Games

Coors Field
Denver, Colorado

	Team	R	H	E
	Atlanta Braves	6	6	1
	Colorado Rockies	2	10	1

Highlights

Luck was somewhat of a factor in this one—good for the Braves & bad for the home team. You figure that if you out hit the opponent nearly 2 to 1 you should win the game, but it doesn’t always work that way. The Rockies started out well with Willy Traveras working a full count into a leadoff walk and impressive rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki following with a home run propelling them to a 2-0 lead before any outs had been recorded. However, veteran Braves hurler John Smoltz was able to spread out 8 more hits over the first 7 innings while walking none & striking out 6 without yielding another run.

Smoltz also showed his abilities with the bat as well as he successfully move runners up with two beautifully placed sacrifice bunts in the 3rd & 4th innings and a two out double over the center fielders head in the 6th. Braves third baseman Chipper Jones drove in 2 runs in the 3rd with a single to center and center fielder Andruw Jones followed with a sac fly to right to drive in what would prove to be the eventual winning run.

Special thanks to Ken Helgeson for the great seats we had for this game. For those who don’t know, Ken was a former boss of ours at NYNEX in Maine who now lives in the Kansas City area. We met Ken for lunch at a great Bar-be-que restaurant in downtown Kansas City, MO and had a fun time catching up. Thanks again, Ken. Our plan was to go from there to the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame but it was closed on Mondays. We did get to see it from the outside. Will add it to the growing lists of things to try to do in the future. We were able drive “Cliff” to the ballpark. The ballpark was very nice with fountains in the outfield. The electronic scoreboard was interesting too. It had the greatest animations – such as when the White Sox pitcher walked a Royals player a base on top of two baseballs went across the screen, there were several different ones when the Royals pitcher struck out a White Sox player.

Kaufman Park
Kansas City, Missouri

	Team	R	H	E
	Chicago White Sox	4	8	0
	Kansas City Royals	4	10	0

Highlights

This one had the makings of a classic pitcher’s duel with each team sending its respective aces to the mound. Both the White Sox Mark Buehrle coming off a no-hitter in his previous start and the Royals Gil Meche were sporting ERA’s just over 2.0 and although neither was in top form, they did manage to match each other for a 3-3 tie thru 7 innings but then enter the Royals bullpen.

Jim Gobble started the eighth with a leadoff single to Jim Thome on just one pitch and was lifted for David Riske who promptly issued what would prove to be the first of a pair of 2-run homers to the heretofore-slumping Paul Konerko.

The Royals were able to generate a run in the bottom half of the 8th but the Sox plated 2 more in the top of the 9th with Konerko getting yet another RBI bringing his total for the game to 5. Royals catcher John Buck was 2 for 4 with a homer and 2 RBI’s.

Lots of hitting but mostly the wrong team. Rangers lost making the record – Home teams 3 and Visitors 2. We sat in the belcher section for this game. These seats were right next to the Ranger’s Bullpen. We each received a Texas Rangers Baseball cap as we entered the stadium – that is why Mark is wearing one in the photo of us at the field. Not a lot of pre-game activities at this game on the field but they have a lot of activities (such as temporary Rangers tattoos, slugger contest with t-ball) for the kids including a play area. A Chevy Pickup came out with the Rangers Six-Shooters in the bed of the truck. These young ladies came around tossing t-shirts into the crowd. The Rangers mascot – Ranger Captain made the rounds as well. You will see him when pictures are posted. Between the two of the innings they had the Dot Race. Three different colored Dots raced around on the screen and finished the last leg of the race in foul territory on the third base side. The ushers had previously passed out coupons with the different colors on them. If you coupon matched the winning dot, you could redeem your coupon for a free bottle of Ozarks water. We had one winning coupon, but since we were leaving the next day, we gave it to the young man sitting behind us. During the 5th inning, they played “Deep in the Heart of Texas”.

Rangers Ballpark at Arlington
Arlington, Texas

	Team	R	H	E
	Oakland Athletics	13	16	0
	Texas Rangers	4	10	0

Highlights

Thought I would run out of lead for my pencil in this one early when 13 proved to be an unlucky number indeed for the Rangers as the A’s sent that number of batters to the plate in the top of the 2nd inning and turned it into 8 runs before it came to a close. It’s going to be a long summer for the Texans if tonight’s pitching is any indication of what’s to be expected this season. After starter Brandon McCarthy issued a lead off walk in the 1st he retired the next 3 batters but he was unable to retire any of the six batters he faced in the 2nd. The A’s scored 6 more runs in the eighth including homers by Shannon Stewart and Nick Swisher.

The Rangers used a total of six pitchers who gave up 13 hits and 12 walks and were pretty much ineffective all night. The offensive stars for the A’s were Travis Buck who was 2 for 3 with a Home Run, a Double, 3 Walks and 5 RBI’s and Mark Ellis who was 3 for 5 with a pair of Doubles and 4 RBI’s.

The Rangers did send 7 men to the plate in the bottom of the 5th and scored 3 runs but just weren’t able to get anything else going the rest of the evening.

What a great park! We arrived in downtown Houston early enough to walk around downtown and the park. From the outside of the park you can see the Minute Maid Express Train on the Left Field wall. Before the game there was lots of activity as well. First, 5 Harley Davidson motorcycles rode around the field. The first driven by Manager Phil Garner and the second by his wife. This was the Kick Start the Cure benefiting Mothers Against Cancer. Then, the flags for all the countries that participate in the International Little League were brought onto the field. At the end of the 5th inner (which is when it was an official game) play was interrupted to award long time umpire Bruce Froemming an award for surpassing the record for longest consecutive years of service for a major league umpire. This beautiful ballpark has combined in its design some of the quaintness and eccentricities of some of the old time ballparks. The left field scoreboard is reminiscent of Fenway park including the Monster seats and the ability to view the game from the rooftop of Union Station is reminiscent of Wrigley Field. (see Game 04 of 30 page for highlights of the game.)

Minute Maid Park
Houston Texas

	Team	R	H	E
	Florida Marlins	3	9	0
	Houston Astros	4	8	0

Highlights

This was kind of a tit for tat contest with the Astros scoring a run in the bottom of the 4th and the Marlins answering with a run in the top of the 5th. Then the Astros scored 2 more in the top of the sixth and the Marlins followed with 2 of their own in the top of the seventh. The Astros then waited to score their next and deciding run in the bottom the ninth so as not to allow the Marlins to answer yet again. The game started out with a bang with Marlins shortstop Handley Ramirez (We remember him from his AA days when he played for the Portland [ME] Seadogs) driving a ball deep to the left centerfield wall, which was good for a triple, but Ramirez ran thru the stop sign at third and was thrown out at the plate. Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez then settled down and allowed only 1 run on five hits and three walks thru 6 innings and was in line for a win until the Marlins tied it in the 7th.

The game was interrupted briefly when it became official at the end of the 5th to award long time umpire Bruce Froemming an award for surpassing the record for longest consecutive years of service for a major league umpire at 37 years and 12 games. Cody Ross led the Marlins with a 2 for 4 night and scored 2 runs. Mark Loretta was 2 for 4 for the Astros as well while also driving in 2 runs.

The game was won in the bottom of the ninth with nobody out when Morgan Ensberg singled to left with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run. The game could arguably have been over one batter sooner had Mark Loretta not failed to notice that the single to right by Carlos Lee was bobbled by Joe Borchard and he decided to hold at third as he moved up from 2nd on the play. But as they say, it was all academic in the end.

We attended the Atlanta Braves game at Turner Field on Tuesday night, April 12. It was a cool and windy evening. The stadium is very nice with lots to see and lots of pre-game activities. We were there for Little League Night. Before the game, there were six T-ball teams in the outfield doing a T-Ball exhibition. It was adorable! Just after that started, all little leaguers in uniform & their coaches paraded around the entire field. Pictures will be posted but do not really capture it. We were able to take a bus from the campground to the Atlanta subway system where we caught the subway for 5 stops and caught the Braves Shuttle to the field. All in all, it worked very well. The pictures and Highlights will be added later today.

Sorry KY Steve & Reneta–we cheered for the Braves but they lost!