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. 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.

I’m falling behind on writing these posts. Late nights and early mornings, combined with internet connections too slow to upload images have made it hard. The pictures are now up to date, though.

I woke up way too early, on way too little sleep, and got a ride to Logan. I was pretty much sleepwalking through the day, and just crashed a few hours after checking into my hotel in St. Petersburg. Woke up, had dinner, and then went back to sleep. It was a much needed recovery day. I’ll probably need a few more on this trip. I did get a picture of the nice hotel room with my Pre before ruining the beautifully made bed.

I didn’t just go to baseball games while I was in Boston, I did a fair bit of wandering around the city. Of course, I took some pictures.

This was an absolutely unbelievable game to go to. The Angels took the lead first, Red Sox took it back with a 5 run inning, fell behind again, and then eventually tied it up on a bases loaded 2-out walk in the bottom of the 9th by Nick Green, and won 9-8 on an Alex Gonzalez walk-off single. Incredible. Apparently, Nick Green should have struck out twice in that plate appearance, but it was hard to tell from where I was at that point in the game. Front row, on the field.

Before the game, I took the guided tour of Fenway. I mostly wanted to get up to the Green Monster seats, but the whole tour was very well done. The tour started out in the Red Sox team store, which was absolutely huge. This picture is only a small section of it, the place was insane.

From there, we went into Fenway to the Budweiser Roof Deck seats.

Then it was to the seats right behind the plate, and from there to the Green Monster. The view from the Monster is pretty cool.

After the tour, before the game, I met up with Byron, and we went to Boston Beer Works. We had a drink while waiting for a table, but ended up just leaving instead of eating there. We were second on the list at that point, but wanted to go into the park instead. I had a Blueberry Ale, which actually had blueberries in it. They would float up and down in the beer because of the carbon dioxide they were giving off.

I got a nice picture of the red bleacher seat, marking the longest home run in Fenway history. It was a 502 foot shot by Ted Williams.

I really wanted to get my standard stadium shot, too. The upper deck at Fenway are exclusive sections, though, and tickets weren’t that easy to come by. They wouldn’t let me up there during the first game. I eventually found a pavilion standing room only ticket on Craigslist for face value ($25), so I bought it. I actually left the park to go pick it up, and used it to get back in. It’s the first time I’ve ever bought two tickets for myself for the same game, but it was worth it.

As always, here’s the whole set of images.

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.

I took a short detour from baseball on this trip to go to a football game. How could I pass up the Giants season opener, when I was going to be in New York, anyway? The Giants kicked a field goal on the opening drive (though they should have had an easy touchdown), and won the game 23-17 over the Redskins. It was a great game. Brad was on the sidelines shooting, so we drove in together, and parked in the media lot. Unfortunately, his paper didn’t have a credential I could use to just be on the sidelines with him. I originally bought two tickets near the top of the upper deck, but then couldn’t find anyone who could go with me. I randomly checked the game on Ticketmaster, and found a single ticket at the back of field level. I bought that, and then sold my other tickets to some tailgaters (for my cost). I’m glad I did, my seat was great. Covered and out of the sun, and a good view of the game.

Before the game, I wandered around the parking lot through the tailgaters. It’s crazy before a football game.

The old and new stadiums are right next to each other.

The view from my seat was great.

I moved forward a little bit to get a picture where the lighting was good on both me and the field.

Of course, I did have to go up to the top deck to get my stadium shot, though. I wish I had done it a little later in the game when the sky was darker, but it still came out great.

No game for me today. Instead, Cheesecake Factory with family for my sister-in-law’s birthday.