Re: MLB Ballpark Roadtrips
Might go to a Tigers game later this year, but I'm finished with new ballparks for the year.
Warning: long post ahead
Went to Milwaukee for Memorial Day weekend. That was a city that surprised. The night before the game we did a tour at Lakefront Brewery and then walked up to the arena district where there was a watch party for the Bucks. We left at halftime, which ended up being a good decision because that was the night Milwaukee blew a double digit fourth quarter lead to lose the series.
Day of the game was perfect weather. Low 70s, sunny, roof was open, and dollar dog day to top it off. I’m not sure if it’s due to the parking lot set-up of the stadium, or if Packers culture infiltrated the Brewers and they built it that way as a result, but the tailgate scene was something I’ve never seen at any other stadium. Second inning I looked around and it was a pretty good crowd, probably about 2/3 full, but you could still see throngs of people crossing the bridges. The bridges stayed packed until the 4th inning when I took another look around and it was a near sellout. Game itself was great. Brewers homered four or five times and nearly had a perfect game, as the Phillies only hit was a solo homer.
Next was Pittsburgh on 4th of July weekend that a posted a little bit about. Before the game took a little tour of Pittsburgh, visited Pointe State Park, went to the Strip and got the OG Primanti Bros.
As for the stadium, without a doubt my favorite modern park. Once again we sat in the first few rows of the upper deck behind home plate and were treated to what has to be the greatest view in baseball. The river, the PIRATES hedge in center field, the city scape, and the Clemente Bridge with dusk falling over the city cannot be beat. Just walking around the stadium, it didn’t look like there was a bad seat in the place. Got lucky and ended up going on another dollar dog day as well. Funny how concessions are fairly reasonable when not everything is five dollars minimum. The in-game entertainment and promos were top notch. The entire marketing department for the Pirates deserves a raise.
Most of all because they hired a firm to produce the greatest intro video in the history of intro videos. Bonus points for an organ as well.
Game itself was great, but long like I posted above. 2-1 through 7, but it took three hours. Then the scoring started. Brew Crew put up four in the 8th while the Pirates mounted a ninth inning comeback to take it to extras. Milwaukee added one in the 10th to go up 7-6. Pirates were put in the unfortunate situation of having to pinch hit a reliever with a starting pitcher batting around .120 with men on first and second because they’d used all their fielders. Ended in a K.
Saturday I woke up not feeling great and it only got worse on the drive to Cincinnati, so my review may be a bit biased as a sold out stadium in 95 degrees was the last thing I wanted to do at the time, and had just experienced PNC the night before, but Cincy was pretty average. I know concessions are contracted out, so you can't necessarily blame the Reds, but they were playing the Indians. You’d think they’d be prepared for a full stadium, but they ran out of cups at multiple concessions and we literally walked from home plate to left field, then around the outfield before finally finding condiments somewhere around right field. Maybe we missed another stairway, but we only found one way to get to the upperdeck, which was either an escalator with a bad bottleneck or the adjacent five level stairwell, also with bottlenecks. Game was good, Cleveland pulled away in the 8th, but I was mostly just trying to survive so I didn’t get into it too much.
We did have to stop at a Skyline Chili just to try it. It was… decent. Not awful, but I can see why people don’t like it. Would be great drunk food. A little surprised they aren’t franchised out to Midwest college towns.
I’m through 10.
1. Boston
2. Chicago NL
3. Pittsburgh
4. Milwaukee
5. San Francisco
6. Cleveland
7. Toronto
8. Detroit
9. Cincinnati
10. Chicago AL
I vaguely recall a foul ball hit by Mark Loretta landing in the lap of the lady next to us... but the game? nope. But I found the ticket stub (I wish I had kept more ticket stubs, or at least organized the ones I did have).
