After arriving at my hotel and settling in for a few minutes, I walked over to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I wasn’t originally planning to go to this game, but realized I’d be there in time and have nothing else to do. Also, the next game was a day game, so I wouldn’t have been able to get my standard stadium shot. The game was another Red Sox victory, and 11-5 blowout. It was a tie game into the 7th, though, and the Orioles led 1-0 and 3-2 at various points in the game. I didn’t have much time to do other photography before the game, but planned on doing that that next day anyway.
Fans of the Game
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
I drove from Tampa Bay to the airport in Orlando because that was a direct flight to the DC area, and a nice reasonable drive. If I had flown from Tampa Bay, I would have had to connect in New York or Boston and have a long layover, and it really just didn’t make any sense. After arriving at IAD, I drove about an hour to my hotel in Baltimore Inner Harbor. It was a Holiday Inn, and nothing special, but the location was great, just a two block walk from Camden Yards. I wasn’t originally planning to go to the game that night, because I didn’t schedule any games on days I was flying, but once I got there I had no reason not to go. Here are a few pictures from the day of traveling.
The view from the terminal shuttle at MCO. Not the one I was supposed to be on, it went to gates up to number 99. I was gate 101, but jumped on the wrong shuttle. Had plenty of time to get the camera out and get the picture on the way back to the main terminal. Glad I did.
The 6th of 14 planes I will be on during this trip
Sitting in nice leather seats, with plenty of power outlets, in the airport terminal
jetBlue engine
Everything I had been told about Tropicana Field was that it wasn’t a good place to watch baseball. While it certainly doesn’t have the feel of some of the newer stadiums, I thought it was a great stadium where fans can watch and also bet on sites like 해외배팅사이트. It’s unique, and watching the game there was just as nice as watching a game most other places. Maybe it’s because I went in with such low expectations, or because it was too hot outside and nice to get into the air conditioned building, but whatever it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
During batting practice, a fly ball hit one of the lights hanging down, and it was shaking for a good twenty minutes. Oh, and I caught another batting practice home run.
I caught that ball one row behind and about a dozen seats over from where Wade Boggs’ 3000th hit landed. He is the only player to have his 3000th hit be a home run.
The ray tank is out past the right center field fence, and is open to feed and pet them until two hours after the start of the game.
Of course, I had to get my stadium shot. It’s a little different since it’s indoors, but it still came out nice. Had to get a shot of me there, as well.
The Rays beat the Jays 11-4, including a 6 run inning and a 2 run home run by Evan Longoria that was just crushed over the center field fence. The game played out pretty much like the final score would indicate, a blowout where it didn’t seem like the Blue Jays had a chance (though they were leading 2-0 early on). It was a meaningless game to both teams, but still fun to watch.
After the game was over, I had a nice view of the park at night. I’m glad I had my tripod sitting in the trunk of the car.
As I was pulling out of the parking lot, it started to rain. All of a sudden, there was lots of lightning. I tried to find a good place to try to get some good pictures, and ended up shooting this out of my hotel window. Glad I decided to put the tripod in the suitcase for the trip.
Daisuke Matsuzaka made his return from the disabled list, and pitched brilliantly against the Anaheim Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) to defeat John Lackey. Lackey was pulled with two outs in 8th inning, and the reliever promptly gave up a home run to David Ortiz. I really wanted Lackey to stay in there for the final out of the inning, and throw a complete game loss. I’ve never seen one of those in person. I spent the day walking around Boston before the game, and I’ll have another post about that, with pictures, of course. I then took the green line to Fenway, getting there a couple of hours before the game as usual.
I went to the game with Adam, a friend from college I haven’t seen in quite a while. It was good to get together and catch up, and Fenway Park was a great place to do it.
Of course, I had to get my souvenir ice cream helmet.
More pictures in the set, including Dice-k warming up, Wagner in a Red Sox uniform, Lackey with an insane pitch count, and more.
Thanks, jetBlue!
Monday was a travel day, leaving New York and heading for Boston. It was a quick and easy flight, and then some easy public transportation to meet up with Byron. The jetBlue terminal at JFK is incredible.
Byron brews his own beer. It’s good.
The Mets continue to lose games I go to. We’re now up to 9 in a row, for a season record of 2-10. If you do the math, you can figure out that means I actually had a winning record of 2-1 at one point this season. It has been downhill from there. I decided to borrow my father’s car and drive to Philly and specially because of the car, it was a for transit so we could fit 8 of us in there, find out why this cars are so cool for road tripping at the last link. I think it was the right decision, as it was certainly easier than lugging all my stuff around with me between trains. A little traffic and rain made for a fairly relaxing two and a half hour drive. I got to Citizens Bank Park about three hours before game time, and took a nice walk around the place, and took a few pictures.
Then I went inside, and took some more. It was raining lightly but steadily all night. The tarp was on the field before the game, and there was no batting practice, but there were no rain delays, and the game played as scheduled. It’s a beautiful park, as are most of the newer ones these days. I like the bullpen location, though I should have gone back there again during the game for another shot.
I got my ice cream helmet, to add to my collection. The empty helmets are the souvenirs I am bringing back from each stadium. I’m going to be eating a lot of ice cream this month. In Philadelphia, they had soft serve Turkey Hill ice cream, not the Carvel they have in Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. It’s good, but it’s just not the same. Also had an excellent Tony Luke’s cheesesteak before the game.
I had some friendly Phillies fans (really, I swear!) sitting behind me, so I was able to get a picture of me at the park. Despite the rain, I was also able to get my standard stadium photograph, as well. The stands are unfortunately a bit empty due to the weather, but it’s a nice shot regardless.
The back of this shirt sums up the Mets this season perfectly, especially at a 4-2 loss where they had plenty of chances.
As always, more pictures in the flickr set for this game, and the baseball trip collection.
This is the only stadium on my trip I have already been to, though this game was only my fourth time there. I got there a little early, and walked around the stadium a bit, but it wasn’t quite the same experience I expect to have everywhere else. In fact, when I got off the LIRR, I thought maybe I should skip the game and go to the US Open instead. It’s not like I really needed to see the Mets lose another game. Which they did, by a final score of 13-4. A couple of times in the middle innings, they looked like they might have a shot to tie it up, but then it got out of hand. I didn’t even buy a Carvel ice cream helmet, because I already have one at home. The rain broke through a little bit later in the game, but not enough to stop play or bother me at all. After this game, my Mets season record stands at 2-9. Why do I keep going? Not that it matters if they don’t win any more games this year.
I did finally get a picture of me I’ve been wanting, though. That’s in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda by the main entrance to the park. Of course, the number 42 has other meanings for me than just being Robinson’s number.
I had my obligatory Shake Shack burger, and took a few other pictures. They can all be found in the set, and again all pictures from the trip can be found in the collection.
Last night, I kicked off the baseball trip with a game at the new Yankee Stadium. It turned out to be an amazing way to start. Derek Jeter had three hits to tie Lou Gehrig’s record of 2721 hits as a Yankee. He had one more plate appearance in the 8th inning, but worked out a walk. The Yankees were down 2-0 in the first, and didn’t score until the 8th. They scored 4 runs in the inning, capped off by a Jorge Posada pinch hit home run, and won the game 4-2.
…and of course, my signature shot:
More pictures can be found in the set, and all images from the trip can be found in the collection.
In a few hours, I’m heading to the airport to get started on my month-long stadium tour. In preparation for that trip, I started putting together a list of the bag and camera rules for all the stadiums I’m going to, so I’d know what I could bring to each. While I was at it, I just went ahead and did all 30 MLB stadiums, because it didn’t take that much more time. I figure this could be useful to some other people, though the rules aren’t necessarily enforced. I take telephoto lenses into Dodger Stadium all the time, even though it says they’re not allowed.
Anyway, here’s the list: MLB Stadium Bag and Camera Rules.
Time to finish getting ready to go…
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