Come on Ichiro

On Saturday afternoon I received a call from Larry Tipton reminding me that Ichiro had 2998 hits and depending on how he did that nite, may be going for 3000 while I was at the Miami game.  The Marlins were facing the Cardinals.  I was now worried about getting a ticket at a reasonable cost.  I immediately went on line to buy a ticket and my first choice was sold while my order was processing.  I ended up getting a nice ticket in the Lexus Level.  I did have row 1, seat 1, but ended up moving over to a mainly empty section next door and found Lenny who was sitting by himself.  Lenny is also doing a baseball stadium tour, although mainly minor league parks.  he is a BIG Cardinals fan and had been there the previous 2 nites as well.  Unfortunately for both of us, the Marlins whipped the Cardinals 11-0, and Ichiro did not start the game.  He did get into the game and went 0 for 2. 

  Every time the Marlins hit a home run, this lit up and the marlin flew.

  They had a great bobble head display at the park.  Notice the Tigers Paws 2nd row from the bottom.

  It was "Zombie" nite at the ball park.  Here they are dancing to the Michael Jackson Thriller.

  Ichiro at the plate.  An 11-0 game and virtually the entire crowd was on its feet.

  The post-game parade with big heads of Marlins.

While the game was a blow out, and I was by myself and Ichiro did not get a hit, I still had a good time.  The Marlins did not do a good job in customer service though.  Guest services was out of First Game Buttons, and also out of schedules.  I signed up for designated driver but they ran out of coupons so I did not get my free drink.  Considering they should have known they would have a larger crowd, they should have been better prepared.

Decision to make

As I left Tallahassee to head to Tampa, I had to take I-10 east some more (I believe I may have driven about 1000 miles or more on I-10 heading East from Phoenix, even with the detours to Carlsbad Caverns, the Alamo, Houston, Arlington and Baton Rouge) to I-75.  If I turned right, heading south, I go to Tampa, or I could turn left, heading north, and be home to Oak Park in 1010 miles.  I briefly debated heading north, as the trip has been looonnnggg.  The waffling probably had something to do with the extra driving the day before.  The motel waffles in Tallahassee gave me renewed energy to head south to Tampa. 

  I stopped at Fort Dade Park.  This was extremely well done in showing the bravery of the military and yet paid homage to how the Indians were disrespected and forced to fight for themselves.  This park is the sight of a battle where the Americans were completely wiped out (3 wounded men survived to tell the story) by the Seminoles, who just wanted peace and not be forced to relocate from Florida to Oklahoma.  Who wouldn't fight to avoid OK???

  I could not spend as much time there as I wanted as I had to get to Tampa for the game.

  The marker for Major Dade.

  I met up with Bob D'Angelo at the Tampa game.  Here we are with the famous Casey at the Bat a the Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame they have at the Stadium.  Some very strange choices for the inductees.  Guys such as Alan Trammell and Cecil Fielder are in.  Seem like there should be more candidates than them. 

  Ty Cobb and I.

  Dwight Gooden was selling autographs at the game.

  Go fish!

  Smile!  You may be on deck.  Actually this is a couple of batting weights and a bat that just happen to make it look like a smiley face.  I thought this was a great photo.

  A view of Tropicana Field after the game. 

It was great to meet Bob D'Angelo in person.  We have communicated with each other for about 15 years and had never met before.  The visit was way to short, as we met at the ballpark and went our separate ways afterwards.

I then drove south to Sarasota, arriving at Rob Richardson and Kim's condo around 11:30 at nite.  Of course we stayed up chatting until we were all ready to fall asleep in mid-sentence.   In the morning Rob made us a HUGE breakfast that even I could not finish it all.  meanwhile Kim helped me fix a bug with uploading the pictures from my phone.  I spent Saturday morning with Rob and Kim before heading to the Miami Marlins game.

Through the deep south

Leaving Slidell, LA on Thursday morning and my next ball park in Tampa, FL, I had to travel the rest of the way through LA, then MS (my last crossing of the MS for this trip I hope), AL and into FL!  Lots of driving from this point on in the trip.

  I stopped in Mobile, AL and did a quick look at Ford Conde'.

  Who says I have no heart???  The Science Center in Mobile was both an eye opener and depressing.  While aimed at kids (we all know I am between 8 - 12 years old, especially when playing with baseball cards or at a science center, of not ALL the time), it had places to check certain body measurements, pulse, blood pressure, strength, etc.  At the end you could get a score.  Not good when the read out says, "How are you still alive when you are this out of shape???"

I then headed to FL. 

  A Blue Angels jet.

My GPS got me lost on the way to the Air Station in Pensacola.  It put me at the wrong gate.  I had to drive another 1/2 hour to get to the correct gate.  It then wanted me to make some turns on the base that would have got me shot as a terrorist invader.  They need better signage to show you where to go instead of just where you cannot go.

  Tallest lighthouse in Florida.  Take that big ball of string!

  Finally got to the Fort I was trying to see on the station.  It was surrounded by a moat and only accessible via drawbridge.  While that was kind of neat, the rest of the fort was kind of boring and a let down.  It may have had something to do with all the driving I had done and getting lost.

After leaving Pensacola I continued on I-10 again to Tallahassee where I spent the nite.  The significance of this is that it was the first time I was back in the eastern time zone since June 7, the day I left Detroit for Chicago.  This signifies the trip is on the back side.

New Orleans

When I arrived Tuesday nite, Father Pat Wattigny and I stayed up talking for a couple hours.  He was kind enough to arrange for me to stay at the Rectory for a couple of nites.  It sounded like the start of a joke, "3 Priests and a Jew...".  They have recently remodeled and put an addition on as they are expecting a visit from the archbishop soon.  I got to stay in the room set up for him. 
Pat after some morning meetings was able to then give me a tour of New Orleans. 

  Bourbon Street.  You have not lived until you have seen bourbon Street with a Priest.

  Pat explained they have to put the caskets above ground due to the water table causing caskets to not stay buried. 

  Pat and I spent most of the afternoon at the WWII Museum.  Very moving and we probably could have spent a few more hours there, had they not kicked us out at closing time.  A flag flown during WWII.

  A WWII jeep.

  Statue of Robert E. Lee that can be seen from the WWII Museum.  Pat was telling me there is a proposal to remove all the statues dedicated to the Confederacy.  I am not sure how I feel about that.  The irony about this particular statue is it was specifically faced north to show the unity with the victorious north. 

Pat and I then made our way to the New Orleans Zephyrs minor league game.

  Likely the smallest crowd for a professional game I have ever attended.  Likely no more than 350 people.

  The Zephyr mascot.

  Father Pat back ready for work.

Tremendous thanks to Pat for showing me such a great time in NO, and the hospitality.  I may just need to come back again.

On to Louisiana

I spent most of Tuesday driving from Texas to Louisiana.  It finally rained some while I was driving.  I had the wipers on for about 20 minutes, bringing the total to almost 30 minutes for the whole trip.  Another interesting note of this leg of the trip is that I ran into the worst traffic I have experienced so far.  Worse than Chicago and LA, this was trying to get through Baton Rouge to Denham Springs to meet up with Brandon Wax.  Brandon had me meet him for dinner at Walk-Ons.  Voted best sports bar by ESPN, and there are multiple locations, as they also have 1 in New Orleans.

  The stop on the way to Denham Springs was the Science Center in Shreveport.  A paddle boat exhibit in the museum.

  A cotton gin exhibit brought even more southern feel to the museum.  Very well done. 

I really enjoyed meeting Brandon for the first time in person.  Great conversation and we got to see part of the Tigers v Red Sox game.  My Tigers beat his Red Sox.  I finished up the day by driving down to Slidell, LA to stay with Father Pat.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you

Monday saw me leave Houston and heads towards Arlington, TX for the Rangers game that nite.  True to form, I made a stop at a science center on the way.

  Turtles at River Legacy Park.

  Globe Life Park in Arlington.

  The Rangers do not have much of a storied past, but they did have a nice team HOF. 

  Did I mention Nolan Ryan was larger than life down here???

  Doug and Judy Smith and I at the Rangers game.

  The field behind me at Arlington.

  Outside of the Celebrity Softball game, this awas the most exciting ending of a game.  Adrien Beltre hit his 2nd home run of the game as a walk off home run, obviously in the bottom of the 9th!  Beltre has a thing for NOT being touched, but was mobbed by his teammates anyways.  It was a great and wild ending.

  The flag corp celebrating the win. 

A really nice nite at the ballpark, as it stopped raining just in time for the game.  It was really nice to see and catch up with Doug Smith again.  He is doing great and would love to hear from his old OBC friends.

Astros were out of this world

On Sunday, Steve Rittenberg and I were joined by Nate Mack to go to the Houston Astros game. 

  Notice the smile on Steve?  We also need to get Nate some OBC gear.

  One of the neat items at the Minute Maid Park is a Home Run Pump.  It keeps track of the number of Home Runs hit by the Astros at the park.  The Astros won in a blowout and hit 6 Home Runs.  The pump was busy.

  Minute Maid Park was built at the site of the former train depot.  They paid homage to that by having a full size train in left field with a conductor on board.  Every time something good happened for the Astros he would drive the train forward and back.  With all the Home Runs he was also happily busy.

  Nolan Ryan is a huge hero throughout Texas.  Houston honored him with a star outside the stadium.

After the game the 3 of us went back to Steve's apartment and played with baseball cards.  A great day for relaxing at a Sunday afternoon game with friends.  It was a pleasure to finally meet Nate in person.  I think we helped to give Steve a well needed break from the stress he has been going through due to his wife's, Gina, health.  I truly hope so.