, he used steroids) setting the record for most hits by a DH.  The Red Sox took a 9-0 lead and ended up winning 11-4.  I was really cold by the end of the game.  I should have brought a sweatshirt.  The high during the day was in the low 70s so I was fine, but when the sun went down and it was in the high 50s, I wasn't so warm.  But that's my fault and not the Mariners'.  It wasn't raining so they were playing baseball outdoors.  That's the way it should be.

My view early in the game.

My view late in the game.

Hot and Humid in Houston

This is the first of some long overdue posts on a few baseball trips I took this summer.  My first trip was the first week of summer vacation, before my trip to England.  I took a trip to Houston because Jet Blue had a sale and I could get cheap flights to Houston.  It was my first trip to Texas.  I'll be back there in October.  The first thing I noticed about Texas is that you see the Texas state flag everywhere.  I know what the New York state flag looks like, but I can't think of anywhere that I would ever see it other than maybe government buildings like a court or something.  But that's cool, I like Texas.  Anyway, the Astros had a two-game series with the Cardinals on June 25 and 26.  The flights would have been a little bit cheaper for me to go to the game on June 26, but if I had done that, I would have been flying home when the NBA Draft was happening on June 27.  I wanted to watch the draft with my dad, and I ended up doing my first draft diary, so it worked out well.  Except the game I went to was much less interesting than the one the following night, but whatever.

The American flag and Texas flag.  Maybe Yankee Stadium and Citi Field have New York flags, but I can't think of where they'd be.

Anyway, it was mid-90s and humid in Houston.  Adam Richman never did a Man vs. Food episode in Houston, so I didn't have anything in particular that I wanted to other than the game.  I was staying within walking distance from the stadium, so I did a stadium tour in the afternoon and the game at night.  I've done stadium tours at Dodger Stadium, Chase Field, and now Minute Maid Park.  Minute Maid Park is easily my least favorite of those three stadiums, but it had the best tour.  This was the only stadium tour I've been on so far where we got to walk the entire warning track.  One of the first stops was the Astros' dugout.

Me in the Astros' dugout.

We also got to go in the visitors' bullpen.  A cool feature of the visitors' bullpen was that it had Astroturf taken from the Astro Dome.  But bullpen was a dungeon.  It was kind of dank in there and it's totally enclosed.  There's a ceiling overhead.  I would imagine that it gets really hot and stuffy in there.  I would hate going to Houston if I was a relief pitcher.

Visitors' bullpen/dungeon with Astroturf

The tour guide had a great Texas twang (although maybe it wasn't a twang, wikipedia says the twang is more of a western Texas thing) and she explained how the hill ended up in center field.  Tal Smith was the president and/or GM of the Astros on a few different occasions.  He had also worked for the Reds when they played at Crosley Field.  Crosley Field had a 15 degree incline in left field.  So Tal Smith wanted they hill for Houston's new stadium.  The Astros put a hill with a 30 degree incline in center field in the plans for the new stadium, figuring that Major League Baseball wouldn't allow it.  It turns out that they did allow it.  On the hill is a flagpole that's on the field of play.  The flagpole is right by the wall, about 430 or so feet from home plate.  The only player to ever hit the flagpole was Richie Sexson in 2003.  He ended up with a triple and didn't score.  I like having the flagpole in play (I'd be opposed to it if it wasn't so far from the plate and so close to the wall), but I think the hill is silly.  Although I think the hill is silly, I like that baseball teams have the freedom to be creative and have something like that in their stadium.

Tal's Hill.  The flagpole on the left is in play.

As for the game, you'd figure I'd be able to get a cheap ticket for a team as bad as the Astros.  I ended up paying $35 to sit in the first row on the top level, just a little to the first base side of home plate.  Not terrible, but I was hoping to pay less.  Here's my economic analysis of why I couldn't find a cheaper ticket:

1.  The Astros are terrible so demand is low.

2.  Despite their terrible team and the lack of demand for tickets, the Astros are overpricing their tickets.

3.  Overpricing leads to tickets sales being even lower than you'd expect.

4.  Few tickets being sold leads to few tickets being available on the secondary market.

5.  The low supply on the secondary market makes prices higher than they should be.

6.  And finally, the Astros were playing the Cardinals.  The Cardinals have a large fan base and they used to be a division rival of the Astros.  That made demand for this game slightly higher than it would be for most Astros games on a Tuesday and that made prices a little higher also.

Anyway, the roof was closed for the game.  I had checked the Astros website and the roof had been closed for every game since the middle of May.  My bias against indoor baseball has been mentioned on this blog, and that definitely hurt my opinion on Minute Maid Park (I'll have an updated list of stadium rankings when I get through blogging my summer baseball trips).  If it had been an afternoon game, I would have been fine with the roof being closed.  But I felt like the roof could have been open at night.  And actually, it didn't seem to be doing much good as I was pretty hot for the first few innings of the game.  I guess you could argue that I would have been even hotter if the roof had been open.  My counter to that is that I would have been outside, so I wouldn't mind being hotter.

My view for the first seven innings.

As for the game, the pitching was good for the first three innings.  Nobody scored until the fourth when the Cardinals put up 7.  Matt Carpenter tripled with the bases loaded to put the Cardinals up 6-0.  Carlos Beltran homered in the sixth to make it 9-0.  There was no doubt about the outcome of the game.  What was interesting was that Jake Westbrook didn't allow a hit for the first five innings.  As I mentioned when I went to Pittsburgh this year, I think you can start to get excited about the possibility of a no hitter after five.  You're more than halfway there at that point, but there's still a long way to go.  So after five you think "maybe this could happen" and the excitement starts to grow with each out.  Well, the excitement didn't grow.  Matt Dominguez hit a home run leading off the sixth and there was nothing interesting about the game from that point on.  On the bright side, I did get to see the train that carries oranges move across the track for an Astros home run.  The Cardinals ended up winning 13-5.

The train is a nod to Houston's Union Station, which was at the site of the stadium.  The oranges are a nod to Minute Maid.  This is definitely not as good as the Citi Field home run apple, but it's better than whatever that thing is the Marlins have for when they hit home runs.

I ended up moving down to the first level for the last two innings.  There was a foul ball that went up near where I had been sitting.  From my new location, I could see the guys that had been sitting next to me.  The foul ball ended up landing maybe three seats to the right of my original seat.  I wouldn't have had a chance for it, but it would have been cool to have a foul ball come that close.  I've never caught a foul ball, but I do have a story about not getting a ball at Yankee Stadium when I was young.  I'll save that for another time.

My view for the last two innings.

Why I Love Baseball, Part 11

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about the George Brett pine tar game.  What I never heard about that story was that when the league overturned the call and made the Yankees and Royals replay the end of the game, Billy Martin was so angry that he put Ron Guidry in center and Don Mattingly at second base in protest.  It was Mattingly's only appearance at second base in his career, which is not surprising considering he was left-handed.  That story and the fact that I am left-handed inspired this post.  Unlike in the other big sports, being left-handed makes a difference.  In basketball, being a lefty might give you a slight/temporary advantage because defenders are used to guarding righties.  In football, I remember Ben Graham as the Jets punter and people said his punts were harder to catch because the ball was spinning the other way (the same might be true for passes thrown by lefty quarterbacks).  And in hockey, you might want lefties taking faceoffs in the defensive zone on the left side and righties taking faceoffs in the defensive zone on the right side (to prevent drawing the puck back in the direction of the goalie), but lefties can play any position in all of those sports.  In baseball, lefties cannot play four of the nine positions.  That's a significant disadvantage, but being left-handed can also be an advantage.

Righties can play any position in baseball, but lefties can't play catcher, second base, third base, or shortstop.  Great trivia question:  Who is the last left-handed fielder to start a game at any of those positions in the Majors?  I'll give you the answer at the end of this blog post.  The last lefty to play any of those positions for more than an inning was Benny Distefano, who caught six innings over three games in 1989.  I have no memory of him.  The last lefty to play any of those positions was Mario Valdez, who pinch hit in a game and then played one inning at third base for the White Sox in 1997.  No lefty has played second base since Mattingly in 1983.  If you google "left handed shortstops," you'll find a list that is surprisingly long and it includes one of the greatest left-handed players of all time, Lou Gehrig.  So I did a little more research and the list isn't real.  Every player on that list was listed a a shortstop in the lineup, hit in the top of the first inning, and then was replaced in the field in the bottom of the first.  This blog post on left handed shortstops is great.  The last lefty to actually play shortstop was Hal Chase of the Yankees in 1909.  He played one game at short and had no fielding chances.  He was also the last lefty with a fielding chance at short.  That was in 1905.  So it's been 104 years since a lefty played shortstop in the Majors, 30 years since a lefty played second, 24 years since a lefty played catcher, and 16 years since a left played third.

Why can't lefties play these positions?  At second base, a lefty would have no chance to take the throw at second and turn the double play.  At third, I had trouble thinking of why a lefty couldn't play there.  I was thinking a lefty would struggle throwing out runners at first on grounders hit to his right.  That's true, but the best reason that a lefty can't play third is fielding the bunt.  A lefty would have no chance of throwing a guy out at first on a decent bunt.  But why can't a lefty catch or play short?  What I remember hearing as the explanation was that it's easier for a right handed catcher to throw to second on a stolen base attempt with a right-handed hitter up.  According to the article I linked about Distefano, 44% of hitters today are left-handed.  So there are plenty of times when a left-handed catcher would have the advantage throwing to second.  And I think the throw to third might be easier for a left-handed catcher with a right-handed batter up, but the lefty might have to step across his body to make that throw, so maybe not.  The article also mentioned bunts down the third base line giving a lefty catcher trouble, but I don't know about that.  A right-handed catcher has to turn his entire body to make that throw to first.  A lefty might have to approach the ball a little differently, but the throw might actually be easier for a lefty.  As for short, I think a lefty could play short.  Taking the throw at second and turning the double play would probably be easier for the lefty.  I think the biggest problem would be on grounders to the right of the shortstop.  Those plays would be definitely be difficult, but I think it would be easier for a lefty to play short than second or third.

So anyway, lefties are limited to five of the nine positions, but lefties have their advantages in baseball.  My biggest regret in my sports career is not playing baseball longer.  If you're a lefty and you can pitch or hit, you can play.  I certainly was not the best athlete, but I was probably better at baseball than anything else.  I should have kept playing.  According to this website, 10% of the general population is left-handed, but 33% of pitchers and 16% of position players are left-handed.  The article above said 44% of hitters, I assume that's based on at-bats and not necessarily players.  For example, a switch hitter is going to bat left-handed more often than right-handed.  And some right-handed fielders do bat left-handed (but aren't switch hitters), so I think all these numbers make sense.  So despite the fact that righties can play all nine positions and lefties can only play five, baseball is disproportionately left-handed.

As a lefty, I always root for lefties in baseball.  I contend that the five greatest hitters of all time were Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Ty Cobb (Other contenders:  Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial).  Four of those five are left-handed.  No coincidence.  When I named the starting lineup for the All-Jim Team in my comment after this blog post, my 3-6 hitters were all left-handed (Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Griffey) and so was my starting pitcher (Sandy Koufax).  My favorite player today is Clayton Kershaw.  He probably would still be my favorite player if he was right-handed, but I like the fact that he's left-handed.

So yeah, being left-handed in baseball is awesome, even if you can't play four positions.  Back to that trivia question:  Who is the last left-handed fielder to start a game at catcher, second base, third base, or shortstop in the Majors?  The answer is the same as the last lefty to play at second base.  Don Mattingly played third base August 29-31, 1986 and started there on August 30 and 31.

Ryan Braun is a Cheater

We already knew this.  What still makes me mad is that he won the 2011 MVP over Matt Kemp.  That was the same year he tested positive for steroids and got away with it.  I'm glad the truth has finally come out.  What I want more than anything is the truth.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of players that used steroids that we'll never know about for sure.  And there were clean players that played in the steroid era that are tainted because of when they played.

Let's take one player that I've thought about a lot, Fred McGriff.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think he was clean.  He's getting no Hall of Fame consideration, but if he was clean, he belongs in the Hall of Fame.  When he was playing, I didn't think of him as a Hall of Famer because his numbers were dwarfed by several other players.  But most of those guys were cheating.  If he hadn't played with cheaters, his 493 career home runs would jump out at you.  You know who else had 493 career home runs?  One of the greatest hitters of all time.

Major League Baseball still has a problem.  They've taken steps in the right direction.  Look at some of these numbers.  In 2001, the top ten home run hitters combined for 526 home runs (if you're checking my math, three guys tied for 10th place, so only add 41 once if you're counting just 10 players).  Last year, the top ten home run hitters combined for 396 home runs.  Baseball has harsher penalties for steroids than the other sports.  But we still have Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez.  So the problem still exists.

Unlike some of baseball's other problems, I have confidence that Major League Baseball will fix this.  I have long despised the players' union.  There were two reasons for that.  First was the 1994 strike.  Second was the way they initially reacted to the steroid crisis (pretending that there was no problem at all).  Well, we haven't had a work stoppage since the 1994 strike and the union just let Ryan Braun accept a 65 game suspension for steroids.  Skip Schumaker's reaction to Braun also gives me hope.  During the 2005 steroid hearings in Congress, you had Curt Schilling (who was there as one of the "good guys") testifying and pretending that baseball didn't have a steroid problem.  Now you have guys like Schumaker that are mad.

The penalties for steroids need to be harsher.  Besides suspending players for not enough games, there's another problem.  Ryan Braun is going to lose a couple of million dollars.  But he's still going to get $133 million over the next eight years.  I'd be fine if we went with Schumaker's suggestion of lifetime bans for first offenses.  But I have a less drastic proposal.  For a first offense, you receive a one-year suspension and your contract is no longer guaranteed (cut to the Yankees' front office enthusiastically endorsing my plan without hearing the rest of it).  For a second offense, you receive a two-year suspension.  For a third offense, you are banned for life.  I doubt we'd ever get to strike three.  If you were caught using steroids twice, you'd miss a total of three years of baseball.  I don't think any team would want a player that was caught cheating twice and had missed three years of baseball.  Besides getting cheaters out of the game, they would also lose the financial rewards (possibly hundreds of millions of dollars) they got for their cheating.

Ryan Braun is a cheater and a liar.  He was caught.  That's good.  There's still work to be done.  Alex Rodriguez, you're on deck.