Washington Nationals Park

Wow, sometimes it's unbelievable how the pace differs between National League games and American League games. I think the last NL game I went to before last night was John Smoltz' complete game 3 hitter in Atlanta, which lasted 2:35. Last night's Nationals/Cardinals affair was hardly a pitchers' duel, given that every single run was scored on a homer, and the game was still over in 2:40. I can't remember the last Sox game I went to that went less than 3 hours, and many have been much, much longer.

In a nutshell, Pujols is as dangerous as advertised. Jordan Zimmerman, pitching in his third major league game, pitched admirably and sharply, but made a few too many mistakes, including an early one to Pujols, and eventually gave up a tater to batters 2-5 before his night was done. The Cards dominated this game in every sense, but there wasn't a lot of excitement. Two double plays, I think? The most exciting moment was the fastest trip around the bases on a homer I have ever seen.

The park (#12 franchise, #13 stadium for me) was nice and clean and our seats were in the club level, which meant padded seats, nice amenities and short lines. But in general, I was underwhelmed. Of the newest stadiums, AT&T, PNC and Citizens Bank Parks have a lot more personality. Beer selection was poor, service was worse and fan intensity was non-existent. Food was mediocre. It certainly seemed that Cardinals fans outnumbers Nats fans, at least in intensity. The spectacle scoreboards had so many gimmicks, I could have sworn I was at a minor league game. And why do so many teams (my Bucs included) insist on copying the old sausage race tradition of Milwaukee? I certainly would rather have a clear announcement of a pitching change (which we did not have) than a stupid "kiss-cam" or follow the baby in the bucket game.

I guess if we sat in the upper decks, we'd have had a nice view of the Capitol and Washington Monument, but from where we were, nothing special.

I'd go to another game there if I happened to be in DC on a game night, but if I go out of my way to go to a game in the DC area, it will be in Baltimore...

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Festival Bread... from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Great new iPhone/iPod Touch App!

I am greatly looking forward to opening day tomorrow. Since going to spring training this year, I'm about as excited about opening day as I ever have been.

So I was elated to see the new MLB At Bat app. For $10, you get a full season of pitch by pitch updates, video replay and... And.. Gameday audio. This means that I can listen to the Sox and Bucs on the treadmill at the gym, and listen at the office without using pc processor power. For even moderate baseball fans, this is a great deal!

Spring Training Trip: Coda

While we camped in Fort Myers, we had arranged for hotels on the way down and back. As I have for the past 10 years, I booked on hotwire.com, in which I commit to a hotel in a particular area at a particular quality level for a deeply discounted price. The downside is that I do not know what the hotel is until after I pay, and cancellations are not refunded. From an economics perspective, this makes perfect sense: hotels can sell otherwise unused inventory for something close to marginal cost while the commodity-seeking traveler sacrifices some certainty about lodging for a huge discount. In 10 years, I have stayed in very nice hotels in New York, Boston and San Francisco and some other reasonably clean, though bare-bones hotels in other parts of the country. The only disappointment I have ever had was a hotel in Boston that was technically in the zone advertised but much less convenient to public transportation than I expected. But this was not hotwire's fault -- it was mine.

Even our hotel for the trip down was a clean, bare-bones Days Inn in Lake City, FL that was easily worth the $40 we paid for it. Certainly nothing luxurious, but convenient, clean and safe.

The hotel we had in Valdosta, GA for the return trip was an extremely different story. For the first time, it was not a brand-name hotel. After learning the hotel name, I looked for some online reviews and very few were positive, so I was leery. We pulled in at 10:40 pm, tired boy in tow and very tired Dad in the lead. We had to turn down a spooky alleyway, with a strip club on the corner and a semi-truck depot on the other corner. Around the bend, we found the place. My concern was well-placed.

1. In 20 years of hotel stays, all around the world, I have never been asked to pay a $2 key deposit.
2. I have also never been asked to leave a $5 deposit for the TV remote.
3. I've never been able to hear every noise in the parking lot.
4. I've always had a clock radio (they haven't always worked, but that's beside the point)
5. I've never had to call hotwire to complain, and have them call the hotel while I was on the line to seek intervention on my behalf.
6. I've had pools closed for the season, closed for cleaning, or had inconvenient hours. I have never had pools closed for "mandatory upgrades" with yellow police tape across the front door.
   

This hotel was hardly suited to be a homeless shelter, but it was just for one night and we'd be out of there as fast as we could. Then, a lady started talking on her cellphone right outside our door, and she wasn't happy. In fact, she was using words Peter has never heard every other word or so. That was the last straw and we left as fast as we could, picking up our $7 deposit through a security window at the front desk. We found a Holiday Inn down the street that gave us a discount because it was so late (nearly midnight by now). After unwinding a while, we finally settled in for a comfortable, quiet night of sleep.

In Peter's words: "The room had an echo. It didn't even have a radio! We got out of there so fast we still had our pajamas on! And a little dog tried to get into our room before the woman picked him up and put him on the trailer!"

So here's a tip: If you are ever looking at hotwire for a hotel in Valdosta, GA, don't take any 2-star facility for less than $40. You might end up with the Briarwood Homeless Shelter Nightmare. It's very good to be home.

Update: Hotwire responded to my complaint and reviewed the star rating for this hotel. They determined that it was not up to their standards and downgraded it to a 1-star (still generous in my opinion, but at least I know never to bid on a 1-star hotel...) They credited the total fee to my account for use on a future hotwire purchase.

Fun in the sun and moonlight, post #5

I had been looking forward to our last game most of all. Sox vs. Pirates in Bradenton. I had been hearing about Bradenton since I toted a transistor radio along on my paper route, and always dreamed of going to a game there. I also know my Dad would have loved spring training, and he never got to go. So in a sense, this was a pilgrimage on his behalf as well. After the last two days in the sun, I realized the tickets I had for this game were also in the sun, on benches with no backs or arms. So my first priority on arriving in Bradenton was to find better seats, and willing to pay something for them. The first scalper I encountered had only scattered singles and wanted $10 over face value for them, trying to convince me that better seats were not available. Fortunately, I had been online the night before to see that seats were available together from the ticket office in the shade, but stopped short of buying in advance, since I would also have to pay the dreaded "convenience fees". After checking in with a couple other scalpers, we made our way to the ticket window where there was a line. I wore Pirates' gear and Peter was in Sox gear. Quite a pair :) and made a lot of people laugh. An usher right next to the ticket window was charmed and gave Peter a batting practice ball that had just popped foul into the sidewalk in front of him. While standing in the ticket line, a scalper caught my attention and indicated he did have seats in the shade. He wanted face value for them, and was also willing to take my bleacher tickets for face value. Wow, an honest scalper! I might have been able to bargain him down, but I was pretty pleased to be able to unload the seats I didn't want for a game I knew would be close to a sellout.

In the souvenir shop, Peter fell in love with the Pirate Parrot doll and had to have one. He also wanted to buy a gift for Liam, which was a baseball that unzipped to a cute little bear inside. Imagine his joy when he saw the genuine Pirate Parrot in the stadium. He got the Parrot's attention by holding up his stuffed friend and using the friend's voice to call out to "Daddy!" (i.e. Stuffed friend was clearly Pirate Parrot's son...) Here was a little Sox fan toting around the Pirate Parrot. Well, the Parrot had his say about the mix and match when we got the picture together. Pirate Parrot happily signed the ball from the usher outside the park.

Thus far on our trip, "our" team had won every game. So who would win this one, in which we were fans of both teams? Turned out to be a slugfest with multiple home runs, two triples and a combined 29 runs scored. At the end of the ninth, it was tied at 14 apiece. So it was a perfect ending. In spring training, extra innings is typically limited to a single extra inning and if a tie remains, it goes in the record books as a tie. The Sox manufactured a run in the top of the 10th and even though the Bucs got on base in the bottom, they couldn't score a run. Thanks to entertainment from the Pirate Parrot in our seats, and a visit from Aunt Gail in the latter innings after our neighbors had left, Peter made it through his first extra inning game which lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes. Plus the extra 45 minutes in our seats ahead of first pitch. I was SOOOO proud of him, and also knew that we would not have had nearly so much fun if we were sitting in the sun. It was a picture perfect end to our baseball adventures. I know Dad would have enjoyed being there with us and watching the hilarity of his grandson and the Pirate Parrot throwing popcorn at unsuspecting fans, and would have beamed when the Parrot returned to give a game ball specifically to Peter, and would have cheered on his Bucs all the way.

Best line of the whole trip was in the car after the game: "Daddy, why didn't they play that Dirty River song after the Red Sox won?" I had to dial up the Standells on my iPod and blast it on the car radio. Twice.




I can't wait to go back to Bradenton.

Fun in the sun and moonlight, post #4

On Sunday, we went to church before the game. As always when traveling, I checked ahead to see what the church situation was in Fort Myers and didn't see much that was convenient to our campsite or to the ballpark (where there was a 1:05 p.m. first pitch). So I was prepared to spot a place somewhere nearby or perhaps just have a devotional with Peter at the campsite. When arriving at the game on Friday, we parked in the lot of Central United Methodist Church, whose marquee sign said, "Welcome Spring Training Fans!" Looked like we'd found a church for Sunday worship. Given the proximity and the warm welcome, I'd expected to see more fans in the service, but it was sparsely attended and few obvious fans. We were warmly welcomed by several parishioners, though. There was no childrens church available, so Peter sat with me for the whole service; not something he does often, but he did well. The minister was young and energetic, and Peter wondered why he was "preaching so crazy".

We saw Gail (Christy's aunt) almost as soon as we entered the park. Peter had some tooth fairy money to spend on a souvenir, so we visited the ballpark store with Gail. She was, I think, amused at my discussions with Peter about what he could afford, how much he would have to borrow from me, and what was just not worth the money. She said it was clear I was a finance professor and wondered what the interest rate would be (0% as long as he paid within the grace period, btw). After he found something he was happy with and purchased it, Gail noticed that there were some Wally (Red Sox mascot) books for sale. He already had one of them, but she asked if he would like her to buy the one he didn't have. The rest of the day was spent looking for Wally. We finally found him, and Peter got him to autograph the book for him. Our seats were 4th row behind first base, in the sun. We lasted 5 innings before the heat made Peter miserable and we headed out for the campsite where we could use the pool.

Fun in the sun and moonlight, post #3

Peter's lower front four teeth have been loose since his dentist appointment in January. More recently, his adult bottom front teeth, which couldn't wait, started popping through before the babies were ready to leave (a thoroughly normal, though uncommon, phenomenon, according to our dentist). The babies have been wiggling for a while now, with Peter scared and excited at the same time. He had a hard time eating a soft pretzel at the Red Sox game, since it hurt his wiggling tooth so much. So that night, while preparing S'mores for the campfire, he had a raw marshmallow and winced in pain. Thinking not much of it, I suggested that he take smaller bites. It was later that I saw that his wiggly tooth had finally come out -- swallowed in marshmallow, it seems! He was beyond excited and used the reward from the tooth fairy (who apparently used *his* magic to take the tooth out of Peter's stomach, so he says) to buy a nice souvenir at the ballgame. Now he can't wait for the next one.

We went fishing at W.P. Franklin Locks in North Ft. Myers. It was apparently a good fishing spot since the people next to us were reeling them in one after another and they were not small. Peter had in mind that we should catch our own dinner, so we tried. As you can see, there are no pictures on this post because even though our neighbors had bursting nets, we had not a bite. So we made up for it by going to Pincher's Crab Shack. By the time the day was done, Peter was literally begging to go to bed. This never happens.

Fun in the sun and moonlight, post #2

Day 2 took us to Hammond Sports Complex, Spring Training home of the Minnesota Twins who were hosting my childhood team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. We both got decked out in Buccos regalia for this event, but not before a visit to Fort Myers Beach. Two words: avoid. it. at least during spring break. We sat in traffic for 45 minutes for the privilege of paying $6 to park and then be mobbed and huckstered most of the time we were there. The beach itself was pretty and the water blue, but the clientele and the strip of bars right behind the beach were not what I expected. Bath houses were hard to find and we didn't arrive dressed for the beach, so had to change in the car. Because the traffic was so bad (even at 10 am) we couldn't stay as long as we'd hoped or we'd miss much of the ballgame. Not that I wanted to stay for long anyway...

Hammond Sports Complex is a very nice place and we had fantastic seats. I hadn't realized that part of the reason our first game was so much fun was our seats in the shade. Even though these were among the best seats I have ever had for a game, it didn't last long because the sun was beating down on us. The temps were in the high 70s and it wasn't very humid at all, but the stadium risers pretty much blocked out any breeze. If we walked out into the concourse, it was very comfortable but in the stands it became quite uncomfortable, and you can see what colors the Bucs fans wear. About 5 innings was all we could take, but the Bucs took this one, meaning that our team had won each of the games we'd been to so far.

Fun in the sun and moonlight, Spring Training 2009, post #1

This was the week to fulfill a lifelong dream and take Peter along for the ride. We both enjoyed ourselves and learned some lessons along the way.

We arrived in Fort Myers at City of Palms Park just in time to meet Christy's aunt and friends, one of which was holding a spot for us in the autograph line. At Susan's suggestion, I hoisted Peter up on my shoulders and we waited. And waited. Chatting with a few folks who were waiting, consulting my roster for the names of some of the Sox who may have never played higher than AA (like Zach Daeges), we finally saw Chris Carter, who had 18 at bats for the Sox last season. Peter was yelling to him at the top of his lungs for about 10 minutes as he made his way down the line, until Carter finally recognized him and made clear that he intended to sign his ball. Peter yelled, "Sign it on the sweet spot, Chris!" which made everyone around us laugh. Carter was very nice and generous with his time and seemed to enjoy meeting the fans. Peter stayed for the complete game after making friends with a lady next to us and a little girl in front, so we got to sing "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the 8th and "Dirty Water" at the end of the game. I've never been in the swing of baseball so early in the season (sorry Christy...)

In the interest of ease, we got a hotel for the half-way point of the trip down but according to plan, we camped in a tent, with a single electric outlet and a water faucet at our site. We did have access to the bathhouse and pool, but we'll wean away from those extra features (not to mention my inflatable mattress) as Peter gets older. It was a pretty nice campground and it took Peter about 4 seconds to make friends with the lady in the next site. He spent the rest of the weekend looking for her and was very sad when she had to leave on Sunday. They left notes for each other. Peter is a very good and patient camper. He never asked for TV, computer games (even though I had a computer with me) or complained about noise or acted scared at all. His only complaint was that he was cold in the mornings (on Monday, I had a campfire going when he woke up -- make note for next time).

I'll blog the other events of the trip over the next few days.

Bagels

The closing of our local bagel shop (which I never made it to, but had their bagels at PTO coffee) got my friend excited about trying his own bagels. I shared the bagel recipe from the The Bread Baker's Apprentice and he raved about the bagels the recipe produced. This gave me the incentive to try it myself.

I'd always been leery of bagels, since I knew they had a two-stage baking process (boiling then baking) and it seemed like too much of a hassle. But I honestly found it easier to bake bagels than a standard kneaded loaf of bread. There's really only one rise, and it's a piece of cake to form the bagels using the method in the book (which is, essentially, form a roll and let it rise a few minutes. Poke a hole in the middle of the roll and form the bagel around the hole.) The boil is absolutely not a hassle and the baking is much quicker than a loaf of bread.

I had no malt in the house (except in beer bottles, ha) so I substituted honey, which the recipe allows. I also used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour in place of bread flour to increase the density of the crust just a little. I used all instant yeast, though the author suggests a sourdough method which I may try eventually. See the pictures of the finished product here.