A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Reading

Summer of Baseball: Reading celebrating its 50th with the Phillies

Reading calls itself Baseballtown. With a stadium that was completed in 1951, and one that’s had some renovations over the years, the Reading Fightin Phils have a unique and interesting stadium.

FirstEnergy Stadium is different than when I last visited in, I believe, 2009. They’ve done many upgrades, to make the field a bit more fan friendly, yet have kept the quirky aspects of the park in place.

When you come into the park, you have an area where the food items are and it gives you the feel of a courtyard. It’s definitely busy there, so you might need to push your way around if you want to get somewhere. The concourse is under the main grandstand, so you are behind the action. There’s also not a full walk-around concourse, but that’s normal for older stadiums.

A place to lean and keep score, with a great view.

A place to lean and keep score, with a great view.

You can go out into parts of the outfield, though, to watch the game from different vantage points. Overall, sightlines were OK and it is a tad picturesque of a place to watch a game. Seats are a tad old-school, but it kind of goes with the stadium. They aren’t bad, but I also will say we didn’t sit in ours for awful long.

Concession wise, there is the regular fare from ballparks. Being it was a dollar-dog day, I chose that as my choice for the night. It looked like they had a lot of the regular choices, which is good. I didn’t get too deep into the area with everything going on as it was crowded and after a long weekend of baseball and other items, I just wanted to watch a game.

The field is nice and it has some cool areas. Like many parks today, there were spots people could rent out etc., for large groups.

The on-field things were fine and didn’t detract from the game too much, which was good.

The team store is not huge, but it is very well stocked with different items. Because of that, it’s not easy to get around, but if you want something – odds are they likely have it. That’s always a bonus, of course, as it makes no sense not to stock up, especially with the rebranding the team did a year or two ago.

This was the 50th anniversary of the team being associated with the Phillies, so it was nice to get there during this season. The action on the field was solid, and it’s an easy place to watch a game. The atmosphere is pretty good as people seem to enjoy watching baseball.

I will note this, though – it seems like some of the people (the fans) weren’t the friendliest in the world. I’m not saying this is all of them, and I’m not even saying the people we encountered were regulars. But it was … odd.

Let me give an example.

Throwing hot dogs in Reading.

Throwing hot dogs in Reading.

The tickets I purchased were underneath the overhang, as there had originally been a threat of rain. We got to our seats and made sure we had the right spot. No sooner than we sat down, the lady (an older lady) made sure she told us “If they aren’t your seats, you’ll have to move.”

I’ve never had that happen to me before, especially by somebody not working for the team. I will say as we came up the stands, one of the people there had their feet up on our seats, and a jacket over top the back. So I guess we were infringing on their “territory.” Still, it was a little off-setting.

We decided, instead, to stand for the game at the top of the bleachers where there’s a place to lean etc. Two more people were encountered – and they were the same. I asked one person if people could stand here and he looked at me like I was green and had three heads.

As I walked the concourse a little later, three – yes three – people bumped into me as they weren’t watching where they were going. I tried to avoid the collisions but they weren’t paying attention. None of them said excuse me (despite them being at fault and watching their phones and not where they were going), rather gave me a dirty look.

Honestly, these aren’t things I want to share because it’s hopefully not the norm. But this was part of my experience and, honestly, it took away from my experience.

I didn’t really interact with many people who work for the team or stadium, but it seemed like there were a lot of people around.

Park Notes:  

FirstEnergy Stadium
Reading, Pennsylvania
Home of the Reading Fightin Phils (Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies)
Visited on: June 12, 2016
Opponent: Altoona Curve (Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates)

Ratings (out of 10)

  • Stadium: 7.5/10
  • Concessions: 7/10
  • Parking: 8/10
  • Ambiance: 7.5/10
  • Friendliness: 6.5/10

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: 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!

Book Review: One Shot at Forever

I’m a sucker for a good baseball book.

I hadn’t heard of “One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season” by Chris Ballard before stumbling across it on Amazon. The Kindle price was but $2.24 (it’s since gone up to $2.99, but still a very fair price), so I thought it would be a good way to start the 2013 reading campaign.

One Shot at Forever

This is more of a historical baseball book as it goes back to remember a small-school baseball teambased in Illinois. They have old uniforms and a unique coach who does things quite a bit differently. This coach — the English teacher at the school who has zero experience in coaching — leads his squad to the Illinois state final. This is back in a time when there were no divisions. Macon is still the smallest school to reach the state final.

The team took on the spirit of its coach — long hair, peace symbols on their hats and a carefree outlook that seemed balanced enough to win over a town.

Ballard is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, so he tells a wonderful story from beginning to end, including catching up with many of these players in the present time.

The Good

This is a great story. If you like feel-good stories, especially in sports, this is a fine read. This shows that all in sports isn’t bad and it brings you back to a glory day when high school sports were serious, but at the same time, it wasn’t as crazy as it is today. Games were serious back then, but society today puts high school sports on a whole different level.

Ballard does a wonderful job of developing all the people in this story, which is tough, considering you have a full team, a coach, his eventual wife, school administration, members of the media and some parents. That’s a lot of people. For the most part, I was able to keep track of who is who throughout, though not always. It was really easy to cheer for certain people and, at the same time, have a bit of a dislike for others.

The book also helps the reader related to the team. Even those who grew up and live in large urban areas should be able to feel the emotion of this town and area and the support of the team. One think to keep in mind is this is the early 1970s, so a different time. Though everybody will be able to relate and see what this type of atmosphere was like, I know I got a bit more out of it because I grew up in a small town and understand the thought process and how people will live for the days of a great high school team to show pride in the town.

The Bad

At times, it was tough when some of the players were being mentioned. Though the big ones were pretty easy to follow with, sometimes one of the more secondary players was mentioned and it would make me stop for a moment. I think that’s the tough part with a book like this because there are so many people who need to be in it. This isn’t fictional, so one can’t just eliminate some in situations. To tell the story, these players need to be in the story.

This is a tough “bad,” per say, but books like this need a few photos. When dealing with historical items like this, I know I like to see what people look like, or anything else to help my mind paint a picture of the town, the field, the players and all that. Ballard does a wonderful job of describing everything, but having a section in the book with images would have helped. If it’s in the print version, I can’t comment. But I didn’t see any photos, outside of the cover photos in the Kindle edition.

Overall thoughts

I truly enjoyed this book. I didn’t take too long to read it as it moved quickly, kept my attention and made me want to keep going. And it really is an underdog story. If you are a sports fan and like something like Hoosiers, you’ll like this book. It’s the same sort of thing — the David vs. Goliath. I won’t give away the ending of this book, but it doesn’t matter what the end result is. It’s well worth the read and I would encourage anybody who likes books about real life, sports, overcoming odds or the little guy to give it a go.

Rating

This is a strong book and one I’d highly recommend to many people. In the end, though not fully perfect, I’d give this book a strong 4/5 and consider a little higher if I gave it a little bit of a longer thought.

Artwork (For The Artful Readers Club)

This book is also one I’m reading for The Artful Readers Club. In this club, we read one book per month and also have to so some sort of a piece of art to go with it. For this one, I decided to take an old baseball photo I took and make an “advertisement” for the book. It’s not great, but I hope people enjoy!

Artful Readers Club artwork.

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

Book review: Siri & Me

One of my goals this year is to read at least 25 books. It doesn’t matter the size or what the subject is, as long as I read at least 25.

In all honesty, if I stay focused and continue to read, I should be able to do 25 without blinking an eye. With that, I also plan on doing reviews of each book on here.

Siri & Me

Siri & Me by David Milgrim is an interesting one, but you likely need to be an iPhone user to truly find the humor in this one. That being said, it’s short, a quick read and a bit fun.

For those who don’t know, Siri is the electronic sweetheart of many. She’s the voice behind the system in iPhone where you can get information about many things. Do a Google search for Siri and you’ll find so many funny things that she says.

The book isn’t long. The print version shows it being 112 pages. I read half of it one day and the other half the next, so an extremely quick read. As of now, Amazon doesn’t show a true Kindle version of the book available to purchase, but the print version is.

The description of the book is short —

Dave’s never met anyone like Siri. She’s helpful, smart, and easier to talk to than any girl he’s ever known. She really gets him…

Siri & Me is a love story for our times. A must read for all of us in a codependent relationship with our gadgets. An instant classic in a world of instant everything.

It’s a simple and enjoyable story, especially if you have the iPhone or are into technology and get what Siri is all about.

The Good

The story line.

Basically, boy finds Siri. Boy falls for Siri. And who can blame him? The book is a modern-day, technology love story. More than that, the written parts of the book are quite small as it’s loaded with cartoons and those are excellent.

I enjoyed the dialogue and the characters. And, to be honest, as much as I liked the main character, as well as shutterbug Iris, the dog was a fine addition to the book. In fact, I might say he’s my favorite in the book.

The Bad

The version of the book I have is a Kindle version, but it notes in the beginning it’s not the finished copy. Therefore, while some things were annoying (formatting, a few capitalization issues, style and paragraph numbers all over), I can’t truly count that against the book’s rating. After all, I knew what I was getting into when I got this copy. Still, in case others get a pre-release copy, this is a warning.

Outside of that, I can’t think of many things. There were a few little things and there were times I felt I was supposed to laugh, but didn’t. Almost like the humor was being forced. But the story helped get through those parts, so it’s not a big issue.

Overall thoughts

Though a decent read, I’m not sure how much I’d pay for it — maybe four or five bucks for a print version — as it’s something that’s a quick read. When I get books, I always look at the price compared to substance. Though this is a good story and was interesting reading, I was done with it in a couple of hours and I went somewhat slow with it. I think an e-version is smart — Kindle, iPad etc. — because if it’s priced right, say 99 cents, I can see where it could be an easy purchase.

That being said, it’s a quirky and fun book, which could make it easy to pick up and go through a second or third time and still find a few laughs. If you are into iPhones and Siri and laugh at things like this, I’d recommend the book.

Rating

In the end, rating this one is kind of tough. It’s a fun book and I laughed, but at the same time there were times when I wondered where it was going. The story line was good and it makes a lot of sense in today’s technological world. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

On the web

David Milgrim website. Milgrim on Twitter.

Allow me, too, to leave you with a small video about the book. It’s worth the watch.

Disclosure: I received the Kindle version of this book via NetGallery, an online place where people can receive free digital books through publishers etc. Nothing is required in exchange for this book, but being I read it, I’m going to review it as honestly as I always do!

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

2013: Looking ahead

I don’t make resolutions.

I’ve always found many New Year’s resolutions are made in a drunken stupor or something along those lines. Maybe it’s something one has planned to set as a resolution, but they all seem to be the same thing, anyway.

Over the years, I’ve tried to do things like resolutions. More time at the gym. Eat better. Do this. Do that. Turns out it’s just like most people — it never happens.

Each year, I try and make goals, however.

In my eyes, the difference is with goals, you have something to aim for. With resolutions, it’s a lifestyle change almost.

I also try and keep most of my goals somewhat realistic. I won’t say I will drop 100 pounds in 2013. Would I love to drop a whole heap of weight? Sure. But knowing how much I lost in 2012 (about 20 pounds) and how my pants no longer fit (which is a good thing), I try and keep goals a little more on the realistic side.

For example, I would never say I am going to try and go to the gym 4-5 times per week as I know, come April or May, I’d just stop or really slow down.

So, without further delay, I give to you my top-five goals for 2013. Hopefully, they’ll all be met.

1. A job

Yes, this is goal No. 1 in every way shape or form. Come this February, it will be two years I’ve been without a job. And if I’ve reached the end of my unemployment benefits, I’m going to be tapping into the final funds as I refer to them — retirement, small savings etc. It’s what I have to do to survive. Talk about living close to the chest — it will be what I have to do.

I continue to send applications out at a pretty quick pace. Some require some in-depth stuff, others are filling out an online form and attaching a resume. Either way, I need a job. I realize many Americans — and people throughout the world — are in the same situation. So hopefully I can find something soon.

 2. Complete the HooHaa 52

Photo challenges are a lot of fun. However, last year was not good for me completing these challenges. I failed at both the second go of the HooHaa 52 and my second attempt at a 365 (well, 366 last year) project.

This year, I’m being a little different — I am only doing the HooHaa 52. In that group, there’s a new theme each week. I think I can handle that. Even if I take on other challenges — blogging, reading etc., a one photo-per-week challenge should not be too difficult.

I look forward to looking back on this challenge to see a year in photos.

3. Read more (25 or more books)

In 2012, I got away from reading books. That’s too bad, too, as I really enjoy it. Especially with the Kindle and how easy it is. Sometimes, I just don’t want to sit down and read. Other times, I am just too lazy to do so.

So, I’ve jumped into a reading challenge (as some of you may have noticed in yesterday’s post) and I’m going to push myself to read at least 25 books this year. Reality is, I should be able to average about a book every week or week and a half, so I’d like to think I could get 40 in. That being said, 25 is a realistic goal. I’ve also joined a few sites where books are given to bloggers to review. I like that as it will not only help me fulfill my reading goal, but it will also allow me to have things to write about on the blog. I like writing book reviews, so having 25-40 days worth of posts based on that wouldn’t upset me one bit.

4. Transform my blog

This goal has more than one part, hence why I’ll go with the generic “transform” in the goal title.

Over the next year, I’d like to transform the blog to have a little bit of what I’ve wanted for a long time. So, to do this, I need to do the following:

  • Have a full re-design of the blog with a custom theme (I know who I want to do it, once I can afford it)
  • Blog at least 10 in-depth pieces
  • Continue Snapshot Saturday and Soundless Sunday
  • Have at least one Foto Friday per month
  • Find some other fun things to gain readers/networking (food things, games, fun stuff)
  • Try and post at least 25 times per month, at a minimum

This won’t all be easy. But, this blog is near and dear to me. I’ve been blogging some version of A ‘lil HooHaa since June 2005 and I want to see it continue for as long as I can.

4A. Visit more blogs

I put this as a 4A because it’s kind of part of transforming my blog.

If I want to get more readers and network with other bloggers, I need to make it so I visit and read more. Comment more. See what others are doing. There are some fantastic bloggers out there and I’d like to read them more. Therefore, I need to make some time to read more of them. In time, once I fulfill Goal 1, I hope to get myself some sort of a tablet — such as an iPad. Once I do that,  I think surfing for other blogs will be easier as I’ll be more apt to do it when lounging.

Still, before that happens, I need to do some things to get myself into the habit. I think I need to clear my Google Reader and start from scratch, using that as my homepage and trying to keep tabs on blogs a lot more.

5. Be happy

I know, I know, this seems like a cop-out goal. I assure you, it’s not.

The past two years have been two of the hardest I’ve ever had. During the time of being unemployed, I’ve watched a lot of things happen. Friends have become overly successful, have families and such. Other people in my industry keep going up. All the while, I apply for jobs and continually get looked over.

It sucks.

I’m happy as hell for friends and family doing well, but it’s also hard because I feel 20 steps behind. I look at the future, too, wondering what it will hold. The majority of the people I know or hang out with have never been through this. And I appreciate all the kind words and deeds they have given, but it’s still hard.

I haven’t been happy. I try and put on a good face. I can enjoy certain things. But in the overall scheme, I’m not happy. So I need to find personal happiness. I know what I need to do that, and it starts with Goal 1. That starts the healing process, per say. As that happens, other things start to turn around and, in time, I hope the happiness will follow and I’ll be able to really start enjoying life once again.

In the end, these goals are ones I think I can conquer in 2013. I hope, anyway. Though No. 1 is the most important at this time, the one I truly want to accomplish is No. 5. If that happens, everything else will hopefully fall into place.

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