Great American Ballpark with my dad for Father's Day

Cross another MLB ballpark off the list.  Over Father's Day weekend, I made a deal with my dad.  I'd go with him to the "new" Horseshoe Casino in Cincinnati, OH if he promised to go with me to Great American Ballpark to watch the Milwaukee Brewers play the Cincinnati Reds.  He agreed and immediately I went to StubHub to seek out a pair of tickets.

I settled on Scout seats.  If you've never sat in Scout seats before, I highly recommend them.  They're behind home plate, but higher up than the section right behind home plate.  The seats are cushioned and you have access to Scouts' Alley (i.e. a private concession area -- where you pay -- but you don't have to wait in lines behind people in "regular" seats).  I didn't actually go and check out Scouts' Alley because the lines weren't too bad at all at Frisch's Big Boy.  My dad had a burger and I had the chicken fingers.  I ordered a souvenir drink and it came with a coupon for a free refill.  Seriously?  When have you ever seen free refills at a ballpark?  What a good value!

We settled into our seats and I started to look around the park.  To be honest, I didn't see anything special.  It'd been AGES since I'd seen the Reds play at home.  The last time I'd been to a Reds' game they were playing at Riverfront Coliseum. 

Gone is the old circular structure and a park that resembles the Twins/Orioles/Indians/etc. stands. 

I'm so happy I finally checked off another venue, and even happier that I got to go to the game with my dad.  For someone like him that complains that he doesn't watch any baseball, he sure did know a lot about Joey Votto and Johnny Cueto!

The rain started to come down a bit and it was refreshing, since it was so hot and muggy.  When the drops got bigger and fell down faster, we walked back to the casino (i.e. where we parked) and decided to start gambling.

The Reds won, and we won.

Happy Father's Day!


THE WIRK

Beat the Streak 2011 MLB Contest ~ Don't pick Manny Ramirez

I'm not one to play fantasy sports, but I came across this "Beat the Streak" contest for the 2011 MLB season.  The object of the contest is simple.  For each "game day" pick a player who you think will get a hit.  Be the FIRST to beat the streak of 56 games with a correct pick, and you win $5,600,000.00  Yes, that number is typed correctly.  I double-checked it.  I don't know about you, but I could use $5.6 million.

Jason Heyward at bat v the Cubs
on April 8, 2010.  He went 0-4.

So far the longest streak is 8 games.  Atlanta Braves' Jason Heyward was hitless last night against the Milwaukee Brewers and killed my streak of 4 games...  Ugh.  ****  Actualy, I just took a look at my photo files, and just last year I saw him against go hitless against the Chicago Cubs...  Great.

Good thing, I checked my upcoming picks today because I had selected Manny Ramirez for an upcoming game. With Manny's retirement announcement today, I doubt he'll be hitting again ~ period.  Don't get me wrong, I liked Manny. 

Manny Ramirez debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1993.  1993 was also my freshman year of college, in Northeast Ohio, so I spent many a night at Jacobs Field (i.e. now named Progressive Field).  Manny was loved in Cleveland.  1993-2002 were some great days for the Cleveland Indians.  Those were the days of David Justice, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Sandy Alomar, Roberto Alomar, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez...  I'm sure I'm forgetting some folks, but you know what I'm talking about.

Come to think of it, my best friend (i.e. Chubs) had a picture of Manny Ramirez in his spare bedroom.  He loved that picture.  It may have even been autographed.  Oh well. 

Manny Ramirez at bat v Pirates, April 30, 2010

The last time I saw Manny Ramirez play was less than a year ago against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In addition to it being my first time at Dodgers Stadium, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar threw out the ceremonial first pitch.  ****  Kareem's presence made the game extra special for me since I'm an "old school" Laker fan.

But I digress...  So, let's get back to this blog post's topic.

Play the Beat the Streak contest and test your luck.  Further, with ANOTHER announcement of an issue relating to baseball's drug policy, it's hard to love a cheater ~ especially a cheater who's calling it quits.  Therefore, if you have Manny in any of your fantasy baseball contests, replace him now.


THE WIRK

The Milwaukee Brewers defeat the Los Angeles Angels, Angels Stadium (i.e. my 71st venue)

While in LA, I was fortunate enough to hit another new venue with Scott, when we watched the Milwaukee Brewers visit the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim.  Angel Stadium is venue 71 for me and I was excited to see where the 2010 MLB All-Star Game is going to be held this year.

Unfortunately for the Angels, the Brewers were on fire!  Unfortunately for Torii Hunter, Casey McGehee hit a home run off the glove of Hunter in center field.  Think Jerry McGuire, but it wasn't off of Hunter's head.

Ryan Braun hit his third career grand slam and finished with five RBIs for the Brewers.

Lucky for me, I was able to get Scott to stop working long enough to come out with me, since it was a gorgeous day for a baseball game.  Angel Stadium is a very open stadium and with weather so beautiful, I can only imagine how great the fan experience will be for the All-Star festivities in July. 

As for Monday, the Brewers brought their offense and defeated the Angers 12-2.

Enjoy the pictures!

The waterfall reminds me of the ones at mini-golf courses

I like Chuck Finley, even if Tawny Kitaen doesn't

With Scott at the game

View from our seats

THE WIRK

My first trip to Wrigley Field ~ Chicago Cubs win home opener v the Milwaukee Brewers!

I flew into Chicago yesterday morning with some friends and we all went to the Chicago Cubs Home Opener.  The Cubs were playing the Milwaukee Brewers.  On the way to O'Hare, I was sitting between 2 people that were obviously together.  Weird.  Obviously they prefer window and aisle seats more than they prefer each other, but I digress.

As soon as I claimed my bags I hopped a cab to my friend's house to ditch my stuff.  Let's call my friend Porkchopper/Pork, because that's his nickname.  Pork and his housemates were gracious enough to offer me a guestroom in their house in Wicker Park.  After catching up with him for about 15 mins and taking a conference call for work (i.e. even though I am officially on vacation), we decided to take the L into the city.

I don't like any form of public transportation.  I'll just put that out there right now.  However, if I'm with a friend and/or it's efficient, I will do it.  Pork is wrapping up law school and had a meeting, so he was only going to take me part of the way on the L.  All the other Cubs fans were batting clean up on my way to Wrigley.  When they got off the train, I'd simply follow.

At the Addison station, I asked a lady where Murphy's was, since that's where the rest of my party would be.  I picked up a Cubs hat at a stand next to the Murphy's for $20 and then went into the bar/restaurant.  After joining them and downing a cheeseburger and a beer (i.e. Old Style is the local beer of choice there), we were crossing the street and heading into the Bud Light Bleachers' entrance to Wrigley Field. 

I must admit, I'm not a bleachers fan ~ BUT I've always heard that the way to do Wrigley Field was to sit in the bleachers, so that's what I did.  My friend, Bryan, asked me last week if I wanted to go to the game.  He had an extra bleacher ticket.  Initially I told him, "No."  I couldn't find flights that were inexpensive enough (i.e. around $600).  However, once the idea was planted in my brain, I continued to look at flights.  Before you knew it, flights had dropped to less than $200 (i.e. taxes not included) and I was able to make the trip!

We were able to find a great spot, which we referred to as the "Right Field Sky Box".  It was a platform with a fence in front of it and all 5 of us could stand and/or sit on the ground comfortably.

View from our Right-field skybox

Some of the rooftop bleachers in Wrigleyville

The 1st pitch of the game

I honestly can't remember, but the Cubs must have hit 3-4 home runs.  There was a lot of offense in this game, for both teams, and the weather was great.  It was a little chillier than Atlanta (i.e. but come on, it's the Midwest and I should've known it wouldn't be that warm in Chicago yet).  As I was sipping on mai tai's, I realized that people were correct and that the bleachers were a great time!  They're definitely a fun spot to watch the game.  ****There was a fight in the bleachers and a bunch of people were tossed out of the game after punching and toppling down a few levels and landing on innocent people. 

The Cubs defeated the Brewers 9-5.

"Hey, Chicago, what do you say?"

"The Cubs are gonna win today."

"Go, Cubs, Go"

What a great experience for my first trip to Wrigley Field!  I've seen the Cubs twice in less than a week and they've won both of the games.  I might just be their lucky charm, so if any of you Cubs fans want me at the next game, feel free to send me some money and I'll make the trip ~ my paypal address is sjwirk@hotmail.com!  What can I say?  It takes a village... 

THE WIRK