Kalamazoo Kings

 

View Full Album

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

 

View Full Album

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.

Houston Astros

 

View Full Album

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.

Arkansas Travelers

 

View Full Album

Well, let me back up a little and tell you all why this trip is.  When I moved to NC, I realized that there were a lot of minor league teams within 3 hours of me.  So I figured, I could make a Sunday journey out of this.  So every so often, I would take a Sunday and go to one of the parks around me.  I would get a hat to prove that I had been there.  Then I had something in MI that I wanted to go to, and figured, why not see a ballgame on the way, or 6.  So thus began my first trip in 2008, seeing some games in WV, OH, IN, and IL.  I called it ‘Road of Dreams’ trip, combining road trip and Field of Dreams.  And it has ballooned ever since.

Didn’t do anything in Memphis this morning, just hit the road for AR.  It hit me back.  Bumpiest stretch of I40 west I’ve hit.  Terrible.  I get a state map every time I enter a state for the first time.  So I was able to stop at the visitor center and ask about AR.  She said Little Rock had a party every Memorial Day Weekend called Riverfest, with music and food.  So I went.  It was a decent time, had the Jesse White Tumblers, which I remember from 20 years ago in Wheaton.  They had dog jumping, which will be on Versus in August. Then they had a downpour.  Thankfully, I timed my visit to the Clinton Presidential Library around the rain.  It was nice, but I see why people call it a trailer.  But I was kicked out due to closing time, and didn’t quite see all of it.  But onto the baseball game…

Another game delayed at the start by rain.  I think the last 4 have been delayed by rain at some point.  But the stadium is another nice one, has a view of the “skyline” off of right field.  Another one with a brick facade and dark green seats.  The scoreboard is nice and big, but there isn’t a secondary RHE scoreboard elsewhere, so if you are sitting in the lawn seats, you can’t see a scoreboard.  The game was over in 2 hours, a pitchers duel.  Arkansas won 2-1, off of 2 solo homers.  Those were big homers too, no-doubters.  Another nice thing about this park was that the concessions were affordable.  $3 beer and $3 sausages, popcorn $2.  Not the major league prices Memphis had last night.

After the game, I went back to RiverFest for the closing acts.  They had fireworks at 9:00 over the river.  Billed as the largest firework show in the state of Arkansas, it was ok.  At least they mixed up their styles of fireworks, which many minor league shows don’t do.  But then the music happened.  Rapper Ludacris was a big draw.  I skipped him to see the Steve Miller Band!  Much better, and he played the good stuff, but some other blues songs.  I didn’t stay the whole time, since I didn’t want to get locked out of the campground.  But impressive.  I am not good at estimating crowds, so I won’t put a number on it, but tons of people were there, both for SMB and Ludacris, and everything else at Riverfest.  Who knew Little Rock could put on such a show?

Nashville Sounds

View Full Album

Well, I started the day hiking at Monte Sano SP in AL.  I am figuring I did about 6mi or so.  Nothing spectacular, not a technical hike, just a couple of steep areas, often flat and wide-ish paths.  But I would like to commend them on a fine trail map.  This is the way it should be done.  Have a legit map, color coded, that says difficulty ratings(although I think they overated some), and that has different blazes for different paths.  It is hard when in the woods you have a diverging path, that both have white blazes.  Here, choose the yellow or the red path.  Although the forks here had nice signposts. I don’t understand why all trail system aren’t like this.  The guide also was topographic, which was great.  But oops, they spelled ‘scenic’ wrong in the key.

Onto Nashville-  I was hoping to stay at a state park, but it is Memorial Day Weekend.  TN State parks are first come first served, so that didn’t work. I called when I first drove into TN and realized this before I drove to it, so i ended up staying at Yogi Bear Jellystone Resort right near Opryland.  I like state parks better, but in the big city, this was actually kind of convenient.  And its Yogi Bear!

Now the game…. Nashville was playing the Iowa Cubs, our AAA affiliate.  And my childhood hero, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is the manager.  So that was awesome.  Before the game, he had a line of fans getting his autograph.  I wonder what it is like to be a player on that team, and seeing your manager sign autographs for half an hour while you are warming up.  The sky was threatening, but the game got underway.  In the bottom of the first, it started raining, and pretty hard.  They played through it.  Before the top of the second, it started to taper off.  So they decided to put the tarp out then!  Ryno was not happy- a theme for the night.  After about 20 minutes, they took it off.  It started raining again.  Nice job umps.  But this time it wasn’t too bad.  But I was wet and cold the rest of the game. 

It was neat to know some of the players, the Cubs who have been in the bigs.  Like Micah Hoffpauir.  He was up to bat, and struck out on a check swing.  He wasn’t happy and made a gesture(which had to have been accompanied by some words) and was immediately tossed out.  I was sitting in the fourth row behind the dugout, and I couldn’t hear anything.  It must of been bad, because just pointing at the ump, while stupid, seems like something that could be let go.  Then he got mad.  Getting up in the umps face.  Then Ryno, who was coaching 3rd base as most minor league managers do, came down to get between Hoffpauir and the ump.  It got a little heated, but everyone went on their way.  The next inning, when Ryno was in the dugout, the ump called a Nashville player out on strikes, with an unconvincing strike 3 call.  As an ump  myself, that sounded like the ump forgot it was strike 3 when he started the call, and then had to make it sound good at the end.  Ryno must have said something, about the ump goofing, because the ump in his most grown up voice turned to the dugout and told him to be quiet.  Anyway, the game continued, and the Cubs made a great comeback, and were up 5-4  when in came Brian Schlitter to save the game.  Oops.  After a base hit, they got a walkoff homer.  Cubs lose, 6-5.  The stadium was a 30 yr old stadium, not a great scoreboard(although cool shape).  Not a good pro shop, or concessions.  Once again, kind of empty, but I’ll blame that on the weather.  The in game promotions were fine, and being able to sit where I wanted was nice.  I like ushers that don’t care.  And really, when 1/4 of the stadium is full, who cares?

Mileage: 94395

Tent takedown: 4:40

Tent setup: 10:31 (I spent the time and cleaned out the ends of the poles, one of which has a crack that is getting bigger)

Nashville itself seems like a fun place.  I don’t even like country music, but it is neat to walk down the street and hear so much live music, regardless of the time of day.  Also, you saw some places closed due to flooding rehab, and saw a lot of construction trucks around.  It is hard to believe that downtown had that much water covering it.

Winston-Salem Dash

So tonight was the first game, at the new stadium in Winston.  A few things to say.  I know W-S is only half an hour away, and each time I go there, I know why I don’t go there much.  No matter where I’ve been in WS, it always seems sketchy.  The park is on the outskirts of downtown I think, and maybe it will spur an urban revival.  Let’s hope so.  The park is great, has a quirky outfield wall.  A little Fenway-ish.  Not too many nice concession stands it seemed.  Worst pretzel ever.  Very dry, and it didn’t help that I didn’t have a beverage.  The game was good, they won 13-3.  A scary moment at the end though.  With one strike left to go, the Lynchburg batter got beaned in the head, and dropped like a sack of potatoes.  He got up after a minute, and walked off under his own power. Fireworks after, 7 minutes worth.  Not bad, but no turkey killers.