Baseball 2005

We set sail west for Kansas City late yesterday morning, heading for Kaufmann Stadium and the game between the KC Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays. We arrived in Kansas City and headed directly for the stadium, which is off of I-70. When we arrived, Toronto was just starting batting practice, so after picking up the tickets at will call, we entered the ball park and I headed down for the seats in the right field corner, next to Toronto's bullpen. I came within an eyelash of getting a ball during BP. A Blue Jay hit a ball in the next section over a row up from where I was sitting and watching and another guy and I were in hot pursuit. Had the ball bounced up or toward the right in my direction, I would have had it, but lady luck was not smiling on me yesterday in more ways than one, and the ball skipped to the left away from us both and toward the guy's friend who had just been standing watching us.

This ballpark was more beautiful than I could imagine from video and pictures. There are fountains beyond the outfield wall that operate as synchronized jets of water. Once the sun set, lights were added and the show was very nice between innings. As for the game, the Royals jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and was leading up until the beginning of the seventh inning by a score of 5-3. For several hours prior to the game, I knew that there were air conditioning problems at my house in Tennessee. During the game, I got a call from my long suffering wife, who said there were still big problems. We left the game and were walking out into the parking lot when I realized the camera case to my digital camera was still sitting underneath my seat in the park.

I went back toward the park and was hoping to get someone to at least call security to have someone go over and pick it up. I had gotten some help at one gate and no help at all at a second gate before I walked up to the doors to the business office. It was there where two team officials heard my story and allowed me to go back into the park to retrieve my bag. Their kindness has won a Royals supporter from now on as they will be a team I will root for when I am not cheering my beloved Braves.

We left this morning headed back for Tennessee and at the moment, I am typing this from my relatively cool office in my house. I hope you enjoyed these reports as much as I did writing them. I'll very likely go on another trip this year, and if you thought this was entertaining enough for me to do this again next year, please leave a comment for me here and let me know.

Okay, I told you guys last night that we were just going to hang out and take in the sights in St Louis without a trip to the ballpark, right? Wrong. We found out this morning that Busch Stadium is sold out for tomorrow night and Saturday night, which precipitated a mad dash downtown purchasing tickets for today's game while tooling down I-70.

So, off we go to the afternoon game between the Lads of Miller (Milwaukee) and the Lads of Budweiser (St Louis) at Busch Stadium. This is the final year for what I will term as Classic Busch. Being built right next door is the replacement, aptly named... Drumroll please... Busch Stadium. Unique, huh?

The Stadium has shown it's age gracefully. This stadium was built at the same time as Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Riverfront Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium, however it is the only stadium of that era still standing. We sat in the first row of the upper deck, right behind the right-field foul pole. Seats were good, it was 385 degrees at the ballpark (okay, gametime temperature is 98, but it felt like it).

We left in the eighth, when Milwaukee's Best had the game well in hand and went to the St Louis Arch. Got some great photos of downtown Louie. I'll try and work on getting the photos from the last few nights ready to post tomorrow morning. And speaking of tomorrow, we already have tickets ready at Will Call at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City behind the third-base dugout for tomorrow night's game. All is well in St Louis for now. Team Baseball signing out.

This morning, Team Baseball woke and drove to U.S. Cellular Field and the matinee between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. The Tigers surprised the South Side lads with timely hitting and good defense in route to an 8-6 victory. The Sox had a chance to tie the game in the ninth, however could not bridge the gap before the Tigers had out number three (no sportswriting background, mind you).

The stadium itself was nicer, although there was a problem on and off through the game with the sound system for our section in the stadium. We sat on the last row of the lower level in section 128 and could not hear the public address announcer at times due to a short in the speaker, or the wiring. Other than that, I thought the park was fairly nice. The Sox has put the sponsorship money from U.S. Cellular to good use. There was an hour rain delay in the 4th, which made us late getting out from Chicago, so there is a change to our itinerary as a result. We will not be going to Thursday's Cardinals-Brewers game here in St Louis, however we will be going to Kansas City on Friday and Busch Stadium on Saturday for the Cardinals-Cubs and then heading to TN on Sunday.

We also drove through a nasty nasty nasty thunderstorm in Wilmington IL on the way to St Louis. Rain going sideways and lightning strikes all over the place. But we made it here without a lot of problems after that.

Tonight, Team Baseball spent dinner in downtown Chicago and part of the night taking in the view of Chicago and Lake Michigan via the Observation Deck of the John Hancock Building. Unfortunately the night sky, which was great for my digital camera, wasn't very good for making pictures with my camera phone, so photos will come at some point in the future.

Tomorrow, we check out of the hotel here and go to U.S. Cellular Field to watch the White Sox take on the Detroit Tigers. We'll leave immediately following the game and head to St Louis, so tomorrow night's update will be from the Gateway to the West.

We woke up early yesterday morning and set out for Minneapolis. We stopped at a Hardee's in Janesville WI where we found out, much to our astonishment that the kitchen had to be reminded to put butter on their butter buscuits.

First stop was here. I spent some time in one of those odd looking water massage units and I have to say that it was money well spent. We took the Minneapolis rail system from the mall downtown to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Twins. I admit to being a little leery of this part of the trip. After all, this is a place of horrors for Braves fans that remember the 1991 World Series. We had great seats in the left field corner on the first row, and wouldn't you know it, the first game on the trip that is sandwiched in between long rides went into extra innings. We decided to leave in the top of the 11th, but were still in the building when Miguel Tejada hit the go-ahead homer in the top of the inning. Today is an R&R day in Chicago after arriving back at our hotel at 5 AM CDT.

We woke up this morning and drove to downtown Chicago to park and took the El to Wrigley Field for the Cubs-Pirates matinee. Any baseball fan should at least see one game in Wrigley if they can do so. To be in the same place where so much history in the game has been made was something else. The last trip I had to Wrigley got rained out before the seventh inning stretch, so I was happy to hear this guy lead the park in "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". That being said, Wrigley isn't very fan friendly (which makes sense since the park is almost 100 years old).

After the game, Team Baseball returned downtown and went on a archetectural boat tour of downtown Chicago, which we enjoyed. We ate at Navy Pier and returned to the hotel after making a short pit stop at Harpo Studios to the joy of the distaff member of Team Baseball.

Another note about our hotel. We have no commode. Honest. We have a water closet (at least that is what the sticker on top says). There's a big silver button on top of the commode you press and then everything shoots out of the bottom at the speed of sound. Crazy, huh?

Tomorrow is a very early start on the road to Minneapolis. Team Baseball will spend time at the Mall of America before heading to the hefty bag to see the Twins take on the Orioles. We be back in late so look for our next update late Tuesday morning.

The Brewers said that last night's attendance of 45,079 was the second largest crowd to see a game at Miller Park.

We went to the House on the Rock, which is north of Dodgeville WI. It's a really neat building built on a rock outcropping. The house is unique and we went through the house and the accompanying buildings which housed a unique collection of dollhouses, models of circuses and the largest indoor merry-go-round.


We got to Miller Park late and didn't get into the building until after the second inning, however the ballpark is really nice and unique. It has a retractable roof, which was open tonight. Team Baseball had to be split up. Shawn and Jennifer sat in the upper deck (only had two seats together), and I sat one level down. Miller Park is known for two things, Bernie Brewer sliding down his slide when the Brewers hit a homer and the sausage races between the 6th and 7th innings. For those keeping count, the hot dog won tonight's race and the Suds Boys did not hit a homer, so no sliding for Bernie.

Tomorrow.... Well, later today. Wrigley Field and the Pirates vs. Cubs.

It's partly cloudy but not bad this morning. Going to Miller Park to see the (Choose your favorite Milwaukee Brewers euphemism: Brew Crew, Suds Boys, Beer Makers, Lads of Lager). Really interested in seeing the new ballpark, and I'm also interested in going to the city where the Braves were before heading to Dixie in 1966. Before that, we are driving out Madison way to go to the The House on the Rock which is close to Dodgeville WI.

One thing I forgot to add to the previous post, call it amusing story number one from this trip. I am in the bathroom, preparing to shave before we leave to meet the Chicago gang when I pop the top of the can of shaving gel and begin to place a modest amount of gel in my hand. Of course you know what happens... The gel shoots out all over my tshirt. But the upside is that the tshirt has a very smooth shave and a decent scent.

The trip went smoothly. We made it in 8 hours, could have made it a bit quicker had we not had to go down to one lane on I-90. We got to the hotel and checked in. It's a Hampton Inn next to O'Hare International Airport and is quite nice. We met up with Marlene, Liz and Gerry, whom I work with out of my company's Chicago office, then went to eat dinner at Hooters O'Hare. We just go for the food and the articles, mind you.

Joining me on the trip is Shawn Basler and his wife Jennifer. Shawn is a Pittsburgh Pirates fan and we've been friends going back to our days in college at Kmart. Shawn and Jennifer are both educators, Shawn at Coalfield High School, where he teaches middle school math and is director of athletics. Jennifer teaches kindergarten. Alas, my wife Melanie (also a Kmart alum) can't make the trip due to her job. Shawn is posing with our car, compliments of Avis

Just to set the stage, my name is Greg Addington and I work for U.S. Cellular in Knoxville TN. Baseball is not life or death to me, it's much more important than that. Last July, some friends and I had the inaugural baseball trip to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. We're doing the same thing this year. This is our blog of the trip. Welcome, kick back and relax and enjoy the next several days.