Texas Rangers in the Arlington

In typical fashion for this trip, we slept a little after the Astros game, woke up early, and hit the road for Arlington. We saw night game in Arlington, watching the Texas Rangers take on the Baltimore Orioles. One of the girls in our group, Katie, is an avid Rangers fan and it was fun to watch her get giddy as we approached the Globe Life Stadium.

It was a beautiful day in Arlington and since we arrived two hours before game time, there was ample opportunity to explore. I wandered around the concourse, ending up in the left field bleachers watching batting practice. It was one of those great moments where time kind of stops. I jotted some notes down, writing a little bit of my segmented essay from my spot in the outfield. I wished for a practice home run to land near me, but I was a little too far away for any action.

Our seats were on the concourse level and we had a decent view of the game.

Globe Life was an enjoyable ball park. Lots of Ranger fans and they not only cheered on their team, but were also respectful of the Orioles' fans in attendance. However, our seats were in a spot where it was quite distracting to watch the game. We had the group that sang the national anthem behind us (high schoolers being high schoolers, aka loud and annoying), a marriage proposal that happened a few rows down, and some fans that just liked to move around the ballpark.

The Rangers and Orioles put on a good game. The final score ended up being 6-5, Orioles. They scored first in the first and the Rangers came back in the bottom of the first and scored two runs of their own off a homerun from Beltre. Scoring didn't happen again for the Orioles until the third; they added three making it 4-2 and then a homerun in the fifth brought the score to 5-2. 

Yet the Rangers weren't out of it yet. They came back and Beltre had his second home run of the game, bringing in three runs, tying the game up. In the sixth, the Orioles were able to put one more run on the board and take the lead.

The Rangers did their best to make a comeback, but it wasn't in the cards for that night. However, it was a good game, we saw some good plays, and even saw Beltre hit two home runs.

What was interesting about this game was seeing how dedicated Ranger fans were. One of the Orioles' players, Cruz, had been on the Ranger team before. However, due to some deals and disagreements and general MLB drama, Cruz left the team. Whenever he came up to bat, he received boos from his once dedicated fans. At the same time, we did see fans with Ranger tshirts supporting Cruz's number. The other player who was discussed was Josh Hamilton, who we had just seen the day before in Houston. He was another former Ranger who was then placed/exchanged/moved to another team. The woman sitting in front of us actually had a 34 Hamilton authentic jersey (and those are pricey) but she informed us that she had the Hamilton removed because he had "betrayed" them. It was fascinating to see first hand the dedication fans have and their inability (perhaps) to understand that while baseball is something fun to watch and support, there is an underlying capitalistic/money-making foundation that drives MLB along with the fact that teams and individual players have strategies to try to be on the best team possible and be the best player possible (and probably make the most money too). 

This game was almost four hours long, one of our longer ones. We headed right back to the hotel, well aware that we had a nine hour drive awaiting us in the morning to get to Kansas City for our final game.    

Another Dome: Minute Maid Park and the Astros

Our long drive from San Antonio put us in position to reach Houston at a reasonable time the next day. When we got to Houston, we discovered the humidity had returned to us, much to our dismay. Lucky for us, Houston also has a dome and for the second time in a row, we saw "inside" baseball.

The Minute Maid Park for the Astros was quite unlike any dome we had ever been in before. Many of my classmates remarked upon entering, how the stadium felt more like a mall as opposed to a ballpark. One of my classmates, Ryan A. and I, wandered around and found ourselves behind the dugout of the Astros, watching the Angels warm up. It was neat to be that close and per usual, Ryan A. had plenty of facts to help me be informed.

Our seats were up in the third balcony, behind home plate. It was a gorgeous view, especially because we could see the glass windows that make up part of the dome.

The Astros struck first in the third when Angels' pitcher Wilson ended up walking four batters. Add this to three singles, and you have some runs. The Astros scored five runs before the Angels brought in a new pitcher, Morin to help nab the last out. This was the first time in our trip when we saw a team go through the batting line up a full time (10 batters in the third inning). 

The Angels tried to mount an attack, but were unable to do so until the eighth inning. Both Cowgill and Hamilton hit home runs, creating some excitement in the crowd. 

But the home run show wasn't over. By this point, it was night enough and the temperatures had cooled to open the dome. See panorama below. 

Beautiful, isn't it? 

The Astros answered with two back to back solo home runs of their own. The first came from newly signed and making his MLB debut, Singleton. I had read about him earlier in the newspaper on the way to Houston so it was neat to see the man on the paper in the flesh. He hadn't had the strongest of debuts, committing to errors as the Astros' first baseman and striking out twice and getting on base via a walk. He stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park. The crowd went wild and the Astros' home run celebration began. On the far side of the dome, is a train and with every home run, the conductor hops in the train and drives it down a track. It was exciting to see the train move. 

After Singleton was Carter and he also hit a home run. The crowd went wild. The momentum had fully shifted and when the Angels came to bat in the ninth, they couldn't pull together any more runs. 

Post game, it was back to our hotel and right to bed. We had to drive to Arlington the next day. The baseball trip was nearing its final inning! 

The Whirlwind End

The end of this trip came fast and furious and it's hard to believe the group is packing the van one final time to drive from Kansas City to Cedar Rapids. I have much to write about and will do so once I get back to campus. Never fear, you'll soon hear about the final games of this trip!

The Joys of West Texas

Well it's been a couple of days since my last post and boy, has it been a couple of days. Since I last wrote, the group had just been to two Diamondback games at Chase Field and were about to hit the road for Houston.

If you're not familiar with the Tucson to Houston route, it's a long drive, over 18 hours with two time changes. Obviously we didn't try to tackle the entire route in one day, deciding to reach San Antonio the first day (15 or so hours) and then tackle the final three or four to Houston the following day.

We left Tucson around 7 AM. The drive started off well. Clear blue skies, good weather, not too hot, and not too humid. Once we were a little ways into Texas, Dr. Bob had me drive for a couple of hours. Since I've been focused on perspective during this trip, sitting in the driver seat was without a doubt a new perspective. West Texas spread out before me, a beautiful, dry landscape. It was very windy which made driving the van a unique experience, but I did it and Dr. Bob got to take a little nap.

As we got further into the drive, tensions began to rise and patience levels dropped. Don't get me wrong, all the people I'm traveling with are great, but being stuck in a van with them for long lengths of time can get trying. We hadn't done this long of a drive in a while so we were still trying to get back into the swing of things. With two time changes, we lost two hours and suddenly it was no longer 3 PM but 5 PM.

With the hopes of a quick dinner so we could get back on the road, we pulled off to a Sonic around 9 PM or so (this allowed Dr. Bob as much daylight driving as possible). Unfortunately, the Sonic wasn't too fast and the mosquitoes were nasty in the Texas humidity. Once we finished dinner, it was back on the road, knowing we wouldn't reach San Antonio until midnight or so. About an hour or so from our hotel, we ran into an accident. We think a truck trailer caught on fire and they blocked off the road. Our van sat in standstill traffic for about two hours and forty five minutes while the local fire department took care of the fire and removed it from the road. This was not part of the plan and to past the time, we either went to sleep, wander around the immediate vicinity of the van, or looked out at the traffic.

We finally checked into our hotel around 3 AM. The group was beat and I think those beds were the comfiest beds we had ever slept in.

Well, there's more to the story, but the van is loading up and hitting the road. Once we get to Arlington, I'll post again!  

"Dome" Forget to Bring a Hat: Chase Field & Diamondbacks

Our group is in Tucson, Arizona. We've just see two baseball games in less than 24 hours. The first game was a night game, with the Diamondbacks taking on the Cincinnati Reds. Chase Field is a unique place. It is a dome, but during night games or when the temperature isn't too bad, they open the dome up. When we first arrived, the dome was up. After batting practice and before the first pitch, they opened it up. What's cool about the stadium is that it is air conditioned, so despite the temperature outside, it can be about 30 degrees cooler inside.

Our Saturday night seats were in the bleachers. Although we've sat in the bleachers several times, I've discovered each set of bleachers is different. We were pretty close to the field and for the most part, the fans were mellow.

This mellowness might also be because of the Diamondback's lack of success this season. They haven't been doing too hot, not scoring a single run in the night game we saw. The Reds scored in the fourth inning (3 runs) and followed up with two more in the fifth. Surprisingly, this was the first game we saw that a home run did not occur. While the game moved quickly at first, it seemed that the last several innings really did drag on. 

We also saw a fellow Coe student (well Coe alum now), Mitch. He has a job on the west coast this summer and happened to be in Phoenix when we were. It was nice to see him and catch up a bit! 

The group returned to downtown Phoenix and Chase Field this past afternoon to see another match up between the Diamondbacks and the Reds. It seemed to be a more even match up today, the final score being 4-3, Reds. Unlike the game the night before, home runs made up most of the (wait, all of the) Reds' runs. The Diamondbacks answered with three runs in the fourth (no home runs). They tried to launch more offense throughout the rest of the game, but failed, especially when the Reds brought in their infamous closer, Chapman (I think I talked about him earlier, he can pitch 100 mph fastballs consistently, making him an excellent closer). Our seats were on the first base side and our seats were actually angled towards home plate (the first time we have seen that).

Tomorrow we begin our long trek to Houston. It will be a long ride, but we only have three games left. Crazy! More to come, as usual. Need some sleep now before the drive!