Category Archives: Baseball

And the reverse

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Today was not the day for the White Sox. Just to let you know that up front. End score was 14:0 in favor of the As.

This was the final game of tickets provided on our Spring Training Package and we wound up seated in section 100 which is directly behind home plate. The various scouts were in the row behind us. The two closest were more than sociable; complete with their own radar guns. A good reminder that fast and control are two entirely separate entities. Duh, I think – that is more than obvious with cars and drivers – why wouldn’t it be the same for pitchers of baseball.

I just relaxed and enjoyed the game. Afterwards we joined a friend at the Culinary Dropout – fun restaurant located in a warehouse near the main ASU campus in Tempe. From there it was barely a 10 minute drive to our hotel for the night. I elected to not bother to return the car this evening as it ours till morning anyway.  This was after checking our plane tickets and finding we were not on the 0530 flight but the 0840 instead.

Wrong Ball Game

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In celebration of St Patrick’s Day

 

Today the As played two games in what is known as a split squad. Part of the team played at Hohokam against the Seattle Mariners and the other half traveled (not exactly far) to Scottsdale to face off against the Giants at 1605. Our tickets were for the first game. Admittedly, getting to see the whole ballpark on a private tour was pretty neat. Behind the fence where normally you can’t go are batting cages, extra training areas, an infield and a complete ball field

 

 

 

The visiting locker room where the manager spent time talking about how things have changed over the years and the filming of “Money Ball”-

 

After watching batting practice –

 

there was a chance to talk with three of the players – all of whom were extremely nice, professional willing to sign autographs

Should I mention some of the fans take the event rather seriously?

and lastly –

the fatal pitch

The As had been doing well. Handing the Mariners a pitch on a platter? Well, we lost.

The “Second Team” which was playing the Giants? Beat them 8-3… go figure. Should have braved Scottsdale.

Right Field returns!

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And there were the sound of drums from Right Field last night.

I went to investigate and there they were – two of the RF Diehards complete with drums right in front of the fence in lawn seating. Several others of the group were also there augmented by a couple of the LeftField crew. It is obvious that As rules apply to Spring Training and other home team affairs, at least as it applies to noise makers. Silly as it sounds, those drum beats make it easier for me to follow the action on the field.

No banners or flags, which makes sense. The only place to post the banners would put them on the right field fence in front of the lawn which would be encroaching on the playing field. And flags? again the same and inside the lawn area no one would see them.

Hohokam Field

Our tickets today included food and drink at the Right Field Lounge, from before the game start through the fifth inning which really meant that food for the rest of the day was really pretty optional.

the view from our seats

Tonight the crew landed in left field –

two drummers, flags

complete with an Indian’s Fan, flags, short seats and THE elephant hat routinely seen at home games. And I was wrong about the flags – they just have to be kept on the lawn side of the fence…

the after game shot

Oh. Yes, the As defeated the Cleveland Indians…

and back – OAK->PHX

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Neither of us got much sleep last night. As you noted, I spent most of the day running errands so didn’t get around to even thinking about packing till after 2200.

Have I mentioned how thrilled I get with getting up at 0 dark 400? At least this time I decided to be willing to spring for long term parking at the airport. Driving was amazing, the roads were simply not that busy. Of course this was still before 0500 so you can imagine that some, but not all of the commuters were on the road. Check-In went smoothly, we checked bags. This time my boarding card said “TSA Pre-check” so that portion of the scramble wasn’t an issue. Except for the person who don’t understand that you have to put your purse on the conveyor belt…

Not surprising, there were a lot of As fans on the plane as well as a scattering of those supporting the Giants with a few other logo items supporting out of Bay Area teams.

Rental car, food stop at The Breakfast Club, stopped at the hotel where they actually let us check in early.

Sloan Field was on the way (well, sort of) so we took in the Cubs vs Diamondbacks game. It is a great park and essentially was sold out (had to hit Stubhub for tickets). From there it was just a short drive to Hohokam Park where we lazed around for a long time before the game. If you ever go to Hohokam and are willing to walk about 8 blocks, there is is free parking next to Finley Park. Just saying.

The As were not at their best. Their new young pitcher lost it at the end of the third inning. His relief managed to give up a home run which is not great if you have inherited two on before walking the first batter you face… making it a six run inning. The two single scores by the As just didn’t cut it.

And of course, I brought a USB 3 cable without the back up drive while not bringing the regular cable. So the pictures will have to wait….

PHX->OAK

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It was a long day by the time I crawled into my bed at home. After waking to the morning bird chorus at my sister’s I managed to pack forgetting onky one thing. But it was an As hat. And it is not like I don’t have a few of those.

Meet a fellow traveler from our Belze trip for late breakfast. We ate at the Breakfast Club on North Scottsdale Road. She, like I, spent almost her entire working life post education employeef by the same company. Ok, not the same company as transfers, mergers and sakes saw numerous changes but it was the same building for 41 years. I can only claim 30 and it certainly wasn’t in one location.

Since I wasn’t willing to drive out to Surprise again I took the opportunity to watch the Rockies take on the Mariners at Salt River Fields. It is a great ballpark and I bought a hat before confirming that I was provided shade by the overhang. Ah well, Spring Training hat? Now I can buy pins…

From there it was rush hour traffic to the airport followef by what always seems like an endless wait.

But I meet the most interesting people. Obviously my flight to Oakland was full of both Athletic and Giants fans. Then you add some of the cutest kids headed for a grandma visit, two guys from Alameda who were into for their company (commercial chain link fence design and installation) and a minority of disgusyef business travelers.

George met me at the airport. Great guy, what can I say

Over the plate

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and not at the batter. The As batter hit by a pitch hopefully won’t have a serious hand injury. The Giants batter was hit in the butt. He was fine and later scored what turned out to be the winning run.

End score: 6:5 in favor of the SF Giants.

Otherwise, ran a few errands. Finished another small cross-stitch

 

And headed back to the East Bay tomortow

Two for one

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Sunshine + an As win. Ssveral home runs and a pitching staff that msnaged to keep its act together.

The Cub’s fans were stalwart and, with one exception, really nice people. Several were on break from Illinois bad weather while others were able to combine being snowbirds with supporting their team. I can’t say the peobkem person was anything other tgan oblivious. Otherwise why would you think it was alright to stand at the lawn railing directly in front of fans sitting on blankets?

Also in the mix were a couple of Diamondback fans, a guy with an LA Dodgers cap and an avowed Padres fanatic.

Otherwise, it is relax and finish the latest small cross stitch time.

Meanwhile- back in Berkeley

Inspection tomorrow

Ain’t no sunshine

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In Suprise, AZ. At least not on a Saturday afternoon when the Texas Rangers took on the As and proceeded to devestate the As pitchers. A few other acts of stupidity, error, and left on base didn’t help.

Do you supose it was all my fault for stopping to purchase sunblock on the way to the game?

Freaking hot

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and a day of no guilt.

Upfront – I am at the ballpark. George is in Germany. Today marks our 39th anniversary.

There were many years in our marriage where deployments and/or jobs interfered with celebration of our anniversary or either of our birthdays. Seven years in fact where we missed all three and not a broken mirror to blame. This year I was a bit concerned.  His birthday, which falls in July was hampered a bit by the house construction. I haven’t yet come up with an excuse to duck out on my birthday in October. Which leaves our anniversary today; a day which just happens to have an A’s home game.

It isn’t that I don’t want to be in the same place with my husband. It is rather that a good friend of ours, perhaps George’s closest friend in Germany died unexpectedly last week. It is why he rerouted to Heidelberg while I came home. Anniversaries roll around every year; not so with funerals.

Meanwhile, the As managed to win the fourth of four games in the series with 41 runs scored over the four games.

 

 

Doubleheader

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When I was a kid and listening to the Minnesota Twins games on the radio, I remember doubleheaders. Two games on one day and the batteries on my transistor radio running down by the time the eighth inning of the second game rolled around.

This was before 100 mile/hour fastballs. Before every single pitch was clocked, much less the exit speed of balls blasted out of the park. Before there seemed to be a limit on how many pitches one could expect from a starter, back when it wasn’t uncommon for a starter to pitch the whole game. Nor was it considered unreasonable for a team (well all but the pitcher) to manage two games in a day. One was normally in the afternoon with the second following a couple of hours later in the evening. After all, when you think about it – a tie game that runs 14-18 innings is just about the same thing.

Rather than give all the details here – I will just refer you to the excellent article in Wiki which is obviously labeled – DoubleHeader – Baseball. I hadn’t been aware that there were so many varieties. This particular pair of games was occurring because of a game rained out earlier this spring. That is right – rained out in Oakland. Two games – one ticket. The only down side that any of us could see was that the Food Trucks were going to have to clear out by 1730 due to a later scheduled concert at the Oracle Arena.

It was a great day for baseball – sun, friends (many of whom unfortunately indulged in a little too much beer) and a pair of wins by the A’s. Part of it was excellent defense and hitting on the part of the As. Part of it, frankly, is that I think the Astro’s would have much rather been home in Houston.

Another Country

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Just in case you are worried, all that has been going on here is a lot of construction. Both ours and our neighbors who just happen to have a flat roof which in turn translates to horrendously smelling asphalt. In turn that lead me to about three days running of blistering migraines.

Everything is better with meds, but that means that I lose more than a few hours of time. More than a day or so, to be honest.

wall bracing for foundation pour

floor poured

So as you can see, progress has been made.

and I will not talk about the As and their ability to sustain truly embarrassing losses.

Citi Field

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What would a weekend be without a baseball game?

In this case, it was take the 7 from Manhattan almost all the way to Flushing.

I actually don’t mind some of the design of Citi Field. Certainly it is a lot newer than either the Coliseum or A T&T park. Some of the design features I do find issue with. The stairways are hard to find and ADA access? Absolutely no signage – you have to know where to go and how to find it. And we will not bother with discussing subway lack of easy accessibility…. not worth going there. The do have the sense of just wanding everyone which eliminated all the metal detectors. Actually quicker and easier!

The design of the stadium, however, does lead to decent right and left field bleacher ares.

FYI – the Mets – like too many other teams outlaws noise makers. The fans today lacked what I would call ongoing team spirit, perhaps fueled by what is now the Mets Sunday 2-7 record at home. According to Angel (Pratt grad along with the Maus) there is a solid bleacher group which primarily comes to home evening games and does a lot of supporting cheering.

But still? No banners? No flags? No drums or cow bells? It is part of the experience at home for the As.

Daniel Gossett managed to pull off five good innings before starting to lose it in the sixth. The relief pitchers held it together. Casilla after pulling his usual idiocy managed to get the three outs in the bottom of the 9th thanks in no small part do to excellent fielding on the part of Brugman in the outfield. A win is good, especially after pitchers gave away more than comfortable leads to lose the last two games.

We are off to Connecticut in the morning. My chance to see where Noah is working for the summer and ride the trains on the East Coast…

(photos not yet downloaded….

Not that I needed this or anything –

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Ok – the good news up front – A’s 7: Cleveland 3. Getting back and forth on the BART worked.

the rest? Meh –

 

These are screen shots that my phone chose to take.

That is right – it just fired off on its own. Along with changing channels on the radio, deleting email and otherwise driving me up the wall.

It could be because it got wet yesterday, but that would make it my fault and I would never want to own that expensive little errors. It will spend another night with rice since I elected to go to the game today rather than to the Apple store….

Bark in the Park

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There is a craze which has hit major league (and I suspect minor as well) in the last few years.

You have hear of of “take your child to work? which in some areas of the country seems to have spread to “take your pet to work.”

Well, in baseball it is the annual opportunity to take your pup out to a ball game. Of course, an official ticket is required and there is a seating section reserved for dogs and their people. There is a dog play area set aside, judging for costumes (yes, really) with prizes for themes, cutest and a whole long list. Since the sponsors locally are a couple of pet food producers there are also samples. Nylabone (sp) is one of the multiple site sponsors, so that expensive ticket also includes a bone in the goodie bag.

The dogging parade went along the warning track which meant that we could look straight down from the right field bleachers. Of note, the kids costumes were as much fun as those on the dogs with cowkids, superheros and more than one ballerina. Alex came along for the game, but sensibly left dogs at home.

The As even managed a 5:0 win!

Fireworks

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Did I tell you that I skipped the fireworks at the stadium on Monday night in favor of 4th of July fireworks?

I had the bright idea – which turned out to be not so bright – of catching the photos from home. I can see all three bridges from my upstairs window. I can see the Berkeley Marina – home to the local fireworks. What I hadn’t remembered is how low the fireworks are actually shot.

When you sit out in the open, the fireworks can seem to fill up the sky stretching up and out to cover your view. In reality, they are not more than 100-200 feet in the air. This creates a problem if you are up on a tree covered hill of more than that in elevation. As it turned out, the fireworks were beautiful. And just on the other side of a lovely, thick, bushy tree….

see the slight bit of light?

with the occasional bit shot from the SF side

across the bay

 

Even having fireworks photography not in my grasp this year didn’t take away my fun of the As actually pulling out a victory at the Coliseum. Not pleased about the pitcher who gained the win, since it was his fault the White Sox tied the game in the top of the ninth…. The fact that the rookie short stop managed to hit a homer was nothing to the relieving pitchers credit.

Ah, well, back to the cross stitch.

Carl won’t leave

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No I don’t have a house guest who has been here longer than three days. What we have is a marine layer – fog in the evening completely obscuring the sky. Since Berkeley can occasionally be thought of as a University town, a literary location you might have figured out the reference:

“The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on”

and thus is referred to as Carl.

It makes attempting to photograph the night sky impossible on this side of the hills (and Hayward Fault).

George and I went to the game and watched along with over 40,000 other fans the As manage to lose yet another game. They have younger players. They are learning; but those errors are costing way too much. I was sorry to see Cotton take the loss since the relief pitchers were the ones whose continual provision of wonderful pitches caused the White Sox batters to run up the numbers and make recovery impossible.

I was going to stay and take fireworks photos from the parking lot, but just got too cold and too tired. My excuse was that there was just too much light (grin).

It isn’t so much that

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the As keep trying to lose. It is more a matter of fouling up a good thing. For example, an error by the shortstop in the first inning turned a routine out into a two base grab. Said runner later scored. And then there were the 2-3 innings including one with bases loaded that the As at bat managed to strike out, pop out or land themselves in a a double play instead of scoring a go ahead run.

Go figure – I can’t.

Meanwhile I am still playing with machine embroidery, working on a cross stitch and just finished Graphic Audio’s Mike Oberon – Hallow Point.

Not a No-Hitter

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Is probably the best thing that can be said about tonight’s game. A solo home run by Matt Olson in the bottom of the ninth was the As only score. Next batter up hit a double but that, unfortunately was followed by a few too many swings and misses.

I otherwise slept in, messed around with my sewing machine and attempted to avoid screaming at people.

(grin – a good day all around. Except for the As…..)

Take away the gulls

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For those who aren’t familiar with the location of the Oakland Coliseum let me just let you know that is is not all that far from the Oakland docks and water front. Which means there is a seagull problem on the occasional day.

Someone came up with a brilliant solution. It works, but they didn’t think it all the way through.

But first –

But first – this is NYC vs As with a guest appearance from the Quakes

Now, back to the gulls – or not –

up in the sky

and a closer look –

Besides the usual crew in RF149 – we were visited by Stomper & Q.

The challenge on the pest control front turned out to be a small amount of lack on understanding on the As part. Once it is dark, falcons normally don’t fly. But the presence of the Falcon kept away all the swallows. Now, moths are better than seagulls but still….

The As fielding was good, the batters were hitting. Frankly, the pitching sucked. The early lead was given away and it was a struggle after that. I was completely wiped and left after nine innings with the score tied. The next inning took forever. In fact I was almost at North Berkeley when the run scored by the Yankees in the top of the tenth was overcome by Khris Davis actually coming through and scoring two runs for a win. (you know Khris – the one who struck out in the top of the ninth in Florida with the bases loaded and two outs? The one who did the same earlier this game?)

It was time for sleep and planning on my escape after the game tomorrow to avoid the fireworks crowds…

Defeat from

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the jaws of potential victory.

It seems like the As pitchers just can’t stand to have a winning streak. After the previous two good games, the As pitching left a bit to be desired. Of course, the starting pitcher didn’t get hung with the loss because he was not the idiot who proceeded to deliver balls that turned into Blue Jay home runs.

I didn’t see the end of the game. For Oakland it was cold and the wind was blowing. For once common sense applied and I left after 8 innings when the score was tied. I didn’t have to watch the As lose and I didn’t spend money on another sweatshirt or jacket since I had stupidly left mine at home.

Had a lovely evening spent with The Eldest and Ms Runner where they tried out three recipes from a new cookbook and I had a chance to haul the Spiral Fractal from where it was languishing and add a few stitches.