SB Nation User Blog: MidKnight

My Roadtrip: Cove Update & Giants @ Cubs, 7/11

MidKnight — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:57:46 -0000

Salutations again, guys! I'm a little over a month through with my roadtrip to all 30 parks, and about 8 stadiums in. I've seen almost all of the California teams (saving the Giants for last, though), in addition to Arizona, Seattle, Colorado, and Minnesota. Figured I'd give you all the stadium rundown...

Anaheim: We started the trip here, for better or worse. While the 2002 World Series highlights they played before the game caused me to die a little inside, the park itself wasn't too bad at all. They did a good job turning a stadium into a ballpark. The fans packed the place (though it was Father's Day), and seemed pretty knowledgeable. The game was against the Braves, so I was conflicted with who to root for.

Arizona: Chase Field was pretty sweet. Phoenix at 115 degrees was not. The game was against the A's and the few east bay fans in attendance made their presence heard. Decent showing of red and black, but nothing special.

San Diego: Gotta say, outside of teh phone booth, PetCo is the best park I've seen so far. Doesn't look like there's a bad seat in the house. The park behind center field is nice, too. Finally was able to see Maddux pitch, too.

Los Angeles: A shithole. I felt bad enough wading into enemy territory, but they really didn't help their cause. The stadium's located in a bad area of town, and the "fans" bring books/work to the game and are generally loud and annoying. A waste of three hours.

Seattle: Nice city, and a very nice park. They were playing the Blue Jays the day before Canada Day, so about 90% of the people in attendance were Jays fans. Was fine with that at first, but around the 5th time a drunk Canadian ran up and down the stairs with a maple leaf flag, I started to get annoyed.

Colorado: Surprisingly nice park. Beer is far cheaper than anywhere else I've been to, and there seems to be plenty to do around the stadium. Fans were knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The Rocks came back to win in the 11th, and they had a July 3rd fireworks show right after the game.

Twins: A little bit nicer than I expected. It feels pretty odd, though; definitely seems like you're in a football stadium. Lots of local representation, though...everyone in attendance had some sort of Twins gear on, and the 10 year old boy next to me was keeping score. Props to him!

Anyway, that's it so far. We're going to be going to the Giants vs. Cubs game on the 11th and I'm pretty psyched. I'll be there decked out in as much Giants gear as I can. I know there's a lot of misplaced SF natives out there in SF...if any of you all feel like grabbing a beer, give me a shout! Also, we're having a problem finding CouchSurfers in Chicago, oddly enough. Anyone happen to have a place for two Giants fans to crash on the 10th and 11th? We'll do dishes, and you get to hear me talk about Timmy for hours. Either way, I'll check back in a couple weeks with another update...the website as always is www.thebaseballroadtrip.com.

Best. Game. Ever.

MidKnight — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:54:37 -0000

You might have already seen this on Fark or Digg, but it's worth the re-post. The social improv group Improv Everywhere decided to crash a little league game with a ton of people and try to make it seem like a real sporting event. Tons of fans...broadcasters...you'll see. The kids look floored, and towards the end the coaches are wondering what the hell is going on. Worth a view.

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/04/07/best-game-ever/

My Baseball Roadtrip

MidKnight — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:14:54 -0000

This coming summer a good friend and I are going on the fabled "baseball roadtrip" and seeing a game at every park. The friend wasn't a baseball guy until a year or so ago, at which point my constant nagging converted him to a Giants fan. As such, he'll probably hate me for the next couple of years. Anyway, our prior planned visit to Europe was scrapped for something infinitely better. We've been saving and planning for the better part of a year now, and the whole thing is starting to really pick up pace. Either that, or I'm just getting pumped that baseball is back on radio and TV.

I leave good ol' San Luis Obispo on the 11th of June (during finals!) to head up and meet my friend, then catch a game at Oakland. After that, we head down the coast catching the SoCal teams (enemy territory), Arizona, then back up for a wedding in Auburn and off to Seattle. From there, we hit Colorado and pretty much loop around the US. At the very end, we'll be coming back to hit a game at the Phone Booth (September 5th). Just in time to see Timmy pitch a no-no, and Schierholtz to hit his 30th homer of the year. A guy can dream, no?

In any case, we've got a bunch of things in place, so I figure I'd give you all a heads-up. We've got a little blog at www.thebaseballroadtrip.com detailing our plan and route, and a link to our facebook group as well (about 50 people so far!). We're hoping to build up a little hype about it so we can write a book chronicling our trip across America, and perhaps score a few free tickets if at all possible. I talked to a guy who has done the trip before who gave me some nice pointers on who to email, but I don't have my hopes set too high on that.

Either way, I'll have a laptop and a nice, shiny camera with me, so we'll be updating the blog often once June hits. Additionally, I'll stop in here and post some updates at the cove for you guys when I get a chance. I'll see us play at Wrigley and Turner field before we head back to SF.

We'll be using a site called CouchSurfing to crash with random people along the way to keep our costs low. It seems pretty legit, and hopefully we won't get killed along the way . If any of you displaced Giants' fans out there happen to have a room to spare for a day or two, though, let me know! If not, and you want to catch a game or just have a beer when we're in town, give me a shout! It'd be great to chat and put some names to faces. I set up an email addy for just this purpose: thebaseballroadtrip@gmail.com. Creative, I know. Finally, have any of you all done the trip before? Anyone have any tips? We're trying to cover all our bases early so we don't end up stranded in the middle of Florida with no cash; a fate far worse than death. I know there's a good travel-guide or two out there about the parks, but I figure I'll post on a few other (select) boards in towns we'll be spending a long time in.

Whew...sorry for the long post.

Favorite Homeruns?

MidKnight — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:21:01 -0000

Since I have nothing better to do aside from wait for the Third Coming of Pedro, I got to thinking about something: homeruns. I'm not sure there's anything quite like them in all of sports. They come out of nowhere: one second a pitch is just another pitch and the next the course of a game is changed completely. What are some of your favorite homeruns? The ones you've seen in person or on TV, doesn't matter. Giants or otherwise.

For me, a couple stand out in my memory. The best, most exciting homerun I've ever seen was on Barry's birthday a few years back. The original Timmeh (Worrell) is in against the D-Backs in the top of the 9th inning, with the game tied. A liner is hit to Bonds on a hop. Counsell rounds third and heads for home. Bonds throws a perfect one-hop seed to Torrealba to gun him down at the plate. Inning over. Bonds is leading off the bottom of the night. Mike Myers (or Austin Powers?) is brought in to face him. First pitch, he sends it into deep left-center to end it. I was going nuts. Almost as great was Kuiper's line when Barry came out for a current call: "And Barry's coming out to say 'Folks, thanks for coming to my party.'"

Otherwise, let me think...The Ball that Never Landed (Lidge vs. Pujols). I told my roommate that he would send it out right when he stepped up the plate. JT vs. the Mets, too, of course. How about the rest of you?