The Capital, Washington, DC

My journey brought me to DC right at the same time as our nation's birthday. The schedule also made it so that I would have to be in the Baltimore and DC area for a couple days in order to see both of those teams play home games. 

While in DC I went to the Smithsonian Art Museum, an outdoor place with large pieces of art, the Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial and The Smithsonian Castle as well the Freer gallery of art. 

The next day I went to The Air and Space Museum, the Nationals game and then walked around the Jefferson Memorial, Kennedy Memorial, and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The game went very late due to rain so by the time I walked around the monuments it was well past midnight and by the time I was finished closer to 1:30 am. It was incredible to be one of the only and sometimes the only person at the monument at the time I was there. I loved sitting on the steps on the Jefferson Memorial and looking out at the rest of Washington seeing the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln memorial and other landmarks lit under the night sky. 

The 3rd day was the 4th of July, I went to the National Archives, The Air and Space Museum, Botanical Gardens and the Capital for the concert on the West Lawn and then watched the fireworks over the Washington Monument. It was truly amazing to see our founding documents on the 4th of July. It brought tears to my eyes and a great thankfulness for the great country in which I am privileged to live in and for the bravery, courage and heroic deeds of our founding fathers, those who fought in the battles and wars and for those who currently serve our country in a similar capacity. I was awed by this. I was I could've taken pictures but it is not allowed due to the frailty of the documents which are now barely readable if at all to the naked eye. 

National's Park,

The Nationals game was lots of fun! They had a great year and as we know now are going to make the playoffs and are one of the best teams in all of baseball. Their park was alright. It was a typical major league ballpark. nothing too exciting although it was nice.The sight lines were not the best with some that were poor where you couldn't see parts of the field due to obstructions It didn't exactly fit in with the rest of Washington. It would've been absolutely awesome if the building was all white marble, limestone and granite like the other main buildings in DC but sadly I can only dream. Outside the main entrance which was home plate they have years laid out on the sidewalk with significant years for the game of baseball in Washington DC, which was a very neat idea of how to celebrate the history. Beside the large year made of brick placed into the concrete was a plaque explaining the significance of the year with year wrapped displayed again on a pole but wrapped around a large baseball and the plaque was located just under the baseball. 

The second level concourse is better than the first one minus being able to walk all the way around and behind home plate. Behind right field on the second concourse is the Shake Shack. This line was incredibly long all game long even when it started to rain. I heard that the food was wonderful, however I didn't feel like missing 30-45 minutes of watching the game to get food from it. but there is a very open area up there with nice chairs that sit on astroturf grass for people to talk and have a good time. The area also has some nice plants and white Christmas lights hanging for a better aura.The area was also covered by large triangles of canvas which was another nice touch. In center field there is a rooftop bar called the red loft. It is a round bar and open with a slight bird's eye view of the field. I thought it was a neat idea. There are a few statues in center field but none really worth noting. I did like that the parking garages in center field were lined on the outside with silver colored baseballs for decoration. 

The stadium's main concourse is very open and at most points you can see the playing field while walking around. They have a wall on the concourse laying out the history of professional baseball in Washington DC which was very interesting. It talked a lot about the Senators as well as the Negro League's Homestead Gray's. 

The game was a good one. The Nats were playing the Giants and it was enjoyable for me because the Nationals got out to a big early lead and never looked back. The Nationals beat up on 2 time NL CY award winner Tim Lincecum and got great pitching from Jordan Zimmerman who is becoming a very good pitcher. Whenever a Nats' pitcher gets two strikes on a hitter an organ player or a soundtrack played some sort of weird and or ominous music, but it was a different, yet familiar tune each time which was really unique. The game had a fairly lengthy rain delay in the 7th inning and I was convinced that they would just call it and the game would be over because the teams played the next morning at 11 am (due to the 4th of July events) which is an extremely rare local time for a major league game to be played. However, they did resume play and the Nats closed it out and they still had the fireworks show after the game which was also quite enjoyable. 

Baltimore, Best Yet

I had heard from numerous friends and reading material that Camden Yards field in Baltimore was one of the best parks in baseball, if not the best. They weren't lying. This ballpark was fantastic! It turned out to be my second favorite overall.

The stadium is another brick one and was finished in 1992. Almost all of the modern ballparks have been modeled after this one, I think something like 20. This one started a new revolution in baseball and may have saved the game after the strike of 1994-1995. It is a beautiful brick ballpark and still looks new! There is a Brooks Robinson statue out front with a gold glove which I loved. Behind right field there is Eutaw street where fans can walk and there are plenty of shops and food selections to choose from. If you look at your feet when you walk you will notice little circles in the ground. There are little round plaques that are put into the ground where long home runs have landed on the walk way. Each say who hit the ball, the date they hit it and how far the ball traveled.  The concourses are wide open and have plenty of room. There were plenty of stores to buy Orioles stuff as well. I thought why don’t other stadiums have this many shops.

Eutaw street is located between Right field and the B & O building which is one of the oldest buildings in Baltimore and also a landmark. The building isn’t very wide but it is very long starting probably 200 ft. prior to the foul pole in right field and going to the end of center field. When the team was building the stadium the building was not in good shape but the team purchased the building and made it part of the stadium with stadium shops and restaurants in the building, a bridge from the club level to the building was also constructed to get to where the team offices are.The scoreboard was very cool looking. It had many sponsors' logos on it and one of them was "The Sun" Baltimore's main newspaper. The logo is in neon letters and is used to let fans know if the play was ruled a hit or an error. The H is lit up for a hit and the E for an error. In older Oriole's scoreboards they would also light up the letters H or E to signify hit or errors in different sponsor's ads. I thought it was really cool how they kept this! 

I had Boog’s BBQ which is located on Eutaw street. Boog Powell was a well-known and liked first baseman for the O’s in the 60s until the mid 70s. He was at the stand signing autographs. I didn’t know who he was and so proceeded to move forward in the line. He asked me if I had anything for him to sign and I replied no but do I order from you? He said “No I’m Boog” and he shook my hand and I quickly moved on from being embarrassed because I thought he was taking people’s food orders. Later I learned who he was and that he was well known by O’s fans and even won the 1970 MVP award.

The game was rather mundane. It was again an extremely hot day and the O’s didn’t play well and there weren’t many fans in the stands. The crowd did give a standing ovation to the newly acquired and future Hall of Famer Jim Thome in his debut as an Oriole. The Indians ended up winning as the Oriole’s starting pitching continued to falter them. I did have some good conversations with the fans around me talking about the all-star selections as well as Indians and my trip.

After the game I walked the few short blocks to the Babe Ruth museum and birthplace. I got to see where Babe Ruth was born as well as lots of memorabilia from the game’s most impactful and probably greatest player. There was a wall full of 714 plaques organized by year, one for each homerun he hit in establishing his homerun record. There were numerous signed baseballs, his earliest autograph in a book from St. Mary's catholic school where he went for his elementary years and some bats and other memorabilia from members of the 500 homerun club. This was a cool place to see and see all the history here. 

Hotlanta,

Left Field Outside the Stadium

The next stop would be Atlanta after about an 8 hour drive. I stopped at Sonny’s BBQ just passed the Georgia line, which was delicious. As I got close to Atlanta I found a Georgia sports station and during breaks they would report how hot it was going to be and that they might break the all-time record high the day that I left. Thank goodness this game was an evening one because it was hot and humid. The temperature while I was there did end up either tying or setting the all-time record for Atlanta.

After the Game

Turner Field was a very nice one. It was another red brick stadium close to the downtown area. This one had lots of room to walk around in, especially in the outfield area. Outside the stadium gates in the plaza there are Statues of Ty Cobb one of the game’s greatest players as well as Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro and some other braves heroes as well as huge numbers of Brave greats that have been retired. This was a cool place and very well done. In left field there were plenty of games and things to play for kids and big kids as well as the Braves baseball museum. 

View during Batting Practice

I paid the two dollar fee to go into the Museum and it was a nice one, the lady tried to tell me it was the best outside of Cooperstown but it was easy to tell that it was not. There was really only Braves memorabilia in the museum. It did a nice job of tracking the history of the Braves from when they were in Boston and then Milwaukee and then Atlanta. They had the 1995 World Series trophy on display as well as numerous other awards won by players. There was a locker display for each of the Braves record 14 division championships and playoff appearances. Each of the lockers had special jersey’s and awards as well as cleats, bats, balls and newspaper or magazine articles headlining that season. There was also a room telling how the team got to Atlanta from Milwaukee and Boston. A train car which was formerly used to transport the team in much earlier days is also on display which was very unique. There is a reproduced dugout as well as a TV showing Braes highlights. It is a nice museum that does a wonderful job of celebrating Braves history.

1995 World Series Trophy

The game was my first chance to see teenager phenom Bryce Harper play as the division rival Washington Nationals were in town. The game was a good one. The Nationals jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and then the braves scratched out a run and then another one. The crowd was then into it doing the braves famous tomahawk chop chant. The Braves new young shortstop then hit a game tying homerun in the 7^th to tie the game. All the Braves runs were in the 7^th. The Braves fans got very loud at this point and did the chant even louder. The next inning though the Nationals hit a solo home run to take the lead back.  The final two Braves’ at bats went for not despite fans trying to will their team to win and doing their chant over and over again. It was very exciting to hear the stadium get so loud especially so early in the season and hearing the chant that I had seen and heard only on tv through the Braves playoff years of the 90s and early 2000s.

The drum that is beat during the Tomahawk Chop

I really liked this stadium as it had plenty to offer and did a great job of celebrating Brave’s history and baseball. 

After the game scoreboard shot

The Trop, Tropicana Field Tampa Bay

The Scoreboard

After walking on Miami Beach in the morning and scorching my back in an hour’s time we headed up to Tampa Bay. We drove through the everglades which was beautiful in it’s own way.

The Live Rays

We got about an hour and a half outside Tampa when we hit awful traffic and they shut down I-75 and were routing people off the highway. We were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes and lost another 30 minutes on the detour. Crossing over the bridge to get to St. Petersburg (which is where the stadium actually is) was beautiful. The bridge was beautiful and the water was very clear. We were late for the game which along with getting so sun burnt frustrated me.  The drive over the bridge really helped to calm me down though, or I might’ve had a miserable time at the game.  We didn't miss a whole lot though, only the first inning and I was relieved it wasn't more. 

View From My Seat

The Trop, as they call it, is a dome, it doesn't even have a retractable roof it’s just a straight dome, one of only two remaining in the majors. Many people think that this place is a dump. It is different and it’s not a pretty sight from the outside. Once inside it can be difficult to get around in the stadium having to go up and down stairs or escalators to get all the way around the stadium.  While we were there as is the norm in St. Petersburg there weren't many fans in attendance, which made it easier to get around.

Old Truck in the Stadium

There were tons of food options and plenty of fun things to do while inside and on the concourses. You could go pet the live Sting Rays that they keep in a large tank above right center field, or climb on a giant foam play glove or bat. They also have the Ted Williams museum in the ballpark and I got to see some of it which was very cool, however they closed it before I could go upstairs were most of the good stuff was located. I begged and pleaded with the workers to let me and that it was my only time but they had none of it. I was disappointed because it is supposed to be one of the best baseball museums outside of Cooperstown.

Ted Williams Locker in the Museum

The game was fun. The Rays were playing the Tigers. The Rays had one of their best pitchers, James Shield on the mound but he had an off night and was not able to really do all that he wanted with his pitches. Miguel Cabrera one of the Tigers superstars had 4 hits including a home run to put the Tigers on top 5-2. The Rays team has many of their good hitters on the disabled list at the moment and they are having a difficult time scoring runs.

The Bullpen

One of the neat things about this stadium was that we were very close to the action for a good price. Tickets for Rays games are easy to get and are cheap. We sat down the right field line near the corner and had a good view of everything and the Rays bullpen was very close to us. It was fun to watch the relief pitchers warm up from so close.