2019 Year in Review

In my first year after completing the MLB stadium tour I left myself wondering what I would do. Would I prioritize getting to the new stadiums that have been built since I visited? Would I take the initiative to complete Molly's journey (3 remaining)? Or would I do absolutely nothing in the name of children and business. As expected the latter won out. I did however have a successful season touring the country through business and personal travel that afforded me the opportunity to get to several parks I'd been so fortunate to visit in the past. For prosperity's sake here is a review of my baseballing in the year of our lord, 2019:

1. The obvious Minnesota Twins - Only attended two games at old reliable Target field this year. One game in early April with Vinny. It was Master's Sunday and Tiger was in the middle of his charge for the gold jacket, green jacket, who gives a shit. It was cold so we bundled up and got some seats on the first base side against the Tigers. Jordan Zimmerman was pitching for the kitties and my friend Adam was in Jordan's players seats so we had some extra motivation to go. Twins beat JZ up pretty good and we left early. V did however get a foul ball from an usher. I spent 30 years going to games in hopes of foul balls and in Vinny's short life he's already got 2. Doesn't seem fair, but at the end of the day I'm thrilled by this.

Other game was with my pal CorE on a Friday night vs. the out of town 'I don't remembers'. We sat in 'Catch' dead center field all inclusive area which was great as you sat at a rail and had a personal TV where we were as much entertained by the NBA Western Conference Finals as we were the game. I don't remember who one, but I do remember that I had at least 2 beers. Anyway, Catch is a cool deal and a hell of an add to that stadium

2. Your Chicago Cubs - This was not the Cubs year for sure, but attending Wrigley Field with Vinny was and is a life highlight for me. He and I flew down on Friday in June. Took the train in from Midway and got stuck on the redline for like 45 minutes for a medical emergency. To say he loved riding the train is the understatement of the century. I got us some good seats on the 3rd base side knowing that he was unlikely to last long I wanted to maximize his attention span by getting him close to the game. Well after about $60s in concessions and 2 innings he had enough. It was really hot and just too much, but that didn't matter we blew out of there and hit the town seeing nearly every Chicago site appropriate for a 3.5 year old in whirlwind fashion. One of, if not the, greatest weekend of my life to date.

3. The Los Angeles Dodgers - As we are want to do, Molly and I snuck away from our child filled lives in mid august and headed west. Spending a night in Pasadena before road tripping into Vegas. Took in Dodgers v Brewers in Chavez Ravine. This stadium is SUCH a pain in the ass to get in and out of. The sound system is still terrible, but it has so much charm, I love it. The one thing that struck me this time that didn't the past two times I'd been there was the overwhelming aroma of garlic fries. It was everywhere. Is this new, how had I missed this in previous treks? Also I recall spending $48 for 2 coors lights and two slices of pizza. Bonkers, but I think that might just be me getting old and thinking cost of living adjustments should have froze in 2002. Dodgers won. They REALLY need to come up with a better ride sharing solution for this place, it's a nightmare. All Star game there next year, would really like to try and find my way to that some how.

4. The Baltimore Orioles - Leveraged a DC trip to have a boon doggle with good ole MarkyJ. He crashed my snooty DC hotel for a couple days then we took the train up to Baltimore for a night game vs Pirates I believe. We got a hotel right next to the stadium and just as we walking out to the game this huge storm front was blowing in. We had high levels of confidence the game was going to be delayed so we hopped some scooters and scooted for our lives. What seemed like hurricane level winds eventually drove into an Irish Pub where hunkered down until it was over. Maybe an hour or so later we scooted back to the game that already began and the box office was closed. They were still accepting cash payment for standing room only tickets which seemed pretty dumb, but whatever. Went inside and there were MAYBE 5,000 people there...We booped around this excellent park visiting the warehouse shops and Boog BBQ. O's blew it open in the 7th at which time Mark declared it time to go to the casino where he won like $700 and stupid bets in Mark like fashion. Great Stadium. Great Night.

5. NLCS Champion Washington Nationals - Who saw this coming by the way!? Attended this game on one of my famous DC trips. Took a scooter to the game which is WAY faster than the rider share/train option. Wanted to get to a game here this year as I usually do, but when I saw the pitching match up was Scherzer v DeGrom I made it a priority. Hung out in their tailgate area down the road from the park for the first time. That was way better than I remembered. There was a band and reasonably priced concessions compared to the stadium. Would definately do that again. Got a decent seat behind home plate and hung out for 5 innings or so, I wanted to get back to the hotel for Federer's US Open match. RFed lost and the Nats actually won in pretty epic fashion. Sports fail on my part.

Not sure what 2020 will hold for Baseballing, but I'm confident if I am half as fortunate as I have been in this and previous years I will enjoy it immensely. 2019 Baseball Out...