California Paradise

Yesterday, we were up early and on the road. Our destination was Los Angeles to see the Dodgers play. While Route 101 was highly recommended (it goes along the coast), the additional two and a half hours that it would add to our travel was not appealing to our group. We instead took Route 5, which took us through central California, which was also beautiful. We saw huge, rolling hills and as we got closer to LA, the highways started to widen to accommodate all the traffic.

Our hotel is in Pasadena, and on the Rose Bowl Parade route. For me, the Rose Bowl brings back some heavy Wisconsin pride (despite the fact the Badgers haven't been too successful there the past couple of years). The hotel is beautiful and our room overlooks the outdoor pool. The girls decided to go for a quick swim before heading to the game. Excellent life choice.

The group made our way to the Dodgers Stadium. As I wandered the stadium with one of my classmates, Ryan A., I learned lots of neat history about the place. This stadium was built in the 1960s when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. It was built into the hill, so our upper deck seats were actually at ground level. The other neat thing was the stadium felt incredibly modern, although no major renovations have been completed since it was first built. Ryan said the team has just done a stunning job of keeping up with continual changes to keep the Dodgers Stadium to peak perfection. 

Our seats were up in the nosebleeds, the fourth balcony. Despite being so high up, they were pretty decent seats.

A few observations about the Dodgers Stadium. First, it's the place for celebrities. George Lopez was at the game, the ceremonial first pitch was thrown by a Korean superstar named Suzy, and their code of conduct video featured all sorts of stars (including Hilary Duff [throw back to my childhood]). Second, most fans enjoy coming to the game for the second to eighth inning. It was weird but definitely part of the culture. 

The game was pretty exciting, especially at the end. The Dodgers were playing the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams started with their stronger pitches, Kershaw (Dodgers) vs. Bailey (Reds). However, the Reds scored early in the first, a homerun from Phillips bringing in Fraizer (who doubled) and then Phillips himself. The Dodgers couldn't put a run on the board until the bottom of the fifth when Turner got a base and scored on a wild pitch. Reds answered in the sixth with a passed ball allowed Fraizer to come in. As the Dodgers made a rally at the end, a homerun from fan favorite Puig in the sixth gave the crowd hope. The Dodgers even brought in their best closer, Wilson to help finish off ninth. However, the Reds closer, Chapman (who can pitch 100 mph fastballs) kept the bats quiet on the Dodger side and helped his team keep their lead, 3-2. 

We return to the park tonight to see the Dodgers play the Pirates, so it should be another interesting matchup. 

  

Waffles, Exploring, Free Pizza, and Baseball

Tuesday was our "free day" and I made sure to jam pack my day with things to do. In some way, the exploring began on Monday night. We are staying in Alameda, CA, an island which is about an hour and a half east of San Francisco (and a great city). Monday night, a few of us walked down to the local movie theater to see the newest X-Men movie. What we didn't fully realize was how historic the movie theater was. When we walked in, we were greeted with an ornate and beautiful theater. The movie was excellent and I won't forget that theater any time soon!

Tuesday morning, my day began with meeting up with my great aunt and uncle (and avid readers of my blog), Doug and Debby, for breakfast. They live about an hour away from San Francisco and stopped by for a visit. Our hotel is in Alameda and so for breakfast we went downtown to a cute diner called Ole's Waffle Shop. Not only were the waffles delicious, it was also amazing to see and catch up with Doug and Debby. We had a wonderful time and I was so glad things worked out.

Post breakfast, I spent some time wandering Alameda, checking out some of their shops (including this amazing bookstore and another vintage/used store with books, movies, and records), spending some time laying in the sun on the beach looking out at the bay, and even a little swim at our hotel pool. All in all, an excellent day. The group regrouped and before heading to the coliseum, we needed dinner. At yesterday's game, the grand slam by the A's meant a local pizza joint would give us a free personal pizza. We stopped by, ordered pizza and ate it on the way to the stadium. Our seats this time we in the bleachers and we sure had a different perspective on the game.

We ended up seating behind some bleacher regulars who brought all sorts of noisemakers to the game. While I thought we had great seats (a nice perspective of the whole field and especially of the batter) the people around us were sure distracting. The most distracting was this couple in front of us where the woman clearly had no idea what was going on in the game, being more interested in the man she was with and what food she had recently ordered. 

This game was very different from the one we saw on Memorial Day. First, O.Co was not sold out and we probably saw one of our lowest attendance yet. No grand slams and this time, the A's did not get a victory. Coming into the game, I was told to expect a good game between both the A's and the Tiger's number one pitchers -- Sonny Gray (A's) vs. Max Scherzer (Tiger's). While the pitching was good (both Gray and Scherzer lasted six innings), there was definitely an offensive front I was not expecting. The Tigers scored two runs in the first inning and the A's answered back with two runs in the second. Cabrera's homerun in the third put the Tigers in the lead and an RBI double from Avila brought in another run for the Tigers in the fourth. When the A's were up in the bottom of the forth, it was Jaso's homerun that gave the A's a 5-4 lead. From there, the Tigers kept coming back with a homerun from Hunter in the seventh and good base running in the eighth to bring in one final run.  

We return to our hotel late (it was a three hour game and typical CA traffic) and went straight to bed. We have a long drive ahead of us today to get to LA in time for our night Dodgers game. 

Toasty Day at the O.Co

While we didn't relocate our housing, we did change our ballpark yesterday. Instead of the grueling, stand still traffic into San Francisco, the group instead had about a 10 minute commute to the O.Co Coliseum. This giant concrete structure serves both the Oakland A's and the Oakland Raiders (football). We got to the stadium pretty early and found ourselves surrounded by a lot of families celebrating Memorial Day at the ballpark.

O.Co was unlike any stadium we had been in previously. The seats were extremely close together and the way the sun was coming in made our 75 degree day feel like we were in the 90s. These hot conditions really changed how the fans participated in the game; the stadium was sold out and we saw a lot of movement as people in the direct sun (like us) moved into the shade every once in the while for some water. Thank goodness for sunscreen -- I did get some sun, but didn't burn too badly.

In our group discussion later that night, we decided we had some of the best seats on the entire trip. We were on the second level, on the third base side. Our view was great to see the whole game and the two big screens in either outfield. O. Co was also by far the most simple stadium we have been at (not a lot of flash mainly due to their lack of a jumbotron and screens built to showcase baseball, the screens were definitely more suited to football). 

The A's played the Detroit Tigers and the Tigers didn't stand a chance from the start. In the bottom of the second, the A's got their first runs with two solo home runs from DH Moss and first baseman Blanks. They followed this up with two more solo home runs in the third from third baseman Donaldson and left fielder Cespedes. More scoring for the A's continued in the fourth with three singles and a walk that helped to bring in two more runs. Then in the eighth, we witnessed a grand slam home run from the A's catcher Norris. Not only was that exciting (the ballpark went WILD), but it also meant that every fan in attendance can receive a free personal pizza from Round Table Pizza, a pizza chain in Western USA. Our group plans to take advantage of that later today for dinner. 

Our day ended with a group dinner of tacos and then a class discussion about both the stadiums we have been to and some more reading from our baseball anthology. Today is our free day and then we return to Oakland for a 7:05 night game. We wake up tomorrow and head to the LA area to see the Dodgers play. 

Another Sunny California Day!

The crew headed back to AT&T Park for another game of the Giants vs. Twins. We had already discussed how different this ballpark felt from the others. Sitting in the bleachers the night before, we felt that the fans were there for the social aspect, not necessarily for the baseball. At our afternoon game, we got a much different feeling from the third tier.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and our seats had a gorgeous look out on the water. We were surrounded by lots of families (although they left by the seventh or eighth inning). These were some of my favorite seats simply because I had such a nice view of the field (I really like the more arial perspective). 

For another sold out crowd (supposedly 42,590 in attendance), the Giants had a strong showing. With a quick top of the first, they got the bats going in the bottom with three hits scoring two runs. While the Twins answered with a run in the second, the Giant's right fielder Hunter Pence delivered a home run in the third to increase the lead to two. From there, the Twins were unable to score again, while the Giants put five more runs on the board (one in the fourth, three more in the fifth, and one in the eighth). 

The star of the game was definitely Giant's pitcher Madison Bumgarner who pitched for seven innings, struck out 10 batters, and only allowed three hits. For the Giant's offense, Michael Morse had three doubles and four RBIs. 

What was the most interesting was the announcement of Dodger's pitcher Josh Beckett who had just pitched a no hitter at Coors Field during the middle of the game. While I clapped (because come on, a no hitter is a big deal), all the Giants fans around me booed. It was incredible to hear over 40,000 fans boo a player who most definitely deserved applause. But a little bit different spin on Giants fans (at least for me).

Post game, it was back to the hotel. We walked next door to pick up some groceries and made dinner in the kitchen in Dr. Bob's suite. After dinner was class and we discussed some of the readings from our baseball anthology. It was a little weird getting some class time in, but it was nice to discuss baseball on a more academic level after seeing so many games. It was funny though, because sometimes the guys got into intense conversations about baseball players (past and present) and the four girls just looked at each other wondering how the heck the boys could remember all those stats! 

We have class tomorrow morning and evening, with a trip to Oakland to see the A's play as our afternoon break. Should be another nice day!  

Hello California!

After another six hour or so drive, our group finally ended up in California. The sun was shining as we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel. We'll be in the same spot for four days (our longest stretch) and this hotel has more of a suite style set up. We have our own living room, kitchen (if we need to use it), and then a bedroom and bathroom. The girls even have a deck!

We grabbed our stuff and headed out for the ball park. Traffic into San Francisco was horrible, I have never been in such stand still traffic. Slowly inching along, we passed the tolls and hit the open road. Our travels took us across the Bay Bridge and into the city. Finding parking, we walked several blocks to AT&T Park. The stadium was packed, filled with a sea of orange. Our seats were in the bleachers, behind left field. Over 41,000 people attended the game and the air was filled with energy.

The game moved along quickly, with a home run on the Giants side in the bottom of the second. Then in the bottom of the sixth, a sacrifice fly brought in a second run for the Giants. Their opponent, the Minnesota Twins, rallied in the ninth with a homerun but ultimately, they couldn't mount the offensive needed to force the Giants to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Game over, it was back to the van and back to the hotel. We're headed back to the park this afternoon to watch the two teams face off again.