I flew into L.A. on Thursday night, chartered a bus to Vegas on Friday morning and it's been insanity ever since. Friday may have been one of the best days of my life. I fly back to KC on Monday night and I'll try to get a full recap up.
My friend, Peter Feldman, is at a WSOP Circuit final table in New Orleans. Gooooooo Nordberg! Gavin Smith, another great guy, is the overwhelming chipleader and I hope he finishes 2nd.
I'm watching US - Latvia right now and drinking water in preparation for a long night. I can't believe how soon the World Cup is kicking off. Goooooooo Nats!
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
I suck
First things first: RIP Marisa Cooper
Thanks for all the harsh comments, they're pretty flattering. I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting more, or at all. I’m simply having too much fun. Please remember that if I don’t blog for a while, you can: (a) call me and see how I’m doing or (b) assume that I’m having too much fun to update this damn weblog. It’s one of those problems that grows and grows the longer you ignore it and pretty soon you feel like never writing again. I’ve tried to write a huge long update on multiple occasions and quit out of frustration every time. With that said, here is my update of the DC - Philly - NYC - Boston - Cooperstown - NY - Toronto - Pittsburgh - Cleveland - Cinci - Detroit leg: I had fun.
AlCantHang has a good recap of Philly here and Nat has some good pictures here. I can't figure out how to link the actual post on Al's page but it's posted on May 8th. Al writes better than me and Nat takes better pictures so get over there and check ‘em out.
I saw a lot of old friends and saw a lot of cool ballparks. I will say that PNC Park in Pittsburgh made its way into my top 3, along with Safeco in Seattle and AT&T in San Francisco. PNC is right on one of the rivers and has a beautiful view of Pittsburgh’s skyline in right field. Comerica Park in Detroit is probably in the top 6 or 7 and would be higher if Detroit had a nicer skyline. How about trying to rank the new-retro stadiums in order! That’ll come after my Chicago recap.
Dookie met me in Cleveland and joined me for games in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Chicago and Milwaukee. He has seen 11 stadiums now, pretty impressive. Anyway, Dookie and I left Detroit on Wednesday because Jimmy was flying in that night and we were going to paint the town red. Traffic really sucked coming into the city and the weather was even worse. There was a ton of construction and a lot of big trucks and I could barely see through the rain. Not fun. We got to Chicago around 2 or 3 PM and I was really happy to be off the road. We had plans to stay with Jimmy’s sister’s husband’s brother who Jimmy had never met and we decided to wait until Jimmy arrived at 8:30 to contact the guy. We parked near his house and walked to Wrigley Field. It’s a tiny stadium and was easy to walk around. We considered going to the game that night but already had bleacher tickets for Thursday’s day game so we decided to save the $50 and drink more. We hit a bar called Stadium Club or something and started drinking pints of Old Style. The bar got really crowded and smoky around gametime and the weather had cleared up so we decided to sit on their patio for a bit. About 5 minutes after we got seated it started hailing really hard and we were grateful that our table was under an awning. Our waitress stopped coming out to serve us but we stayed reasonably dry. At some point we got a call from Jimmy letting us know that his flight was canceled because of the weather. He wasn’t flying in until 7 AM the next morning.
Soooo, here’s the situation: Me and Dave, both semi-drunk, in Chicago at 7 PM with no place to stay. The whole Jimmy’s brother-in-law’s brother thing was a little weird anyway but without Jimmy there it was impossible. The hail had stopped so I decided to walk back to the car, hop on my laptop and try to steal a wireless signal to look for a cheap hotel that we could walk to or take a cab. I succeeded in stealing a really weak signal and could only use MSN messenger. I asked Nat to look for hotels for me and he found a one-bed, 10’ x 10’ room for $105. Dookie thought that was ridiculous so we decided to spend that money on more beer, get drunker, and ultimately sleep in the car.
Around 8 PM, we started our quest for more beer. We were north of everything so decided to walk south toward downtown. We were on a street called Halsted and stopped at the first bar we saw, called The North End. As soon as we walked in I noticed there was only one female in the whole place. I went to the bathroom after ordering a beer and got there just as a flamboyantly homosexual man got there. He asked, “Are you coming in with me?” and I respectfully declined. I went back to Dave and he whispered to me, “Are we in a gay bar?” I was pretty sure of it and my suspicions were confirmed when the bartender told us how much he loved Seattle and more specifically, Capitol Hill. I felt fine but Dookie was pretty uncomfortable so we pounded our beers and left. Apparently Shane from Road Rules was there but I didn’t recognize the person that Dookie pointed out. As we walked south on Halsted we started to see rainbow pained garages and large rainbow phallic structures. We were definitely in the middle of “boy’s town”. All the bars looked really nice but really weren’t our cup of tea. Eventually we got to a bar called The Union and saw a few girls. The bar was mentioned in a Tucker Max story so we knew it would be good. We ran inside and got some beer and chicken wings. Manly! The bartender informed us that Friday night the bar offered all-you-can drink from 6-9 PM for $10. Well, we knew where we were going on Friday!
Eventually we made our way back towards Wrigley and found some good bars on Sheffield. We watched the end of the Spurs-Mavs game 5, a game that really pissed us off at the time but doesn’t matter now, and walked to McDonalds. In case you didn’t know, a late post-midnight dinner at McDonald’s is not a good idea. We eventually made it back to the car and passed out. I woke up a few times to urinate in the courtyard of the apartment building across the street but slept surprisingly well.
Argh. I’m tired and this is too much writing. I know, I suck. I guess you’ll all have to live with that as my update for the past 2 weeks. It’ll be easier to update daily from now on.
Here’s the stadium list I promised you. Remember, these are just the new-retro parks.
1a. Safeco Field in Seattle
1b. AT&T in San Francisco
1c. PNC in Pittsburgh
4. Citizen’s Bank in Philly
5. Comerica in Detroit
6. Camden Yards in Baltimore
7. Petco in San Diego
8. Ballpark at Arlington in Texas
9. Miller in Milwaukee
10. Turner Field in Atlanta
11. Jacobs Field in Cleveland
12. US Cellular in Chicago
13. Minute Maid in Houston
14. Great American in Cincinnati
15. Chase in Arizona
US Cellular would be higher if they weren’t ridiculously elitist. They have a large 500 level and don’t let anyone with 500 level tickets walk around the lower concourse. WTF is that? I will never voluntarily give Jerry Reinsdorf my money. Great American was OK but just very boring. Chase really turned me off with its dome-like feel. I have a hard time figuring out where to put the old stadiums on this list since the new ones are obviously nicer so they have their own list. Here ya go:
1. Fenway in Boston
2. Wrigley in Chicago
3. Yankee Stadium in New York
4. Shea Stadium in New York
5. Dodger Stadium in LA
6. Rogers Centre in Toronto
7. Angels Stadium in Anaheim
8. Network Associates in Oakland
9. RFK in DC
Honestly, the top 5 on this list might all be better than any of the new stadiums. You can’t buy history and each of those stadiums gave me goosebumps as I walked through the turnstiles. The Skydome was surprisingly nice. The hotel and restaurant in centrefield really make it bearable. They use fieldturf instead of Astroturf and even though it looks splotchy, I give them props for it. Angels Stadium has been upgraded but still is kinda blah. RFK is just disgusting.
That’s 24 down, 4 to go. I’m going to Minnesota tomorrow night and driving to Kansas City on Wednesday. I fly to Vegas on Thursday and get back to Kansas City next Monday. I’m driving to St. Louis on Tuesday and back to Kansas City on the same day. I drive to Denver on Thursday and see my last game, at Coors Field, on Friday. I drive to Vegas on Saturday and I fly home on Sunday. I’m leaving my car in Vegas because I want it during the WSOP. I’m flying home on June 4th, flying to Germany on June 8th, flying back to Seattle on June 23rd and starting the WSOP in Vegas on June 27th. It’ll be much easier to leave my car in Vegas instead of driving all the way to Seattle and back. I have a number of friends there and I’ll be able to park it in someone’s driveway.
I got my oil changed today. The trip will go over 9,000 miles tomorrow. I’ve been in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. That’s 25 states and one province. I think the final tally will be 31 states.
It’s been a great trip but I’m also really excited to move on. The World Cup will be amazing and the World Series will be fantastic. I hope I’m not broke by the end of the WSOP.
Thanks for all the harsh comments, they're pretty flattering. I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting more, or at all. I’m simply having too much fun. Please remember that if I don’t blog for a while, you can: (a) call me and see how I’m doing or (b) assume that I’m having too much fun to update this damn weblog. It’s one of those problems that grows and grows the longer you ignore it and pretty soon you feel like never writing again. I’ve tried to write a huge long update on multiple occasions and quit out of frustration every time. With that said, here is my update of the DC - Philly - NYC - Boston - Cooperstown - NY - Toronto - Pittsburgh - Cleveland - Cinci - Detroit leg: I had fun.
AlCantHang has a good recap of Philly here and Nat has some good pictures here. I can't figure out how to link the actual post on Al's page but it's posted on May 8th. Al writes better than me and Nat takes better pictures so get over there and check ‘em out.
I saw a lot of old friends and saw a lot of cool ballparks. I will say that PNC Park in Pittsburgh made its way into my top 3, along with Safeco in Seattle and AT&T in San Francisco. PNC is right on one of the rivers and has a beautiful view of Pittsburgh’s skyline in right field. Comerica Park in Detroit is probably in the top 6 or 7 and would be higher if Detroit had a nicer skyline. How about trying to rank the new-retro stadiums in order! That’ll come after my Chicago recap.
Dookie met me in Cleveland and joined me for games in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Chicago and Milwaukee. He has seen 11 stadiums now, pretty impressive. Anyway, Dookie and I left Detroit on Wednesday because Jimmy was flying in that night and we were going to paint the town red. Traffic really sucked coming into the city and the weather was even worse. There was a ton of construction and a lot of big trucks and I could barely see through the rain. Not fun. We got to Chicago around 2 or 3 PM and I was really happy to be off the road. We had plans to stay with Jimmy’s sister’s husband’s brother who Jimmy had never met and we decided to wait until Jimmy arrived at 8:30 to contact the guy. We parked near his house and walked to Wrigley Field. It’s a tiny stadium and was easy to walk around. We considered going to the game that night but already had bleacher tickets for Thursday’s day game so we decided to save the $50 and drink more. We hit a bar called Stadium Club or something and started drinking pints of Old Style. The bar got really crowded and smoky around gametime and the weather had cleared up so we decided to sit on their patio for a bit. About 5 minutes after we got seated it started hailing really hard and we were grateful that our table was under an awning. Our waitress stopped coming out to serve us but we stayed reasonably dry. At some point we got a call from Jimmy letting us know that his flight was canceled because of the weather. He wasn’t flying in until 7 AM the next morning.
Soooo, here’s the situation: Me and Dave, both semi-drunk, in Chicago at 7 PM with no place to stay. The whole Jimmy’s brother-in-law’s brother thing was a little weird anyway but without Jimmy there it was impossible. The hail had stopped so I decided to walk back to the car, hop on my laptop and try to steal a wireless signal to look for a cheap hotel that we could walk to or take a cab. I succeeded in stealing a really weak signal and could only use MSN messenger. I asked Nat to look for hotels for me and he found a one-bed, 10’ x 10’ room for $105. Dookie thought that was ridiculous so we decided to spend that money on more beer, get drunker, and ultimately sleep in the car.
Around 8 PM, we started our quest for more beer. We were north of everything so decided to walk south toward downtown. We were on a street called Halsted and stopped at the first bar we saw, called The North End. As soon as we walked in I noticed there was only one female in the whole place. I went to the bathroom after ordering a beer and got there just as a flamboyantly homosexual man got there. He asked, “Are you coming in with me?” and I respectfully declined. I went back to Dave and he whispered to me, “Are we in a gay bar?” I was pretty sure of it and my suspicions were confirmed when the bartender told us how much he loved Seattle and more specifically, Capitol Hill. I felt fine but Dookie was pretty uncomfortable so we pounded our beers and left. Apparently Shane from Road Rules was there but I didn’t recognize the person that Dookie pointed out. As we walked south on Halsted we started to see rainbow pained garages and large rainbow phallic structures. We were definitely in the middle of “boy’s town”. All the bars looked really nice but really weren’t our cup of tea. Eventually we got to a bar called The Union and saw a few girls. The bar was mentioned in a Tucker Max story so we knew it would be good. We ran inside and got some beer and chicken wings. Manly! The bartender informed us that Friday night the bar offered all-you-can drink from 6-9 PM for $10. Well, we knew where we were going on Friday!
Eventually we made our way back towards Wrigley and found some good bars on Sheffield. We watched the end of the Spurs-Mavs game 5, a game that really pissed us off at the time but doesn’t matter now, and walked to McDonalds. In case you didn’t know, a late post-midnight dinner at McDonald’s is not a good idea. We eventually made it back to the car and passed out. I woke up a few times to urinate in the courtyard of the apartment building across the street but slept surprisingly well.
Argh. I’m tired and this is too much writing. I know, I suck. I guess you’ll all have to live with that as my update for the past 2 weeks. It’ll be easier to update daily from now on.
Here’s the stadium list I promised you. Remember, these are just the new-retro parks.
1a. Safeco Field in Seattle
1b. AT&T in San Francisco
1c. PNC in Pittsburgh
4. Citizen’s Bank in Philly
5. Comerica in Detroit
6. Camden Yards in Baltimore
7. Petco in San Diego
8. Ballpark at Arlington in Texas
9. Miller in Milwaukee
10. Turner Field in Atlanta
11. Jacobs Field in Cleveland
12. US Cellular in Chicago
13. Minute Maid in Houston
14. Great American in Cincinnati
15. Chase in Arizona
US Cellular would be higher if they weren’t ridiculously elitist. They have a large 500 level and don’t let anyone with 500 level tickets walk around the lower concourse. WTF is that? I will never voluntarily give Jerry Reinsdorf my money. Great American was OK but just very boring. Chase really turned me off with its dome-like feel. I have a hard time figuring out where to put the old stadiums on this list since the new ones are obviously nicer so they have their own list. Here ya go:
1. Fenway in Boston
2. Wrigley in Chicago
3. Yankee Stadium in New York
4. Shea Stadium in New York
5. Dodger Stadium in LA
6. Rogers Centre in Toronto
7. Angels Stadium in Anaheim
8. Network Associates in Oakland
9. RFK in DC
Honestly, the top 5 on this list might all be better than any of the new stadiums. You can’t buy history and each of those stadiums gave me goosebumps as I walked through the turnstiles. The Skydome was surprisingly nice. The hotel and restaurant in centrefield really make it bearable. They use fieldturf instead of Astroturf and even though it looks splotchy, I give them props for it. Angels Stadium has been upgraded but still is kinda blah. RFK is just disgusting.
That’s 24 down, 4 to go. I’m going to Minnesota tomorrow night and driving to Kansas City on Wednesday. I fly to Vegas on Thursday and get back to Kansas City next Monday. I’m driving to St. Louis on Tuesday and back to Kansas City on the same day. I drive to Denver on Thursday and see my last game, at Coors Field, on Friday. I drive to Vegas on Saturday and I fly home on Sunday. I’m leaving my car in Vegas because I want it during the WSOP. I’m flying home on June 4th, flying to Germany on June 8th, flying back to Seattle on June 23rd and starting the WSOP in Vegas on June 27th. It’ll be much easier to leave my car in Vegas instead of driving all the way to Seattle and back. I have a number of friends there and I’ll be able to park it in someone’s driveway.
I got my oil changed today. The trip will go over 9,000 miles tomorrow. I’ve been in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. That’s 25 states and one province. I think the final tally will be 31 states.
It’s been a great trip but I’m also really excited to move on. The World Cup will be amazing and the World Series will be fantastic. I hope I’m not broke by the end of the WSOP.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
It just gets better all the time
The road trip just keeps getting better. The last few days have been more fun than any man should be allowed to have. Since Tuesday I’ve been to five baseball games in four different stadiums with eleven different people. Derek, Nat, Al, Eva, Matt, Ivy, Chris, Ezra, Emil, Mr. Matros, and Mrs. Matros. I saw a 14th inning stretch and I saw Arthur Rhodes get a save. I saw the Braves lose three consecutive games and fall 9 games behind the Mets. The Braves are 0-6 in games that I’ve attended. 0-6! I saw Jose Reyes get 5 hits in a game and I saw David Wright hit a walk-off double to end one of the best baseball games that I’ve ever attended. I drank SoCo with AlCantHang and I played Chinese Poker with Matt Matros and Chris Fagris. I stayed in an old plantation style house and Nat showed me how the previous owners rang their servants. I ate the biggest and tastiest cheesesteak that I’ve ever seen and I made it my bitch. I saw two old stadiums that won’t be around four years from now and I saw two “new-retro” stadiums, including the one that started the stadium revolution.
Guess what I get to do the next few days? I get to see a day game at the oldest and arguably the coolest park in the majors. I get to spend a day at the Hall of Fame. I get to watch the biggest rivalry in sports in the house that Ruth built. I get to share a beer or four with Pauly.
I’m wicked tired so that’s all I could come up with as a recap: the lazy writer’s list. I’ll try to get pictures up at some point. In case you’re curious, here’s my schedule for the next week:Sunday: Orioles-Red Sox at Fenway
Monday: Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
Tuesday: Red Sox-Yankees at Yankee Stadium
Wednesday: Senators-Sabres in Buffalo (NHL Playoffs)
Thursday: A’s-Blue Jays at the Skydome
Friday: Marlins-Pirates in Pittsburgh
Saturday: Tigers-Indians at Jacobs Field
Sunday: Phillies-Reds in Cincinnati
Sick, sick, sick. Unreal. Both the Tigers-Indians and the Phillies-Reds games look much more appealing now than they did at the beginning of the season.
Nat leaves me on Wednesday morning, catching a train back to Philadelphia, but Dookie rejoins me in Cleveland on Saturday. He’ll be with me for over a week, through Chicago and maybe Milwaukee. I can’t believe this trip is more than halfway over.
Guess what I get to do the next few days? I get to see a day game at the oldest and arguably the coolest park in the majors. I get to spend a day at the Hall of Fame. I get to watch the biggest rivalry in sports in the house that Ruth built. I get to share a beer or four with Pauly.
I’m wicked tired so that’s all I could come up with as a recap: the lazy writer’s list. I’ll try to get pictures up at some point. In case you’re curious, here’s my schedule for the next week:Sunday: Orioles-Red Sox at Fenway
Monday: Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
Tuesday: Red Sox-Yankees at Yankee Stadium
Wednesday: Senators-Sabres in Buffalo (NHL Playoffs)
Thursday: A’s-Blue Jays at the Skydome
Friday: Marlins-Pirates in Pittsburgh
Saturday: Tigers-Indians at Jacobs Field
Sunday: Phillies-Reds in Cincinnati
Sick, sick, sick. Unreal. Both the Tigers-Indians and the Phillies-Reds games look much more appealing now than they did at the beginning of the season.
Nat leaves me on Wednesday morning, catching a train back to Philadelphia, but Dookie rejoins me in Cleveland on Saturday. He’ll be with me for over a week, through Chicago and maybe Milwaukee. I can’t believe this trip is more than halfway over.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Hump Day
Happy Hump Day to all you working stiffs out there. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous in DC and Baltimore, continuing my lucky weather trend. It started in Oakland and San Francisco, where it had rained nonstop for over a week then suddenly stopped for the two days that I was in town for A's and Giants games, and has continued to the East Coast where it's been sunny and 70 every single day. I'm probably jinxing myself by writing this but I'm going to knock on wood and continueworshiping the weather gods before I go to sleep every night.
On Monday, I woke up at 8:30 and caught the Metro from Devo's house to the Smithsonian and the Mall. I actually got to the American History Museum at 9:30 AM and they didn't open until 10. It might have been the first time in my life that I've been up and about before a museum opened. The museum had an exhibit titled, "Amreica at War" or something like that and it showcased what life was like during all the major wars from the Revolutionary War until today. The ehibit was obviously done very well and I really enjoyed it. They also had the original "Star-Spangled Banner" and were working on cleaning it and mounting it for display. I went to the Natural History Museum next and enjoyed looking at dinosaur bones. I considered going to the Holocaust Museum but I didn't want to get depressed so I skipped it and wandered around the Mall for a while. I only took one picture all day:
Washington Monument
At noon I caught the Metro back to Devo's place and drove up to Baltimore. I checked into the Days Inn in the ghetto and played poker all day. I'm competing with some people on 2+2 all month and trying to score the most tournament points on Poker Stars. I tried 8-tabling on my laptop and quickly found that it wasn't a good idea. I ended up down about $400 and decided to only play 4 at a time, max.
Tuesday morning, I checked out of the ghetto and went to the Sheraton Inner Harbor. The hotel is 2 blocks from Camden Yards and 2 blocks from the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is the nicest, most happenin' spot in Baltimore and the Sheraton's location was perfect. Baltimore's hotels aren't cheap and the best deal I could find on Orbitz was the Holiday Inn for $159. The Holiday Inn is 1 block from Camden and about 5 blocks from the Inner Harbor. I checked out Hotwire.com and they had an unnamed 3-Star hotel for $110 so I decided to roll the dice and it ended up being the Sheraton. The Sheraton was $330 on Orbitz. I'm not sure what the deal is with Hotwire and why they don't tell you the name of your hotel beforehand but they usually have pretty good deals and they tell you the neighborhood that you'll be staying in. I'll definitely use them again.
Anyway, I played some poker until my friend, Derek, showed up at 4 PM. I hadn't eaten all day so we went to a little brewery by the stadium and had dinner. I had a crabcake sandwich and it was delicious. I'm not sure wha kind of crab they use(Blue?) but it was definitely the bomb. We had a few IPAs to wash down our dinner then headed to the stadium. I'd been to Camden before but I was still impressed by the stadium. It's beautiful in its own right but gets extra cool points for starting the new-retro stadium revolution. I really like the way that they incorporated the warehouse into the scenery and I like the view of downtown behind centerfield. Here are some pictures:
The Babe
Nice Seats, Huh?
The Right Field Warehouse
I had a great time hanging out with Derek and I'm happy he made it to the game. He and his wife have a 7 month-old baby and I know he's busy as hell. Baseball is the perfect event to hang out with a friend and talk about everything under the sun. I love it so much. We saw a good pitching from Kris Benson (Anna's giving it up tonight!) and 3 Oriole home runs paved the way for a 9-2 victory for the home team. The scoreboard claimed that the attendance was 15,000 and change but it definitely felt like less than that. It was definitely the smallest crowd I've seen so far and quite a change from the 45,000-plus that were at each of the Mets-Braves games.
After the game I went back to the Sheraton and played some more tournaments. I ended up winning a $50 Stud Hi-Low tourney despite not really knowing how to play. I played very very tight until I got to the final table and picked up an (A2)3, picked up a 4 on 4th, 7 on 5th, then 2-2 for the smoothest of 7s and trip deuces. I then picked up (A4)A that held up for a scoop and then got rolled up deuces that held up for a scoop. It's an easy game when you pick up 3 monsters in 4 hands late in a tourney. Once I got a big stack it was pretty much over and I abused the small stacks into submission. The tourney was pretty small but the $840 for first place put me back in the black for the tournament challenge.
This morning I woke up at 10:30, called to front desk for a check-out extension, and went back to bed until 11:30. I checked out at noon and walked to the Ineer Harbor. It was another beautiful day and it was definitely an enjoyable atmosphere. I ate lunch at the ESPN Zone and then went to Barnes and Noble to buy The Complete Stories of Truman Capote. The book came highly recommended by my dad and I wanted some non-poker reading material. Here's a picture of the old power plant that houses the new businesses:
Power Plant
Again, I really like how they incorporated an old historical building into something new and hip. The smokestack looking thing that a power plant has runs right through the Barnes and Noble and adds a lot to the aesthetic beauty. Around 2 PM, I drove back to DC and found RFK Stadium using my GPS. The stadium looks pretty ghetto and the neighborhood was kinda shady so I looked up Starbucks in my GPS and found one about 2 miles away. Now I'm at a coffee shop called Cosi, across the street from Starbucks. I bought a drink and now I'm stealing someone's wireless internet and updating my blog. Starbucks has a T-Mobile signal but there were 3 or 4 other unsecured connections for me to choose from for free. God bless America.
The Nationals game isn't until 7 PM so I'll probably be here for 2 more hours. I'm really excited for the upcoming games, in Philly and at Shea. Tomorrow I get to kick it with Nat, Al and Eva and on Friday there's a big crew going to the Mets game, including Matt, Ivy, Chris, Ezra, Emil and Nat. Nat's coming with me on my Philly-NYC-Boston-Cooperstown-NYC rectangle of baseball love. Al is planning on calling in sick for work on Friday so that should tell you what Thursday's going to be like. If Al's calling in sick, I might be calling in dead.
Apperently, starting June 7th, it's going to be a class C Felony to play online poker in the state of Washington. I haven't really read into the details but apparently the budget is $0 to enforce this law. However, the threat of a felony is enough to get me to stop playing. That's really going to suck. Carl was planning on buying a place and even put an offer on a condo the day before he heard about this law. Now he's withdrawn his offer and is seriously considering moving to Vegas. The damn Indian Casinos have a ton of pull I guess and I'm pretty sure they were the major factor behind this legislation. I'm not very happy.
OK, that's it. I'll try to get a blog up on Friday, as long as I don't drown in a pool of SoCo.
On Monday, I woke up at 8:30 and caught the Metro from Devo's house to the Smithsonian and the Mall. I actually got to the American History Museum at 9:30 AM and they didn't open until 10. It might have been the first time in my life that I've been up and about before a museum opened. The museum had an exhibit titled, "Amreica at War" or something like that and it showcased what life was like during all the major wars from the Revolutionary War until today. The ehibit was obviously done very well and I really enjoyed it. They also had the original "Star-Spangled Banner" and were working on cleaning it and mounting it for display. I went to the Natural History Museum next and enjoyed looking at dinosaur bones. I considered going to the Holocaust Museum but I didn't want to get depressed so I skipped it and wandered around the Mall for a while. I only took one picture all day:
Washington Monument
At noon I caught the Metro back to Devo's place and drove up to Baltimore. I checked into the Days Inn in the ghetto and played poker all day. I'm competing with some people on 2+2 all month and trying to score the most tournament points on Poker Stars. I tried 8-tabling on my laptop and quickly found that it wasn't a good idea. I ended up down about $400 and decided to only play 4 at a time, max.
Tuesday morning, I checked out of the ghetto and went to the Sheraton Inner Harbor. The hotel is 2 blocks from Camden Yards and 2 blocks from the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is the nicest, most happenin' spot in Baltimore and the Sheraton's location was perfect. Baltimore's hotels aren't cheap and the best deal I could find on Orbitz was the Holiday Inn for $159. The Holiday Inn is 1 block from Camden and about 5 blocks from the Inner Harbor. I checked out Hotwire.com and they had an unnamed 3-Star hotel for $110 so I decided to roll the dice and it ended up being the Sheraton. The Sheraton was $330 on Orbitz. I'm not sure what the deal is with Hotwire and why they don't tell you the name of your hotel beforehand but they usually have pretty good deals and they tell you the neighborhood that you'll be staying in. I'll definitely use them again.
Anyway, I played some poker until my friend, Derek, showed up at 4 PM. I hadn't eaten all day so we went to a little brewery by the stadium and had dinner. I had a crabcake sandwich and it was delicious. I'm not sure wha kind of crab they use(Blue?) but it was definitely the bomb. We had a few IPAs to wash down our dinner then headed to the stadium. I'd been to Camden before but I was still impressed by the stadium. It's beautiful in its own right but gets extra cool points for starting the new-retro stadium revolution. I really like the way that they incorporated the warehouse into the scenery and I like the view of downtown behind centerfield. Here are some pictures:
The Babe
Nice Seats, Huh?
The Right Field Warehouse
I had a great time hanging out with Derek and I'm happy he made it to the game. He and his wife have a 7 month-old baby and I know he's busy as hell. Baseball is the perfect event to hang out with a friend and talk about everything under the sun. I love it so much. We saw a good pitching from Kris Benson (Anna's giving it up tonight!) and 3 Oriole home runs paved the way for a 9-2 victory for the home team. The scoreboard claimed that the attendance was 15,000 and change but it definitely felt like less than that. It was definitely the smallest crowd I've seen so far and quite a change from the 45,000-plus that were at each of the Mets-Braves games.
After the game I went back to the Sheraton and played some more tournaments. I ended up winning a $50 Stud Hi-Low tourney despite not really knowing how to play. I played very very tight until I got to the final table and picked up an (A2)3, picked up a 4 on 4th, 7 on 5th, then 2-2 for the smoothest of 7s and trip deuces. I then picked up (A4)A that held up for a scoop and then got rolled up deuces that held up for a scoop. It's an easy game when you pick up 3 monsters in 4 hands late in a tourney. Once I got a big stack it was pretty much over and I abused the small stacks into submission. The tourney was pretty small but the $840 for first place put me back in the black for the tournament challenge.
This morning I woke up at 10:30, called to front desk for a check-out extension, and went back to bed until 11:30. I checked out at noon and walked to the Ineer Harbor. It was another beautiful day and it was definitely an enjoyable atmosphere. I ate lunch at the ESPN Zone and then went to Barnes and Noble to buy The Complete Stories of Truman Capote. The book came highly recommended by my dad and I wanted some non-poker reading material. Here's a picture of the old power plant that houses the new businesses:
Power Plant
Again, I really like how they incorporated an old historical building into something new and hip. The smokestack looking thing that a power plant has runs right through the Barnes and Noble and adds a lot to the aesthetic beauty. Around 2 PM, I drove back to DC and found RFK Stadium using my GPS. The stadium looks pretty ghetto and the neighborhood was kinda shady so I looked up Starbucks in my GPS and found one about 2 miles away. Now I'm at a coffee shop called Cosi, across the street from Starbucks. I bought a drink and now I'm stealing someone's wireless internet and updating my blog. Starbucks has a T-Mobile signal but there were 3 or 4 other unsecured connections for me to choose from for free. God bless America.
The Nationals game isn't until 7 PM so I'll probably be here for 2 more hours. I'm really excited for the upcoming games, in Philly and at Shea. Tomorrow I get to kick it with Nat, Al and Eva and on Friday there's a big crew going to the Mets game, including Matt, Ivy, Chris, Ezra, Emil and Nat. Nat's coming with me on my Philly-NYC-Boston-Cooperstown-NYC rectangle of baseball love. Al is planning on calling in sick for work on Friday so that should tell you what Thursday's going to be like. If Al's calling in sick, I might be calling in dead.
Apperently, starting June 7th, it's going to be a class C Felony to play online poker in the state of Washington. I haven't really read into the details but apparently the budget is $0 to enforce this law. However, the threat of a felony is enough to get me to stop playing. That's really going to suck. Carl was planning on buying a place and even put an offer on a condo the day before he heard about this law. Now he's withdrawn his offer and is seriously considering moving to Vegas. The damn Indian Casinos have a ton of pull I guess and I'm pretty sure they were the major factor behind this legislation. I'm not very happy.
OK, that's it. I'll try to get a blog up on Friday, as long as I don't drown in a pool of SoCo.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Livin' the Life
I had an awesome weekend and I'm really enjoying myself. I'm soooo happy that I skipped Florida and I feel like a million bucks.
I ended up going to the Braves game again on Saturday night. They had Turkey Legs that I had to have but were sold out on Friday. Check out the pictures below. The Mets won 1-0 and pulled 7 games ahead of the Braves. I really hope they win the division, 14 straight is just ridiculous. After the game, Cliff and I went to a bar called Mako's in Buckhead. All of the employees walk around in lingerie and the scenery is fantastic. Amazingly, they still get a lot of hot girls to come in to the bar even though it feels kind of like a strip club. I was hoping that Cliff's game might rub off on me but the opposite happened: my lack of game rubbed off on him and we stood in the corner like the rest of the creepy old dudes the whole night. I was driving so I only had a few beers but Cliff had a number of shots of Jager and passed out in the car on the way home.
This morning I woke up at 8, took a shower and hit the road at 9. I realized that the Cavs were playing the Wizards in DC and I decided that I wanted a chance to see Lebron. The drive up was pretty easy and I made great time. I stopped in Durham for lunch and ate at Arby's with my friend Matt who is in Duke's Med School. He took be on campus for a quick tour and I got a picture in front of Cameron Indoor. I got to the Verizon Center at 7 PM and met my friend Divaker who bought two tickets off of StubHub. The tickets were really good and I got a few good pictures. Lebron is sick but his teammates kinda let him down. Flip Murray had a good 2nd quarter but Larry Hughes had a horrible game and no one else could hit a jumper. The Cavs definitely need someone to score when Lebron's getting triple-teamed. I wanted the Wizards to win anyway and Gilbert Arenas made it happen. He was cold all game then the Wiz went on a 8-0 run to tie the game at the end of the 3rd quarter then Arenas scored 20 in the 4th to seal the game. This game was a lot more fun than the Mavs game because it was close and the crowd got pretty boisterous.
After the game I drove back to Divaker's place for the night. One of his roommates has Law School finals on Wednesday and the other roommate is taking the GMAT so I'm going to find a hoel for tomorrow night. It's really nice to be in DC and have short drives for a while. Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and check out the sights. I hope to post something better tomorrow, when I'm not tired as hell. Here are the pics, enjoy.
Hammerin' Hank
Ty Cobb and Cliff Schaefer
Brothers
FLY Delta
Turkey Leg: Before
Turkey Leg: After
The Varsity
Cameron Indoor
Lebron hitting a 3
I ended up going to the Braves game again on Saturday night. They had Turkey Legs that I had to have but were sold out on Friday. Check out the pictures below. The Mets won 1-0 and pulled 7 games ahead of the Braves. I really hope they win the division, 14 straight is just ridiculous. After the game, Cliff and I went to a bar called Mako's in Buckhead. All of the employees walk around in lingerie and the scenery is fantastic. Amazingly, they still get a lot of hot girls to come in to the bar even though it feels kind of like a strip club. I was hoping that Cliff's game might rub off on me but the opposite happened: my lack of game rubbed off on him and we stood in the corner like the rest of the creepy old dudes the whole night. I was driving so I only had a few beers but Cliff had a number of shots of Jager and passed out in the car on the way home.
This morning I woke up at 8, took a shower and hit the road at 9. I realized that the Cavs were playing the Wizards in DC and I decided that I wanted a chance to see Lebron. The drive up was pretty easy and I made great time. I stopped in Durham for lunch and ate at Arby's with my friend Matt who is in Duke's Med School. He took be on campus for a quick tour and I got a picture in front of Cameron Indoor. I got to the Verizon Center at 7 PM and met my friend Divaker who bought two tickets off of StubHub. The tickets were really good and I got a few good pictures. Lebron is sick but his teammates kinda let him down. Flip Murray had a good 2nd quarter but Larry Hughes had a horrible game and no one else could hit a jumper. The Cavs definitely need someone to score when Lebron's getting triple-teamed. I wanted the Wizards to win anyway and Gilbert Arenas made it happen. He was cold all game then the Wiz went on a 8-0 run to tie the game at the end of the 3rd quarter then Arenas scored 20 in the 4th to seal the game. This game was a lot more fun than the Mavs game because it was close and the crowd got pretty boisterous.
After the game I drove back to Divaker's place for the night. One of his roommates has Law School finals on Wednesday and the other roommate is taking the GMAT so I'm going to find a hoel for tomorrow night. It's really nice to be in DC and have short drives for a while. Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and check out the sights. I hope to post something better tomorrow, when I'm not tired as hell. Here are the pics, enjoy.
Hammerin' Hank
Ty Cobb and Cliff Schaefer
Brothers
FLY Delta
Turkey Leg: Before
Turkey Leg: After
The Varsity
Cameron Indoor
Lebron hitting a 3
DC
I made it to DC. I'm at the Cavs-Wizards game and it's 27-26 at the end of the first quarter. Lebron has 18 points and has been pretty impressive. Tonight I'll try to post pictures from this weekend.
Friday, April 28, 2006
I'm not going to Florida....
Sorry. I know the overwhelming consensus is that I should go but I'm going to spend the weekend in Atlanta. There are a number of reasons why I feel like this is the best course of action. One of them is that I'm a big pansy. I'm going to try to elaborate most of my reasoning by answering the comments that you've all left which I really do appreciate, BTW. One great thing about my friends is that they don't sugarcoat anything and I'm never left wondering where they stand. If I fuck up, they're going to let me know that I fucked up and I have a feeling they're going to be pretty upset with me. Anyway, on to the comments:
AlCantHang said...
Think of the other two stadiums like the juice on a poker tournament. 28+2. And don't we all hate to pay the rake/juice? :)
***I like this silly little analogy. However, as much as we dislike juice we still have to pay so I'm still going to hit those stadiums this year. This way I have an excuse to fly to South Beach for a week, anyone want to come? I also think this analogy could be written in a Roundersesque fashion: "In the baseball game of life, the Florida stadiums are the rake. They are the fucking rake."
Anonymous said...
Hmm I think that armpits are the best. I mean, don't you want to look back and say you went to the "Old Earls" of the majors?
And I really want a foam Tomahawk. Seriously, please.
-Harlow
***The Earls analogy suits Yankee Stadium better. Sure it's old, dirty and needs to be replaced but there's a ton of baseball history that has been made there. Earls was old, nasty, and needed to be condemned but we loved it because of the memories that we made there. The $4 Adios Motherfuckers that led to $12 blackouts, the iced-down trough urinal in the bathroom that I thought I was going to catch an STD from, the fact that Pun was a bouncer for so long all made me love Earls. The stadiums in Florida are more like some unknown shithole in Renton. I feel no connection to it and I have absolutely zero desire to see the place, especially if I have to drive to Renton at 4:30 in the afternoon. Nah, the "Old Earls" analogy doesn't really work for me. BTW, I bought you a foam tomahawk tonight. Enjoy it, you bigot.
Anonymous said...
I don't know Dookie, but I agree with him. If you're gonna do this, you should do it right. If that means punishing yourself to the point where you aren't even having fun anymore, then so be it. At least you took your licks like a man.
-Justin
**I'm a little surprised by this one because Dusty usually comes up with great analogies and perfect explainations. The point of this trip isn't to prove my manliness, it's to enjoy our national pasttime. "Punishing myself to the point where I'm not even having fun" sounds like a bad idea to me.
Anonymous said...
You cant skip the Florida part. Its simple principle...you went on the roadtrip to see ALL the stadiums, I think it is a no brainer to go check them out no matter how un-deoderized those Parks are.
davis
***This argument makes the most sense to me. It really seems like a no-brainer: there are enough hours in the day to make it to these stadiums, so get off your lazy butt and go see them. However, once I started using my brain I realized that the schedule is just too murderous and the reward not worth the pain. Here's what my schedule looks like if I were to head to Tampa tomorrow:
Saturday: Wake up, eat and get on the road by noon. It's 7.5 hours and about 483 miles to Tampa. Cliff and I arrive in Tampa at 7:30, watch the game, then head to our motel and call it a night.
Sunday: Wake up, hit the road by 9 AM. It's 4 hours to Miami and the game is at 1 PM. After the game, at 4 PM drive back to Fort Rucker, AL. That's a smooth 9.5 hours and 615 miles on the road. We arrive at 1:30 in the morning and go to bed.
Monday: I wake up god knows when, after the draining weekend, and face more than 15 hours of driving and 955 miles to Baltimore for the game on Tuesday night. This is the dangerous stretch where I'm by myself and will assuredly be tired as hell. I also have a stretch after the Baltimore game where I go DC-Philly-NYC-Boston-Cooperstown-NYC-Toronto and a few other places after Toronto with only one day of rest in Boston. Blech.
Here's the schedule if I puss out:
Saturday: Wake up at my leisure and go to brunch with my brother, his roommate and his roommate's wife. Come home, watch the NFL draft and either go to another Braves game or grill some steaks here at his wife's parents' house. At night, hit the town with my brother and drink a lot of beer. Pass out around 3 AM.
Sunday: Wake up at my leisure, have one last meal with my brother and face an 11 hour, 686 mile trip to Baltimore. I'll probably drive north to Charlotte, 4 hours from Atlanta, and spend the night at Steve Smith's house.
Monday: Wake up at my leisure and drive to Washington DC or Baltimore. It's about 7 more hours and I have friends that I can see in both cities. Tuesday is the Orioles game and I'm rested and ready for the slew of East Coast games.
Clearly, the reward is great for sucking it up. I get to say that I went to all the stadiums and I prove my manhood. However, I just don't think that the pain and risk are worth it. This is one case where I really feel that the risk outweighs the reward.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a no-brainer to skip the games in Florida. I probably made a mistake when I made my schedule so hectic but I didn't realize how draining the drives would be. Believe me, I needed the couple of days in Dallas after my Phoenix-Dallas jaunt and I really needed the rest in Alabama after my Houston-Fort Rucker experience. Like I said before, it's a good excuse to head to Miami for a week, probably right after the World Series of Poker.
Lastly, you're right, I did go on this trip to see all the stadiums but in life there are always two principles that we take for granted. (1) Staying alive and (2) Having fun. Say it's Friday night and I'm going out to the bar. We get to the bar and Popper's there with his fellow gangsters and I want to leave. Even though my mission was to go to that bar, I'm aborting the mission becuse both of life's principles are being violated. I'm scared that Popper is going to shoot me and I'm not going to have fun when I'm scared. I know it's not a great analogy but the unsaid life principles are my main point. Maybe I'm a pansy becuase I don't want to do all that extra driving. I'm OK with that.
Dr. Pauly said...
I thought you were gonna get pinched for sure...!!
***Yeah, it's a good thing that I'm a drug-free individual. I'm sure many of my friends would have had to stash the pipe and spray the air-freshener.
Anonymous said...
Tampa is worth a visit, if you like San Diego you'll like Tampa; just spend as little time as possible in the ballpark. Makes the Kingdome look cheerful.
Watch those backroads in Georgia, especially 101. "Lu-u-u-dowici, out on 101" was a song about a notorious speed trap. They don't cotton to outta state plates.
Anonymous said...
http://speedtrap.org/
***I think these were possibly the same person. That speedtrap webpage is really helpful, and they even warn about the cop that pulled me over a few nights ago. Anonymous, you're a great person to have 3 days AFTER a crisis. Also, I'm pretty surprised that he said, "well since you're not from around here I'll give you a warning". I was definitely expecting, "OK, latte drinking, hybrid driving northerner. Grab your ankles and squeal like a pig!"
I really would like to spend a lot of time in both Tampa and Miami but the reality is that I'll be in the stadiums, driving or sleeping the entire time. A benefit to skipping the games now is that I have time to make a return trip later in the year and enjoy the cities while spending minimal time in the ballparks.
TitoSantana said...
Congrats on the chicken salad! but please don't get too clean with the diet! Enjoy the regional cuisine as much as possible!
I would honestly go to florda. make sure you get some rest in between tho. and go to your freinds wedding ceremoney, you will look back and regret it if you dont.
also are you playing any interent poker at all during this trip?
***Tito! Thanks for your consistent contributions to the blog. I really love getting comments and yours are always fun to read. BTW, are you this guy? If you are, I could drive my car off a cliff tomorrow and die knowing I've reached the ultimate in blogging. If not, who are you? Have we met?
I don't know if you realize what my schedule is like but your suggestions are pretty much impossible to follow. I can't go to Florida AND get some rest. It's one or the other. And you're right, I do feel a lot of regret for missing Mike's ceremony but I'm going to find a way to make it up to him. Finally, yes, I am playing some poker on the trip. I'll be playing a ton in May so look for me on Poker Stars, my screenname is "schaefer".
Anonymous said...
A year and a half huh? How time flies. It seemed like such a long walk to the Waffle Hoooose. Why don't you take Cliff with you to Florida, he does have the Brian Scahefer Gene you know.
Dmelvi007
***Meaningless drivel from Danny. God bless you, child.
The game tonight was great. Pedro allowed some baserunners but the only damage was a 2-run homer by Chipper. The Mets also got quite a few baserunners against Smoltz but David Wright's 2-homer day is what sealed the game for the road team. Billy Wagner was shaky, loading the bases in the 9th but he ended up striking out the side and the Mets won 5-2. I'll try to get some pictures up soon but Cliff's roomate's wife's parents' house doesn't have wireless Internet so I'm using their desktop. Four apostrophes in a row, sweet!
My friend, CL, wrote me a text message saying "28/30 is pretty lame man. Not gonna lie. But, no one cares about those *** teams anyway. If dontrelle is piching, you go. If not, don't. You're my boy." You're my boy too, CL! I decided to check the pitching matchups and on Saturday in Tampa it's Lenny DiNardo vs Doug Waechter. Hmmmmmmm. In Miami on Sunday it's Miguel Asencio vs Brian Moehler. I've heard of Brian Moehler before but I couldn't tell you a single thing about him. The rest of the guys I wouldn't know from Adam. It's kinda hard to go from Smoltz-Pedro to those guys and put forth much effort doing it.
One thing left. Jimmy left me a message on my phone with one of the strangest analogies that I've ever heard: "Pretend that I'm in a room with 30 naked girls who want to sleep with me. 28 are smoking hot and 2 are ugly. Would I sleep with only 28 or sleep with all 30? Clearly the answer is all 30 so I should go to all 30 stadiums." I don't really know how to respond to this one but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to change my mind. Besides, I'll sleep with the ugly girls after the WSOP in August anyway. All that medical school has made Jimmy loopy.
I hope my friends took the time to read through this and can see where I'm coming from. It's definitely possible that they read the title "I'm not going to Florida" and immediately went out to throw eggs my house. I love you guys. Later, y'all.
AlCantHang said...
Think of the other two stadiums like the juice on a poker tournament. 28+2. And don't we all hate to pay the rake/juice? :)
***I like this silly little analogy. However, as much as we dislike juice we still have to pay so I'm still going to hit those stadiums this year. This way I have an excuse to fly to South Beach for a week, anyone want to come? I also think this analogy could be written in a Roundersesque fashion: "In the baseball game of life, the Florida stadiums are the rake. They are the fucking rake."
Anonymous said...
Hmm I think that armpits are the best. I mean, don't you want to look back and say you went to the "Old Earls" of the majors?
And I really want a foam Tomahawk. Seriously, please.
-Harlow
***The Earls analogy suits Yankee Stadium better. Sure it's old, dirty and needs to be replaced but there's a ton of baseball history that has been made there. Earls was old, nasty, and needed to be condemned but we loved it because of the memories that we made there. The $4 Adios Motherfuckers that led to $12 blackouts, the iced-down trough urinal in the bathroom that I thought I was going to catch an STD from, the fact that Pun was a bouncer for so long all made me love Earls. The stadiums in Florida are more like some unknown shithole in Renton. I feel no connection to it and I have absolutely zero desire to see the place, especially if I have to drive to Renton at 4:30 in the afternoon. Nah, the "Old Earls" analogy doesn't really work for me. BTW, I bought you a foam tomahawk tonight. Enjoy it, you bigot.
Anonymous said...
I don't know Dookie, but I agree with him. If you're gonna do this, you should do it right. If that means punishing yourself to the point where you aren't even having fun anymore, then so be it. At least you took your licks like a man.
-Justin
**I'm a little surprised by this one because Dusty usually comes up with great analogies and perfect explainations. The point of this trip isn't to prove my manliness, it's to enjoy our national pasttime. "Punishing myself to the point where I'm not even having fun" sounds like a bad idea to me.
Anonymous said...
You cant skip the Florida part. Its simple principle...you went on the roadtrip to see ALL the stadiums, I think it is a no brainer to go check them out no matter how un-deoderized those Parks are.
davis
***This argument makes the most sense to me. It really seems like a no-brainer: there are enough hours in the day to make it to these stadiums, so get off your lazy butt and go see them. However, once I started using my brain I realized that the schedule is just too murderous and the reward not worth the pain. Here's what my schedule looks like if I were to head to Tampa tomorrow:
Saturday: Wake up, eat and get on the road by noon. It's 7.5 hours and about 483 miles to Tampa. Cliff and I arrive in Tampa at 7:30, watch the game, then head to our motel and call it a night.
Sunday: Wake up, hit the road by 9 AM. It's 4 hours to Miami and the game is at 1 PM. After the game, at 4 PM drive back to Fort Rucker, AL. That's a smooth 9.5 hours and 615 miles on the road. We arrive at 1:30 in the morning and go to bed.
Monday: I wake up god knows when, after the draining weekend, and face more than 15 hours of driving and 955 miles to Baltimore for the game on Tuesday night. This is the dangerous stretch where I'm by myself and will assuredly be tired as hell. I also have a stretch after the Baltimore game where I go DC-Philly-NYC-Boston-Cooperstown-NYC-Toronto and a few other places after Toronto with only one day of rest in Boston. Blech.
Here's the schedule if I puss out:
Saturday: Wake up at my leisure and go to brunch with my brother, his roommate and his roommate's wife. Come home, watch the NFL draft and either go to another Braves game or grill some steaks here at his wife's parents' house. At night, hit the town with my brother and drink a lot of beer. Pass out around 3 AM.
Sunday: Wake up at my leisure, have one last meal with my brother and face an 11 hour, 686 mile trip to Baltimore. I'll probably drive north to Charlotte, 4 hours from Atlanta, and spend the night at Steve Smith's house.
Monday: Wake up at my leisure and drive to Washington DC or Baltimore. It's about 7 more hours and I have friends that I can see in both cities. Tuesday is the Orioles game and I'm rested and ready for the slew of East Coast games.
Clearly, the reward is great for sucking it up. I get to say that I went to all the stadiums and I prove my manhood. However, I just don't think that the pain and risk are worth it. This is one case where I really feel that the risk outweighs the reward.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a no-brainer to skip the games in Florida. I probably made a mistake when I made my schedule so hectic but I didn't realize how draining the drives would be. Believe me, I needed the couple of days in Dallas after my Phoenix-Dallas jaunt and I really needed the rest in Alabama after my Houston-Fort Rucker experience. Like I said before, it's a good excuse to head to Miami for a week, probably right after the World Series of Poker.
Lastly, you're right, I did go on this trip to see all the stadiums but in life there are always two principles that we take for granted. (1) Staying alive and (2) Having fun. Say it's Friday night and I'm going out to the bar. We get to the bar and Popper's there with his fellow gangsters and I want to leave. Even though my mission was to go to that bar, I'm aborting the mission becuse both of life's principles are being violated. I'm scared that Popper is going to shoot me and I'm not going to have fun when I'm scared. I know it's not a great analogy but the unsaid life principles are my main point. Maybe I'm a pansy becuase I don't want to do all that extra driving. I'm OK with that.
Dr. Pauly said...
I thought you were gonna get pinched for sure...!!
***Yeah, it's a good thing that I'm a drug-free individual. I'm sure many of my friends would have had to stash the pipe and spray the air-freshener.
Anonymous said...
Tampa is worth a visit, if you like San Diego you'll like Tampa; just spend as little time as possible in the ballpark. Makes the Kingdome look cheerful.
Watch those backroads in Georgia, especially 101. "Lu-u-u-dowici, out on 101" was a song about a notorious speed trap. They don't cotton to outta state plates.
Anonymous said...
http://speedtrap.org/
***I think these were possibly the same person. That speedtrap webpage is really helpful, and they even warn about the cop that pulled me over a few nights ago. Anonymous, you're a great person to have 3 days AFTER a crisis. Also, I'm pretty surprised that he said, "well since you're not from around here I'll give you a warning". I was definitely expecting, "OK, latte drinking, hybrid driving northerner. Grab your ankles and squeal like a pig!"
I really would like to spend a lot of time in both Tampa and Miami but the reality is that I'll be in the stadiums, driving or sleeping the entire time. A benefit to skipping the games now is that I have time to make a return trip later in the year and enjoy the cities while spending minimal time in the ballparks.
TitoSantana said...
Congrats on the chicken salad! but please don't get too clean with the diet! Enjoy the regional cuisine as much as possible!
I would honestly go to florda. make sure you get some rest in between tho. and go to your freinds wedding ceremoney, you will look back and regret it if you dont.
also are you playing any interent poker at all during this trip?
***Tito! Thanks for your consistent contributions to the blog. I really love getting comments and yours are always fun to read. BTW, are you this guy? If you are, I could drive my car off a cliff tomorrow and die knowing I've reached the ultimate in blogging. If not, who are you? Have we met?
I don't know if you realize what my schedule is like but your suggestions are pretty much impossible to follow. I can't go to Florida AND get some rest. It's one or the other. And you're right, I do feel a lot of regret for missing Mike's ceremony but I'm going to find a way to make it up to him. Finally, yes, I am playing some poker on the trip. I'll be playing a ton in May so look for me on Poker Stars, my screenname is "schaefer".
Anonymous said...
A year and a half huh? How time flies. It seemed like such a long walk to the Waffle Hoooose. Why don't you take Cliff with you to Florida, he does have the Brian Scahefer Gene you know.
Dmelvi007
***Meaningless drivel from Danny. God bless you, child.
The game tonight was great. Pedro allowed some baserunners but the only damage was a 2-run homer by Chipper. The Mets also got quite a few baserunners against Smoltz but David Wright's 2-homer day is what sealed the game for the road team. Billy Wagner was shaky, loading the bases in the 9th but he ended up striking out the side and the Mets won 5-2. I'll try to get some pictures up soon but Cliff's roomate's wife's parents' house doesn't have wireless Internet so I'm using their desktop. Four apostrophes in a row, sweet!
My friend, CL, wrote me a text message saying "28/30 is pretty lame man. Not gonna lie. But, no one cares about those *** teams anyway. If dontrelle is piching, you go. If not, don't. You're my boy." You're my boy too, CL! I decided to check the pitching matchups and on Saturday in Tampa it's Lenny DiNardo vs Doug Waechter. Hmmmmmmm. In Miami on Sunday it's Miguel Asencio vs Brian Moehler. I've heard of Brian Moehler before but I couldn't tell you a single thing about him. The rest of the guys I wouldn't know from Adam. It's kinda hard to go from Smoltz-Pedro to those guys and put forth much effort doing it.
One thing left. Jimmy left me a message on my phone with one of the strangest analogies that I've ever heard: "Pretend that I'm in a room with 30 naked girls who want to sleep with me. 28 are smoking hot and 2 are ugly. Would I sleep with only 28 or sleep with all 30? Clearly the answer is all 30 so I should go to all 30 stadiums." I don't really know how to respond to this one but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to change my mind. Besides, I'll sleep with the ugly girls after the WSOP in August anyway. All that medical school has made Jimmy loopy.
I hope my friends took the time to read through this and can see where I'm coming from. It's definitely possible that they read the title "I'm not going to Florida" and immediately went out to throw eggs my house. I love you guys. Later, y'all.
ATL
We're in Atlanta for a sweet Braves-Mets game. Does it get much better than Smoltz vs Pedro? They have 4 statues outside of the stadium: Spahn, Niekro, Hammerin' Hank and The Georgia Peach, Ty Cobb. I'll try to get some pictures up tonight.
Getting Pulled Over SUCKS!
The past few days have been wonderfully unproductive. I’ve only left the couch to eat and use the bathroom. The rest of the time I've been sedentary, surfing the internet and sleeping. It’s nice to relax after driving like a wild banshee for the past week. I left Vegas on Thursday and got to Alabama on Wednesday, driving for 35 hours and over 2200 miles. Madness.
The drive from Houston to Alabama was pretty eventful. Eventful drives are never good. Getting out of Texas was fine but in the middle of Louisiana it started raining harder than I’ve ever experienced. I really thought that the paint was going to be stripped off of my car. I was driving 30 on the freeway, following the taillights of a trunk in front of me and I felt like I should probably drive even slower. After about an hour and a half we got out of the rain and I was happy to be alive. I drove for about 15 more minutes then pulled over to eat dinner at Applebees. I had a grilled chicken salad but I’m not going to post a picture because meat is sexy and sex sells. Pictures of salad will just turn people away from the blog. Anyway, after dinner I went to my car and discovered that the lightning storm had caught up to me and I had to drive in the driving rain, pun intended, for about 15 more minutes. The drive through Louisiana was actually pretty cool when it wasn’t pouring. They built the freeway over the swamp and it looked exactly like a scene from The Waterboy. Mississippi was pretty boring and I went across the state without incident.
In Alabama, I drove north for about 80 miles then got onto side roads for about 100 miles. Apparently that’s the most effective way because there isn’t a direct highway to Fort Rucker. Anyway, the speed limit fluctuated from 55 to 45 and occasionally dipped to 25 in the middle of towns. I was cruising along at 45 mph, about 30 miles from Cliff’s house, when I suddenly see a state trooper turn on his lights and pull behind me. Greeeeeeeeat. There’s no feeling in the world worse than seeing those damn lights. Anyway, he comes and asks me for my license and insurance, inspects them then says he pulled me over because I was going 44 in a 25. I tell him that I thought it was 45 all the way through and I must have missed the sign. He asks where I was coming from and I tell him Houston but I’m from Seattle, on a 2-month road trip. He sympathizes with me since I’m traveling, agrees to let me off with a written warning and goes back to his car to write the ticket. I’m very relieved and want to get the hell out of there but 10 minutes elapse and he still hasn’t come back with the warning. Finally, he gets out of his car, walks up to my window and says, “Mr. Schaefer, can you get out of the car.” Uhhhhhhhh, OK? I get out and he says, “Do you have any narcotics on you? Any large sums of money?” I tell him that I have about $1K but he says that’s insignificant. He asks if I have any drug paraphernalia at all or untaxed liquor and I again tell him that I’m clean. He then explains that when I said I was coming from Houston it raised warning flags since a lot of drugs come through Houston and make their way up to the East Coast via side roads. Drug dealers use side roads because the highways are patrolled too heavily. He tells me a story about a random stop he made of a guy just like me and he found $300K cash in the trunk of the guy’s car. They confiscated the money and the guy never came to reclaim it. Finally, after about 20 minutes, the police station radios him, telling him that I am the owner of the car and that I don’t have any border crossings into Mexico. They tell him that the reason it took so long is because I had been out of the country so many times last year and they were tying to figure out what was up. Yep, I went to Japan for a month to pick up a bunch of Coke to distribute in Southern Alabama. I get out of there unscathed and make it a point to pay really close attention to the speed limit signs for the rest of the drive. I meet Cliff around 1:30 AM and he brings me on base. I’ve never been so happy to be on a military installation in my life.
Like I said, the past two days have been a lot of sitting around and resting my driving leg. Tomorrow I’m headed up to Atlanta and I’m supposed to head to Tampa Bay on Saturday and Miami on Sunday before driving back to Fort Rucker on Sunday night, then getting up to Baltimore by Sunday night. I’m seriously considering skipping Tampa Bay and Miami. (1) They’re the armpit of the major leagues. (2) I’ll get to spend a whole weekend of quality time in Atlanta with my little brother. (3) I’ll save 1600+ miles and 25+ hours of driving. Are Tampa and Miami really worth that much driving? 1600 miles and 25 hours over the weekend. Really, the only thing stopping me is a guilty conscience. My friend Mike is having the formal celebration of his wedding tomorrow and I am missing it because this was going to be such a hectic weekend. And it’s not just my friend, it’s one of my best friends who will probably be in my wedding and who invited me to be in his wedding. I’d feel like a real jerk if I miss the formal celebration and sit in Atlanta all weekend. If I had known that I was going to be so unmotivated by the Marlins and Devil Rays, I would have just planned to fly back this weekend. I’m just such a spontaneous guy and I change my mind at the last minute all the time. I know Mike will understand but I still feel like a piece of crap. He’s been thinking about joining me for the Mets game (he’s from NY and loves the Mets) so maybe I can buy him a plane ticket out as a way of apologizing. Yep, I buy love from my friends. Dookie got really pissed when I first said that I might skip Florida because 28/30 isn’t as cool as 30/30 but man, it’s the ARMPIT of the major leagues! Both stadiums suck and both will probably be replaced soon or the teams will leave. It’s not like I’m skipping Fenway and Yankee Stadium because I don’t want to drive. Bleh. I have until Saturday morning to decide. Please call me or post a comment if you think I’m a moron for considering skipping those.
Tomorrow I get to make fun of Native Americans. Woo-hoo! If anyone wants a foam tomahawk, let me know.
The drive from Houston to Alabama was pretty eventful. Eventful drives are never good. Getting out of Texas was fine but in the middle of Louisiana it started raining harder than I’ve ever experienced. I really thought that the paint was going to be stripped off of my car. I was driving 30 on the freeway, following the taillights of a trunk in front of me and I felt like I should probably drive even slower. After about an hour and a half we got out of the rain and I was happy to be alive. I drove for about 15 more minutes then pulled over to eat dinner at Applebees. I had a grilled chicken salad but I’m not going to post a picture because meat is sexy and sex sells. Pictures of salad will just turn people away from the blog. Anyway, after dinner I went to my car and discovered that the lightning storm had caught up to me and I had to drive in the driving rain, pun intended, for about 15 more minutes. The drive through Louisiana was actually pretty cool when it wasn’t pouring. They built the freeway over the swamp and it looked exactly like a scene from The Waterboy. Mississippi was pretty boring and I went across the state without incident.
In Alabama, I drove north for about 80 miles then got onto side roads for about 100 miles. Apparently that’s the most effective way because there isn’t a direct highway to Fort Rucker. Anyway, the speed limit fluctuated from 55 to 45 and occasionally dipped to 25 in the middle of towns. I was cruising along at 45 mph, about 30 miles from Cliff’s house, when I suddenly see a state trooper turn on his lights and pull behind me. Greeeeeeeeat. There’s no feeling in the world worse than seeing those damn lights. Anyway, he comes and asks me for my license and insurance, inspects them then says he pulled me over because I was going 44 in a 25. I tell him that I thought it was 45 all the way through and I must have missed the sign. He asks where I was coming from and I tell him Houston but I’m from Seattle, on a 2-month road trip. He sympathizes with me since I’m traveling, agrees to let me off with a written warning and goes back to his car to write the ticket. I’m very relieved and want to get the hell out of there but 10 minutes elapse and he still hasn’t come back with the warning. Finally, he gets out of his car, walks up to my window and says, “Mr. Schaefer, can you get out of the car.” Uhhhhhhhh, OK? I get out and he says, “Do you have any narcotics on you? Any large sums of money?” I tell him that I have about $1K but he says that’s insignificant. He asks if I have any drug paraphernalia at all or untaxed liquor and I again tell him that I’m clean. He then explains that when I said I was coming from Houston it raised warning flags since a lot of drugs come through Houston and make their way up to the East Coast via side roads. Drug dealers use side roads because the highways are patrolled too heavily. He tells me a story about a random stop he made of a guy just like me and he found $300K cash in the trunk of the guy’s car. They confiscated the money and the guy never came to reclaim it. Finally, after about 20 minutes, the police station radios him, telling him that I am the owner of the car and that I don’t have any border crossings into Mexico. They tell him that the reason it took so long is because I had been out of the country so many times last year and they were tying to figure out what was up. Yep, I went to Japan for a month to pick up a bunch of Coke to distribute in Southern Alabama. I get out of there unscathed and make it a point to pay really close attention to the speed limit signs for the rest of the drive. I meet Cliff around 1:30 AM and he brings me on base. I’ve never been so happy to be on a military installation in my life.
Like I said, the past two days have been a lot of sitting around and resting my driving leg. Tomorrow I’m headed up to Atlanta and I’m supposed to head to Tampa Bay on Saturday and Miami on Sunday before driving back to Fort Rucker on Sunday night, then getting up to Baltimore by Sunday night. I’m seriously considering skipping Tampa Bay and Miami. (1) They’re the armpit of the major leagues. (2) I’ll get to spend a whole weekend of quality time in Atlanta with my little brother. (3) I’ll save 1600+ miles and 25+ hours of driving. Are Tampa and Miami really worth that much driving? 1600 miles and 25 hours over the weekend. Really, the only thing stopping me is a guilty conscience. My friend Mike is having the formal celebration of his wedding tomorrow and I am missing it because this was going to be such a hectic weekend. And it’s not just my friend, it’s one of my best friends who will probably be in my wedding and who invited me to be in his wedding. I’d feel like a real jerk if I miss the formal celebration and sit in Atlanta all weekend. If I had known that I was going to be so unmotivated by the Marlins and Devil Rays, I would have just planned to fly back this weekend. I’m just such a spontaneous guy and I change my mind at the last minute all the time. I know Mike will understand but I still feel like a piece of crap. He’s been thinking about joining me for the Mets game (he’s from NY and loves the Mets) so maybe I can buy him a plane ticket out as a way of apologizing. Yep, I buy love from my friends. Dookie got really pissed when I first said that I might skip Florida because 28/30 isn’t as cool as 30/30 but man, it’s the ARMPIT of the major leagues! Both stadiums suck and both will probably be replaced soon or the teams will leave. It’s not like I’m skipping Fenway and Yankee Stadium because I don’t want to drive. Bleh. I have until Saturday morning to decide. Please call me or post a comment if you think I’m a moron for considering skipping those.
Tomorrow I get to make fun of Native Americans. Woo-hoo! If anyone wants a foam tomahawk, let me know.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Texas Two-Step
I got to Dallas around 4 PM on Saturday so I looked up “Costco” using my GPS and found one about 10 miles away in Ft. Worth. I filled gas, ate a Chicken Caesar salad and bought a 6-pack of white t-shirts. I was all out of clean shirts and I really needed to change. I got to the ballpark around 6 PM and immediately liked it when I saw it from the freeway. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and looks really impressive standing alone. Here are some pictures of the exterior:
Ameriquest Field and the Prius' Rear End
Ameriquest
The stadium is built so that there is a large void between the stands and the outer walls where the concessions and souvenirs are sold. It’s different from other stadiums because the outer walls are more open and the void is very pretty. I tried to get a picture of the void but I don’t think I did it justice:
The Void
The field itself was really nice, too. They had enough quirks to be unique but not so many that it felt weird. One of their sponsors is Ozark Drinking Water and every time a Rangers pitcher would get a strikeout, the “K” would flash red. They’re also sponsored bt Southwest Airlines and after the win, the “W” was flashing red. The home bullpen is elevated in right-center and the fans get a great view of who is warming up. Here are some pictures:
Centerfield
Home Bullpen
Baseball under the lights
In center field they have a statue of Nolan Ryan and even though I knew his numbers I was still shocked to see them again: 27 seasons, 5700+ strikeouts in 5300 innings, 7 no-hitters and 25ish one-hitters. Insane:
Nolan
The game was good and I got to see the Rangers closer, Francisco Cordero, blow a 3-run lead by giving up a 3-run homer to Tye Wigginton. He comes in to “Eye of the Tiger”, one of the worst choices for closer music ever. Rocky is what teams play when they need to rally, not when they need to hold a lead and stop a rally. Anyway, I got to see Michael Young hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth and we all danced to Cotton Eyed Joe.
Fireworks
After the game I headed to Evin’s new apartment. She landed in the airport at 9 PM and we got to her apartment at about the same time. I helped her bring her luggage inside and met her roommate, Heather. Heather was all stressed out because she had been moving all weekend and I felt like a bit of a burden. I hate that feeling. Luckily, Heather couldn’t figure out how to set up the VCR and DVD players so I felt like I earned my place on the couch with my superior electronics knowledge. We were too tired to go out so we headed to the Conoco across the street, picked up some Shiner Bock beer and drank in her apartment until going to bed around 2 AM.
In the morning we went to brunch at a restaurant called Chuy’s. I’m almost positive that this was a different Chuy’s than the one in Van Horn but I could be wrong. I think that Chuy is just a popular name. Anyway, I had a breakfast burrito that was advertised as “Big as yo’ Face!” but I knew they couldn’t possibly make one as big as my face. Here’s a picture of the smaller than my face burrito:
Breakfast Burrito in Dallas
After breakfast we went bed shopping for Evin. I had no clue that mattress salesmen were such a slimy group. They’re almost as bad as used-car salesmen or telemarketers. *Shudder* Luckily there were 3 places on the same corner and Evin used them against each other, getting the last place to give her a sweet bed at a good price and throw in a bed frame for free. We ran a few more errands then went back to her place where the girls put the finishing touches on unpacking and straightening up. I left around 7 PM and headed to American Airlines Center for the Mavs game. The game started at 8:30 and was a lot of fun. The crowd was electric and they expect big things this year from Dirk and the boys. Here are a few pics from the game:
Just before tip-off
Chili Cheese Dog and Beer
Sponsored by......
I spent the night at their apartment again and left at 8 AM on Monday morning. The drive from Dallas to Houston is only 4 hours long and it felt like cake. After driving through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for 10 hours on Friday I think I can drive anywhere. I got to Houston around noon and drove straight to the stadium looking for hotels. I couldn’t find any so I pulled out my laptop, stole a wireless signal from the baseball stadium and found a good deal on the Sheraton in West Houston. The Sheraton is definitely the nicest hotel that I’ll ever stay at on this trip. It feels good every once in a while to see a valet and bellmen and whatnot. I spent a few hours tooling around on the internet and left for the game at 5 PM. Traffic was surprisingly light and I made it across town without much trouble. The street parking was really confusing so I decided to pay $5 and park in a lot about 4 blocks away. Minute Maid is pretty nice but I think it has a few too many crazy quirks. The center-field fence is 436 feet away from home plate and there’s a hill leading up to it and a flagpole on the hill. A flagpole in play? Also, there’s a point in left field where a short porch abruptly juts out and the fence goes from like 340’ to 365’. The game featured some nice defensive plays from the Astro outfielders and Andy Pettitte actually took a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Ultimately I got to see my 2nd blown save in a row as Brad Lidge game up a 9th inning grand slam to Nomar Garciaparra and the Astros blew their 2-1 lead, losing 6-2. Here are the random Minute Maid pictures:
Left Field
Left Field Gate
Brat and Beer
The ridiculous hill in center field. 436' in center.
The ridiculous Left-Field boxes
After the game I was really hungry so I hit ate at the steak place here at the Sheraton. Rib-eye never disappoints:
Rib-Eye
Tomorrow I’m driving to Enterprise, Alabama to see Cliff. It’s about 10 hours away and I need to get my butt to bed. Sorry if the entry feels rushed but it’s 4 AM over here. I’ll get a few updates in from Alabama. Until then, close your eyes, and picture me rollin’.
Ameriquest Field and the Prius' Rear End
Ameriquest
The stadium is built so that there is a large void between the stands and the outer walls where the concessions and souvenirs are sold. It’s different from other stadiums because the outer walls are more open and the void is very pretty. I tried to get a picture of the void but I don’t think I did it justice:
The Void
The field itself was really nice, too. They had enough quirks to be unique but not so many that it felt weird. One of their sponsors is Ozark Drinking Water and every time a Rangers pitcher would get a strikeout, the “K” would flash red. They’re also sponsored bt Southwest Airlines and after the win, the “W” was flashing red. The home bullpen is elevated in right-center and the fans get a great view of who is warming up. Here are some pictures:
Centerfield
Home Bullpen
Baseball under the lights
In center field they have a statue of Nolan Ryan and even though I knew his numbers I was still shocked to see them again: 27 seasons, 5700+ strikeouts in 5300 innings, 7 no-hitters and 25ish one-hitters. Insane:
Nolan
The game was good and I got to see the Rangers closer, Francisco Cordero, blow a 3-run lead by giving up a 3-run homer to Tye Wigginton. He comes in to “Eye of the Tiger”, one of the worst choices for closer music ever. Rocky is what teams play when they need to rally, not when they need to hold a lead and stop a rally. Anyway, I got to see Michael Young hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth and we all danced to Cotton Eyed Joe.
Fireworks
After the game I headed to Evin’s new apartment. She landed in the airport at 9 PM and we got to her apartment at about the same time. I helped her bring her luggage inside and met her roommate, Heather. Heather was all stressed out because she had been moving all weekend and I felt like a bit of a burden. I hate that feeling. Luckily, Heather couldn’t figure out how to set up the VCR and DVD players so I felt like I earned my place on the couch with my superior electronics knowledge. We were too tired to go out so we headed to the Conoco across the street, picked up some Shiner Bock beer and drank in her apartment until going to bed around 2 AM.
In the morning we went to brunch at a restaurant called Chuy’s. I’m almost positive that this was a different Chuy’s than the one in Van Horn but I could be wrong. I think that Chuy is just a popular name. Anyway, I had a breakfast burrito that was advertised as “Big as yo’ Face!” but I knew they couldn’t possibly make one as big as my face. Here’s a picture of the smaller than my face burrito:
Breakfast Burrito in Dallas
After breakfast we went bed shopping for Evin. I had no clue that mattress salesmen were such a slimy group. They’re almost as bad as used-car salesmen or telemarketers. *Shudder* Luckily there were 3 places on the same corner and Evin used them against each other, getting the last place to give her a sweet bed at a good price and throw in a bed frame for free. We ran a few more errands then went back to her place where the girls put the finishing touches on unpacking and straightening up. I left around 7 PM and headed to American Airlines Center for the Mavs game. The game started at 8:30 and was a lot of fun. The crowd was electric and they expect big things this year from Dirk and the boys. Here are a few pics from the game:
Just before tip-off
Chili Cheese Dog and Beer
Sponsored by......
I spent the night at their apartment again and left at 8 AM on Monday morning. The drive from Dallas to Houston is only 4 hours long and it felt like cake. After driving through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for 10 hours on Friday I think I can drive anywhere. I got to Houston around noon and drove straight to the stadium looking for hotels. I couldn’t find any so I pulled out my laptop, stole a wireless signal from the baseball stadium and found a good deal on the Sheraton in West Houston. The Sheraton is definitely the nicest hotel that I’ll ever stay at on this trip. It feels good every once in a while to see a valet and bellmen and whatnot. I spent a few hours tooling around on the internet and left for the game at 5 PM. Traffic was surprisingly light and I made it across town without much trouble. The street parking was really confusing so I decided to pay $5 and park in a lot about 4 blocks away. Minute Maid is pretty nice but I think it has a few too many crazy quirks. The center-field fence is 436 feet away from home plate and there’s a hill leading up to it and a flagpole on the hill. A flagpole in play? Also, there’s a point in left field where a short porch abruptly juts out and the fence goes from like 340’ to 365’. The game featured some nice defensive plays from the Astro outfielders and Andy Pettitte actually took a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Ultimately I got to see my 2nd blown save in a row as Brad Lidge game up a 9th inning grand slam to Nomar Garciaparra and the Astros blew their 2-1 lead, losing 6-2. Here are the random Minute Maid pictures:
Left Field
Left Field Gate
Brat and Beer
The ridiculous hill in center field. 436' in center.
The ridiculous Left-Field boxes
After the game I was really hungry so I hit ate at the steak place here at the Sheraton. Rib-eye never disappoints:
Rib-Eye
Tomorrow I’m driving to Enterprise, Alabama to see Cliff. It’s about 10 hours away and I need to get my butt to bed. Sorry if the entry feels rushed but it’s 4 AM over here. I’ll get a few updates in from Alabama. Until then, close your eyes, and picture me rollin’.
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