Experimental Baseball

My final minor league game of the season was right here on Long Island.  Adam and I did our annual minor league adventure.  In 2016, we saw the Brooklyn Cyclones on Seinfeld Night.  In 2017, we did the Somerset Patriots.  Last year was the Staten Island Yankees.  And this year, I finally got to see the Long Island Ducks.  This is the 20th season for the Ducks and it’s the first time I’ve been to one of their games.

The Ducks play in the Atlantic League.  They’ve won three Atlantic League championships.  In those three seasons, their combined winning percentage was .474.  What kind of crazy league is this?  The Atlantic League is noteworthy because it is an independent league, but this year they made a deal with Major League Baseball to try some experimental rules.  Let’s go through the changes:

The one that’s gotten the most attention is the automated strike zone.  The home plate umpire wears an earpiece that gives him the call.  I’m totally fine with experimenting with that.  I don’t know if I really trust it.  Are they taking into account the height/stance of each player?  Everybody’s strike zone is different.  You watch Major League games on TV these days and they almost always show the strike zone on the screen.  I trust it when it comes to whether or not it was over the plate, but I don’t usually trust it when it comes to whether it was high or low or not.

There are no more mound visits.  For minor league baseball, that’s cool.  But I think they definitely should be allowed in the Majors.  They’ve limited them for the last two years and my guess is that they’ve gone way down during that time.  And I’m good with that.  But I definitely don’t think they should be completely done away with.  One thing I would change is that you get a free mound visit when there’s a pinch hitter.  I would do away with that.  If you’re limiting mound visits, change the team for all mound visits.

Another change is already coming to the Majors next year:  pitchers have to face a minimum of three batters or pitch until the end of the half inning.  I don’t like it, but it’s already coming to the Majors.  Whatever.

They made the bases bigger.  I guess this is supposed to protect the fielders.  It also makes the bases very slightly closer together.  Whatever.  I probably would just leave it the way it is, but if they changed it and didn’t say anything, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell.

Two infielders have to be on each side of second base.  I like this one.  I want them to encourage putting the ball in play.  Making it easier to get hits on ground balls would do this.  

They moved the mound back two feet.  I don’t like this one at all.  There are already too many home runs in baseball.  This would just make it easier.  And pitchers might try to put something more on their pitches since it’s going to be easier for the hitters and hurt themselves.

They shortened the time between innings.  Even though I have an instinctive knowledge of when a baseball game is coming back from a commercial, I’m on board with this one.

The pitcher has to step off the rubber to attempt a pick off.  This is meant to encourage stealing.  I would like to see more stolen bases in the game, but I also don’t want it to be too easy to steal.  Random note about stolen bases:  if a player started his career this season and then stole an average of 50 bases per season, it would take him 29 seasons to break Rickey Henderson’s career record.

One foul bunt is permitted with two strikes before a strikeout.  I don’t like this one.  Sure, I’d like to see fewer strikeouts and more bunting, but this could mean longer plate appearances in bunting situations.

The check swing rule was supposedly made more batter-friendly.  I don’t really know what that means.  My concern is how would umpires adjust to that?  A check swing happens so quickly and they’ve been trained to call it a certain way.  Now they’d have to change what constitutes a swing.  That seems like it would be pretty tough to adjust to that for the umpires.

And you can now run to first base on any pitch that isn’t caught by the catcher.  This is just silly.  I heard somebody say that it’s no more silly than being able to run when the catcher doesn’t catch the third strike.  I disagree.  There’s logic in that.  To record an out, you have to control the baseball.  The only exception to that is when a batted ball hits a baserunner who isn’t on base.  And in that case, the ball is dead.  If the ball is live, you have to control it to record an out.  If you don’t have control of the ball on a third strike, the batter should be able to run as long as first base isn’t occupied.

Anyway, we got there a little early and checked out the ballpark.  The food selection was nothing special.  I had a hot dog that could have been better.  The beer selection was good.  There was plenty of local beer.  I opted for a Sam Adams Summer Ale because I can easily get Long Island beer whenever I want it and this was probably going to be my last chance to have Summer Ale at a baseball game this season.

It was the Ducks against the High Point Rockers (from North Carolina).  The Ducks took a 1-0 lead in the third inning and the score stayed that way for a while.  But the Rockers tied it in the seventh and scored four runs in the eighth.  T.J. Rivera hit a home run for the Ducks in eighth, but the Ducks couldn’t get any closer.  The final score was 5-2.  The Ducks flashed the lights on and off after the home run.  I’ve seen pyrotechnics for home runs, but I’ve never seen a guy running around the bases in the dark.  Rivera played a total of 106 games with the Mets in 2016 and 2017.  He played 23 games with the Ducks this year.  Two days after we saw him, he signed a minor league contract with the Nationals.

Our view for the game

We didn’t see anything weird in the game with the experimental rules.  Nobody tried to steal first base and nobody bunted foul with two strikes.  It did seem like there was a little delay with the umpire getting the call on the automated strike zone.  It seemed like there were a few times where the catcher reacted to the batter taking strike three before the call was even made.  After the game, we saw fireworks, which were pretty good.  It was August 2 so I guess the Ducks were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Adam has moved to Pennsylvania so next year our minor league excursion might be for a game in Pennsylvania but that’s to be determined.

Attendance was 5,674 at Bethpage Ballpark.  It was a good crowd.  Capacity is 6,002.  We were a section behind Congressman Peter King, who threw out the first pitch.  I would definitely go to another Ducks game.  Since this was my last minor league game of the season, it’s time to update my minor league stadium rankings:

22. Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton
21. Dehler Park in Billings
20. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale
19. Autozone Park in Memphis
18. TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey
17. Memorial Stadium in Boise
16. KeySpan Park in Brooklyn
15. Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo
14. Isotopes Park in Albuquerque
13. TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha
12. Daniel S. Frawley Stadium in Wilmington
11. Greater Nevada Field in Reno
10. NBT Bank Stadium in Syracuse
9. Richmond County Bank Ballpark on Staten Island
8. Dickey-Stephens Park in Little Rock
7. Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy
6. Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip
5. Four Winds Field in South Bend
4. Frontier Field in Rochester
3. Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston
2. Dunkin Donuts Park in Hartford
1. Regions Field in Birmingham

It’s harder to rank the minor league/college stadiums than the Major League stadiums.  I feel pretty strongly about my Major League rankings.  I’ve been to many of them more than once.  Even if I haven’t been, I’ve seen them all many times on TV.  I’ve been to each of these minor league stadium once.  I haven’t included the Potomac Nationals’ stadium because I was there in 2003 and I don’t really remember it.  I’ve been to all the other ones since 2014, which was kind of a long time ago.  I’d try to divide my rankings into tiers.  I feel good about my top three.  They were all really good.  The next tier would go from 4-11.  They were all pretty good, but it’s hard for me to definitely say that Bethpage Ballpark was better than Greater Nevada Field or whatever.  The next tier is probably 12-21.  I can definitely say that Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton was my least favorite minor league stadium that I’ve been to in the last six years.

We’ll see what next year brings as far as minor league stadiums.  I’d like to get to Pawtucket (I was hoping to get there this year, but it didn’t work out).  I’m thinking Easter vacation or early summer for another trip out to Los Angeles.  That could easily be combined with a stop somewhere for minor league baseball (Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, something along those lines).  I’ve also thought about going out to NBA Summer League in Las Vegas next year.  I’m definitely not solid on that, but if I did, that would be a good time to get to a minor league game there. And hopefully there will be a minor league game in Pennsylvania with Adam next year.

I’ll just finish up with some thoughts on the Dodgers.  It’s been another really fun season.  Hopefully it will finish with the Dodgers winning the final game of the World Series.  Last night, they were down 2-0 against the Blue Jays going to the bottom of the ninth.  Kenta Maeda had their only hit to that point.  And I fully expected them to win.  And then they did.  This weekend they start a series with the Yankees.  It’s the most common World Series matchup of all time and it could happen again this year.  Unfortunately it’s Players Weekend and they’re wearing silly uniforms, much sillier than what they wore for Players Weekend the last two years.  Jack Swarbrick would be proud.  So unfortunately we don’t get to see the Dodgers and Yankees play each other in their classic uniforms.  But it is a big series as it could determine home field advantage in the World Series.  And college football starts tomorrow with Week 0.  Notre Dame doesn’t play until Labor Day, but the good news is that either Florida or Miami will have a loss by the end of the day.  For the next several months I’ll be scheduling my Mass attendance around football and baseball.  The football tomorrow starts at 7:00, but the Dodgers and Yankees play at 4:00.  I like to go to the vigil Mass when I can, but I’m not missing Dodgers-Yankees.  So Sunday Mass it is.  Go Irish!  Go Dodgers!

No Tebow? Why No Tebow? (Also No Hits)

As it turns out, there’s a whole lot of New York north of Westchester Country.  I have spent very little time there.  I’ve been to Cooperstown twice, I went to an American Camp Association conference with Brother Robert in Syracuse, and I took my students on a field trip to Albany once.  And I think that’s about it.  I just spent several days in upstate New York.  This is going to be a long post, so if you don’t want to read the whole thing, I put headings to divide it into sections (go to the section on Troy if you want to read about the no-hitter I saw).

Hyde Park

I started with a trip to the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library with Bobby and Darryl.  Five years ago, the three of us did our Civil War road trip.  This was just a day trip.  It was my eighth presidential library.  Of the ones I hadn’t been to, Roosevelt’s was easily the closest.  It might be the last one I get to for a while.  Hoover’s is in Iowa and I’m definitely not too interested in going to his.  Eisenhower’s would be cool to see, but I don’t imagine being in Abilene, Kansas, any time soon.  Lyndon Johnson’s is in Austin.  That’s very high on my list of places for Major League Baseball to expand, but if that doesn’t happen, I probably won’t be in Austin unless Notre Dame plays there again (even then, it’s not too likely that I’d go to the game, I didn’t in 2016).  Gerald Ford has two for some reason.  Apparently the library is in Ann Arbor and the museum is in Grand Rapids.  You know how I feel about Michigan, but at least the museum isn’t in Ann Arbor.  George H.W. Bush’s is in College Station.  Notre Dame opens the 2024 season at Texas A&M so that’s at least a possibility, but we’ll see.  Obama’s is going to be in Chicago, but apparently there are already delays in getting that built.  There’s a good chance that Obama’s will be the next one I get to.  That could be combined with a Notre Dame football game or a future trip to Wrigley Field.

Anyway, it was about a two and a half hour drive up to Hyde Park.  We started with a tour of Roosevelt’s home, which was built in the late 1700s.  Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable 87 year old.  We got to see many of the rooms in the house, including where he was born and his adult bedroom.  We saw his stuffed bird collection.  Winston Churchill stayed there when he visited Roosevelt during World War II.  So did some English people who are important for no reason.  I do approve of Roosevelt serving them hot dogs (hopefully they had brown mustard).  Our tour guide explained how Roosevelt moved when he was paralyzed.  Of course, I knew he was paralyzed, but I also knew that he wasn’t totally immobile.  So how did that work?  He wore braces to keep his legs in place and then with his cane on one side and leaning on somebody else on the other side, he could use his upper body strength to pretty much drag his legs to move without a wheelchair.

Franklin Roosevelt's house

The museum was the first presidential library to be opened (Hoover is the first president to have one, but his came later).  Roosevelt’s is the only one whose presidential library opened while he was still president.  You can see the office where he made some of his fireside chats.  The museum was good.  It’s the only one I’ve been to that didn’t have a recreation of the Oval Office, but they did have his desk from the Oval Office (I’m not sure if it was the actual desk or a replica).  The temporary exhibit was on Roosevelt, Churchill, and D-Day so I appreciated that.  I learned a lot about the disagreement among Roosevelt, Churchill, and Roosevelt during the war.  Stalin wanted Roosevelt and Churchill to move quicker in invading Western Europe.  That doesn’t come as much of a surprise since the Germans had invaded the Soviet Union.  As the war progressed, Churchill was more cautious about D-Day.  He wanted to wait longer, but Roosevelt and Stalin pushed for it to happen sooner and they outvoted him 2-1.  That might be the one time that I disagree with Churchill (of course, I have the benefit of hindsight).  They had Roosevelt’s car, which had hand controls that allowed him to drive it.  Another thing I learned was a little bit more about how Prohibition came to an end.  I had some vague knowledge of Roosevelt signing a bill allowing beer to be sold before the 21st Amendment was ratified.  I was wondering if that was unconstitutional because the 18th Amendment prohibited alcohol, right?  It turns out that reading the Constitution is helpful (some members of all three branches of the government might want to try it some time).  The 18th Amendment prohibited “intoxicating liquors.”  The bill Roosevelt signed allowed beer with up to 3.2% alcohol, which was not considered intoxicating.

Roosevelt gave a few fireside chats from this office.

Roosevelt's Oval Office desk

Roosevelt's car

I've been to the grave sites of Washington, Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, and Reagan.

The Roosevelts and me

I liked the museum a lot, but I think if the museum had been built later on and if it wasn’t the first presidential library, it would have been built much bigger.  There were rooms in the basement where they just had stuff in storage.  There were windows to look in and you could press buttons to turn on lights, but they didn’t have the stuff out on display (like Roosevelt’s model ship collection).  I still think Reagan had the best presidential library I’ve been to, but I’d put Roosevelt’s high on my list.  It’s on the same level as Truman’s and Bush’s.  Below that I’d have Nixon.  Then I’d put Kennedy’s and Carter’s on the same level.  And then Clinton’s was the worst.

Syracuse

I had a day off and then I was taking the train back upstate.  My first stop was Syracuse.  I met Jon, his brother, and his father there.  They were stopping off on their way to Cooperstown.  We met at a cool Irish bar.  They were all drinking Kilkenny, which is hard to find in the US.  I had Kilkenny in Ireland and it was tempting, but I went with Summer Ale because it’s not going to be around much longer.  Then we went to Dinosaur BBQ.  It was on Man vs. Food with Adam Richman, but I was there before it was on the show when I went in 2007 with Brother Robert.  I don’t really remember what I had back then.  I knew it was supposed to be good, but it’s not like I was making a point of going there back then.  Also I was really sick on that trip.  This time, I had the same thing as Adam, the Pork-sket.  It was really good.  For sides, I asked for beans and a salad (there were definitely more interesting options, but I figured I should have something somewhat healthy).  The waitress asked if I was going to eat the salad.  My response was that I ordered it so yeah, I was going to eat it.  But it seems that she didn’t believe me.  When she brought out our food, she didn’t bring the salad.  So we asked for it and I ate it even though Jon and his brother offered me $10 to not eat it out of spite.  (Speaking of barbecue, I finally tried Old Fields Barbecue in Huntington.  It's really good.  I need to go back there soon).

This was really good.

Then we were off to see the Syracuse Mets at NBT Bank Stadium.  Much to our chagrin, Tim Tebow was not in the lineup (check the Seinfeld clip below for the inspiration for the title of this post).  Apparently he’s hurt, but his numbers are terrible anyway.  I would have wanted to see him.  The Mets went up 6-0 after three and won 8-4 against the Toledo Mud Hens (a Tigers affiliate).  After Dinosaur, I definitely wasn’t up for eating anything at the game, but it was Craft Beer Friday.  For $20, we got our ticket plus a voucher for two craft beers.  That’s a very good deal.  I was curious what the selection would be like.  The selection was excellent.  There were a few options on tap and then a wide selection in cans (probably more than you’d find at most Major League Parks).  I had a Bell’s Oberon in a can.  For my second one, I figured I should have something local.  I had an Eastwood Belgian Pale on tap.  It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from something named Belgian Pale.  It was a big ballpark for a minor league park.  There was a second deck.  Capacity is 11,071, making it the 53rd biggest baseball stadium in the US.  Attendance was 5,855.  I couldn’t tell you about the food selection, but the beer selection was the best I’ve seen in the minors.  But the stadium was lacking character, as Jon put it.  I’m going to rank it pretty high because of the great beer selection, but if you could put that beer selection into some other stadiums that I’ve been to, then you’d really have something.

Our view for the Syracuse Mets

The following morning, I went to Mother’s Cupboard for breakfast, which is where Adam had his challenge on Man vs. Food.  His challenge was a frittata.  It had eggs, sausage, pepperoni, peppers, potatoes, and broccoli.  I had the quarter-size frittata (they recommend the half on the menu because the challenge is the full one and you’re not going to finish it).  The quarter-size was still a lot of food, but I did finish it.  Afterwards, I was pretty full.  I had taken Lyft to get there, but I felt like burning some calories and saving some money so I walked nearly five miles back to my hotel.  I was interested in the other Man vs. Food spot, Heid’s of Liverpool (a hot dog place).  I would have gone there if I had gotten in early the day before.  And I actually could have fit it in before leaving Syracuse, but I was still too full and I figured I could get hot dogs on my next stop.

This was good, but Dinosaur was the eating highlight of the trip.

Rochester

My next stop was the third biggest city in New York, Rochester.  That’s as far west as I’ve gone in the state.  There was a spot on Man vs. Food Nation that Adam visited that’s known for garbage plates.  There are all sorts of combinations you can have.  You start with a base of home fries, French fries, macaroni salad, or baked beans (or any combination of more than one of those things).  Then you have your choice of red hot dogs (regular hot dogs), white hot dogs, hamburger, cheeseburger, chicken, Italian sausage, fish, egg, ham, grilled cheese, or any combination of more than one of those things.  And you top it off with mustard, onions, and hot sauce (it’s like a meat sauce that’s popular in Rochester).  I was definitely not hungry enough for all of that so I just ordered a white hot with mustard and sauce.  I wanted to see what the white hot dog was like since that seems to be an upstate New York thing, but it was a little underwhelming.  I’d rather have the regular red hot dog and the sauce wasn’t too exciting.  Before going to my game that night, I went to a vigil mass.  Unbeknownst to me (but most likely knownst to the regular parishioners), this mass was ad orientem (the priest faced the same way as the people).  This was the first time I went to a mass like this.  It was in English, but there was a lot of Latin chanting.  At the sign of peace, there was no shaking of hands with other people.  And there was a communion rail.  So that was an interesting experience.

The Rochester Red Wings (a Twins affiliate) play in Frontier Field.  They were taking on the Indianapolis Indians (who are, of course, a Pirates affiliate).  Frontier Field was very good.  I had buffalo mac and cheese, which was solid, but it could have been better.  They had a good beer selection.  I had a Rohrbach Blueberry Ale from a Rochester brewery.  It was between that and the Rohrbach Red Wing Red Ale.  I opted to just go with whatever had the better ratings online so I went with the Blueberry Ale.  I think I probably would have liked the other one better.  If a blueberry ale is done right, it can be great.  If not, it’s nothing special.  That’s how I felt about this beer, nothing special.  Anyway, the Red Wings were down 6-5 going into the bottom of the ninth.  The started they inning with back to back doubles and an error to tie the game and put the winning run on third with nobody out.  The next three batters struck out.  But tell me more about how strikeouts don’t matter for hitters.  I was pretty tired and I didn’t really care about the outcome of a minor league game, so I left after the ninth.  The Indians won in the tenth.  I liked Frontier Field a lot.  Wikipedia has conflicting information about its capacity.  On the list of US stadiums by capacity it says 10,868, but the Frontier Field page says 13,500.  If it’s actually 13,500, that would make it the 39th biggest baseball stadium in the US and the biggest minor league stadium I’ve been to.  Attendance for the game was 7,142.  Frontier Field was good, definitely more character than NBT Bank Stadium.

My view in Rochester

I didn’t really know much about Rochester.  Apparently it’s the largest metropolitan area in the country without a Division I school.  Anchorage is bigger, but I guess metropolitan area would include suburbs, which makes Rochester bigger.  I found two Frederick Douglass statues in Rochester.  He lived much of his life there.  And so did Susan B. Anthony.  You can visit her house.  I just found that out from the little binder of information in my hotel room.  I didn’t have time to actually tour the house, but I walked over to see it before I took my train out of Rochester.

This Frederick Douglass statue was right outside my hotel.

Susan B. Anthony's house

Troy

My last stop was the Albany region.  I was there to see the Tri-City ValleyCats (Astros) take on the Connecticut Tigers (Tigers) in short season Single-A ball.  Tri-City refers to Albany, Schenectady, and Troy.  The ValleyCats play in Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy.  This was much smaller than the two Triple-A stadiums I went to on this trip (capacity is 4,500), but it was very nice.  When I got there, the tarp was on the field, but it wasn’t raining.  It was supposed to be a 5:00 game, but the forecast was questionable from 4:00-8:00.  It did start raining, but it didn’t last long.  The game ended up starting a little after 5:40.  I was in Albany, so I had to have a steamed ham.  I got a steamed pizza ham that was topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.  It was pretty good.  To drink, I got a Brown’s ValleyCats Ale.  They did have Summer Ale on tap, but I figured I should drink a local beer that I wouldn’t be able to find on Long Island.  This beer did not disappoint.  It was the best beer I had at a game during the trip.  Also, there were no lines so my wait was minimal.  The Tigers got out to a 3-0 lead.  The first run scored on a line drive that went for a double, but it probably would have been caught by the third baseman if the infield hadn’t been in.  The last run scored on a balk.  What was more interesting was that the ValleyCats did not have a hit through six when Connecticut took out their starter, 19-year-old Aussie Jack O’Loughlin.  It would have been cool to see a starter go for a no-hitter, but it’s Single-A ball, I get it.  The closest I’ve ever been to a no-hitter was when in 2007 at Yankee Stadium with John and Liz when Chien-Ming Wang got one out in the eighth before giving up his first hit.  The Tigers brought in different pitchers for the seventh, eighth, and ninth .  With two outs in the eighth, the ValleyCats got a baserunner with an error.  There was no perfect game on the line as there had already been six walks and it was a clear error.  The ball wasn’t hit particularly hard and it went right off the shortstop’s glove.  They got the next guy and the no-hitter went into the ninth.  It was a fairly uneventful ninth.  The first batter struck out looking when he thought he had ball four.  The next batter grounded out to the shortstop and the final batter struck out looking and I saw my first no-hitter in person.  Four pitchers, six walks, no runs, no hits.  I would love to see it happen in the Majors some day and I’d love to see one pitcher do it, but still, it was pretty cool to be there for a no-hitter.  Attendance was 3,533.  This was a very solid minor league stadium.  There was a building beyond the fence down the left field line.  It was marked 430 feet and also 79 Altuves since they're an Astros affiliate.

Ordinarily I would have gone with something different, but I had to get a steamed ham when I was in the Albany region.

My view for the game

Random Thoughts

I was thinking about minor league baseball with this trip.  I came up with the idea of reassigning the Triple-A affiliates.  Actually I came up with the idea of doing all the levels, but as you go lower, the leagues get much more regional.  What are you going to do with three teams in Montana in Rookie ball?  Double-A has no teams west of Texas.  So Triple-A is really the only level where it’s easy to logically assign the teams.  I try to go with the closest Triple-A team whenever possible, but with the way teams are clustered geographically, that gets tough.  In some cases, I just went with the teams they are already affiliated with.  It would make slightly more sense for the Mets and Yankees to switch Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but I’ll just leave that alone because it’s close enough.  But the Nationals having their Triple-A team in Fresno doesn’t make much sense.  Here’s what I came up with (change or same indicates if I’m changing who a team would be affiliated with):

Tacoma- Mariners (same)
Sacramento- A’s (change)
Fresno- Giants (change)
Reno- Dodgers (change)
Las Vegas- Angels (change)
Albuquerque- Diamondbacks (change)
El Paso- Padres (same)
Salt Lake City- Rockies (change)
Round Rock- Rangers (change)
San Antonio- Astros (change)
Oklahoma City- Royals (change)
Omaha- Twins (change)
Iowa- Brewers (change)
Memphis- Cardinals (same)
Indianapolis- White Sox (change)
Louisville- Cubs (change)
Nashville- Reds (change)
Toledo- Detroit (same)
Columbus- Indians (same)
Buffalo- Pirates (change)
New Orleans- Marlins (same)
Gwinnett- Braves (same)
Charlotte- Tampa Bay (change)
Durham- Nationals (change)
Norfolk- Orioles (same)
Rochester- Blue Jays (change)
Pawtucket- Red Sox (same)
Lehigh Valley- Phillies (same)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre- Yankees (same)
Syracuse- Mets (same)

So I kept 12 teams the same and changed 18.

I have one more minor league game to blog about so I’ll hold off on updating my minor league baseball stadium rankings.  I don't have much baseball left this season, but the Dodgers play at Citi Field in September.  I’ll most likely be there for the Friday night game.  Usually I wait to see if and when Clayton Kershaw is pitching in New York, but it’s a September weekend.  Notre Dame’s game conflicts with the Saturday game (I know it’s New Mexico, but there are only hopefully 14 Notre Dame football games in a season, I have no interest in missing any).  If Kershaw pitches the Sunday game, I’ll consider going.  I’d like to watch the NFL, but we’ll see on that one.  I used to be such a big NFL fan, but the Jets being the Jets plus having two USC quarterbacks in the last decade and the Patriots with their combination of cheating and success have made me lose so much interest in the NFL.  But we are getting to a point where I’m just ready for college football and the Dodgers in the playoffs.  Go Irish!  Go Dodgers!

Los Angeles vs. Boston

Seeing the Dodgers play in Boston puts me in a little bit of a weird position.  I’m a Celtics fan and I hate the Lakers.  So being a Dodger/Celtic fan is a weird combination.  When you throw in Notre Dame, my dad, my uncle, my cousin, and I are the only four Dodger/Celtic/Notre Dame fans in the world.  Notre Dame/Celtics isn’t a weird combination, but Notre Dame/Dodgers is a little weird (my guess for the most popular baseball teams for Notre Dame fans would be the Cubs first followed in some order by the Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox).  The last time I saw the Dodgers play at Fenway Park was two days after the most frustrating loss of my life as a sports fan.

The Dodgers have now played the Red Sox in Boston 14 times.  They lost all three games played in Boston in the 1916 World Series, but the Red Sox played their home games at Braves Field (even though Fenway Park was around by then).  The Dodgers won one out of three in 2004.  The Red Sox swept them in 2010.  And then last year the Red Sox won both World Series games in Boston.  So going into this series, the Dodgers were 1-10 against the Red Sox in Boston and 1-7 at Fenway Park.  It would be interesting to know what their record was in Boston against the Boston Braves, but I’m not going to try to figure that out.  They split the first two games of this series and I was there for the final game.

It was Hyun-Jin Ryu against David Price.  I was hoping to see Clayton Kershaw, but he didn’t pitch in Boston.  He did pitch the next day in Philadelphia.  I considered going to that one also (I would have gotten to see the Dodgers pound the Phillies), but that would have required either a hotel room or a stop at home (which is out of the way if I was going from Boston to Philadelphia) just to take a shower and get some sleep and stuff.  Anyway, the game got off to a good start with former Notre Dame baseball player AJ Pollack blasting a three-run home run in the top of the first (it went like 322 feet and it only would have been a home run at Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium).  The bottom of the first wasn’t fun.  The Red Sox got five hits and scored two runs.  Three of the hits didn’t leave the infield.  One of them might have been a double play if not for the shift (I’ve called for the rule that the first and second baseman need to be on the right side of the infield and the third baseman and shortstop need to be on the right side of the infield).  There was a play at the plate that the Dodgers challenged and lost.  It was really too close to tell.  If he had been called out, I don’t think the Red Sox would have gotten it overturned.  So Ryu gave up two runs and five hits, but he really pitched much better than that.

A panoramic shot with my view for most of the game

Ryu pitched six solid innings after that.  He only gave up three more hits and no runs.  AJ Pollack drove in another run with a single in the fifth.  Then the eighth inning happened.  Pedro Baez gave up a lead off home run to Xander Bogaerts.  Then he gave up a home run to JD Martinez (I saw that one coming).  Dave Roberts came out because apparently he was tipping his pitches (which brings back bad memories of Yu Darvish in the World Series).  Then he struck out the next three guys.  Baez has been their best reliever other than Kenley Jansen (who has been shaky at times), Julio Urias (whose innings are being tightly controlled after missing most of the last two years with a shoulder injury), and Russell Martin (a catcher).  Even though he’s been pretty good, I don’t trust Baez.  The Dodgers are really good, but they need some bullpen help before the trade deadline.

The Dodgers brought Kenley Jansen in with runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the ninth.  I was expecting to lose at this point.  Jansen got Rafael Devers to line out and then struck out Bogaerts (the title of this post was going to be X Gave It to Us if he had gotten the game winning hit).

As I said in my last post, “Megabus had a 1:00 am bus to New York and the game was at 7:00.  What could go wrong?”  Well, the game went 12 innings.  It lasted five hours and 40 minutes.  That’s what went wrong.  Much like my trip to San Francisco last year, I had to leave the game early because of travel arrangements when I would have been fine under normal circumstances.  In that game, I saw the Dodgers take the lead in the 14th and then left (in my mind, that’s how the game ended).  This time, I saw Max Muncy draw a bases loaded walk in the 12th to give the Dodgers the lead.  They tacked on two more runs.  I heard the crowd react to the next one and as I was walking outside the park I saw a TV through a window showing a replay of Alex Verdugo driving in a run with a single.  The Dodgers held on in the bottom of the 12th and won 7-4.  The Red Sox have a really good record with me in attendance.  They were 8-1 with me in attendance before this game according to my Ballpark app, but it's possible that I'm missing games at Shea Stadium (I don't think I ever saw the Red Sox play at Shea Stadium) or old Yankee Stadium (more likely than Shea Stadium).  The Dodgers improved to 4-2 with me in attendance this year.  I once went on streak of 15 games where they started every game that Kershaw won and lost every game started by anybody else (off the top of my head, Ryu pitched at least two of those).  But this year they're 3-0 with Ryu and 1-2 with anybody else (1-1 with Maeda, 0-1 with Buehler).

The stadium was gradually clearing out.  I moved down to watch my last half inning or so before I had to leave.  That's Max Muncy at the plate about to drive in the winning run with a walk.

I’ve now been to eight events at Fenway Park:  baseball games in 1995, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019; Frozen Fenway for hockey in 2014; and the Shamrock Series for football in 2015.  The last four times I’ve been there, I had standing room tickets or John snuck me in and I didn’t have a seat.  Standing room is a good option if you’re in the right spot.  I could have gotten a cheaper seat, but it would have been in the bleachers or way out in right field.  Either way, you’re really far away from home plate and there’s a good chance that you’re facing some weird direction.  I went with first base pavilion standing room, which was something I hadn’t done before.  That was pretty good.  I like being at a little bit of elevation for baseball because it gives you a good look at the shape of the field and the positioning of infielders and outfielders.  I was as high up as possible at Fenway Park, but Fenway Park doesn’t go very high so it’s definitely not too high.  For the last couple of baseball games I was at, I stood on the lower level behind home plate (you can’t stand behind home plate on the pavilion level because that’s where the press box is).  It’s nice being behind home plate, but we’re way under an overhang and you can’t see fly balls and there’s a decent chance that you won’t be able to see a home run land.  So I really liked the first base pavilion standing room, but he only tricky thing is that there’s not a big height differential between the standing room and the rows in front of it.  So people’s heads in front of you might be an issue (check out the first picture in this post).  I was able to position myself in between people so that I always had a good view.

The food and beverage selection is good.  I had a Fenway Frank and a Sam Adams Summer Ale.  I drink by mood so when the Dodgers played the Red Sox in the World Series, I refused to drink any Sam Adams until it was over.  If they didn’t have Summer Ale, I probably wouldn’t have had any Sam Adams beer at the game, but I love Summer Ale and baseball and I hadn’t had one yet at a baseball game this season.  I’ve got some minor league games coming up, but my next Major League game might not be until September so this might have been my last chance to drink Sam Adams Summer Ale at a Major League game this season.

I’m going to finish by comparing Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park.  This season I’ve seen the Dodgers play at my four favorite current stadiums.  Wrigley Field and PNC Park are really good, but I have Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park ahead of them by a pretty good margin.  I had Fenway Park first and Dodger Stadium second in my rankings (check this post for my most recent stadium rankings), but let's see if that holds up.  As I said, I’ve been to eight events at Fenway Park.  I’ve been to 10 games at Dodger Stadium plus three stadium tours.

Location
First, let’s start with the cities.  I love Los Angeles and I love Boston.  There’s plenty not to like about both (pretty much like there is with any big city), but I focus on all the good stuff.  Boston has the history, the Celtics, Fenway Park.  Los Angeles has fantastic weather (unlike Boston, you pretty much never have to worry about cold weather or rain affecting your experience at the game), amazing scenery, the Dodgers, and Dodger Stadium.  Obviously it’s a lot easier for me to get to Boston.  Within the cities, the location of the stadiums is very different.  Dodger Stadium is surrounded by parking lots.  Fenway Park is definitely not surrounded by parking lots.  So that helps Fenway, but Dodger Stadium does have the San Gabriel Mountains in the background so that's pretty cool also.
Slight edge:  Fenway Park

Stadium Design
You might think this is an easy win for Fenway Park.  Fenway Park is wonderfully weird.  The Green Monster is iconic.  You have the Pesky Pole.  Dodger Stadium is symmetrical.  Symmetry can be bad for baseball stadiums when it’s boring (like when the Phillies, Pirates, Reds, and Cardinals played in different stadiums that were all the same, seriously open those links in different tabs, they were all the same).  But Dodger Stadium is beautifully symmetrical.  The colors of the stadium are classic and you have the wavy roof over the pavilion.  The way the stadium is built into a hill is really cool.  You can enter the stadium on any level of the stadium.  It’s also the biggest baseball stadium in the world (Fenway Park is 30th).  Also, I think my favorite play in baseball is seeing somebody leap to take a home run away.  The Green Monster (37 feet) is great.  But then you have the wall in center that’s 17 feet.  The right field wall is 3-5 feet, shorter than the players.  At Dodger Stadium, you have the short walls in the corners at 4 feet, but most of the outfield wall is 8 feet, requiring leaping catches to take away home runs.
Edge:  Even

Seating
There’s no terrible view at Dodger Stadium.  You can get seats with a great view for a reasonable price.  You can’t get seats with a great view for a reasonable price at Fenway Park.  Many seats have views obstructed by poles.  There are lots of seats out in the center to right field areas where you’re facing some weird direction.
Big edge:  Dodger Stadium

Food and Beverage
The Dodger Dog is iconic.  The Fenway Franks are good, but I’d rank them behind Nathan’s and Dodger Dogs.  But as I’ve covered before, Dodger Stadium needs to revamp its beer program.  Give me reasonably sized craft beer options for a non-crazy price.  You get that at Fenway Park.
Edge:  Fenway Park

Atmosphere
Fenway Park is pretty much always sold out.  The fans are into the games.  Dodger fans are much better than their reputation.  They easily lead the league in attendance with an average over 48,000 (more than the capacity at most other ballparks).  They also lead in average road attendance and that’s due in part to Dodger fans living in other cities and/or traveling the country and going to games (there were a lot of Dodger fans in Boston with Pantone 294 and they were loud).  But it’s tough to beat Fenway Park.
Edge:  Fenway Park

History
Fenway Park is 50 years older than Dodger Stadium, but Dodger Stadium is the third oldest stadium in baseball.  The Red Sox have played in 10 World Series at Fenway Park (they played the World Series at Braves Field in 1915 and 1916).  The Dodgers have played in 10 World Series at Dodger Stadium.  It’s Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Martinez, and 14 no hitters (they lose points for David Ortiz) vs. Vin Scully, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Tommy Lasorda, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, Clayton Kershaw, twelve no hitters (with two perfect games), the 1984 Olympics, the invention of the high five, Pope John Paul II, and the Naked Gun.
Slight edge:  Dodger Stadium

Final verdict:  It’s too close to call.  If you want to say Fenway Park is the best, I’m fine with that.  Obviously I’m biased, but I think I made a pretty good case for why Dodger Stadium is right up there with Fenway Park.  I’m calling it a tie.

Nobody Knew My Name

I recently went up to Boston to see the Dodgers play only their third regular season series at Fenway Park.  I’ll get to that later because I decided my Boston trip should be two posts.  This post is going to be about everything other than the game and Fenway Park.

But first, what led to this trip to Boston?  I knew I wanted to go up to Boston to see the Dodgers, but I didn’t know what day until I saw the Dodgers’ rotation after the All Star break.  I was hoping to see Clayton Kershaw, but it turned out that he wasn’t going to be pitching in Boston.  The other desirable pitchers to see were Hyun-Jin Ryu or Walker Buehler.  Since all three of those guys pitched in the All Star game, the Dodgers wanted to give them all some extra rest after the break, so Ryu was the only one to face the Red Sox and that was in the last game of the series.  So Sunday it was for my trip to Boston.

Ordinarily, John is my guy in Boston, but he was on vacation with his family.  So I was on my own for the day.  I originally figured I’d get a hotel room, but I realized I could save some money by just taking the bus home after the game.  Megabus had a 1:00 am bus to New York and the game was at 7:00.  What could go wrong?

Anyway, I got into Boston a little after 2:00.  My first stop was Cheers.  I recently watched all of Cheers.  It was a good show, but it’s kind of amazing now to think that people once had it on the same level as Seinfeld.  The outside looks like what you would see on the show.  The inside does not.  You go down the stairs and there’s a little bar there that doesn’t look like the show.  You walk down a hallway and there’s a dining room.  Then there are stairs that go up to the Cheers set bar.  That one does look a little like the show (it’s nowhere near as big as it looked on the show), but considering it was a bright day and it was above ground, it definitely didn’t have the feel of the show.  I was going to get a beer, but both bars were so crowded that I decided to just leave.  That turned out to be fortuitous.

As it turns out, nobody knew my name.

My next stop was the Boston Burger Company, which was on Man vs. Food and a few other shows as well.  I had what Casey Webb had on Man vs. Food, the Pilgrim.  It was a turkey burger with cheese, stuffing, and cranberry mayo.  It’s Thanksgiving on a bun.  Not getting a beer at Cheers was fortuitous because my plan was to drink two beers during my day in Boston and one was going to be at the game.  If I had a beer at Cheers, I would have passed on one at the Boston Burger Company.  Not getting one at Cheers allowed me to order a Sam Adams Summer Ale.  And as you may know, that is my traditional Thanksgiving beer (just like it was for the Pilgrims).  How was the burger?  Pretty good.  I would definitely recommend it.  But if I were going back, I’d want to try one of their other options.  A lot of them looked a little too crazy, but there were some that I’d be interested in.  Hopefully the next time I’m enjoying turkey, stuffing, and cranberry I’ll also be a couple days away from watching Notre Dame finish a good regular season with a win over Stanford (it’s been far too long since we’ve won there).

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Summer Ale.

I had some time until the game.  I stopped at the mall at the Prudential Center.  There’s a chapel at that mall that I’ve made use of to go to mass twice before, but I had taken care of that with a vigil mass on Saturday.  I was really just there to find a place to charge my phone and do some reading.

What was I reading?  I recently listened to one of the many Notre Dame podcasts I listen to and they interviewed Jamie Reidy.  He recently wrote Need One! A Lunatic’s Attempt to Attend 365 Games in 365 Days.  Not only was he going to attend an event each day, he was going to travel around the country and get to at least one event in each state.  You can see why this would appeal to me.  It’s pretty close to what the original idea of this blog was.  I bought the book right away, but I hadn’t starting reading it yet.  I debated bringing it with me since I wasn’t bringing a bag and it might be annoying to carry around a book all day.  As it turns out, it was a good decision.  It was about 25 hours from the time I left on Sunday morning to the time I got back on Monday morning.  The book is almost 300 pages (pretty easy reading, but still, it’s not short) and I read the whole book.  From beginning to end.  In that order.

I’m not spoiling much because it says it right on the back cover, but Jamie didn’t make it the entire year.  But he did plenty of traveling and going to sporting events.  He didn’t get to Hawaii and Alaska (he planned on going to the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks), but he might have seen an event in the other 48 states (I’m definitely not sure on that one, there were many days that he didn’t detail, but he went from coast to coast and did plenty of stuff in the middle).  I attended at least 3.5 of the same events that he did.  His Sports Year started in September 2013 and he was at Notre Dame-Oklahoma (no blog post because that was miserable), Notre Dame-USC , and the Pinstripe Bowl.  I said 3.5 because he also went to Frozen Fenway, but he only stayed for the first game of the doubleheader.  He was just there because hockey at Fenway Park was interesting and he wanted to count it as an event that he went to.  Kyle and I went because hockey at Fenway Park was interesting and because we wanted to see Notre Dame.  Notre Dame played the second game of the doubleheader and we didn’t feel like sitting through the first game in the cold.

As one of the maps in my last post showed, I’ve been to sporting events in many of the 50 states, but not all.  So I was thinking about what sporting events I would want to attend that I haven’t before and what events I would want to go to in the states where I haven’t been to sporting events.  Here are some North American events I’d want to go to:

World Series at Dodger Stadium
World Series at almost any other stadium
NBA Finals in Boston
Super Bowl
Rose Bowl
A game at Lambeau Field
An SEC football game
Final Four
US Open tennis
The Masters- I don’t care about golf at all, but this is the one golf event I’d have some interest in doing.
NHL game in Canada

Even if I wasn’t limiting it to North America, no soccer event would ever be on the list.  Baseball in Japan or any other country where it’s popular would be pretty cool.  A number of Olympic events (winter or summer) would be cool.  Aussie Rules Football would be interesting.  I’d go to see cricket because I would love to understand how cricket works (I have no idea other than it involves hitting a ball).  I can’t really think of any other international events I’d want to go to since I’ve already been to Wimbledon.  What events on that list are realistic?  If the Dodgers and Yankees play in the World Series this year, I’ll definitely look at tickets.  I’m not saying I’m definitely going, but I’ll look.  In 2009, the Dodgers were three wins away from making that match up happen and I was ready to go.  Now, it would definitely depend on the price.  If it had happened in 2009, I would have been more willing to spend the crazy money because it would have been the first World Series for the Dodgers since 1988.  If it happened this year, it would be their third straight World Series appearance.  Of course, they lost the last two years.  If they had won one of those, I think I definitely wouldn’t spend the money on the World Series.  Of course, a lot has to happen before we have a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.  I don’t really care who the Dodgers play in their next trip to the World Series (hopefully this year) as long as they finally win it.  I definitely hope to make a game at Lambeau Field happen in 2020 since Notre Dame is playing there.  The US Open is always a possibility since it’s in Queens (I really should go one of these years).  I wouldn’t rule out the Masters if I knew somebody that wanted to go and it lined up with my Easter vacation.

Now how about the states where I haven’t seen a sporting event?  Here’s what I’d want to see in each state:

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island- Minor league baseball, I guess

West Virginia, Mississippi, Iowa, Oregon- College football

North Carolina- College basketball, but only if I could guarantee seeing Duke or North Carolina losing at home

Kentucky- Again, college basketball, but only if I could guarantee seeing Kentucky or Louisville losing at home

South Dakota- Sioux Falls has an independent league baseball team so I guess that would be my choice

Kansas- Kansas basketball, I don’t despise them so I don’t need a guaranteed loss

Oklahoma- You were expecting college football, but I’m saying minor league baseball as long as the Dodgers have their double-A and triple-A teams there

Wyoming- I guess Wyoming football, it’s one of three states that doesn’t have a professional baseball team (Alaska and Hawaii are the others)

Hawaii- Hawaii Football or the Hawaii Bowl

I am going to the Notre Dame game at Duke in November so I will cross North Carolina off the states to see a sporting event in list.  I might get to a Pawtucket Red Sox game before the end of the summer (we’ll see on that one) so that would be Rhode Island.  There’s a decent chance I’ll never see a sporting event in many of those states.  I’m fine with that.  I would kind of like to go to a football game in Hawaii, but that might never happen.  I’m unlikely to be in Hawaii for the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve.  A regular season Hawaii game doesn’t work because of school, unless Hawaii has a home game during Week 0 (the week before Labor Day).  I don’t anticipate seeing college football in any of the states I mentioned unless they host Notre Dame (even then, it wouldn’t be easy to get tickets for a price that wasn’t crazy).  Sure, I could just go to some random game, but that would involve spending a Saturday not watching Notre Dame.  Even if it was a Notre Dame bye week, that would involve spending a Saturday not watching all the other games.

My real sports fan goal was to get to every Major League Baseball stadium and I did that (but the Rangers will have a new one to get to next year).  Jamie Reidy didn’t accomplish his goal, but I still recommend his book.