It has been 29 years since I’ve been to Erie! I found a campground right on the beach near Waldemere, a amusement park, where a roller coaster goes right over the road. The stadium is right downtown, and is attached to a arena. The left field fence is actually the wall of the arena, with the yellow homerun stripe painted halfway up, since it is shorter from home plate. The rest of the set up is odd too. Jerry Uht Park is home to an AA affiliate, but capacity is only 4300 or so. There are only like 5 rows of box seats, then a wide walkway, then an elevated upper deck on the first base side (also with minimal rows) and an upper seating section (with much more rows) on the third base side. The game started an hour late due to a rain delay, but there was plenty of covered space for people to hang out and wait, which they did. Lots of picnic tables up the right field line. Good food options here. The team store was ridiculously tiny, but this hat was worth it! Once the game started, they were a fun experience. Until the 7th inning, when it started raining again. Even though fireworks were supposed to be going off after the game, I decided not to wait around for them. I’m guessing they didn’t start the game back, since it was raining contiually from then on, and the game had been official already.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Reading Fightin Phils
First off free parking. Thanks! Walking up, there is a beautiful new façade. Which is weird, because I thought this was built in 1950. Right upon walking in, I feel a buzz about this place. There is pretty much a plaza once you get in where there are tons of concessions, a live band playing and the normal kid bouncy house kind of stuff. Once you get out to the field, it is very ordinary by today’s standards. Metal grandstands for the gen admission folk, average seats (w/o cupholders) for the box seats. A somewhat covered area for some of the seats behind home plate. But no skyboxes! There are places you can rent out, party-deck type places along the outfield and down the third base line. Even a pool! Lots of beer selection, huge amount of food options. Seemed like an old school baseball stadium, and even with the $10 million in upgrades (according to an usher) I don’t think they are trying to change anything. I think they like their heritage. They claim to be the longesst affiliated team in the minors (AA Phillies since 1967). Tradition is worth it. Keep it up Reading, you are in my top 10.
Philadelphia Phillies
Got to take a tour, which is always fun. Get to see the places I’d never get to see. A dugout, clubhouse, press box. Kind of fun. Another newer ballpark, looks beautiful. Except for all the Phillies logos. Not sure if I will wear this hat much after today. I then did some cheesesteak testing, went to Pat’s, then across the street to Geno’s. Went to Tony Luke’s the day before. All pretty good. If I had to pick one, I would say Pat’s.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Allentown, PA. They seriously need some downtown revitalization. It looks like they are building a hockey rink downtown, for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. But the baseball stadium is not downtown. It is AAA level ball, so my expectations were raised, and it was a good place. Tons of food selections, including roasted corn, which here was with butter, parmesan cheese and some other something, a little spicy. It was called ‘Aw Shucks’ Style. I think that was just the name of the place that sold them. Very good. They also had a ticket package that gave you money off of food inside. Like a $7 ticket plus $3 gave you $5 worth of food inside. I wish more parks would do that. Everybody wins. You save money, and the team makes money because you go to the concession stand and spend more money. The stadium had an upper deck, which I wasn’t even allowed in because I didn’t have a ticket. They weren’t even boxes or anything, just upper deck tickets. Stingy ushers here. I sat down in a box seat for an inning, then the usher came and told me to leave. And there were plenty of available seats.
LV won 7-0, on a 3-hitter. I almost won a free hat from the speed pitch game. I hit 75, but some other guy came later and hit 76. Oh well. Fireworks after the game, about 8 minutes worth. Average amount, but lot of turkey-killers(the really bright flash and huge bang). They also had right behind home plate at ground level, some luxury boxes. They were inset, and kind of dropped. Kind of neat, also made the net go all the way to the ground, which I have seen a couple of other places as well. Ferrous and FeFe were the mascots. For you periodic table nerds, that will be funny. They did a good job all around playing off their IronPigs name. Their program was called ‘Pork Illustrated’, and the font was the same as Sports `Illustrated.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Baltimore Orioles
Back to the big leagues… And back to Camden Yards. The first retro stadium, and one I had taken a tour of a few years ago. Gorgeous park. Lots of food(bring lots of money) and the sausage tastes great. $8 beers not tested. $10 parking, not bad for the bigs. 3 homeruns by the O’s won it 4-2. This was a Sunday Night Baseball game against the Yankees. The Yankees fans made plenty of noise as well. Don’t like the lack of a on all the time line-score. They had 2 beautiful screens in center, but if they wanted to show some video or animation, the line score disappeared. Of course, I love seeing the warehouse past right field. Makes me think of Ripken and his streak. Sat upper deck 3rd base first 7 innings, then moved down behind home plate, no usher giving me a hard time. I appreciate that. Rich people shouldn’t have all the fun! The fans were really into it, both because the O’s are doing well right now, and they don’t like the Yankees much. Great time there, if you get a chance to go, take it!!
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Bowie Baysox
I got there an hour early to take a relaxing tour, but they started playing instead! Apparently they were going to be playing a doubleheader to makeup for the previous day’s rainout. As is customary in minor leagues, that means two 7-inning games. Average stadium, more the tan split face block instead of the red brick. Lots of bench general admission seating. Capacity ~10000. There were maybe 1500 there on what began as a sunny summer day. In the bottom of the first, the Senators pitcher walked 3 people in a row to set up a nice grand slam!! He didn’t even make it out of the first inning, Bowie up 6-0. The Baysox pitcher went all 7, and threw a no-hitter! I think this is the second one I saw, after a combo no-no I think at Greensboro, 4/24/12. I tried to stay for the second game, but it started to rain, and I had still had to set up camp before the Orioles game that night. Could have had a triple header!! The chicken sausage with pepper and onions was great, and a craft beer, something with devil in the name of it. Expensive though. 7.50 for the beer, 12 GA tickets, 6.50 for the sausage. OK hat. Kind of a ho-hum experience from the stadium though. I could imagine if there were more fans it could be quite fun. Free onsite parking though!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tacoma Rainiers
I came back a day early from my trip to Glacier NP, so I was able to scoot down to Tacoma for the Rainiers, the AAA affiliate of the Mariners. I think it is good when the AAA affiliate is so close to the bigs geographically. The ballpark is nice with the wood overhang and such, but it doesn’t seem at the AAA level. Capacity is 9600, somehow, but it seems small, and doesn’t have tons of amenities. The food and beer prices are at big league levels though. Yikes. Also the parking lot they feed you to is by the slowest ticket office ever in left field. Seems weird. Also a lot of steps to climb once you are in the park. The game started, and Ryan Langerhans, who has big league experience, played bush league first base, dropping two pop flies to him, one of which opened up the inning for 4 runs. Ergo, they lost 6-2. Nice, simple hat. Their alternate had a mountain on it, which seems even better. But I don’t do alternates. If you look carefully in some of the pictures, you can see mt Rainier in the background. Impressive.