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MLB ROAD TRIP 2001
2001.8.19 <VOL.28> Days 117-126
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*We are in Atlanta
Index
1. Vacation From Our Vacation
2. Florida Fun
3. Jail Time
4. Prospect Update
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Vacation From Our Vacation
First, you may have noticed that this update is a bit later than usual. After completing our third cross-country drive in just over a week, we decided to take a vacation from the hard work of driving and watching baseball. This may sound kind of strange, but the last couple of weeks have been difficult, and we needed some rest. So after two easy days in Miami, we went to Key Largo for a couple of days of sun, snorkeling, and relaxation.
Now we are back on the road and heading north as the baseball season hits the home stretch. There are still lots of pennant races to watch, and our next few games include teams such as Atlanta, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Indians, and the Red Sox, so we hope to be taking in some key matchups.
We won't bother boring you with details of our time in the Keys, instead we will bore you with details about Florida's baseball towns. But we certainly hope to return to the Keys sometime soon, it is a great place to take it easy.
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Florida Fun
Tampa is great, because there are lots of minor league teams along with the Devil Rays. Tropicana Field is the home of the D-Rays, but as one of two non-retractable domes in the majors, it is not one of my favourite parks. The organization has added a lot of features and party areas in an attempt to make your time in the Trop more interesting, but it is still a dome, and the team ranks among the worst in the majors, so it is not going to give you a great baseball experience.
The first game we saw here showcased Roger Clemens and the Yankees. I don't remember much, other than the Yankees won the game with 3 runs in the ninth, sparing Clemens the ignominy of losing to the Devil Rays. The reason I don't remember much is because we drove over 10 hours from New Orleans that day, after awaking at 6:30 am. For us, who have been compared to vampires due to our late-night habits, this early hour was certainly a shock to the system. But we managed to get into the car and avoid falling asleep for the entire drive, arriving in time to get some great seats behind the plate. Clemens was not dominating, but still a great pitcher to watch. His counterpart, rookie Jason Standridge, shut the Yankees down for over 6 innings, but closer Esteban Yan was atrocious and the Yankees pulled out a 4-3 victory on Luis Sojo's 2-run double.
After 2 days in Tampa Bay, we moved on to Miami, home to the Florida Marlins, 1997 World Champions (I am still in disbelief over this - world champions 5 years after being born). I enjoyed the city, in spite of the humidity, but the stadium is one of my least favourites - far away from downtown, built for football, ugly on the inside (the bright orange seats take a couple of innings to get used to!), and very, very hot. It didn't help that the two games we saw there weren't that exciting, as Houston and Florida split a pair of blowouts, but we did see our first inside-the-park homer from Marlin catcher Mike Redmond.
We then returned to Tampa to enjoy two games between the Blue Jays and Yankees. You may be wondering how we can watch the Blue Jays and Yankees in Florida - well, these are minor league games between the Dunedin Blue Jays and Tampa Yankees. The first game was Friday night at Legends Field in Tampa, a big ballpark that is modeled on Yankee Stadium. As the spring training home of the Yankees, it has over 8,000 seats, but a lot of them are closed off for the minor-league games. On Saturday, we watched the same teams do battle in Dunedin, a small suburb of Tampa. Dunedin is the spring training home of the Blue Jays, and a destination that I had been looking forward to for the entire trip. The park was built in 1977 when the Jays began playing and it hasn't aged well - the scoreboard lights are only about 50% operational. Nonetheless, it is small and cozy and a good minor league stadium. The entire complex is being renovated and the stadium will get a facelift, which just means we'll have to revisit Dunedin again in a couple of years.
Coincidentally, we will see the big league Blue Jays play the Yankees in just under two weeks in New York. Hope that the real Jays do better than their baby brethren, who were swept in a doubleheader on Friday and lost 4-2 on Saturday.
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Jail Time
The picture above shows one of the lowlights of the trip - during our stay in Miami, I was pulled over for having a bad haircut. I argued with the cop who was giving the ticket, but apparently in Miami, you can be cited for having a bowl cut. I tried to explain that I was on a long trip and didn't have time to go to a stylist, but the cop wasn't too impressed with my argument and he threw me in jail for being a general nuisance. Aya agreed with the cop, so he let her go - she took this picture when she came to bail me out a few hours later.
OK, I am obviously stretching the truth. This photo was shot in the Police Hall of Fame and Museum, one of the more interesting museums we have visited. Along with this jail cell, there is an electric chair, a gas chamber, and lots of gruesome photos of famous criminals after they lost their gunfights. The lower floor is dedicated to those officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty and is very touching. Most people spend their time in Miami on the beach, but if you get tired of that, try this museum for a different experience.
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Prospect Update
For those of you who remember our last update, we mentioned watching a 15-inning game in San Antonio. The opposing team was the Round Rock Express, AA-team of the Houston Astros, and their starting pitcher was Carlos Hernandez. He pitched well that day, but didn't get the decision as the game went into extra innings.
Well, just two weeks later, Hernandez made his major-league debut and was outstanding. Albeit against the Pirates, Hernandez pitched 7 scoreless innings, including 7 K's as Houston won 3-0. It was the most scoreless innings pitched in a major-league debut since 1987. With Tim Redding in New Orleans, and Wade Miller and Roy Oswalt in Houston, the Astros look to have one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball.
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This week we see the Braves play the Padres a couple of times. After that, we head up the east coast with a minor league game in Durham, NC (made famous in the movie Bull Durham) before visiting Baltimore, New York, and Boston. With friends in NY and Boston, as well as another friend joining us for a week, we are looking forward to the next month. It is hard to believe that we have completed 4 months and 22 major league parks, but we still have 2 months and 8 parks left, so we will keep writing and we hope that you keep reading.
Talk to you later,
Sean and Aya
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