Friday, August 8, 2008
Day 7, Game 4: Milwaukee Brewers vs. Nationals, 8/08
Wow, the traffic is getting bad. We headed from St. Louis to Chicago to pick up tickets and then a 3 hour drive to Milwaukee. It's been 393 awful miles and we've been in the car all day. Fortunately, our trip was made easier by a stop at Mar's Cheese Castle in Kenosha.
Tonight's game looks to be well worth it. It's a sold out Friday night game with the Brewer's CC Sabathia on the mound. Yee-ha.
Took a bus from the hotel downtown right to the stadium. Our seats were up high off the third base line, but offered great views. After the 6th inning, we moved to the main level and found some great SRO views.
Miller Park was surprisingly nice. The fans were pumped up. And Sabathia was unreal, with a 103 pitch complete game shut-out. We might have crawled to Milwaukee for this. Wow. What a game. Brewers 5, Nats 0.
The Brewers are now 2 games up in the wild card race. It's been 26 years since Milwaukee saw a playoff game, and from the looks of it, they are pig biting mad about their post-season prospects.
Here's some other great moments from the game.
We met these wonderful Wisconsin ladies on the bus. They keep in touch by seeing a Brewers game once a year.
Sausage Race: The winner got a case of Miller, the losers were fed to CC Sabathia.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Day 6, Game 3: St. Louis. Cards vs. Dodgers, 8/07
249 miles gets us to Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis for a day game and a chance to see Manny Ramirez in Dodger blue.
Wow. Easily the best game of the trip. We rolled into St. Louis an hour before the 1:15 start and the streets we filled with fans in Cardinal red. And despite being in the very last row in the entire stadium, the view was fantastic. 2 BBQ pork sandwiches later we sat down and watched a pretty dominant pitching perforamance by Dodger rookie Clayton Kershaw, as well as Manny Ramirez destroy another ball over the fence. And despite having a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals went down, 4-1.
Here's the panoramic view from our seats (click to enlarge)
The Olympic Opening ceremonies are tonight and that means one thing...a 370 mile drive to Milwaukee to see the Brewers!
Wow. Easily the best game of the trip. We rolled into St. Louis an hour before the 1:15 start and the streets we filled with fans in Cardinal red. And despite being in the very last row in the entire stadium, the view was fantastic. 2 BBQ pork sandwiches later we sat down and watched a pretty dominant pitching perforamance by Dodger rookie Clayton Kershaw, as well as Manny Ramirez destroy another ball over the fence. And despite having a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals went down, 4-1.
Here's the panoramic view from our seats (click to enlarge)
The Olympic Opening ceremonies are tonight and that means one thing...a 370 mile drive to Milwaukee to see the Brewers!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Day 5, Game 2: Kansas City. KC vs. Red Sox, 8/06
After a 182 mile drive, we're sitting in parking lot of Kauffman stadium 2 hours out. It's overcast and unbearably hot, but it looks like the weather might hold up for the game. Just bought 2 tickets off a Red Sox fan for half price. All is wonderful.
Kauffman Stadium (which is next to Arrowhead) is undergoing major renovations for next season, so the parking lot is pretty torn up and littered with construction trailers. Nevertheless, it's filled with some serious tailgaters, made up mostly of KU and KState kids. Two hours out, it feels like a post-apocalyptic frat party.
Publish Post
Kauffman Stadium (which is next to Arrowhead) is undergoing major renovations for next season, so the parking lot is pretty torn up and littered with construction trailers. Nevertheless, it's filled with some serious tailgaters, made up mostly of KU and KState kids. Two hours out, it feels like a post-apocalyptic frat party.
The game is a mix of highs and lows.
THE HIGHS:
A fantastic BBQ pork sandwich for the best price in baseball:
dee-lish!
As well as some great seats with fantastic sight lines
(we were on the second row off the third base line. hello, friend.)
It's also great seeing Tim Wakefield, the only knuckleball pitcher now starting in the bigs (I'm not counting DA Rickey). As a rookie called up mid-season, he helped the Pirates make the post season in 1992 by going 8-1 with his 62 MPH wickedness. It's great to still see him baffling hitters at the age of 42.
THE LOWS:
The game was sparsely attended (24,000, although higher than the team's 20k season ave.) Even worse, the Red Sox fans outnumbered the Royals 2 to 1. They came in greater numbers and cheered loudly for all nine innings. The area we sat in had an even higher percent of Sox fans.
Just look at this photo snapped from our seat.
(find a Royals fan, I dare you)
Also, the Royals lost 8-2. We came to root, root, root for the home team. So, boo.
Hopefully, a renovated Kauffman stadium will return the Royals to their George Brett glory days. In the mean time,
We've got a 4 hour drive and a 1pm in St. Louis tomorrow, so we've got to hit the road. (for a map of our travels, click on the map at the bottom)
Day 4: Denver to Salina, KS (434 mi.)
Leaving Denver, Martin caught this guy. We'd show you what the other side said, but there are children reading this. I can only imagine what Denver will be like in 3 weeks for the Democratic convention.
After a great breakfast at Mona's (thanks Kelly), we hit the road for a long and uneventful drive. In the middle of the night, we were awakened by some incredible thunderstorms. Bad weather seems to be sweeping the Midwest right now, putting tomorrow nights game (Boston@KC) in some jeopardy.
This was shot out the hotel window at 5am.
After a great breakfast at Mona's (thanks Kelly), we hit the road for a long and uneventful drive. In the middle of the night, we were awakened by some incredible thunderstorms. Bad weather seems to be sweeping the Midwest right now, putting tomorrow nights game (Boston@KC) in some jeopardy.
This was shot out the hotel window at 5am.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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