Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun25

Battle of the Bay: Giants 9, Athletics 8 (Saturday); Athletics 4, Giants 2 (Sunday)

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This weekend I discovered the time and place for interleague — when two teams actually have a rivalry built up based on both geography and a previous grudge (in this case, the 1989 World Series).  I went to two of the Oakland-San Francisco games held this weekend in Oakland at the O.co Coliseum.  The stadium was split pretty evenly with people sporting green and gold and people sporting orange.  No matter what happened, somebody cheered and somebody groaned.  Unlike the Red Sox-Yankees glory days, while still a serious rivalry, the Bay Bridge allegiances cross friendships.  Thus, the atmosphere was closer to that of a friendly family feud than a blood sport — not unlike when my grandmother’s house gets split for Vikings-Packers games and then we all eat turkey together afterwards.  (I’ve been told that the Giants-Dodgers game happening down the street from me tonight is what the Giants fans save their true hatred for.  The A’s fans don’t seem to really hate anyone, except for Red Sox and Yankee fans who takeover their stadium.)

Saturday it appeared that the Giants were going to massacre their hosts, up 9-4 going into the bottom of the 9th.  Most of the A’s fans left early and the Coliseum became AT&T Park East.  But the A’s battled back and brought it within a run.  With two outs, they loaded the bases… and Jemile Weeks popped out to shallow right in what turned out to be the longest nine inning game in Oakland history (4 hours, 15 minutes).  The multitude of Giants fans around me actually hugged the one A’s fan left in the bleachers and told him “Better luck next time!”

On Sunday I went with a bunch of curlers and we tailgated in the parking lot before the game.  It reminded me of our family roadtrips to County Stadium in Milwaukee, except that this time I drank a beer with my freshly grilled bratwurst.  Inside the stadium, the game was much tighter than the previous day’s game — and I sat next to quite possibly the world’s biggest A’s fan.  (Jeff Francoeur bought her pizza earlier this year.)  Thus, I decided that unlike my neutral cheering on Saturday, I’d be an A’s fan this time.

Once again, the game came down to the bottom of the 9th.  The A’s were down 2-1.  Cespedes and Inge singled their way on base, but Seth Smith and Brandon Moss struck out.  This left it up to Derek “not the son of Chuck despite similar heroics” Norris, who at this point had all of one major league hit — a single in Saturday’s game.

His second hit was much more memorable: a no-doubter three run homer to left field to give the A’s their first win of the weekend.  It was a good day to be wearing my A’s jersey.

(And then, because we are curlers, we all went to the bar and resumed the tailgate, including grilling some steaks in the outdoor patio at the bar.  It’s nice to know people who are in with the bartenders.)

Jun19

Twins 5, Brewers 4 — 15 innings

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Twins 5, Brewers 4 — 15 innings

As previously mentioned, the day after Martini’s wedding, I took Quinn, Harvey, and Katie to Target Field to see the Twins play the Brewers.  Except that Quinn was, uh, recovering and didn’t show up until the top of the 5th.  No worries however — he still got to see 9 full innings of baseball as the Twins and Brewers decided it was a good day to play 15.  In fact, Quinn saw more innings than Harvey and Katie, who had to leave after the 9th in order to catch their respective flights.  There was also a 45 minute rain delay in the 12th, during which I got to visit the Metropolitan Club for the first time, thanks to a new friend I had previously only known on Twinkie Town and twitter, who happened to be sitting a few rows in front of us in the third deck.  Thanks, Anelle (not her real name)!

As for the game — the good guys won!  Both teams scored a run early through a combination of small ball, but then the Brewers went up 4-1 in the 5th on a Corey Hart 3-run homerun.  (This coincided with Quinn arriving at our seats, so we decided it was his fault.)  The many Brewers fans in the park went crazy, but their joy only lasted a few innings as the Twins tied it up in the 7th on a walk and four singles.  And then the score stayed tied… and stayed tied.  And then it rained… and rained.

After our field trip to the Metropolitan Club, where I checked out some Blyleven memorabilia and some Twins china, we relocated to the first level, right behind first base.  Jeff Gray came in to pitch for the Twins and performed like an ace for three innings, before getting replaced by Swarzak in the 15th.  In the bottom half of the innings, the Twins managed to load the bases in the 12th, but failed to score.  Then came the 15th and they put two runners on.  Jamey Carroll hit a single and Trevor Plouffe came around to score what I was sure would be the winning run, only to get caught in a run down.  After a Brewers pitching change and some defensive indifference, Denard Span came to the plate with runners on second and third… and boom!  Solid single to right to win the game!  Twins win!  The crowd (all eighteen of us left — which apparently included my uncle and cousin) went crazy!

Take that, Wisconsin.  Here’s some pictures.

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Jun15

Twins 1, Phillies 6

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Twins 1, Phillies 6

I’m currently in Minneapolis for Martini’s wedding. On Sunday, I’ll be at Target Field taking Harvey, Quinn, and Katie to the Brewers-Twins games. I was so excited about this that I forgot to notice that it was going to be Father’s Day and I’d be at a baseball game in my hometown without my dad. To make up for this, I bought four Legends Club seats to tonight’s game against the Phillies — Jim Thome’s triumphant return to Target Field — and took my parents and sister.

Now, Jim Thome holds the current record for number of homeruns hit at Target Field.  He hit his 600th career homerun for the Twins last season in Detroit (which, if you’ll recall, I screwed up by not being at), and then they released him so that he would get picked up by a contender.  Now this year he’s playing for his old manager Charlie Manuel in the National League where there is no DH… except tonight in the Interleague game against the Twins.  He already crushed one homerun on Wednesday, so my hope was that he’d gotten it out of his system and the Twins could win today’s game and thus win the series.

Nope.

Jim Thome crushed a 3 run homer in the third to put the Phillies up 4-1.  Odds are, that’s his last homerun at Target Field.  Slightly smaller odds are that that’s his last homerun, since I’ve heard rumors that he’ll be retiring once these interleague series are over. Unfortunately, I foolishly left the good camera at home, so the only picture I took is this camera phone shot of Thome about to cross the plate… good job, Gentleman Jim. And happy father’s day, Dad!

Jim Thome crosses the plate after his 607th homerun, his last at Target Field.

Jun13

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 5

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 5

Our last day in Alaska was filled with driving.  We had a lot of ground to cover to get Laura to her conference in Anchorage, and we made it harder on ourselves by taking a 175 mile detour to the Worthington Glacier as recommended by the East German woman who ran the roadhouse we had stayed at the night before.  We also paused and took a brief hike to view the Matsunaka Glacier.

By the end of the trip, I was amused by the marked change in Laura’s outlook.  When she picked me up in Anchorage, she kept commenting on how small it seemed.  I kept telling her that we were in the big city, and she seemed skeptical.  Driving back to Anchorage, we stopped in Palmer, which is almost an Anchorage suburb.  “This town is so big!  There are so many cars!”  Ah, how quickly we adapt.  When we checked in to her conference hotel — a Hilton — we were both shell shocked by the luxury.  Fresh towels! A shower that is taller than me with real temperature control! An elevator!

Alas, I did not stay at the Hilton.  I took a 1 AM flight back to SF.  I thought I might see darkness from the plane for the first time since leaving the lower 48.  But even though I didn’t really fall asleep, just as it looked like dusk might descend into night, the sun started to rise again.  A starry night sky would have to wait until I returned to California.

Here’s Laura and I in our final Alaska minute…

… and lest you not believe us about the eagle, here is the amazing picture Laura’s DSLR got of him flying around above us shortly after we stopped filming the above video.  That’s National Geographic stuff right there.

An eagle soaring above us

(Coming eventually: I will sort through the 1000s of photos we took and pick the best ones to put on Picasa.  But nothing beats that eagle.)

Jun12

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 4

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 4

Alaska Day 4 (Saturday)… our original plan had been to drive the Denali Highway, an unmaintained 135 mile dirt road that goes east from Denali National Park to a tiny little town (which we learned barely qualifies as a town) called Paxson.  However, a morning rain storm and a bit of concern from the owner of the cabins we woke up at convinced that driving an unmaintained wet gravel road through the mountains in a Ford Fiesta was not the best idea.  So instead, we headed north to Fairbanks and planned to take the Richardson Highway back south to Paxson — a fairly substantial detour.

Our first stop was in the tiny railroad town of Nenana, home of the Nenana Ice Classic, where you can buy a ticket guessing the day, hour, and minute that the ice will break on the river and earn a six-figure prize if you’re correct.  Nenana is also home to Joanne Hawkins, who might be my favorite person that we came across on the trip.  Joanne was the clerk at a little gift shop in town and she had plenty of stories to tell us — including the fact that her book was just published and she had autographed copies for sale.  Only later did Laura and I figure out that this independent self-made woman owns half of Nenana.  I really regret not buying her book, although it appears to be available from an independent seller on Amazon.

After Nenana, we drove to Fairbanks and stopped to visit the hometown of our old college friend Jay Schamel (who is now in Georgia, alas).  Then we stopped at the North Pole.  Okay, not the North Pole, but North Pole, Alaska, where we did find Santa and his reindeer.  Deciding we’d had enough of the road, we took a break to go canoeing in the Chena Lakes before heading out to the Knotty Shop for some ice cream and souvenirs.

Shortly after we left the Knotty Shop (amazingly delicious butter pecan ice cream, by the way), we started seeing moose all over the place — we counted a total of seven.

After stops in Delta Junction to check out Rika’s Roadhouse (now a historical park) and get some dinner, we realized that it was 9 PM, but we were still too far from Anchorage to stop with any hope of getting Laura to her conference on Sunday.  We also noted that we were 151 miles from the nearest town that had lodging according to the Lonely Planet travel guide.  And so we did the only sensible thing — we made a pact to keep driving and hope that there would be something and agreed to sleep in the car if there was nothing.  After all, we didn’t have to worry about it getting dark!  We saw the midnight sun from the car, and after a few false hopes, we found the Meiers Lake Roadhouse, which doesn’t appear in any guides or maps that we can find.  But it was a bed and a shower — both very welcome things at 1 am.

Jun11

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 3

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 3

A much delayed report of day three of the trip because we spent the last few days at places with no wifi.  But at least there were showers.  Friday we woke up in the hostel and headed a few miles north to Denali National Park.   We took the green shuttle bus out to the Eielson Visitor Center and then went on a hike further into the park.  We saw quite the array of wildlife including:

  • Caribou, probably about a dozen total over three groups.  (Laura and I also saw one on the highway driving up from Talkeetna.)
  • Dall sheep… soooo many Dall sheep.  But the ones that were ten feet from the bus were the most impressive
  • A brown bear — This was the only animal that excited the bus driver.  “Bear on the road!  Bear on the road, 12 o’ clock!  Everyone roll down your windows and be quiet!”
  • Golden Eagle
  • Lynx

Sadly, the clouds blocked our view of Denali the mountain…  (Note that in the following video, I am standing about five feet in front of Laura, and as a result, I look like a giant compared to her — or she looks extra small.)

On the bus ride back we met Cass.  Cass is a clerk for the interpretive center at the park, but on Friday he was just taking the shuttle bus ride like any other visitor.  He pointed out something that changed the way I viewed the park: “The star of the show is not the landscape, it’s the light.  The mountains are a beautiful canvas, but the way they are painted by the midnight sun with its odd angles is what makes them more dramatic than any other mountain range.”  I’m paraphrasing him, but it’s a remarkable (and true) sentiment.

After we were finished, we drove to Healy and stayed at a cute little cabin a mile up a dirt road.  We were a little loopy at this point due to the lack of sleep caused by the strange psychological effects of the midnight sun… also, we hadn’t showered in a few days, so we don’t look our best.

Jun8

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 2

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 2

Laura and I are outside of Denali National Park staying in a hostel in Carlo Creek.  This is making Laura nervous because we are in a shared co-ed cabin with no locks. Luckily, no one else has checked in to our cabin, male or female, and no one stole our stuff while we went to dinner across the street.  I suggested we get the tents, which came with cots and sleeping bags, but the look on Laura’s face said that was a no-go even though it was cheaper.

But hey, there’s wifi… slow wifi, but it works.  Unfortunately, because it’s slow, there will be no posting of the Alaska Minute we filmed in Talkeetna this afternoon.  Nor any of the pictures we got of the waterfall we hiked to or our Sarah Palin impressions in Wasilla (for you, Scott) or the Caribou we saw on the side of the road or the corn hole game we played at the bar across the street from our hostel along a mountain stream.  (We lost, but there was beer and pizza so it was all good.)  We also went running around a dilapidated old building, which we think was a hotel, called “IGLOO.”  I don’t really know what it was or how to describe it.

Also, it’s still light out.  It’s five minutes to midnight.  We asked when we booked the hostel room when it gets dark.  The guy kind of laughed and said “Never.”

And an Australian just offered us a vegemite sandwich.  Hostels are great!

Edit: The hostel people restarted the router… it seems possible to upload a YouTube video now.  If it works, the embedded video below will be functional in the morning.

Jun7

Alaska Trip 2012: Day 1

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Alaska Trip 2012: Day 1

Remember a year and a half ago when I went to Alaska and took an approximately one minute long video each day and video blogged the trip?  No?  Go to the right of the blog and look up the October 2010 archives… I’ll wait.

Caught up?  Okay, good.  Because I’m in Alaska again and video blogging again — this time with the lovely Laura Lopez.  Here’s one of the highlights of day 1, when we saw moose at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  Below that is a brief clip of one of the bears we saw there — not as cool as the time I saw the bear in the wild (you did just look through all the 2010 videos, right?) but still pretty neat to be that close to one… even if he was behind an electrified fence.

Also, it’s almost midnight here and it’s still light out.  My internal clock is so very confused right now.