Wrigley Field, Chicago -- Aug. 3, 2008

Almost done, folks, and this one will be short.

A year ago I proclaimed Wrigley Field preferable to Fenway Park and now, having been to both again within the last six weeks, I say so again.

Both are relics. But Fenway has included modern trappings that I find out of place. It has the big video scoreboard and advertising all over the place. Wrigley has none of that. It looks the way it might have looked in the 1930s, except for those bleacher seats atop the neighborhood roofs, and you can't blame the Cubs for that.

I also find Cubs fans clever in a pathetic, self-effacing way. Much of the Red Sox paraphernalia you see rips on the Yankees, or commemorates the two recent World Series wins as if they were 20. But I saw these examples of Cubs gear:

* Centurypeat!

* A jersey with Rowengartner, No. 1 on it (see previous post).

* A shirt honoring the Cubs' three World Series winners -- 1885, 1907 and 1908.

Not gonna say much about the park. What's to say? I've seen it, you've seen it. But any time I come here it brings back memories of afternoons spent away from campus in the mid-1970s, and those were good times. It was good to come back.

Thanks for reading. Maybe next year I'll learn how to do this better.

Outside Wrigley Field

Three items of interest:

* I should have taken a picture of this. It was surreal. Flyers on lamp posts alongside the stadium were advertising an upcoming concert by one Thomas Ian Nicholas. I thought to myself, "Isn't that ... ?" and then I checked when I got home. It is. Thomas Ian Nicholas is the kid who played Henry Rowengartner, the 12-year-old who pitches the Cubs to the World Series in the 1993 movie Rookie of the Year. Now he is a musician who has some Illinois dates this month. http://www.thomasiannicholas.com/ Is this an omen or what?

* I did take a picture of this. A character named Billy Cub stands outside the Cubbie Bear, an establishment across the street from Wrigley Field, and will pose for a picture with you with the famous sign in the background. He also has a bucket so he can hit you up for tips (note his left hand). I thought he worked for the bar, but apparently Billy Cub is a figure of some controversy in Wrigleyville. The Cubs are one of four teams without an actual mascot, and Billy Cub is pushing for the distinction. There's an online petition allowing you to endorse him for the spot. http://www.petitiononline.com/billycub/petition.html I signed his petition and gave him a buck. Who could refuse? The Chicago Reader also had this story about Billy Cub: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wayw/070727/

* They have a new Ernie Banks statue, and the old Harry Caray statue. Speaking of which, did you see Skip Caray died? I can't believe he was 68.

More on the bus

The travel on this trip has been rough. I figure these were the distances each day:

Wednesday, Chicago-Milwaukee, 100 miles

Thursday, Milwaukee-Minneapolis, 300 miles

Friday, Minneapolis-Kansas City, 430 miles

Saturday, Kansas City-St. Louis, 220 miles

Sunday, St. Louis-Chicago, 290 miles

Got to see The Natural on the St. Louis-Chicago run, hadn't seen it before. Couldn't catch some of the dialogue with the din on the bus. They also showed The Sandlot on the Kansas City-St. Louis run which, though terrible, isn't as terrible as The Sandlot II. They had video features on Buck O'Neil and Ewing Kaufman on the way to Kansas City.

Jay Buckley, who runs these tours, has an audiotape for each city with some little-known facts. Try this: If you park at a meter in Chicago, put a peanut M&M wrapper on the dashboard and you won't be ticketed if the meter expires. It means you're a cop.

'Do rag for Dogs

This is the humiliating way they dress them at the kennel where I leave them.

This is Bugs, BTW.

Busch Stadium, St. Louis -- Aug. 2, 2008

I'll have to revise my stadium rankings after this. Either this is No. 2 behind Detroit, or No. 3 behind that and Pittsburgh. It's really nice.

I've talked to people on and not on this trip who don't like it. It caters to its high-end customers, that's for sure. The premium seats in the lower bowl all have cushions. Two levels of luxury suites are directly above the lower stands and span from third base to first, which doesn't allow the stadium to have the open lower concourse that most of the other new ones have. The concourse is mostly open on the top deck, though. I don't think I've seen that before.

All the concourses are busy. There aren't any just for walking. Everywhere you walk you come upon areas for food, merchandise sales or recreation. There's a family pavilion in right field and an open area behind the scoreboard in center. Didn't seem to be as much activity in the outfield areas as there was in, say, Washington, though.

I've never seen a fan base so dedicated to wearing its team's colors. Everywhere is red -- Cardinals jerseys and shirts. The seats are red, too, so if you're stuck with a lousy one in right field like I was, you can't pick out empty seats to which you could migrate. It could be a seat, or it could be a person.

They have a statue of Stan Musial at one of the entryways, and five or six smaller ones nearby. Couldn't tell who they were. The problem with putting these statues outside, as most teams are doing, is that if you're a one-time visitor and you come in a different way, you miss them. I saw them from the top.

Best selection of food I've ever seen, particularly in an area called the Redbird Club on the third deck. You can get almost anything. I couldn't resist the peanut butter cupcake ($5), or the crispy pizza ($7). In scrambling for a place to sit and eat, I dropped the pizza on my shoes. And, as you already know I'm writing four days after the fact, I must report that I can still see dried sauce on my shoelaces today.

Fear not. They made me a new one free.

The players were part of a display in center field. I don't know who they are, but yes, I should have buttoned my shirt. Shows you how hot it was.

The scoreboard is from the last game at Busch Stadium II, just as it was when the Cardinals played their last game there.

Visiting the arch

St. Louis was the only place on the trip where we had time to see the city other than the ballpark. So I spent my afternoon at the Gateway Arch.

It looks impossibly tall when you're alongside it. The wait for a trip to the top was two hours, and I was warned that the egg-like capsules that take you to the summit are not for the claustrophobic. But I wasn't going to pass it up. The fee was $14 and included a movie about the Lewis and Clark expedition. For $22 you could get the arch and a riverboat ride, but I was told that because of currents the boats weren't running.

I passed the two hours at the movie and browsing the museum under the arch devoted to the country's westward expansion. Didn't even know it existed. I found it interesting. They had a timeline with the developments every year from 1800-1900, stretching four full walls. Then they had artifacts from Lewis and Clark. And they had a lot more I couldn't get to.

The film was well done. Lewis took his dog on the trip, so an actor dog was portraying him, sitting on the bow of a rowboat. Didn't see the actor dog toward the end of the film, so I don't know if they were implying that the actual dog didn't make it.

You ride five to each egg heading to the top of the arch. I was alone and got moved to the front, getting the same break I always get on Space Mountain. The ride is four minutes. At the top is a corridor about eight feet wide, with maybe 50 persons there. There were about eight narrow, rectangular windows on each side, one set overlooking St. Louis, the other overlooking the Mississippi. Great view. I could see into the ballpark, where Cardinals Photo Day was happening -- I'd chosen to pass it up for the arch.

Coincidence: I rode down with the same people with whom I'd ridden up.

Pardon the Interruption

I became ill Saturday night, and remained so for the rest of the trip. Then American Airlines lost my suitcase, which contained my cables for uploading photos, for two days.

I'm home now. But even though this has lost all semblance of a blog, I'm going to finish it out of stubbornness.

So where were we? Oh yeah ... en route to St. Louis.

Live on ESPN (Radio)

One of the passengers is Joe Lenti, a retired New York radio personality. He did a remote Friday morning on his trip experience for the ESPN radio affiliate in New Haven, Conn.

He told me it would be archived on their Web site. Maybe you can find it, I can't. Let me know.

http://www.espnradio1300.com/

UPDATE: The actual link is this: http://www.espnradio1300.com/pages/jox/insideyankeebaseball.html

He uses his stage name, Joe McCoy. His show is "Inside Yankees Baseball," and this segment appeared on the show that had sportswriter Maury Allen. Look for Maury Allen's picture on the lower left. They hadn't updated as of Monday morning.

Pandering

I wore the Penguins jersey today to curry favor with the Canadians on the bus.

It was a good conversation starter. One of them said he has season tickets for the Maple Leafs, and his tone was like he was confessing a sin.

Anyway, had to take it off before noon. Too hot.

Kaufman Stadium, Kansas City, Mo. -- 8-1-08

The park is 35 years old this season but looks about 15. It still has that clean, wide-open look, with the waterfalls in centerfield and water jets in right. Unfortunately it also still has the miserable Royals as tenants.

They are doing a $250 million renovation. It will expand the exterior and the concourses, and gave the outfield the mall-like look that they have in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and other places.

The first part of the renovation is already in place. It is a gargantuan video scoreboard that definitely did not come from the stock at Best Buy. It has the clearest picture I've seen. It overdoes it with stats -- it gives you so many numbers that by the time you find what you want the batter is out.

They are claiming that this is the world's largest stadium monitor and that it will hold this distinction until Jerry World opens next year.

I was saddened because I assumed the new board had replaced the old Royals logo board -- the one with the crown that was a signature feature of Royals Stadium. But an usher, who had time on his hands with the crowd at just 22,000 or so, pointed out to me the disassembled crown in the construction area in right field. They will reassemble it on top of the new Royals Hall of Fame in left field, so rejoice, the crown lives on. And the new board also will get its own crown -- if they design it to scale, it will reach to the moon.

More random observations:

* They have a prominent Jackie Robinson memorial in center field that has his number, faux signature and, obscenely enough, two Dodge vehicles on top to appease a Royals sponsor. I'm among the camp that contends baseball overdoes it with Jackie Robinson, with such gestures as retiring his number in places such as Tampa and Phoenix, which didn't even have teams when he played. But the guy played in KC with the Monarchs, so I guess the Royals have cause.

* I forgot to go to the late Buck O'Neil's seat, which is painted red in contrast to the blue of all the others. One honored spectator sits there each night.

* Slugger the Royals' lion posed for a picture with me.

* They have a small, out-of-the-way display of famous Royals of the past such as George Brett and ... and ... well, I'm sure there were others. Yeah, Paul Splitorff. The team's 1985 World Series trophy is there and surprisingly has no expression of gratitude to Don Denkinger. It's not an impressive section, but as they are constructing a new one I'll give them a pass. Right, Bret Saberhagen too.

* They had not one but two variations on the dot race, probably because these are more fun to watch than the Royals. One hot dog defeated two others in the first one. It was a yellow hot dog, so it represented mustard in a battle of condiments. Later lawn mower No. 1 defeated two others in a race sponsored by John Deere.

*Idiots were on the scoreboard trying to guess the meaning of words. According to one, the military building near Washington with five sides is called the Pyramid. According to another, a TKO in boxing is two knock outs.

*Nothing special in food selection, though they did have barbecue. Prices were more reasonable than Milwaukee.

*The usher with time on his hands also pointed out that the infield grass had been torn out and replaced during this season. Sure enough -- it's obviously a different shade than the rest of the field and might even be different grass. Take a look next time your Rangers are here.

*They made us park I think in Kansas City, Kan. I suppose this was in anticipation of Royals fans needing parking spaces, but each fan would have needed to bring three cars to stretch out to where they stuck us.

3 billion potential page views

I am fired up that the management group was linked to this blog. If Keith visits after his arrival in China, it will open the lucrative Asian market for me.

I know the blog sucks but give me a break

Every night I have to go to the front desk and get a bridge because no one gave me a wireless card and I can't afford a Blackberry so when I finally get set up I've forgotten half of the interesting things that happened and I've got wires everywhere charging my phone, my camera and my laptop and it would be so much better to write this on the bus but I can't.

And I don't know how to put the pictures where I want them because I haven't had time to learn all the things I can or can't do with Blogspot so maybe someone should teach me and it's amazing that I've even learned how to include pictures at all.

I haven't been to bed yet and it's almost time to leave already because we're getting in later and later and leaving earlier and earlier and that psychopath Ozzie Guillen made it worse tonight by pulling his team off the field because someone threw a hat at him and tomorrow will be just terrible because we're driving 450 miles.

And I can't turn down the air conditioning in this room it's 97 degrees outside but just 18 degrees in my room and they don't even have a free Continental breakfast at this hotel so I'm either going to have to pay for food in the morning or I'm going to oversleep and not get any food at all either way it's bad.

So just be thankful for what you have.

Scratch off another one

The Metrodome mades 22 current and 31 total ballparks for me.

Also I'd never been to Minnesota before so that's 45 states. I'm mssing Vermont, Maine, South Carolina and the two so-called Dakotas. I know it's dicey whether I've been to Montana and Idaho but I'm counting them. I've seen North by Northwest but I'm not counting South Dakota.

Also I was thinking that now that I've been to Minneapolis the biggest U.S. city I've not been to is Bismarck, N.D. Yes, I've been to Anchorage.

Metrodome, Minneapolis -- July 31, 2008

OK, so be cruel and call it the Metrodump. The place is on its way out. Give it a break.

It can't compete with the new parks, but some of the quirky features are cool. In Fenway Park, odd ballpark features are worshipped. Here they're ridiculed. I don't understand.

The highlights:

* The famous Baggie in right field is gone. I was surprised. I don't know how long it's been gone. In its place is a Dodge ad that is printed on what appears to be a giant wrestling mat.

* I can't think of another park with so little room behind home plate. If you have a seat in the first row, you have as good a view as the home plate umpire. And could do a better job, at least according to what Ron Gardenhire seems to think. He nearly triggered a riot tonight by kicking his cap after he was ejected.

* They have a sign in left field saying, Countdown to the New Park -- 106. Ah, but 106 what? Days? Hours? Years? A couple of friendly Minnesotans told me it is 106 games, so that's the number of games left in 2008 plus all of 2009. I think that's too soon to start a countdown.

* The roof is tacky. It's like being in a cheap tent. There are tears in it. Holes. This may be from the T-shirt gun the Twins' mascot, a wolf (and why is it a wolf? Who knows?) shoots, or from balls striking it. It might just be an optical illusion, but I swear every other fly ball looks like it will graze the roof.

* Likewise, the Twins' two home runs tonight were just terrifying. Either the air conditioning was blowing out or the White Sox pitching was especially miserable. It was John Danks and a cast of dozens, by the way.

* They have tiny video screens at two sides of the field -- the end zones for Vikings games, actually. It is laughable compared with the gigantic Videotrons of the last decade. It's like trying to watch your neighbor's TV three houses away.

* The scoreboards are useless. Either the information is too small, or they don't have it, or you can't find it. They have these pastel colors on the out-of-town score strip that ensure you can't read the scores.

* The red horse won the Twins' version of dot race. Here the three horse contestants each represent a section of the grandstand. I don't think the winning fans get anything other than the prestigious honor of having the winning horse, though. There was no hat game nor was there any sort of game where fans make jackasses of themselves. They did have some sort of Let's Make a Deal game where a fan failed to win a deluxe room at a hotel casino and instead settled for -- not making this up -- a two-for-one buffet coupon at the casino.

* I've never entered a stadium through a revolving door before. That's either to keep the cool air in or the building inflated, or both. After the game they take out the revolving doors so everyone can pour out. The wind pouring out of the dome makes for tornado conditions at each exit.

* The stadium is serviceable but because of it's shape, if you sit down the third base line you have to crane your neck to see home plate. We sat down the first-base line and you couldn't see right field.

* You know I'm tired when I put an apostrophe in the wrong its.

* A very gray Mark Spitz threw out the first ball.

* Thought we might see Sox newcomer Ken Griffey tonight but I guess he'll join them tomorrow in Kansas City. I wonder if he can pitch.

Stops along the way

We made two stops today, both interesting to me.

First was in a town called Wisconsin Dells, a place that appears to be nothing but endless miniature golf courses, rollercoasters, boat rides and pizza stands. It's basically a Branson for 13-year-olds.

Schnetz, why didn't you tell me about this place? I want to come back.

Saw a sick-looking ride that I wanted to try, but I would have risked missing the bus. It was basically a rotating giant steel beam with a two-person car at each end. The riders must have been 100 feet in the air and moving fast.

The picture shows some of Wisconsin Dells. Look above the tree for one of the cars on this ride.

Second stop was at Carson Park, a baseball field in Eau Claire where Hank Aaron made his pro debut in 1952. There's a statue of him outside the park, and a local sports writer who wrote a book on Aaron's year in Eau Claire joined us to tell his story.

A team in a college developmental league uses the field now, and their players were warming up for the game. I asked for information on them and was surprised to find that one of them is from Forney. So I introduced myself and blogged about him at HSGameTime.com.

Meet the bus mates

They did a thing today where each of us came forward while the bus was rolling and said a bit about ourselves.

I said where I worked and what I did and told of the Super Bowls and minor league baseball teams I covered. And I told everyone my family members are in a kennel -- Taz, Bugs and Stitch.

Learned that a high percentage of these people are teachers, retired and otherwise. There are a few accountants, a couple of lawyers and a stockbroker.

There's also a NASA engineer involved in a project to send something or other to the moon.

There are I think eight kids on the trip ranging from about 8 years old to 19.

Once it became known where I was from and what I did, one of the Cubs fans buttonholed me on one of our stops to talk about whether I thought Mark Cuban would be a good owner for them. Of course I told him of my extensive encounters with Cuban as Mixed Martial Arts editor.

Miller Park, Milwaukee -- 7-30-08

So I'm not really sold on a team that has a mascot named Cravin Cream Puff.

Judging from their play last night, though, the Brewers are totally inspired by this character. He/she is one of many living menu items that can be seen on the premises at Miller Park, driving the home team to heights of achievement.

Miller Park is my 21st current stadium, 30th overall. I was one of 44,871 for Wednesday's 7-2 Cubs victory. Most notable box score item: The Cubs left one or two runners on base in each inning for a total of 15. They had 14 hits and drew eight walks.

But enough about the game. Here are scattershot observations about Miller Park, scattershot because I finally figured out how to get online and the bus leaves in an hour:

* The Brewers have a large area for tailgating, and it's very much used. I don't think I've seen this done to such an extent in baseball. Our group had a spread waiting, and it served as an icebreaker for us. We have 56 on the tour including driver and two guides.

* Remnants of the old park are walking distance from Miller Park, part of a Little League facility. I did not get there. Apparently they have the old home plate and a statue of Hank Aaron.

* Seen from the inside, the retractable roof makes Miller Park look immense, especially when you look at the third-base side. It's not a homey place like other new parks.

* They have an area set aside for a Wall of Fame for Milwaukee and Wisconsin baseball. It's off in a neglected corner, and you could miss it. It's nine display vases, three of which are about women's baseball (is that, like, huge here?). I prefer Citizens Bank Park, where the Philadelphia Hall of Fame is a big part of the pregame experience. Anyway, two display cases are dedicated to Wisconsin baseball. Turns out three of the saddest figures in baseball history were Wisconsin natives: Fred Merkle, who made the most disastrous baserunning error of all time and cost the New York Giants the 1908 pennant; Oscar "Happy" Felsch, one of the Black Sox (the one played by Charlie Sheen in Eight Men Out), and Addie Joss, a dominant pitcher in the first decade of the 20th century who died of tuburcular meningitis after nine seasons. He's in the real Hall of Fame. They have his picture here. I think he was about 31 when he died; in his picture (still living), he looks 58.

* I wandered about before the game as usual. Great food selection, way expensive gift shop. They have Autograph Alley in the gift shop, which is display cases filled with balls signed by baseball stars and ordinary fans alike. At least I think that's what it was.

* I kept looking at the guy in the Brewer costume all night dancing on his platform in left field. When Prince Fielder hit the only HR of the night in the ninth inning, I was so busy totaling my scoresheet that I forgot to watch him go down his slide. Damn!

* The hot dog won the sausage race. Apparently the hot dog is the dominant menu item in the series. Five forms of sausage took part. For diversity's sake, one wore a Mexican hat and was apparently a South of the Border sausage.

* The ball was under the No. 1 hat.

* The fat girl finished last in the I Can Make A Bigger Fool of Myself Than You contest, which, judging from my previous baseball swing, is the hot new ballpark activity.

* A woman six rows in front of me suffered a broken face when Fielder's foul line drive bounced off her head. She left bleeding. No update on her, but a Brewer official came by taking down info on a pad after she left, maybe getting prepared for a lawsuit. Shouldn't joke, it was scary. Should be noted that we were sitting a bit beyond first base -- a hard target for a LH batter like Fielder to hit. Usually the balls you get there are slices from RH hitters.

* Got to stand in the fake Brewers dugout with the fake Fielder and fake Ryan Braun. The fake Braun would have been as much a threat as the real Braun, who was size-4 with 3 strikeouts.

* The vendor cheated my seatmate of 50 cents. As if they don't bilk you enough with their prices.

* Remind me to tell you about my seatmate on the bus, but I haven't time now.

* I don't know how to do layout on this so it looks good. I trust you can tell which pictures go with which items.

*We are off to Minneapolis in 15 minutes. After this trip I will have seen 19 teams this season. I'm looking for ways to get the other 11. Only a minuscule number of people has the opportunity to do this -- just the entire populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. So I'm going to unilaterally say I'm the only one who's ever seen all 30 teams in a season, take the buyout and find work as a display at Cooperstown.