Pictures

Cleveland: http://minnesota.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2308722&l=ee1c6&id=13926495
Pittsburgh: http://minnesota.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2309465&l=50db9&id=13926495
Baltimore: http://minnesota.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2311548&l=26ebe&id=13926495
New York: http://minnesota.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2311530&l=bacd0&id=13926495

Baltimore, Philly, and Boston

Blogging is too much work when you only have internet for an hour a day. On Saturday we went to Camden Yards in Baltimore, Sunday we spent some time in Philly and Citizens Bank Park, and Monday we were in Boston for Fenway Park.

I forgot to give my grade for Pittsburgh: 9.4
Only real thing from keeping it from being THE best, is small concourses.

Summing up Camden, there were a couple of things I was disappointed in. First off, there were no open concourses, and basically open concourses are a must. They allow fans to see the game when they're walking around, and it allows for a lot of standing room only. And Secondly, the overhang seemed too low. It almost seemed like a roof was over our head for the baseball game. The difference felt once we moved down to the open air seats was infinite. Food was great, the street out in right was pretty cool, and the warehouse was awe-inspiring. Overall grade: 8.5


Philadelphia was pretty cool. We went downtown to all the freedom related stuff and then we went to the 1:30 game between the rival Mets and Phillies. This ballpark was enormous. They went all out building this thing, and it works in every way. The food is great, the concourses are great, the sightlines are great. The only thing that it lacks is a view outside of the ballpark being that it is 4 miles from downtown Philly which is also a negative. We had our Philly CheeseSteaks from Ricks, and I was satisfied. This happens to be the ballpark where I stupidly set down my mother's camera while putting mustard on my hot dog, and forgot to pick it up. I really can't blame Philadelphia for it getting taken, it would have been almost anywhere, but the staff was kind towards helping me try and find it. However the ushers were rude and pushy. Overall grade: 9.5


Boston was a real downer for me. We started out the day getting into the hotel at 4 am, since there happened to be a car fire on the bridge in New York that cost us 2 hours. Once we got going in the day, we went down and took the Freedom Trail Tour, which was informative, but not quite up my alley. It was enjoyable though and I didn't mind going on it. Getting to the park was pretty easy, near downtown, and it certainly stood out once we approached it. As we got to our seats I was quite excited. They were right down the foul line in right, and seemed to have great sight-lines. Then it got time for the game to start and people started coming into the stadium. And the walked in front of us, and walked, and walked, and walked. I saw about 3 pitches in the first inning, and another 5 in the second inning. They were, without a doubt, the worst seats I have ever sat in at an event. And probably one of the most expensive. In fact it was so bad, that Dad and I decided to get up and leave the seats after the 3rd inning. We ended up about 700 feet away from home and only able to see half the field in the upper deck, but they were still by far, better seats. The fans were the exact opposite of what I've been told Boston fans were. The general fanbase that we saw were more interested in being at the IT place, and didn't really care about watching the game. Not until we moved did we find some fans that cared about watching the baseball game going on, and actually were knowledgeable about the game. Also, I did not feel any aura surrounding the ballpark. It just seemed like an old, oddly shaped ballpark. I'm sure had we been sitting behind homeplate, our experience would have been better, but I was very disappointed. The food however was still good. Overall grade: 7.0

Pittsburgh

We got to Pittsburgh around 1 pm and parked not far from the ballpark. Seeing as we had 5 hours to kill we walked across the Roberto Clement bridge an d into downtown Pittsburg. There wasn’t much to do in downtown except walk around, but we were able to find a tourist destination across the river with a HardRock Café and Joe’s Crab Shack.

Come close to game time we walked back across to the North Shore and walked around PNC Park and the river shore. The park was constructed using Casota Limestone from Minnesota. Once we got into the park I went and sat out in left field for the Nationals batting practice. The left field bleachers in Pittsburgh are closer to the field, lower to the ground, and have a lower fence than the Metrodome, yet they aren’t required to rope off the first two rows like the Twins are which makes no sense. After BP I walked around the interior of the stadium to our seats down the 3B line. We happened to have seats 50 rows up for the game, but it really didn’t matter because there are no bad seats at PNC.

The game we saw happened to between the pitiful Washington Nationals and the longtime cellar-dwellers Pirates. There really are no marquee players on either squad, so had to be satisfied with the Ian Snell vs Ryan Zimmerman matchip. It actually turned out to be an entertaining game as the Pirates won in walk-off fashion. During the game, I noticed that the Pirates have a much cooler team song than I have ever heard.

The best part about PNC Park is clearly the view of the city skyline as the park is right on the river just across from Downtown. Some of the negatives of the park include the fact that the concourses were actually pretty small for a new ballpark, with another being the food selection. There wasn’t much for unique selection, and the traditional stuff wasn’t all that great. The hot dog I had was the same brand as in Cleveland, but it was undercooked, or boiled. It was however cheaper.

Part way through the game, we decided to move into the upper deck to get an even better view of the city, and a better view for the fireworks after the game. After the win, the fireworks show was pretty good. As part of the show, there were fireworks shot over the river from a barge, as well as from one of the skyscrapers in downtown.

Getting out of the ballpark was a breeze, but we had trouble getting back on the expressway. Only cost us a half hour, but frustrating nonetheless.

Onto Baltimore…

June 28

We arrived at our hotel at about 1 am, about two and a half hours late due to flight delays. Woke up in the morning and there were forecasts for rain and thunderstorms. So we got to Jacob's Field an hour and a half early and walked around the stadium. There were still remnants of the Cav's playoff run around since their arena is right next to the Jake. One such being an enormous building hanging of Lebron James.

As soon as we got in the stadium we walked over to the hot dog stand. We proceeded to center field where there was a nice food court and patio, as well as a display glorifying the Indians of past such as Bob Feller and Tris Speaker. There was a very large restaurant in the ballpark down the left field line that appeared to have good views of the park, as well as the HR porch on top of the Mini-Monster in the left field corner that leads to entertaining skirmishes for balls. Other cool things about the park included the extremely large concourses with lots of different kinds of food including the regulars as well as burritos, seafood, BBQ Ribs, and the Cleveland Bomber. But perhaps the thing that stands out most in the park is the gigantic scoreboard in left field. The thing is twice as big than is necessary and happens to block out a lot of the Cleveland skyline in the background.

The game we saw was the Oakland Athletics vs the Indians, Joe Blanton vs Paul Byrd. Native Minnesotan, Dan Johnson, had a big game going 4 for 4 with a HR and 8 total bases as Paul Byrd was hit around early. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead, Oakland stopped scoring and allowed Cleveland to stage another comeback. After the sixth inning we decided to take a view of the game from the upper deck behind home as we didn't especially like our seats down the 3B side under the restaurant. As soon as we got in the upper deck the Indians started to rally, then up came Grady Sizemore with two men on and one out. Sizemore was able to crush a liner into the right-center power alley, but somehow Nick Swisher was able to catch up to it, leap running back, and record the out. It appeared that Swisher had just saved 2 runs, when Jason Michaels, the next batter, crushed one to left-center above the mini-monster into the bleacher seats. Now up 4-3 the Indians were able to hang on for the win.

Overall my experience at Jacob's Field was pretty good. For the food, I had a hot dog and one specialty food. My hot dog was a very basic size dog, but relatively cheap. There was a special kind of mustard available that was actually quite tasty. The dog was better than I was expecting, much better than a Dome Dog. The specialty food was the Cleveland Bomber that consisted of sliced roast beef, shredded cheese, and very sweet vegetables in a wrap. It was very interesting, but the veggies were far too sweet for my liking. Ushers were extremely helpful and friendly at the Jake, as I assume the fans were too. We didn't have much interaction with fans considering there were only 22 thousand fans at the stadium. For some reason the Indians are having trouble selling tickets even though their team is pretty darn good. The neighborhood of the park was pretty good as well, just on the edge of the Cleveland downtown. Giving this park a grade on a ten point scale, I would give an 8.9.

After the game my father and I decided to find a nearby sports bar and we happened to find an old, beaten down hole-in-the-ground pub. Good news was that they had MLB extra innings and we were able to watch the end of Twins victory against the Blue Jay, so the place served it's purpose. As soon as we left the bar, we found a much more inviting sport's bar/restaurant that had patio and rooftop seating as well as three rooms of seating with multiple TV screens. I guess were I'm going the next time I go to a game at the Jake.

With plenty of time to kill after the game, we wandered down to the lakeside where the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame and Science Museum were located. Not wanting to spend 20 bucks to go in the Hall of Fame, we just walked through the gift shop and looked at old records.

After getting back to the hotel, I found a nearby place online to go and get a bite to eat. Papa Nick's Pizza and Pasta was only four blocks from our hotel and was a great restaurant. Great service, friendly staff, and pretty good and cheap food. The best were the breadsticks which made the meal. I would recommend it to anyone in the vicinity.

In the morning we are heading out for Pittsburgh to watch the Nationals play the Pirates in PNC Park.