On vacation for the week I drove from Rhode Island to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on July 7th. The Birds had the bases loaded, no out bottom of the 11th. The Yankees’ Lindy McDaniel couldn’t control his forkball. The count on Brooks Robinson went to 3 and 1. Everyone in the stands knew McDaniel would throw his non-existent fastball, and Robinson would hit a grand slam to left. He did and he did.

I jumped in the car next morning and headed to the next closest stadium, Riverfront in Cincinnati. I got there in the late afternoon, rented a room for $9 (it was a different world), and went to the Padres-Reds game. Riverfont was not quite finished: the water fountains were not ready yet. The Padres won 2 to 1 in a remarkably tame game, except for the rain delay.

I started back to Baltimore for the Thursday game, but it was rained out, so I went home to the beach. Oh, to be young again.

A few things on earlier posts – Jarry Park, even though I didn’t get there, was exactly the kind of park that the Expos needed. it was small and “intimate” like County Stadium in Milwaukee, and, say Memorial in Baltimore. An arbitrary decision by MLB required Montreal to have a domed/covered stadium, and so the Expos had to move to the Big O(we) – as if the weather in Montreal was so much worse than Minny, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc. all at pretty much the same latitude. If it could ever have been arranged, paid for privately (likely), a more downtown, small, uncovered stadium in Montreal could have saved Montreal baseball. As another poster said, there were a lot of hard core baseball fans, and there’s a good history of baseball there. It was the Expos who didn’t deserve Olympic Stadium.

I have been to the nearly dead Shea – I was meeting my brother for whom it was easier to get to when work brought us to the general area – and it actually was a pretty good night. We had seats just about where the ball “gets through Buckner’s legs” about five rows up, and watched the Mets-Jays, and it was just good to be at the ball park with my brother.

The live ones include Safeco, Camden, Skydome and Oakland. Love the first two, not so much the other abominations.

And to the poster who said he regrets not getting to Chicago Stadium (and Maple Leaf Gardens) for hockey, I’m with you on Chicago. I saw games in every one of the Original 6 rinks, though I wonder if you can count the refurbished Forum, and the constantly rebuilt Madison Square. My brothers and friends did tours as they closed Chicago and then Boston Gardens, and I couldn’t make the Chicago trip. A crying shame.

Anyhow, enough. I do love this blog. Thanks all.

Dead parks: Arlington, Baltimore Memorial, Fulton County, old Busch, Astrodome, Riverfront

Live parks: Turner Field

It’s all baseball and it’s all wonderful

Favorite dead park: Tiger Stadium, Detroit. Left field bleachers. I think it was Lance Parrish who put a ball in the seats so fast I hardly had time to move for it, and I was thinking, “That doesn’t even reach the warning track in Dodger Stadium.” That was when I first decided that yeah, there is such a thing as ball park effects, before I ever read Bill James.

Favorite Stadium: Dodger Stadium. If you are ever there, near sunset, and have the time to waste (either climbing a WHOLE lot of stairs or waiting endlessly for the elevators that never come since McCourt took over) go to the very top deck behind home plate and look AWAY from the field. You get a stunning view of L.A. downtown, and if you’re really really lucky and it’s a clear day (not many of those) then you can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Just heart warming. The San Gabriels turning red in the setting sun are nice enough, but this view is the hidden secret of Dodger Stadium. Only the top level and its parking lot can see that way.

Unlike so many stadiums, Dodger Stadium doesn’t smell dirty. All view lines are clean. And the sound of Vin Scully echoing from thousands of transistor radios – ah, those days are gone in the era of ipods and earbuds.

i saw hundreds of games at milwaukee county stadium. singing roll out the barrel along with theresa brewer in the seventh inning stretch followed by god bless america. brats with secret stadium sauce. the day thousands of seagulls swarmed the stadium looking for food. the brewers sent a hunting dog on to the field between innings to chase them away, but all he did was sniff around the warning track in left center and relieve himself. and the day a skunk wandered out of the brewers bullpen (talk about symbolism) and held up the game for fifteen minutes because nobody wanted to get near him.

I went to an Expos game at Olympic in ‘96, I think. Scoreless, top of the third, maybe two outs and none on, and all of a sudden the crowd (such as it was) went absolutely bonkers cheering and screaming. I still don’t know what that was about. I also remember fans throwing tamales into the outfield when Henry Gonzalez hit a home run.

I’ll start.

Dead Fenway Park Music: John Kiley at the organ, a stirring and singable national anthem in about 17½ seconds, and NO artificial crowd-pumping BOMP bomp bomp bomp, BOMP bomp bomp …

Dead Fenway PA: The immortal Sherm Feller.

“Ladies and gentlemen.

Boys and girls.

The Red Sox remind you of the following American League rules …”

“Now batting.

Number 8.

Carl Yastrzemski.

Left field.

Yastrzemski.”

They use his picture to illustrate the word “laconic” in the dictionaries.

AND he wrote the sort-of-catchy song “Summertime,” recorded by the Jamies.

No, it was made for five year olds. However, it also annoys the crap out of everyone over the age of ten. And I’m not sure that the benefit of getting a five year old to watch your game as a tradeoff for pissing off everyone over the age of ten is worth it.

Especially since your advertisers aren’t targeting the five year old demographic.

I haven’t stopped watching FOX’s baseball games solely because of Scooter, but it was definitely a part of it. Joe Buck’s sneering remark of “For all of you who complained about scooter, here’s scooter!” was the final drop. Yeah, if enough people complain about it that you have to mention it on TV, it makes perfect sense to just rub it in their faces, right?

Remember those people you pissed off when you whine about your ratings falling, Buck.