It's Getting Hot, Hot, Hot!

My Grandma Joan's strategy for life is simple: you have plan A and if that doesn't work, then you best have a plan B (and C, D, E, etc). The more plans you have, in theory, the more prepared you are for when life comes at you and changes must occur. 

At the beginning of this trip, we had thought yesterday would be a travel day. We would stop by the Grand Canyon and end up somewhere near Phoenix, AZ. Then, the next day (aka today), we would head to the city, catch our night game and then afternoon game the following day and then take about a day and a half (with two time zone changes) to get to Houston for our next game. 

However, upon looking at our trusty atlas, we discovered there's a lot of land between LA and the Grand Canyon and although the group enjoys a good long car ride, the thought of several long car rides in a row (the stretch from Phoenix to Houston is nasty) persuaded us to skip the Grand Canyon this time around and spend another day in Pasadena. With another night booked at the Saga Motel, we thought it might be fun to check out another park, like where the Angels or Padres play. However, both stadiums weren't offering tours so instead, we found ourselves back at Dodger Stadium for some Friday night baseball. 

I have to say, Dodger Stadium really grew on me. There was something about the place, how it's built into a hill, how it really hasn't changed structurally since being built in the 1960s, or maybe it's the pretty blue throughout the stadium that gives it a magical sort of feel. Whatever it is, we nabbed seats on the second level, first base side. 

It was a beautiful night for baseball. We saw the Dodgers play the Pirates and unfortunately, the Dodgers just couldn't pull together a win. They started with pitcher Josh Beckett, who about a week before had just pitched the Dodger's 21st no hitter in Pittsburgh. The jumbotrons showed a nice recap of the game and how excited the team was for Beckett's success. 

Beckett and the Dodgers kept things under control until the third inning, which started off with a hit by pitch, a walk and two singles (one bringing in one run). The Pirates continued to hit the ball and a solo home run by Davis in the fourth made the game 2-0, Pirates. However, the Dodgers just couldn't score, leaving up to three men on base (fifth inning). In the eighth, it looked promising for the Dodgers, a single by Chone Figgins to start the rally. Figgins advanced to second on Puig's (the big name for the Dodgers) sacrifice fly and eventually scoring on Hanley Ramirez's single. The crowd really got excited when Figgins came in. But the Dodgers couldn't bring Puig in. We hoped for a spark in the bottom of the ninth, but the Dodgers were at the bottom of their order and couldn't put anything together, the three outs coming all in a row. 

Post game, Denny's sponsored a fireworks night at the park. It was a nice display, accompanied by music about California. While fans could take the field to watch, our group chose to stay in our seats. It was pretty incredible how many people actually stayed for the fireworks and how many chose to watch from the field. 

This morning, the group hit the road about 7 AM, headed for Phoenix. It was only about a five hour drive and once again, we saw the topography change as we got closer to the California/Arizona state line. We arrived at our hotel safe and sound and let me tell you, it's hot out there. No humidity (which is quite weird for this Wisconsin chick!) but lucky for us, the stadium is a dome that is air conditioned. Looking forward to more baseball tonight! 

  

A California Home Run

It's day two in Pasadena, and I really can't complain. Beautiful weather, a nice hotel (good location and a BEAUTIFUL pool), and night baseball.

This morning I got a little swim in before class. Our class period was devoted to book reports over the third book we all chose. Everyone picked some different so it's fun to hear what other people read. The books we selected also help to fill in some of the gaps that our history book might gloss over or not dig into as much detail. The trend is for our conversations to be long so it was a little after noon once we finished three reports. Lunch was a group lunch and we walked about a mile to a place called Blaze Pizza. It was recommended to us and as soon as we walked in the door, we knew we had come to the right place. The restaurant is a build your own pizza. Essentially a Subway of sorts, just for pizza. They throw your individual pizza into a large brick oven and it cooks in only a couple of minutes. We were stuffed but it was so good!

The rest of the afternoon was spent on our own working on reading and writing. Instead of staying in the hotel, I chose to walk across the street to the Pasadena City College Library. It was a beautiful library, with large windows and a gorgeous routunda. I studied on a quiet floor and got a good amount of work done. When I returned to the hotel, it was time to go back to Dodgers Stadium for another game. This time, the Dodgers were facing the Pirates. Our seats were in the bleachers, on the other side of the stadium than we were last night.

Definitely a little bit different atmosphere. We were early enough to watch batting practice and then the game got under way around 7:10 PM. What began as an even match turned a little lopsided by the final innings. The Dodgers scored first in the first with Ethier's triple getting him to third followed by Puig's double. The Pirates answered in the top of the second with a home run from Alaverez yet the Dodgers scored again in the second from an RBI off Gordon's single. Another Pirates home run in the sixth tied the game up until Puig scored in the bottom of the sixth. In the seventh, the Dodgers replaced their starting pitcher, Haren, with League (who we had also seen the night before). The top of the seventh saw nine batters go to the box, resulting in three more runs. With the score 6-3, the Dodgers just couldn't find a way to score in the remaining three innings. 

Tomorrow's game plan includes class, reading/writing, and spending an extra day in Pasadena. I know originally the schedule said a Grand Canyon detour but it just wasn't in the cards this time. Nevertheless, an extra day at the Saga Hotel means another day of swimming and using the library across the street (I can dig that!).

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.