Detroit Tigers

 

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And for the grand finale… A Tigers game at the new(for me) CoMerica Park.  I had been to the old Tigers stadium, maybe 12-15 yrs ago.  Comerica is another HOK designed stadium with the green seats, lots of brick and open concourse behind the first level of seats.  The Tigers were playing the Twins, who were challenging them for first place, so the game was a sellout, so we had to get standing room only seats. As luck would have it, that meant that we got to stand behind the first bowl of box seats, first base side, and in the shade.  As annoying as it was to have to stand it was a good view.  Another open outfield, showcasing the Detroit Skyline.  Not too great right now and not in the day, but it would be nice to be lit up at night, and maybe if some of the buildings were occupied.  Another nice scoreboard, plenty of info, and secondary scoreboards were also available.  The one thing I did not like was the lack of the out of town scoreboard that would show all the scores at once.  They only had one that would show 4 scores at a time.  Another nice touch was the batters eye had some nice hedges and ivy-type backdrop, flanked on both sides by brick walls, where the retired numbers and famous names on them.

The game was good, the Tigers hit 4 homeruns, and Bonderman pitched a decent game, and the Tigers won 7-4.  There were some defensive gems here too.  A good experience in general, and it was great to have a sellout.  41461, a lot better than 61 fans we had last night.

Oakland County Cruisers

 

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I was able to start the day up north by going to the Cherry festival in Traverse City.  Anything you can think of involving cherries, plus more was going on or being sold.  Also plenty of boats were out in the water, a beautiful day to do it, indeed.

It was a longer drive than the past few days, getting back down south.  But we arrived at Eastern Michigan for the Oakland County Cruisers game.  They were playing here because there stadium is still in the process of being built.  The stadium is much smaller, and it looks old.  It was built in 1971 apparently, but has a nice covered concourse, but with only bench seats.  At one point, I counted 62 people in the stands.  There were some kids playing in the grass too, but ticket sales couldn’t have topped 100.  There were no concessions at all, and a folding table was there souvenir stand.  No mascot either, but there was some entertainment.  The owners are not trying very hard right now.  Hopefully they will care once they have a stadium.  This field was also a field turf infield, but with real grass in the outfield, and a dirt mound.  All that said though, it was an interesting place to see a game.  A bit reminiscent of what I think games in days gone by would have been like.  The game itself was another pitching duel, and the game was tied by the Cruisers in the bottom of the eighth, 2-2.  Just like yesterday.  The away team was the Southern Illinois Miners.  Just like yesterday.  The game started to go into extra innings.  Uh-oh.  I wasn’t ready for another 16 inning game, especially sitting on those benches.  But in the bottom of the 11th, on a wild throw from the catcher to 3rd base, the Cruisers scored, sending us home victors!  So in the past two days we have seen 27 innings, the equivalent of 3 games in two.

Traverse City Beach Bums

 

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Awaking to a rainy morning, a bummer, but after sleeping a little more, reading a bit, and eating lunch, the skies cleared, and we were able to go out on the boat.  And I was bale to try my hand at water skiing.  After many failed attempts, I got back in the boat to warm up.  After some discussion about technique, I jumped back in and was able to get going for a few minutes, and when my arms got too tired of holding the rope, I dropped off.  One more run, and my body was too tired to keep going.  But it was a lot of fun and a new challenge.

Up in Traverse City, we met up with my cousin and my aunt for the Beach Bums game.  This is a independent league team, same as Kalamazoo.  The stadium is kind of by itself in a field, easy to get to and see.  It was a unique one with the suite level not being the standard style, but rather the look of a beachfront cottage, with the concession stands built underneath.  Somewhat reminiscent of Frisco TX.  They had two mascots, teddy bears that were named Sunburn (the red one) and Suntan(the brown one).  The field itself was standard size and shape, but the craziest thing was the turf.  The grass was the green field turf which I don’t necessarily have a problem with, but the dirt was too!! And home plate and the pitchers mound were all field turf! Crazy!

Well the game started, somewhat of a pitching duel.  Some fine diving catches, and probably the best defensive play I’ve seen all week.  A diving stop of a grounder by the second baseman, who flipped the ball,just using his glove to a barehanded catch and throw by the shortstop to turn the double play.  Great play.  At the bottom of the eigth, the Bums were down 2-1 when we hit a home run to tie the game.  Everyone cheered.  Later they would regret it.  A fast moving game, 9 innings were done by 9:40.  But it was still tied.  It was also tied at 11:00 when we sung Take Me Out To The Ballgame for the second time.  After 16 innings, at about 11:45, the Southern Illinois Miners, won 3-2.  There were only a few hundred fans left at that point.  The Bums put on a fun show for 9 innings, but the cheerleaders got boring soon after.  But overall, a fun experience.

Great Lakes Loons

 

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After some great omelets this morning, off and running up to Higgins Lake.  We got a nap and a boat trip out of the afternoon, with rain early on.  Off to Midland, home of Dow Chemical and the Great Lakes Loons.  Funny enough, it is called Dow Diamond.  How creative. Round Rock (Dell Diamond), I am looking in your direction.  But the park was beautiful.  Another HOK design.  Had great lawn seating throughout the outfield, and a large space in right field, and it had a great row of adirondack chairs.  The concourse was very wide, with plenty of concessions for how few people the stadium holds at capacity (4500 ish?)  The team store also was spacious. And sold cool hats.  They had a picnic area down the left field line that reminded me of the GrandStand in Greensboro.  The field seemed like it had a lot of foul ground, and the way the dugouts were made you seem a bit further from the action.  But there was plenty of legroom, and that means a lot when I say that.  Not much of a view beyond the outfield fence, just a few trees in left and a chemical plant in right.  Great speaker system, had one posted every twenty feet all the way around the stadium(See Kalamazoo, not hard.)  It was ‘Polish Heritage Night’ at the ballpark, but they didn’t do as much for it as I had hoped.  The between inning entertainment was weak at best, but the fans that were there (~3012?) were into the game, and the stadium looked more full because it is smaller to begin with.The game itself, the Loons got out to an early lead, and ended up winning 8-0, and it probably should’ve been 15-0.  Also, the Loons pitcher threw a 3-hit complete game shutout, the first CG for the Loons franchise.

Lansing Lugnuts

 

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Well, I climbed Mt. Pisgah again today.  This one was a lot easier, a stairway right to the top! (and the top wasn’t above 6000’ either)  A nice view of the Holland Beach and lighthouse.  According to the Holland Tourism people, it is the most photographed lighthouse in Michigan.

The Gerald Ford Museum is in Grand Rapids, and has a wealth of information and stuff about his life and presidency, even as short as it was.  I had been to Clinton’s library a few weeks ago, and this was more of a traditional style museum.  Well done and well laid out, easy to navigate.  A good thing to see if you are ever in Grand Rapids.

With some time still to spare before the game, I decided to walk around the Michigan State campus. (If a shudder just went down your spine, I understand)  Driving into campus, East Lansing didn’t impress me, and I came into campus near the Breslin Center(basketball).  It seemed very sparse and somewhat boring.  I ended up parking at the football stadium and walking up to the Union and back.  There it got a bit more traditional campus looking, with the Red Cedar running through it.  Passable, but UM and Illinois are better, obviously.

The Lansing Lugnuts stadium is in downtown Lansing, a few minutes walk from the capitol building(which has a nice dome on top).  Unfortunately, it is oriented that the skyline is behind home plate, not past the outfield.  But the stadium has some nice unique touches.  The two outfield corners had tall walls and short dimensions due to having to fit between two roads.  Off one of the walls towards the lawn seats, there was a nice ivy covered wall.  The entertainment was good, but unfortunately the announced attendance was 2615 and they never got that loud.  Even for dollar hot dog day.  I wish there would have been more fans, I feel like Lansing would have a great experience.  It was cool that I had 9 people there!  Cousins, aunts, uncles, and new Australian cousin-in-law that hadn’t seen a full baseball game live before!  Enjoyable time indeed

West Michigan Whitecaps

 

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The beginning of the day was a trip down memory lane, with a stop in South Haven.  Sherman’s Dairy, the best ice cream I’ve ever had, and Conner and I had some blue moon.  Go figure.  We then ventured towards Van Buren SP, near where our grandparents cottage once was.  When we parked and hiked toward the beach through the woods, we ended up very close to the cottage, and Beth saw that the owner was there and talked us into a tour of the place.  It has gone from a simple cottage at the beach to a beach house with all the trimmings.  He has spent a lot of money making it what it is now.  The old shape and style can be seen in some parts, but it is no longer the place me and the cousins played in.

I’ve been looking forward to this game for a couple of years, since the last time I tried to go, but it was sold out due to a Tiger’s rehab assignment.  Easy to get to off the highway, but had to pay for parking.  The stadium has a new feel to it, but not the red brick and green seat type.  Being consistent with the Whitecap name, it feels a bit beachy(even being an hour away from the beach.)  Lots of light brick or siding and blues everywhere.  Great hat also.  The field itself is rather normal, no funny walls or anything, and actually a good sized foul territory.  A lot of general admission bench seats, with backs though. But if you go down to the box seats, they are foldable.  And if you sit in the three sections, right behind home, they are padded!  The game was fun, with good between innings game, two mascots and a announcer that was having some fun with the fans.

For the game itself, there was an early Whitecaps homerun, and a late comeback attempt, but they lost 6-5.

Kalamazoo Kings

 

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Pulling up to the Kalamazoo Kings stadium, it doesn’t look like much.  It is amongst some other city parks & rec fields.  Free parking though.  Walking up, there is a statue of Homer Stryker, who the field is named for.  The park has aluminum temporary looking grandstands, with mostly bench seats, although they do have backs.  There are some box seats with fold down seats.  The crowd was pretty good sized, and they got into in pretty well.  The speakers were terrible, only having speakers behind home plate.  They had giveaways throughout the game, cheap frisbees, tshirts and stuff thrown into the crowd.  It looked like there were a lot of diehard Kings fans.  Not bad for a independent team.  The Kings ended up winning 5-3.  Being 4th of July, there were fireworks after the game.  They allowed all the fans to sit in the outfield for the show, which was over the 3rd base grandstands.  The show started over 30 minutes after the game, which is too long.  But there was also a autograph line, which we had to wait on.  The fireworks were pretty good, about 20 minutes worth.  A slow pace, but good variation.

Another great part about this game was a lot of family was there.  My parents, two aunts, and uncle, and Beth and her family.  So this was Conner’s first live baseball game.  Being 5, he did get a bit antsy, and tired too as the game went on.  But It was fun to have everyone there.

Toledo Mudhens

 

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This morning, I went back into Pittsburgh to do a little sight seeing.  I went to the Heinz History Museum.  There was a good exhibit about George Washington, as well as some good Pittsburgh History, and the Western PA Sports Museum.  Good place, although a bit hard to find your way around at times.  And of course, a whole exhibit on the history of Heinz.

On my way to Toledo, I took a little side trip through downtown Cleveland.  Nice little place, has the Rock and Roll HOF right on the lake, next to Browns Stadium, and some museum or something.  Not far away are the Indians park, and where the Arena where the Cavs play.  I must say that I love the fact all these new stadiums tend to be built downtown.  Definitely better than in the middle of the suburbs.  They should be an integral part of the city.

I got to Toledo a bit early, so I decided to go to Ned Skelton Stadium, where the Mudhens used to play for a few pictures.  I ended up seeing a grounds crew guy watering the field, and he let me on the field to take a few pictures.  Apparently they still play some baseball there.  It still looked good.
Downtown was the new Mudhens stadium.  Another nice new one, and it had some cool quirks.  There was a short porch in RF they called the Roost, which I think they used old Tiger Stadium as that idea, and they had a building just past the RF fence also that looked old, and I believe had a restaurant.  The Toledo '”skyline” was out past the centerfield fence, but as the sun went down, it didn’t light up much.  Two big scoreboards, with good graphics and plenty of info, but oddly enough, couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) show video.  The place was packed, a sold out game almost.  But unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the crowd was very into the game.  They had some between innings games, but not much during gameplay to get the crowd involved, so it was a quiet 9500 people.  The Mudhens ended up losing 6-3. 
After the game, there were fireworks!  Unfortunately, we had to wait for probably 20 minutes at least for them to start, and there wasn’t much entertainment during that time.  And then when it started, it was pretty weak.  Only 3 1/2 minutes, and the fireworks were short.  As a neighboring fan said, “They were leftover from the Superbowl” (Where they would have to be shot in a dome, thus the low altitude.)

But in general, it was a nice park, and good to see a game in Toledo again.

Pittsburgh Pirates

 

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Well, after a little bit of paperwork for work, I hit the road at about 9:30, a little later than I had hoped.  I was not even 30 miles in when I got pulled over for speeding.  I had done a 4800 mile trip with no problems, and now the stupid Winston police are being buggers.  Argh.  But moving on, I got to travel through beautiful West Virginia, actually on a route I had never been.  US19N past Fayetteville, through Morgantown via I-79.  Once again, WV did not disappoint.  Beautiful country as always.

I made it to Raccoon SP in PA with just enough time to pitch my tent and head in to Pitt.  I still had to buy my ticket when I got there at 7:00.  Who knew traffic could be so bad going into Pittsburgh?  While I was waiting in line though, A man came up wanting to get rid of a ticket.  I asked how much, and he said $10, he had season tickets and he wasn’t going to be using both.  I only had $6 cash though, but that was good enough for him.  I saw that it was a $26 face value, and figured the seats might be OK.  They ended up being about 20 rows right behind home plate.  Absolutely great seats.

The park is pretty.  The great skyline backdrop with the yellow pedestrian Clemente bridge in the background.  It seems small, although it does seem, sitting in the bottom part, that the front row of the upper deck seems far back.  A couple complaints though.  The food service seemed very slow, and thus the long lines clogged up the concourse, making it hard to walk around.  But the chili cheese dog wasn’t bad for 5.50, and pierogis (apparently uncooked ravioli looking things) weren’t too bad either.  And if you looked hard enough, they had some good beer selection beyond the bud light junk on tap.  The game was close, a 3-2 win over the Phillies.  And since it was the Phillies, the stadium was probably 3/4 full (and 1/2 Phillie red) which I’m sure is a high for them this year.

Now that I am back at the campsite, I realize that this park is in the flight plan of the airport.  Too bad.