Home Under the Dome

After Little Rock, it was time for the main event of my trip.  I was headed back to Notre Dame.  I flew from Little Rock to O’Hare on Thursday morning.  The bus I was going to take to Notre Dame got canceled so I had to wait an extra two hours.  O’Hare is a decent enough airport (I’ve complained about it before, but that was mostly because I got stuck there overnight).  But the bus/shuttle center is by far the most depressing part of the airport.  If you ever find yourself waiting for a bus there, just walk across the street and sit in the lobby of the Hilton.  I’ve stayed in that Hilton on a few occasions and this time I made use of it for a few hours to relax and listen to podcasts while I charged my phone.  Anyway, I finally made it back to campus around 5:30.  It would have been nice to get there earlier, but Dennis was in class all day and I still had the next day with Dennis in class to explore campus on my own.

It's always good to be back home at Notre Dame.

So I met Dennis and dropped off my stuff in his room and then we went to dinner at Rohr’s in the Morris Inn.  To drink I had a Space Station from Indiana’s largest brewery, 3 Floyds.  When I had a second beer, I ordered the other one they had from 3 Floyds, but I suspect that the waitress brought me another Space Station.  But it was good.  And now Alaska is the only state I still have to drink a beer from.

My 49th beer state

After dinner, we went to mass at the Grotto.  I think I once went to the Rosary with Jim Caviezel at the Grotto when I was a student, but I don’t think I had ever gone to mass at the Grotto before.  Jim Caviezel also once drunkenly made his way through the student section at a football game.  I'm pretty sure I had a picture of me next to him, but I couldn't find it.  Anyway, the mass was at 8:00 and it was still very light out when it was over.  The sun sets more than 50 minutes later there than it does on Long Island so that’s pretty cool.  What’s not too cool is when you have an early class in the winter and it’s still dark outside when you’re going to class.  After mass, I headed to my hotel.

On Friday, I got to campus around 11:00 and walked around for a bit before going to the 11:30 mass in the basilica.  Then it was more walking around campus for a little bit.  I checked out the Duncan Student Center, which is one of the new buildings attached to the football stadium.  That is quite an impressive building.  I tried to go all the way to the top to check out the view of the field or of the rest of campus, but the elevator wouldn’t go past the 5th floor (there were nine floors).  For old time’s sake, I got lunch at Subway in LaFortune.  When I was a student, I pretty much had free Subway thanks to the flex points that were part of the meal plan.

Before mass in the basilica

Touchdown Jesus

Then it was time for my stadium tour.  The last time I was in the stadium was pretty miserable.  We lost to Duke.  We went 4-8 in Brian Kelly’s 7th year.  He’s coached eight years and is 0-2 in major bowl games.  But he’s still our coach.  Great.  Anyway, this was my first time in the stadium since the renovations were complete.  I had done the stadium tour while the renovations were going on in February 2016.  This was very different.  We started at the Frank Leahy Gate (on the south end of the stadium) and walked on the west side of the stadium.  Our first view of the field was from the student section.  Then they took us outside the stadium to the Knute Rockne Gate (on the north side of the stadium) and back inside.  From there, we got to go into the tunnel and touch the Play Like a Champion Today sign.  Last time, we got to go into the locker room and touch the sign on the way out to the field.  But the locker room was not included this time.  And then we got to go out to the field.  It was cool that we got to run all around the field if we wanted.  Last time, we just came out of the tunnel and stood on the end of the field (but the field was covered with snow that time).  But I would gladly give up the ability to walk all around the field if we could get real grass back in the stadium.  The video board was not on while I was in the stadium, but I noticed earlier when I was walking around in the library that it was one and it was showing highlights from our Citrus Bowl win over LSU (I could see the top of the board from the windows on the second floor of the library).  So the tour was cool, but I would include the locker room if possible and they definitely should have taken us up to one of the suites at the top of the one of the buildings on the side of the field.  They should be trying to show those off.

My first view of the field since the renovations were completed.

Not the best camerawork by one of the tour guides, but I'll take it.

You can see the video board on the other end of the field.

I'd gladly give up the opportunity to stand on the field and a Garth Brooks concert if we could get real grass back in the stadium.

After that, I went back to LaFortune and watched some Wimbledon and charged my phone while I waited for Dennis to get done with class.  I had watched a little of the Isner/Anderson match before the tour.  Unfortunately I missed the end of it during the tour.  I was hoping it would keep going.  It was frustrating to be so close to having an American male back in the Wimbledon final and then lose 26-24 in the last set (but he probably would have fared as well against Djokovic as Anderson did after that match if he had won).

Then I met up with Dennis for some Single-A baseball.  It was the Beloit Snappers against the South Bend Cubs at Four Winds Field.  The stadium has been around since 1987, but I never went as a student (it’s a few miles from campus).  We watched an inning and then took a lap around the stadium.  We saw a couple of kids walking around like they had just gone swimming and we were confused.  Then we saw a little area out in right field with water shooting around that kids could play in.  In left field, there were buildings that had seats on the roof like you have outside of Wrigley Field.  The beer selection was pretty good.  We both had a Bell’s Amber Ale.  Bell’s is from Michigan.  The beer was good and there were a few other craft options.  But they should get some Indiana beer in there.  There were a number of food options and the lines were not too long.  We both got cheesesteaks from a stand called Steakadelphia.  They were pretty good.  The video board was the nicest one I’ve seen at a minor league stadium.  Attendance was listed at 6,720 even though capacity is listed at 5,000.  So it was a good crowd in a good-looking stadium with good, but not great, food and beer options.  I am going to put it at fourth on my minor league ballpark rankings.  It’s really close between this one and Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, but that one gets the edge for the superior food and beer options.  But I am putting this one ahead of Dickey-Stephens Park, which I had visited two days earlier and liked a lot.  I have one more minor league game on the schedule for this year and that will probably be the last one.  I’ll give you complete updated rankings after I get to that one.

We were in the second row behind the dugout and nobody was sitting in front of us.

I stopped by the Grotto after the game when it was dark because that was the only time I was on campus when it was dark on this trip.  The next morning I get breakfast with Dennis at the South Dining Hall (I almost always ate at the North Dining Hall when I was a student).  Then he had some work to do and I walked around campus a little bit more before getting on the bus to head home.  It was the third time since I graduated that I was back on campus for something other than a football Saturday in the fall.  The first time was in 2009, which was sort of a football weekend.  I was there for the Blue-Gold Game, which was combined with my first trip to Wrigley Field.  The next time was in 2016 for a stadium tour, a basketball game (a win over Louisville), and a hockey game (a win over Maine).  I love going to football games (you know, when we aren’t losing to Syracuse or Duke), but it is nice to be on campus when there aren’t 80,000 people there.  This was the first time that I was ever on campus in July (June is now the only month I haven’t been on campus).  It looks like I won’t be going to a game on campus this year so I don’t know when I’ll be back.  But it was great to see Dennis and be back on campus this time.

One of my favorite spots on campus

I’ll finish up with an updated list of beers I’ve had from 49 states plus Washington DC (in the order that I've been to each place):

1. New York- Bluepoint, Sand City, Brooklyn, Bronx, etc.
2. New Jersey- Twin Elephant
3. Connecticut- City Steam Naughty Nurse
4. Pennsylvania- Yuengling, Troegs Hopback Amber Ale
5. Ohio- Great Lakes Brewing Company, Rivertown Brewery
6. Florida- Cigar City Tampa-Style Lager
7. Rhode Island- Narragansett Lager
8. Massachusetts- Sam Adams, Harpoon, probably others
9. Delaware- Iron Hill, Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company
10. Maryland- Flying Dog Brewery
11. Washington DC- Right Proper Raised by Wolves
12. Virginia- Port City Optimal Wit
13. Indiana- 3 Floyds Space Station
14. Illinois- Goose Island, possibly others
15. Kentucky- Kentucky Vanilla Barrel Cream Ale
16. Tennessee- Memphis Made Lucid Kolsch
17. Georgia- Sweetwater Grass Monkey
18. Michigan- Bell's Oberon, Bell’s Amber
19. New Hampshire- Moat Mountain Every Night IPA
20. California- Point the Way IPA (Golden Road Brewing), Coronado Brewing, Lagunitas, others 
21. North Carolina- Olde Hickory Pale Ale, Foothills
22. Nevada- Brew Brothers Redhead Amber Ale, Brew Brothers Carano Extra
23. Arizona- Four Peaks Kilt Lifter Scottish Style Ale
24. Colorado- Boulder
25. Wyoming- Melvin IPA
26. Wisconsin- Leinenkugel's
27. Texas- Shiner (probably some other stuff too when I visited Wilhelm)
28. Washington- Fremont
29. Missouri- Schlafly, Boulevard
30. Arkansas- Diamond Bear Pale Ale
31. Oklahoma- COOP Alpha Hive
32. Kansas- Defiance Fuzzy Knuckles
33. West Virginia- Almost Heaven Amber Ale
34. Utah- Moab Rocket Bike Amber Lager
35. New Mexico- It was probably something from the Sierra Blanca Brewing Company, I remember there was local beer with baseball-themed tap handles, my googling indicates that something from the Sierra Blanca Brewing Company is most likely what I had
36. Alabama- Yellowhammer Rebellion Red Ale
37. Minnesota- Surly, Summit
38. Iowa- West O Blackberry Coco Stout
39. Nebraska- Prairie Pride Trouble in Dublin
40. South Dakota- Crow Peak IPA
41. North Dakota- Fargo Brewing Company
42. Montana- Uberbrew
43. Idaho- Crooked Fence Barrelhouse Welcome to Idaho, Grand Teton Ale 208
44. Oregon- Widmer Brothers
45. Maine- Shipyard
46. Vermont- Long Trail
47. Louisiana- Courtyard Blanch de Orleans
48. Mississippi- Biloxi Beach Blonde
49. Hawaii- Waikiki Brewing Company
50. South Carolina- Palmetto Amber

Little Rock, Ugly Tree

After knocking out beer from several states with trips to Omaha and Harpers Ferry, I was down to three states to drink a beer from.  One was Indiana, which has to be the state that I’ve spent the second most time in (after New York and Indiana, the next few would have to be Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts in some order).  It’s quite possible that I’ve had an Indiana beer before, but I don’t remember it.  I googled the biggest breweries in Indiana and didn’t see anything that I recognized.  When I was in college, it was mostly Sam Adams, Guinness, and cheap beer (not necessarily in that order).  The other two states were Arkansas and Alaska.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Alaska beer out west a couple of times, but I’ve been holding off until I actually get to Alaska (maybe next year).  I made the mistake of not drinking any Arkansas beer when I was there in 2014.  It was just a stop on my trip where I went to games in St. Louis and Kansas City.  I also used that trip as my excuse to get to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  Arkansas was the only state other than Missouri where I spent the night.  I went to a minor league game in Springdale and I’m pretty sure I had a Sam Adams.  Even if there was no local beer, I should have just stopped at a bar or something.  Anyway, I wanted to visit Notre Dame this summer, but I used that trip as an excuse to get back to Arkansas.

I flew to Little Rock and got to my hotel around 2:00.  My first stop was the Clinton Library, my seventh presidential library.  The design was inspired by the library at Trinity College in Dublin, which I’ve been to.  But the museum was underwhelming.  Maybe I’m just not remembering the other ones I’ve been to, but this one seemed more political and less historical.  It kind of presented things as “Bill Clinton would have solved all the world’s problems, but the Republicans kept getting in the way.”  Of course, Clinton is the only president with a presidential library that was impeached (they only go back to Hoover).  They had the presidential limo, but that wasn’t as cool as Air Force One and Marine One (we couldn’t go in the limo).  There was a recreation of the cabinet room so that was kind of cool.  They had Clinton’s Oval Office, but you couldn’t take pictures inside.  You could have a professional photographer take your picture and then buy it for $30, but I wasn’t going to do that.  There was a lot of information, but I was expecting to see more stuff.  The temporary exhibit was on music and the country.  That was interesting, but it seemed incomplete. They showed a bunch of presidents with their campaign songs and what the popular songs were when they became president, but it only went up to Carter.  What up with that?

The presidential limo

The cabinet room

There was a football signed by Joe Montana, but that didn't make for a very good picture.  The ugliest Christmas tree I've ever seen makes for a better picture.  Apparently that thing was in the White House one of the years that Clinton was president.  I assume that it wasn't the official White House Christmas Tree.

So here are my updated presidential library rankings:

7.  Bill Clinton
6.  Jimmy Carter
5.  John F. Kennedy
4.  Richard Nixon
3.  Harry Truman
2.  George W. Bush
1.  Ronald Reagan

And here’s how I’d rank the ones I haven’t been to in terms of how much I’d want to get to each one (Obama’s hasn’t been built yet):

6.  Gerald Ford- The mid-70s, not a fun time.
5.  Herbert Hoover- The Great Depression, and even worse time, but at least more interesting than the mid-70s.
4.  George H.W. Bush- He’s the first president that I can remember being president, but I don’t find him that interesting.  There’s probably some interesting stuff about the Cold War coming to an end, but I’ve argued that the Cold War actually ended before he was president (even if it did end during his presidency, he doesn’t deserve any credit for it).
3.  Dwight Eisenhower- I’m more interested in Eisenhower in terms of World War II than as president.  They probably have some World War II stuff.
2.  Lyndon Johnson- He has a very mixed legacy.  Civil rights- good.  Vietnam- bad.  It would be interesting to see how that’s handled.
1.  Franklin Roosevelt- The Great Depression and most of World War II.  Lots of interesting stuff.  It’s also the presidential library closest to me (much closer than any of the other ones I haven’t been to).  I don’t know if I’ll get to any of the other ones that I haven’t been to yet, but I should get to the Roosevelt Library at some point.

After the Clinton Library, I went over to Central High School, which is famous for the Little Rock Nine.  When Governor Orval Faubus tried to prevent integration in 1957, Dwight Eisenhower sent troops to escort the black students to school.  There are benches outside the school with the names of the students engraved in them.

The sun made it difficult to get a decent picture of Central High School.

At night I was off to Dickey-Stephens Park for some Double-A baseball.  The Arkansas Travelers beat the Springfield Cardinals 3-2.  It was an impressive minor league stadium.  The crowd was good (attendance was listed at 7,700 even though capacity is 7,200).  The beer selection was very good.  I had a Diamond Bear Pale Ale, which was solid.  There were several other local options.  The food selection was decent.  I had a barbecue sandwich, which was fine, but nothing that stood out.  I had a nice view of downtown Little Rock from my seat.  The other thing that stood out was that the right field fence was very low and that short fence extended most of the way to center field.  You can find some short fences in the corners at some places.  Dodger Stadium’s fences are short in the corners, but they don’t extend nearly as far toward center.  Fenway Park has an extended short fence in right field, but I think Fenway’s is at least a foot taller (the short Dodger Stadium fences might be taller also).  I was struck by the combination of how short the fence was and how far it extended.  The stadium reminded me a little bit of Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, but not quite as good.  Two things keep that one ahead of Dickey-Stephens Park.  The food was not as good at Dickey-Stephens Park.  And Dickey-Stephens Park had the worst video board I can remember outside of the pre-renovation Nassau Coliseum.  When they showed replays, it was like you were watching baseball from the 1970s.  They were seriously lacking in pixels.  But it’s a minor league park, so whatever.  I was ready to slide Dickey-Stephens Park in at number 4 on my minor league stadium rankings, but I had another leg of my trip to go.  I’ll get to that trip soon.

My view for the game

My 48th beer state

Max Power 2

I got to my first game in New York this year (it might be the only Major League game I get to in New York, but it won’t be the only professional baseball game in New York).  For Christmas, my brothers gave my dad and me tickets for Dodgers-Mets at Citi Field for the middle game of a three-game series.  I might have gone to more than one (which would have been good since the Dodgers swept), but I was satisfied with just one because Clayton Kershaw was pitching.  I was not expecting that after he went on the DL after one start when he came back from the DL at the end of May.  That second DL stint was for the same injury as last year when he missed five weeks.  He didn’t miss as much time this year.  At some point it was announced that he would either pitch in Citi Field or he would pitch a rehab start with the Oklahoma City Dodgers.  Then they said he would pitch for Oklahoma City in Omaha.  Then they changed their minds at the last minute because the forecast was not looking good for his rehab start in Omaha.  It wasn’t looking good for New York either.  As it turned out, he could have pitched in either city.  And it was pretty much a rehab start anyway because the Mets are pretty much a minor league team at this point.

Jacob deGrom was starting for the Mets.  I was expecting that.  He’s had a great year so far, but the Dodgers were able to get to him.  Max Muncy hit a home run in the first inning to put the Dodgers up 1-0.  I hadn’t heard of this guy before this season.  He’s been awesome.  He wasn’t doing much at first, but the Dodgers got their season turned around when he started hitting.  And the turn around pretty much started in Washington.  Here are Muncy’s numbers before the game I went to in Washington:  73 plate appearances, .238/.329/.460, 3 home runs, 12 RBIs.  Here are his numbers from the game I went to until now:  140 plate appearances, .280/.450/.701, 14 home runs, 23 RBIs.  Kershaw looked really good in the first inning.  He struck out the first two batters and then got a soft ground ball right back to him for the third out.  Kershaw struggled after that, but managed to limit the damage.  He gave up two runs on five hits and one walk over the next two innings.  It was easily the worst start that I’ve seen from Kershaw (I’ll get to his numbers with me in attendance later).  But I would say it was a success.  He made it through three innings without getting hurt.  His velocity has been down this season.  It still wasn’t what we’re used to (I hope it gets back there, but it’s possible that the days of Kershaw throwing 93-95 are over), but it was definitely better than it was in his last start before going on the DL (and it was better in his second start when Kershaw was really good, but the bullpen was terrible).  So he left in position to lose, but the Dodgers got him off the hook.  Chris Taylor pinch hit for Kershaw in the top of the fourth and doubled in two runs.  Caleb Ferguson came in to pitch for Kershaw pitched four great innings.  He allowed three hits and a walk, but he didn’t give up any runs.

It was good to see Clayton Kershaw back on the mound.

So it was a close game going to the eighth.  Then the Dodgers took control.  Cody Bellinger led off with a single.  Yasiel Puig singled, but the ball was misplayed.  It allowed Bellinger to get to third, but Puig was too aggressive and got thrown out at second.  The Mets intentionally walked Yasmani Grandal.  With runners at the corners and one out, my dad called for the squeeze.  And that’s what the Dodgers did.  Kiké Hernandez successfully laid down the bunt.  The Mets tried to get Bellinger at home, but he was safe.  Chase Utley singled to load the bases.  And then Matt Kemp came up as a pinch hitter and hit a grand slam to make it 8-2.  The Mets hit a meaningless home run in the bottom of the 8th and the Dodgers won 8-3.  It was the 11th straight win for the Dodgers over the Mets.  The six RBIs for pinch hitters was the most in Los Angeles Dodgers history.  Kemp’s grand slam was his seventh with the Dodgers.  It put him one behind Mike Piazza for the most in Los Angeles Dodgers history.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the Dodgers play at 12 different stadiums.  I had never seen them play anywhere other than Shea Stadium until 2009.  Thanks to the MLB Ballpark app, I know that the Dodgers’ record in games I’ve attended at any stadium other than Shea Stadium is 18-15.  I was able to figure out five Dodger games that I went to at Shea Stadium from 1989-2008.  The Dodgers were 1-4 in those games, but there were definitely a lot more than those five games.  They’re 8-6 at Citi Field, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium, 2-0 at Nationals Park, 1-1 at Yankee Stadium, and 2-5 everywhere else (wins at Citizens Bank Park and Petco Park, losses at Fenway Park, AT&T Park, Coors Field, Chase Field, and Comerica Park).

As for food and drink, it was a mixed bag.  Of course, Shake Shack is the best option at Citi Field, but the line is always way too long.  So I didn’t try for that.  I had googled some of the new food options.  I couldn’t find a couple of things that I read about (Italian cheese balls with pepperoni and chicken parm bites).  Lines were an issue.  Besides Shake Shake, I was interested in lobster tacos, but I didn’t want to deal with the line.  I tried getting in line for an Alpine Brat (a brat with melted Raclette cheese).  The line was not long, but it was not moving at all.  I called an audible because the game was about to start and just got a hot dog so that I could be in my seat for the first pitch.  It was no Dodger Dog, but it was $7 cheaper than the Alpine Brat.  The beer selection was pretty good.  I was disappointed that there was no Sam Adams Summer Ale.  Sam Summer and Clayton Kershaw would have been the perfect first day (sort of) of summer vacation.  The only Sam Adams beer that I could find was Sam ‘76, which I’ve had before and I didn’t think it was anything special.  So I went with a Brooklyn Summer Ale.  It’s decent for a summer beer and I guess it was appropriate for watching the Dodgers in New York.  Also I got it from a little New York craft beer stand.  There was no line so it was nice and quick and easy.  After Kershaw left the game, I got some chocolate chip cookie dough from the edible cookie dough stand.  It’s really good.  The bad thing was I had to go down to the lower concourse because the stand on the upper level didn’t have chocolate chip.  Why even have other flavors?  No cookie (and I’m presuming cookie dough as well) beats chocolate chip.

I have at least six baseball games left this year.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some Sam Adams Summer Ale at a couple of them.

This was ridiculously good.

It looks like the next couple of games I’m getting to will be minor league games.  I think I’m going to get to three more Dodger games this year.  Hopefully I’ll get to see Kershaw again.  This was the first time I’ve seen Kershaw pitch since his second start back from the DL in 2016 when he pitched at Yankee Stadium.  Here are Kershaw’s updated numbers with me in attendance:

9 starts, 2 pinch hit appearances (0-1 with a sacrifice bunt)
Dodgers:  10-1 (the loss came in the game where he unsuccessfully pinch hit), Kershaw: 4-0
58.2 innings
1.23 ERA
63 strikeouts
34 hits
11 walks
0.77 WHIP
2 complete game shutouts

Max Power

I was planning on doing a trip to Washington over the summer to visit Jon and go to a Nationals game, but we couldn’t figure out a weekend that worked for both of us.  The solution was to not wait until the summer and see the Dodgers in May.  I also wanted to go to West Virginia.  I was in West Virginia once and didn’t get a beer from West Virginia.  I considered doing a minor league game, but none of the minor league teams in West Virginia are particularly easy to get to.  The solution was to take a second trip to Harpers Ferry.  This was the third different city where I've stayed with Jon on my baseball travels, with Pittsburgh (getting back there for another baseball game might be a thing to do next year) and Baltimore being the other two.

I got in late on Friday night and just went to Jon’s apartment.  He had some beer in his refrigerator from Washington DC (Right Proper Raised by Wolves), so I was able to add that to the list of places I’ve had a beer from. It was a solid end to the night after a long bus ride.  The next morning we were off to Harpers Ferry.  The forecast was questionable, but it all worked out.  It pretty much stopped raining as soon as we got there.  When I went there four years ago, we did a little hike with a park ranger.  That was up above the town.  It was cool, but we didn’t see all the historical stuff down in the town.  There are some little museums and they also have John Brown’s fort.  That’s where he was holed up during the raid until he was captured.  The fort has been moved from the original site, but the original site is marked.  We also walked up to St. Peter’s Catholic Church, which has been there since 1830.  During the Civil War, they flew the Union Jack above the church as a flag of neutrality.  We finished up by stopping at the Potomac Grille.  They had some beer from the Mountain State Brewing Company on tap. I had an Almost Heaven Amber Ale.  It was very good.  My one gripe was that it was served in a frosted glass.  I want the beer to be cold, not the glass.  You give me a cold glass and that’s just creating condensation which waters down the beer.  So the only states I have left to drink a beer from are Indiana, Arkansas, and Alaska.  Indiana and Arkansas should happen this summer.

If I'm going to drink a beer from all 50 states, I might as well drink one from our nation's capital as well.

John Brown's fort

There were a lot of Irish immigrants who went to St. Peter's in the 1800s.  It might have made sense to fly the Irish flag during the Civil War, but Ireland was still controlled by the British at the time.

We headed back to Washington for Dodgers-Nationals.  This was my fourth game at Nationals Park.  The last one was in 2014.  I like Nationals Park, but I have one gripe.  They have the whole nation's capital red, white, and blue theme going on, but then the wall is green.  Why not have a blue wall?  What up with that?  Anyway, we were there for the second game of a split doubleheader.  The Dodgers took the first game 4-1, with Max Muncy driving in two runs.  The second game was pushed back an hour because of the doubleheader.  I was originally hoping to be able to see the end of Game 3 of Celtics-Cavaliers.  Because of the later start, that wasn’t possible.  I didn’t miss much.  It was Rich Hill vs. Max Scherzer.  The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Max Muncy.  Rich Hill lasted two pitches because of a blister problem.  He became the first starting pitcher to have no batters faced in a game since 2016.  Who was the pitcher for that game?  Rich Hill.  We got some food while Scott Alexander warmed up.  I had a Half Smoke All the Way from Ben’s Chili Bowl.  It was quite tasty.  There was some light rain during the game, but fortunately we didn’t have to deal with a delay.  The Dodger bullpen was very solid for most of the game.  They had a combined no-hitter through five innings.  Max Muncy homered off of Max Scherzer to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.  But the Nationals scored four in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead.  Max Scherzer was very solid, going seven and striking out 13 (he also had an RBI single).  As an aside, I like writing my blog posts, but I often have trouble coming up with titles for my post.  This time it was pretty easy with Muncy and Scherzer:

It was an exciting finish to the game.  With Dodgers trailing 4-2 in the eighth, Cody Bellinger hit a home run to cut the lead to one.  The Nationals led 4-3 going to the ninth, but Matt Kemp hit a pinch hit two-run double to give the Dodgers the lead and Kenley Jansen got his second save of the day as the Dodgers hung on to win 5-4.  According to Dodgers' play-by-play man Joe Davis, it was the 262nd time in Major League history that a team won a game where the bullpen recorded all 27 outs.  That's more rare than a no-hitter.

We actually spent most of the game watching from a marginally better view.  After we got food, we sat in some open seats in the same section that were a few rows down and closer to home plate.

The next morning I went to the 8:30 mass at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill.  I walked over to the Capitol and Supreme Court and took a couple of pictures.  And then I was headed back home.  It was a good trip.  My next baseball game is likely to be my first Citi Field game of the season when the Dodgers come in to town at the end of June.  My next trip will be in July.

Despite my feelings about Congress and the Supreme Court for pretty much my entire lifetime, I do appreciate what these buildings stand for.

A Call for Fewer Calls to the Bullpen

This blog post is long overdue.  The terrible start for the Dodgers has really hurt my desire to finally write this post.  Anyway, the last stop on my Easter vacation trip was San Francisco.  Tom and I were supposed to go to Dodgers-Giants on Friday night after I got in.  That didn’t happen.  The Giants were rained out five times in their first seven years in AT&T Park, but the game we were supposed to go to was the first rain out since 2006.  My tickets were good for the rescheduled game later in the month.  Of course, I wasn’t going to be in San Francisco for that.  So I posted those on Stubhub and bought tickets for Saturday afternoon as soon as the Friday game was rained out

I don’t know why I originally got tickets for Friday night and not Saturday afternoon.  As long as the weather isn’t ridiculously hot, I prefer afternoon games to night games.  I was hoping to go to the Saturday afternoon game and then get back to Tom’s apartment to watch Notre Dame play for the National Championship in hockey.  But the Saturday forecast was a little questionable for early in the day so the game got pushed back from 1:00 to 3:00.  So I avoided twitter and told my college friends not to text me about the game.  The plan was to watch it on my ipad at the airport that night.  And it looked like my plan was going to work, but a TSA guy ruined my plan when he saw my sweatshirt and made a comment about our loss.  I guess if I was going to have a plan like that ruined, it was better for it to happen after a loss than a win.  I didn’t end up watching the game.

Before the game, we went to Ike’s Place.  We went there last summer when Tom was moving in.  I had the Joe Montana sandwich (chicken, bacon, avocado, havarti, and Asian sesame dressing) since Notre Dame was playing for a National Championship that night.  I liked it a lot more than the Adam Richman sandwich that I had last year.  Then we were off to the stadium.  It was my second game at AT&T Park (after going to a second game there, I reaffirm the issues I have with AT&T Park, it's very good, but there are better stadiums).  It was an exciting game.  The Dodgers fell behind 1-0, 3-1, and 4-3.  They kept coming back.  Chase Utley tied it 4-4 with a home run in the 7th.  And the score stayed that way until the 14th when Logan Forsythe gave the Dodgers their first lead of the game with an RBI single.  I was flying home that night, but my flight was so late that it wouldn’t be an issue under normal circumstances.  But 14 innings in 5 hours and 16 minutes wasn’t normal.  We started talking about when to go at some point during extra innings.  I made the call to move down for the top of the 14th and probably leave after that.  After the Dodgers took the lead, we waited to watch Clayton Kershaw pinch hit (he struck out) and he left after that.  It was Kershaw’s fifth career plate appearance as a pinch hitter and the second time I’ve seen him as a pinch hitter.  He’s 0-3 with two sacrifices in his career as a pinch hitter.  The Dodgers had a 5-4 lead and in my mind, that’s how the game ended.

Our view for most of the game

Me and Tom

The hot fudge dispenser was messed up and this was slightly disappointing.

I think this was some Sierra Nevada beer.  Day baseball and outdoor beer is a great combination.

We moved down at the end.  I'm pretty sure that's Clayton Kershaw hitting.

I’ll finish with some thoughts on baseball in general.  The game highlighted some issues I have with baseball.  I love baseball.  I don’t mind long games when they’re good and meaningful because, again, I love baseball.  But the length of regular season games is an issue.  A nine-inning game in June between the Pirates and Marlins doesn’t need to be three hours and 45 minutes.  This game was long because it went 14 innings, but it probably didn’t need to be 5 hours and 16 minutes.

There are a lot of reasons for the length of games constantly increasing.  And there are some possible solutions that might slightly reduce the length of some games.  They did away with the four pitches on the intentional walk.  I didn’t like it because of the very rare time when something interesting happens on one of those pitches.  And you’re saving maybe a minute on something that happens less than once every two games on average (I think).  Then there’s the pitch clock, which is probably coming.  I don’t like the idea of a clock in baseball, but they do it in the minors and I’ve barely noticed it when I’ve been at minor league games, so whatever.  Again, I don’t think it will make a big difference.

Can you cut the number of warm up pitches between innings and shorten commercials?  That’s a legitimate question.  Do pitchers really need as many warm up pitches as they get?  I don’t know.  Can you actually make batters stay in the batter’s box?  There’s no reason why a batter has to step out  and take a little walk after taking a pitch with nobody on base.

The big issue with the length of games is having long stretches where nothing is going on.  And the biggest reason why that’s happening is because the amount of innings pitched by starters decreases each year and the number of pitching changes increases each year.  The Dodgers had a stretch last year when they had 14 pitchers on the roster (this was before rosters expanded in September).  And they made use of that ridiculously large bullpen.  In this game, the Dodgers used 24 players.  Ten different pitchers pitched (their starter wasn’t all that good, but he wasn’t getting killed either and he only went four and no reliever pitched more than an inning and two-thirds) and two more were used as pinch hitters.  They were on their fifth pitcher and they were out of legitimate pinch hitters in the 8th inning.

So if we can limit pitching changes, we can start to actually deal with this problem.  I’ve heard people suggest only being allowed to change pitchers once in an inning.  I don’t like that.  It’s too drastic of a change to the way the game is played.  But I do have a solution that won’t drastically change the way the game is played.  My original solution was to limit the number of roster spots for pitchers to 11.  If you do that, managers would change the way they use their bullpens.  You’re going to try to get more innings from a starter and try not to be on your fourth reliever by the sixth inning if you only have six relievers to use.

I like my idea to limit roster spots for pitchers.  But the union would probably not go for that change so that’s not going to work.  I’ve found the answer to that.  You expand the rosters to 27 players.  You get 13 pitchers and 14 position players.  However, only 11 pitchers can be active for a game (actually I’d probably prefer 26 man rosters with 12 pitchers and only 11 active, but I can live with one more pitcher spot).  And there would have to be starter/reliever designations for pitchers.  You get five starters and eight relievers, but you could only deactivate relievers.  All five starters would always be active for the game.  So you’d end up with a six-man bullpen for every game.  There would have to be some flexibility.  You could change pitchers between starter and reliever, but I think you’d have to have a rule that you couldn’t be changed from starter to reliever until four days have passed following a start.  There might have to be a rule about listing starters for the next four games or something and then if a guy didn’t make his scheduled start, he’d have to go on the DL or something to prevent teams from activating extra relievers but just listing them as starters.

I think the union would go for this.  You create 60 extra Major League roster spots.  It would be great news for marginal position players.  And it would make managers more hesitant to make pitching changes.  Hopefully it would help deal with another problem in baseball.  Strikeouts are so high right now.  The ball needs to be in play more.  One of the reasons that strikeouts are so high is that pitchers are being coached to go all out because they’re not going to be in the game that long anyway.  That would have to change a little bit.  The next change would be to de-juice the ball.  I mean, the home runs really got ridiculous last year.  Home runs are exciting, but when just about any full time starter is hitting at least 20 home runs, they’re not as exciting anymore.  Fewer strikeouts, fewer home runs, more balls in play, fewer pitching changes, less time when nothing is going on, shorter games.

My Return to Reno

Reno was the last stop before San Francisco for Tom and I last summer as we were driving across the country.  I didn’t expect to ever get back.  But I needed one more stop before heading out to San Francisco on this trip.  It was Triple-A Opening Day (I did Triple-A Opening Day in Albuquerque in 2015) so I checked out some places between Omaha and San Francisco and Reno worked.  They were playing at home and I could take the bus the next day to San Francisco.  It was a cool drive so I didn’t mind doing that again (or so I thought).

I got to Reno early.  I was staying at Circus Circus, which is connected to the Eldorado where Tom and I stayed last summer.  Hotel rooms were ridiculously cheap.  I guess those casinos make their money off of people in other ways.  I just relaxed until the game at 6:35.  I had to respond to one of my former students asking for help on her AP World History project on the Mauryan Empire.  I wouldn't have responded, but this girl is one of my two favorite students ever.  She definitely didn't need my help.  I've told her that she's smarter than me.  Also, I was a history major and I had never even heard of the Mauryan Empire.  If she's taking AP World History (a class that didn't exist at Harborfields until I was too old for it), she knows more about the Mauryan Empire than I do.  But I googled it and sent her some links.  Then I checked out some odds at the sports book and didn't make any bets.  Because, you know, if I want to give away money, there are people who need it a lot more than casinos.  But the Jets had the worst odds to win the Super Bowl.  So that's exciting.  Anyway, the game was the Reno Aces against the Fresno Grizzles.  One of the first things I saw when I got to the stadium was a helicopter landing on the field.  Why?  It was carrying the Aces’ mascot.  They did all the Opening Day ceremony with the introductions of all the players and coaches.  One of the cool things about Triple-A is that you'll definitely recognize some of the names if you're a baseball fan.  Yasmany Tomas hit 31 home runs for the Diamndbacks two years ago, but he was starting this game in left field for the Aces (and he hit a home run in this game).  The Aces also have Socrates Brito, who has played 58 games in the Majors.  As you can imagine, Vin Scully enjoyed that name (check the video below).  The Aces are the Diamondbacks’ affiliate and the Grizzles are the Astros’ affiliate.  The Grizzles were the Giants’ affiliate for a long time so they still had uniforms that had a very Giants feel to them.  The Aces had uniforms that looked like the very silly Diamondbacks uniforms.

My view for the game

It wasn’t much of a game.  The Aces led 7-0 after two.  I left in the sixth with the Aces up 9-1.  I would have stayed for the whole game, but Notre Dame and Michigan were going to the third period in the semifinals of the NCAA hockey tournament tied at 2.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  But what did I think of Greater Nevada Field?  It was very good (attendance was listed at 5,634, but Google says the capacity is 9,013 and it seemed more full than 62.5%).  The crowd was good, there was a pretty good selection of food and beer.  But there were a few issues.  Some of the concession stands had lines that just did not move.  And then there was a taco stand out in the outfield that had no line.  I probably would have gone to that one if it wasn’t hidden out there (I realized this after I ate).  The concessions also need to describe some of the food options.  Like there was a hot dog stand that has a few options.  They do Vs. Dogs.  They’re hot dogs that have a theme related to the city of the opposing team.  But there was no indication of what the Vs. Dog for Fresno was.  I ended up getting the D-Backs Dog.  Again, there was no description.  I googled it and I was led to believe it was something more than it was.  It ended up just being a hot dog with beans on it.  It was fine, but I was looking for something more exciting.  Again, I wish I had gone to the taco stand.  As for the beer, they needed to spread out the good beer a little more.  There was a burger/craft beer stand.  It sounded like there were some good options there, but I couldn’t really tell what they were and the lines were way too long.  I ended up finding this little stand that had no line around the start of the fifth inning.  I got an Occidental Pilsner, which is from Oregon.  It was pretty good, but they need more Nevada beer in there.

So anyway, I drank my beer, watched the Aces get out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the sixth giving up only one run, and then walked back to my hotel for the end of the Notre Dame hockey game.  I got back with about ten minutes left in the third period.  Notre Dame had scored to go up 3-2.  I saw Michigan tie it, which wasn’t fun, but it set up the great finish.  Notre Dame got the puck deep in their own zone with time for one last rush in regulation.  They scored an amazing goal with 5.2 seconds left to win.  We vanquished the forces of evil in hockey.  Sadly, we lost in the championship game to Minnesota Duluth, but it was still a very good season.

I took this picture on the walk back to my hotel.

The next morning I got breakfast at Hash House A Go Go.  Adam went to one of their Las Vegas locations on Man vs. Food.  I got the Healthy Start Scramble.  It was egg whites with tomatoes, onions, and peppers served with fruit.  It was pretty good and I needed to eat something healthy.  After that, I went to take the bus to San Francisco.   The Reno Greyhound station is one the most depressing buildings I’ve ever been in, and it was an omen of bad things to come.  It was cool to be driving through the mountains at a different time of year.  It rained throughout the trip, but many of the mountains were still covered in snow.  There were good views, but the bus was way too hot and it got to San Francisco about two hours late.  I watched some Unsolved Mysteries on Amazon Prime to help me get through that trip.

This is not what Adam Richman had on Man vs. Food.

There were some good views, but this was a rough bus ride.

Anyway, I'll finish with updated minor league/college stadium rankings:

15. Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton
14. Dehler Park in Billings
13. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale
12. Autozone Park in Memphis
11. TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey
10. Memorial Stadium in Boise
9. KeySpan Park in Brooklyn
8. Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo
7. Isotopes Park in Albuquerque
6. TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha- It's tough to rank this one because it's known for the College World Series and my expierence was not at all like the College World Series.  If I had gone to the College World Series, it's probably higher, maybe even number 1.
5. Daniel S. Frawley Stadium in Wilmington
4. Greater Nevada Field
3. Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston
2. Dunkin Donuts Park in Hartford
1. Regions Field in Birmingham

Peyton Manning's Favorite City

For stop number 2 on my Easter Vacation trip, I went to Omaha, Nebraska.  In 2015, I visited Dennis in Minnesota and knocked out four other states on the trip:  Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.  I spent the least amount of time in Nebraska (probably about 45 minutes).  I wanted to check out TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.  That’s where the College World Series is played.  It’s also Creighton’s home field.  So I was going to the Creighton game against Kansas State at night.  But first, I was hoping to knock out a few states that I still had left on the beer list.  Nebraska was obvious.  Iowa is right across the river from Omaha (there was actually a tiny section of Iowa that I passed through going between the airport and my hotel) so I was pretty confident on that one.  I was hoping to get at least one other state.  I did some googling and found the Crescent Moon Ale House, which is the best beer bar in Omaha.  So after getting to my hotel, I took a walk over there.

Before I got to the bar, I stopped on the way on Creighton’s campus.  I haven’t actually spent much time on campus at other Catholic universities with a couple of obvious exceptions.  My first stop at Creighton was St. John’s Church.  A statue outside confirmed that it was named for St. John the Apostle, who was the saint I picked for my confirmation name.  I stopped inside.  It was a nice church.  Not as nice as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame, but nicer than the church at Georgetown.  After that, I found the St. Ignatius Loyola statue outside the library.  The campus wasn’t all that exciting.  I’ll give Georgetown the overall edge even if Creighton has the nicer church.  Other Catholic universities I’ve been to:  Providence, Boston College, Villanova (all of those were in the mid-90s, I don’t remember them), and St. Thomas in St. Paul (Dennis and Courtney got married in the church there).  I think that’s it.

Then I got to the bar.  I was able to get five states.  I wasn’t looking to get hammered, so it was a good thing that they do flights of four beers (five ounces each).  I had a flight with beers from South Dakota (Crow Peak IPA), Oklahoma (COOP Alpha Hive), Kansas (Defiance Fuzzy Knuckles), and Iowa (West O Blackberry Coco Stout).  The South Dakota one was an IPA that didn’t taste like an IPA.  That was my least favorite.  The others were good.  The Iowa beer had a fruity and chocolatey flavor.  I liked it more as I drank more of it.  Then I had a pint of Prairie Pride Trouble in Dublin (Nebraska) with a burger.  The beer was an Irish red, which I generally like, and the burger had bleu cheese and bacon.  The beer was solid.  The burger was underwhelming.  Not bad, but definitely nothing special.  So with that, I have four states left to get a beer from:  Indiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Alaska.  Indiana and Arkansas are happening later this year.  Alaska will happen whenever I get to Alaska (maybe next year).  West Virginia is a tricky one.  I might have to take a trip to Charleston, West Virginia.  They have a minor league team.  I could check that out and get some beer.  If anybody else knows of an easier way that I could get some West Virginia beer, let me know.

South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa

It's in a Dogfish Head glass, but it's a Nebraska beer.

I went back to my hotel to rest before the game.  I watched the end of another bad Dodger game (rough start for them, but they should be fine).  And then I took a nap.  I had 36 ounces of beer.  I wasn’t drunk, but it was not a negligible amount of beer.  Between the alcohol and the lack of sleep the previous two nights with flights to get up for, I overslept.  I set an alarm for 6:00 and the game was at 6:35.  The mistake I made was not putting my phone away from the bed so that I would have to get up to turn off the alarm.  I turned off the alarm and went right back to sleep.  I woke up later and found that it was 8:30.  So I panicked a little bit.  I checked the game and it was in the sixth inning.  Fortunately it was a short walk from my hotel.  So I got there with Creighton up 8-0 in the sixth.  Bad job by me, but I was really more interested in checking out the stadium than I was in the game.  I was rooting for Creighton, but if they lost, it’s not like I was going to be upset about it.  Anyway, it was a really tiny crowd.  I expected that.  I would say that at most, there were 200 people there.  When I bought my ticket, it looked like a lot of the seats near home plate were taken.  My guess is that there are a decent number of season ticket holders who didn’t feel like showing up with it being a Wednesday night in April against Kansas State with temperatures in the high 30s.  It was definitely a cool stadium.  It’s a lot bigger than any minor league stadium that I’ve been to.  It’s the biggest college stadium by about 9,000 seats.  Mississippi State has the second biggest.  It’s bigger than the biggest minor league stadium (Buffalo) by about 5,000 seats.

The statue outside the stadium

My view for most of my time at the game

First row behind the dugout

I’m sure TD Ameritrade Park is much different with a big College World Series crowd.  It would be cool to see that.  I had thought about taking a trip to Omaha in the past for the College World Series, but it’s not really convenient with my school schedule.  Anyway, with the tiny crowd there was only one concession stand open and it didn’t have anything exciting.  I didn’t get anything to eat or drink.  It looks like there would have been some interesting options if all the concession stands were open.  Around the concourse, you can see the past champions of the College World Series and some pictures of players.  The two I found interesting were Dave Winfield and Terry Francona.  I took a lap around the stadium.  I watched a half inning from the front row behind the Creighton dugout and the rest from where I was supposed to be sitting behind home plate.  Creighton ended up winning 8-3.

It would be awesome if Notre Dame made it to Omaha.  We’ve only been in the College World Series twice (1957 and 2002).  When I was a student, we finished off our last two appearances of eight straight in the NCAA tournament (I don’t have any memory of that).  Since then, not good.  We made the tournament in 2015, but that’s it.  Notre Dame had some success in the Big East, but we’ve struggled in the ACC.  I would love to see Notre Dame get good at baseball again, but I don’t really expect that to happen any time soon.  Notre Dame has one obvious problem.  I can’t imagine why any baseball player without any particular loyalty to a school growing up would want to play college baseball in the North.  It was cold at that Creighton game.  And with the college season starting when it does, it can be a lot colder than that.  I suspect the reason why a lot of players end up at Notre Dame or Creighton or any other Northern school would be that they didn’t have any scholarship offers from Southern schools.  At least Creighton has the advantage of playing in TD Ameritrade Park.  It’s got to be cooler to play there than in the tiny baseball stadiums that a lot of colleges have.

So I liked TD Ameritrade even if it was a tiny crowd and it was cold.  If I had been there at the start of the game, I don’t think I would have lasted all nine innings with the weather.  Even though it was cold, I picked the right day to be there.  Creighton was supposed to play the day before against Kansas, but it was rained out.  After the Kansas State game, they had a day off and then they were supposed to start a three-game series at home against Butler.  On the off day, they announced that the whole series was cancelled due to the forecast of rain, snow, and cold for all three days of the series.  It turns out that they did play two of the games, but they were moved to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  So I was fortunate to get to TD Ameritrade Park, even if it was only for a few innings.  The only thing I’m upset about with oversleeping was that I didn’t get to see it before the sun went down.  Oh well.