Oakland Athletics May 26, 2014 Hall of Fame mascots

The Brewers have their weiners. The Nationals have their Presidents. The Athletics have their Hall of Famers?

Game 15: May 26, 2014 Tigers at Athletics

The last stop on my weekend excursion was O.co Coliseum. It's the old monstrosity with a new name. I was there about ten years ago and it's as bad as it was then. The good news is that a simple BART trip took me to the front door.

They have a long bridge to get people from BART to the stadium. There were a lot of people in a small space. It didn't seem to be fire safe. At the other side of the bridge I was reminded why this is the only dual purpose stadium in baseball and how the Raiders, a team that hasn't had a winning record since 2002, believes their own hyperbole. "Commitment to Excellence?" Really?

As if to emphasize their greatness, they also told me that the stadium was the home of champions. The last time either team won a championship was 1989. Do we define champions differently?

When I got over the bridge, I was instructed to go down a ramp and enter through a different gate. When I did, I joined a sea of people who were walking in. Little did I know there was a line that I was walking into the middle of. One large tattooed man threatened me if I dared to get in front of him. Welcome to Oakland! Then I went through security. Because I was catching a flight after the game, I had my bags with me. The guard gave them a cursory look. I could've had weapons in there and he wouldn't have known. Oh, Oakland, I love you. They did give me this spiffy hat.

And they did have beers from Northern California breweries.

And they even had an Irish Pub inside the stadium.

Then it was off to my seat. It was hot and the lower level seat that I prize in most stadiums got a lot of sun. It may have been better to be in a cooler seat for a day game. Then I saw Mt. Davis. What's Mt. Davis? It's the seats built in the outfield back in the 90's to entice Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders to move back to Oakland. It made the view awful and added a lot of seats the A'S don't need.

They did have a big crowd, not as big as the Giants, but this is no Indians crowd.

Because the A's want to move, no is upgrading the stadium. The scoreboard and video screen were small and far away. It's the worst video screen in the league. The Cubs don't have a video screen. This was only slightly better.

The Athletics started scoring runs.

The A's have a cute mascot. He's no Phillie Phanatic, but still...

The A's scored again and again and beat the Tigers 10-0.

Game 14: May 25, 2014 Twins at Giants

My United flight from Seattle didn't get to San Francisco until almost noon. I knew this was going to be tight. For some reason I thought this was the only morning non-stop, but when I got to the airport I found out Alaska has an earlier non-stop. I don't usually fly Alaska, but I still shouldn't have missed that flight existing. So I rushed from the airport out to the BART station, only to find out that BART comes every 20 minutes and the train was 14 minutes out. So I waited and waited and waited. And knew I'd be late. It's not that BART isn't great. It is. It's comparably inexpensive and it doesn't run into a ton of traffic problems that San Francisco can be known for. I got to the Powell Street station, dropped off my bags at the Mosser, and walked to the game.

I arrived 20 minutes late and missed the first inning. All in all, that's not horrible. I ended up watching eight innings of the game. I've watched less due to it being too cold in Boston or wanting to get on the road early enough on the drive from Cleveland to Cincinnati. I did miss getting the Giants barbecue apron that's now selling on ebay for nearly what I paid for the ticket. I wouldn't sell the apron. On the contrary. I want a souvenir from every game I go to. I had to settle for the souvenir schedule cup, which I've actually done at several other stadiums.

I did get there in time to see a quality beer selection and get a delicious carved turkey sandwich.

I then enjoyed a Hunter Pence home run. My puppy isn't named after him. Pure coincidence. Wouldn't I name him Schmidt or Utley if I was going to choose a ballplayer?

AT&T did have narrow corridors and I was jostling with people just to get to the bathroom. They did do it right with the field, however. Most of the seats are in the infield bowl and there's a great view of the Bay beyond the outfield. It amazes me how few teams did this with their outfield. At Citizens Bank Park they even put home plate in the southeast corner to get the view.

The Giants have some great fans. I talked to a bunch of people and they were knowledgable and they really get loud when the Giants score. That was a lot for this game. And there were a lot of them. It was something like the 62,000th consecutive sell out. (Note: double check this before posting)

And the Giants put on a good show, celebrating an 8-1 win.

I originally was going to stay at the Union Square Hilton, but changed to the Mosser. The Mosser had a couple of pluses. It was less expensive and it was between the BART station and the stadium. That was convenient to drop off my bags and not lose any more time. On the other hand, the Mosser's room was tiny and the bathroom was down the hall. In all fairness, I'm guessing for a bit more money I could've gotten a bigger room with a private bathroom. I did spend a little more time in the hotel than I did in Seattle, since it was a day game and I'm headed over to Oakland today. So it was a little cramped. On the other hand, I'm writing this using their free Wifi. Hilton only gives that to the gold members.

Game 13: May 24, 2014 Astros at Mariners

I plan the trips on weekends so that I, and anyone joining me, won't have to choose between skipping work and going on the trip. Well, in an irony I was offered work this weekend and skipped it to go on my trip. [sigh] I took a Saturday morning United flight up to Seattle and checked in at the Doubletree. Choosing a hotel is a tough proposition for a chaser. I checked in, put my stuff down, and then left until 11 PM. I came back, spent a few minutes on the computer, went to sleep, woke up, showered, and was gone. The Doubletree is a great hotel, but what did I really get for my money that I couldn't get anywhere else.

I definitely think the location was the right call. I got there quickly because it was by the airport. Getting back at night was a little bit of a chore. But when you have an early morning flight, being close was nice. There's one drawback to an airport hotel. I'll get to that in a minute. So keep reading.

A great thing about the location was that it was right by light rail. So it was a piece of cake for me to get into Seattle.

A Seattle friend, who unfortunately wasn't around, recommended Pine Box. The atmosphere wasn't much, but the beer was very good. It was a schlep from the light rail station and afterward I wanted to go back to the hotel and lie down. That wasn't possible, since it'd be a long trip back to the hotel.

It wasn't nearly as long a trip to Pike Place Market. Yes, they throw the fish. It was actually kind of fun. Then I walked to the game. Along the way I saw a couple of Astros fans.

Whenever I see opposing fans I always wonder if they are Texans who lives in Seattle or if they travelled here for the game. If it's the latter, do they follow the team or do they decide that since they want to go to Seattle they might as well go while the Astros are in town. Obviously I'm from out of town and this'd be perfect if my beloved Phillies were always the road team. Thus far, they've been the road team only once, at Wrigley Field. They will be again in St. Louis.

If you walk to the game from the north, you pass Century Link Field and all of these street vendors. I wonder if the teams authorize this.

I got to Safeco early and really enjoyed the wide concourse, good beer selection, and watched batting practice. I like wide concourses because when you go to the game you don't want to be jostling with every other fan while you're walking to the concession stand.

Safeco has a roof. I suppose that's great when it rains, but it means the stadium has little space open to the outside air. They go all the way up three levels in right. Who wants to sit up there?

The Mariners had a lot of fun with Throwback night. They added mustaches and a lot of hair to players' pictures on the scoreboard, played 70's tunes, and even played like the '79 Mariners. Shouldn't you throw back to when you were good? I did like the Mariners' Moose in his leisure suit, even if I didn't get a good picture of it.

The Astros' prized rookie George Springer did enjoy the night too, hitting two home runs as the Astros romped 9-4.

United Change My Flight

Instead of getting into San Francisco at 11:41, my Sunday morning flight now arrives at 12:06, 59 minutes before game time. Why couldn't they move that flight backward instead of forward? Oh, well, it wouldn't be worth doing if it was easy.

Next Stops Seattle, San Francisco, and Oakland

Right now I'm about 10 days away from games 13-15 in my quest. It'll start in Seattle on May 24. I'm a bit disappointed that I'll be taking the trip entirely on my own, but that won't take away from my enjoyment. I plan these trips on weekends so that they won't interfere with possible work. Strangely, I'm turning way work on Memorial Day weekend in order to take this trip. I'm going to get into Seattle early Saturday, probably before my room will be ready. I suppose this isn't unusual, but it means that I'll likely leave my bags behind while I check out the city and not actually enter my room until close to midnight. I'm kind of wishing I chose some place close to the ballpark, but I am taking a morning flight Saturday, so I'll appreciate being close to the airport then. I've been given the advice to go to Pike Place Market and recommended several places for good beer. I love good beer and Seattle is known for having it.

I did change my hotel for San Francisco, however. My flight gets into SFO at 11:41 AM, only 1 hour 24 minutes before the game is supposed to start. While renting a car might get me to the ballpark faster, you really don't want a car in San Francisco. So I'll take the BART. I was originally booked at the Hilton Union Square. That was a fine choice and I'd get Honors Points. The problem was that after getting off BART at Powell Street, it was the opposite direction from AT&T Park. Sure, it was only a blocks in the wrong direction, but I'm going to be so tight on time that I don't want to waste any of it. I could just go right to the stadium, but I want the option of dropping my stuff off at the hotel.

I found a hotel that is on the way to AT&T, the Mosser. It got good reviews and is less expensive. I'll have to share a bathroom with two other rooms, but I don't see that as a drawback. Will there really be a conflict? They do have complimentary Wi-Fi, something Hilton doesn't offer to us Blue members. Like Seattle, San Francisco is known for good beer. The Mosser is less than a half mile from ThirstyBear Brewing Company. 21st Amendment Brewery is also nearby but it's usually packed after Giant games.

Memorial Day brings me to the tricky chaser question of "what do you do about your bags on your last day?" Like many chasers, I'll check out of my hotel in the morning, go to the ballpark in the afternoon, and then fly home in the evening. Answer #1: Leave the bags in the car. Great in some cases, but I'm not renting a car. Answer #2: Leave the bags at the hotel. That doesn't work here because my hotel is in San Francisco and the airport is in Oakland, a short shuttle away from the ballpark. Answer #3: Drop them at the airport. I considered this, but I don't want to check my bags. Do they still have airport lockers to put stuff. Answer #4: Bring it to the game. No one wants bulky bags at the game and most teams won't allow you to have them either. But what will they allow you to have?

The bags must be 16" x 16" x 8" or smaller. That's actually fine by me. I'm only gone for two days, so I can easily fit everything in a computer bag and a small duffel. I have one that's smaller than 16" x 16" x 8" that'll fit some socks, underwear, and toiletries. I'm golden.

Shopping for Game Tickets, Hotels, and Flights

This quest is about going to every stadium and seeing each games in each city. In order to do that I need to plan how to accomplish it. For me, the planning of the trip is almost as much fun as the trip itself. The first thing I had to do was find three (or more) teams playing home games near each other the same weekend. By doing the trips with at least three cities, I can do the quest at a reasonable pace and save money by minimizing flights and hotel nights. By grouping cities together (e.g. Washington and Baltimore or San Francisco and Oakland), I was limiting the weekends I could do the trips. So the first fun thing to do was to figure out where to go and when.

If only it were that easy. Some cities have reasonably priced flights, while others don't. That's why I still haven't figured out how to go to Toronto and Pittsburgh. Well, I could've grouped them with Detroit and Cleveland, but I ended up going to those cities along with Chicago, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati around Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, you can't always find home games for all the teams near each other. So I only got those five. I was able to find reasonably priced flights to everywhere else and/or use miles for the trips. The 50,000 Delta miles American Express gave me when I got the card last year have given me $500 off flights.

Shopping for flights wasn't as simple as just buying them. I waited until there were fare sales before buying the flights. So there was strategy and that's a blast. Next came hotels. It wasn't as simple as choosing any hotel in a city I was going to. Where did I want to be? Near the airport? Stadium? A subway line? How would I get to the hotel from the airport? Could I book at a Hilton hotel and earn points? I did find out that if you booked your Hilton stay on Orbitz, you don't earn points. I wasn't as concerned about hotel amenities, although an airport shuttle might save me $40 getting to and from the airport. I never went to Priceline or any site where I was choosing a hotel blind. Getting the right hotel in the right location was more important than saving $20 on the price. Hotel room prices aren't as fluid as airfares, but they sometimes do change.

Game tickets were perhaps the most strategic and thus the most fun. First, I had to figure out where I wanted to sit. Like hotels, this wasn't simply "what's the least expensive?" No, my first question was what's acceptable and what's not? Or is that two questions? Last season I settled for tickets where I didn't want to sit because the tickets I wanted were too expensive. That was a mistake. Why go if I wasn't going to really enjoy myself? After that I was determined to sit on the lower level between the bases. Once I determined where I'd sit, I needed to look on Stubhub.com to see what the prices of the tickets were. Were there good deals to be had? What was a good deal anyway? Well, if you watch Stubhub for a week or two, you can see what a good deal is. Sometimes people will put up tickets inexpensively either because they don't check out other prices or maybe they really want to sell them fast.

One thing I learned this season was that if tickets are priced too good to be true, jump on the deal immediately. Other people are watching Stubhub too and the tickets won't last long. There was a day two weeks ago where three pairs of lower level tickets to a Red Sox at Astros priced between $65 and $70. I was waiting to hear back from a potential traveling companion and didn't jump on them. I thought I'd have some time. About 12 hours after I first saw them, those tickets were all gone. The prices were at least $120. Lesson learned. So when a Club seat ticket for the game was posted at $95.50, I bought it. There is currently only one Club seat listing for under $150 on the website now and those tickets are $123 per ticket. And that's for two seats. If I only want one, the cost is $167. So I check back to the website a few times a day. Sure, that's a little obsessive, but I think it's fun.

I'd always assumed that the prices on Stubhub were lower than what the teams were selling them for, but that isn't always the case. Fortunately, Stubhub has a button where you can compare the prices. I found two games where the teams were selling the tickets for less. Go figure.

I'm sure you can have someone else buy all this for you or you can just choose something and be done with it. For me though, the planning has been a blast.

Avoid the Red Sox and Yankees

I plan my trips based on a weekend where I can see three games in reasonable proximity to each other. This limits my options. There are only so many weekends the Astros and Rangers are both home. So I don't choose the teams. If you can, you should. I checked out Stubhub.com tickets in the Terrace Infield Box for the Orioles. Tickets for a game with the White Sox showed a bunch of tickets available for between $18 and $22. For the Red Sox there was nothing less than $66. For the Yankees all the tickets were at least $90. I looked at the Seattle Mariners Lower Level Infield. The lowest Yankees price was $97. The Red Sox were at least $98. For the Rangers the price was $57. For the Padres the price was $45.

I go to watch a game in the ballpark. I'm not following any particular team. I saw three straight shutouts last week with pitchers who were largely unknown. So if you're like me and don't care about the opponent, it just makes sense to avoid the Red Sox and Yankees.

One other thing to watch is the giveaway games. The Phillies were in Los Angeles for four games. I was looking at Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I saw that tickets in Reserve MVP Value were as low as $8 apiece on Stubhub. Tuesday was a giveaway game and the tickets weren't lower than $21. I do like getting a giveaway as my souvenir of the game, but is it worth paying $15 more for a $5 giveaway?