Monday, October 6, 2014

Game 27: September 28, 2014 Cardinals at Diamondbacks

I'm not sure why I chose to attend games on the last weekend of the regular season. I suppose I did it because two stadiums I needed to go had games and I could go to them affordably. While Paul Konerko night was great, my trip to Chase Field was awful. And it wasn't because Chase Field was awful, although I don't like domed stadiums. You don't feel like you're in a ballpark. It's like you're in a warehouse. But let's back up. My flight from Chicago to Phoenix was only a little late, which is better than other flights fared due to the Chicago airport fire. Getting to the stadium was easy. The walk was a little long to get to the Phoenix Light Rail station. That train took me from the airport to two blocks from Chase Field in only a few minutes. It was so so easy. The return was even easier, as the eastbound train stops across the street from the stadium.


I ended up getting the stadium early and it was empty.


I had Club Level seats. So I went upstairs to watch a little NFL football and eat some Mexican food with my traveling companion Paul Goldschmidt. The tacos were pretty good.




Here you can see that warehouse like feel that I also experienced at Minute Maid Park and Marlins Park. You can also see the game result that made my experience so bad.


Once the Reds beat the Cardinals the Cardinals clinched the division. So the Cardinals pulled six of their starters, including pitcher Adam Wainright, out of their starting lineup.


The resulting game, between the Cardinals' AAA roster and the truly awful Diamondbacks was boring. The players would swing at the first or second pitch, hitting weak ground balls. There was a total of five hits and the walks came about when Cardinal pitcher Kevin Siegrist came in and couldn't throw strikes. The game went quickly, but it felt torturously long to watch players who just wanted the season to be over.