What's the Deal with Seinfeld Night?

I finally went to a professional baseball game in Brooklyn.  I was just six decades or so late.  Adam and I celebrated the real Independence Day by going to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones host Seinfeld Night.  I've lived here my whole life and this was the first time I had ever been to Coney Island.  Our first stop was Nathan's, where they would have the annual hot dog eating contest two days later.  We both had real Nathan's hot dogs.  I think the last time I had Nathan's was at the St. Louis airport two years ago.  The real Nathan's in Coney Island was much better.  After that, we walked along the boardwalk for a little bit.  Coney Island was pretty cool.

Nathan's

Coney Island

But let me go back to the hot dog eating contest for a minute.  There's a lot not to like about the hot dog eating contest.  It's not healthy.  It's gluttonous.  I'm opposed to people eating massive quantities of food without appreciating it.  There are people starving in the world, but it's not like the Nathan's executives had a choice between having 500 hot dogs available for the eating contest or sending those 500 hot dogs to starving children in Africa.  But if I was running Nathan's, I would make some pledge to donate a certain amount of food or money that is dependent on the number of hot dogs consumed in the contest.  So the more people eat, the more Nathan's would do to help deal with world hunger.  So while there's a lot not to like about it, I do like hot dogs and I do like competition.  But I would definitely change some things.  These changes all come down to being required to eat hot dogs like a normal human being.  No dipping hot dogs in water.  Buns and dogs have to be consumed together.  I would like to have a mustard requirement, but I can live without that one.  Joey Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs, but no normal person dips hot dogs in water.  No normal person would eat the hot dog and bun separately (you might eat a hot dog without a bun, but if there's a bun, you're eating that with the hot dog).  Let's see how many hot dogs they can eat if they're eating like a normal person.  I'd say the number would be more than cut in half under my rules.

Anyway, we went to KeySpan Park for the game.  KeySpan Park?  You most likely know it as MCU Park, but it will always be KeySpan Park to me.  It was the third annual Seinfeld Night there.  I think the first two were on July 5 (the anniversary of the first episode), but this one was July 2 since the Cyclones were away July 5.  July 2 was appropriate because it's Larry David's birthday.  They were playing the Seinfeld theme in the stadium when we got there.  We got Roger McDowell second spitter bobbleheads.  Unfortunately, we ordered tickets too late to get the J. Peterman package, which would have included a J. Peterman bobblehead and a Make Kramerica Great Again shirt.  They played some clips from the show before the game.  I said they should have played Jerry's stand up routines between innings.  There were contests before the game and between innings that had Seinfeld themes.  After the game, there was an Elaine dancing contest.  The real highlight was that J. Peterman was there.  No, not the real J. Peterman, John O'Hurley was there.  He threw out the first pitch and sang the national anthem.  They announced that fans could meet him between the second and sixth innings.  Unfortunately, by the time we tried to get on line, they decided that the line was too long and cut it off.  So we missed our opportunity to meet J. Peterman.

This was the best picture I got of J. Peterman.  It's him and his son after he threw out the first pitch.

The game had a wild start.  The Cyclones scored four in the first off of Kyle Funkhouser of the Connecticut Tigers.  I knew that name because he was picked last year by the Dodgers with the 35th pick of the draft last year.  He didn't sign with them and then he was picked by the Tigers 115th pick.  So that didn't work out too well for him.  He only lasted the first inning.  Connecticut scored four in the second and one in the fifth.  And that was all the scoring for the game.  Brooklyn had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but the next two batters struck out to end the game.

Our view for the game

During the game, Adam asked me how many baseball games I've been to in my life.  Without giving it too much thought, I said about 200.  Unless I'm counting wiffle ball games or little league games that I played in or went to watch my friends, that was an overestimate.  So let's limit this to professional baseball.  I know the exact number of Major League games I've been to outside of New York.  It's 41.  And I'm fairly confident that I've been to 19 games at Citi Field and six games at the new Yankee Stadium.  My guess for the number of games I went to at Shea Stadium was around 50.  And I guessed 13-20 at old Yankee Stadium, so let's call it 15.  So that would be 131 Major League games.  I think this was my ninth minor league game.  I'm somewhat confident about that.  So I've been to somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 professional baseball games.

So KeySpan Park was cool.  It's a great location.  You can see all the Coney Island rides in the background.  There's a Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese statue outside the stadium and on the press box, they have retired numbers from the Brooklyn Dodgers and a thing for the 1955 World Series Champions.  But they changed the field to artificial turf a few years back.  I definitely don't like that decision.  I only had a pretzel to eat since I had the hot dog before the game.  I also had a Mermaid Pilsner from the Coney Island Brewing Company, which was pretty solid.  They had a little stand where I was able to get those without much of a wait.  But Adam had a pretty long wait to get nachos.  After my last trip to a minor league game, I ranked most of the minor league stadiums I've been to.  I think I'd slide KeySpan Park in at number 5 after Newman Outdoor Field.

Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson

I'll finish with some Seinfeld-related rankings.  We drove to Hicksville and took the train from there to the game because it gave us more options to get back after the game.  On the drive there and back, we listened to the Banished to the Pen podcast draft of minor Seinfeld characters.  I won't give away anything from the draft in case you want to listen to it, but here's how my draft board would have looked if I had been part of this draft (in reverse order to build suspense):

13.  Lloyd Braun
12.  Bob Cobb
11.  Morty Seinfeld
10.  Mr. Kruger
9.  Kenny Bania
8.  Uncle Leo
7.  Yev Kassem
6.  David Puddy
5.  Jackie Chiles
4.  Frank Costanza
3.  George Steinbrenner
2.  Newman
1.  Jacopo Peterman

They only drafted minor characters, but they should have done one round with unseen characters and one round with aliases.  Here would be my draft board for unseen characters:

8.  Harry Fleming
7.  Cousin Jeffrey
6.  Len Nicademo
5.  Jay Riemenschneider
4.  Corky Ramirez
3.  Dr. Bison
2.  Lomez
1.  Bob Sacamano

And finally, my draft board of Seinfeld aliases:

9.  Paloma
8.  Colin O'Brien
7.  Dylan Murphy
6.  Kel Varnsen
5.  Wanda Pepper
4.  H.E. Pennypacker
3.  Slappy White
2.  Art Vandelay
1.  Martin van Nostrand

Getting the Win

I finally got to my first two Major League games of the year.  My dad and I went two weeks ago on a Friday and Sunday to see the Dodgers take on the Mets at Citi Field.  Friday featured an unexpected Major League debut for Dodger prospect Julio Urias.  And Sunday, the greatest in the world was pitching for the Dodgers.

Before I get to the games, let me review the food and beer.  On Friday, I stopped at Chef Josh Capon's grilled cheese stand.  I know Josh Capon from Bar Rescue so I had wanted to check out his place since last year, but I didn't get to it until this year.  I had a short rib grilled cheese and it was probably one of the best tasting food items I've ever had at a baseball game.  It was also $13.50.  To drink I had a Common Sense Ale from the Upstate Brewing Company.  I got it because I liked the name, but it turns out that it was quite good.  Citi Field's beer selection for the general public is lacking a little bit, but I got this from a little New York craft beer stand on the upper level.  It has a decent selection of New York beers (most of which I've never tried before) and there isn't much of a line.  On Saturday, I was in Section 417, which gave me access to a few of Citi Field's clubs.  I got a burrito from the Promenade Club, which was fine.  I was tempted to go back to the New York craft beer stand and get something from Cooperstown because I was seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch and he's going to end up there someday, but I couldn't pass up a can of my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale, from the bar inside the Promenade Club.  Drinking my favorite beer outside in good weather while watching my favorite pitcher pitch is a great combination.

Josh Capon does good work.  I would love to see Jon Taffer do a baseball stadium.  Yankee Stadium could use his help.

So Julio Urias is the top prospect for the Dodgers (I think we're at the point where Corey Seager isn't a prospect anymore).  Urias is 19 years old.  And he looked like he was 19 years old.  For the second straight game that I went to at Citi Field, I saw a Dodger rookie get roughed up in his Major League debut (it was Zach Lee last year).  The Dodgers had a nice rally in the ninth and they tied it on a Chase Utley bases clearing triple, but Curtis Granderson won the game in the bottom of  the ninth with a home run off of Pedro Baez.  He hit it to right field exactly where I was picturing Chase Utley hitting a grand slam in the top of the ninth that would have given the Dodgers the lead.  By the way, Chase Utley is not popular in New York.  You know this already.  But I'm going to say Mets fans are overreacting.  They beat the Dodgers and got to the World Series last year.  And Ruben Tejada isn't on the team anymore.

My view on Friday night

Out of curiosity, I compared Urias's first start to famous Dodgers lefties.  Urias went two and two-thirds, struck out three, and allowed five hits, four walks, and three runs.  Sandy Koufax had two appearances out of the bullpen as a rookie at age 19 before starting his first game.  In his first start, he went four and two-thirds, struck out four, and allowed three hits, eight walks, and one run.  Fernando Valenzuela pitched 17 and two-thirds innings out of the bullpen at age 19 and didn't allow a run.  The next year, he made his first start.  His first eight starts were complete games (all Dodger wins) and five of them were shutouts.  He allowed a total of four runs in the other three starts.  That's ridiculous.  Clayton Kershaw made his debut at age 20.  His first appearance was a start against the Cardinals.  He went six innings, struck out seven, and allowed five hits, one walk, and two runs.  He took a no decision, but the Dodgers won.  His next eight starts weren't great and he picked up three losses.  It took until his tenth start to get a win (six shutout innings against the Padres).

Sunday was more fun.  Ordinarily, I'd be opposed to the Sunday night game, but it worked out well since the next day was Memorial Day.  It was the second straight year I've seen Clayton Kershaw vs. the guy everybody forgets took steroids.  The Dodgers took the lead in the third when Justin Turner grounded into a force out at second and a run scored.  Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a single in the fifth.  The Mets got on the board in the sixth with a wall scraping home run by Asdrubal Cabrera (a routine fly ball out before they moved in the fences).  Clayton Kershaw gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki leading off the eighth.  He got two outs and then Dave Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to face Curtis Granderson.  Granderson tripled and the game was tied.  Now Liberatore has been pretty good this year.  And Clayton Kershaw was running out of gas and it would have been his fourth time facing Granderson.  But he had Kenley Jansen warming up.  I say you either stay with the greatest pitcher in the world (and the lefty-lefty match up) or you bring in your best reliever (even if you're sacrificing the lefty-lefty match up).  So Kershaw was in line for the win, but he took a no decision.  The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia for the ninth.  The Dodgers loaded the bases with a single and two walks.  Adrian Gonzalez singled to drive in Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager.  And Kenley Jansen worked a 1-2-3 inning to finish it off.  Kershaw ended up going seven and two-thirds while striking out 10 and allowing four hits, no walks, two runs (with an asterisk next to one of them).  He was very good, but I've definitely seen him pitch better.

My view on Sunday night

Let's go through a quick power ranking of the Clayton Kershaw starts I've seen in person:

7.  April 24, 2010 against the Nationals.  Six innings, six strikeouts, eight hits, three walks, two runs no decision.

6.  April 23, 2013 against the Mets.  Five innings, five strikeouts, three hits, four walks, two runs, no decision.

5.  May 29, 2016 against the Mets.

4.  July 7, 2009 against the Mets.  Six innings, seven strikeouts, three hits, two walks, no runs, win.

3.  August 17, 2013 against the Phillies.  Eight innings, eight strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no runs, and an RBI double, win.

2.  July 23, 2015 against the Mets.  Complete game shutout, 11 strikeouts, three hits, no walks, win.

1.  April 1, 2013 against the Giants.  Complete game shutout, seven strikeouts, four hits, no walks, and the home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the eighth, win.

Here are Kershaw's numbers in those seven starts:  50 and two-thirds innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 7-0), 1.07 ERA, 54 strikeouts, 0.75 WHIP, two complete game shutouts, and one home run as a batter.  And in the last 14 Dodger games I've been to, they are now 5-9 (going back to 2012).  They're 5-0 with Kershaw pitching and 0-9 with anybody else pitching (starts by Beckett, Ryu, Ryu, Haren, Greinke, Ryu, Lee, Anderson, and Urias).

So the winning pitchers in the two games I went to were Jeurys Familia and Adam Liberatore.  Familia gave up the double to Utley to tie the game (not a good series for him) and Liberatore gave up the triple to Granderson to tie the game.  Both winning pitchers made their team significantly less likely to win.  This is one of the reasons why nerdy stat guys hate the win as a statistic.  And I'm here to defend it.  But I will definitely agree that wins for relievers are pretty much meaningless (losses, on the other hand, are not).  But for starting pitchers, the win is a valid statistic.  Sure pitchers don't go the distance like they used to, but check out the active leaders in win-loss percentage.  The only one that's kind of surprising in the top ten is Jered Weaver, but he did have some very good years.  If you look at the top 20, you're talking about most of the best pitchers in baseball.  Felix Hernandez is only 20th (great pitcher on bad teams), but it's no coincidence that Clayton Kershaw is first.  I agree that just looking at a win total for one season is silly (that's why R.A. Dickey got the Cy Young over Kershaw in 2012 when Kershaw was better), but if there's a strong correlation between a statistic and how good a pitcher is (and there is in the case of win-loss percentage), it's a statistic worth looking at.  And all statistics lie.  Zack Greinke had a better season than Kershaw last year (I would have voted for him for Cy Young), but Kershaw was still the better pitcher.  Nerdy stat guys love strikeouts.  Jake Arrieta was 40 strikeouts behind Max Scherzer last year.  Scherzer had a good year, but Arrieta was definitely better.  James Shields had 16 more strikeouts than Zack Greinke last year and Greinke was much much better than Shields.  So wins and losses still matter for starting pitchers.  Yes, you can pitch well and lose or pitch poorly and win, but with a large enough sample, they're still statistics worth looking at.

I wish Kershaw had gotten the win against the Mets.  He deserved it.  But the Dodgers got the win on Sunday night and I got to see my favorite pitcher ever pitch well so I'll take it.

Greatness

I haven't written a post about how awesome Clayton Kershaw is since October.  I took a personal day today and Kershaw was dominant again last night (when the team really needed it after the bullpen pitched 12 innings the day before), so it seemed like the right time.

Here's his May so far:  5 starts, 5-0, 42 innings, 0.64 ERA, 0.52 WHIP, 55 strikeouts, 2 walks, 20 hits allowed, 3 shutouts, .144 batting average against, .156 on base against, .173 slugging against.  The five games he started have lasted a total of 11 hours and 11 minutes (which would be pretty fast for four games).  Jake Arrieta is off to a great start also, but Kershaw beats him in most statistical categories.  I'm hoping Kershaw wins another Cy Young.

I was thinking about how Kershaw of 4.32 after his start on May 21, 2015.  So here's what he's done in the last 364 days (from his next start last year to last night, including playoffs):  36 starts, 22-6, 267 innings, 1.48 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 342 strikeouts, 36 walks, 161 hits allowed, 7 complete games, 6 shutouts, and I'm not figuring out the batting against numbers (Baseball-Reference did it for me for his May numbers).

For comparison, here's Arrieta's starts during that same time period:  36 starts, 28-3, 253.2 innings, 1.53 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 265 strikeouts, 58 walks, 148 hits allowed, 6 complete games, 5 shutouts.

Arrieta has been completely ridiculous, and Kershaw is better in everything except for won-lost record (not his fault, obviously), and hits allowed.

The great Vin Scully has mistakenly called Kershaw "Sandy Koufax" a few times this year.  He did it against the Mets without noticing.  And he did it again last night twice, but caught himself both times.  The thing is, it's not that ridiculous (at least for the regular season).

Here's what Sandy Koufax did his last six years:  211 starts, 129-47, 1632.2 innings, 2.19 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 1713 strikeouts, 115 complete games, 35 shutouts, 6.5 hits per 9, 9.4 strikeouts per 9, 4.16 strikeouts per walk.

Here's what Kershaw has done in the last six years (a stretch that began 50 years later, when Kershaw was two years younger than Koufax was throughout his stretch):  169 starts, 95-34, 1207 innings, 2.07 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 1344 strikeouts, 23 complete games, 14 shutouts, 6.4 hits per 9, 10 strikeouts per 9, 5.44 strikeouts per walk.

A few things to note.  We're less than halfway through the sixth season of that stretch for Kershaw.  Koufax pitched with a four-man rotation and pitchers don't finish games today the way they did back then.  So Kershaw has no chance to catch him in innings, strikeouts, complete games, or shutouts.  And hitters do strike out a lot more today than back then.  But It's amazing how close the rest of those numbers are.  We might very well be talking about the two best left handed pitchers of the last 60 years.

The other lefty that deserves consideration is Randy Johnson.  Now Randy Johnson had much greater longevity than Sandy Koufax.  He also wasn't nearly as good at a young age as Koufax and Kershaw.  So if Kershaw can stick around, I think he'll clearly have Johnson beat.  Johnson had some good seasons early in his career, but I think his first great one didn't come until he was 31 (Kershaw is 28 right now).  I would say that Johnson's best six-year run was 1999-2004 (starting when he was 35, which is pretty crazy).  Here is what he did during those years:  192 starts, 103-49, 1389.2 innings, 2.65 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 1832 strikeouts, 36 complete games, 14 shutouts, 7.1 hits per 9, 11.9 strikeouts per 9, 5.10 strikeouts per walk.  Now Randy Johnson was pitching when it was still the Steroid Era, so you have to cut him a little slack for an ERA that is really good, but not all that close to Koufax and Kershaw.

I have Koufax as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time for two reasons.  You can't convince me that there was anybody better when he was at his best and he was ridiculous in the World Series (7 starts, 57 innings, 0.95 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 61 strikeouts, 11 walks, 36 hits allowed, 4 complete games, 2 shutouts).  Johnson was also great in the World Series, but he only had 17.1 World Series innings.  From 1998-2001, he was great in the playoffs, but 1995 was the only other year that he was good in the playoffs.  I can see making the argument for Randy Johnson based on how great he was for a long period of time (which you definitely can't say for Koufax).  But if Kershaw has something like eight more great years (like close to what he's been for the last six years, which is possible but far from a certainty), he's probably going to be considered the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, at least in the regular season.  Hopefully he'll soon have a run in the playoffs like Randy Johnson had in 2001 to help his case even more.

Hi, I went to Delaware

It took me until May to get to a baseball game this year.  In the last 11 years, I've been to at least one April game every year except for 2011 (when my first game was Dodgers-Mets on May 6).  I had the four-day weekend for Ascension Thursday and took my nearly-annual Ascension Thursday trip.  In 2012, I went to San Diego.  I was in school on Ascension Thursday in 2013 to make up days because of Hurricane Sandy.  In 2014, I went to Toronto.  And last year, I went to Birmingham and Cincinnati.  So this year, I went to ... wait for it ... Wilmington, Delaware!  Why?  Well, I'm nearly done with Major League stadiums and it's unclear whether I'll get to the two I haven't gotten to yet (Oakland and Tampa Bay), it was just a train ride away, and Delaware might have been the most questionable state as to whether or not I should get credit for have been to.  I had been thinking about that.  Of the 47 states I've been to, there were 14 that I had never spent a night in (in blue on this map).  So let's go through those states:

Mississippi and West Virginia are probably the least questionable.  I just went to both to see historic sites and spent several hours in both.  There are several states that I've been to where eating a meal is pretty much the only thing I've done:  New Hampshire (a year before the blog, but I also drove through it again on the way to Maine), Wyoming, Oregon, and Maine.  I saw Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma and then drove north through Kansas and stopped at the place that inspired the movie Cars.  I made a point of going to a Gulf War memorial in Nebraska and then drove north through South Dakota and stopped at a winery last summer.  I've driven through Rhode Island a few times in recent years.  I think the only time I've every actually spent time in the state was when I went with my brothers when they visited Providence in 1995 (I'm pretty sure we went right to Boston from there and didn't spend a night).  So that one is getting a little questionable.  I might take a trip there this season for a Pawtucket Red Sox game.  That leaves Kentucky, Tennessee, and Delaware.  Wilhelm, Jon, Dennis, Chris, and I drove through Kentucky and Tennessee on our way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006.  We stopped at an Arby's in Kentucky on the way there and Dennis was fascinated by the accent of the cashier.  And we stopped somewhere in Tennessee to eat on the way back (it might have been a Waffle House, but I think we went to a Waffle House in Georgia, so I don't remember).  And it took probably a couple of hours to drive through both of those states.  So they might be a little bit questionable, but I'm counting them.  But as for Delaware, I had only been there on my way to and from other places (usually Washington, DC).  I had probably been to a rest stop or two in Delaware, but I had never really done anything in the state.  So I was off and I hadn't been to a baseball game yet this season, so why not Delaware.  I thought of this Wayne's World clip:

I got in to Wilmington around 2:30.  The game was at 6:30.  So I killed some time by walking around by the Christina River.  Then I went to the Iron Hill Brewery, which wasn't far from Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.  I had a Dunkelweizen and a turkey burger.  I would have liked to have tried more of their beer, but I wasn't looking to drink too much.  The beer and the food were solid.  After that, I walked around a little more and then headed to the stadium shortly after the gates opened at 5:30.

I haven't reviewed anything on Yelp in years, but I'd give it four stars.

Outside the stadium

The Wilmington Blue Rocks play high-A ball in the Carolina league.  They're an affiliate of the Royals.  They were taking on a Cubs' affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.  The stadium is small.  You don't have the 360 degree concourse.  But you do have a great beer selection for the minor leagues.  Seriously, they had a better beer selection than some Major League stadiums (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium).  And there was a pretty good food selection too.  Even though it was 55 degrees, I resisted the temptation to get a Summer Ale on tap.  I got a Copperhead Ale from the Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company, which is located in Dover.  I figured if I was going to be in Delaware, I should get a Delaware beer that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to drink.  It was no Summer Ale (nothing is), but it was quite good and I would definitely drink it again if I saw it anywhere.  And to eat, I got crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's.

This was my view for the first few innings.  I moved down and closer toward third after a few innings.

This seat remains unoccupied in honor of more than 92,000 unaccounted for American soldiers since World War I.  That's a nice job by Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.

Wilmington scored two in the first and two in the seventh.  They won 4-0.  Their starter pitched eight and gave up six hits, no walks, and had 11 strikeouts.  Pretty impressive performance.  The game only took two hours and 16 minutes and allegedly there were 3,919 people in attendance.  Capacity is 6,404.  There is no way that it was more than half full.  I'm saying the real attendance was 1,000-2,000.

After the game, I walked back to the train station and I got home around 1:30 in the morning.  So I still haven't spent a night in Delaware, but I made a point of going there.  I hope to get to some other nearby minor league games this year.  So far, I think I've been to minor league games at eight different stadiums (seven affiliated teams, one independent team.  One was G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, where the Potomac Cannons (now Potomac Nationals) play, back in 2003.  I don't really remember that too much, but let's rank the other seven:

7.  Dehler Park in Billings.  It was a cool location and there was some really good food.  But it was a rookie ball park and everything about it said rookie ball.  It was small and you had goofy things going on between innings (which every minor league park has, but this was the goofiest).  I'm ranking it last, but it wasn't bad (unlike US Cellular Field, which is just bad).

6.  Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.  It was named baseballpark.com's 2008 Ballpark of the Year, but it really wasn't anything all that special.  Pretty good beer selection, not much of a food selection.  It was fine, but I liked several others more.

5.  Memorial Stadium in Boise.  It's old and set up differently than every other minor league ballpark I've been to.  There really is no concourse where you can see the field.  The seats go up higher than other minor league ballparks (which I liked).  But the food and beer were very good (the selection of Idaho beers I had was outstanding).

4.  Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo.  No 360 degree concourse, but it had a solid food and beer selection.  And it had a Maury Wills Museum and the field had the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium.

3.  Isotopes Park in Albuquerque.  It's the biggest minor league stadium I've been to.  I loved the Simpsons theme, but long lines were an issue, which was disappointing considering the stadium was only a little more than half full.

2.  Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.  The only drawback was the lack of a 360 degree concourse.  But food and beverage options were outstanding and quick and easy (I guess it helped that the crowd was so small).

1.  Regions Field in Birmingham.  It was a little bit of a funky stadium, but it had a great crowd and a great beer selection.  Very solid.

"Big" Daddy's Town

Before I get to my latest trip, some quick words on yesterday.  I picked the wrong year to do a running diary of Opening Day and the National Championship Game in college basketball.  The Dodgers dominated and Clayton Kershaw was at his best.  And the basketball game was as good as you could hope for.  I was definitely rooting for Villanova.  You had a Catholic school from the Big East that's had a 100% graduation rate six years in a row against North Carolina, a school with fake classes for athletes.  The last time a team that didn't play Division I-A/FBS football won the national championship in basketball was UConn in 1999.  And they were one football season away from going to I-A.  Before UConn, it was Villanova in 1985.  It was a close game all game long and it had a classic finish.  I certainly wasn't expecting this after seeing them lose to Seton Hall.  On the other hand, I saw them dismantle Iowa a week later.  And unlike Syracuse, they certainly didn't have an easy road.  The last four teams they beat were ranked 10, 1, 7, and 3 going into the tournament.  And they destroyed every team except for Kansas and North Carolina.  My other thought is that college basketball is the only sport where I actually like teams other than my team.  I legitimately like all the Big East schools.  In the other sports, I have plenty of teams that I root against, but I don't really like any teams other than mine.  So I was as excited as I could be for a result other than my team winning the championship.  Of course, it didn't compare to how I would feel if Notre Dame won the championship.  I didn't have a victory beer and I had a fairly productive day of work today.  If Notre Dame had won last night, I would have had several victory beers and I already would have arranged to take off today.  But it was a fun college basketball season.  It got me through to baseball season.

Anyway, Easter vacation is always a time that I like to go away.  I like to get to baseball games and/or go to places I've never been to before.  Let's review my last three years:

2013- Opening Day at Dodger Stadium and Milwaukee
2014- Los Angeles and San Francisco
2015- Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Dallas

Sadly, the early Easter this year meant that there would be no baseball (actually, there almost was baseball, we'll get there).  But I was able to get to two new states, which brings my total to 47.

I decided to go to New Orleans and combine that with a trip to Mississippi.  So I just had to figure out what to do in Mississippi.  I really wanted to go to New Orleans for the National World War II Museum.  That's all I really wanted to do.  I ended up combining that with a couple other things.  As for Mississippi, I thought about going to Vicksburg.  One of the most important battles of the Civil War was fought there.  But going to Vicksburg would have required twice as much driving as going to Biloxi and I was planning on driving there and back in one day.  My trip was from Monday-Wednesday.  Monday was in New Orleans.  Tuesday was the Mississippi portion, but I needed to drive back to New Orleans and stay there for the night because my flight back was at 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday.  So I went to Biloxi.

I got to New Orleans early on Monday and after getting to my hotel, I went right to the World War II Museum.  Why is the museum in New Orleans?  It is because a very high percentage of the boats used by the US Navy were designed and/or built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans.  It was a good thing to see the day after Notre Dame was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.  I was disappointed, but I handled Notre Dame's elimination pretty well.  We lost to a team that was clearly better and we were competitive for the first 30 minutes.  After making it to the Elite Eight for the second straight season (and getting to see two tournament wins in person), I can't complain.  But visiting the World War II Museum really puts things in perspective.  It's hard to be upset about basketball when you're thinking about World War II.  The museum has different buildings that you go through.  If I remember correctly, most of the interesting stuff to see was in the third building.  But the second building had Beyond All Boundaries, a short movie produced by Tom Hanks.  You have to pay $5 more to see it, but it's worth it.  As I sat there watching it, I was crying.  I admit it.  As somebody who didn't live through World War II, it really is horrifying to think about how many people died in that war and the sacrifices our soldiers made.  Of course, stopping the Germans and the Japanese was absolutely necessary and lots more people would have died if we didn't stop them.  I have said that the Allies won for three reasons:

1. Churchill refused to surrender.  In June 1940, Britain had no major powers as allies.  Sure, they had Canada, Australia, and some other former colonies, but these were not major powers.  France had surrendered.  The Soviet Union and United States had not joined the war yet.  Which leads me to our other two reasons.

One of my favorite people in history

2. Hitler made a huge mistake and invaded the Soviet Union.  Suddenly the British had a major power as an ally to fight the Nazis and the Soviets did the fighting in Eastern Europe.

3. The US got involved after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  The British and Soviets were almost fighting separate wars against Germay (and they weren't really fighting the Japanese).  The US could help the British in North Africa and Western Europe and fight the Japanese in the Pacific.

In the third building, you had the first floor dedicated to the war against Germany and the second floor dedicated to the war against Japan.  You go through them chronologically until you get to the surrender.  One of the artifacts from the war against Germany was a Nazi Flag taken as a souvenir by American soldiers.  They signed it.  One of the names on there was Lt. Leslie Schultz from Greenlawn, NY.

I spent about five hours there and I would have spent more time there, but they closed at 5:00.  Actually, I was ready to leave, but then I found an exhibit in the first building that was kind of hidden.  I checked it out and there was hardly anybody else there because it was so hidden (and because the museum was about to close).  I had to run through it really quickly.  They had a cool display comparing the size of the US Army to Germany and Japan at the start of the war.  One thing I learned was that the US had the 18th or 19th largest army in the world at the start of the war.  I think they said 18th in the Tom Hanks movie and at one other spot in the museum, but when I googled it I found 19th.  I couldn't find a list ranking the armies, but we were behind Romania and Portugal.  That's amazing.

And we beat them both.

This is why I study history.

After that, I took a walk to the Courtyard Brewery.  It reminded me a little bit of the Sand City Brewery in Northport, which John and I went to back in December.  It's small and kind of hidden.  But they had a wide selection of beer (some of which wasn't their own).  I had the Blanch de Orleans, which was fine, but nothing special.  I'm pretty sure it was my first ever Louisiana beer.  I'll have to do a blog post soon with the states I've had a beer from.  I have to be at more than half by now, but I've never really taken the time to figure it out.

My next stop was another Man vs. Food location, Mother's Restaurant.  I had what Adam had on the show, which was the Ferdi Special.  It had ham, roast beef, their debris with real au jus sauce (I tried to find the video of Kramer celebrating selling his stories to Peterman, but I don't think it's on YouTube).  It was good, but it's not like I'd make a point of going there again if I was in New Orleans (as opposed to say the Vortex Bar and Grille in Atlanta, which was excellent).  I think this was my 16th Man vs. Food spot.  I'll finish this post with some thoughts on some of those places.

The Ferdi Special

The last thing I had planned was Knicks-Pelicans.  Unlike last year when I went to Salt Lake City and saw the Jazz, I didn't have this planned originally.  I was going to New Orleans for the World War II Museum and then I decided to check the NBA schedule and the Pelicans were home.  This game isn't really worth talking about much.  Jerian Grant didn't score.  They had a commercial clock in the arena like baseball does now and every time a 20 second timeout was called, they put one minute on the clock.  The box score said the attendance was 17,000.  I was there and it wasn't close to that.  There weren't 16,999 other people at the game.  The upper level was more than half empty.  At most, there were 12,000 people there.  And the last two minutes of the game took way too long to finish.  The Pelicans won 99-91.  That's all I need to say about the game.

Two bad NBA teams

After the game I took a walk down to Bourbon Street.  I figured I should see it.  Like Las Vegas, this was not my scene.  I like drinking with my friends, but large crowds of unruly people that I don't know are not my scene (one of the many reasons I never need to go back to Las Vegas).  One of my favorite nights ever was Thursday, March 18, 2010.  It was the night after St. Patrick's Day and the night before the weekend.  Pete and I went out in Huntington and the town was dead.  But we watched basketball (it was the first night of the NCAA Tournament), drank a lot of beer, and had a great time.  Twelve Bars of Christmas was another great night.  It was me and six other people on a Sunday night in Huntington and it was great.  Anyway, back to New Orleans, how many people get really sick from drinking way too much?  I'm glad I didn't go to the Sugar Bowl in January 2007.  My friends tried to get me to go, but I think my response was something like "Isn't New Orleans worse than Detroit right now?"  The city was still a mess from Hurricane Katrina (it's not anymore), we got destroyed by LSU, and Bourbon Street would have been ridiculous.  So I'm glad I didn't go back then.  I walked down Bourbon Street to Spirits on Bourbon (from Bar Rescue) just to see it.  I didn't have anything to drink and I just walked back to my hotel.

Bourbon Street

The next day, I took a shuttle back to the airport to pick up my rental car.  And the driver looked and sounded a whole lot like Charles "Big" Daddy from "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase."  And then I was off to Biloxi.  I stopped when I first got to Biloxi and took a quick walk on the beach and dipped my hand in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was not nearly as nice looking as the Gulf of Mexico was when I was in Tampa five years ago for Greg's wedding.  My next stop was Beauvoir, which is the last place where Jefferson Davis lived.  The property has the house and the Jefferson Davis "Presidential" Museum.  Most of the buildings on the property were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but the house was still standing.  The house wasn't huge, but it was elegant.  I took a quick tour of the house and then checked out the museum.  I'm no fan of Jefferson Davis, but I learned some things about him so I'm glad I went.  He had a pretty impressive career before becoming a traitor.  He had been Secretary of War, he arranged the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, and he was put in charge of expanding the Capitol building.  He also pushed for using camels in the military, which is why there was a camel that lived on the property.  There was a statue of Davis by the museum.  I was happy to see that from the statue, you had a view of the American flag, but the Mississippi State flag (which includes the Confederate battle flag) was blocked by trees.

I hope that traitor enjoys his view of the Stars and Stripes.

The house where he lived.

This piano was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

I told you there was a camel.

My next stop was the Half Shell Oyster House.  I had the Shrimp Orleans and a Beach Blonde from the Biloxi Brewing Company.  Both the shrimp and the beer were very good.  From there, I walked to MGM Park, which is the home of the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers.  I just wanted to take a walk around the park and check it out since the minor league season hasn't started yet, but it turned out there was a college game there that day.  I was there at 2:30 and the game didn't start until 4:00.  I thought about sticking around for the game, but I had to drive back to New Orleans so I didn't feel like waiting around for an hour and a half.  But I was able to sneak into the stadium and watch a little batting practice from right center field.  I didn't push my luck and try to walk around on the inside, but it did look like it was a pretty nice minor league stadium (it opened last year, so it should be nice).  And that was Biloxi.  So now I just have South Carolina, Hawaii, and Alaska left.  Hopefully I'll get to at least one more before the end of this year and maybe finish it off next year.

This was excellent.

Batting practice at MGM Park

I was thinking about doing a Man vs. Food locations power rankings, but I can't really do that.  Some I went to so long ago that I barely remember them.  And then there's one spot where I only had a drink.  But I'll go through each spot that I've been to in a somewhat chronological order:

Syracuse- Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.  I went there with Brother Robert on our trip there for a camping conference in January 2007.  I'm pretty sure it was really good, but it was more than nine years ago and I was really sick so I don't remember it too well.

Washington- Ben's Chili Bowl.  I think I've only had it at Nationals Park when I first went there in 2008.  So does that count?

Boston- The Barking Crab.  I went with John in 2009 or 2010, but we were only drinking.  It was a great summer day and I was drinking Summer Ale.  So if I did power rankings, this might get the top spot.

Chicago- Gino's East.  I think we wanted to go there when we were in Chicago for a Cubs game in 2008, but the wait was too long.  But I did get there in 2010 with my brothers.  It's probably my only real experience with Chicago pizza.  It's kind of hard to consider New York pizza and Chicago pizza the same food.  Chicago pizza is kind of like a cheese pie.  If I had to pick New York or Chicago pizza, it's easily New York pizza.  But if I had to pick between pizza from Gino's or pizza from the best spot in some random city, I'd go with Gino's.  Other cities probably try to do an imitation of New York pizza and don't come close.

Los Angeles- Felippe's and El Tepeyac.  I went to Felippe's in 2011 with my brothers and El Tepeyac last summer with Pete.  Felippe's had some good French Dip sandwiches.  El Tepeyac was good Mexican, but I feel like there are lots of places where you can find good Mexican food.

Pittsburgh- Primanti Brothers.  I went with Jon in 2012.  They have sandwiches with fries on the sandwich. This is one of the few places where I had exactly what Adam had.  I remember it was good, but there was a fried egg on the sandwich, but the meat kind of overwhelmed the egg so you didn't really notice it.

Phoenix- Alice Cooperstown.  I remember that Adam had the Big Unit Dog, which was a two-foot long hot dog with all sorts of stuff on it.  I had a burger, but I can't really remember it.

Atlanta- Vortex Bar and Grill.  I went with Dennis in 2013.  Adam had the Triple Bypass Burger.  I had a burger with blue cheese.  It was really good, probably the best food of all these places that I can remember.

Detroit- American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island.  I went in 2014.  These two compete with each other.  I had the Coney Island Dog at both places and liked Lafayette's better.

Salt Lake City- Bruges Waffles and Frites.  I went last year and had what Adam had, the Machine Gun sandwich, which also has fries on the sandwich.  I didn't love the sandwich, but the fries and sauces were good.  But they weren't quite as good as European Republic's fries and sauces.

Cincinnati- Tom and Chee.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dipping.  It was simple, but good.

Minneapolis- The 5-8 Club.  I went with Dennis last summer.  I had the Juicy Lucy with blue cheese.  It was good, but not as good as the burger at Vortex in Atlanta.

Boise- Big Jud's.  I wish I had known to ask for no mustard on my burger.  The burger was good, but New Yorkers do not like mustard on burgers.  It would rank behind Vortex and the 5-8 Club.

New Orleans- Mother's Restaurant.  You just read about this one.

So he did a Long Island episode, a New York episode, and a Brooklyn episode and I haven't been to any of those places.  I also haven't eaten at a Boston location or been to a Philadelphia location, and it's debatable whether my Washington spot should count or not.  Maybe I'll get to some more spots soon.

Happy Baseball Season!

The Pflueger Pflick

I once ranked my ten favorite days of the year.  The first four days of the NCAA tournament took the number four spot (I cheated).  It's my policy that I don't work that Friday.  The first Friday of the tournament for me is like when it rains for Newman.  I've been teaching for eight years now.  I get two personal days a year.  My first year, I didn't take any personal days because my principal was crazy.  I've taken the first Friday of the tournament every year since then with one exception.  The exception was 2013 because I used my two personal days for the National Championship Game.  So instead I used a sick day (one of the three sick days in eight years, everybody was cool with it) and went to the tournament in Philadelphia.  So I knew I'd be taking last Friday off before basketball season even started.  Then Notre Dame ended up playing Brooklyn that day.  It was a night game so it didn't really matter if I was off or not, but I preferred the night game anyway.  I had been enjoying some age-appropriate beverages the night before while watching the games.

I got off to a great start in this tournament.  I had the first 15 games right.  Gonzaga beating Seton Hall was the only one I was wrong about.  Days 2-4 were not as good, but I ended up winning the first round in my pool at work.  But the only games I really cared about were the two games we played in.  I really don't care too much about my picks.  I just want Notre Dame to win.  My feelings for Michigan are well-known.  We beat them 31-0 (but really 37-0) in our last football game.  I'd be perfectly happy never playing them again in anything.  But the tournament committee had other ideas.  I was rooting against Michigan in the play in game because I could take losing to Tulsa, but I couldn't take losing to Michigan.  Of course, Notre Dame ended up playing Michigan.

Kyle and I bought tickets for the tournament shortly after the selection show.  Friday was a wild day of basketball, but I missed most of the exciting games.  I listened to the end of the Michigan State-Middle Tennessee game in the car on my way to the Hicksville train station.  Actually I stopped first at Chopt because it was a Friday in Lent and I figured there wouldn't be great meatless options at Barclays Center.  By the way, now that there's a Chopt on Long Island, I think it gets the number 2 spot on my Fast Food Power Rankings.  It's delicious and it's healthy.  I also missed the half-court shot by Northern Iowa to win and the late dunk that would have sent the St. Joseph's-Cincinnati game to overtime.  And that's one of the reasons that I don't love the idea of going to the tournament, especially during the first round with so many games going on.  I wouldn't have gone if Notre Dame wasn't in Brooklyn.  But a Notre Dame win would make missing some exciting finishes worth it.

The first game was West Virginia-Stephen F. Austin.  For the session we went to, Michigan had the most fans, we were second, West Virginia third, and Stephen F. Austin was last.  Wilhelm described Stephen F. Austin people as "backwoods folks" who "don't leave the state.  But neutral fans were definitely on their side.  I got there early, but Kyle was stuck at work.  Early on, I thought West Virginia was clearly better and they were on the verge of blowing Stephen F. Austin out.  They were up 20-11.  But Stephen F. Austin hung around and by the time Kyle got there, I think it was 20-19.  They really controlled the game from there.  Thomas Walkup was the story of the game for Stephen F. Austin.  He finished with 33 points (19-20 at the line), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block.  Stephen F. Austin won 70-56.

Our view from the last row

Then it was time for the main event.  Mike Brey made a lineup change with Matt Farrell in the starting lineup.  I still don't get it, but we've now won two tournament games with Farrell in the starting lineup, so whatever.  We played a pretty ugly first half and trailed 41-29 at halftime.  But I wasn't really too worried.  We've beaten good teams after getting down double digits (North Carolina, Louisville, Duke) and this was Michigan.  The second half was a different story.  Steve Vasturia didn't play a great game, but he made some plays early in the half.  V.J. Beachem played the best game of his college career (18 points, 7-7 shooting, 6 rebounds).  Rex Pflueger played some good defense.  Beachem gave us our first lead with a three that made it 51-48, but Michigan came right back with two threes to retake the lead.  Beachem later tied the game at 56 with a three.  When it was tied at 59, Beachem hit another three to give us the lead for good.  After making a mistake and taking a bad shot after getting an offensive rebound that gave Michigan the ball back down three with 44 seconds to go, Bonzie Colson hit two free throws to ice it with 11 seconds left.  We ended up defeating the forces of evil 70-63.  I got home around 2:00 in the morning.  I didn't care after a game like that.

I knew I was going back on Sunday.  Kyle ended up not being able to make it.  My dad was going to go, but he wasn't feeling good Sunday morning.  It was the earliest session of the day so I listed the extra ticket on Stubhub before going back to sleep.  My plan was to get up later and see if I could find somebody to come if the ticket hadn't sold.  But it sold for a profit of about $20 before I got up again.  So I went by myself on Sunday.  The first game was Villanova-Iowa.  This time, Villanova easily had the most fans, we were second again, and Iowa was third.  When I walked around Barclays Center, I didn't see a single person wearing a Stephen F. Austin shirt.  But again, the neutral fans would go for them (except for maybe Villanova basketball/Notre Dame football fans or Villanova fans who follow my policy of rooting for Catholic schools first).  Villanova pounded Iowa.  It's not worth talking about that.

Our game with Stephen F. Austin ended up being a classic.  A lot of fans left after the first game, so I moved to a seat near half court (still high up).  During pregame introductions, I applauded the Notre Dame players of course, but I also applauded Thomas Walkup for his performance on Friday night.  In this game, Walkup was very good, but he wasn't as dominant as he was against West Virginia (he did draw three fouls on one possession, but 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists wasn't going to kill us).  It was a back and forth game.  We went into halftime up 42-41 when V.J. Beachem made a three at the buzzer.  We got a couple of five-point leads in the second half and led by seven at one point, but Stephen F. Austin just wouldn't go away.  After getting that seven point lead, that was when Walkup drew three fouls on one possession and finished it off with a three-point play.  That started an 11-2 run for Stephen F. Austin.  We went back up 70-68, but then it looked like Stephen F. Austin was taking over.  Walkup hit two free throws to make it 75-70 with 2:05 to play.  Stephen F. Austin didn't score again.  Demetrius Jackson got a layup on an inbound play with 1:35 left.  Jackson hit two free throws with 47 seconds left to make it a one-point game (unlike last year against Kentucky, Brey went two for one, good call).  We got the ball back with 23 seconds left after Walkup missed a jumper.  Brey didn't call a timeout (good call again) and Jackson drove to the basket and missed.  Zach Auguste got the offensive rebound and missed (he was probably fouled, but he's not a great free throw shooter anyway).  Then Rex Pflueger scored his only basket of the game on a tip in with 1.5 seconds left (by the way, Dennis gets credit for the title of this post).  I gave a big fist pump and yelled out "Yeah!" when it went in.  Stephen F. Austin missed a heave that would have won it (it wasn't close).  Beachem had 15 points and 7 rebounds, Auguste had 16 points and 15 rebounds, Jackson had 18 points, and Pflueger had the two biggest points of the game.  It was pretty special.

My view for Notre Dame's win over Stephen F. Austin

It's probably the best basketball game I've been to.  I've never been to a game with more on the line (I've never been to an NBA playoff game, these are the only two games I've been to this deep into the NCAA Tournament).  I've seen some good games, but this one meant more, it was back and forth the whole game, it had a great finish, and my favorite team moved closer to a championship.  I think it's kind of like the basketball version of the 2014 Stanford game.

So this NCAA Tournament experience was pretty awesome.  I might try to go next year to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden.  Notre Dame has made it to consecutive Sweet Sixteens for the first time since the 1970s.  And we're not done.  We play Wisconsin tomorrow.  That's a game that could go either way.  If we win that, we play a team that we've beaten once this year (and got blown out by, but check out what happened in our three games against Duke last year) or a team we should have beaten.  We definitely aren't the favorite to come out of this weekend, but making the Final Four is not impossible.

Three notes about the NCAA Tournament to finish.  First, they fixed the naming of the rounds (I was ready to make some joke about how Brey's streak of making it to at least the second round in four straight tournament appearances could be snapped this year).  We don't have 60 teams getting a bye into the second round anymore (out of the 64 that play in that round).  The other thing that they sort of fixed was the courts.  I absolutely hated those bland standardized courts.  The courts this year are better, but they should just have one color out of bounds (other than whatever writing there is).  And I don't like the key being white (any other color would be better) and the free throw semicircle being a different shade from the rest of the non-key area inside the three point line.  It's much better than what it was, but they really should just let each arena use its own court.  If you want to slap a March Madness logo at halfcourt and some NCAA Tournament decals out of bounds, I'm fine with that, but they each arena should have its own personality (like Brooklyn's black theme).  And the last thing is not selling alcohol.  It's ridiculous.  This is America.  An adult should be able to buy a beer at a basketball game.  Whatever, there was plenty of beer waiting at home for me to celebrate.

We're not done yet.  Go Irish!