Best Baseball Park

This weekend Kenji and I drove out to Toledo, Ohio for our nephew's first birthday. To break up the 500 or so mile drive, we stopped for an overnight in Pittsburgh, where we planned to see a ballgame at PNC Park.

PNC Park is a relatively new ballpark, opened in 2001 or so. They did a really nice job of it, as it offers a really nice view of the city and its bridges from the infield, and has an awesome riverwalk built right into the park on the outfield side. Most importantly, PNC Park has relish, unlike some other stupid ballparks I can think of like, um, Yankee Stadium. ;)

When we got to Pittsburgh we though for sure the game would be rained out, as it had been raining pretty much the whole time as we drove through Pennsylvania. But since we already paid for the tickets we figured we might as well go and have a look at the stadium and eat hot dogs and have ice cream in a helmet. PNC Park has good ice cream too. You can get hard packed ice cream instead of soft serve if you want. And it's cheaper than the junky soft serve you get at Yankee Stadium. We had Moose Tracks, with chocolate syrup on top. :)

While we were eating out hot dogs, the rain seemed to let up, and the tarp guys started taking the tarp off the field. About an hour and half after the original game time the game started, and the Pirates whipped the Cardinals, 10 - 2. It was a really fun game because probably no more than 5,000 people were in attendance, so we pretty much had the run of the ballpark.

After the game, before going back to our car, which we paid a premuim of $12 to park in the garage right next to the stadium, we took a walk across the Roberto Clemente Bridge and back.

Most times when I hear people talk about Pittsburgh (except for my friend Thad), they don't usually have much good to say about it. But I rather liked it, at least what I saw of it.

Fan Fest!

Yah, I know these events are not in chronological order, but I have been neglecting my blog lately and don't wish to spend the time putting them in sequence. :)

The other weekend ago (July 12) Kenji, Tiffknee and I took the train into NYC for the All Star Game Fan Fest at the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center. It was fun to look at all the baseball memorabilia, and Fred Lynn was there signing autographs. Not that we lined up for 800 years like many people did to get his autograph... I just like him because he played for the Red Sox in 1978, back when I cared enough about baseball to actually know all the players' names. :)

Because we're in Yankees territory, I let Tiffknee be in the picture with the World Series trophy. Last time Kenji and I went to the All Star Fan Fest was in 2001 when the All Star Game was in Seattle at Safeco Field. That time I got to be in the picture.

Last Mariners Game at Yankee Stadium

We are still smiling in this picture because it wasn't quite the 8th inning when it was taken. Then the Mariners fell apart, of course. How dare they give us seven innings of hope, though. Would have been easier if they just blew the game right from the start like they did during the rest of this series. Bah.

The Rest of the Game

So I was trying to blog while at the game yesterday, but for some reason my cellphone service went kapooey and I was unable to upload anymore photos. Oh well, it's not so bad because now at least I can crop the photos, like this one of The Other Kenji. We were sitting in left-center field, in the first row, right above the Mariners' bull pen, were we got to watch Kenji Johjima warming up before the game.

You might have been able to see us on TV had anyone hit a home run our way. But since no one did, here we are as the pixelated specks we were, sitting just above the left edge of the Dodge sign. This is the bleachers section - the only section in the ballpark that's not quite protected by Safeco Field's retractable roof. Sometime during the fourth or fifth inning we got rained and hailed on!

Anyway this was the first time I've ever been to the opening day game of any sports team, at least that I can recall. It was fun to watch the opening ceremonies and see the players run down the red carpet from right field.

I started taking pictures of the players running out onto the field and then realized that I was never going to remember which player was which since they come out so teeny-tiny. So I made it a point to take Ichiro's photo last, that way I'd at least know which one he was. :)

After all the players were introduced, a giant US flag was brought out onto the field and the National Anthem performed by Seattle Opera tenor Marcus Shelton. And that's about the time I realized I wasn't able to send blog posts anymore so I stopped taking pictures.

Between the cold, the precipitation, the first inning home run by the Texas Rangers and the lack of scoring by the Mariners, it was shaping up to be a pretty crummy game. But then somewhere around the sixth inning things started to turn around. By the 7th, the Mariners had scored five runs and the sun even made an appearance. Then JJ Putz made an appearance in the bull pen below us and I took my phone out for one last picture. :)

The Roof Opens!

Mojo Risin'

Proof

View from where we sit...

...and this is the first time I've been here with the roof shut!

I like this stadium...

... They've got relish!

(Unlike Yankee Stadium...)

On Our Way to Opening Day!

Mariners win! (Finally...)

This picture was taken by Tiffknee and her phone. Kenji is saying "Woooo!" because Seattle won the first of three games against the Yankees today. It was also the first time they won after losing ten games in a row! Let's hope they can keep it up for the next two games, and more!

Heh, the silly sports reporter on Fox 5 just announced that Ichiro hit his 200th career hit today. Try again, lady. It was his 200th season hit. Ichiro holds the record for the most hits in one season, at 262. And we we were at that game when he set that record. :)

Holy Crap!

Today, well yesterday now, the highest scoring major league baseball since 1897 happened. The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles in a come-from-behind victory, with a final score of 30 - 3! My-oh-my!

A-Rod Hits 500th Home Run

And we saw it in person.Tiffany's co-worker had four Yankees tickets that her family was not going to use, so last night she offered them to Tiff. Turns out the game was of some historic significance and Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th career home run, and he is the youngest MLB ballplayer to do so.
There's A-Rod swinging the bat - but this was after his home run. As you can see, our seats were practically on the field. Kenji and I sat in the second row, and Tiff and her mom in the front row.

Us Guys

Here we are - Tiff's mom, Tiff, Kenji and me. :)

With a final score of 16 - 8, the game was rather long. And it was rather hot. So lots of people left early, including the folks sitting next to Tiff and her mom. That's how come we are all sitting in one row in this picture.

Kenji wants me to tell you all that that is a piece of pop corn in his mouth. He bought a big souveiner bucket of popcorn. The bucket has a Yankees logo on it. Kenji's going to use it as a waste basket.

Side Arm

This is Mike Meyers. He's not as funny as the other Mike Meyers. But he pitches with a funny side-arm delivery.






I forget who he was pitching to when I took this series of pictures. Whoever it was, apparently the guy hit the ball.

YMCA!

My other favorite part of the game is when the grounds crew comes out and dances to the YMCA while they are fixing up the infield.

Tastes Great! Less Filling!

Or in this case, the conflicting shouts went like this:

"YANKEES SU-UCK!" - "LET'S GO YANKEES!"

Yep, it's the third ballgame for us this month. And this time it was at Shea Stadium.

Our group of baseball game goers is growing. Last year it was just Kenji and me. Earlier this month, it was Tiff, Kenji and me. This time it was Dave, Tiff, me and Kenji. Who will join us next? I guess it will depend in part on how many tickets Kenji can get off of eBay at a time. :)

Shea Stadium is planted in the land of the World's Fair, otherwise known as Flushing Meadows Park. There are several funky looking structures around, like that big globe, the Unisphere, and that wavy looking building, the New York Hall of Science. There are also some rockets we found right next to our parking lot.

Anyway, the Yankees debuted a brand spanking new pitcher, 22-year old Tyler Clippard, and he turned out to be pretty good. He even hit a double - pretty good for a pitcher who hasn't swung a bat since high school.

I think my favorite part of the game though was the crowd. Just lots of heckling back and forth between Mets and Yankees fans. Quite entertaining.

Kenji says he wants to mow our lawn like Mets do theirs.

Mariners Lose :(

Yep so so we went to our second Mariners-Yankees game of the weekend. This one the Mariners did not fare as well as the game we went to on Friday night. But that made Tiffany happy, because she's a Yankees fan.

We arrived at the game a couple hours early, so we were there when the park opened, and were among the first in line to go visit Monument Park. Monument Park is behind left-center field, so after looking at all the plaques and stuff, we spent some time watching batting practice from the seats behind left field. While we were out there, I managed to get a picture of Ching Ming Wang. He nearly pitched a perfect game the night before, but lost it on a home run by Ben Broussard. Too bad we didn't bring our baseball gloves with us - we had some pretty good opportunities to catch balls during batting practice.

Here we are with our three hats...


I don't know why Tiffany looks so not happy in this picture. It was taken before the game, so maybe she thought the Yanks were in for another loss. ;)

Oh well, even though the Mariners didn't win, at least the game was entertaining. In the seventh inning there was almost a fight when Scott Proctor nailed Yunieski Betancourt with a pitch - both benches and bull pens came out on the field to play...

I was a little annoyed during the seventh inning stretch though. Tiffany and I were in the middle of singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game when Bob Sheppard interrupted the song so that Red Sox traitor Roger Clemens could make his announcement that he was going to be a Yankee again. Kenji missed the whole thing because he was in the bathroom.

My favorite part of the game, however, wasn't even part of the game. (That's almost a Yogi Berra kind of thing to say!) My favorite part was the celebration of Vera, before the game. Vera is a grandma who, just a few weeks ago, beat the snot out of a would-be robber of the store she was working in with a miniature Louisville Slugger from 1961. They brought Vera onto the field behind home plate and told her story to the cheering crowd. But the cutest was the look of utter surprise and delight on her face when Derek Jeeter came on to the field to present her with a full size Louisville Slugger.

Mariners Beat Yanks

Last night, Kenji, Tiffany and I went to Yankee Stadium to watch the Seattle Mariners beat the Yankees. At least that's what I told everyone who asked me what my plans were for this weekend. I kind of didn't really believe it though, since the Mariners have had such crappy seasons for the last four years or so. But at the same time, I also didn't totally disbelieve it because I know the Yankees are having a pretty crummy season this year. I think their big losing streak of the season is even longer than Seattle's.

That first inning lasted more than a half an hour. At that rate, we were on track for a four and a half hour game. Most of that half hour was spent by the Yankees scoring five runs and the Mariners none. Thus there was a lot of mumbling and grumbling from Kenji, and none of it nice. However, on the previous night in Boston, the Mariners started off with a five run lead - yet they still managed to lose the game. So we had that hope that perhaps the Mariners could do the opposite against the Yankees this time.

Half way through the 2rd inning, Tiffany and I went off in search of a bathroom and $8 ice cream in a hat. We found the bathroom, and it turns out the ice cream was only $5 because it was Carvel's soft serve and not Ben and Jerry's. When we got back to our seats it was the beginning of the third inning, and things were starting to look up for us - the Mariners scored a run. By the end of the third inning, the Mariners scored two more runs. Inning by inning, the Mariners runs went 0-1-2... so in the fourth Kenji said that they need to score 3 runs to keep the pattern going.

And they did! Could they keep the pattern up?

Sort of - here they are with 0-1-2-3-4, but that didn't last for long. Turns out the Yankee's relief pitcher was even crummier than the Mariner's relief pitcher. In the fifth inning, Colter Bean pitched more than 8 balls in a row and gave up several hits, which led to his being taken out of the game mid-batter. By the end of the fifth, the Mariner's piece of the scoreboard read 0-1-2-3-8 - a break in the pattern that Kenji and I didn't really mind.

By the last half of the ninth inning, the Mariners were still winning by four. However, I've learned time and time again that it's never too late for the team I'm rooting for to screw it up - after all, I did grow up in Red Sox country. And it really looked like that might be the case when after only an out, the Yankees brought in Jason Giambi and loaded the bases. But then Red Sox traitor Johnny Damon flied out, followed by a ground-out by Derek Jeeter, ending the game.

Now let's cross our fingers and hope they can pull it off again on Sunday!

Seattle Visit - A Vacation from My Vacation?

On Thursday I bid another fond farewell to Hawaii. But it wasn't so bad because I missed Kenji and was excited to see him in Seattle. Although I left Hawaii at around noon, I didn't arrive in Seattle till after 10pm. This leg of my trip I flew on Northwest Airlines, and unlike Continental, they make you pay extra for your food. I did buy a little bit of food, but that was not enough, and I wasn't about to shell out another $5 for a crummy box lunch. So it was really nice that Kenji and his folks took me to late supper at Red Robin after fetching me from the airport. :)

Kenji and I timed our vacation to coincide with his cousin's wedding, which was on September 9th. We both arrived in Seattle on the 7th, so that meant we had at least one day to kick around at our leisure. We did a little shopping, went to see Grandma, that sort of thing. In the evening, we had a date with Kenji's high school friend, Derick and his wife, Meredith and their new baby girl. Because they had the little one, we decided to go to Red Robin again, where it wouldn't matter as much if baby cried. But she didn't cry at all - not even when I held her. That's very unusual - babies always cry when I hold them. :P I offered baby to Kenji to hold, but he just got used to holding kitty cats - babies are a whole new ballgame for him. =)

Saturday morning we arranged to meet up with our friend Tanya for brunch. Tanya used to live in Hawaii. I first met her swing dancing, at an event I went to during my first visit to Hawaii in 1999 - I don't think she remembers me from that though. Anyway she was one of our bridesmaids in our wedding. About a year and a half or so ago, she moved from Hawaii to the mainland to take care of her ailing mother. Now she lives in Seattle. We had super awesome yummy breakfast at Macrina in Belltown. I highly recommend it. :)

While we were in town, after saying seeya to Tanya, Kenji and I visited Safeco Field to go pick up tickets for the Sunday game between the Mariners and the Texas Rangers. The last time we were in Seattle, longtime Mariners slugger, Edgar Martinez, retired from the game, and we got to see it. As part of his retirement, Seattle renamed one of the streets outside the ballpark to Edgar Martinez Drive. That was in 2004. They didn't have the sign up yet, so this time we had to make sure we got a picture of it.

The wedding was in downtown Seattle, in a club on the 17th floor of a building on 4th Street or something like that. Well I'm really not sure. Anyway, from the club there was a nice view of Qwest Stadium, where the Seahawks are kicking the butts of the New Jersey Giants as I type this. (Note I say New Jersey Giants, NOT New York. Their stadium is in New Jersey, so I don't know where they get off calling themselves New York.) We could also see a little bit into Safeco Field.

The wedding itself was pretty short and sweet. I enjoyed hearing how Kelly and Mark met, and the food was good. Here they are cutting their cake, which they didn't do a very good job of shoving into each other's faces like Kenji and I did. Kenji smashed it into my face so well that I had frosting hanging off my eyelash!!!

I couldn't get anyone to dance with me, except Kenji danced with me for the very last song. :) Oh and he also danced with me for the one where the emcee calls how how many years people have been married for, until he finds out which couple has been married the longest. Turns out the couple that won was all a sham. The REAL couple was Kenji's folks, but they conveniently skipped out on the dancing. :P

And see I learn new things about my new family all the time now. For example, who knew Grandma is a pyro? Her sparkler was the only one left sparkling after everyone participated in the sparkly send-off of the newly married couple. Who knew I could use three different forms of the word sparkle in the same sentence? Anyway, don't you think it looks like Grandma's trying to light the building on fire? ;)

Sunday was our last full day in Seattle. And full it was. We took Kenji's younger cousins to the game with us, and Tanya joined us as well. It was a beautiful sunny day, but alas the Mariners did not win. So now I am two and two for this year - I saw them win twice (in Baltimore and Bahstun), and lose twice (in New York and now Seattle). Kenji had the displeasure of seeing them lose twice in New York. :( But at least we got to take this cool picture of him at Safeco Field! Also, this was Tanya's first Major League Baseball game. :)

After the game, we all went back to Kenji's folks' house for a little get together with family and friends. The food, of course, was awesome. And it turned out that another friend of mine who lives in the area was able to come join us too. I call him Celery, but that's not his real name. He's one of my friends I met via a particular internet chat room we both used to go to several years ago, before I even moved to Hawaii. His online name is Celebok, and since that sort of looks like Celery, I decided to call him Celery instead. We had met in person three times prior to this time - the last time in December 2000. So after nearly six years, it was nice to see him again.

So back when we were planning this trip, it seemed to us that three or four days was plenty of time to do everything we wanted in Seattle. But time just went by too fast. Hopefully we'll get to make it out there again in the near future, maybe around the holidays, which I can actually do this year!