First of all, baseball is the coolest sport in the world. It has some things like massive FA player movement and no salary cap that beats me down but the game itself is the purest form of allsome that exists. Nobody sits around and says, "before I die I'd like to see the Lakers play at Staples or I have to see the Bears at Soldier field". Why? Because baseball parks are like cathedrals to true fans and they are institutions of experiences for so many generations. So please offer up your coolest ballpark story (MLB) or experience. I don't have many because I haven't been to many ballparks but here are my two. 1. My Mom moved to Atlanta in the late 80s when the Braves were the suck and I grew to like them. My Mom was going to Cinci and asked if I wanted to come along (this was in 1991 I think). Anyway, this was when Cinnci was the **** and the Braves started their run at going from worst to first. At Riverfront Stadium I saw Francisco Cabrera hit a GS off Rob Dibble in the 9th to tie the game and the Braves win it in 13 off Randy Myers. After sweeping Cinci they went on a tear and the rest is history. 2. Each year I get to see a bunch of douche Red Sox and Yankee fans act like fucktards and for most of them it's the first time they've ever seen their favorite ******* team of all time play live.
As much as I despise Barry Bonds, I was able to see him hit #700 at SBC Park. For those who love baseball, you really need to see a game at that stadium. There's nothing like freezing your *** off, looking out at the bay and the SF skyline, while eating a huge portion of garlic fries and washing them down with an Anchor Steam. My wife & I planned a vacation to SF & Napa several months in advance. I wanted to see a game there, and we ended up going to their first game back after a long road trip against the Padres. When I bought the tickets in May, I figured that he had a chance to get to #700 around that time (midp-September). I also figured that he was greedy enough to want to hit the bomb at home, so the first game back after a road trip increased the likelihood. I purchased the tickets online and noticed that they were obstructed view. It seemed weird to me b/c they were on the first row of the arcade in right field. Come to find out, my wife had to sit with the foul pole between her legs (yeah, I'm a dick and made her sit there so I could see). We had people offering us $400-$500 for our seats on the first row in right field. Of course, Barry ended up going oppo, but the atmosphere was cool, none the less. Like I mentioned, I hate Barroid, but there's only been three games in the history of MLB where a 700th HR was hit. Pretty allsome.
There are three that stick in my mind. Randy Johnson's first game as an Astro - want to say we were playing Philly that night but can't recall for sure. The Astrodome was unreal that night. The Padres came to town to play the Astros...I think this was during Caminiti's MVP year... the game went to 13 innings and Cammy hit a grand slam in the 13th to basically seal the deal for SD. I was an autograph fiend as a kid, so my dad and I hung around after the game. Caminiti came out of the dugout a little while after the game was over and literally signed for every person that was out there. I was always a big fan of his and it was great to see him still show some love for the Houston fans. On the other side of the fence, I went to a game in Anaheim against Toronto during the Blue Jays WS years. I showed up real early, got a bunch of the Blue Jays signatures...Mike Timlin got off the bus and was wearing these big *** boots. He accidentally (I think) stepped on my foot, and I want to say I may have started crying. Regardless, he didn't apologize, and to this day I have hated Timlin ever since.
June, 2007 - Wrigley Field - San Diego vs. Cubbies It was about 85 degrees outside and we went to Murphys before the game and had "a few beers" and sat in the third row of the bleachers in left field. Zambrano versus Chris Young. In the top of the 4th, after warm ups, Soriano threw a ball right to me and my buddy jumps in front of me, drops the ball, and spills beer everywhere. He and another buddy are forced to go get beer for 4 of us after the top of the 4th. With a couple of my friends missing in the bottom of the 4th: Young and Lee get tossed. Zambrano proceeds to go 7 2/3 without giving up a hit and gives up a solo homer to Russell Branyon (who was on his 2nd of 3 teams last year) and the Cubs lose 1-0. We proceeded to party in Wrigleyville for the rest of the night in beer gardens. It was a good day. The moral of the story is, dont spill beer or you might miss a fight
I was in Atlanta on business in May, 2004, and had tickets to the Braves-Diamondbacks game. That was the night that Randy Johnson threw his perfecto. In the bottom of the ninth, even the Braves diehards were pulling for the Big Unit. That was neat to see a prefect game. As we were driving back to Marietta, we were listening to the Braves postgame on the radio. The announcers mentioned that the last time the Braves were the victims of a no-hitter was in April, 1978, in Houston - would you believe it, I was at that game, also! At the time, I was assigned to an Air Force Reserve unit at Ellington Field; on Saturday, we were discussing something to do that night. One of the locals suggested that we should go see the Astrodome - he said it was easy to walk up 15 minutes before gametime and buy great seats. So we did that, and I sat down and watched Forsch throw a no-no against the Braves. So I have been to the last two games in which the Braves were no-hit victims. Maybe I should write to the front office and see what they would pay me never to go to another Braves game... HornHuskerDad
Wrigley Field bleachers in September of 1995. Cubs vs. Pirates. Season was wrapping up, both the Cubs and Pirates sucked and it was pretty cold, but it was the day before Texas football played at Notre Dame, and the bleachers were full of Longhorns students. It felt like we were at a UT frat party in the bleachers. We sang the Eyes of Texas, did the Texas Fight chant in the bleachers. We were loud enough that Harry Caray gave us a salute before singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. And, Luis Gonzalez was playing left field for the Cubs that afternoon, and every time there were two outs, he turned around to signal two outs by giving us the Hook 'Em and a big smile as we all would give him a rousing ovation. Can't remember who was playing left for the Pirates (maybe Al Martin?) but we were abusing him every time there were two outs, because he wouldn't do it. I've been to Yankee Stadium, Fenway and Camden Yards, but Wrigley was by far the best experience. Of course, those were very special circumstances.
Here are a couple: 1. Game 6, Cleveland @ Atlanta 1995. Saw Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers combine on a 1-hitter to win the Series for the Braves. Spent the first half of the day at the Clemson/ Ga. Tech football game. 2. Visiting friends in SF in September back in the 90's. Dodgers in town to play the Giants in a huge series. Dodgers were up a couple games over SF in the West. In the tenth inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs. Rod Beck was pitching. All of my friends are Giants fans and thought the game was over. I looked over at them and said Beck will get out of the inning. He struck out the next hitter and the announced pinch hitter was Eddie Murray, RBI machine. My buddies were conceding the loss. I turned to them and said Murray was a great candidate to ground into a double play. He chops one back to Beck who throws home for the second out and then the catcher doubles up Murray. In the bottom of the 13th Brian Johnson homered to win the game for the Giants. One of my buddies was standing on his seat in Candlestick. The seat broke. Several months later he sees Brian Johnson in a bar and tells him the story and Johnson signs the seat.
HAHA... and why are RedSox fans douches? Just because they follow their team? Whenever the RedSox come to Arlington to play the Rangers, I take my two kids up for the series and RedSox Nation is always in full force. We usually outnumber Ranger fans to the point where it's almost like a RedSox home game. I will agree with you on one point... Yankee fans really do suck
Summer of 2004, Wrigley Field: I stood face to face with Chris Farley's brother at the chest-high double row of urinals down the center of the men's bathroom.. That's all I've got. (I have lots of great stories from Busch Stadium, but that's my "home field".)
Yes, of course I've been to Boston. I grew up in New England and I've been to lots of RedSox games at Fenway. I've been here in the Austin area since 1994 so I have to get my RedSox fix in Arlington now.
Two stories:1) 1999: San Francisco at Chicago Cubs: Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are jacking home runs right and left. A buddy and I show up to Wrigleyville with a bunch of cash. We have a few Old Styles at the Cubby Bear, Murphy's, and Harry's, but there are no tickets to be had. Finally, a few minutes before first pitch, we found a single scalper who had two tickets ten rows behind the Giants' on-deck circle for $150 apiece. We jumped at them, got into the game and had a blast drinking Old Style and eating Italian beef sandwiches. Barry went 0-5. Sammy went 0-4, and the only home run of the game was hit by the Giants' pitcher. Cubbies won, however, 3-1. 1993: Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants: Sitting in the upper deck of Candlestick in August with five friends who are bundled up as though ready for an Arctic expedition. I, however, didn't get the memo and showed up in shorts and a t-shirt. I've never been so cold in my life. And Candlestick was and remains the worst ballpark I've ever been in. Too few beer stands, which I suppose worked out for the best since there were too few toilets. The sightlines were terrible, and there was no atmosphere whatsoever. Oh, and to those who hate Red Sox or Yankee fans, try Giants fans--that is a surprisingly rough crowd. Not very different from a Raiders crowd. The game goes extra innings tied at 0. I wanted to leave in the seventh when they stopped serving beer. But my ride was enthralled with the pitching duel that he was watching from the warmth of his wool coat. We go to the fourteenth, and it looks like we are going to get some real action when Kevin Mitchell comes to the plate with the bases loaded. On a 3-2 count, Mitchell is hit by a pitch,ending the game. An anticlimatic ending to a miserable baseball experience.
When I worked for one of the airlines we flew to Chicago Saturday morning, caught an afternoon Cubs game, a night game at Comisky and then flew to Milwaukee the next day and caught a Brwers game. Then flew back to Dallas. I was with a buddy of mine who went to every ballpark that year. He actually caught a game in Kansas City on Friday night but I decided to go to happy hour instead and met him in Chicago.
not really from a visiting park because i live in houston, but I will never forget being at the the 18-inning playoff game against the Braves a couple of years ago. That place went ******* nuts when Burke hit the walk-off homerun. I will never forget that moment
July 28, 1991 : Montreal Expos at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Expos' Dennis Martínez throws a perfect game. After the game, people wanted to buy our used tickets. Quote of the game: From my sister, "It's soo boring with all these zeroes." Link
1. July, 1991, I made a midwestern parks trip. I first flew to Omaha to meet up with a friend. When the bars closed at 2am, I decided I needed to see Rosenblatt Stadium. When we got there, I was drunk enough to decide that I needed to get inside, so I climbed a fence, and bam I was in. Then I ran the bases and slid into home wearing shorts. The next day we drove to Chicago to see the Cubs. A guy with us had interned with them a few years back, so he called the GM and got us tickets. We were under the stadium trying to figure out where the seats were when an usher came up to help us. He says, "You're down here," and points to a guy dressed like a bellhop guarding a tunnel with a velvet rope. We were two rows behind the visiting dugout, looking up at the field. That night Andre Dawson got called out on strikes and went apeshit, tossing seemingly every bat in the dugout on the field. The next inning Rob Dibble came in and had a meltdown. He gave up a couple doubles, then when Doug Dascenzo laid down a perfect suicide squeeze, Dibble fielded the ball, trotted to where he was behind Dascenzo going up the line, and purposely fired the ball into his legs. I thought there was going to be a riot. 2. April 20, 2003, first trip to Fenway. Since I was a kid I had wanted to see Fenway, and it was even better than I expected. I spent about two hours walking around inside the stadium before the game, just in awe. Roy Halladay (2003 Cy winner) pitched that day, and the Sox were behind 5-0. They eventually got to him and tied it up. Heading into the bottom of the ninth, I turned to my wife and said "If Nomar hits one over The Monster here, this will be the best day of my life." So Nomar stepped to the plate and homered to left field.
A few Stand out for Me: -Seeing Mickey Mantle play (1st game I went to was his last year. I was 5, but I still remember it) -Saw Willie Mays's last home run as a met in NY ('73 I believe) - grew up a Tiger fan (long story) My parents got divorced and in order to cheer me up my father took me to Tiger Stadium to watch Mark "The Bird" Fidrych pitch. I'll never forget it. Awesome experience. -saw Andy Hawkinsof Waco pitch a no-hitter at Old Comiskey and lose the game! In the same series, a huge crowd had gathered around the cage as my father and I were going in. Turns out Michael Jordan was taking batting practice, long before he decided to give baseball a go. - remember Pete Incaviglia hiting the hardest shot I ever saw at DF. A frozen rope that hit the CF wall on line. Same series he threatened the UT bench with a bat - Winning the State baseball championship as a coach at DF in '91. It being DF, made it that much more special for me.