First of all, a public service announcement… I fudged the date of these new entries, so they’re not on top.
I spent the first half of the evening watching the Homerun Derby at home, despite it taking place only 45 minutes away. I entered my name in the lottery to win tickets four times – one for each game I went to this season, minus the Oakland game – but didn’t win. At the Oakland game, I was chivalrous enough to let Anand enter his name, but he didn’t win either. (And believe me, if he had won the pair of tickets, I would have been the one going with him.) My roommate has claimed the television from 10 to 11 to watch some TV show that I’m not remotely interested in. But luckily, I have my subscription to MLB radio to help to follow the Derby — which appears to be about 30 seconds behind ESPN’s TV coverage.
Bobby Abreu dominated the first round, opening the derby with a 30+ minute display that resulted in 24 homeruns. That’s six more homeruns than he has thus far in the regular season and four more than his 2003 season total. Unfortunately for Abreu, the homers don’t carry over and he has no advantage going into the remaining rounds.
The other dominating performance in the opening round was my man, the 1996 Midwest League All Star Game Home Run Derby Champion, David Ortiz, who hit 17. During Ortiz’s turn, Al Michaels was interviewing Jason Varitek. “Do you remember him vaguely as a Minnesota Twin before he came to Boston?” Why, yes, yes I do! Which brings an Erin-Rhode-superstition to mind… way back when, I was a first baseman in Minnesota, before moving to Boston. I then proceeded to attract three Minnesota first basemen to move to Boston with me: David Ortiz, Doug Mientkiewicz, and David McCarty. The question now becomes, will this trend continue now that I’ve moved to Michigan? Is there a Detroit-Boston trade involving Kevin Millar in the works?

Once again, I fudged the date on this one to make it look like I wrote it in a timely fashion. Once again, I apologize for my dishonesty.

This was the second of my California games. While the hometeam Athletics won 5-0, the real victory came in getting Anand to his first baseball game and having him not hate it. Just look at the picture — at first glance, it may appear that he’s just placating my baseball loving antics, but on careful inspection, it’s clear that that’s a man who’s enjoying himself.

The Coliseum itself was large (seats over 50,000) and empty (18,744 in attendance). Despite sitting next to the really insane fans in the bleacher seats, the atmosphere was much more subdued than the game I had just attended across the bay. But I still got my malt cup, so I was happy.

The A’s starting pitcher, Joe Blanton, took a no-hitter into the 5th, broken up by a single to shallow right by the DH, Marlon Anderson. In the meantime, the A’s had already scored three runs – one in the 3rd and two in the 4th after a pair of doubles by Eric Byrnes and Mark Ellis. They tacked on one more in the fifth, and with the Mets still scoreless, Eric Byrnes decided to rub it in by homering in the bottom of the 8th to make the final score 5-0.

Along with Anand, his fellow grad student Bobak joined us, armed with a camera. While I had to glare at the two of them for talking about their research during the game a few times, Bobak took some pretty decent pictures. Note the picture to the right: in the full size version you can actually see the ball reach Mike Piazza’s glove. I’ve examined that picture and referenced my scorecard to determine when it was taken: based on the three K’s hanging in the stands, this must have been taken in the bottom of the 4th. Nick Swisher’s at bat, the fourth A’s batter of the inning, and he walked on five pitches.

Okay, so I fudged the date on this entry to make it look like I wrote it the day of the game when I actually waited nearly a month. It’s a lie, it’s a deception – you’ll get over it.
This was the first of my California ballgames. As luck would have it, SBC Park is only a short walk from Breath’s apartment. We got up and headed over to meet Quinn and Dale in front of the Willie Mays statue that guards the stadium. Since they were late and I had their tickets, Breath and I had to settle for being entertained by the Giant’s cheerleaders who were selling raffle tickets to raise money for Aids awareness outside the gate. These may possibly have been the first baseball cheerleaders I have ever encountered.
Once our compatriots showed up, we entered the stadium and headed up to our seats… and up… and up. We were on the third deck on the first base side, in the second to back row – easily the highest up I have ever watched a ballgame. At first I was nervous about the seats, but the turned out to be pretty good seats for viewing the entire field, albeit from a distance. As an added bonus, because we were so high up, we had a good view of McCovey cove and all the boats waiting for splashdowns. The only thing we didn’t have a good view of was the scoreboard in right field.
The game started and, as usual, I kept score. I never got around to replacing my lost scorebook, so I was forced to buy a program. Much to my delight, the Giants scorecard had a little more substance to it than the graph paper they give you at Fenway. I did have a small problem scoring one play in the space allotted. In the top of the third, Grady Sizemore singled to right center. After Coco Crisp (yes, that really is his name) flied out to right, Sizemore attempted to steal second, but was caught in a hot box. I scored it 1-3-4-1-4-3, which spilled over to the neighboring box.
The rest of the game wasn’t all that exciting — the Indians scored first in the top of the third and followed it with a four run fourth, highlighted by Casey Blake’s three run homerun. The Giants showed a little life in the 6th and 7th innings, but it was too little too late and the Indians walked away the victors.

No, that’s not a typo — Reds, not Red Sox. Last night Martine, Dave, and I went to the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati to see two of the worst teams in Major League Baseball. But if nothing else, the seats were half as much as Fenway in a very similar location. And thanks to the cute kid sitting next to me, my arm got on the Jumbotron. Having lost my scorebook, I once again kept score on the second-rate scorecard provided in the program. I think I will buy another scorebook prior to the California games — it’s just so much cleaner. (And for a Boston Globe article on scoring, check this out, courtesy of Jeff.)
Last night was my first trip ever to a National League park, and thus the first time I had ever seen a major league pitcher bat in person. And Randy Keisler made a pretty strong argument against the DH. After the Reds first pitcher, Ramon “not Papi” Ortiz gave up six runs in the top of the second, Keisler came in to finish out the inning by striking out Reggie Taylor. After a 1-2-3 third (5, 6-3, and 4-3), Keisler came up to start the bottom of the inning. And what a start! With the Reds down 6-1, Keisler smashed a 373 foot homerun to right-center, just a few rows away from where we were sitting. This was the start of a five run inning for the Reds to tie the game at 6.
Another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 4th (K, 4-3, and 3) for Keisler and he was up to bat again to start off the fourth inning, this time with a double. He scored the go ahead run later in the inning when Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 510th career homerun, a 369 foot shot to center. For a brief second, I thought I might be witnessing history — a pitcher on his way to hitting for the cycle. But coming up again in the 6th, he struck out and never got another at bat. Still, it was pretty obvious who the player of the game was.
Randy Keisler, if I was a Reds fan, this is when I’d offer to name my children after you.