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Category Archives: Baseball

Another Country

Posted on by August 13, 2017 1

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

Posted on by July 24, 2017  

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 –

Posted on by July 23, 2017  

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

Posted on by July 23, 2017  

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

Posted on by July 10, 2017  

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

Posted on by July 4, 2017

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

Posted on by July 1, 2017  

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

Posted on by July 1, 2017  

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

Posted on by June 16, 2017  

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

Posted on by June 8, 2017  

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.

no t-shirt needed

Posted on by June 8, 2017  

seriously. I am not whining that badly. I don’t need a t-shirt that says “my husband went to Vienna and all I got was….”

Instead, I spent a day running errands before heading to the Coliseum for the game. For a change I decided not to even think about the Food Truck Mafia  and both ate a late lunch and packed munchies.  The game was great, our section made more than enough noise for the rest of the stadium (Canadian Fans are polite – what can I say?) and Healy hit two home runs – responsible for all five of the As runs.  The As pulled off a win, in spite of the closing pitcher managing to turn batters into base runners before finally getting the last out.

I forgot the baseball tonight – which explains why I ran into the Toronto couple on my way back to BART. Where were they tonight? Oh – they attempted to sit up on Deck 3 to get an overview, but nothing was accessible. The box office said the seats were, so they spent the first couple of innings getting back down and getting seated else where. Everyone was so embarrassed  that they comp’d them tickets for tomorrow game.

Oh! Where can I find you?

Section 105 – or if that doesn’t work – 111.

Ok – and I explained about wanting to pass on the baseball.

I was pretty tired by the time I arrived back at North Berkeley complete with my armload of banners.*

*RF 149 usually puts up banners. We also use them to block off seats for the flag wavers. Most of the rest of the crew won’t be able to arrive till right before the 1235 start tomorrow. I can come early.

He goes to Vienna

Posted on by June 8, 2017  

and all I get is a baseball game.

It could be worse, much worse.  I am thinking a four day turnaround involving plane changes in both directions and a nine hour time zone difference would be more challenge that I really want.  Now, if I could stay a couple of weeks and travel around…..

Never mind.

Instead, I entertained myself my going to the game.  I have taken to going in the ADA gate since it is the closest to where I sit, easily found from BART and has the advantage of avoiding completely both ramps and steps. On those days where I am short of breath going down ramps is fine, it is coming back up that is the …..

Anyway, there are a number of us hanging out in line waiting for the security people to decide that it is ok to check us in while the lines at both main gates have been entering for the last few minutes. Next to me in line is a couple from Toronto.  As I understood, they were on vacation the location of which just happened to be San Francisco. And they just happened to go to the Blue Jays games at AT&T Park over the weekend and have planned to come to the Coliseum for today and the next couple of days. I think I see a pattern here. Perhaps the vacation days just happened to be when they could catch their home team in two stadiums? In any case, they were going to be headed up to Section 221 to catch the game.

Hanging out early and watching in the Jay’s batting practice a few balls were tossed up into our section. One landed on the overhang just below where we sit. There is an engineering minded guy in the group. When he come back from finding food he takes out his lightbulb changer, fixes the basket to the end of his flag and easily collects the errant ball. I figure – why not? Taking off to find the Blue Jay’s fan – I check in 221. Nope, not accessible. Not in 220 or 210 – the two areas on second level where you can wheel in. While I was at it, I checked 111 figuring that as the sensible alternative. Nada, and no one claimed to have seen an avid Blue Jays middle aged male fan wheeling along like mad.

Took the ball home and am planning on trying the next couple of games.

Oh – the As actually managed to win it! 4:1 in spite of the Blue Jays by far out hitting the As.

Heartbreaking

Posted on by June 8, 2017  

The final score today was Washington Nationals (your might just remember them as the Montreal Expos)

Nationals 11, Athletics 10

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9      R H E (24-32)

WSH   0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 5      11 11 0

OAK    0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 6      10 10 0

It was painful for all of the As fans. To lead for a number of innings, then have your pitcher get tired. Then to tie it up. Then to have the relief pitcher lose it. Then to come back a run. Then to have your next relief pitcher really lose it. Sad when 6 runs in an inning just isn’t good enough.

Oh well. Tomorrow it is the Blue Jays. They aren’t doing much better than the As. Might actually be a chance to win a game!

George spent the day at the Berkeley Book Festival. I skipped it in favor of going to the game. Like I need to buy more books? He was with friends who we wound up joining for supper (after I zipped home and changed. Fan gear just doesn’t look great in a decent restaurant! )

 

 

 

It’s a long walk

Posted on by June 9, 2017  

AT&T Park

a long, long walk in fact from A T & T Park where the Giants play back to the Montgomery Street BART Station. I would put in a “long” for every one of those more than nine blocks, but even I would find it a bit much.

I enjoyed the game (would have taken Christian who is visiting to an As game out of preference but they are busy losing on their road trip) and didn’t mind at all that the Washington Capitals managed to out hit, out run, out pitch and out field the Giants. I am hoping that they get worn out before Friday when they come to my side of the Bay.

Meanwhile, it is late, just short of midnight since the other affect of lateness was having to change trains as well since the direct ones to Richmond don’t seem to run after ten.

More colors

Posted on by June 9, 2017  

to be added to the cross stitch and a few scarves to be made. Otherwise quiet here.

Oh – and amazingly enough, the Athletics actually managed to beat the Yankees 4:1. Couldn’t happen to a nicer team….

Spiral Progress

Posted on by May 29, 2017  

I’ve made some progress since the last time I showed you a picture –

 

24 May 2017

 

Jill and Graeme are on a plane this evening headed home.

The As actually managed to win a game. RF 149 managed to make a fair amount of noise in spite of being down more than a dozen of the regulars. The team is headed to NY tomorrow and resume play on Friday. I’m finishing up my freaking meds and glad of it as I am not being the worlds easiest person to be around at the present. I hate needles, I hate prednisone and I don’t appreciate becoming short of breath again.

crab, crab, crab….

Take me out to the

ball game, which is exactly what we did. Wandered around a bit during the day including a drive up to Grizzly Peak for a look over the city. Between the marine layer and the fog, everything wasn’t quite as clear as one would like. From there we went toward Richmond and the Rosie Museum followed by lunch at Assemble.

Since it was free parking Tuesday (thank you very much Chevy) it seemed more sensible to drive than to have four people taking BART only two of whom had discount cards. I had wanted to get there early, plenty of time for the Food Truck Mafia selections, lots of time to explain the game (George is good at explanations) and time to watch batting practice. As it turns out, the park now opens at 1630 on Tues for home games. Plenty of time to watch batting practice. And, of course, for the ball hogs to hang out in the bleachers and field anything that comes up that high. I can understand wanting a ball or two. But taking home 3, 4, 5 without sharing with the little kids is just beyond me.  But now I know who to avoid. It is not like I have the ability to catch anything, but still it would be nice….

Anyway, it was fun. Four drums, a horn, a whistle, three cowbells plus lots of fan noise. Oakland still managed to lose to the Marlins (11:9) but considering it was 18 hits to 9 hits, I was surprised the score wasn’t worse.

Pretty tired by the time I got home which should not be surprising at all…

 

And then it comes home to roost

Posted on by May 29, 2017  

The As had swept the series so far: 8:3, 3:2, and another 8:3 win.

But then it came home to roost. Errors from the field, stranding runners on base and a series of amazingly bad pitching from the mound led to a Sunday afternoon of watching the As go down 12:3.

It wasn’t that I was in a bad mood before this and my perspective had changed. This round of chemo has left me feeling slightly irritated and completely unfit to be around people.

Baseball fans don’t fall into the same category. The yelling and shouting along with noise making relieved a bit of the worst crabbiness.  It helped that George was willing to drive this evening to SFO where I picked up friends with whom I had stayed in Australia last year and spent time with on the Legend this year. Jill and Graeme did the short northern run TransPacific on the Millennium  which started in Japan and ended early this morning in Vancouver. I get to keep them till Wednesday when they head home via Aukland.

Did I mention that their plane doesn’t land till 2200?

Saturday afternoon at the ballpark

Posted on by May 23, 2017 2

The following information will be presented in the antiquated English weights and measurement system so favored by the US and rightfully ignored by the rest of the world.

Berkeley was a pleasant 70*F when Alex and I took the BART to the stadium. Oakland is warmer. We were on the flat, it was in the sun. The temps reached 88*F. Yes, it was warm and I had sunblock along with money, noisemakers and phone. Hats we didn’t have, so I wound up purchasing a couple as that kind of direct sun baking on my head would fry my few remaining brain cells.

Never mind – it was a great game. The As managed a 8:3 win. There were a lot of home runs (including a rookie 460 ft home run). Headed home. Crashed..

Round five

Posted on by May 23, 2017  

In which I got to the SFVA early, found out from the lab draw that I still had a few white cells left floating around my body and hung out for a number of hours of infusion. The good thing about a full day is that I finish in time to get the shuttle back to the BART. From there it is just a hop, skip and and jump to…

I had skipped last night’s baseball game as I was just really tired. Today however? It wasn’t even remotely within the possibility of going home. Instead, I watched a decent pitcher’s battle at the Oakland Coliseum with a great bunch of people. Saw Mark Canha pull off a homer in the bottom of the 10th to clinch the victory for the As, breaking the 2:2 tie. Beating the Red Sox. How lovely.

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