Games

Jacobs Field
Cleveland, Ohio

	Team	R	H	E
	Chicago White Sox	5	10	0
	Cleveland Indians	1	11	0

Highlights

The time of game for this 12:05PM travel day contest was significantly shorter than the last one at 2 hours and 55 minutes but it seemed intolerably longer at times since it was Indians “Metal” Lunchbox give away day and fully 25% of the 29,822 fans were summer campers who found that they made formidable drums. The game looked to be a pretty good pitching match-up on paper with Jake Westbrook going for the home team and Mark Buehrle countering for the Sox. Buehrle kept his part of the deal sort of as he scattered 10 hits thru 6 1/3 innings while allowing only Franklin Gutierrez who led off the 7th to score what would prove to be the Indians only run. Matt Thornton came on to finish off the 7th and Charlie Haeger pitched 1 hit relief for the 8th & 9th. Westbrook got into trouble in the first inning when he surrendered a run off a pair of singles & a walk to the first three hitters and it could have been worse had not clean-up hitter Paul Konerko hit into a 3-6-1 double play. Westbrook then retired Rob Mackowiak on a grounder to short to get out of the inning. He pitched to the minimum batters in the 2nd & 3rd but gave up a single to former Indian Jim Thome to start the 4th. Konerko followed with a blast to deep center to make it 3-1 and the Sox never looked back.

PNC Park
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

	Team	R	H	E
	Colorado Rockies	10	8	2
	Pittsburgh Pirates	8	13	3

Highlights

The Rockies jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the top of the 3rd but had to hold on as the Bucs chipped away to lessen the disparity to 1 run by the end of the 5th. However, it was perhaps sweet justice for Colorado since the hapless Pirates really didn’t deserve this one as they committed 3 official errors and as many as half a dozen near error bobbles & mental mistakes in what seemed to almost be a subconscious effort to give the game away. It all began when Pittsburgh starter John Van Benschoten plunked lead off hitter Willy Taveras with the very first pitch of the ball game. Then after getting Kazuo Matsui to ground out to first, Matt Holiday hit a soft liner to short left for what should have been a single but due to hustle on Holiday’s part and a less than sincere effort by left fielder Jason Bay, Holiday made it into second standing up. 2 Walks & 2 more base hits later and the Rockies had a 5-0 lead before the Pirates had yet come to bat. Needless to say, the sparse (16,423) but no less vocal crowd was not happy and they jeered their hometown team loudly when the game mercifully concluded 3½ hours after it started. The 18 runs scored in the game came off 21 hits and remarkably the only one to leave the park was a ground rule double off the bat of Yorvit Torrealba in the 3rd. Of the 8 runs scored by the Pirates, only 1 player had multiple RBI’s with Ryan Doumit collecting 2 on a pair of singles in five trips to the plate. Holiday had 3 RBI’s for Colorado and Torrealba & Troy Tulowitzki knocked in 2 apiece. Van Benschoten went 2 plus innings while not recording an out in the 3rd and left with runners on second and third. He took the loss allowing 9 runs on 7 hits, 2 walks and a hit batsman. Although Rockies starter Taylor Buchholz left the game with a 9-6 lead, he did not figure in the victory since he was lifted after the 4th. LaTroy Hawkins was credited with the win with one & a third one hit scoreless relief.

July 7th – We arrived at the ballpark early and instead of having our traditional hot dog and beer, we decided to have burgers at the Mr. Machine restaurant in the outfield. This is another of the newer ballparks and it is nice. Once thing that surprised me though, was that for a new park it did not have a very big scoreboard for the other games going on. It was a promotion night, so we received a Brandon Phillips’ mesh jersey (Brandon Phillips is the 2nd baseman). This team has 3 mascots – Mr. Redlegs, Mr. Red and Gapper. There is a party pavilion in the outfield in the shape of a Riverboat. The smokestacks are where they shoot most the fireworks from to celebrate a Reds’ homerun and a victory. This time, I got the picture.

Great American Ballpark
Cincinnati, Ohio

	Team	R	H	E
	Arizona Diamondbacks	4	7	1
	Cincinnati Reds	5	8	0

Highlights

I have to say this was kind of a snoozer for most of the game with the fans seemingly more excited about the Brandon Phillips jersey give-away than the possibility of earning their 35th win against 52 defeats which has them mired in last place in the NL Central Division. The Reds worked themselves to a relatively early 4-1 lead with the highlight being a 2 run homer in the bottom of the 5th by Edwin Encarnacion who was a 3rd inning replacement for lead off hitter Josh Hamilton who somehow mysteriously injured his wrist in the on-deck circle. Reds starter Homer Bailey (2-2 w/ 6.10 ERA) held the D-Backs to a single run thru the first five and veteran reliever Mike Stanton pitched to the minimum batters in the 6th & 7th. Todd Coffey failed to record an out in the eighth as he gave up successive singles to pinch hitters Augie Ojeda & Miguel Monterro batting for the number 8 & 9 hitters and then surrendered a base clearing homer to Eric Byrnes to tie the game at 4 runs apiece. Coffey was lifted in favor of Jon Coutlangus who allowed a single to Stephen Drew but then got Orlando Hudson to ground into a twin killing and finished out the inning by getting cleanup hitter Mark Reynolds to ground out to short. The D-Backs brought in left-handed reliever Doug Slaton to spell starter Brandon Webb to start the eighth and he got Ken Griffey Jr. to pop to second for the first out. Arizona then brought righty Tony Pena in to face Brandon Phillips who reached on a bunt single. Adam Dunn followed with a fly ball out to center that moved Phillips to 2nd. Left handed hitter Scott Hatteberg was intentionally walked and Norris Hopper followed with a single to score Phillips with what would prove to be the winning run. The winning margin might have been greater but Hatteberg was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a single by Alex Gonzalez to end the inning. Reds closer David Weathers pitched the ninth to record his 17th save of the season.

July 2nd – What a beautiful night for a ball game – the weather was perfect! Busch Stadium is a nice new stadium in downtown St. Louis with a great view of the Arch. They have a great electronic scoreboard that doesn’t show just the score – for some of the games, you can actually see who is at bat, if there are runners on base and how many outs there are. It was Little League night so the team’s mascot led the little leaguers around the field before the game. The home team won so there were a few fireworks after the game, but I was so into the game that I did not have the camera ready to get any pictures of them.

June 25 -Wrigley Field reminded me some of Fenway – it is baseball tradition, it still has the manual scoreboard, it is located in the old neighborhood and there is obstructed view seating. We did not have “obstructed view” seats but as you can see from the pictures, we did have a post to deal with. Since there is no Jumbotron, replays are shown on small TVs positioned throughout the seating areas. We were sitting in the very top row of the stadium but did have a great view of the field, the rooftops seats outside the stadium and if you looked close, we could see Lake Michigan or rather sailboats on the lake. Glad we got to this one before it was rebuilt. The home team won – barely, but Mark’s summary will tell you all about that.

Busch Stadium
St. Louis, Missouri

	Team	R	H	E
	Arizona Diamondbacks	3	4	1
	St. Louis Cardinals	11	13	0

Highlights

Well, no danger of missing any late inning heroics in this game since we stayed in a RV park just 2 miles from Busch Stadium which allowed us the luxury of walking to and from the game. It was a good thing too, since 8 of the Card’s 11 runs were scored from the 7th inning on.

This game was a challenge for a score keeper such as myself with both team’s managers employing the 2 for 1 swap of pitchers and fielders that allows for maintaining a more potent batting order while subbing for the pitcher. Once again, this kind of utilization of strategy is one of many reasons why I enjoy watching the senior circuit games over those of the American League.

The game appeared as though it would be a relatively low scoring event thru the first 5 innings with the D-Backs starter Brandon Webb surrendering single runs in the 2nd and 3rd off a pair of hits and a walk in each frame while the Cards Starter Braden Looper gave up only a single to Stephen Drew in the 2nd. But then Looper seemed to come unglued when he opened the 6th with a first pitch homer to the number eight hitter Chris Snyder. Then after retiring Webb on a come-backer to the mound, Eric Byrnes followed with a double down the left field line. After getting center fielder Chris Young to ground out to short, Orlando Hudson worked the count for a base on balls. Looper lost his concentration as he balked the runners to 2nd & 3rd and then Chad Tracy singled them home for a 3-2 Arizona lead. The lead was short lived however, as it seemed to awaken the proverbial sleeping giant as the Cards scored 1 in the 6th off 2 hits and a walk, 3 in the 7th off 4 hits and a hit batsman along with a D-backs error and finally 5 more in the 8th off 3 hits and 2 walks. Cardinal’s third baseman Scott Rolen was 2 for 5 with a single and triple while driving in 4 for the game. Relievers Russ Springer, Ryan Franklin & Randy Flores each pitched a scoreless inning for the Cards to end the game with Springer picking up the victory. Webb took the loss for the Diamondbacks.

Wrigley Field
Chicago, Illinois

	Team	R	H	E
	Colorado Rockies	9	13	1
	Chicago Cubs	10	18	1

Highlights

As any baseball aficionado knows, Wrigley Field is located in the north side of town. We stayed in a RV park in Tinley Park, which is in the southern suburbs that as it turns out is an hour’s train ride to LaSalle Station, a short walk to the subway station and then 10 stops (20 minutes) to the ballpark. I’ll get back to why this is important in a minute.

The Rockies got on the board quickly off Cubs starter Jason Marquis when with 1 out in the first; Kazuo Matsui singled and then stole second. The league’s leading hitter Matt Holiday followed with another single delivering Matsui to the plate for the game’s first run. The Cubs got things started in the bottom of the inning when after lead off batter Alfonso Soriano popped out to 2nd, Mike Frontenot followed with a single off starter Jeff Francis. But then things looked ominous as Frontenot was picked off first for the second out of the inning. However, 3 consecutive singles by Derreck Lee, Arramis Ramirez and Mark DeRosa forced in the tying run. Then Felix Pagan cleaned the bases with his 3rd homer of the season giving the home team an early 4 to 1 lead. The Cubs extended their lead to 6 to 1 with single runs in the 3rd and 6th. Marquis was lifted in the 5th after surrendering 2 singles to Garrett Atkins & Brad Hawpe which were sandwiched between fly ball outs to left by Todd Helton & Troy Tulowitzki. Michael Wuertz came in and immediately gave up successive singles to Yorvit Torrealba and pinch hitter Ryan Spilborghs to score Atkins and Hawpe narrowing the score to 6 to 3. The Cubs responded with a single run in the bottom of the inning and the 7th was scoreless for each team resulting in a 7-3 Cubs lead at this point. Now it was approaching 10 o’clock and the train for Tinley Park was leaving LaSalle Station at 10:55. At this point it was apparent that many fans felt as we did that the game was well in hand (WRONG!!!) and decided to leave the game a little early in order to get ahead of the crowd at the busy subway station with the hopes that we could make it back to the RV by midnight. So from this point on, I’ll have to resort to the newspaper for the accounts of the unraveling. The Cubs managed to squeeze out another run in the 8th to make it 8-3 but then came the top of the ninth. The Rockies were able to put together a 6 run rally including a 3 run homer by Tulowitzki to take a 9-8 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Fortunately for Chicago, Soriano was able to deliver a game winning 2 run single with 2 out to absolve their wrong doings. I’ve learned my lesson—I’m staying to the end from now on.