Me, at the birthplace of the Babe

Today I made what is possibly the craziest journey I’ve ever made just to watch a baseball game. I left my house at 6 AM this morning to get on a plane to Baltimore to see the Twins play the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and at the moment, I am back at BWI where I will get on a 9:35 PM flight back to Boston.
In between, in addition to the game, I also visited the Babe Ruth Museum at his birthplace and the Baltimore Sports Museum, which is actually pretty cool, despite my lack of allegiance to anything Baltimore. Namely, they had a really cool way of laying things out in train cars where you sat next to “people” (mannequins) with stories you could hear by pressing a little button next to them. And then of course, there was all the stuff on Babe Ruth (which seemed a little redundant after just coming from the other museum) and Cal Ripken Jr. and Earl Weaver.
Oh, but then there was the game. To set the stage, when I got off the plane it was fucking hot. Pardon the language, but that’s the best way to describe it — 96 F at game time and I swear it got hotter. (The Internet tells me it hit 99 F.) I had really good seats — row 13 directly behind home plate. Unfortunately, they were right out in the sun so I was sweltering. It was hot enough that they were giving away free ice and the attendants were coming by with spray bottles to cool people off.

The view from my seat: Michael Cuddyer prepares to line out to the shortstop (I think)

Speaking of hot, that’s what the Twins bats were today, scoring 7 of their 10 runs on homers — including a grand slam from Jason Kubel. Meanwhile, the Orioles were not having the same luck. They scored a quick run in the first off a double and a sac fly and that was pretty much it until after the rain.
Oh yeah, the rain.
A few times throughout the first half of the game, a random rain cloud would blow through sprinkling us with big dollops of raindrops. The cool water was actually quite welcome as it never lasted more than a minute and remained sunny (and hot!)… until the 7th inning, that is. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, the skies opened up and a thunderstorm rolled in. With a 3-1 count to Matt Wieters, the Baltimore catcher, the tarps came out and the game was on delay. Because of the thunder and lightning — quite incredible thunder and lightning — those of us who didn’t go home weren’t allowed to stay in our seats. However, we were treated to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony of Whitey Herzog and Andre Dawson.
After about an hour, the storm passed, the tarp was rolled back, and Wieters at bat resumed — but with a different pitcher for the Twins and a lot fewer fans in the park. Jose Mijares quickly finished off the O’s in the 7th. Rookie Jason Repko hit a dinger in the top of the 9th to put the Twins up 10-1. It seemed like the game would end in moments, but Gardenhire had decided to give struggling pitcher Nick Blackburn a chance in the 8th and 9th.
Part of the rotation up until about a week ago, Blackburn did fine in the 8th. But in the 9th — man, it was like he wanted to make it close! He gave up three quick hits and a run before retiring two. But then he gave up another pair of hits and two more runs. I wondered if the Twins would get someone up in the bullpen just in case, but no — Miguel Tejada popped out to Alexi Casilla and the game was over.

The prodigal son returned to the Twins today — well, returned to face them. Three years after being traded to the Mets, Johan Santana faced the Twins for the first time in regular season play… and I was there with Harvey for my first trip to Citi Field. Also, it was free hat day. Happy belated Father’s Day, Dad… an orange Mets cap is heading your way.

Harvey wears his free Mets hat while I stick with my trusty Twins cap.
After a first pitch by his royal highness, Prince Harry, we settled in for some baseball. Our seats were right behind home plate… way up. Way up. The back row of the top deck, to be exact. Sitting next to us was a charming older Mets fan who told me that it was okay if I wanted to “hoot and holler for the Twins,” he wouldn’t mind. And in the first inning, I got my chance.
It seems the Twins had their old teammates number. After Denard Span popped out to short to lead off, Orlando Hudson ripped a double to left center and was then singled in by Joe “Leading the All-Star votes” Mauer… and it appears I hooted a bit:

Mauer then appeared to get thrown out stealing second, but was miraculously safe. Because they failed to announce it in the stadium, it wasn’t until I just looked it up that I learned that he was “safe” because it was ruled a balk. I haven’t seen a balk in years!
After Morneau flied out to left, Cuddyer walked followed by a Jason Kubel ground rule double that scored Mauer. With two runs, two outs, and two men on Delmon Young hit a double to left center of his own and just like that, the Twins were up 4-0 after one inning. Santana, it appeared, couldn’t handle the pressure of pitching against his old friends.
But in true Santana fashion, he bounced back from the early drubbing and became the powerhouse pitcher I remember for the next five innings, save for a lone run in the 4th. But it was too little too late for the Mets. By contrast, Carl Pavano was unstoppable for the Twins, facing the minimum number of batters through 4 innings. He ultimately pitched a complete game 3-hit shutout, and even had two hits of his own to maintain his .500 batting average.
Just to rub it in, Jason Kubel led off the 9th inning with a homerun to deep right field to put the score at 6-0, where it remained.
Despite all this, the Mets fan who so graciously allowed me to cheer for the Twins announced at the bottom of every inning that “this is where the Mets will come back.” He only conceded after the final pitch in the 9th, but then shrugged and said, “Well, at least you’re happy. I can take some consolation in that. And you watch, the Mets will win again soon.” A true gentleman baseball fan, if ever I met one.
Harvey, normally excited to watch a baseball game, was a little hesitant about missing the US-Ghana World Cup match and so brought along a portable radio. The US scored their lone goal just after David Wright flied out to end the game. About 5-10 seconds after Harvey cheered, we heard a large crowd cheer behind us. It turns out the game was on on a big screen down on the concourse. So, we raced down to watch the US lose in overtime — not quite the outcome we were hoping for, but I’m still happy for the Twins victory.

Watching the US-Ghana soccer game on the concourse at Citi Field.

Beat LA!
While Boston did sweep LA this weekend, it was probably not the sport most Bostonians were hoping that would happen in.
Chris Morse was off to a wedding this weekend and needed to get rid of his tickets. As always, I was happy to oblige… especially since the 8 pm start gave me plenty of time to get to the game after my train ride back from Philadelphia. While it wasn’t quite the exciting game that I saw yesterday, I did get to see Manny Ramirez get booed in his return to Fenway. It was also Connecticut night — I had no idea a state that small turned out as many baseball players as it did. My co-worker, Bethany, had no idea that people from Connecticut were called Nutmeggers.
This game was also a bit of a milestone for me — I let someone else keep score in my book. Bethany was getting tired and needed something to do to keep herself awake. As she used to help her dad keep score at her brother’s Little League games, I let her keep score in my book for a few innings — and after awhile, I even relaxed and stopped checking her work after every pitch. She joins Anand as the only other person to keep score for me — and he did it while I ate a sandwich and told him exactly what to write.

In the words of Harry Caray, holy cow! (Okay, that would be more appropriate if I had seen a Cubs game today, but whatever.)
This weekend I traveled down to Philadelphia to see Maggie, who is a twin, and the Minnesota Twins. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve gone to a game with a baseball fan who was actively rooting for a different team than I was. Luckily, we are good enough friends that we avoided getting into any fights despite being surrounded by Twins fans. (As an aside, I have seen a lot more Twins fans at away games this year than I ever have in previous seasons.) In fact, when the Twins were down 9-4 at the beginning of the 9th inning with Delmon Young, Danny Valencia, and Nick Punto due up, I turned to her and said that it would probably be a quick and painless ending.
I really should not say things like that when it comes to baseball!
After Young singled, Gardenhire pinch hit former Philly Jim Thome — and the crowd was glad to see him again. They didn’t even seem to mind too much when he launched the ball deep to right for a two run homer — after all the Phillies were still up by three runs. But then Punto walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and finally scored on a Denard Span single. Now it was a two run game with only one out and the Phillies fans were feeling a little less comfortable.
After Span stole second and Orlando Hudson struck out for the second out, Joe Mauer came to the plate. The Iowans in front of us and I were going crazy. Maggie thought she heard a choke coming, but unless “choke” is Philadelphia slang for two-run game-tying homerun, she was mistaken. I very loudly yelled “Marry Me Joe,” and a guy in a Johan Santana jersey about 10 rows in front of us turned around and gave me a thumbs up.
Morneau flew out to left and the inning ended, but not the game, which was pretty much all I cared about. Philadelphia went down quickly in the bottom of the 9th and with the pitcher due up, Gardenhire pinch hit Drew Butera to start the 10th — Drew Freaking Butera. “Okay, Maggie,” I said, “You can have this first out.”
I have got to stop being so negative.
Drew Freaking Butera hit a homerun to deep left… and I just sat there laughing at the absurdity. Then I high-fived some Iowans and some people from St. Paul. Maggie glowered, as did the Philly fans to our left, who apparently were at their 5th game of the year and hadn’t yet seen a win.
At that point, I figured the game would end 10-9 with a Drew Butera winning homerun, but the Phillies had other plans. They had their own no-name pinch hitter, Ross Gload, jack one to right to tie the game again.
To the 11th we went — my scorebook doesn’t have an eleventh column, so I had to be creative and use the extra batter’s row to record the inning. Mauer and Morneau walked to start things off and then pitcher Jon Rauch laid down an awkward looking bunt that did it’s job as a sacrifice. This set up Delmon Young for an RBI single to put the Twins up 11-10. Just to get a bit more insurance, Matt Tolbert hit a double that scored Morneau and Young, but he tried to turn it into a triple with no success. All of us Twins fans pretty much simultaneously cheered “Who cares?!” because our boys were up 13-10 after being down 5 in the 9th.
Rauch put his actual skills to work in the bottom of the 11th, mowing down the Phillies to win the game.
Holy cow!

I was just looking at the usage statistics for this here blog and noted that one visitor came by way of a google search for “can i wear my twins jersey to fenway.” To that random visitor (should s/he come back):
Yes, you can.

My dad, the skyline, and Minnie and Paul

I finally saw the Twins win a game this year! And as a bonus, it was in the new ballpark in Minneapolis. I also got to experience my first rainy outdoor baseball in Minnesota. (I wish I could say that it was my first rainy baseball experience, but it wasn’t even my first such experience this season.) Despite the early drizzle (and it really was just a drizzle), the clouds eventually cleared and Sunday turned out to be a great night for baseball. Despite the fact that my father told my mother to leave the camera at home after I had explicitly told her to bring it because I wasn’t bringing mine. *ahem*
Turns out cell phones come with cameras now, so there is some evidence that we were there. But because I know he hates having his picture taken, I’m letting the evidence be my dad’s mug.

Is this heaven? No, it’s… Minnesota.

As for the game itself, the Twins broke out to an early lead with a Joe Mauer RBI double in the first and never looked back. Nick Punto turned out to be one of the offensive studs of the night (did I really just write that?) with two hits, an RBI, a walk, and a stolen base. Apparently he is my sister’s favorite Twin (??), so I’ll give him the kudos tonight and ignore the Canadian slugger’s double.
The defensive play of the game, and the most nerve-wracking, was the final out. With runners on first and third, Vladimir Guerrero hit a high fly to shallow center. Span ran in from center field and Orlando Hudson ran back from second base. And then, well all I remember seeing was the two of them colliding and flipping over with the ball somehow winding up in Span’s glove. The umpire signaled the out, the game was over, and we all cheered… but it was short lived when it became clear that Hudson and Span weren’t getting up. It seems Hudson’s previously-injured wrist had collided with Span’s, er, family jewels. (The video is here for as long as MLB leaves it up.) After a few tense moments as the trainers and rest of the team came running out to check on them, both players eventually got up and walked off the field. Span recovered quickly, but Hudson is still out of the line up four days later.

I make the call to the bullpen… get Rick Aguilera up!

Yesterday, before my flight back to Boston, my mom and I went back to Target Field, not for a game, but for a tour — and this time we did bring the camera. The highlights included all of the fancy-pants sections I will probably never be able to afford to sit in and their accompanying lounges, a visit to the pressbox (where I conveniently committed to memory the username and password to the wireless network which was taped to a desk*), a tour of the visitors’ locker room (where I took a picture of a different username and password for the wireless network, which was taped to the wall), a trip to the dugout and bullpen, and a jaunt around the field. They’re pretty particular about the grass, so I didn’t get to wander onto the infield, but I did attempt a couple of leaping catches at the wall in left field. That wall is higher than it looks!
I also learned that it doesn’t always pay to try and be funny during a tour. The gates at the stadium are all numbered with a retired Twins number (3 for Killebrew, 29 for Carew, 6 for Oliva, 14 for Hrbek, and 34 for Puckett). I asked the tour guide if they would build a new gate the next time a number got retired (and I predict both 7 and 33 will be). He was a little baffled by my question — “But there are only five gates?” despite the fact that rest of the tour group knew to laugh.
* The passwords for both the media username and the visiting team username are pretty cute. However, at the risk of the team changing them before I get a chance to sneak a laptop to the game and attempt to log on, I’ll refrain from posting them here.

“Wait, You think I’m the most awesome player in all of baseball? Surely you mean Nick Punto.”

The most awesome player in all of baseball.

I think I am a curse. How is that I go to three Twins game within one week and they lose all three? They have a .585 winning percentage — seriously, what are the odds?!?! 7.15%, I think? That means I should have had a 92.85% chance of seeing them win!
I am a curse.
Lester pitched a complete game for the Sox tonight and while it wasn’t a shut out, it might has well have been with the only Twins runs coming late in the game when it was pretty much over already. In the other half of the game, Liriano’s pitching was really inconsistent — lots of strikeouts, but of his five hits, three were doubles and two were home runs. That’s not the way to keep the score low, Francisco! Most of the damage was done by the one-two punch of Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis. In the meantime, the Twins catcher-first baseman one-two punch in the line-up didn’t do much at all except for a wasted Morneau double and a classic Mauer RBI off of a 4-3 groundball out.

A fine looking crew — note the homer hanky in Karly’s hair!

On the plus side, tonight I went with two other Twins fans. Forrest left after the 7th inning when the score was still 6-0 (something about waking up at 5 am for work), but Karly and I pulled out the homer hankies in the 8th (one of which she had been wearing in her hair due to lack of a hat). Maybe it was too little late, but they did bring in two runs. We were feeling a little self-conscious about it when the Sox fans around us kept looking at us like we were nuts. However, vindication came after the game — a Twins fan who had apparently been sitting a few rows behind us came up and said he really appreciated seeing the homer hankies and that he was sure that was what brought in the runs.
You see, Sox fans, it’s not just Karly and me. All Twins fans are a little nuts.
Also, a foul ball landed in the seat next to me, which was empty. (Well, okay, there was a railing and a slight drop off between me and the seat.) Two little kids (brothers) fought over it. Yes, I should have caught it. Yes, I had just said, “Maybe I should pull out my glove, this guy hits a lot of foul balls.” Yes, dropping the scorebook to catch a foul ball is an appropriate way to abuse the scorebook. Shut up, Forrest. You didn’t catch it either.

So close, yet… not good enough for the Twins. I pulled out a Homer Hanky in the top of the ninth with Morneau on first and Cuddyer at bat. As soon as I did, Cuddyer hit a single to right. I figured it was the Homer Hanky magic, so I kept waving it for Thome’s at bat. Unfortunately, he grounded out to second to end the game. I think the problem is that it was a 2004 Homer Hanky and Thome wasn’t on the team then.
Yes, that was exactly the problem.
My seats on the other hand: so close, yet… totally awesome, behind home plate just slightly off to the first base side. I haven’t gone through my pictures yet, but there are some incredible shots which I will post. Joe Mauer still has the prettiest swing in baseball and I got to see it up close. I also yelled a rather loud “Happy Belated Birthday, Justin!” to Morneau during his first at bat. It seemed to confuse all the Red Sox fans, but I’d like to think that he heard me, even if he didn’t react.
This may have been one of the best games for chatting with people next to me since a game in Detroit where the guy next to me had once pitched in Tiger Stadium for a high school exhibition game. To my right was a gay hispanic couple at their first baseball game. They asked me all sort of questions which I found amusing — “How many innings are there?” “What just happened?” (after every foul ball in the first inning until they figured it out) “Do they get a point for that?” To my left was a Canadian brother-sister pair. “We’re going to cheer for the Red Sox today, but we wouldn’t actually mind if the Twins win for you.” Oh Canadians and their politeness!
To continue the “It’s a small world” theme from my New York excursion, while waiting for the bus I saw a guy with a Twins jersey on. I did the standard, “Tough game,” that I’d say to any Twins fan. But this guy looked a little more familiar. After a minute or two of awkwardly staring at him while I talked to my dad on the phone and seeing that he was awkwardly staring at me, I realized where I knew him from — it was my stand partner from Wind Ensemble my senior year of high school! It turns out he’s going to rabbinical school and is living in Boston now. Small world indeed.

A quick sample of photos from Yankee Stadium, after clearing my camera in preparation for seeing the Twins take on the Red Sox tonight and tomorrow.

Me while the Twins take batting practice… fun fact: They don’t even let you in the first nine rows before the game unless you’ve paid the outrageous $1000-a-seat ticket prices to have a “Premium” ticket.

Joe Mauer blasts a ball to deep center. We’re going to pretend that the ball wasn’t caught on the warning track and instead got through for a bases clearing double. At least that’s how I choose to remember it happening.