The Bronx and the Texas Two-Step (Part 2)

Dallas and Dixie 

On Monday morning the 17th of June I hopped a Southwest Airlines jet to Austin, Texas. I'd never been to Austin but I got a chance to peruse the lovely airport for a few hours before catching another plane to Love Field in Dallas. Upon my arrival in Big D I picked up my car and headed to my hotel. I got about 2 hours worth of nap before heading off to towards Fort Worth in the town of Arlington. Arlington which my good friend Greg Cockrell refers to as "the armpit of DFW".  I'd forgotten how crazy Texas drivers were. I'd been to Houston for the first time last year when I visited Enron Field/Minute Maid Park. Dallas drivers are whack, but Houston drivers would easily beat them in a NASCAR race. No doubt. 

I met up with the aforementioned Greg Cockrell at the seats inside the stadium known as Globe Life Field. It is not to be confused with Globe Life Park which is across the street and is now known as Choctaw Stadium, home of the UFL's Arlington Renegades and I believe the soccer team known by the pretentious name FC Dallas. Greg had amazing seats right behind home plate. He'd brought along a few signs on poster board each measuring 24"x36". They were first used some 7 years ago. One of them simply reads "Lets Go Mets" while another is a drawing of the home run apple from Shea Stadium and now Citi Field. Greg and I met a few years ago at Mets Fantasy Camp. We lockered next to each other purely on the basis of our last names being sequential of all the players who had not designated another camper to team with. It turns out to be one of the most fortuitous things leading to a friendship that I have ever had.

The Mets came to town on a 5-game winning streak which was a lot considering how poorly they had been playing as of late. The game didn't turn out like we thought it would. They Mets homered three times on then night as part of a 22-hit barrage and a 14-2 victory over the defending World Champion Rangers. We glad-handed and cheered along with dozens of Met fans who made the trip from all over the country. Greg lives locally so his travel was considerably shorter. We were joined by another great friend of ours, "Bobble Ed" Moore. Ed is also a long-time Mets Fantasy Camper and a member of the MFC Hall of Fame. Ed also owns over 500 bobble head dolls in his collection, thus the nickname. During the contest we showed up a few times on the broadcast on SNY which is based in New York City and carries most of the games on television. I'm fortunate in that I am able to receive SNY on my DirecTV subscription. So friends of each of us are blowing up our respective phones telling us they just saw us after a home run or something like that. We left the ballpark with a good feeling after seeing our guys eviscerate the local nine. We looked forward to running the winning streak to 7 the next evening back at GLF.

Game two of the series saw Greg and I joined by another MFC brother one Steve Gruber. Steve lives in Scottsdale and was coming to town to see games two and three of the series. His travels were far more complicated than anyone's should have been. He was delayed 4 hours out of Phoenix. Somehow his bag did not make it onto the plane along with him. When he finally arrived into Arlington he couldn't get to his room right away because the fire alarm had gone off. As a matter of fact , Bobble Ed and I saw a couple of fire trucks head past us as we were having a snack before entering the stadium. Those fire trucks were going to...well, you probably guessed that by now. So Steve is without any Mets-related attire for the game and is simply wearing what he has had on since he arrived at Sky Harbor Airport earlier in the morning. His bag had not yet left the state of Arizona at game time. But on we go. 

Two days earlier Steve had texted me and asked me to please tell him I would be wearing The Mets Suit for one of the games in Texas. I hadn't packed nor even considered The Mets Suit for a game appearance. The Mets Suit is a sport coat, pants and tie which I have worn to the annual Casino Night during the week of Mets Fantasy Camp for the past three years. It was a late night purchase made on Amazon during COVID. It is a classic example in what can happen during a pandemic at 2 am on the internet with a charge card. It is 147% polyester which means that if I stand too long in the Florida or Texas heat I could literally burst into flames without warning. It's made by a company called Suitmeister, I believe. But I figured I could opt out if I chose to do so. So I packed it in my bag just in case. I told Greg on Monday not to mention it to Steve as to surprise him the next night. And surprised he was. So we were joined Greg's lovely wife Shari at the game and were seated in the row immediately behind the Mets dugout for the game. 

As I entered the ballpark I was greeted by a great many people who were stunned, shocked, amused and stupefied by my choice of wardrobe for the evening. Many fist bumps and high fives as I made my way through the concourse down to the lower level where my seat was located. I had a couple ask to take my picture as they were part of a scavenger hunt with some others. I hadn't heard about scavenger hunts since the movie of the same name back in the 70s or 80s, I'm not sure. Either way, it was a huge hit. People stopped me just to ask if they could get a photo with me. One Rangers fan asked me where I got it and I said, "Amazon.com". His reply was, "Is it too late to return it?" And that's when I stabbed him in the neck with a plastic fork. No, no, no, that's not what happened, but I thought about it. While having a pregame snack in the posh Lexus Club a server stopped over and asked me, "Are you a Rangers fan?" To which I answered, "Yes, the NEW YORK Rangers!" 

So the game turns out to be a very good contest. About the fourth inning word started to get passed around of the passing of Willie Mays. Mays was probably the greatest player of all time. I got to see him only once in person and that was during the 1973 season which was his final year playing for the Mets. So it wasn't the Mays that so many people saw in his prime, but just to see him on the field was very cool. The Mets got down 6-2 but scratched back and won it 7-6 for their 7th straight victory. On the way out the photo requests were plentiful. One woman said to her husband, "Just go stand next to him, he won't mind." And she was correct. I haven't taken that many photos with anyone since my days as T.C. Bear over 20 years ago. Now, people who know me best know that I am not someone who likes being the center of attention, but the chance to step out of that persona for a few hours was a nice change. Not a comfortable one, but a nice one. 

The Rangers put on a great show. Their game production is very good. They are true to their locale while trying to make the game as enjoyable to everyone regardless of their demographic. The have a mascot named Rangers Captain. He's a horse. A two-legged horse, but a horse nonetheless. I would've liked to have gotten a photo with Captain but he wasn't in my area either game unfortunately. The have cheerleaders. Cheerleaders don't belong in baseball. They belong about 1/2 mile up the street on AT&T Way at AT&T Stadium aka Jerry World. It is a behemoth of a building and the home of the Dallas Cowboys. If you are interested in games going on elsewhere in baseball it is not a good place, because they only update them one game at a time on their scoreboards. But that should be the worst thing that happens. If you get a chance to visit GLF definitely go. You'll enjoy it.

After a few hours of sleep I was on my way to Love Field to catch a flight to the busiest airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta. After I landed I got my rental car and headed north on I-285 to an area in Cobb County known as The Battery. They've done an amazing job of intermingling an entertainment area with restaurants and clubs with the baseball stadium. 

I parked about a mile away from the park for $40 but with the temperature of 95 degrees at game time it was money well spent. The Braves new home has a very clean feel to it and the game production is good. The skyline of office buildings is nice if you don't mind looking at corporate headquarters for xfinity/Comcast,  Racetrac and a large Omni Hotel. The organist is something I liked. The organist is very topical to visiting players' names like "The Can-Can" for Mark Canha, Theme from Scooby Doo for Alik Baddoo and things like that. They have a mascot named Blooper but I don't really know what Blooper is. I'm not sure anyone does. But it is definitely Dixie baseball. Nice people though, to be sure. There are a couple of in-game activities like HugCam, the ball-in-cap shuffle and their version of the Dot Race which is sponsored by The Home Depot and is run by a power drill, a hammer, a paint brush and a bucket. But the one event I was looking forward to seeing was "Beat The Freeze" where one fan gets to race a former college track star on foot from the left field corner to the right field corner. The Freeze has lost but one time I believe and that was last August. So even though you know the eventual outcome it is entertaining to this reporter, I will say. 

Following the game I headed south down I-85 to a soul food restaurant called Big Daddy's Dish. I frequented Big Daddy's when I worked for AirTran Airways as we were based out of the ATL. Bryn and I used to go there every time we would go see the Mets play at Turner Field, which was Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Summer games and then converted for baseball. But apparently it aged too quickly and less than 25 years after they moved into it the Braves left to head north about 20 miles and their new digs. 

One flight to Chicago and another to America's Favorite Twin Cities and I was soon with my three attack-trained watch dachshunds, Bella, Shea and Honey. They greatly excited but cared little about where dad had been and only wondered when the next meal would be forthcoming. But that's how they roll, and I'm okay with that. 

Three ballparks out of the way this year. Two remain on the schedule. Anaheim with the Mets on August 3rd and Philadelphia with the Mets on September 13th. On the flight home from Chicago I pondered what to do after I "complete the cycle". I will have seen games in the 30 current plus 10 ballparks which no longer exist. The Oakland A's are supposedly moving to Sacramento next season for three years so that's a possibility. Otherwise I could start the loop all over again. Boston for the first time in 47 years? Could be.

I'm just sayin'

The Bronx and the Texas Two-Step (Part 1)

 The first three weeks of June in 2024 have gotten me back to one of my bucket list items and that is to visit all 30 current major league baseball stadiums. Someone asked me two nights ago how this quest got started. Well, like a lot of things in life it didn't start out as a "bucket list" item per se. It evolved from my love of this game. My "first' ballpark would be Shea Stadium. It was geographically the closest to my hometown of Stamford, Connecticut. My estimate would be that my first game was there in 1965 at the age of 3. I have a ticket stub from a game from that season and I'm linking it to my first game ever. Shea is important to me for a couple of reasons. Not only was it the second home of my favorite baseball team but I found out an interesting fact when I was about 12 years old. My aunt Bea had collected every Met yearbook to that point and while flipping through the pages I saw a black & white photo of the groundbreaking ceremony for what was going to be called Flushing Meadow Park. The date of the photo was October 28, 1961. I was born just across the border in Stamford probably 10 hours later. So that was "a sign" to myself about what team I should follow. That and my aunt would have not tolerated any other team, period.

So it's a case of realizing that I had seen games in a good number of ballparks before I'd thought about "completing the set" so to speak. The second and now earliest park is Fenway in Boston. My brother Rudy took me to a game in 1978. I still have the yearbook and program from that day. My number was at 4 when I met my future wife Bryn in 1984. I told her early on that the best she could do with my heart was be in third place behind my mother and baseball. Somehow she decided that just being on the medal stand would be great with her. And so the ballparks began to add up. We married in 1991 and the ballpark number went up fairly quickly. We saw games together at 17 current parks and 8 that are no longer. Her breathing issues later in life forced her to leave the games to myself. Before her passing in April 2022 she told me that she wanted me to "complete the set" for us and that she would be with me in any case. 

When 2024 began I had just five more parks to visit. After perusing the schedule for months I laid out a plan to "run the table" this year. The schedule for the following year is now released before the end of the current season, which was not the way it was done until the past few years. I set my start point to be a one day out-and-back to the Bronx, NY to see the home team play, ironically, my former employers the Minnesota Twins. Here's my assessment of Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees are all business. They barely acknowledge that there may be fans under the age of 18 in the crowd. There's no mascot (although there was one named Dandy back in the 70's- google it), there are no dancers on top of the dugout, no dot races, no racing snacks, hardware store items, no masked sprinters, no random meat sprints, no giant dead presidents and no gargantuan former players. The closest thing they have to that is the grounds crew who during the second field drag and base change drop their rakes and dance to "YMCA" while it plays on the sound system. People dig that and I kinda enjoyed it myself. The soon-to-be-intoxicated revelers in the right field stand shout out the starting lineup for the local nine in the top of the first inning. I rather enjoyed that choreographed fan behavior. They had one trivia game where they asked fans to name the last 16 players to wear a particular uniform number. I thought that to be clever as well. There was the obligatory "find the ball under the hat" game which probably started as the shell game on the streets of New York. But the bottom line is they are "all bidness" at the place on 161st Street. They don't do the ridiculous City Connect jerseys because they don't have to. Their jerseys are pinstriped. "Crisp and clean with no caffeine" even though the logo on their caps does not match the logo on their uniforms. But I left the park having enjoyed the game and the stadium. I didn't wish to wear anything offensive like one of my Mets jerseys so I opted for my Roy Hobbs New York Knights jersey from "The Natural". Better safe than sorry, right? On the Sun Country flight back home I began thinking out the next trip. Just 12 days away before heading off to Dallas AND Atlanta. For the scoop on THAT trip tune in tomorrow. (Or later today if you're so inclined. I'm just glad you read it this far.)

I'm just sayin'