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MLB ROAD TRIP 2001
2001.8.26 <VOL.29> Days 127-133
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*We are in Baltimore
Index
1. Atlanta Attractions
2. Durham
3. Whirlwind Washington
4. Camden Yards
5. Blue Jays
6. Little League World Series
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Atlanta Attractions
We spent four days in Atlanta last week, taking in a couple of Braves-Padres games at Turner Field. Ted Turner paid lots of cash to retrofit Atlanta's Olympic Stadium and make it a ballpark, and in turn the stadium would be named after him. If only they could retrofit Montreal's Olympic Stadium, perhaps some more fans would show up there too. But that is beside the point, if you want details on Turner Field, check out the website.
For us, Atlanta looked to be a new type of city. We have seen plenty of museums and art galleries on this trip, and we are always looking for attractions that are unique to the city we are visiting. Atlanta is home to a number of large international businesses, and we had high hopes for some new experiences at the Coca-Cola Museum and CNN tour. But sadly, those hopes were dashed on the rocks of commercialism. The CNN tour was a 40-minute hike through their offices, with views of the studios below. As we watched the main studio below us, the tour guide explained the responsibilities of each group of people.
Tour Guide: these are the news gatherers.... (points to a group of people chatting), and these are the editors....(points to another group of people chatting), and these are the producers.....(points to yet another group of people chatting).
It must have been a slow news day, because I can assure you there was no work being done in that office. It was any other office - lots of talk and not much else. I felt like screaming "Go gather some news!!" but the soundproof glass would have stifled my plea for something interesting on this tour. The highlight was when the guide pointed our the CNN anchorman: "And there is Leon Harris, preparing to go on the air"... The crowd "ooohed" appreciatively - they knew it wasn't going to get any better than that. At the end of the tour, we got stuck with a 5 minute video on all of the Turner Entertainment Networks. For $8, I could have seen 8 Braves games (they have great $1 seats at Turner Field). Well, now you know what I do: TNT doesn't stand for Turner Network Television, but Take No Tours!
Off to the Coke Museum. Pay more money. See more advertising. Now, I do like Coke, and I have drank plenty of it on this trip. And I did enjoy some of the older advertisements in the displays, particularly the ones that featured endorsements by 1920s ballplayers. But their video showing Coke being enjoyed around the world was stupid and stereotyped every race in existence (for example, the Japanese family was all wearing kimonos while drinking Coke, something that simply doesn't happen) and the free drinks you receive at the end are not drinkable. After leaving this place, I was so disappointed with Coke that I didn't drink any for one whole day.
Anyway, if you are in Atlanta, avoid these things and go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park. Run by the National Parks Service, it is free and educational. And you don't have to endure any ads!
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Durham
We had our best minor-league experience in Durham, NC on Thursday night. If you have seen the movie Bull Durham, you might be expecting a small-town show, but that is not the case. The Durham Bulls are the AAA-affiliate of Tampa Bay and have a new stadium that opened in 1995. It is a great minor league park that resembles Camden Yards with a red-brick building beyond right field.
We lucked out and showed up on $1 brat night - excellent bratwursts at $1 apiece - grease overload but worth every penny. Former Blue Jays Juan Guzman and Pat Borders started for Durham, which certainly brought back memories for me. The Bulls lost in extra innings to the Norfolk Tides who clinched their division title with the win. One of the players on Norfolk is Timo Perez, who played with the Mets in the World Series last year, and played in Japan for several years before that. We were sitting in the front row and cheering Perez in Japanese. After the game, Aya went to talk to him, and congratulated him on the division championship. He said that he heard our cheering in Japanese and was happy to hear it - he was very nice and signed a ball for Aya, all the while talking in Japanese. So Timo is our new MLB Road Trip hero - hope you make it back to the Show soon, Timo!
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Whirlwind Washington
Between Durham and Bowie lies Washington D.C., a town with no baseball team, but a few other things to see. We had a couple of hours before the game, so we decided to drive in and check out a few sights. I thought Aya would be interested at visiting some of America's most famous landmarks, but I was wrong. Oh, she was very excited, but for a different reason.
One of the things Aya has been doing during this trip is taking digital photos of the different license plates from each state that we travel through, and she plans to put together some sort of website when the trip is done. But sometimes she has missed a state or two, or the photo is not as good as it could be. Well, when we drove into a parking lot near the White House, Aya became very animated - was it because the Washington Monument was off to the left? No, it was because as we drove around looking for a parking spot, Aya noticed all the different license plates! "There's Delaware and Maine!" she exclaimed - two of the more difficult finds. I let her out of the car while I continued my search for a parking spot, and she wandered around the lot snapping new additions to her collection, much to the bemusement of other tourists. As she went around with her camera, checking state after state off her list, I am sure she was mistaken as some sort of Secret Service person, making sure that there were no troublesome tourists in the neighborhood.
We did eventually get to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Vets Memorial, and the White House, all in just over an hour. But I am sure that Aya will remember Washington as the license plate capital of the nation.
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Getting tickets at Camden Yards
What a great park! We just watched the Toronto Blue Jays take 2 from the Orioles on a weekend with perfect baseball weather. The full name of the park is Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but everyone refers to it as Camden Yards. It was the park that began the retro craze that has taken over baseball, and having now seen every one of the new parks, Camden is definitely the original. Good food, simple features with no distractions, and of course, Cal Ripken Jr., make this a great place to watch a baseball game.
The coolest thing about this park is the scalp-free zone. If you need a ticket to the game, avoid the box office and head to Gate F, where there should be a bunch of people with extra tickets to sell. The rules are simple - you cannot sell the tickets above face value - unlike normal scalping situations, in this case the buyer is in charge. When I walked in, there were about 15 people selling tickets and they all started shouting at me: "I got 2 tickets, what are you looking for, over here buddy," etc. What a great feeling - all these good seats at cheap prices. I told everyone that I had a limited budget and was laughed at by a few people, but eventually one guy was desperate enough to unload and we got great seats at half the normal price.
This scalp-free zone is a great idea - it basically destroys the scalper's market on the street, and allows the walk-up fan a choice of good seats without risking that the tickets are stolen or counterfeit. I hope that more teams adopt a similar approach - it is perfect for roadtrippers such as us.
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Go Blue Jays
By watching the Blue Jays yesterday, we have now seen every major league team on our trip. Ironically, although they were the last team we saw, the Blue Jays will be the team we see most often, as we still have 6 more late-season contests featuring them as they make a run at the playoffs. Aya assures me that they have no chance, but after this weekend, I think it is clear that they have been toying with the opposition until now and were saving themselves until we had the opportunity to see them live. Aya is now laughing at my rose-coloured outlook, but stranger things have happened.
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Little League World Series
A final word on the Little League World Series that was played this past week in Williamsport, PA. The championship game featured a team from Tokyo, which is Aya's home town and the city where I spent over 4 years, playing the American champs from Florida. President Bush even made an appearance, but his Florida luck ran out this time as Japan scored two runs in the bottom of the last inning to win 2-1. A great game (better than some of the major league battles we have watched) and Aya is very happy this evening as her hometown heroes head back to Japan as the true World Champions. Congratulations to them!
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We are off to New York this week. My friend Sharpy will be joining us for a few days there and we will be visiting a number of other friends around the city, so we are really looking forward to our time there. Of course, we will see the Blue Jays twice more as they continue their incredible run for the playoffs with 3 games against the Yankees. Next week, we will report on our New York news, so until then, have fun.
Talk to you later,
Sean and Aya
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