Seventh Inning Stretch: Road Trip Edition
By mikeychx
Ed Note: Tonights 7IS is brought to you by CBH Sports….This week is the return of what has become an annual summer trip for me and two of my friends; it is known simply as the “Baseball Trip”. By time this posts to the web, we would have already seen the Chicago Cubs take on the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon, and the Montreal Nubs take on the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park earlier today (as long as it doesn’t rain). The tradition started in 2007 when my friends and I decided it was time to venture away from Camden Yards and see what other parks Major League Baseball had to offer. We traveled to New York to see the Mets play at Shea in a night game. We got there early in the afternoon and ended up eating at a place called “Joey’s”, which lived up to every stereotype you have ever heard about New York. After Joey’s we took a bus to Shea, barely survived, and arrived to see the Mets take on the San Diego Padres. We were treated to a very good game, the Padres broke up the game before the Mets attempted a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth, before being shut down by Trevor Hoffman. Shea Stadium was a dump but I actually really enjoyed the experience there. The fans were into the game, we had a perfect view from our seats, just an overall fun time. I was a little nervous because we were all wearing Orioles hats and this was the infamous night that the O’s were destroyed by the Texas Rangers, 30-3. As the out of town scoreboard got worse and worse I kept waiting for Mets fans to start giving us crap. Much to my surprise it never happened. After the game we took in the New York nightlife until about 5 in the morning, which included me buying The Onion off of a homeless guy for $5.
We woke up about 4 hours later and drove to Philadelphia to see the Phillies take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Citizens Bank Park is alright, I mean it is a cool stadium, but nothing really stood out about it to me. The game was really boring, plus my first true Philly Cheese Steak experience was ruined when I went to put hot sauce on it and the whole bottle came pouring out all over my cheese steak and clothes. I didn’t have time to let that bother me though as we were off to Baltimore to see the O’s play the Twins that night. We had seats right behind the centerfield wall for the game, my first time in seats like that. I enjoyed them, except for my view being obstructed a bit in centerfield. A funny thing happened while watching the game, the guy sitting behind us was the same guy who sat behind us the night before at Shea. I am no mathematician but the odds of that occurring had to be one in a gazillion. As for the game, the O’s lost, of course, and we headed home, completely beat but vowing to do the trip again.
Last year’s trip was lower key as we only went to one game. However, the stadium we went to was very special, the old Yankee Stadium. As a stadium, Yankee Stadium sucks, but just for the history behind it, and being able to say I saw it, was completely worth it. What made it even better was we got to see the Orioles there. There were a few other O’s fans there, and again to my surprise, despite being decked out in black and orange, no one gave me crap. Probably had a lot to do with the fact that the Orioles haven’t been a threat to the Yankees in 12 years, but still, it was appreciated. Oh, and needless to say, the Orioles got beat badly, enough for us to leave in the 7th inning.
For our trip in 2010, I am hoping that we can make it to Pittsburgh to see PNC Park, and maybe back to New York to see the new stadiums that the Mets and Yankees have.
