Yes! Michigan

What do they say about Americana?  Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?  Well, I am going to live up to that phrase (except maybe cherry pie instead) next week.  I have another trip coming up, this time mostly in Michigan.

My schedule:

July 1 Pittsburgh Pirates

July 2 Toledo Mudhens

July 4 Kalamazoo Kings

July 5 West Michigan Whitecaps

July 6 Lansing Lugnuts

July 7 Great Lakes Loons

July 8 Traverse City Beach Bums

July 9 Oakland County Cruisers

July 10 Detroit Tigers

This will be fun, because I will be joined by family members along the way, some for multiple games.  See you soon!

Kane County Cougars

This is another one from a long time ago.  In the suburbs of Chicago, we watched the Cubs. (Or if you were odd, the White Sox)  But in 1991, we got the Kane County Cougars to give the suburbs a low cost family outing.  It has been a long time since I have been there, and I believe that they have done some rather extensive renovations since then.  I do have a hat though!  Our church would have outings to the games every so often, and I remember once going with my friend Matt Blanton.  I remember that there was no overhang over the concourse, and lots of metal bench seats.  Also, they had a pitcher that was named Matt Anderson, and we waited to get his autograph.  Who knows where that is now.

A long, long, time ago

Well, upon request, I will write a few posts about past minor league parks that I have attended.  According to my spreadsheet, I have gone to 52 parks.  One of the first was in Appleton, WI.  My family was on a camping trip through Wisconsin, so I somehow persuaded them to go to an Appleton Foxes game.  None of us can remember what year it was, but I think somewhere between 87-91.  I don’t really remember much, other than their logo, posted on a sign in the stands to watch out for flying baseballs.  A game never to be replicated, since the Fox Cities area in WI has a new stadium and different franchise in the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

The next one I can recall was the Toledo Mudhens.  Located not too far from Saline, my grandpa took me, two of my cousins, and an uncle to a game.  I remember it being exciting, because we were able to sit first row behind the 3rd base dugout.  I also remember a foul ground ball going in front of us on the field, and either my uncle or my grandpa saying, “That’s probably as close to catching a foul ball as you’ll ever get.” I’ve got 2 now, although I didn’t really ‘catch’ either. The Mudhens have also gotten a new stadium(which I will see in a couple of weeks).  This also happened probably early 90’s, since my cousin David was there, and I bet he was more than 5?  Carsons, any memories of this one?

Epic, Extraordinary – by the numbers

 

4619 Miles(Averaging 271/Day once I left home)

21 Ballparks

20 New hats

20 games

19 days

0 Speeding Tickets, 0 Pillows

540 Pictures

15 campsites (2 near floods)

11 States

10 National Park System sites

Countless miles hiked

1 Epic and Extraordinary road trip

23 days until the next one- Michigan, here I come!

Greenville Drive

 

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Well, after a good game last night, Russ gave me some tips on where to hike between his place and Greenville, tonight’s game.  So I got to go to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.  And boy, was it hard to get to.  You had a few options. A) park at a state park and walk 8.5 miles (one way) B)Drive up some unlabeled and seriously unpaved roads in the middle of nowhere, then hike 1 mile.  I chose option B, and took a wrong turn a couple of times, but I found the parking lot.  Then I hiked north on the AT instead of south.  I got 1.6 mi in to the first shelter when I turned around. I finally made it to the trailhead, a small vista over the mountains, with two plaques inlaid into the stone.  Nothing big, fancy, or very informative.  But really cool.  Maybe I should hike the whole thing.  But that’s another blog.

Then i went off to find Brasstown Bald, the highest point in GA.  Speaking of some crazy roads, definitely some nice winding roads to get there.  At least these were paved.  You could drive to within .6 miles of the peak, which was a steep but paved hike, up to a nice 360 observation deck, with views of TN, NC, GA. I’m not sure you could see SC. Then to Greenville- according to my calculations, it would be close for me getting there on time.

Well, it was close, and I missed the top of the first.  But I really enjoyed this game.  A beautiful stadium.  It is the low-A affiliate for the Red Sox, and this field was built like Fenway, with the same dimensions in the outfield.  It had the Pesky Pole, the Green Monster, the bullpens in right-center, and the weird jog out in center, with the 420ft. corner.  There were offices and/or apartments past leftfield, with people on the rooftops and balconies.  The crowd was large, and into the game.  Concessions were affordable, and there was a parking shuttle to a parking lot two blocks away, that was free.(not sure if the shuttle cost anything, I walked).  The lawn areas were pretty full of people.  A great park, and the Drive won.

So this was the last game of the trip.  I’ve had a great time, and seen so many things.  That said, I am going to be happy to be at home.  When the last out was made, a fly ball to RF, I actually felt a tinge of sadness.  But hey-  In three weeks, I get to do this again-  in the beautiful state of Michigan!  I am going to write a couple of summary blogs about this trip, then tune in July 1 for the next installment!!

Gwinnett Braves

 

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In the morning, I went back into Auburn, to walk around campus a bit and get a hat.  Very pretty campus, but boring football stadium. Just concrete from outside.  Onto the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site(not much) to the Tuskegee Institue NHS (George Washington Carver museum, nicely done).  Horseshoe Bend NMP, the site of Andrew Jackson’s battle against the Creek Indians(one of the last stands before the whites ran them off their land) was well done.  I’ve seen a variety of battlefields over the past couple of years, and it always amazes me how small they are.  I couldn’t imagine 5000 people there, let alone there at war.  Yikes.

So onto Gwinnett. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, since my cousin Russ and his family live nearby.  So I met up with Russ and Brandon(age 8), and we got to the game just in time.  The stadium was average, nothing special.  Although it did have a 20 ft retaining wall behind LF, which didn’t allow for any lawn seating.  But plenty in RF, with a nice view of the bullpens.  It was great to see Russ and Brandon, and get to see a game with them.  Russ sure had fun.  He was up to no good, and talked to the MC, who does the between innings entertainment.  He told him about my trip, so I got announced about during the break, and my face on the big screen sitting next to the MC.  I didn’t have to answer any questions, but it was cool.  The Braves won.  The hat, as with other Braves’ affiliates, was a knockoff of the Braves’ tomahawk.  Kind of boring.  It was great to finally have someone to watch a game with!  Almost home…

Montgomery Bicuits

 

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Hitting the road, I jog off the direct route, to go through Florida for a few miles.    Upon coming into Montgomery, it is a nice city.  It has some good architecture downtown, at least around the capital where I went. I also saw MLK’s church.  It was a 2:05 game, and I was a little early, but headed to the park.  Right away, I liked it.  From the outside, it doesn’t even look like a stadium.  It looks like the old railroad station that it once was.  Going inside, there is nice wide concourse, and all the Biscuits (yes, that is there name) employees said “Hi, welcome”  The stadium didn’t really have a view of the skyline, bug it had a functioning train line within homerun distance out left field.  The rightfield wall also was odd, having a semicircle coming into the field.  The suites were also in the train station, so they looked unique from the field.  It also is a fun hat, with a biscuit peeking out from behind the M.  The game was good, with Montgomery winning 3-2.  There was hardly anyone there though, which was unfortunate.  It seems like it would be great if they had a full crowd.

Going on to my State park, I figured I would have a relaxing evening, but on the way there, I heard an Auburn baseball game on the radio.  Coincedentally, my campsite was about 5 minutes from their campus.  So I went to the game.  I got a ticket free from a passing motorist, which was good since it was packed.  This was an elimination game for the College World Series for Auburn, which was hosting their regional.  I had never been to a college baseball game before.  College baseball is not nearly as big up north.  But this was one of the most exciting games I have ever been to.  A back and forth game between Auburn and Clemson.  Auburn ended up getting a homerun in the ninth inning to win it, 11-10.  As you can imagine, the crowd went crazy.  The stadium was nice too, had a green monster type short leftfield. So add another game onto the list! 18 in 17 days so far.  Must have been karma from the rainout yesterday.

Mobile Bay Bears

 

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Well, today was pretty ;ame from the get go.  I knew I had the longest drive of the trip ahead of me, so I got an early start.  (Which was good, because last night’s campground was sketchy) Upon hitting the Louisiana border it started to get darker, and I ended up driving in some terrible storms. Like 100 yd visibility.  But I got through fine (fortunately, since I saw some bad wrecks on the side of the road) To my campsite in Mobile.  I set up my tent, knowing that the weather was going to cause a rough night.  I had time to heat some soup up and enjoy it, with thunder in the distance.  I went to my tent to change for the game and didn’t leave it for 45 minutes.  That was the worst storm I had ever felt in a tent.  It was very high winds and driving rain.  My tent, which now had gotten two cracked poles already(out of two) was being blown inward, on the verge of collapse.  Good thing I know how to drive a tent stake.  My tent is 9x7, maybe 4ft tall in the middle.  Plenty big for 1.  During the storm I was squatting in the middle, and the left side was being blown in so much that it was touching me.  Thunder and lightning all around, which I generally don’t mind, and the tent was holding up well, all things considered.  Then a bolt of lightning hit, I swear, 50 ft away.  at least that is what it sounded like.  I thought a RV had exploded or something, one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard.  And I have been to a Metallica concert.  But the storm blew by, and off I went to a sunny, rainbow filled Mobile Bay Bears game. This would be game number 17 in 16 nights, thus surpassing last year’s trip.  Hank Aaron Stadium(he was born in Mobile) was one of those weird ones that the stands start 10 ft off the ground(Like Carolina Mudcats and the PawSox)  I don’t like that at all.  This one looked better than the other two, but its a no-go. And they had no cupholders.  By 830, after watching people squeegee the field for an hour and a half, they cancelled the game due to the condition of the outfield.  I understand, but I was livid.  My streak was broken by a poor drainage system. Argh.

Houston Astros

 

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Well, I haven’t been anywhere to see a picturesque sunrise in quite a while.  I am glad I was awake for this one.  I went to the USS Lexington this morning, which is docked in CC.  It is a WWII era aircraft carrier.  It has some cool planes and quite an extensive tour and museum.  I kept finding more and more things to look at.  It did reaffirm the fact that I am too tall to have been in the navy.  Short bunks, short ceilings, it would have been terrible.

Some people have asked about how many hats I have, or past parks I have been too.  So when I get home, I think I am going to try and write something up about the past parks I have seen.  Although I believe my count for minor league ballparks is 46 and majors 13.  But some of those were before my hat souvenir binge, and some of the majors I just took tours(5) at, no games.

Houston- big city again, also non-conforming Texas toll again.  Argh.  Minute Maid Park is right downtown, and it is a dome.  Very odd, I had never seen a game in a dome before.  One foul ball actually hit the roof.  It was pretty nice, I got there when the Cubs were finishing up batting practice, so I waited in the outfield for a homerun, but none came near me, although one hit off the second deck’s facade above me.  Big concourses, lots of place to get food or souvenirs, A Train above the left field wall for excitement when the Astros hit a homer.  Not sure what a train has to do with astros.  Neat having the window behind it, seeing the skyline.  I sat in the second row of the upper deck, pretty good seats for $22.  But the stadium was 70%full (yeah right) so I was able to move down later, and the ushers didn’t care.

Zambrano started the game, but the Cubs couldn’t swing the bats, so they lost 3-1.  It is amazing how well cubs fans travel.  Everywhere you see a Cubs game, you see plenty of Cubs fans.  That was even true for the Iowa Cubs.  I remember when I saw them in Atlanta in 2003, walking in downtown before the game, Cubs jerseys everywhere.  Quite cool.

They opened up the roof after the game for some fireworks.  Still only 8 minutes worth, compared to the average 7 min for the minors that I have seen.  I thought they might go a little longer, seeing that they are the bigs and all.  But still fun as always.

Corpus Christi Hooks

 

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There were  a couple more missions to see in San Antonio before I left.  The one with the bells is San Juan Capistrano.  They are actually still functioning as Catholic parishes.  Traveling down to Corpus Christi, I decided to get off the interstate again.  I think there are less people traveling back roads here than in IL. The roads are in better condition in IL.   A town here looked like it had all dirt roads.  Through Corpus Christi (a surprising population of 277,000) to Padre Island, my site for tonight.  That picture is my tent on the beach.  Cool, huh?  Just wait for the sunrise pictures tomorrow.

I took a long walk on the beach.  There was a ton of seaweed out, but no oil!  Lots of little crabs scurrying around, and gulls above.  I actually walked far enough to get blisters on my big toes.

The stadium is called Whataburger Field, after a fast food chain.  I am going to go home and see if we can get our stadium Cookout Field, then maybe we can get shakes all the time!  The exterior wasn’t brick, and not particularly inspiring.  But once inside, there are some nice touches.  You have the bridge past centerfield, and part of the scoreboard is mounted on this seaport-looking metal hut thing, which was nice.  There were tons of things to have kids do so you wouldn’t have to have them watch baseball, even a basketball court.  And lots of the restaurant seating was where you couldn’t see the game, also odd.  But the game was good, the Hooks beat the dreaded Springfield Cardinals into the ground, 8-1.  I’ve noticed a few stadiums recently that have an organ playing.  I don’t know for sure if it is really an organ, or a recording of one.  I think it is real though.  They still have their piped in music too, but it is great to hear an organ at the park.

San Antonio Missions

 

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So I decided to get off the interstate today, and used some back roads, since Austin –> San Antonio isn’t too far.  I ended up near Canyon Lake, which finally gave me a little bit of the look I was hoping for in TX, the low scattered brush on gray hills that you tend to see in the movies. In San Antonio, saw a mission that is part of the National Park, then the Alamo, which isn’t.  The commercialism at the Alamo was a little sad, but they did have plenty of good historical signs around as well.  I was warned that it wasn’t much to see, but I was impressed none the less.  I then toured the Riverwalk, which I could imagine to be quite nice on a Friday night.  Wednesday at 4, with it being 90 degrees, it was ok, and even kind of stinky at points.

Onto the game.  Nice park, but no cupholders at any seats.  I am beginning to enjoy everyone’s “who cares you bought the $5 grass seat, sit in the $15 front row” policy.  Another nice hat, has the Alamo on it.  Good game going on, decent show and such.  Then you hear a little rumbling.  I thought maybe it was a plane or something.  Then I look over the 3rd base stands, and it looks a bit dark.  Well, it is 8:30 pm.  The San Antonio pitcher is throwing a hitter through 6 innings, and then a gust of wind comes up.  And by gust I mean a sustained 40 mph wind that blows everything everywhere, knocks out power to the stadium, and sends people running for their cars.  I didn’t, because I like seeing a little rainstorm every now and then.  After about 2 minutes, I am looking for shelter to run to if a tornado dropped down.  Seriously.  Thankfully it didn’t but it was fun to watch the ground crew get the tarp down in the dark and the wind.  I think some of the players actually helped.  They did a good job considering.  After about 45 minutes of monsoon, I run out to the parking lot only to realize I can’t see in the dark parking lot.  So A) where is my truck and B)where are all the puddles.  I was able to answer these by B) stepping in all of them and A) Running from end to end of the parking lot. So I was wet.  Oh yeah, and I left my sleeping bag in the back of my truck.  Good thing it is warm here.

Driving back to the campground, I realized that I had left my tent windows down to promote airflow.  So I got pretty worried that I was going to be drowned out.  But blessed Walmart tent held up quite well, just a few drops here and there.  Note the picture of the pond about 4 feet from my tent.  As of 11pm, I’m still dry!

Round Rock Express

 

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Well, I had the highlight of my trip today.  But we’ll get back to that.  I hustled to break camp early, to get to the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for a tour.  With poor signage on the roads, I barely made it, but it was a decent tour.  Got to see the clubhouse, press box, suite, dugout.  Not bad, although I would have like to see a view from above like we got in SF.  The new Cowboy Stadium is next door, and is awfully large, but looks good.

Hitting the road, poor signage once again had me take a little longer than necessary to get on the interstate.  At one point, I had signs on either side of the street pointing to different directions.  Down towards Waco, I had some free time and went to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.  For how much history there was here, I was a little disappointed.  Baylor is also in Waco, and the 3 minute driving tour, it looked nice.

The game at Round Rock was against the Iowa Cubs, so another chance to see our future stars.  And Ryno.  This time I was able to get there a bit before game time, and he was singing autographs near the dugout.  I had brought my Cubs cap and a sharpie in anticipation of this.  So I stood in line, not knowing what to say when I got there, but it ended up something like this- “Can you sign this?” (no response) “Thank you sir”, Ryno-“Sure” And those 5 seconds were the greatest moment of this trip and I now have a Ryne Sandberg autographed Cubs hat, that I will never wear again, and will be displayed in a glass case. (maybe not a glass case)

Round Rock has a nice stadium, although kind of small for AAA I think, it did start out 10 years ago as a AA stadium.  Has a lot of berm in the outfield, which the Cubs hit two homeruns to, and a cool Homerun porch in LF.  Nice scoreboard, and two RHE boards on both 3rd and 1st base sides.  The people seemed to be into the game a bit more, and the stadium was maybe 2/3 full at best.  And the Cubs won 3-2, with Micah Hoffpauir getting a 9th inning HR and Schlitter saving the game.  Compared to Nashville where Hoffpauir got tossed and Schlitter blew the game in the ninth.  GO CUBS!

Frisco Rough Riders

 

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Started the day by going to Little Rock Central HS, the site of the school desegregation battle, which is now a national historic site.  So there was a small visitor center, with a museum.  Nicely done.

On the road to Texas, for the first time!  So part of the reason I came to Texas was to mark it off my list.  Crossing that border(which doesn’t have a big Welcome to Texas sign), I hit #37!  Unsurprisingly, I have a spreadsheet that lists what states I have been in, and also tallies how many I have built in (12) and done some sort of baseball-related activity(26)  I had always counted AR, but had really just driven through on the short stretch of I-55 on a work trip in college.  So it is fully legit now. All states touching the Mississippi River and east, I’ve been too.  I need to head west.  Unfortunately, road trips from NC are expensive to go to Idaho(sorry Tim) Someday, though.

Anyway, after a solid drive to Frisco, I got to Dr Pepper Ballpark.  It is next to a mall, so plenty of free parking!  Thats good, since I had to pay $3 in tolls to get there. (I’ll get back to that).  The stadium was really cool.  Another new one(I think 2008) but it is different.  Instead of a normal suite level, they are individual buildings, with cupolas on top of each.  Very neat.  I don’t know if that is Texas-y or what, but a cool change of pace.  There was even a pool past the right field fence.  Nice having the scoreboard being in a different place than the video screen, makes it seem a little more old-school.  The mascots were fine, and the inbetween entertainment was fine.  They had a $10 meal plan, where you could get a burger and fries and a Dr.Pepper product, so I thought, yum, maybe a burger instead of a hotdog.  Bad idea. After a couple of bites, I actually double checked to make sure it wasn’t a veggie burger for its lack of taste.  Nope, it was meat(sort of) that was just bad.  One bad thing about the stadium was there were no overhangs, so in the brutal Texas sun, it was hot.  So after a little bit (game was a 4:00 start) all the fans were sitting on the 3rd base side to get what little shade was offered by the suites. It was odd having half the stadium full, and the other half virtually empty.

Decent game, Frisco won 9-6.  8 runs in one inning pretty much sealed the deal.  Although the game wasn’t close, this was still the lamest group of fans.  Very quiet throughout the game, even when they were knocking the ball around that inning.  Love the hat though, simple, yet more than just letters.

Drove through Dallas on my way to the State Park.  Absolute ghost town.  I know it was 7pm on Memorial Day, but really, it was kind of creepy.  And back to the tolls.  I don’t mind tolls at all, they are underused in America, and most people have figured out the I-Pass or whatever they call it in your state.  But in TX, they don’t want to play with others so their ‘Tolltag’ isn’t compatible.  Boo.  Get with the program.  And why don’t you have a sign up to welcome me into the state? I was stoked about getting a picture of it, #37 and all, and then nothing.  Just construction. Lame.  TXDOT, you are on my list right now.  You have 5 days to redeem yourself.