A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

baseball trip

Season almost done… trips still left!

OK, so the baseball season is coming to an end.

Well, the minor leagues anyway.

And with that in mind that means my Summer of Baseball will eventually be ending for 2016. So sad. So very, very sad.

The one good thing is I have a lot of posts to still write up that I’ll have through the winter, most likely. But it also means the plans are not over.

More baseball!

More baseball!

This upcoming weekend features three more games. Labor Day weekend will probably have a game or two.

In early September — in celebration of my birthday — I was thinking of going to DC to see the Phillies play the Nationals. That’s still a possibility, though I’m trying to figure some things out.

Then in late September, it will get interesting.

Originally, my plan was to go to Atlanta and see the Phillies play there. Why? Because it’s the last season of Turner Field. I’ve only ever seen two stadiums in the final year — Veterans Stadium in Philly and Yankee Stadium. I’ve also never been to Atlanta.

But…

The reality is, Atlanta will have a new stadium. And after pricing things out, doing the trip solo would make it tough, financially. So I was trying to figure things out when somebody I travel to games with often said something about the possibility of, basically, a buy one, get one flight. But he won’t do Atlanta, so that’s out the door.

But…

After pricing things out a bit, it seems like there’s a chance that, for cheaper, to do a trip to California. In that trip would include a stop to Dodger Stadium, Petco Park in San Diego, and Angel Stadium.

Three stadiums. Three days. Flights out, flights back.

I like it.

So the season is slowing. And for that, I’m sad. But at the same time, there’s still baseball to be seen. In the beginning of the year, I wanted to see 40 games this year. I’m close to 60 and with some help, I might be able to push 70. It’s been a great summer of baseball and one I’ll always remember.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Road tripping for baseball

A baseball road trip is something I’ve always dreamed of doing.

Alas, over the years, I’ve never tried to do one. But this year, that changes. In late July/early August, I am going to take a baseball trip that I will hopefully remember for years to come. Originally I was going to fly to one or two places and then drive, but in the end, I’ve decided going on a true road trip is the way to go.

Especially with having a GPS and all that – it makes it way easier.

Still, I’ll have my baseball road trip map, directory, prospect guide and all that. The first trip, I’ll be doing things solo and then the second one, going with a friend, who owns a house in southern Virginia.

This trip will encompass a lot – baseball, some geocaching, and a little soul searching in regard to seeing where I stand in life. With a lot of tunes (I still need to load it on my phone) and podcasts (not sure I have enough, but I have some!) that I will have loaded up for the trip, I’m going to be ready to put a couple of thousand miles on my car, take a lot of photos, find a few geocaches, and watch many innings of baseball.

My only hope is that Mother Nature will cooperate for most of the trip.

Recent events and such in my world have made it much easier to split this trip into two parts, though. The first part is starting this week as I travel to games in Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. It’s only going to encompass five days, most likely, though, so that’s not a bad thing in that regard. Then work for a few days and the bigger trip to Virginia/North Carolina is set to happen.

Planning these trips isn’t ever easy. For the first part, it’s including hotels and all that good stuff. The second one is, luckily, without hotels. For that part of the trip, we’re planning 13 games in nine days — so several days with more than one game. I’m sure at the end of it, I’m going to need a breather.

Obviously, one wants to do something a tad more on these trips, too. You want to see more things and such. I know I won’t have time to do too many things, but there will be some things I’d like to get in. The Louisville Slugger Museum is one of them. If I have time, going to the Muhammad Ali museum is one as well. There’s also a few places I’d like to try and eat on the trip.

The beauty of all this, of course, is that I’m pretty much winging it. I have an idea where I am heading and such, but I will kind of do my thing and see what happens. I have games planned and I’ll likely get tickets at the gate (maybe ahead of time at one or two), but just kind of go, watch, take some photos and keep my score book.

The best part of this upcoming weekend, though, is that I haven’t honestly fully planned things out. I have a blueprint of what I want to do, but I’m leaving it open in case I decide to change things up. About the only thing guaranteed is the Stampede event/Reds game on Saturday. That and I want to make sure I nab a geocache or two in Kentucky as it’s a state I haven’t found one in yet. Outside of that — we shall see how it all goes.

It’s funny, too, as I normally would have a whole list of geocaches to find for this trip. I’d be looking to do all sorts of stuff. But this is going to be one of those trips where I just want to do some thinking. And listening to music or podcasts or something else.

Instead, I’m going to play it a little off the cuff. I have some hotels reserved. I have destinations planned, but from there — it’s where the ball bounces!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Plotting, planning, and trying to find cheap (and clean) hotels.

Twenty down, 30 to go.

At the beginning of this summer, I had set a soft goal of seeing 50 baseball games this summer. I knew it was a long-stretch, but it’s something I am really trying to do.

On Thursday, I hit my 20th game so far this year, this one between the Toledo Mudhens and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Of those 20 games, two have been MLB games (Washington and Cleveland). I’m planning at least three more MLB stadiums – Philadelphia (which I’ve been to before), Cincinnati (for what will be an amazing experience), and Toronto (which will be new). Some others are possible, but who knows.

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Mainly, though, it’s minor leagues and independent leagues. And I don’t mind it that way because it’s a lot of fun that way.

Minor league baseball gives you a different atmosphere (though, to be fair, Washington and Cleveland each had great atomospheres), and it’s more intimate. You get to see players who may or may not ever get to the majors.

It’s the roots of the game.

Coming up in July/August is a trip I’ve been plotting. For part of it, I’ll be going solo on a swing out to Cincinnati and some others. That will then lead me to a friend’s house for the second part of the trip, which will then have two or three of us hitting several games.

If all goes well and Mother Nature cooperates and everything goes well, over a nearly two-week trip, I’ll hit 18 games. That is one of those road trips I’ve dreamed about doing, and it is pretty exciting.

So it comes down to finding hotels and the best travel routes and seeing things that I need to see (such as the Reds Hall of Fame, the Louisville Slugger Museum etc), and seeing what kind of photo opportunities are along the route.

I’m looking forward to the trip and the excitement of seeing new places, yet at the same time, it’s almost stressful to plot this trip. Just because I want to make sure I get to do more than baseball, yet keep baseball as a main part of the trip – if that makes any sense.

It’s the Summer of Baseball, though, and I’m looking forward to this trip and hitting as many games as I can. Reality is, I never know when or if I’ll be able to do this again, so it’s time to take advantage of it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Summer of Baseball: Going back in time in Burlington

Centennial Field

Centennial Field

As I’ve noted before, I love me an old-school baseball park. Even if, when I get there, the experience isn’t the greatest, there’s still something to be said about an older park.

Take, for example, Centennial Field, located on the campus of the University of Vermont. Originally built in 1906, the field got its current concrete and steel main grandstand in 1922, which replaced the wooden bleachers that burned some eight or nine years before.

That’s old.

The field is home to the Vermont Lake Monsters, the short-season Single-A team of the Oakland Athletics. UVM no longer has a baseball team.

This field is throwback central, though.

There are some obstructed views, but a cold micro brew helps that out.

There are some obstructed views, but a cold micro brew helps that out.

There are no bells and whistles. The souvenir store isn’t accessible by walking in, rather it’s under the grandstands with a couple of concession-style windows where people will come and look and decide if they want to buy or not. Customer relations is housed in a trailer. The concession areas were what you would expect to see at a ballpark like this. When I say old school, folks, I mean old school.

The food selection was normal and there was a decent beer selection, which is understandable (and somewhat expected) considering how well-known Vermont is for craft beer.

Turns out, too, the Lake Monsters draw crowds. For most of this summer and these baseball trips, I picked tickets online ahead of time. However, the system Vermont uses doesn’t allow you to pick seats, so we opted to get them at the door. We were just going to get some general admission seats … and were told there weren’t two seats together.

To which I replied, “In general admission?”

He said “yes.”

Maybe it’s the lingo, but I’ve always thought GA tickets were sit wherever you want – first come, first served – in the GA section. Apparently not here.

Ready for the game.

Ready for the game.

Either way, we ended up getting a pair of seats together in the grandstand.

The sight lines aren’t all great (we were near a large beam, which holds the grandstand roof up – obstructed view?), but it’s not a bad place to watch a baseball game. There’s not a lot of glitz and glamor here.

The field layout is a little more older, too, such as where the dugouts are located and all. But, overall, it’s a nice stadium for the level of baseball it houses. The crowds are pretty energetic, too, which makes the overall experience that much better, too

Some cons? Parking. There’s pretty much none at the park and you aren’t supposed to park on the neighboring streets. So what they do is have you park at a parking garage on campus (free) and bus you (also for free) on a shuttle. In the end, it wasn’t too bad, but for out-of-town people coming to watch a game, it’s a tad frustrating. That adds to the end of the game, too, as you wait to pack into the school buses, which double as shuttles, to get back to your car.

One other con, at least for me, was not being able to get my Minor League Passport stamped. Despite being listed as a place where it could be done, nobody there seemed to know about the program or the stamp. An assistant GM did come and chat with me during the game about it and said he was going to look into it, but unfortunately that doesn’t get me the stamp. Maybe in the future if I go again.

Something I noticed about all of this though is the people here are top-notch and friendly. They really make you feel like you mean something, which is nice to see. I have always loved the New York-Penn League (it helps that I covered the Oneonta Tigers for six seasons) and this gives me hope that professional baseball can survive in some smaller

In the end, what you get here is an old-school baseball experience. It’s a nice little spot and worth visiting. On top of that, the Burlington area is really nice and I guarantee you can find places to go, which is even better.

Park Notes:  

Centennial Field
Burlington, Vermont
Home of the Vermont Lake Monsters (Short-season A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics)
Visited on: Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014
Opponent: Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Short-season A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 3/10
  • Ambiance: 9/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

I am embarking on a summer of baseball with the plan to hit a minimum of 10 stadiums this summer. Hopefully, there will be more than that. I will report on each park that I hit on the blog.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Summer of Baseball: Manchester is about the game

Manchester, New Hampshire.

Manchester, New Hampshire.

Manchester, New Hampshire.

I can’t say I’ve ever been here before and, honestly, I wasn’t sure why this was an attractive place to go watch a game, outside the fact that it would make for a good weekend trip to see a couple of games.

Originally, this trip was scheduled for the Fourth of July Weekend, with one game here and one in Connecticut. Bad weather forced that trip to be changed (which worked out well as it landed this tour in State College that weekend and it was a fantastic fireworks show), but I had already purchased tickets for Manchester.

So when the game was rained out, I had the chance to get new tickets. On a weekend in early August, Manchester called again to see the New Hampshire Fisher Cats play Reading, the Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

Score.

Opened in 2005, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium is an interesting place to see a game. Being in the middle of the city, the parking is pretty crappy. In fact, we paid $10 to park in this one lot and we got squished into a silly spot. I think the tickets were $12 each, or something like that. So, basically, we paid an extra seat to park. Now, I realize there was street parking elsewhere for free. The issue was not knowing the area, so we went with a lot. Parking, though, is not a positive for this place.

The stadium from the outside is pretty interesting, especially how it’s tucked in to the area. It’s not a bad looking stadium by any means. In left field, there’s a hotel overlooking the field. The concourse wraps the backside of the field and there’s a little into left field. You don’t miss much if you get up and walk around a little. There’s an interesting bar in the left-field area. Though I didn’t go in, it’s pretty nice and roomy.

There are a couple of souvenir stores — one a bigger one that is downstairs, before you walk up to get into the field, and the other off the concourse. Prices were pretty decent and the main store offered a lot of items.

Keeping book.

Keeping book.

Concessions at the stadium was pretty decent. That being said, we had eaten before coming, so we didn’t really dabble in a lot. The normal ballpark fare was here, but what was nice was soft ice cream. For whatever reason, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find this at stadiums. This place had it. And I got it later in the evening (we were there for a double header) and had no lines. I did, of course, have a hot dog, too, and it was good. One thing to point out is that there is a solid selection of beers here. Concession prices were decent.

A side note for those who keep their own scorecard — the Fisher Cats, if you go to fan relations (on the concourse) offer pre-printed cards with the lineup free of charge. It’s very nice to have, especially when you bring your own book, like I do. It’s much easier to copy off that than standing in front of the lineup board to by taking a photo and reading it off a phone.

One thing, though, is the stadium didn’t stand out. The floors for the seats were metal, so it could get loud if people were walking around. The seats had plenty of space, which is nice. But it’s the same sort of stadium you can see in many places. Overall, it’s a solid stadium with good sight lines and a decent place to watch a game. You could find worse places to watch a game, that’s for sure. However, I’m not sure I would make a specific trip just to see this stadium, but if you can plan it with other reasons to be here, it’s worth catching a game.

Park Notes:  

Northeast Delta Dental Stadium
Manchester, New Hampshire
Home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays)
Visited on: Friday, August 1, 2014
Opponent: Reading Fightin Phils (AA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7.5/10
  • Concessions: 8/10
  • Parking: 5/10
  • Ambiance: 8/10
  • Friendliness: 8/10

I am embarking on a summer of baseball with the plan to hit a minimum of 10 stadiums this summer. Hopefully, there will be more than that. I will report on each park that I hit on the blog.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!