With the Rockies magic number at one for a playoff spot, this was a big game. With a victory, they would clinch the wild card. I got there very early, and there was no batting practice, so I just wandered around the stadium with my camera.

The game wasn’t close. The Rockies came out with a run in the first, four in the third, and won 9-2. They swept the Brewers and clinched a trip to the postseason.

During the game, some people around me were talking about how the Avalanche had their season opener that night. I decided I wanted to go to that game. I went on Craigslist, bought a ticket that I paid for with Paypal, and used Google Maps to figure out how far the Pepsi Center was from Coors Field and a place to print the ticket on the way. All from my phone. So after the Rockies game, I went to a hockey game…

After the games in Miami, I took a few days off to spend in NY and NJ with family, and then it was back on the road to more baseball. I flew from JFK to Denver, took the RTD downtown and then the free 16th street bus which dropped me off right in front of my hotel. The Denver Sheraton is a nice place, and the Pricelined price was great. If you’re ever headed there for just downtown and sports, there’s no need at all to rent a car.

I got settled in, and as I had done a few other times already on the trip, went to the game that night which wasn’t on my original schedule. I got a ticket on Stubhub in the front row of the upper deck behind the plate. I walked up 16th street a little bit, taking some pictures along the way, before getting back on the free bus and then walking four blocks to Coors Field. I got to the park very early, and had to wait before I could go in.

I was there for batting practice, and caught another couple of BP homers. I’m pretty sure they were both off the bat of J.J. Hardy, who was really putting on a power show. It seemed like everything he hit went to the back of the section in the outfield. I guess he can’t hit real pitching, though, because he didn’t play in any of the games I saw. I also wandered around the stadium, making sure to stop by the mile high row of seats.

The game was a close one for the first 5 innings, until the Rockies blew it open with five runs in the 6th and 7th, for a 10-6 victory. It put their magic number to clinch a playoff spot at one.

And of course, I got my stadium shot.

After the game the day before, I didn’t want to sit where I had a ticket for this game. I wanted to be back behind the dugout again, and not just for the Marlins Mermaids. I didn’t mind throwing away the $11 ticket I bought for the game, but front row seats on Stubhub were only available in pairs and cost more than $11. I was chatting online with April complaining about it and she jokingly said, “wonder if i could get a ticket to Florida.” I took it seriously. Told her I’d pick her up at the airport. She started looking at flights. Eventually, I found one (on jetBlue!) that had her driving from Houston to Austin in the morning, and flying from there to Fort Lauderdale. The price and timing was good. Seemed perfectly reasonable to us.

The next morning I picked her up at the airport, we about an hour on the beach, and then it was off to… Landshark!

We saw (shock!) another Mets loss, but we had a great view of it. Tatis and Beltran both homered, but the Marlins had a 7 run bottom of the 5th, and won 9-6. It was still totally worth it. It’s nice to have friends as crazy as I am. April has a post up about it here. It only took me 2 months since then to write this one. I plan to continue this and finish up my baseball trip posts this month… honest!

Another Mets game I go to, another loss. Wait, what? They won? How’d that happen? I don’t know how they did, but the Mets finally won another game I attended, after a 9 game losing streak. This ran my season record to 3-10. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a Francouer homer, but Hanley tied it up at 3 with a home run of his own, and then the Marlins took the lead. The Mets scored a run in the 8th, two in the 9th, and then Frankie shut down the Marlins in the bottom of the inning to hold on for a 6-5 win. Amazing.

The Marlins website was full of all sorts of misinformation about when the gates and parking opened up, so I got there a little bit early.

Before the game, I wandered around the stadium a little bit.

This was one of the games on the trip I was really looking forward to, because my seat was right on top of the Mets dugout. I even got to chat with Kevin Burkhardt a little bit while he was sitting in the camera well. Here he is doing some pre-game stuff.

The seats I was in, which they call the Founders Club, are in Mets colors. Blue and Orange! Not really sure why.

During the game, I was sitting next to a father and son. The father was a Mets fan from New York, the son grew up in Florida but was also rooting for the Mets. I caught a ball Razor Shines threw into the stands during the game, and gave it to the kid.

Did you know the Marlins have cheerleaders? I didn’t. I had to stand up so they could walk by to get on top of the dugout. They’re called the Marlins Mermaids.

And of course, the picture of me at the game.

A day off! No baseball today, which was pretty sad. I had been to games for 6 days in a row. Instead, I woke up early, and drove back to Fort Lauderdale for a Windows 7 launch event. Yes, I’m serious, and I’m typing this from a computer now running Windows 7. It was basically a couple hour developer session about programming for Windows 7, and at the end a free copy of it.

I spent the rest of the day at the pool or on the beach. I walked from the hotel about two miles down the beach to South Beach, and then part of the way back before deciding just to grab a bus the rest of the way. In case you missed the picture in the last post, here’s a reminder of how it looked.

Santa Barbara’s beaches are nice, but they’re really just not the same. I will have to start going to the beach at home more often, though.

I woke up bright and early at 5:30 to get on my way to IAD. Flew from there to Fort Lauderdale, and picked up the rental car and drove to the hotel in Miami Beach. After check-in, I went outside to check out the pool and the beach. The pool was very nice, and then out just past was the beach. Beautiful place.

Somehow, I didn’t need to get any sleep, and went to the Phillies/Marlins game that night. It wasn’t on the original plan, because I hadn’t scheduled any games on days I flew, but I’m glad I went. One of the baseball highlights of my trip happened in the 9th inning, after the 45 minute rain delay in the 8th. The Marlins beat Brad Lidge, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th (after a run in the 8th) to win.

…and of course, the stadium shot. Not too thrilled with this one, but they’ll have a new park for me to shoot in 2012.

I spent the day in Washington running errands. Had to make a trip to the bank, and the post office to send some of the things I collected on the trip home, because my suitcase was getting close to the 50lb mark. After that, waited for Jason to get back home and headed out to the game, via the DC Metro. We met up with Ryan, who I hadn’t seen since college, before the game and then went into the park.

The Dodgers destroyed the Nationals 14-2, with Livan Hernandez taking the loss. I did get to see Adam Dunn hit a home run, though. Casey Blake homered for the Dodgers, and they had a 6 run and 7 run inning for most of those 14 runs. Hiroki Kuroda gave up 2 unearned runs in 6 innings for the win.

The Presidents race.

Of course, I got my ice cream helmet. It would be the last one until Seattle, as both the Marlins and Rockies had run out for the season.

Here’s the three of us at the game.

And, as always, my stadium shot.

I’m interrupting posts about my baseball trip to tell all of you to go vote for Evan and Morgan in the Gap casting call. Go vote now! You can vote every day from now until November 17th. Vote often!

How can you not?
    

This game was not on my original schedule. While I was in Boston I realized that including the four stadiums I’ve been to in California this year, I’d have made it to 14 total ballparks. Adding one more would make it 15, for exactly half of the MLB teams. After some quick schedule lookups, it became clear that the best bet was to go to this game. I had already been to PNC Park before in college, but not since 2001. It’s only a little over a four hour drive from where I was staying in northern Virginia. The whole trip was insane to begin with, so I felt like adding a little more crazy to it seemed like a good idea.

Before the game, I hit the CMU campus just to look around there again. I bought a couple of t-shirts in the campus bookstore (because what I really need is more t-shirts), and got to see the new Gates Computer Science building.

PNC might be my favorite ballpark. It’s certainly up there high on the list. It was sad to see it so empty at the game I went to, though not surprising. Both teams are pretty bad, and neither is making the postseason. It’s a shame to see such a beautiful place so deserted. A week later, the Pirates actually closed the upper deck for a game and gave everyone with a ticket up there a seat upgrade. I’m glad they didn’t while I was there, so I could still get my stadium picture.

But it’s so empty…


The game itself was a pretty good one. Pirates were down early, and came back in the 9th against Heath Bell. Sadly, the Padres scored 5 in the 11th to win 11-6.

I think the view is what really makes this such a great place to watch baseball. Someday, they’ll have to have a good team playing there again.

I checked out of my hotel in the morning, left my car in the parking garage of the hotel next door, and walked back over to Camden Yards. This time, I got there early and the plan was to take some pictures. First, I went to the Sports Legends Museum right near the park. It wasn’t bad, but the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum a few blocks away was much cooler. It was a weird feeling standing in the house where Babe Ruth was born.

His 714 regular season home runs, and World Series homers.

There’s a Babe Ruth statue outside the park, as well.

Inside the park, there are baseballs on the ground marking all the home runs hit onto the street next to the warehouse.
  

The game itself was another Red Sox blowout of the Orioles. They were up 7-0 before the Orioles scored a run, and the final score was 9-3. The place was mostly full of Red Sox fans, so the crowd was happy with what was going on.

In the middle of the game, I moved myself down to field level.

After the game, I drove to Jason’s, where’d I be staying the rest of the time in the DC area.

As always, all pictures from the game in the set.