Future Trips

E put together this compendium of possible future trips. Hell, let's do them all now ...

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Here's some possibilities for subsequent trips:

Northern Mid-west (6 parks, 1412 miles of driving in a rental car after flying in and out of Chicago)


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Northern Mid-west driving (adds 1240 miles onto trip. Might be cheaper than flying though...)


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West Coast swing (6 parks, 922 miles. Remove Phoenix, 5 parts, it's only 566 miles)


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East Coast (drivable) trip (4 parks, 893 miles, including the 2 new parks in NYC next year)


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Including this year's trip and the 2 local parks (Baltimore and Washington), this covers 22 parks. Not included are Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Denver, Seattle, Houston, and Dallas.

Album - Day Four

Album - Day Three

Final Ballpark Rankings

A:

1. PNC Park - It was small and cozy and felt old school. Plus I like how it looked out over the river. It seemed really old school. You could see the field all the way around the mezzanine level, too.
2. Jacobs Field - I liked the set-up of it, with some interesting nooks in the outfield.
3. Great American Ballpark - It was a little big for my taste. It was nice to look out at the river out past the outfield, but the city was the other direction, so it wasn't much of a view. It was third, but the dick usher really brought it down. Maybe I should put it fourth.
   
4. ComericA Park - It was HUGE. It seemed as if it was more of a football stadium than a baseball park. Not that it was bad -- it was certainly better than most parks -- but it was my least favorite of the trip.

E:

1. PNC Park - Small ballpark feel.
2. ComericA - Walking behind the batter's eye was cool. The tiger statues everywhere were a nice touch, especially at the entrance.
3. Great American - The view
4. Jacobs - Great atmosphere and good all-around park.

L:

1. PNC - looking out and seeing the skyline from the city. Plus the fake yellow bridge was cool. Plus, their out-of-town scoreboard was amazing.
2. Jacobs - because he's a homer, and he loves the atmosphere
3. Great American - the view was cool
4. ComericA - Old school field. His ranking would've been higher if they had a better scoreboard

C:

1. ComericA - because it's his home park
2. Great American - the view and he likes big parks
3. PNC - liked the view and the scoreboard
4. Jacobs - because the Indians play there (L says, "F**k the Tigers.")

Overall, one thing to note is how important the scoreboards are in a ballpark. The video board is cool, but the scoreboard provides all the information. In my opinion, every scoreboard should have BOTH lineups visible at the same time (Great American & Jacobs), the batter's stats (all of them), the pitcher's complete stats (ComericA & Jacobs) and other random stats. Also, PNC's out-of-town scoreboard was amazing, because it had all the games and it updated the inning and outs and who was on base in real time. The others either just listed the scores (Great American) or had more information but scrolled through the scores (Jacobs), which meant you missed the score you were looking for more than you didn't.

Best game:

A: Nats at Pirates

C: Dodgers at Detroit (homer, plus the shutout. "I would've liked it more if I were more sober.")

L: Twins at Indians (he caught a foul ball, plus his team won)

E: Red Sux at Reds (because it was a great game and because he paid attention the most)

Top two quotes from L:

Luke (to C's friend Kyle): "I'll burn you. I know you don't like that."

A: "What is this place, a morgue?" referencing ComericA when we first walked in. It was nearly silent

Top quote from E:

C: "She's no Doogie Howser," referencing our girl Jessie.

Other bests:

Best Breakfast: Tie. C's mom's breakfast and Adam's breakfast sandwiches with smoothies. E says, "It was NOT the Econo-Lodge."

Best sleeping arrangement: They were all good for me. C got screwed most of the trip. He slept on the floor twice, and as he says, "I had to sleep with L once, too."

Best Bar: Winking Lizard in Cleveland. Good food, and great beer selection. Plus, A spent a half-hour in the bathroom.

Best Bartender: The one L got to teach how to make a Long Island Iced Tea. "Alright, get a cup …"

Best Rest Stop: In Toledo, Ohio, with the marble floors and the attractive front desk girl.

Best Ballpark Food: Tie, Gyros at ComericA or Coney's at Great American

Best Free Beer: the one E got for knocking over his almost empty beer and getting a free one

Best Bloody Moment: the chick trying to jump the fence at the Clevelander and losing her chin.

Boston Red Sox at Cincinnati Reds

Great American Ballpark -- Cincinnati, Ohio

Great American Ballpark was the final park of our 2008 tour. As you read before, the home Reds lost to the Red Sox, 5-3, in 10 innings. The Reds were losing, 3-2, going to the bottom of the ninth and the Sux's closer, Jonathan Papelbon, got two outs on the Redlegs. Edwin Encarnacion came up with two outs, and then got two strikes on him. But then he smashed a home run to tie the game at 4 a piece. The Reds had another chance against Papelbon, but blew it.

Then they kept their reliever in from the previous inning, and he gave up two solo shots to Kevin Youkilis and, as E calls him, "the other dick," Coco Crisp. The Reds had another shot to tie it in the bottom of the 10^th. They got two runners on with two outs, but Brandon Philips' shot at tying it fell just short, caught at the warning track by J.D. Drew.

Here's the recap from the local paper.

The day ended up being beautiful. At first, there were some weather reports that predicted thunder storms, but it ended up being 82 and sunny, with a few clouds in the sky. We sat in the upper deck, just off to the right of home plate and about five rows from the top. They were pretty good seats, actually, but it was weird to be sitting in the upper deck. Apparently, the Reds wouldn't let E buy tickets to just one game through their website. He would've had to buy a four-pack, which wouldn't have done us any good. So he bought them through e-bay.

Since it was the Red Sox, the obnoxious Sox fans were out in force. Why is that every Red Sox fan must make a comment to someone wearing a Yankees hat (me -- A) every time they pass by? I had some old couple make a comment. Then, later on, E, L, C and I noticed a guy wearing a Cubs hat and a Sox jersey. We commented that the guy must've been through a lot of torture. E said maybe the guy was just confused. A guy wearing a Sox jersey overheard us and said that it was his friend and he let him borrow the Sox jersey. Fine - no problem. But then he looks at me, nods at my hat and says, "Speaking of someone who's confused." Now why did he need to say that? I'm not confused at all. I was born in New York and I like the Yankees. No confusion here. The Red Sox disgust me. No confusion there, either. Whatever …

As I'm typing this in the back seat of the Jetta, C is driving and noticed an "Emergency Stopping Only" sign on the side of the road. Immediately behind the sign are skid marks heading into a big grass field.

Earlier in the morning, we went to C's parent's place -- where his mom made an unbelievable breakfast for us of waffles, fruit compote, whip cream, sausage, etc. -- and showered up (for reasons left unreported). We hit the road around 10 a.m., and we drove by Eight Mile Rd. and waved at Bunny Rabbit (What up, Eminem?). Then we ran into some troubles trying to get on Rte. 75 South. Apparently, the road was closed for miles. As E said, "Maybe they were trying to prevent any more people from leaving Detroit."

L felt much better today. He sobered up, finally. It only took a day-and-a-half. C soldiered through last night, drinking until after 3 a.m., including a massive Tequila shot after the bar actually closed. He then came back to his buddies' place and slept on the floor and woke up less than six hours later, pronouncing that he was good to go. Total trooper. C wins the award for best recovery time.

Some more highlights:

• At the park we ate Coney's, smothered in so much cheese we couldn't see them.
  
• Walking to the Jetta after the game, some girl behind us made a comment that she liked the taste of ass and that she didn't shower that day. Nice.
• We saw Mennonites trying to work a vending machine at a rest stop earlier in the day.
  
• My ass was on fire. I kept having to open the window in the Jetta. In fact, car windows were cracked at random moments for random acts of flatulence. That's hot.
  
• Ohio is NOT a highlight. It might be the boringest state ever. As Jessie said at Panini's in Cleveland, Ohio is the 49^th cruddiest state, right ahead of Michigan. "Oh, and what's that one way up north … it's really cold?"
  
• We learned about Michigan left turns. Apparently, you can't turn left at a light. You have to go through the intersection and THEN make a u-turn and then turn right. Makes perfect sense.

I'll add more pics when I get the chance. There's probably another 200 shots to include. But it takes forever, so I need a solid internet connection and time - something I probably won't have until I get back home.

This is A again, one...

This is A again, one last thing few more updates coming tomorrow when I wake up again along with hundreds of pictures to wrap up the last day of the trip and plan for next year. listen

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This is A. It's 4:51...

This is A. It's 4:51 AM, I'm on my way back home from the completion of our Ball Park tour 2008. Good stuff today with Cincinnati and we drove home, it took us about 8 hours and just as we got home, we already started thinking about the next trip to Philly, New York, Boston and then back to New York. listen

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