33 for 30

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

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

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

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

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

Look at the sewage glistening in the sun.

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

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

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

My view for the game

They should have beers called Headso and Son of Dad.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Stadium Down By the River

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A meal straight out of Man vs. Food.

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

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

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

My view on Sunday

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

Another meal right out of Man vs. Food.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jackie, Dodger Dogs, and Fireworks

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

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

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

Me and Sean outside the Rose Bowl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our view for the game

Sean and me on the field after the game

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

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

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

Street Corners and Tastee Freeze

The second stop of my Easter vacation trip was Chicago.  Obviously I’ve been there several times (for Cubs games in 2009 and 2016), but the Dodgers were playing there during my Easter vacation so I wanted to get back.  I was able to go to two games and do a Wrigley Field tour before heading out to the last stop on my Easter vacation trip.

I arrived at my hotel around 3:30 on Tuesday.  I had been to two Adam Richman Man vs. Food spots in Chicago (Gino’s East and Lucky’s Sandwich Company) and they’ve since done a Casey Webb Man vs. Food Chicago episode.  Of the three spots Casey Webb went to, one has closed.  I was interested in the other two.  If it was earlier in the day, I might have gone to Timothy O’Toole’s, where he had his challenge, which was the Big Timmy Burger.  Obviously, I wouldn’t be up for the challenge, but I could have done another burger.  But I decided that I wasn’t too excited about a burger (you can get a good burger lots of places and it was on the show not because the burgers are so great, but because they had a challenge).  It was a little out of the way also so I decided to just order from Lucky’s since it was much closer to where I was staying.  Lucky’s is like Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh.  They put coleslaw and fries on the sandwich.  Three years ago, I had the two bagger (corned beef and pastrami).  This time I had the Fredo (ham, salami, and capicola).  It was quite tasty.

I went to the game on Tuesday night.  I was feeling full from the sandwich and didn’t eat at the game.  I wanted some Illinois craft beer.  It took some searching, but I found a Half Acre Daisy Cutter.  They had plenty of stuff from 3 Floyds in Indiana and Bell’s in Michigan, but Half Acre is a Chicago brewery (there was also plenty of Goose Island, but that’s Anheuser-Busch InBev).  It was pretty good.  The game was not good. It was Jose Quintana for the Cubs against Kenta Maeda for the Dodgers.  Maeda gave up six runs in the first two innings.  Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez hit home runs.  The Dodgers had some chances to score more runs, but they ended up losing 7-2.  Let’s move on.

My view on Tuesday night

I started my day Wednesday with a tour of Wrigley Field.  The tour was very good.  It’s amazing that before 2016 the last Cubs championship came before Wrigley Field was built.  In fact, the Cubs were not the original tenants of Wrigley Field.  The Chicago Federals of the Federal League played there.  They were renamed the Whales and won the only baseball championship won at Wrigley Field (they won the Federal League there in 1915, the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 in Cleveland).  They are still the reigning Federal League Champions as 1915 was the last year for the Federal League.  I think the tour guide said that the Whales won the only championship ever at Wrigley Field, but it appears that’s not the case.  Five NFL Championship Games were played at Wrigley Field before the Super Bowl Era began (I think the Bears playing in Wrigley Field was mentioned on the tour, but they didn't mention that Wrigley Field hosted the most NFL games out of any stadium until it was passed by Giants Stadium).  The last one was in 1963 when the Bears beat the Giants 14-10.  The first night game at Wrigley Field was in 1988, but it could have been decades earlier (the two games I went to were the first night games I've been to at Wrigley Field).  The Cubs were going to put in lights in the 1940s, but they donated steel that was going to be used in the construction of lights for the war effort.  The tour guide said that the Cubs lost home field advantage in the 1984 NLCS because they couldn’t have night games and that’s what spurred them to put in lights by the end of the decade, but my quick internet research indicates that story is a myth.  We got to sit in the bleachers.  The tour guide suggested bringing a baseball (or any white sphere close to the size of a baseball) if you’re sitting in the bleachers so that if you get a home run ball hit by the visiting team you can keep the home run ball and throw back the fake one.  The basket at the top of the wall was not put in for catching home runs, it was put in to catch bleacher bums.  Apparently they used to run along the top of the wall and several fell onto the field and hurt themselves (they also changed the wall so that it comes to a point at the top, which makes running along it much more difficult).  The last interesting thing makes perfect sense, but I never thought about it before.  Wrigley Field is the only Major League Ballpark that still exists today where Jackie Robinson played.  Of course, Fenway Park was around also, but Jackie Robinson never played there.

Looking in from the bleachers

Me on the field at Wrigley Field

After the tour, I ordered a personal deep dish pizza from Pequod’s.  Casey Webb had a pizza with pepperoni and sausage on Man vs. Food so that’s what I did.  I have to say, it was pretty underwhelming.  The crust on the bottom of the pizza was too thick.  It was like having pizza ingredients on a big piece of bread (it’s not like the crust was particularly tasty).  I ended up cutting off a lot of the crust from the bottom.  On the outside of the pizza, rather than using dough, they used burnt cheese.  They made a big deal about the burnt cheese on the show.  It was nothing special.  It was a long time ago that I had Gino’s East, but I remember that being a lot better.  Three years ago I had a personal Giordano’s pizza at Wrigley Field and that was better.  It’s not like it was terrible.  You take cheese, tomato sauce, pepperoni, and sausage and put them together and it can’t be too bad, but I wouldn’t be having it again the next time I’m in Chicago.  And of course, I’m reminded of Jon Stewart’s words of wisdom about pizza:

I already knew that it wasn't really pizza, but I was still expecting better.

I was back at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night for the second game of the series.  I had a Bell’s Oberon to drink.  I’m like 99.5% sure that I had a Bell’s Oberon one time either before or after a Notre Dame football game at Jon’s recommendation, but if not, I thought I might not have ever had a Michigan beer (although on my beer state list I listed Bell’s Oberon and Bell’s Amber for Michigan so apparently I did have a Bell’s Amber at some point) so I went with that over a 3 Floyds beer or another Half Acre Daisy Cutter.  It was a solid baseball beer.  I just had a hot dog to eat.  It was listed as a Chicago Dog so I was a little worried that they’d have all those extraneous ingredients (Chicago is right about not using ketchup on hot dogs, but all that other stuff doesn’t belong on there).  The hot dog was good, but the bad thing was that they only had yellow mustard.  Cosmo Kramer knows that’s not acceptable:

It was Cole Hamels against Walker Buehler.  The Dodgers got off to a good start.  The Dodgers had runners on first and second in the fourth and an infield single (with no error) resulted in a run scored and runners on second and third.  Unfortunately they couldn’t get those runs in from second and third.  Cody Bellinger hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to put the Dodgers up 3-0.  But then the bottom of the sixth happened.  The first three batters went strikeout, single, fly out.  But Buehler couldn’t get the third out.  Anthony Rizzo walked and then Javier Baez hit a home run on an 0-2 count.  Scott Alexander came in.  He had been good so far this year, but not this night.  He gave up a double to David Bote and then they intentionally walked Wilson Contreras to set up the lefty-lefty matchup with Jason Heyward, but Heyward hit a home run.  So they had a runner on first with two outs and ended up getting six runs.  Anthony Rizzo drove in another run in the seventh off of Joe Kelly (who has been terrible) to put the Cubs up 7-3.  Alex Verdugo hit a three-run home run in the 8th to make it 7-6.  Max Muncy’s walked to lead off the ninth, but a strikeout and a double play ended the game.

My view on Wednesday night.  You can see part of the pole that obstructed my view of left field on the edge of the picture.

I like Dave Roberts, but I'm going to complain for a minute.  He had Cody Bellinger hitting sixth in both games.  The Cubs had two lefties pitching.  I understand moving Bellinger down a little bit against a lefty, but he had Corey Seager hitting fourth.  Seager is another lefty and he hasn't been anywhere near as good as Bellinger so far this year.  So far this year, Bellinger has hit second twice, third four times, fourth 15 times, fifth thrice, sixth five times, and seventh once.  It makes sense that Bellinger was hitting lower in the lineup earlier in the season, but by now, he needs to be hitting much higher.  Nobody can get him out right now.  I would have him hitting third probably (you could definitely talk me into second).  You need to make sure he's hitting in the first inning.  I don't think he's hit any lower than fourth for the last few games and hopefully he won't be hitting lower than that any time soon.

So it was two disappointing games in Chicago, but the beauty of baseball is that you have 162.  I can have a pretty good time at a game during the regular season even if the Dodgers lose.  If I go to a Notre Dame football game and they lose, I’m miserable.  Attendance at the two games was 35,536 and 35,743 (about four times the attendance as the game I went to at Tropicana Field).  Wrigley Field was good.  Unfortunately the ivy wasn’t green.  But other than that, everything at Wrigley was good.  Since the Cubs have been consistent contenders, the atmosphere is very good.  I had a pretty good view for both games.  On Wednesday, I was closer, but a pole was more of an issue.  Fortunately, the infield wasn’t obstructed at all, but I couldn’t see most of left field.  There were four home runs in the game and three of them were to left field.  When Bellinger homered, I was able to move down my row a bit to look around the pole and see it land.  I had two big criticisms of Wrigley Field the last time I went.  One was the beer selection.  It could still be better, but there was a definite improvement.  The other was how difficult it was to move around when I got food on the upper level because there was only one area up there to get food/beer.  Thankfully the renovations added a bunch of areas up high where you can get food and beer.  I didn’t actually buy food at the game where I was sitting up high, but it would have been easy to quickly get something to eat and I was able to quickly get my beer.  Thanks to these improvements, I’m moving Wrigley Field up at least two spots on my rankings.  That puts it at fifth ahead of Kauffman Stadium and Petco Park.  I have PNC Park at number four.  I was only there once seven years ago.  I’m going back at the end of May for two games.  So let’s see if it can hold off the improved Wrigley Field for the fourth spot.  The one thing I didn't like about the renovations was that they moved the bullpens.  You can check out one of my favorite websites to get an overview of how it has changed.  They moved the bullpens off the field.  Ordinarily I don't like having the bullpens on the field, but I don't like how they've moved them to a secret lair underneath the bleachers.  They'll show you who's warming up on the scoreboard, but I'd prefer it if the fans nearby could actually watch the relievers warm up (and say all sorts of stuff to them).  But the improvements outweigh that negative change.

I'll end by pointing out that the last team I saw lose a game at Wrigley Field won the World Series.