Ballpark Tour 2013

Larry and I recently completed our second annual ballpark tour (for an account of last year's epic journey read this) making it to five parks (Comerica, Wrigley, US Cellular, Miller and Target) in seven days.  Just like last year all but one of the games was competitive right to the end.  One difference was that there were three day games compared to all night games in 2012.

And a big thanks to our friends who joined us at various places on the tour - Randy, John, George, Liz, Hal and David!


Here's the recap:

June 5:  At Detroit            Tampa Bay 3, Tigers 0           Attendance 30,005, Time 2:42
June 7:  At Chicago          Pittsburgh 2, Cubs 0              Attendance 31,614, Time 3:11
June 8:  At Chicago          White Sox 4, Oakland 1        Attendance 23,735, Time 2:27
June 9:  At Milwaukee      Brewers 9, Philadelphia 1      Attendance 38,300, Time 2:23
June 11: At Minneapolis    Twins 3, Philadelphia 2          Attendance 30,104, Time 2:31

We'll break down the highlights below but what stood out the most was the quality starting pitching.  Nine of the ten starters went at least six innings and seven of the ten gave up either zero or one run with the only poor start by Jonathan Pettibone of the Phillies against the Brewers.  Even including Pettibone, the collective performance by the ten starters was impressive: 70 2/3 innings pitched, 46 hits, 17 walks, 58 K's and an ERA of 1.80 (1.38 excluding Pettibone).

Best starts as calculated using the Bill James Game Score method:

John Danks, White Sox (77) vs Athletics
Francisco Liriano, Pirates (76) vs Cubs
Kyle Lohse, Brewers (75) vs Phillies
Alex Cobb, Tampa Bay (73) vs Tigers 

Breaking It Down:

Best Performance By A Player On His Bobblehead Day:  Carlos Gomez of the Brewers who hit a long home run.

Best Adam Dunn Type-Performance:  Adam Dunn, of course!  As you may know, THC is fascinated by all things Dunn.  Our hopes were fulfilled at the White Sox game when Adam delivered the Adam Dunn Cycle (Homer, Walk, Strikeout).  And it looks like our presence and inspiration was responsible for The Adam Dunn Resurgence.  Coming into that game, Dunn was hitting .156 with 13 homers.  Since then he's hit .400 with 5 homers, raising his average to .183

Best Ballpark Food:  US Cellular (White Sox).  The widest and best selection of any ballpark.  Had a very tasty Cuban Pork Sandwich and a fully satisfying Hot Dog with grilled onions.

Most Convenient To Stuff Outside the Ballpark: Wrigley Field in Chicago and Target Field in Minneapolis.  Target is adjacent to downtown, closer than any other ballpark I've been in, including Boston, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Favorite Drive Between Ballparks

From Hillsboro, Wisconsin (Czech Capital of Wisconsin) to Lake City, Minnesota.  From Hillsboro take either Route 33 via Cashton or Routes 82 and 56 via Viroqua to LaCrosse where you cross the Mississippi River into Minnesota.  On the Wisconsin portion, you'll go through steep, wooded valleys, past Amish farms and over open uplands with wide vistas.  From LaCrosse take Highway 61 (Revisited) to Lake City.  On this section you have the Mississippi River on your right and for the entire stretch the bluffs on either side of the river are at least a mile apart.  A spectacular drive.

                                                  (County Road F, outside Hillsboro)

                                       (Admit it, you thought I was joking about it being the Czech Capital)

Best Game:  The Tigers-Rays game was 0-0 into the 9th and the White Sox-A's game was 1-1 until the Sox erupted for 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th, but THC gives this one narrowly to the Twins-Phillies game.  Well pitched throughout, some excellent outfield play and close from start to finish.  The Phillies went up 1-0 in the 3rd, the Twins came back with 2 in the 4th, the Phillies tied it up in the top of the 8th with a 2-out single by Ryan Howard and then the Twins pushed across a run with 2-outs in the bottom of the 8th to win it.

Best Strategy For Pitching To Miguel Cabrera:  Don't when there are runners on base.  He came up twice in the Detroit game with men on and was intentionally walked both times to get to Prince Fielder who struck out both times.

Best Flying Bat Into Stands:  Jhonny (yes, I am spelling it correctly) Peralta's bat went high and long into the left field grandstands in the 2nd inning at Comerica.

Closest Foul Ball:  In Milwaukee I came closer to a foul ball than I've ever been.  Carlos Gomez hit a rocket into the stands near first base and it landed one row behind and two seats to my right.  No one actually caught it - the ball wedged in next to a guy in his seat - because no one wanted to get in front of that ball.
 
Best Seats:  Comerica Park in Detroit.  Walked up before the game and purchased $60 tickets 21 rows behind home plate.

                                                               All The (Not So) Young Dudes

Cultural Highlight:  The Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.  Even if you have never ridden a Harley you will want to by the time you leave.

Best Outfield Catch:  Clete Thomas of the Twins making a 7th inning catch in right-center off Delmon Young to preserve the Twins' 2-1 lead.

This game also featured what was almost the best catch of the trip.  In the bottom of the 4th, Arcia hit a long drive to center and the Phillies outfielder, Ben Revere, came within inches of making a Willie Mays style over the head with back to the infield running catch at the wall.

Best Outfield Throw:  In the top of the 1st in the Phillies-Brewers game, the Phillies had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out when Ryan Howard hit a line drive single to right field.  We were sure the runner on second would score easily but Norichika Aoki of the Brewers made a beautiful and accurate throw to nail Michael Young at the plate.
Best Infield Play:  I'd never seen a 3-2-2 double play before.  In the Tampa-Detroit game, the Rays had runners on 1st and 2nd in the top of the 3rd with one out when Fuld hit a hard grounder to first base on which Prince Fielder made a diving stop and threw to catcher Alex Avila.  You can watch the rest of it at this link

Torii Hunter, the veteran Tiger outfielder, said after the game:

"As long as you've been around this game, you're going to see something . . .  I don't care how old you are or how long you've been in the game, there's always something new in this game. All these years, here's something new. It was amazing."

Coldest Game:  THC did not expect this in June but the game at Wrigley was as cold as the May 25, 1976 game at Fenway I recently wrote about (see The Bird).  The temperature at game time was 55 which doesn't sound bad but the wind was blowing off the lake into our faces at more than 20mph (officially the wind was 9mph but THEY LIED) for the entire game and we were in the shade.  By the third inning our hands were numb and I had the hood from my jacket over my cap.  How bad it was depended on your location.  We could see people in the bleachers who were in the sun and had seats protected from the wind wearing shorts and t-shirts!  And the streets outside the park were perfectly comfortable.

                                                         (Doesn't look that cold, does it?)
It also affected the game since the wind was blowing in from the outfield.  Both managers must have told their pitchers to keep the ball high and over the middle of the plate and just let the batters try to hit it as far as they could into the gale.  There were only 7 groundball outs in the first 7 innings (excluding an attempted bunt), outfielders constantly had to come in on fly balls and in the 4th Alfonso Soriano hit the hardest ball we saw all week to the deepest part of outfield but as it neared the wall it just stopped and quietly drifted down to softly nestle into the centerfielder's glove.

Strangest Place:  Detroit.  Very nice ballpark but the city itself is hollowed out.  We drove downtown to the park at rush hour except there wasn't one.  Our drive took us past abandoned, boarded up and deteriorating homes and a couple of 20 story abandoned commercial buildings.  Woodward Avenue outside the stadium, the heart of the old city, was virtually deserted when we first got there a couple of hours before the game at 5pm.  When we left the game our route took us past abandoned lots just a couple of blocks from the stadium.  A weird and sad experience.

Favorite Ballpark:  Let's start by taking Wrigley out of the mix.  It's a wonderful place but it and Fenway are unique old-time ballparks and it's unfair to compare them to the modern parks.  US Cellular, home of the White Sox, is a little bland compared to the others (but with great food).

The location is isolated so not a lot to do in the immediate vicinity but access in and out is very easy.  Target has a great location downtown, with excellent light rail access (which we took and were dropped off 20 yards from the ticket office) and a lot of bars and restaurants are within a block or two.

The stadium has a very walkable interior.  If I went again I'd get seats in the upper left field bleachers which overhang the field.  The grandstand and box seats on the first level are well-situated but the upper deck is way back from the field.  Comerica has very good view lines and seating.  Easy access (not much traffic, see above).

I'd like to return and walk the park more the next time as it might move up in my ranking.  For now I'll give a slight nod as my favorite to Miller Field in Milwaukee though if you ask me tomorrow I might answer Comerica or Target.  First of all, anything named after a beer and that has an exterior that looks like a beer factory is off to a strong start.  It seems like a great family ballpark.

Lots of folks (including our friends) were tailgating before the game and the stadium itself has a lot of interesting seating arrangements and entertainment venues.  Because of the roof, the structural supports of the stadium allow you to follow fly balls (fair and foul) in the daytime better than in most ballparks.  The downside are that it is not located in a neighborhood like Wrigley or Target and the upper deck seats are really far away.  If you place a high value on the neighborhood, Target is the best of the new parks.

Tailgating in Milwaukee (photo by me):

Tailgating in Milwaukee (photo by George)