Oh Canada.

My first day in Canada was a very American day (baseball).  My second day was much more Canadian.  This is how I prepared for my trip to Canada.

These Canadians were upset about the Blue Jays' loss the night before.

Adam and I followed the only road in Canada.  Fortunately, we avoided Scott and we didn't end up in Newfoundland.

Canada has a solid flag.

Adam and I started the day with breakfast at a place near our hotel.  I had breakfast poutine.  Poutine is a Canadian thing with fries, cheese, and a "light brown gravy-like sauce," according to Wikipedia.  I was not interested in a "light brown gravy-like sauce," so breakfast poutine was a better option.  Actually, it was quite delicious.

Breakfast poutine

Then we were off to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Hockey is my fifth favorite sport, but its Hall of Fame is really good.  This was my third hall of fame trip in less than a year (baseball and basketball last summer).  The entrance reminded my of the Basketball Hall of Fame.  You have to go down to the bottom level of this little shopping mall and that's where you enter.  Most of the stuff you see is on that level.  I would say that a little more than half of that level is dedicated to the NHL, maybe 30% is dedicated to international hockey, and the rest is other stuff (the broadcasting history of hockey, for example).  It was really good.  There was the net that Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's goal scoring record on with 802 pucks stacked up.  There was a lot of stuff on Brian Leetch and Mark Messier (my two favorite players growing up).  They had a little mock Montreal Canadiens locker room.  Interesting, considering this was in Toronto, but the Canadiens are the Yankees of hockey.  There was a 3D movie that was pretty well done (it was big on water bottles getting knocked off of the net by the puck).  The international stuff was cool.  There was the net that Sydney Crosby scored the winning goal in against the US in the gold medal game in the 2010 Olympics.  They had jerseys from countries around the world.  It was pretty cool to see the jerseys that you never think of as hockey countries.  According to the world rankings, Britain is 22nd, Australia is 32nd, and Ireland is 42nd (out of 48).  The bad thing about being in Canada was that they didn't have a lot about the Miracle on Ice.  They had some stuff on Herb Brooks and a jersey from the team, but I would have loved to see a lot more about that.

That's a lot of goals.

If I could go back in time and go to any ten sporting events, the Miracle on Ice is making the list (that could be its own blog post).

Brian Leetch's jersey from the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.  The US beat Canada to win.  It was our best hockey accomplishment since 1980.

The fake Canadiens locker room.

South African and Australian hockey jerseys

Hockey Muppets

The highlight is definitely when you go upstairs and see all the players inducted in the Hall of Fame and the NHL trophies.  All the trophies are behind glass, except for the Stanley Cup.  I was surprised that you can actually touch the Stanley Cup.  They take your picture and you can pay a little over $11 for three prints and online access to the picture.  Definitely worth it.  And they don't rush you (although maybe they would have if it had been more crowded).  They gave us time and we found the 1994 Rangers on the Stanley Cup.  Hopefully the 2014 Rangers will be added soon (but it's not looking too good right now).  Overall, it's easily better than the Basketball Hall of Fame.  I'd probably put the Baseball Hall of Fame ahead of it for giving you a better sense of the history of the game, but I like baseball more than hockey.  There's nothing quite as awesome as being able to touch the Stanley Cup at the Baseball Hall of Fame, so I could see somebody making the argument that the Hockey Hall of Fame is better.

This was awesome.

The 1994 Rangers on the Stanley Cup

Later we went to the CN Tower.  I didn't realize how big it is until I looked it up.  It reminded me of the Space Needle in Seattle, but it's almost two and a half times as tall.  Until recently, it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world.  For $32, you can go most of the way up (you can pay more to go higher up).  You can see everything in Toronto and Lake Ontario.  Directly south across the lake from Toronto is still Canada, but the United States is off to the southeast.  The Blue Jays were playing while we were up there.  I saw somebody hit an RBI double (I couldn't really see the ball, I was just going by the baserunners).  There's also a 3D movie about flight and there's a ride.  The ride was called Himalamazon.  It was one of those simulator rides like they have at Disney World.  The theme of the ride was something about growing super trees in the Himalamazon or something.  It was really confusing.  There was a little girl who was sitting in front of me who was laughing the whole time and then when the ride was over she said, "That was boring."  I thought that was pretty funny.

The CN Tower

This view of the Blue Jays game was more expensive than the one I had the night before.

For dinner, we went to the Mill Street Brew Pub in the Distillery District, which was a cool area of Toronto.  They have a tasting room with four beers on tap that you can taste for free.  When we sat down, they brought us two more samples that we didn't even ask for.  We both got beer flights to sample four more beers.  I had a pint that the waitress recommended to pair with my fish and chips.  I can't say that I loved any of the beers, but most of them were good (there was one out of the several that I tried that I didn't like, but the rest were decent to good).  So although I wouldn't rate any of the beers I tried as great, I would strongly recommend the Mill Street Brew Pub if you're ever in Toronto.  A lot of the bars around Toronto have the Mill Street logo in their windows.  The Blue Jays need to get a Mill Street concession stand in the SkyDome.

Beer.

As we were walking to dinner, we passed a Bulk Barn.  Adam recognized Bulk Barn from advertising in hockey games played in Canada.  He wanted to go to it based on his theory that anything that ends in barn is good.  Anybody who has been to Boardy Barn could probably debate both sides of that issue.  So the Bulk Barn has all sorts of food items that you can put in a bag and pay for by the pound.  When we walked in, Adam said, "This is better than I ever could have imagined."

Smarties at the Bulk Barn.  Those aren't Smarties.

We went home on Sunday.  I got up early and went to mass at a church that was being renovated.  Then we got breakfast at a crepe place.  I had really hoped to go to Crepes a Go Go.  Why?  Leigh Ellis had always talked about it on the Basketball Jones podcast last year when they were still in Toronto.  So I was hoping to eat French food in Canada on the recommendation of an Australian.  But their hours were really weird so it didn't work out.  The crepe I got on Sunday morning (dark chocolate and bananas) was really good anyway.

I had never had a crepe until I went to Canada.

And that was my time in Canada.  I'm pretty sure I've seen enough of Canada to be satisfied.  There's a good chance I'll never be back, but it was a good trip.  I've now been to three other countries and they all speak English.  I really don't have a desire to go to any other countries other than Australia and Italy/Vatican City.  I've taken trips abroad in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  Maybe I'll take another trip abroad in 2015, but I definitely don't have anything planned yet.

I'll finish with my currency power rankings (I've only used four in my life, everybody is competing for second here):

4.  Euro.  The euro is very boring.
3.  Canadian Dollar.  It's got a weird texture, but I was okay with it.  All the notes are different colors, which I was also okay with.  The notes are all the same size, which I liked.  And they fit in my wallet, unlike some of the Euro and Pound notes.  So why don't they get the second spot?
2.  British Pound.  They come in different sizes and some of those sizes don't really fit in my wallet (like the euro, if I remember correctly).  They have the queen on them, which is a drawback, but so does the Canadian $20 bill (and it's more understandable having the queen on British currency than it is on Canadian currency).  The reason that the pound gets the second spot is the 20 pound note.  What's so special about it?  It has Adam Smith on it, the father of capitalism).  Now that's somebody that belongs on money.
1.  American Dollar.  Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant have no business being on money, but Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, and Franklin certainly do deserve to be honored that way (actually, I guess you could debate Jefferson since he certainly didn't see eye to eye with Hamilton, but he's worthy of being honored even if money isn't the most appropriate way).  It's the right size and we don't have any royalty on our money.  God Bless America!

Adam Smith is my favorite person on money other than Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin.

You Most Likely Know It as Rogers Centre

But it will always be SkyDome to me.

I took my first trip north of the border this past weekend and saw the Blue Jays on Friday night.  I'll just focus on my trip to the SkyDome for now and get to the rest of my time in Canada in another post.  On my MLB At the Ballpark app, I can keep track of baseball games I've gone to going back to 2005.  I've put in all the games that I can remember going to during that time and according to the app, I had been to 54 games (probably missing a couple at Shea Stadium and/or old Yankee Stadium) in 21 stadiums (definitely accurate) and seen 27 teams during that time (I might have missed a few games, but I think that was accurate).  Two of the three teams I hadn't seen were the Blue Jays and Royals (the Rangers are the other one).  I crossed those two off the list.

I met my friend Adam at our hotel in Toronto on Friday afternoon.  After relaxing for a bit, we headed down to the SkyDome early.  One of the best things about the SkyDome is that it has a great location in downtown Toronto (which happens to be the fourth largest city in North America).  The outside of the building isn't particularly attractive.  It's just very concretey.  The best side is the side with the hotel on it, which has some windows on the outside.  After taking a lap, we headed into the stadium.  When you walk in the gate that we used, it's like you're in a parking garage.  Think of those old ramps at Shea Stadium and make them more like a parking garage and that's the first thing we saw when we walked in.  In fairness, some of the other gates put you right on the concourse, which makes for a much nicer entrance.

The outside of the SkyDome looks pretty cool in this picture.

And not so much in this picture.

We went down to the lower concourse and took a lap to check out the food options, which were somewhat limited.  I got some Cajun wings from Quaker Steak & Lube.  Adam Richman went to Quaker Steak & Lube in the Pittsburgh episode of the classic television program Man vs. Food and I had never had it before, so it was worth a try.  The wings were good, but very messy.  Adam went to a deli concession stand in the stadium and got a sandwich named after Bill Cosby for some reason.  We sat down a little past first base to eat and watch some batting practice.

Apparently SkyDome had Canada's first Quaker Steak & Lube.  That's a good job when it comes to food, but they need more good options.

Our view for batting practice

Then we headed up to our seats on the upper level behind home plate shortly before the game started.  I always enjoy singing the Star Spangled Banner in another country.  Then I stood politely and quietly for O Canada, but my hand was most definitely not over my heart.  One interesting note about O Canada is that the English and French versions do not mean the same thing.

As for the game, it was not very competitive.  Jason Vargas took on J.A. Happ.  Lorenzo Cain drove in the first run for the Royals in the second and they never looked back.  (Speaking of people named Lorenzo, Dodgers' third base coach Lorenzo Bundy definitely has the best name of any third base coach in the league.)  Cain would later homer in the 8th after Happ was strangely left in the game with a high pitch count and trailing 4-1.  Alex Gordon also hit a home run and Jose Bautista hit a home run to drive in the only run of the game for the Blue Jays.  The Royals won 6-1.

This was our view for the game.  Jose Bautista is hitting a home run in the picture.  The artificial turf looks terrible with those black streaks in the outfield.

So how does the SkyDome rank among the now 22 stadiums I've been to?  I'll make an updated list at some point this year, but let's just say it ranks poorly.  It has a good location and cheap tickets ($13 per seat on Stubhub, probably the cheapest tickets I'll buy all season).  The hotel in center field is kind of cool.  There were some people leaning out from their rooms to watch the game.  But there was a lot not to like.  First, it's one of only two stadiums in the majors that lacks natural grass (Tropicana Field is the other).  It's the only stadium that only has dirt around the bases rather than all around the infield.  Quaker Steak & Lube was good, but the food selection was lacking in general.  The atmosphere wasn't particularly good (small crowd, 21,543).  It's kind of like an updated version of Shea Stadium with a retractable roof (which was fortunately open thanks to the 66 degree game time temperature).  I often sit high up behind home plate when I visit the various stadiums around the league.  SkyDome is more like older stadiums than newer ones in that the upper deck is very high and kind of right on top of the field.  I prefer the newer stadiums where the upper deck is a little lower even if it's a little farther back from the field.  One of my biggest issues with the stadium (besides the fact that it's not in the United States) is that it is apparently the only stadium in the league without any craft beer available.  In the words of Jimmy Volmer, "I mean, come on!"  Around the stadium, it was almost only Bud and Bud Light on tap.  If you're going to have a Canadian city with a baseball team, that team at least needs to have Canadian beer widely available.  I did manage to find a concession stand on the upper level with a wide selection of beer available in cans and I had an Alexander Keith's Red Amber Ale, which was decent.  Alexander Keith's is from Nova Scotia, but it's owned by Labatt, which is of course owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The other thing the Blue Jays should do is become Canada's team (if you're going to have a team in Canada, they should make an effort to belong to the entire country).  They got huge crowds in Montreal for two preseason games with the Mets.  They should play one homestand per year in another Canadian city.  It would work in Montreal, but stadiums might be an issue in other cities.  They're not getting great attendance in Toronto (they're 22nd in baseball), so I think they could find a way to make this work even if they don't have baseball stadiums that would hold huge crowds in other Canadian cities.

I think SkyDome could be fixed.  It needs to be renovated so that you don't enter and think you're in a parking garage.  Grass needs to be put in (I've read that the Blue Jays want grass, but there is concern about having the inside of the stadium exposed to the elements much more with the roof open more often for the grass).  I would definitely try to open up the upper concourse, and maybe even totally redo the top half of the stadium.  Sacrifice some seats if you need to and make that upper level more open and just lower in general (the Blue Jays have plenty of seats that they don't need anyway, but that could be an issue for the CFL and the Bills).  And for the love of God, get some Canadian craft beer in there!

Adam and me after the game

Spelling Bee Hockey Basketball

I'm behind on my blogging.  I have a trip to Citi Field that I need to blog about, but I'll save that for later.  For tonight, we're breaking out the running diary of a great night of TV.  The Rangers are trying to get to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 20 years, we have Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals in the NBA with the series tied at two, and the National Spelling Bee Finals.  I meant to get this started earlier, but I was taking care of stuff with my next baseball trip coming up tomorrow.  Here we go:

8:37- We're beginning round 7 in the spelling bee.  Taglioni is the first word of the round and the girl gets it wrong.  We're down to 10 spellers.  One of the many reasons that I wanted the Rangers to win Game 5 was that I wanted to be able to focus on the spelling bee.  I find this captivating.  I think I might be totally stealing this running diary from Bill Simmons.  He might have done a spelling bee running diary in 2007 or something.

8:40- The Rangers and Canadiens are scoreless with three minutes to play in the first period.I really don't want to see them have to go back to Montreal for Game 7.  The last time they had a home game with a trip to the finals on the line, this happened.

8:44- Penalty on Marc Staal.  The Rangers have been taking too many penalties.

8:45- Rick Nash put the puck in front of the goal with the net wide open, but nobody was there for the Rangers to convert the shorthanded chance.

8:47- The Rangers have killed off a minute of the penalty and we're going to the first intermission.  It's spelling bee time!

8:48- The most polite speller goes out on chartula.  We're down to nine spellers.

8:49- The next speller makes potAto-potAHto pronunciation joke with guttatim and gets a good laugh.  He spells it correctly.

8:51- I was five years off.  Bill Simmons did the spelling bee diary in 2002.  I wouldn't have guessed that ESPN has been televising it for that long.

8:52- I was just glancing at Simmons's's's diary and the most shocking thing is that the pronouncer was some guy named Dr. Alex Cameron.  Who?  I can't imagine the spelling bee without Dr. Jacques Bailly.  Easily my favorite Jacques of all time.

8:54- Wikipedia says 2003 was Jacques Bailly's first year as the official pronouncer.  I've served as the Dr. Jacques Bailly for several school math bees.  Other bee experience:  I won my schools geography bee in seventh grade (I correctly identified water as Canada's most abundant natural resource for the win).  In eighth grade, I went out in the first round as the defending champion (stupid Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, the format had changed, many people went out on the same question).  And when I was 18, I was stung by a bee for the first time (it happened at camp).

9:00- Dactylion was the last word, which apparently is the tip of the middle finger.  I don't think the speller asked for a sentence.  I'm sure that could have had an interesting sentence.

9:02- Our next speller is named Tejas and his favorite historical figure is Winston Churchill.  I might have to root for this kid.

9:03- Tejas went out on hallenkirche.  I need to find somebody new.  We're down to just seven.  Tejas has three more years of eligibility.  He redshirted last year.

9:05- We start the second period and Carl Hagelin gets a good shorthanded chance, but can't score.

9:10- Subban just got sent to the penalty box.  Time for the Rangers to take the lead.

9:12- The Rangers hit a post on the power play.  I thought it was in.  Nuts.

9:14- The Thunder have an early lead over the Spurs.  One of my students this year loves Jeremy Lamb for some unknown reason.  He was upset today when he found out that I wasn't going to be in school tomorrow for Jeremy Lamb's birthday.  Lamb has taken a few DNPs this year in the playoffs and almost got a one trillion in one game (one turnover ruined it), but he's been playing more lately for the Thunder.

9:20- We get an angry reaction from a kid who goes out on kabaragoya.  Down to six.

9:21- I'm trying to decide who to root for.  I don't know if we have any non-Americans left.  In recent years we've had some Canadians that have made a run.  They can win their own national spelling bee.  A Canadian winning our national spelling be would be as silly as us having our National Grammar Rodeo at the Sheraton Hotel in Canada.

9:23- The definition of the current word (brindisi) is "a drinking or toasting song."  The girl gets it right.  That might be enough for me to root for her from now on.

9:26- The Rangers are going on the power play again.  Seriously now, the Rangers need some goals so that I can focus on the spelling bee.

9:27- Lundqvist makes a save on a shorthanded chance for the Canadiens.

9:28- I just decided to go with the spelling bee on my phone and watch the game on TV on mute.  Why didn't I think of this sooner?

9:29- The Rangers fail to score on the power play again and Lunqvist just made a ridiculous blocker save on a puck that was deflected by Dan Girardi.

9:36- The Rangers score first and a girl goes out on aetites.  Dominic Moore scores on a nice pass from Brian Boyle.  We only have one girl left and it's the one who got the drinking song word right.

9:38- Irbis?  A Russian word that came from Mongol?  That's rough.  She gets it wrong.  No more girls unless everybody goes down this round.

9:41- We end the second period with Brad Richards in the box for another 1:48 to start the third period.  I could really go for two more goals.  

9:44- The Spurs just went up by two.  I kind of feel guilty about not watching more basketball (in general, not just tonight).  But there just haven't been many good games since the first round.  And since the Heat are going to the finals, I don't really want good games in the finals.  I just want them to lose every game by 25 so that it's not stressful.  That's not going to happen of course.  My guess is we'll get some good games in the finals.  But last year we got a very memorable finals, but most of the games weren't really close.  So we'll see.

9:49- Intermission and two commercials.  It's the dreaded triple Urkin.  The Dodgers start soon which could bring the rare quadruple Urkin into play.

9:51- The Canadiens are only on their second power play of the game.  Hopefully they'll be 0-2 soon.  Hopefully the Rangers will be 1-4 and up 2-0 soon.

9:52- Can you bet on this in Las Vegas?  I'm not going to google it to find out, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.  You really deserve to lose money if you're betting on kids in the spelling bee.  And we're down to four spellers.  I think I missed somebody getting eliminated.

9:54- This guy has a word with two accent marks.  I thought this was an English spelling bee.

9:55- And he got it wrong.  This is America, we don't use accent marks.  We're down to three, which means we'll be going to the championship words after this round.

9:56- I don't like having non-Americans in our National Spelling Bee, but I feel like we should invite kids from England and just give them words like color, honor, connection, and analyze.

9:57- When kids ask if they're pronouncing words right, Dr. Jacques Bailly has been saying that they'll let the speller know if they hear something wrong, but they don't guarantee anything.  I think that's a change from years past.  I feel like there was controversy that led to this.

9:59- The first championship word is spelled correctly.  Three spellers, 24 words left.  The Rangers win the opening faceoff of the third period and send the puck down the ice.

10:01- The Rangers killed the penalty and I'm back to spelling bee on the phone, game on TV.

10:03- Previous winning words.  I definitely would have gotten some of those right.  Therapy?  Those spellers were amateurs in 1940.  The winning word was luge the year I was born.  And that was a Winter Olympic year.

10:07- One of the kids gets Kierkegaardian wrong.  We're down to two unless everybody gets their word wrong.

10:10- We're down to 17 words.  I want to see them get through all 25 with no winner.  There have been two winners a few times, but it hasn't happened since 1962.  How would Twitter react to not having one winner?

10:13- A kid goes down on corpsbruder.  The other kid needs to spell two words correctly to win.  Antigropelos (waterproof leggings) is the first of the two words.

10:15- And he gets it wrong!  It's not over yet.  This is the spelling bee equivalent of the Helsinki episode of 1919.  The first kid asks Dr. Jacques Bailly for a word he knows this time.  If I'm Dr. Jacques, I'm finding the hardest word on the list and giving it to him.

10:16- He gets skandhas right.

10:18- The other kid gets Hyblaean right.  Twelve words to go.  Dr. Jacques Bailly just started reading the wrong sentence.  That's the first gaffe he's ever made.  In his entire life.

10:19- Feijoada doesn't feijoada this kid.  

10:20- Great reaction by the other kid to getting the word augenphilologie.

10:21- And he gets it right!  That had to be the hardest word so far.

10:22- By the way, the Rangers are 7:17 away from winning.  They need another goal.  The spelling bee is helping to distract or I'd be pretty anxious right now.

10:23- The Rangers just had a three on one, but didn't get a great shot out of it.

10:24- Penalty on the Canadiens.  Now is the time for a power play goal.  Let's get some breathing room.

10:28- We're down to five words.  A tie is becoming a real possibility.  I want this to go to the very end just because I don't want it to end.  But really, why don't they have a list of 250 championship words?  If they can go that long without a winner, then I'm cool with it being a tie.  But they've come this far and then it's just going to end with no winner?  Lame.

10:30- Stichomythia might be the last word the first kid spells.  There are only three words left, meaning that if the other kid gets his word right, there won't be enough words left for somebody to win.

10:31- The other kid gets feuilleton.  He seems nervous.  Derick Brassard just had a breakaway, but couldn't score.  1-0 with 2:22 to go.

10:32- The kid seemed really nervous (he said, "Whatever" instead of "Feuilleton" before spelling the word) but he gets the word right.  And nobody wins!

10:33- The Canadiens have pulled the goalie with 1:53 left.

10:35- Lundqvist just made one of his head saves.  The shot was way too high anyway.

10:36- Glove save by Lundqvist.  1:08 to play.

10:37- 33.8 to play.  Faceoff at center ice.

10:38- Hand pass in the Rangers zone brings the faceoff to the neutral zone (speaking of spelling, I always spell neutral wrong, but this time I got it right on the first try) with 22.5 to play.

10:39- Sorry, Zaza Pachulia, we're not going to Game 7.  The Rangers are going to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 20 years!  I'm really excited about not having to worry about Game 7.

10:44- It's 10:44 and I haven't even checked the Dodger game yet.

10:47- The Spurs are up by 17.

10:49- The Dodgers and Pirates are tied at one in the second.  

10:51- Dee Gordon drives in a run with two outs to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.  I could keep this going, but the most exciting parts of the night are over.  It's time to relax with an Eastern Conference Champions beer before my trip tomorrow.  I'll have more on that next week.  For now, I'll just say that I have to remember to go the right way on the only road or I might end up in Newfoundland.

No Way!

Josh Beckett?

Yes, Josh Beckett.

The Dodgers have the most no-hitters in the history of baseball with 20 going into today.  There had been four during my lifetime:  Fernando Valenzuela (1990), Kevin Gross (1992), Ramon Martinez (1995), and Hideo Nomo (1996).  So I was just starting seventh grade the last time they had one.  I'm pretty sure I didn't watch any of those four games.  Last year, I wrote about going to Philadelphia because I didn't want to take the chance that I'd miss Clayton Kershaw's first no-hitter.  Kershaw pitched a great game, but a no-hitter wasn't to be that night.  Little did I know that Josh Beckett would throw the first no-hitter for the Dodgers in almost 18 years in Philadelphia nine months later.  I never really considered going to see the Dodgers this weekend.  I went to Washington last weekend, I'll be away next weekend, and I didn't have much interest in dealing with Memorial Day weekend traffic.  If I had gone to one of the games, it probably would have been yesterday anyway.  So it's not like I'm kicking myself about not being there for this game, even though it would have been awesome.

I've mentioned how I think you should start getting excited about the possibility of a no-hitter after five innings.  Today, I think I first noticed that Beckett hadn't given up a hit around the fourth inning.  There's no way that was going to last.  Actually, before that, I was thinking he'd be lucky to get through six.  I started the game by eating some delicious left over Jimmy's as Josh Beckett struggled through the first inning.  He walked a batter in the first and second innings.  After three innings, he had thrown 54 pitches (I think that's what I heard before, sounds about right).  But then he cruised through the next five innings.  It was going to be a great performance even if Beckett had lost the no-hitter, but after two quick outs in the ninth, I really wanted him to finish it.  Beckett was one strike away with Jimmy Rollins, but he walked him.  Chase Utley made Beckett work, but he struck him out looking with a perfectly located fastball on a full count.  With that, the Dodgers' longest no-hitter drought in history was over.

I actually was there for Josh Beckett's first start as a Dodger.  After giving up a home run on his second pitch, he actually did pitch pretty well, but the Rockies turned it into a blowout after he left the game.  Obviously, that trade worked out well for the Red Sox, but it has helped the Dodgers as well.  Adrian Gonzalez has been very solid and Carl Crawford was a contributor last year (he makes a lot more than he'd get on the open market, but he can still do some things).  When the trade happened, my attitude was:  you definitely want Gonzalez, Crawford could still be a good player even if he's getting paid too much, and Beckett ... well, we only have to pay him for a couple more years.  I had lost hope for Beckett.  He was actually pretty good with the Dodgers at the end of 2012 (2.93 ERA in seven starts), but he was horrendous last year (5.19 ERA in eight starts before spending the rest of the season on the DL).  He had one really good start in Arizona that the Dodgers lost 1-0, but he allowed at least three runs in every other start.  With his poor pitching and missing most of last season with an injury, I was pretty sure his days as a decent to good starting pitcher were over.  When Terrence took him in my fantasy league this year, I made fun of him.  Well, I was wrong.  Beckett has been very solid this year.  He had been pitching pretty well, but he wasn't getting run support.  In his first six starts, he had five no decisions and one loss.  He finally got a win in his seventh start.  And now he's on a three game winning streak.  I worry about whether or not he'll stay healthy.  But if he does, I'm fairly confident now that he will pitch well.

It's been a somewhat rough start for the Dodgers this year (not as bad as last year, but I'm certainly not satisfied).  Maybe Beckett's no-hitter will get the momentum going.  I'm glad I was able to watch it (I'm assuming Dodger fans in southern California who don't get Time Warner Cable are going crazy right now).  Thanks Josh Beckett for a memorable day.  Hopefully he'll give us a few more in October.

Our Nation's Capital

I recently realized that I had never been to the World War II Memorial in Washington DC.  With two brothers who went to college in Washington and having spent a year in a half in college there myself, I had done most of the touristy stuff in Washington.  But the World War II Memorial opened just a few months after I left Georgetown.  So I wanted to see it.  I also wondered why it took so long to be built.  Why were there memorials for the Korean War and the Vietnam War before one for World War II?  Anyway, I finally got there last weekend and of course, I combined it with a baseball game.

The plan was for me to leave straight from work on Friday afternoon and go to the city to get the bus to Washington that night.  The weather forecast the day before was calling for heavy rain late in the day on Friday and I had to walk to the train station and then to the bus.  I didn't feel like walking in heavy rain.  So I rescheduled my bus for the first one in the morning on Saturday.  The problem with that was that the only train that would get me to the city in time left Huntington at 3:47 in the morning.  It was the second time I've ever taken that train.  The last time was when I was going to Boston to see the Celtics in February 2010 and snow cancelled my bus the night before.  Let me tell you, Penn Station at 5:00 in the morning on a Saturday is a very weird place.  But I didn't spend much time there.  At my brother Tom's suggestion, I took a walk to Times Square.  I got there around 5:30.  It was all lit up, but it was mostly empty.  It was a good way to kill time before my bus at 6:30.  I got to my brother Sean's apartment around 11:30.  The game wasn't until 4:10, so I could have taken a later bus, but I wanted to get to the World War II Memorial before the game.

The City that Never Sleeps was pretty much asleep at 5:30 on a Saturday morning.

After lunch, we took the Metro to get to the memorial.  It's very nicely done.  It's right at the end of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial and across the street from the Washington Monument.  I've often thought about how things would be different if we had lost that war.  This was a very clear case of good versus evil and there was no guarantee that good would win.  Good won because of the resolve of Churchill, the stupidity of Hitler (invading the Soviet Union was a really really dumb idea), and the military might of the United States.  There's not much more I have to say other than including some pictures:

I made this picture a little bigger so you can read it.  The Lincoln Memorial is in the background.

Great quote from General George C. Marshall.  The United States is the greatest country in the history of the world.

1,465 Americans were killed during the D-Day invasion.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to find out we had won the war.  That must have been an amazing feeling.

Each star represents 100 Americans who died during the war.  Over 400,000 Americans gave their lives to save the world from evil.  The Civil War was the only war in US history that was deadlier.  It was almost four times deadlier than World War I, which is the third most deadly war in US history.

From the World War II Memorial, we took the walk to the Lincoln Memorial.  I've been teaching my kids about the Civil War so I figured I'd get a couple of good pictures to show them.  I think the last time I was there might have been in 2002 with one of my favorite teachers in high school, Mr. Klein.  I must have gone there at least once in the 90s when my brothers were in college.  I don't remember going there when I was at Georgetown.  But when I was a senior in high school, we went on a trip to Washington for JSA with Mr. Klein.  We definitely visited some of the memorials one night and I assume the Lincoln Memorial was one of them.  Anyway, I've said that Washington was the greatest American of all time, but I definitely think that Lincoln was the greatest president of all time.  Washington was a great president, but I think his greatest contributions to the country came before he was president.  Lincoln is the Babe Ruth of presidents.  He was the greatest and nobody else is all that close.  He saved the country and ended slavery.  It's a shame he only got to be president for about six weeks out of his four years, one month, and eleven days without the Civil War going on.  He got replaced by one of our worst presidents.  I've thought about how things would have been different if Lincoln had finished his second term.  I think he would be very highly thought of no matter what because of the Civil War, but there's no guarantee that Lincoln would have handled Reconstruction better than his successors handled it.  But it does seem highly likely.  Congress would not have been able to battle Lincoln the way they battled Johnson.  Anyway, the Lincoln Memorial is great.  I kind of wish the Washington Monument was different.  The Lincoln Memorial has a statue of Lincoln.  The Jefferson Memorial has a statue of Jefferson.  The Washington Monument is just a big tall building.  I feel like there should be something more to it.  But one thing that I do like to it is that because it is so tall in a city full of small buildings, you can see it from so many places in the city.  I guess you could argue that you could add more to the Lincoln Memorial, but I wouldn't.  You have the statue in the middle, the Gettysburg Address on the wall on the left, and his second inaugural address on the wall on the right.

The greatest president in the history of the United States

The Gettysburg Address.  Lincoln thought it was a bad speech.  History has proven him wrong.  I absolutely love what Ken Burns has done to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

The Washington Monument with the Capitol in the background from the Lincoln Memorial

After the Lincoln Memorial, we were on our way to Nationals Park.  It would have been cool to go to the top of the Washington Monument.  I haven't done that since the 90s probably.  But it just reopened and the weather was great, so I assume that would have taken a really long time.  It was my third trip to Nationals Park.  The only current stadiums that I've seen more baseball games in are Citi Field, Dodger Stadium, and Yankee Stadium.  I've seen one more sporting event at Fenway Park (three baseball games and one hockey game).  That brings up two tangents:

1.  One of the reasons that I wanted to make this trip was that I haven't blogged about Nationals Park (my last trip there was in 2010 when the Dodgers beat the Nationals in 13, we got two presidents races out of it).  The only other ballparks that I've been to that I haven't blogged about are Shea Stadium, old Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park (for a baseball game), Wrigley Field, and US Cellular Field.  It's too late on the first two, but I would love to go to another game at Fenway Park and Wrigley Field and blog about those experiences.  I don't need to go to another game at US Cellular Field, but if I was in Chicago and the White Sox were at home, I'd go.  If I could have blogged about my 2009 trip to Boston (day drinking on the Freedom Trail with John and a Red Sox victory over the Orioles), that would have been a great post.  If I could have blogged about my 2009 trip to Wrigley Field with Jon, Dennis, Tim, Kevin, and Joe (a Cubs victory over the Cardinals and then Dennis made us miss our train), that also would have been a great post.  Hopefully I'll get around to seeing baseball games at the two oldest stadiums in the Majors again, but it most likely won't be this year.  I've got too much going on to go to Chicago and Boston is unlikely because John's wife is due with their second child in early August, so I doubt this summer would work for him.

2.  The Winter Classic will be in Washington in January (hopefully I'll be in New Orleans or Pasadena to see Notre Dame in a playoff game in football), but they haven't announced where it will be played yet.  Nationals Park and FedEx Field seem like the two most likely candidates, but RFK and Camden Yards have been mentioned also.  I guess you could make the case for Camden Yards, but they should just play it in the nation's capital.  That would leave Nationals Park and RFK as possibilities.  RFK is the only one of the four stadiums that I've mentioned that I haven't been to, but I have to imagine that it's not nearly as good as Nationals Park.  So yeah, just put it in Nationals Park.

Back to the game.  We got there fairly early and took a lap around the lower concourse.  After visiting for the third time, I think this ballpark is underrated.  The Nationals don't have much history, but they do give a nod to Washington baseball history with statues of Walter Johnson, Frank Howard, and Josh Gibson in the outfield.

Walter Johnson was the greatest pitcher of all time.

It's a shame Josh Gibson didn't get to play in the Major Leagues.  He was one of the great home run hitters of all time.

The thing that I really liked about Nationals Park is that it executes "the nation's capital" theme very well.  It's red, white, and blue all over the place (they painted the floors on the concourses red for this season).  You have the presidents race.  The concession stands keep the nation's capital theme going (District Drafts, Senators Sausage, South Capitol Grill, etc.)

George Washington before the game

Another good thing about Nationals Park was the concessions.  There were good options all around the stadium.  Somehow, I made it all the way to May 17 without having a Sam Adams Summer Ale on tap.  I was able to solve that problem at Nationals Park.  Sean had a Sam Adams Rebel IPA.  We both had crab grilled cheese.  I would have liked if it was a little more cheesy, but it was still good.

Finally.

Crab grilled cheese

As for the game, we were there to see Sean's favorite squadron, the Ny Mets, take on the Nationals.  It was Bartolo Colon against Gio Gonzalez.  The Mets took control early, scoring five runs in the first three innings.  Juan Lagares hit a home run and took a home run away from Jayson Werth.

We had good seats, up high behind home plate.  We were below the press box, which is ridiculously high at Nationals Park.  The only thing I didn't like was that we were in the first row of the section, which meant we had two bars and glass in front of us that were kind of in the way.  If we were in the second row, they probably wouldn't have been an issue.

I do enjoy the Presidents Race.  The old thing was that Teddy Roosevelt never won.  Apparently that changed on the last game of the 2012 regular season.  He won for the first time that day and won all of their races in the playoffs that year, but the Nationals blew their first round series against the Cardinals.  William Howard Taft is a recent addition to the Presidents Race.  I asked Sean why they picked him and he thought it was because anybody after Taft would be controversial.  That's why I'd go with James K. Polk, our most underrated president.  Anyway, Abraham Lincoln won the race on this day.  Other stadiums have their own races (animated Subway trains, sausages, even power tools or something in Atlanta), but the Presidents Race is the best.

Abraham Lincoln widened his all time lead.

One thing they need to fix at Nationals Park is clock in right field.  There was a clock that had the Nationals' logo and two bats as the hands.  Sean told me it broke and they can't fix it.  They took off the bats so now it's just a Nationals' logo surrounded by 12 stars.  Come on, this is the Major Leagues, you need to be able to fix a clock.  Other than that, I liked Nationals Stadium more than I remembered.  I might have to move it up my rankings (I'll revisit that later in the season because I have another stadium that needs to be reranked and several more stadiums to visit this year).

How hard is it to fix a clock?

Back to the game.  Colon went eight and the Mets held on to beat the Nationals 5-2.  Despite the not very competitive game, it was a great day at the ballpark.  The weather was great.  I wore shorts and long sleeves and was not at all too hot or too cold.  It was my first day game of the season and the stadium was nearly full with a crowd of 41,225.  I wish more games were played during the day, with great weather, and a big crowd.  The next game I went to would check off none of those boxes.

A panoramic shot with the Mets celebrating a victory.  The stadium was still pretty full.  I'll give the Nationals fans some credit for that.

Sean and Apu went home happy.

It was a fun trip to our nation's capital.  I should be back in the fall, hopefully for Notre Dame's eighth win of the football season.

The Only Lottery Worth Playing

I am very much opposed to state lotteries.  The whole purpose of state lotteries is that the state makes money and you don't.  I once worked with a bunch of people that pooled their money to play the lottery.  I abstained.  The state of New York gets enough of my money.  On the other hand, the NBA Draft Lottery is worth playing.  Which team is in better shape right now, the Celtics or the Hornets?  Obviously, the answer is the Celtics.  Neither team had a chance of winning the championship this year.  The Bobcats/Hornets got pounded by the Heat in the first round of the playoffs.  The Celtics didn't make the playoffs, but they have a chance to win the lottery tonight plus they have the Nets' pick (17).  The Hornets have the Trailblazers' pick (24) and possibly the Pistons' pick (if it's outside the top 8), but they don't have their own (the Bulls have their pick, which is 16).  If you're not a championship contender, you want draft picks and cap space (I'll let you make your own joke about the Knicks).  I'm feeling good about the Celtics right now.

I don't remember much about the 1997 lottery.  The Celtics had a 36% chance of winning and getting Tim Duncan.  They ended up with the third pick.  It turned out to be Chauncey Billups and Rick Pitino traded him during his rookie season.  They lesson, as always:  Rick Pitino is a scumbag.

I do remember the 2007 lottery.  The Celtics had a 19.9% chance of winning and an 18.8% chance of getting the second pick.  I was at Yankee Stadium the night of the lottery.  Manny Ramirez hit a steroid ball and the Red Sox beat the Yankees.  Other than that, it was a disappointing night for Boston.  I remember calling my dad and finding out that the Celtics ended up with the fifth pick.  It's interesting to think about how history would have been different if they hadn't ended up with the fifth pick.  Because of the lottery, they ended up trading for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.  That led to them winning the 2008 NBA Championship and making it to the Finals again in 2010.  They could have ended up getting Kevin Durant.  If that had happened, they definitely don't win in 2008, but maybe they would have won a championship since then.  The worst case would be that they'd still be a championship contender for the next few years.  But if they had gotten the number one pick, they probably would have taken Greg Oden and that probably would have messed up the franchise even more.

Tonight the Celtics have a 10.3% chance of winning the lottery and a 33.4% chance of a top three pick.  Maybe tonight is the night the Celtics get lucky in the lottery after two big disappointments.  Unlike 2007, I'll be watching with my dad.  If David Stern was still the commissioner, the Lakers would win the lottery.  Let's hope things are different now.