When the chasing is over

I've been asked what I'll do after I hit the 30th stadium next month. Some people have suggested I go to football or soccer stadiums. Those suggesting that are missing the point of why I'm doing this. I'm not doing it to do something. I'm doing it because I love baseball and I love going to ballparks. I enjoy other sports but not with the passion I love baseball. Stadiums and arenas lack any uniqueness and aren't as fun as baseball parks. I have no interest in that.

So what's next? I'm going to go back to a few of my favorite stadiums. I'll go to Camden Yards on the trip I go to PNC Park next month. The last time I sat in the lower level on a cold rainy night. This time I'll sit in club seats. I'm going to AT&T Park in San Francisco in July. It was a great stadium but I got there in the first inning the last time and didn't really explore the stadium. I sat in the lower bowl, my favorite place to sit, but you can't see McCovey Cove from the lower level. I'm assuming I'll get a good view from the upper level.

There's a website called Ballparkchasers.com where people who want to go to all the stadiums share their trips. They're having a meet-up in Seattle in August. Safeco was nice but the chance of meeting other chasers sounds like fun. There are some other stadiums I'd like to go back to and I'll probably plan a few more trips.

Game 29: April 24, 2015, Braves at Phillies

I admit that because the Phillies are my team and Philadelphia is my hometown I might not be entirely objective here. You’ll have to judge that.

Citizens Bank Park isn’t downtown the way some other stadiums are but it is easily accessible by subway. Frankly, I’m not sure why being downtown is an advantage unless you insist on never taking a car of mass transit at all. It’s not like Citi Field, Fenway Park, or Wrigley Field are downtown. So you take a subway if you want to go to Center City Philadelphia.

Wrigley and Fenway are known for their neighborhood nightlife. The problem is that those bars are always packed. You can’t move! To compensate for lack of a neighborhood, they’ve built Xfinity Live! It has a half dozen food and drink options. This one is the Spectrum Grill and it’s got an awesome big screen.

I was hankering for nachos and got that along with a Victory Storm King at the Victory Bar. Both were excellent. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a beer as good as Storm King inside.

The obligatory selfie in front of the stadium.

When I was in Toronto I couldn't find a doll of their mascot. That wasn't an issue in Philly, where the Phanatic is an institution. He's still the best mascot. His presence definitely up Citizen's Bank Park a bit.

They had wide concourses and a lot of food choices, although the beer selection was wanting. I eventually found a decent beer but it wasn't as good as the Storm King Stout.

There was one place I wanted to go for food, Tony Luke's. They're famous for their cheesesteaks. I tried to often sample cuisine from the area (e.g. Cuban food in Miami, pizza in Chicago), so going to Tony Luke's would be a natural even if I didn't love a steak sandwich.

Of course I do, and this one was great!

Most stadiums have generic soft serve ice cream. I was pleasantly surprised when I found Citizen's Bank Park had not only that but eight Turkey Hill flavors along with eight different toppings. I didn't have any ice cream, but this is how you do it.

Citizen's Bank Park had a Phillies Wall of Fame, including the history of the Philadelphia A's. It's better than Cleveland's, equal to the Mets, and a step below the Royals.

There's no plaque for beloved hero Pete Rose, for obvious reasons. Jim Bunning wore 14 before Rose and the Phillies retired his number when he was elected to the Hall of Fame. Phillies fans secretly know that a part of that retirement ceremony was retiring Rose's number.

They have Bull's Barbecue, a copy of Boog's at Camden Yards. The kids play area is smaller than Kauffman or Citi, but they still have something. Most stadiums don't.

And look they even have cup holders. Are you reading this Rogers Centre?

In the corridor they have big plaques for memorable moments. This is a fun nod to the fans.

A decent sized scoreboard.

If you remember I went to AT&T and sat so low that I couldn't see into McCovey Cove. Well, Citizen's Bank Park has one of the best views in baseball too. They positioned home plate to give fans a skyline of the city. Unfortunately, I sat too low for that.

The game was a gem. Both pitchers pitched extremely well. Neither team scored until he bottom of the ninth when the Phillies won with a walk off... Error. Yes, really.

This guy made a few appearances and he's always fun.

Game 28: April 23, 2015, Orioles at Blue Jays

Do you remember what I was doing last year during this week? I was going to five games in four days, all of which were cold. When you live in LA you forget how cold it is in the rest of the country. Well, I certainly wasn't caught without warm clothes this time. I made my one and only trip to Canada in 1979, when I was a teenager. So obviously my experience was limited. First thing you notice is that Canada is actually a different country! They make you go through customs and stuff.

And it wasn't one of the easier cities to navigate. They're working on a train from the airport to downtown but it's not done yet. So the choices were to cab it or take a bus to a subway to another subway to walk. I did that, but it was a chore especially because I was hauling a suitcase. I did do the obligatory stadium selfie.

I checked into the Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel, which is actually part of the stadium. It was a little more expensive, but I decided I wanted the experience. While the hotel was certainly convenient after the game, you wouldn't know you were part of the stadium. I recommend staying a few blocks away at an equally nice hotel. The hotel does have a bar where you get a view of the game, however.

While I'd read the beer selection wasn't very good it was surprisingly better than I'd been led to believe. I enjoyed the beer I got and the jerk chicken sandwich was also very good.

Unfortunately, there were no cup holders for me to put my beer in. Pretty much every stadium has them now.

Some people suggested that I get a hotel room facing the field and watch from there. Those rooms were about $200-$250 more than your standard room and they give you the worst view in the park. I wouldn't want to sit out there at all, let alone pay an extra $200 to do it. My seat cost $37. I suppose if you had 8 friends to invite up to your room, it might make sense. Look at this view.

Of course, Josh Donaldson nearly hit one up there.

And the Blue Jays were scoring a lot.

And Ace the mascot dropped by.

The Orioles scored four runs in the ninth, but the Blue Jays held on.

The roof was closed and that's understandable. It was about 8 degrees Celsius and that's apparently also cold in Fahrenheit. I still hate baseball indoors. The atmosphere stinks. The stadium wasn't really a lot of fun.

The Souvenirs

Games 28 and 29: April 23-26 Toronto and Philadelphia

I saved the final three stadiums for this season, pretty much because I didn't want to end this chase. Toronto and Pittsburgh aren't too convenient when coming from L.A. They're expensive to fly to and you can't fly non-stop to or from Pittsburgh to many places. As you know, my trips usually hit three cities in a weekend. That just doesn't work here. So I'm going to Toronto and Philadelphia and saving Pittsburgh for later. There was a recent fare sale and I was able to get an Air Canada flight from LAX to Toronto for $224. That's a lot for a one way flight but $100 less than it usually is. The flight is actually $207, but Air Canada charges you $17 for an aisle seat. I broke my leg a few years ago and I need to stretch it out periodically. That makes an aisle seat mandatory.

I decided that if I was going to make one trip to Rogers Centre I'd stay at the Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel. That's part of the stadium. It's more expensive than what I usually choose but it's one of a kind. Some people have said that I should get a room facing the field and watch it from there. That's at least $150 more expensive than a regular room and I don't think it's worth it. The novelty of watching the game in a hotel room would wear off quickly and then I'd be watching the game from the outfield. Who wants to watch a game out there? It'd make sense if I was going with a group but I'd be watching by myself. So not only would I be watching from a less choice seat but I wouldn't have the pleasure of watching with other fans. Chatting with fans is part of the experience.

The flights from Toronto to Philadelphia were also very expensive, but I found a flight on United that I could get for 12,500 miles. There are $53 in Canadian and American security fees. Yow! International travel. Philly is easy for me, however. I have family there and always will have a place to stay and plenty of people to catch a game with. I haven't decided which game that weekend I'll go to yet. If any of my Philadelphia peeps want to go, let me know.

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.

Game 26: September 27, 2014 Royals at White Sox

I was on the 9:10 Southwest flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. It should've given me plenty of time to spare, except for two things. First, there was a fire at the Chicago air traffic control center. Fortunately, my flight wasn't cancelled. It was only 45 minutes late arriving. That still got me in more than three hours before the game. At least I thought it was three hours before the game. I didn't get to the hotel until 4:30, still with plenty of time to make the game. Then I opened up my MLB At Bat app and found out the game was scheduled for 6:05, not 7:05. What? Did they change it? Did I misread it? I caught the shuttle back to Midway airport a half hour later and was on the CTA L by 5:15. The train came quickly and I was at U.S. Cellular Field by 5:45.

That's when I found out the game didn't start at 6:05. That was the start time for the Paul Konerko tribute. This'd be Konerko's second to last game, since he's retiring from baseball. Konerko had been with the White Sox for 16 years.

The tribute was touching and fun, although I certainly didn't appreciate it the way White Sox fans did. So I picked up Chicago pizza and Chicago beer. Both were pretty good, although the pizza wasn't the deep dish I had last time I was in town.

I got what I thought was a good seat at a good price. And it was considering that it looked like almost every seat was occupied. Despite the White Sox being eliminated from the playoff race weeks earlier, the fans were there for Konerko. Unfortunately, my seat obstructed the batter.

Then Jose Abreu homered, which is why you go to see the White Sox.

US Cellular isn't as bad as I remember it. I've heard that the White Sox did a big renovation about a dozen years ago. There were too many billboards in the outfield and there was nothing charming or appealing. I'll leave you with a photo of one last Konerko at bat.