The House that Ruth Built

In my last post, I talked about how A-Roid has not really passed Babe Ruth in career RBIs, so the nickname of the old Yankee Stadium seemed like an appropriate title for this post.  Of course, I wasn't blogging when that stadium still existed.  I wanted to go back and retroactively blog about old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium (hopefully I'll get to that before the end of the week).  I was looking for pictures of the two stadiums and I realized that I didn't have any albums from either one on Facebook.  So I searched for my old camera and found some pictures from both.  I think all the pictures I found were taken in 2007 or 2008.

I went to a lot more games at Shea Stadium than Yankee Stadium, but I seem to have more vivid memories at Yankee Stadium (perhaps because the Shea Stadium games blend together more easily).  My guess is that I went to something like 13-20 games at the old Yankee Stadium.  I was looking at Baseball-Reference and trying to figure out what my first game at Yankee Stadium was.  Here's what I think I know about it:  it was a day game (almost certainly a weekend), Scott Sanderson pitched, and Stump Merrill was the manager.  Scott Sanderson was a Yankee from 1991-1992.  Stump Merrill managed the Yankees from 1990-1991.  So that would put my first game at Yankee Stadium in 1991.  That sounds about right.  I definitely don't think it was any earlier than that.  It could have been 1992 (Showalter was the manager by then, but maybe I'm wrong about Merrill being the manager), but it definitely wasn't any later than that.  On April 20, 1991, the Yankees lost to the Royals 5-1.  On May 18, the Yankees lost to the Mariners 4-1.  On August 10, the Yankees lost to the Tigers 5-1.  Sanderson pitched all those games.  My guess would be the August 10 game, but the Yankees played a doubleheader that day.  I definitely don't think I saw a doubleheader.  Did they do split doubleheaders back then?  So my official guess is the May 18 game.  Attendance that day was 23,017.  On April 20, it was 17,969.  What does that have to do with anything?  I kind of remember sitting up high down the left field line.  I doubt that we would have been sitting there on a day that was as poorly attended as the April 20 game.  The 1992 season gives two possibilities.  The Yankees lost to the Angels 7-3 on August 23.  And they lost to the Blue Jays 12-2 on September 27.  I don't think it was a huge blowout and by the September game, I was already in third grade.  I definitely think it was before that.  So here are my best guesses for my first game at Yankee Stadium:

1.  May 18, 1991
2.  August 10, 1991
3.  April 20, 1991
4.  August 23, 1992
5.  September 27, 1992

Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm wrong about the Yankees losing and/or Sanderson pitching, but I am pretty confident about it being a day game in 1991 or 1992.  I guess it could have even been 1990, but I don't think it was that early.

In the mid-90s, my friend Andrew's father knew people and he used to get tickets that were the first row behind the visitors' dugout.  If I remember correctly, the face value of those tickets was $25 at the time.  I went with him and sat in those seats for maybe three or four games from about 1993-1996ish.  We would always ask the other team for a ball when they were coming off the field.  I was there for an Orioles game when Rafael Palmeiro looked at me after throwing the ball to somebody else and told me that he would give me a ball the next inning.  He never gave me a ball.  I never liked him.  I do like how the picture of Rafael Palmeiro pointing his finger and lying in Congress is the first picture that comes up when you Google him.  Then I went to a Royals game and Andrew, his other friend, and I all got balls from the Royals.  I think Wally Joyner was the Royals' first baseman who gave me a ball.

Here are some other games I remember going to:

August 13, 1997- Hideki Irabu pitched a weekday afternoon game.  There was a rain delay.  I was able to quickly look up that game because I remember the Rangers had recently signed Joe Sakic to an offer sheet and the Yankees traded for Mike Stanley that day.

August 16, 1999- Roger Clemens was having a rough first season with the Yankees, but he pitched a gem before Mariano Rivera came in for the last out.  At that point, we didn't know that he was a cheater.  It was the year before I started working at camp and my brothers got tickets from somebody at camp.  It might have been the first time I ever had Dippin' Dots, the ice cream of the late 1990s.

July 29, 2005- I think this was my first game at Yankee Stadium since the 1999 game.  The Yankees lost to the Angels.  I don't really remember much about this game, but I think I went with a bunch of people from camp.  Tom and Ethan might have been at this game as well.  Tom was working at camp that summer.  He definitely came to a game with us either in 2005 or 2006.  I might have gone to another game in 2005, though.

July 28, 2006- I remember going to this game and Chien-Ming Wang dominating (complete game, two-hit shutout), but I don't really remember it being John's birthday.  Again, I went with a bunch of people from camp.

August 11, 2006- I don't really remember the details of this game.  I went with John and Vin and I think Tommy as well.  What I do remember is that it was two days after Vin and I were cheated out of our beer pong championship.  There was a camp party that night that we were not expected to attend because of a dispute that Vin got into because of us being cheated out of the beer pong championship.  But we did go to the party after the game for spite.

May 5, 2007- I remember this one well.  It was a Saturday and I had a grad school class in the morning.  John called me while I was in class, but my phone was off.  He drove to my house, but nobody was home.  So he left a message on my phone saying that he had tickets, but he had to leave for the game.  If I wanted to come, I could meet him there.  So I drove myself to the Bronx.  I think Vin and Ronnie tried to come up from Catholic, but they didn't make it.  So it was John, his future wife Liz, and me.  We were in the right field bleachers (the only time I sat in the right field bleachers at the old Stadium).  Chien-Ming Wang dominated the Mariners.  He was pitching a perfect game.  Liz noticed that the crowd was reacting a little bit differently to every out, but she didn't realize it was a perfect game.  When she asked, John and I did the whole superstitious thing and just told her not to worry about it.  Hideki Matsui made a nice running catch on a long fly ball hit by Ichiro leading off the seventh.  I thought he was going to finish it.  But with one out in the eighth, Ben Broussard hit a home run.  The next day, this happened.

May 22, 2007- My friend Jon and his brother came to New York to see Yankee Stadium.  I went to the game with them and John.  I think it was the only Yankee-Red Sox game I went to at the old Stadium.

September 3, 2007- It was Labor Day and two days after Notre Dame played an embarrassing game against Georgia Tech.  It was the last time I saw Roger Clemens.  He did not pitch well.

My view for the game on Labor Day 2007.  I always try to get better seats than this these days, but prices were so high the last few years of the old Yankee Stadium.

May 21, 2008- My last game at the old Stadium.  I was off the following day for Ascension Thursday.  I went with Andy.  A-Roid hit a steroid ball.  One thing from the box score that's interesting is that Robinson Cano was hitting .206 after this game.

The view I had for my last game at old Yankee Stadium.

So that's what I remember of Yankee Stadium.  In 2005, the Yankees had an average attendance of 50,502.  And it just went up from there.  The atmosphere was great, much better than the new Stadium.  I really wish the Yankees would have just renovated the Old Stadium, but Big Stein was not going to allow the Mets to be the only New York team to get a new stadium.  The Yankees once played in a great stadium; now they play in a shopping mall with a baseball game going on inside of it.

No Jeter

For the first time since at least 1995, I went to a Yankee game and Derek Jeter wasn't on the team.  Last year I blogged about seeing Jeter one last time.  With no more Jeter, Rivera, or David Phelps (Notre Dame) I don't think there's anybody on the Yankees that I like.

I went with my former boss, Rick, who shares season tickets with some other people.  It was good to spend some time with him and talk about sports and school and whatever else.  He picked me up from school and had to deal with some pretty awful traffic.  After stopping at the Court Deli near the stadium for dinner, we got into the stadium just a little late.  It was Michael Pineda against Colby Lewis.  The starters combined to allow 12 runs over the course of 12 and two-thirds innings.  Pineda wasn't cheating hard enough.  The Rangers got to work in the third, scoring seven.  It looked like it wouldn't be a very interesting game.  The Yankees made it 7-4 in the fourth.  After seven and a half, the Rangers led 10-5.  Garrett Jones hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and Mark Teixeira homered in the ninth, but the Yankees couldn't make it all the way back and lost 10-9.  The two teams combined for six home runs, with Prince Fielder hitting two of them.  I do prefer a pitchers' duel, but this was a much more interesting game than it seemed it would be early on.

My view for most of the game

My brother Tom came to the game very randomly with his friends Alex and Paul.  I think Alex had gotten tickets through his wife's company at the last minute.  Their seats were between home plate and third base just outside the moat right be the field.  They also included free popcorn and soft drinks.  Tom came up and sat with Rick and me for an inning.  Then he took me down to their seats for an inning.  I saw Prince Fielder's 416-foot home run to center when I was down there.

My view for about an inning

One other thing to note:  according to the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez tied Babe Ruth for fourth on the all-time RBI list.  Except that's not what happened.  A-Roid drove in his 1,992nd run.  The Elias Sports Bureau had Ruth with 1,992 RBIs and Lou Gehrig with 1,993 RBIs.  Major League Baseball's website has Ruth with 2,213 RBIs and Baseball-Reference has him with 2,214.  The Yankees' website has Ruth with 1,971 RBIs as a Yankee.  So according to the Yankees, Ruth had a total of 21 RBIs with the Red Sox and Braves.  Now he only had 12 with the Braves, but he had 113 with the Red Sox in 1919 (and some for the five years before that with the Red Sox).  As for Lou Gehrig, but Major League Baseball's website and Baseball-Reference have him at 1,995 (very sadly, Barroid ended up with one more than him).  So not that far off from Elias for Gehrig.  Unfortunately, A-Roid has since passed Gehrig, but he's still 199 or 200 away from Ruth.

I didn't get any food or beer at the stadium other than the free popcorn Tom gave me since we ate before going in and Yankee Stadium has a terrible beer selection.  Attendance was 40,008.  Yankee Stadium is just a mediocre stadium, but it really should be better.  The first and easiest fix is getting good beer in there.  But it's always fun to go to a game.  Thanks to Rick for taking me to the game.  I might get to another Yankee game this season or I might not.  I'm good either way.

No Simmons, No Problem

If you know me, you probably know by now that I dress by mood.  For example, today was the last day of school before college football starts so I was wearing my gold shirt, blue pants, Notre Dame tie, and Notre Dame dress socks.  I also blog by mood.  Notre Dame's poor performance at the end of last football season destroyed my will to blog.  And now it's been a while since I blogged.  Part of it was just being busy at work with the end of the school year.  But another part was the death of Jimmy's, a fine Greenlawn pizza establishment since 1989.  I considered doing a post just about that, but I couldn't get myself to do it.  Something had been in the works for a little while.  They did some minor renovations inside and I did notice that the pizza was a little different.  Then on my way to work two weeks ago today, I noticed that the awning said "Jonny D's Pizza."  I really hoped I had just hallucinated it, but I checked again on the drive home and indeed, Jimmy's was no more.  I've had Jonny D's twice now.  Their buffalo chicken is definitely not as good as Jimmy's.  It tastes pretty good, but it's not constructed nearly as well.  There's too much chicken and it's a little too doughy.  It's unwieldy. I will say though that their white slice is better than Jimmy's, but not as good as Chef's.  I drove past Jimmy's in Centerport a week ago to see if that still existed.  It does, but based on their website, I suspect that they split from Greenlawn Jimmy's a little while ago, but kept the name.  I had it for lunch last weekend.  The regular slice was definitely Jimmy's regular slice.  The buffalo chicken was well-constructed, but it was lacking blue cheese.

What does this have to do with anything?  Well, last night was NBA Draft night.  I stayed late at school to shoot some hoops.  When I shoot at school, I usually keep track of 100 free throws and 100 threes (from the high school line since that's all we have).  I made 84 out of 100 free throws.  Good, but I can shoot better than that.  But here's how I shoot and keep track, I shoot ten at a time and add them up after each set of ten.  At the end, whatever streak I'm on, I keep shooting until it I miss.  So I made my last two out of the 100 and kept shooting.  And then I made 41 more.  So I hit 43 in a row before missing.  That beat my old personal best streak by seven.  I was hoping that was a good omen for the Celtics and the Notre Dame guys.  Leigh Ellis of the Starters once made 50 in a row.  I thought I was going to get there.  So after all of that, I was 125 out of 142 (88%).  I was satisfied with that.  On my threes, I was 48 out of 100.  Pretty good, but a little disappointing considering I made 28 out of my first 50.  So after all of that, I got home a little after 6:00.  I thought the draft was later than it was, but when I realized it was at 7:30, I didn't have a ton of time to get food after taking a shower.  In the past, I probably would have gone to Jimmy's in this situation.  I didn't want Jonny D's.  So I went to Little Vincent's.  I introduced the guy behind me on line to cold cheese.  He'll be in my debt forever.

One cold cheese, on regular

After some good shooting and good pizza, I was ready for the draft.  I think it was the 25 draft that I've watched.  I remember Larry Johnson going number 1 in 1991.  I knew Derrick Coleman was drafted first overall, but I don't think I watched that happen in 1990.  And this is my third running diary of the draft (you can check out 2013 and 2014 if you want).  As always, I watched with my dad.  From the first pick to Pat Connaughton, here we go:

7:32- We're ready to go.  ESPN has Rece Davis with Jay Bilas, Jalen Rose, and Jay Williams.  No Bill Simmons on TV (I started doing this because Simmons being on the TV coverage meant he wasn't doing his running diary anymore).  Speaking of dressing by mood, I'm wearing a Celtics shirt and Notre Dame shorts.  The Celtics have four picks and Notre Dame is going to have two players drafted.  There's a mixed reaction from the crowd for Adam Silver.  Why is this draft taking place at Barclays Center?  Silver congratulates the Warriors and notes that Stephen Curry was picked seventh in 2009.  Griffin and Harden ahead of him were obviously defensible.  But Hasheem Thabeet, Tyreke Evans, Ricky Rubio, and Jonny Flynn?  Yikes.

7:34- The Timberwolves are on the clock.  If the Heat had the number one pick, we'd have my four least favorite teams with the first four picks.

7:37- The Timberwolves could be the first team ever with three straight number one picks on their roster.  They take Karl-Anthony Towns.  Good pick.  Notre Dame played a great game against Kentucky, but we couldn't handle Towns.  He also has more class than the scumbag that was his college coach.  He is wearing a ridiculous outfit, though.

7:39- Jay Bilas is making drinking game references.  By the way, my friend Sam will be joining me later.

7:43- Apparently Kentucky is the first school with three number one picks.  How has that not happened before?

7:44- The Lakers take D'Angelo Russell.  This might be a good pick.  I'm not a big fan of Okafor.  Russell has a pretty ridiculous outfit also.

7:52- Silver acknowledges Harvey Pollack, the last active employee from the NBA's first season.

7:53- Philadelphia takes the best player on a team that lost two out of three to Notre Dame this year.  Jahlil Okafor scored 20 the first time Duke played Notre Dame.  And the guys he was guarding scored 20 also.

7:55- The Knicks are on the clock.  Jalen Rose's team needs for the Knicks:  everything.  Yep.

7:59- Andy Katz says the 76ers are keeping Okafor.  My dad said there was talk of the Celtics looking to trade for him if he got to number 3.

8:00- The Knicks take Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia.  There are some great reactions from Knicks fans.

8:03- You're not going to believe this, but Fran Fraschilla likes the foreign guy.  Porzingis doesn't have a particularly thick accent.  He's also wearing the same outfit as Okafor.  If I was interviewing him after he was picked, I definitely would have asked if he was Latvian Orthodox like George Costanza.

8:05- International lottery pick all stars since 1984:  Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, and Yao Ming.  That is all.

8:07- No Frederic Weis reference from the ESPN guys?  That's disappointing.

8:09- The Magic take Mario Herzonja.  Fran says he's the best shooter in the draft and compares him to J.R. Smith.  That's probably a ridiculous comparison for many reasons.

8:15- The Kings take Willie Cauley-Stein and I immediately have flashbacks to him guarding Jerian Grant the length of the floor on the final play of our game against Kentucky.

8:17- And now they're showing that play on TV.  We were so close to the Final Four.

8:18- It's not a bad outfit for Cauley-Stein other than the bow tie and the medal that reminds me of Flava Flav's clock.

8:22- The Nuggets take Emmanuel Mudiay.  He played with Chairman Yi in China.

8:25- Mudiay's shirt is terrible.

8:28- The Pistons take Stanley Johnson, whoever that is.  I like his jacket-shirt-tie combination, but I wish the pants matched the jacket.  By the way, my notes in my notebook look like I'm drunk at this point.  I don't know why.

8:33- ESPN shows some tweets at the bottom of the screen and you're not going to believe this, but Magic Johnson likes the Lakers' pick of Russell.  He's the Lakers' version of Lou Holtz or Tommy Heinsohn.  The Lakers can do no wrong in his eyes.

8:36- First they trade for Jeremy Lamb (giving up a second round pick and a guy that was going to get waived right away).  Then the Hornets take Frank the Tank.  Speaking of Jeremy Lamb, I have a student who is very weirdly obsessed with Jeremy Lamb.  He went to see the Thunder play the Nets back in November.  Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both missed that game, but my student was upset about Jeremy Lamb missing that game.  I have no explanation for it.  But then some of my friends and I were pretty obsessed with Sam Perkins when I was in eighth grade.

8:39- Frank the Tank is wearing a grey suit, white shirt, and grey tie.  It's not often that I say this about an NBA Draft pick, but that suit is too bland.

8:40- He does have tanks in the lining of the jacket, though.

8:42- The Heat take Justise Winslow at number 10.  Is this going to be like when Paul Pierce fell to number 10 in my favorite draft ever?  And how did it take me this long to make a reference to that draft?  And what's Danny Ainge doing, by the way?

8:49- The Pacers take Myles Turner.  The ESPN guys are surprised he went this early.  I don't know anything about him.

8:50- The Jazz are on the clock.  Can we get a "Best White Guys Available" graphic?

8:56- The Jazz take Trey Lyles.  I was really hoping for Sam Dekker.

8:59- The scumbag that coaches Kentucky is on TV.

9:03- The Suns take Devin Booker.  There are celebratory fireworks outside my house.

9:10- The Thunder take Cameron Payne.  Can he fill Jeremy Lamb's shoes?

9:12- I'm joined by my good friend Sam.  Unfortunately, he won't be staying long since I have work tomorrow.  By the way, this is the first time I can ever remember the draft being before the end of school for me.

9:14- The ESPN guys were getting excited about Cameron Payne referring to himself in the third person.

9:16- They just went through some notable non-lottery players.  They included Avery Bradley and Kawhi Leonard.  Um, yeah, those two are not quite on the same level.

9:17- The Hawks take Kelly Oubre.  The Celtics are on the clock.

9:20- Jeff Goodman says Oubre is going to the Washington Professional Basketball Team.

9:21- Oubre's shoes are outrageous.  They have spikes or something on the top.  Rece Davis makes a Tom Brady Deflategate reference.  Nice.

9:23- They talk about the Celtics' assets.  Danny Ainge has been accumulating assets.  I support that strategy, but it's time to turn them into something.

9:25- The Celtics take Terry Rozier.  My dad is very surprised.  He says trades are coming.  I hope so.  Jay Bilas likes him as a defender.  He also describes him as "small and not a great shooter."  It's not like the Celtics have any other guys that fit that description.  Oh, wait.

9:31- The Bucks take Rashad Vaughn.  Couldn't we have gotten the ominous "Terry/Rashad is not here," for the last two picks?

9:38- The Rockets take Sam Dekker.  Whatever.

9:44- The Washington Professional Basketball Team takes Jerian Grant, but he's going to Atlanta for Kelly Oubre.  And the Hawks are getting some second round picks.  Of course, I like the trade for Atlanta.

9:46- Now the word is the Knicks are sending Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Hawks for Jerian Grant.  I was not saying Boo-urns when I heard about this.  At least Grant isn't going to the Lakers.  Hopefully the Knicks will end up trading him away in some terrible trade in the future.

9:50- Finally, Jay Bilas makes a Frederic Weis reference.  And the ESPN guys are openly mocking the triangle offense.

9:51- The Raptors take Delon Wright, who apparently won the Bob Cousy Award.

9:55- Phil Jackson says that Porzingis has the equipment to work.  Like a basketball and a hoop?

9:58- Why are there seven minutes between all of these picks when each team has five minutes to make a pick?  The Mavericks take Justin Anderson.  My dad thought the Celtics would take him.

10:04- The Bulls take Bobby Portis.  ESPN's guys just projected them to take Pat Connaughton a few minutes ago, which would have been very surprising this early.

10:13- The Trail Blazers take Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.  He's wearing some silly pants.

10:19- They're talking about Kevin Love next year.  The Celtics need to do something, but that's somebody I'm not interested in.

10:20- Two trades to announce.  They're the Jerian Grant trades.  I feel bad for Grant.

10:21- The Cavaliers take Tyus Jones.

10:25- Andy Katz says Tyus Jones is going to Minnesota for two second round picks.  I'm fading, by the way.

10:27- The Grizzlies take Jarell Martin.

10:32- The Spurs take Nikola Milutinov from Serbia.  He'll probably be good.

10:37- The Lakers take Larry Nance Jr.  The Celtics are on the clock thanks to the Doc Rivers trade.  That was a good move.

10:44- The Celtics take R.J. Hunter.  They needed somebody who can shoot the three.  My dad thought he might be their first pick.

10:53- While I was brushing my teeth, the Nets took Chris McCullough.  Boo Syracuse.

10:55- The Warriors take Kevin Looney with the last pick of the first round.

10:56- Silver recognizes Rod Thorne, who will be retiring.  Jerry West and Michael Jordan provide taped messages.

10:58- Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum will handle the second round.  I'll only be handling some of these picks.

11:04- Cedi Osman is the first pick of the second round.  He last played in Turkey.

11:09- My dad is looking for a big foreign center for the Celtics.

11:12- The Celtics take Jordan Mickey, the other possibility my dad mentioned.  He doesn't have great size, but he is a shot blocker.  Bilas likes the pick.

11:14- The Lakers take Anthony Brown from Stanford.  Boo Lakers.  Boo Stanford.

11:21- The Timberwolves take Rakeem Christmas for the Cavaliers.  He might have the ugliest outfit of all the draft picks.

11:26- The Pistons take Darrun Hilliard from Villanova.  That's our first player from a current Big East school.

11:32- The Nets take Pat Connaughton.  We'll see what happens with him.  I think he's got a chance to make it.  He can shoot, he's fearless, he's much more athletic than you'd expect, and he's a very good rebounder for his size.  I think he can at least play in Europe and make some money if that's what he wants to do.  And I'm falling asleep sitting up.  It's time to go.  Good night.

Postscript:  As it turns out, the Nets traded Connaughton to the Trail Blazers.  I love that guy.  I hope it works out for him and that Grant gets out of New York and it works out for him too.

Yes Cincinnati

I planned on getting to a game in Cincinnati last year.  That didn't happen so I went during my four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  With my trip to Cincinnati, I have now been to every stadium in the National League.

My view at Great American Ballpark

I started the day in Cincinnati by going to Tom and Chee, a grilled cheese and soup place that was featured on Man vs. Food Nation (I know, I probably shouldn't acknowledge the existence of that season, but I needed a place to go for lunch).  They had lots of grilled cheese sandwiches with all sorts of different stuff, but I just had a simple grilled cheese with tomatoes.  You can also get a very small soup for dipping for $1 so I did that.  It was very good.  I wish I could try some of the more complicated sandwiches too.

Tom and Chee

After that, I walked down to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  I had about two hours there before it closed.  I could have spent at least another hour there.  I've been teaching the build up to the Civil War and this would have been great for my students.  Most of the museum was on the struggle against slavery, but they also had exhibits on Auschwitz and human trafficking today.  I spent most of my time looking at all the stuff on slavery, but I had to rush through the stuff on Auschwitz and human trafficking.  Outside the museum they had a piece of the Berlin Wall.  So I definitely recommend checking this out if you're ever in Cincinnati.

A slave trying to escape

A piece of the Berlin Wall

After recharging my phone at the hotel, I walked to the stadium.  I took a lap around the stadium before going in.  The Reds Hall of Fame is outside the stadium, which I didn't have time to check out.  There are also statues of Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, Joe Nuxhall, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench outside the stadium also.  I took pictures of all of them except for Joe Morgan.  Inside the gates, they have Mr. and Mrs. Red.  They're pretty much Mr. and Mrs. Met, except with Reds uniforms.  Mr. Met made his debut in 1964.  Mr. Red wasn't a person until the 1970s, but there was a cartoon version on the Reds' uniforms in 1955.

Johnny Bench

Mr. and Mrs. Red

I had high expectations for the stadium and it exceeded them.  The food selection is outstanding.  There are so many different options.  Skyline Chili is a chain in Cincinnati that had Cheese Coney Dogs.  It was a hot dog with chili, mustard, onions, and cheese.  It really wasn't anything special.  But almost none of the concession stands had lines.  The only place where there was a long line was the one concession stand on the upper level where they were selling hot dogs for $1.

There's a hot dog, chili, onions, and mustard under there somewhere.  I took a lot of the cheese off.

The beer selection was the best I've seen in baseball.  There's a huge bar on the lower concourse on the third base side.  There was a very wide selection.  They did have Sam Adams Summer Ale, but once again, I wanted to try a local beer (actually Sam Adams was all over the place in Cincinnati because a lot of their beer is brewed there).  So I had a Rivertown Blueberry Lager.  It was fine, but I've had better blueberry beers.  But there was an area on the lower concourse between home plate and third base with plenty of room to stand and watch the game.  I watched about an inning there as I drank my beer.  It was a very good view of the field.

Blueberry Lager with the field in the background

The game was not entertaining.  It was Jason Marquis against Madison Bumgarner.  Marquis pitched three and gave up six.  Bumgarner pitched seven and gave up two.  Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Zack Cozart, and Billy Hamilton hit home runs.  The Giants were up 6-1 after three and ended up winning 10-2.  The most interesting part of the game was the fire.  The Reds have these two smokestacks out in right center where they shoot flames and/or fireworks when they strike somebody out or hit a home run.  At one point, one of the smokestacks started firing when nothing was happening.  And then smoke started drifting across the field toward third base.  They cleared out the two sections of seats by the smokestacks and the fire department came in.  A couple of firefighters went up on the smokestack and put out the fire.

Smoke coming from the smokestack on the right

I could have written some title for this post like "Not So Great American Ballpark" or "Average American Ballpark."  But Great American Ballpark lives up to its name (which is actually a corporate sponsor name).  I'm sliding it in at number 6 on my rankings.  Wrigley Field is a mess with all the renovations going on.  I'll probably have to reevaluate Wrigley whenever those are done (which I think is a couple of years down the road).  I really liked Kauffman Stadium, but Great American Ballpark has a much better location.  You could make the case to put it ahead of Petco Park also.  I'm going to keep Petco ahead because the dimensions at Great American Ballpark are much smaller and it's more of a hitters' park (although not as much as I expected before going through years of park factor data).

Since I've finished the National League, I'm ranking the National League West the best division and the National League East the worst.  I think a lot of people would say the Central was the best, and I would say it's close.  Dodger Stadium, Petco Park, and AT&T Park get the nod over PNC Park, Great American Ballpark, and whoever you put at third in that division (Busch Stadium or Wrigley Field).  If they finish the Wrigley renovations and it's one of the top five stadiums in baseball, then the Central probably wins.  As for the worst NL division, it's easily the East.  I like Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Citi Field, but they can't compete with the top three from other divisions.  And Turner Field and Marlins Park are the two worst in the National League, but the Braves are getting a new stadium soon.

Hopefully I'll get to Target Field and Angel Stadium this summer, but I don't have anything planned yet.  There might some more minor league games in my future too.  We'll see.

15 States to Go

Last week I had a four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  So for the third time in four years, I used that to take a baseball trip (San Diego three years ago and Toronto last year).  This year, I was going to Cincinnati (more on that in my next post).  But I've been combining trips to Major League games with trips to states I haven't been to, so I went to the Deep South this time.  I wanted to go to New Orleans and then drive to Mobile.  I really want to get to the World War II museum in New Orleans and then I would have crossed off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  But the schedule for the Mobile BayBears didn't work so I settled for just getting to Alabama and seeing the Birmingham Barons, the team that Michael Jordan played for.

I was hoping to get to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but my flight was a little delayed so that didn't happen.  I just spent some time at the hotel before the game preparing to teach about the Civil War.  I walked to the stadium about an hour early and walked around.  According to Baseball America, Regions Field is the third best stadium in the minors.  I've been to three in less than a year now (including number 9 on the list) and I would agree that Regions Field is the best one I've been to.  The design is a little funky, but it works for Birmingham.  The food and drink selection is outstanding.  They have a barbecue concession stand where I got a sandwich.  It wasn't anything special, but it's nice to have some options.  I was eating that by the bullpen before the game and some guy from Alabama came up and started talking to me.  He had a great Alabama accent.  He had gone to the same high school as the Barons' pitching coach, who had apparently played in the Majors for a little while.

Outside the stadium

The crowd was easily the best crowd I've seen at a minor league game.  At 8,500, it was a sellout.  One reason for that was that it was Thirsty Thursday.  They had bad beer for $2.  Of course, I would gladly pay extra money for good beer.  And the beer selection was easily the best that I've seen at a minor league stadium.  There was a bar out in center field that had a wide selection, including my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale.  But I can drink Summer Ale whenever I want from March until November, so I figured I should drink a local beer.  Although I didn't like the name, I had a Yellowhammer Rebellion Red Ale.  It's brewed in Huntsville, Alabama.  And it was excellent.

I watched an inning from right field as I drank a beer.

As for the game, it was the Chattanooga Lookouts against the Birmingham Barons.  Once again, I was a year too late to see a Dodgers' affiliate.  Chattanooga switched from the Dodgers to the Twins this year.  Their uniforms still look like they should be a Dodgers' affiliate.  The Barons are a White Sox affiliate (which they've been since 1986).  Chattanooga had the top prospect in baseball, Byron Buxton.  He led off and played center field, but he only went 1 for 5 with a single.  He was only hitting .244 after the game.  We'll see if he lives up to the billing.  Last year, it looks like he was hurt because he only played in 31 games.  He did put up really good numbers the year before.  As for the game, Chattanooga was up 3-0 after four and they ended up winning 5-1.

Byron Buxton at the plate

This gives you a better view of the entire field.

So I have 15 states left to go (here's my current map).  Here are my Power Rankings of how much I want to get to each state:

15.  North Dakota.  Fargo has an independent league team.  I can't think of anything else to do in North Dakota.

14.  Montana.  There are some minor league teams.

13.  Idaho.  Boise has a Rookie ball team.  And one of my roommates from Notre Dame lives there.

12.  Nebraska.  It has the College World Series.

11.  Oregon.  It has the Trail Blazers and some minor league teams.

10.  Mississippi.  Biloxi has a minor league team and it's about an hour and a half from New Orleans.

9.  Maine.  Portland's Hadlock Field has the Maine Monster in left field.

8.  Vermont.  Vermont has charity wiffle ball at Little Fenway, Little Wrigley, and Little Field of Dreams.

7.  South Dakota.  I would love to get to Mt. Rushmore, but it's not easy to get to.

6.  Iowa.  It has the Field of Dreams.

5.  Alaska.  It would be really cool to go to Alaska, but I don't know what to do there.  I would love to go to the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, but with my school schedule, I don't think that would ever work out.  I can't really think of what else to do in Alaska.  If anybody has any ideas, let me know.

4.  Louisiana.  I don't care about New Orleans, except for the World War II museum.

3.  South Carolina.  Notre Dame plays at Clemson in the fall.  I applied for that game in the lottery.  I probably won't win though.

2.  Minnesota.  It's the only state with a Major League team that I haven't been to yet.  I'm going to a wedding in St. Paul this fall, but hopefully I'll get there this summer for a Twins game.

1.  Hawaii.  I really want to see Pearl Harbor.  I'm sure there's lots of other fun stuff to do.  I also have in mind that I'd stop there on my way to Australia.  Then I could take a shorter flight to Australia rather than the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles.

Harry Truman's Other Neighborhood

Last year, I visited the Harry Truman Presidential Library and his house in Independence, Missouri.  This year, I visited another house where Truman spent 175 days during his presidency.  It was part of my trip down to Florida for my friend Vin's bachelor party.

I was expecting a really crazy bachelor party.  Vin's brother Tommy rented a house in Key West.  I was kind of scared.  My goal was really just to make it home alive.  John and I had joked about how the bachelor party might be unbloggable because it might not be appropriate for the blog and/or I wouldn't remember some of it.  That didn't happen.  I think I remember everything and there's nothing that happened that I would consider out of bounds for the blog.

After going to the Met game the night before, I got up really early to get to LaGuardia for a 6:00 flight.  I met John and some of Vin's friends at the airport in Miami.  We had breakfast/lunch/whatever it was at that point in the airport and then rented a van to drive down to Key West.  Speaking of airports, John asked me to rank the best airports I've been to.  I've been to a lot.  Midway and MacArthur are probably my two favorites.  They remind me of going back and forth to Notre Dame.  Midway would be number one.  There were lots of times that I would get there really early since I had to take that long bus ride from Notre Dame and I didn't want to take any chances.  I'd be going home for a break (usually with no work to do) and I'd go to this Irish bar and drink Guinness to pass the time.  I also knew exactly where the best bathroom in the airport was.  And they have mass on Sunday there (which I went to at least twice, including the day after the Bush Push game).  Unfortunately, Southwest doesn't go from MacArthur to Midway anymore, so I haven't been to either one since 2011.  Kennedy might be next on my list.  You'll see why after I unveil my Bad Airport Power Rankings:

5.  Newark.  It's on the list even though I've never been to Newark.  Because, you know, it's in Newark.  Jon once emailed Kyle and me to tell us that there were going to be direct flights from Newark to South Bend.  We just didn't care.  Whenever I search for flights on Kayak, I put in NYC and then filter out Newark.  I wish I could just always fly from Kennedy and MacArthur.

4.  DFW.  I was only there on my way to and from the Shamrock Series game in 2013.  I just didn't like the way it was laid out.  All the terminals seemed exactly the same and there just wasn't much space to navigate.  Love Field, on the other hand, is very nice.

3.  Fort Lauderdale.  I've only been there on my way too and from the National Championship Game in 2013.  The terminal I was in was being renovated and parts of it smelled weird, but maybe it's nice by now.  But I'll always associate it with that trip.  On the way back, my flight was delayed and I got home around midnight and then had to go back to work the next day.  I was not happy.

2.  O'Hare.  It's not that bad, but I just remember having to spend a night there and the bars closing before I got there.  And they don't have Guinness.

1.  LaGuardia (the link for O'Hara has information on why I hate LaGuardia too).  It's no contest.  Laguardia is awful.  Actually, terminals C and D are pretty nice now, but terminal B is by far the worst airport terminal I've ever been in.  There are separate concourses that aren't connected to each other.  So once you get past security, you don't have many options for places to eat or drink.  In fact, in one of those concourses, they didn't have a single bar.  I don't often drink much at airports anymore, but when I was stuck there back in 2012 when my flight to Chicago was delayed, a beer would have been fantastic.  And unlike Kennedy, it's not easy to get to.

Anyway, back to Vin's bachelor party.  Driving to Key West is really cool.  I didn't realize how many islands there are.  Most of them are very close together.  I think the longest bridge on the nearly four-hour trip is about seven miles.  We stopped one one of the islands at this outdoor bar/restaurant.  One of the guys had been there before.  You could feed tarpon.  I had never heard of tarpon before, but they're pretty big fish.  We walked out on the dock and a couple of guys were feeding the tarpon.  John was asked if he wanted to and his response was, "I have no interest."  That probably would have been my response too, but it was interesting to watch.

Feeding the tarpon

We got to the house a little before Vin, Tommy, and Sean arrived.  That first night, we drank and John grilled up some meat for dinner.  I think beer pong started after we ate.  This seems like a good time to tell the story of my incredible beer pong run in the summer of 2006.  I kept track of my record that summer and I think I was 38-16 (it was nine years ago and there was lots of alcohol involved, but I'm pretty sure it was something like that).  I also think I was 19-3 with Vin as my partner (which would mean I 19-13 with anybody else, pretty good, but not great).  Early in the summer, John had a party at his apartment.  I wasn't planning on sleeping over, but then Vin and I started playing beer pong.  And we won ten games in a row.  We never lost.  John just cut us off at one point.  We were unbeatable that night.  I think there were at least two games where we needed to send it to overtime and we just took care of business.  It truly is one of my greatest accomplishments.  Later in the summer, there was a beer pong tournament.  It was World Cup style since it was a World Cup year.  We had 12 teams so there were three groups of four.  You played everybody in your group once.  The top two teams from each group plus two wild card teams made it to the elimination round.  Vin and I cruised through group play, going 3-0.  We were the only team to go undefeated.  So we were the number one team going into the elimination round.  This was where the controversy started.  One team that made it to the elimination round had to leave (I think they were either the 3 or 6 seed).  I didn't really think about it at the time, but they just should have been replaced (make that new team the 8 seed and bump everybody else up).  But that's not what happened.  Instead, one team was given a bye.  If you were going to give anybody a bye, it should have been us since we were the 1 seed.  Instead, the team that was supposed to play the team that left got a bye.  Again, we just should have added another team, I didn't want a bye.  The team that ended up getting the bye won one game in the elimination round made it to the finals against Vin and me after we won two elimination games.  Now on this team was a girl that was notorious for playing beer pong and not drinking.  Vin tried to make the rule that if you were playing, you had to drink.  And I was with him.  If you're just playing for fun, then whatever.  But if it's a tournament, you have to be drinking.  But it wasn't his house, so that rule wasn't made.  We ended up losing by one cup.  I'm pretty sure I had the last shot to send it to overtime and my shot either hit the rim or was right on line, but just slightly long.  Vin was so upset about losing to that team that he refused to accept the prize money for second place.  I'm still bitter about it to this day.

Anyway, Vin and I played two games of beer pong on Friday night.  We were down four cups before we even took a shot in our first game.  But we came back and won.  Vin was better than I was and he hit the last shot, but I played a solid game.  In the second game, however, Vin played much better than I did.  I think I only hit one cup and we lost.  The next day, Vin and I took on his brothers.  Vin hit the last cup and it looked like we'd win, but Tommy sent it to overtime.  We started overtime, but we didn't finish before going out to dinner.  So for the weekend, Vin and I went 1-1-1.

Tommy, John, Vin, and I.  I think this picture was taken between our beer pong tie and going out to dinner.

After eating and playing some beer pong, we went out pretty late on Friday night.  John was talking about staying in.  I was totally ready to stay in with him.  I had gotten maybe three hours of sleep the night before between getting home late from the Met game and getting up early for the flight.  But John went out so I had to as well.  It was fun.  We ended up at this karaoke bar where Vin and Sean put on a good show.  But the real highlight of the night was Alex and T-Dog.  Lots of jokes about that the next day.

On Saturday, once we finally got up and ate breakfast, Vin, John, Ronnie, and I went to Ernest Hemmingway's house.  I think he lived there with his second wife.  John is a big Hemmingway fan.  He was not a big fan of our tour guide.  Vin and Ronnie decided early on to just chill out by the pool instead of staying with the tour.  There are cats all over the place there because Hemmingway had this cat with six toes that he thought brought good luck or something and now they have 50 descendants of that cat living there.

Ernest Hemmingway's house

We also went to the southernmost point in the continental US, which is apparently not the southernmost point in the continental US.  Looking at the map, it's really somewhere else in Key West.  There were jokes about hiring a boat to take us to Cuba.  It's as far south as I've ever been.  The farthest east I've ever been would be Canterbury, England.  The farthest north I've ever been is Dublin.  And the farthest west I've ever been is San Francisco, which is just slightly west of Seattle.  Hopefully someday I'll get to Australia.  That would be the farthest south easily.  And is that the farthest east or west that I would ever be?  I'd be traveling west to get there, but it's in the eastern hemisphere.

The southernmost point in the continental US, but not really.

We went back to the house and I watched the end of the Ranger game while everybody else was outside in the pool or just chilling in the sun (I did get in the pool later).  The Rangers won and eventually overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the series.  Hopefully they'll take care of business quickly in this series because Game 7 would be the night of Vin's wedding.  And then they need to win their first Stanley Cup in 21 years.  Later we watched the Kentucky Derby.  I'm no animal rights nut and I will watch the Kentucky Derby and maintain interest in horse racing as long as a triple crown is possible, but I do find it a little odd that the athletes in the sport are the ones that are least aware of what is going on.  We went out to dinner at this nice restaurant on the water.  After that, we were trying to figure out how to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.  We went back to the house to see if we could get it there.  I went up to my room to charge my phone for a little bit.  I put on a podcast and passed out.  By the time I woke up, the fight was over.  I didn't care.  I have no interest in boxing at all other than Chris Algieri (only because I went to school with him up until high school).  I just went back to sleep after that.

After getting a pretty good night of sleep, I got up early so that I could go to mass on Sunday morning.  I went to the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.  It's a pretty small church, but it was nice and crowded.

There was a little grotto right outside the church.

After that, I went to Harry Truman's house.  I didn't realize he had a house there until John texted me about it maybe a week before we went down there.  Actually, it wasn't really his house.  It's been used by several presidents going back to William Howard Taft.  Truman just used it more than anybody else.  He spent 175 days there as president (about three weeks per year).  You can take a tour, but we were told that the secret service wouldn't let us take pictures inside because the president always has a standing invitation to use the house whenever he wants.  I think Carter was the last president to go there while he was president, but Colin Powell used it for official business when he was Bush's Secretary of State.  The house was definitely dated, but it was interesting.  There was a poker table that had a cover to make it look like a regular table because Harry Truman's wife didn't approve of him gambling.  Our tour guide said that the press knew about it, but they never mentioned it because the public wouldn't approve of it either.

The Little White House in Key West

By the time I walked back to the house, it was just about time to make the drive back to the airport.  I had a late flight and I had been dreading going to work the next day after the bachelor party, but it turned out to be not too bad.

I've known Vin for a long time, so I'll leave you with this picture of the two of us and our bartender from January 2005:

This was from the last time I went out drinking underage.  It's funny for many reasons.