SeeAll30.com – My Quest To See Them All!

 

April 23rd, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Just got a message from Tom via a thread I started on Ballparkchasers.com that says that they will be unable to get the full 30 in 30 as of tonight because of what he said was a scheduling change by the Orioles. This means they have 2 games at 2 different parks (Camden & National’s Park) scheduled for the same exact time. Tom also mentioned that they will be going to each park tonight, only spending a few innings in Camden before heading to DC. I think it really stinks that they planned this out and due to an apparent schedule change, they won’t be able to complete their quest! As someone that plans to do this in a year or 2, I know myself that I would be so freakin’ ticked off right now! With having to schedule so tightly, there would be no way to make that up. That really sucks! Sorry guys! Have fun on the rest of the trip though… I will still be following every step of the way via watching the games here at home, Facebook, Ballparkchasers.com and your site at 30ballparks30days.com.

Edit: Also found out from Tom a few minutes ago that they aren’t actually going for a ‘real’ 30 in 30, just wanting to see 30 parks in 30 days…even if that means only seeing a couple innings a game. Their main goal was to see the parks, enjoy them, the people and the atmosphere surrounding each. Sounds great to me!!

April 21st, 2009 | Category: Minute Maid Park, Misc |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I have seen this on a couple other sports blogs and thought I would pass it along here to those that might have missed it. It’s really hard to believe that a “Pro” team would not catch something like this. Then again, it is quite possible that it was a prank pulled by a couple of the players as an attempt to get rid of the “O” as in 0-fer as the Nat’s were. Either way, looks really tacky to me, though it’s not the first time a mistake has been made on the National’s jerseys. It wasn’t that long ago that the “N” was placed on their jerseys upside down. UGH!

April 21st, 2009 | Category: Misc, Nationals Park |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4080195

Thought I would share this link with anyone that didn’t happen to see it on ESPN.com this morning.  Hard to believe that many HR’s have been hit already… but so great to see the Yanks go down the way they have

April 19th, 2009 | Category: Misc |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

VS 
I am always excited about going to a game, no matter what time of the year it is, but my first game of the year I get really excited about.  For the past 7 years I have been able to go to the Mariners Opening Day game, but not this year.  That just means my excitement was postponed until today.

Safeco Field is about an hour drive north of me here in Lacey, WA, though it took a bit longer yesterday due to a 3 car wreck in Lakewood.  It didn’t appear anyone was hurt too bad, but it sure slowed things down.  We got to Safeco just after 4pm and as we entered via the main rotunda I saw the Mariner’s President Chuck Armstrong standing there.  I took the chance to say “Hey” and get my picture taken with him.  Was so glad I decided to wear my Mariners hat and blue shirt, instead of my usual Red Sox cap and jersey

We made our way up to the 3rd deck by section 335 where my buddy James Michael Randorff was playing with the Navy Band (Northwest). He had called me a few weeks back to let me know they would be at the Mariner’s games on Opening Day as well as the Salute to the Military day, April 18th. Knowing I couldn’t be there on Opening Day (had to work… doing taxes), I told him I would be there today and when I walked up he had a huge smile on his face.  I got to see them play for just over an hour and they played all sorts of songs from “Mustang Sally” to “25 or 6 to 4″ and I even got to see James sing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”.  Was a lot of fun and a GREAT day to be at the ballpark listening to some great music before a ballgame.

We made the walk to our seats, smelling all the great food that Safeco offers, like the Kidd Valley Garlic Fries and Ivar’s seafood.  I did make 1 stop, for a beer, and I decided to try the Pyramid Haywire Hef.  It’s much lighter than most hef’s and I liked that, cause the flavor was still there.  We sat out in the center field bleachers, as we usually do, just below the scoreboard.  I love the view from that vantage point, I feel I can see everything (I know I can’t see deep center field to the wall, but I’m ok with that).  The best part of sitting here is how you can see the movement on the pitches as they are thrown.  I have only sat elsewhere for a small handful of games at Safeco, and there’s a big reason for that.

Tonight’s game started out as a great pitcher’s duel for the first 5+ innings.  Both Eric Bedard and Edwin Jackson were throwing great games.  Bedard did have a pretty high pitch count though.  In the 6th inning Ordonez led off with a single and advanced to 2nd on Laird’s single.  Brandon Inge singled to right where Ichiro fielded the ball cleanly and fired it to home like a laser, but  unlike what we are used to seeing, the runner being gunned down so easily, what we saw was the ball sailing and going out of play, thus allowing 2 runs to score.  E-9!  I don’t think I can recall another game where I have said, “We lost on an Ichiro throwing error!”

The 6th inning was Bedard’s last and he left the game after 100 pitches, 6 K’s and allowing 7 hits. From that point on the only real chance for any big excitment was in the bottom of the 9th when Chavez led off with a walk, bringing up Griffey Jr. with the chance to tie the game.  He popped up weakly to short.  Beltre then popped out to left and Sweeny grounded out to 3rd to end the game.  Tigers win 2-0.

It’s never fun to lose when you go to the ballpark, especially the way we lost tonight, but it’s always fun to go to the game…tonight was no exception.

Random Thoughts:

Parking for the game was $40 for the lots closest to Safeco.  I have only once spent that kinda $$ to park and that was when we were late for Opening Day 3 years ago and got pinched.  I am not sure if this is a trend, as it was $35 at the official Safeco parking lot, or if it was so much because there was also a motorcross event across the street at Qwest Field.

Was excited to see a few different beers at the ballpark this year.  I had a “Mac & Jacks” which is by a local brewery in Redmond, WA.  It’s always a good choice, though it could have been much, much colder.  I also tried the Pyramid Haywire Hef and as I mentioned earlier, it was really tasty.

I also have to that I didn’t see anything around the park that was so new that I thought to myself, “Wow!  That’s new this year!”

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tigers (6-5)	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	9	0
Mariners (8-4)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	2

Boxscore

April 18th, 2009 | Category: Safeco Field, U.S. Cellular Field |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I am an office manager for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service here in Olympia, WA, and now that tax season is over that means that I can concentrate more on other things like… BASEBALL!  I hate to admit it, but I have yet to see an entire game this year!  How sad is that?!?

I will be attending my first game of the year tomorrow night in Seattle @ Safeco Field – Mariners vs Tigers.  As of right now it’s looking like Edwin Jackson vs Eric Bedard.  Should be a good game, especially since I haven’t seen the Tigers since I was in Detroit back in August 2006.

Looking ahead:  In addition to my 2009 Baseball Road Trip, I also have tickets for a couple games of a weekend series in Seattle – Mariners vs Red Sox in mid-May.  Will be attending both those games with my wife.

I really want to make it to a Tacoma Rainier’s game this year at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma as well.  Have been saying that for years, this year that changes!

Looking forward to 2morrow… will post pic & review later!

P.S… Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you & miss you so much!!

April 17th, 2009 | Category: Misc |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4064793

ESPN and MLB Homeplate on XM are reporting that one of the greatest voices, not only in baseball but in sports, was silenced today.  Harry was not only the voice of the Phillies, but NFL Films as well.  He will be greatly missed!

April 13th, 2009 | Category: Misc |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

April 11th, 2009 | Category: Roadside Baseball |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

We’re headed East!  Gonna do a 5 game/6 night run.  Here are the details so far…

June 15th – Lv Sea @ 10:30am Non-Stop to BWI Ar @ 6:29pm
June 16th – Orioles vs Mets – 7:05pm @ Camden Yards
June 17th – Phillies vs Blue Jays – 7:05pm @ Citizens Bank Park
June 18th – Yankees vs Nationals – 1:05pm @ (new) Yankee Stadium
June 19th – Mets vs Rays – 7:10pm @ Citi Field
June 20th – Nationals vs Blue Jays – 7:05pm @ Nationals Park
June 21st – Fly home from Baltimore.

Got tickets to the first 2 games already. Just waiting for the others to go onsale to try and get them that way vs Stub Hub/eBay. Hotel rooms are book/paid for as well as our rental car. Waiting on buying our plane tickets for a bit to see if we can get a deal, hopefully they wont go up any more.

Since my buddy Bob is going with me we are really gonna make the most of this trip and do the tourist thing all around. I am really looking forward to showing him around Washington D.C., Philadelphia and our trip to Gettysburg, which we have been talking about doing since we were in 7th grade! Bob’s not even a big baseball fan but after this trip he will have been to 8 current parks (all with me)! I told him the other day, “I know some huge fans that its their dream to see them all that haven’t been to that many!” It will also give him 6 more states, so that’s awesome also!

More details and they become available…

2/27/2009 – Update: Our Orioles tickets arrived in the mail today. I also switched from Sirius to XM radio today, that means all the baseball games on radio when I am on the road… WOOHOO!

2/28/2009 – Update: Bought our Yankee tickets on Stub Hub today. Not sure what they would have been normally, but I got them for $15/each… bleacher seats, on the aisle. Cheap seats in Philly was $18, so $15 on Stub Hub is pretty good I guess

Speaking of Yankee tickets… if you haven’t been by the Yankees web site and did the virtual tour deal of the new stadium (3d Seat Selector), you gotta go do that, it’s pretty cool. Here is a link to that: New York Yankees 3D Seat Selector.

3/3/2009 – Just bought our Nationals tickets. I got them all now except for the Mets and still not sure of an onsale date for them

3/13/2009 – Got our Nat’s tix in the mail today. Still gotta get Mets tickets, they are putting them on sale weird, only April and May right now, more later… so gotta wait.

3/14/2009 – Bought our plane tickets last night. Got a non-stop flight from SEA to BWI on Air Trans. Leaves Seattle at 10:30am and get in to Baltimore at 6:29pm. That gets us in about 14 hours earlier than we had originally planned… which gives us more time to enjoy our nations capital. As soon as we get in we will head straight to DC, enjoy dinner, a few local brews and tour some of the monuments.

3/27/2009 – Still waiting on Mets tickets to go onsale, fully. They have April & May onsale now, but I need June tickets… still waiting. Still haven’t got my Yankee tickets from StubHub yet either, soon hopefully. Other than that, pretty set. Just waiting for June 15th… 11 weeks from Monday

(originally posted on Ballparkchasers.com)

April 7th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (3)