Tag / Giants

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Ballpark Tour: A’s

With just under a month to go before pitchers and catchers start reporting to spring training camps, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head to the Bay Area to look at the former Oakland A’s. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with the Oakland Coliseum.

Stadium Name: McAfee/Network Associates Coliseum

Years in Service: 1968 – Present

Visits: 2

The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum opened in 1966 as the home of the Oakland Raiders.  Two years later, Charlie Finley moved his A’s from Kansas City to Oakland and became the baseball tenant of the stadium.  In 1998, the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum.  In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee and the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.  Following the 2008 season, the name reverted back to Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum until April 27, 2011, when it was renamed Overstock.com Coliseum. Just over a month later, the Coliseum was renamed O.co Coliseum, after Overstock.com’s marketing name.

Both times I’ve traveled to the Bay area, I’ve taken in both Giants and A’s games.  My first trip to what at the time was called Network Associates Coliseum was on September 6, 1999 while I was out west visiting my friend Scott.  The Tigers triumphed over the A’s that day, and my one memory of the stadium is that the seats were not necessarily positioned in such a way as to face the field for baseball purposes.

My second trip to the Bay area, for the JavaOne conference in 2008, actually started out with a BART trip out to Oakland for a 2-1 A’s victory over the Orioles on May 5th.  The A’s had opened up three sections of the third deck as designated All-You-Can-Eat seats, where, for the price of the ticket, free ballpark fare was included.  While I enjoyed the novelty of the free foodstuffs, the seats, while directly behind home plate, were horrible.  Leaving early in order to catch the train back to San Francisco led to the problem of trying to get out of the stadium, since none of the gates were open.

The A’s bid this stadium, and the city of Oakland, farewell following the 2024 season.  They plan to play their home games in Sacramento while a new stadium is being built in Las Vegas.  The funding for said stadium isn’t as secure as MLB and the A’s would lead you to believe, so the future home of this franchise is anyone’s guess.

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Ballpark Tour: Rays

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head south to the Tampa Bay area for a look at the Tampa Bay Rays. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with the place now known as Tropicana Field.

Stadium Name: Tropicana Field

Years in Service: 1997 – Present

Visits: 2

Originally known as the Florida Suncoast Dome, the stadium now known as Tropicana Field was built in the late 1980s in the hopes of luring a baseball franchise to the Tampa/St. Pete area.  Ironically, the White Sox would have called the park home had the Illinois legislature not approved funding for what is now Guaranteed Rate Field.  The stadium opened in 1990, hosting the Davis Cup finals that fall, but was still looking for an MLB team as the primary tenant.  After National League owners blocked the sale of the Giants to Tampa-based investors who planned to move the team, the park was used for the local Arena Football team and as the initial home of the Tampa Bay Lightning.  In 1995, the area was awarded an expansion franchise, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who would begin play in 1997.

After the long pandemic, I decided to take the long drive down to Florida in August of 2021 for a long getaway.  After arriving in town on Friday night, I made my maiden voyage to Tropicana Field the following afternoon.  The White Sox put up little fight, losing to the Rays 8-4.  I returned the following afternoon looking for a better result but instead saw a 9-0 shutout by the Rays.

Due to damage from Hurricane Milton, the Rays will be forced to play their 2025 schedule at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the Yankees.  A new stadium built in the same location in St. Petersburg was planned to open in 2028, but, if the funding is still in play, may be needed sooner.

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Another Name Change

Eight years into a thirteen-year deal, Guaranteed Rate Field will now be known as Rate Field.  While the new name rolls off the tongue a little easier than the previous moniker, it is still a bit of a clunker.  Guaranteed Rate rebranded as simply Rate this past July, so the new name aligns with the corporate master.

In the time the park was known as Guaranteed Rate, I saw 203 games, including post-season play in 2021 and the worst team in modern MLB history in 2024.

All-Time Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Milwaukee Brewers 3 1 0.750
Cleveland Guardians 4 2 0.667
San Diego Padres 2 1 0.667
Arizona Diamondbacks 2 1 0.667
Chicago Cubs 7 4 0.636
Seattle Mariners 7 4 0.636
Toronto Blue Jays 5 3 0.625
Boston Red Sox 6 4 0.600
Cleveland Indians 7 5 0.583
New York Yankees 4 3 0.571
Detroit Tigers 13 10 0.565
Houston Astros 6 5 0.545
Cincinnati Reds 1 1 0.500
Los Angeles Angels 3 3 0.500
St. Louis Cardinals 2 2 0.500
Texas Rangers 3 3 0.500
Oakland Athletics 6 7 0.462
Chicago White Sox 93 110 0.458
Minnesota Twins 7 9 0.438
Kansas City Royals 8 12 0.400
Baltimore Orioles 3 5 0.375
San Francisco Giants 1 2 0.333
Tampa Bay Rays 2 5 0.286
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Ballpark Tour: Dodgers

With the offseason well underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head to Chavez Ravine to take a look at the Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the third oldest ballpark in the major leagues. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Dodger Stadium.

Stadium Name: Dodger Stadium

Years in Service: 1962 – Present

Visits: 1

Following the 1957 season, the Dodgers fled Brooklyn and headed west to California, landing in Los Angeles. The team played in the LA Coliseum while they built a new stadium at Chavez Ravine. In 1962, three years after breaking ground, Dodger Stadium opened as the Reds topped the Dodgers in the season opener.

The following year, the Dodgers won their first World Series in their new home. Between 1962 and 1965, Sandy Koufax threw three no hitters at the stadium, including a perfect game against the Cubs. Four home runs have been hit out of Dodger Stadium, two of which were hit by Pirate great Willie Stargell.

Dodger Stadium is currently the third oldest park still in use, behind Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.  I made my first visit to the stadium to see the second home game of the 2014 slate, with the Dodgers taking on their longtime rival Giants.  Thanks to traffic, I didn’t get to my seat until the 4th inning, by which point the Giants had secured a substantial lead. I sprung for decent seats, which put me down on the lower level. One odd thing about those lower sections were the aisles, which are so narrow that people could only go in one direction at a time. I did also manage to score a fabled Dodger Dog, or at least the all-beef version of it.  I hope to make it back some day for a repeat performance.

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Ballpark Tour: Orioles

With the 2024 season officially wrapped up and the offseason now underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head east for a look at the Baltimore Orioles and their stadium that kicked off the retro craze.  So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Stadium Name: Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Years in Service: 1992 – Present

Visits: 1

After 38 seasons at Memorial Stadium following their move from St. Louis, the Orioles opened Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992.  It was the first of a wave of “retro” parks that would sprout up over the following 2 decades, changing the architecture of baseball.  The Orioles took the initial contest at the park, defeating the Indians 2-0 behind a Rick Sutcliffe shutout.

The stadium hosted its first All-Star Game in 1993.  On September 6, 1995, the park witnessed Cal Ripken surpass Lou Gehrig for consecutive games played and, on the same day in 1996, saw Eddie Murray smash his 500th career home run.  On April 29, 2015, the park hosted the first game in MLB history to be closed to fans, due to riots in Baltimore.

I made my first visit to the stadium in the summer of 2019, with the Orioles taking on their longtime rival San Francisco Giants.  We had to leave early, as the train we were planning to take to Washington after the game didn’t run on weekends, so alternate plans were needed.  The game was kind of non-descript, as both teams were on a downward spiral, but I hope to make it back some day for a repeat performance.

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Looking Ahead To 2025

Last week, on the extra off day in the All-Star break, Major League Baseball released their tentative 2025 schedule while I was away in Amsterdam.  For the third year in a row, MLB is keeping with a balanced schedule, playing 52 games against division opponents, 64 games against non-division opponents in the same league, and 46 interleague games, with series against every team in the opposite league.  With the White Sox about to cement the worst season in franchise history and the Cubs trying to figure out what went wrong on their way back to contention, the 2025 season looks like it could be a long one for the city of Chicago.  So, for one day, at least, let’s turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

The White Sox celebrate the 125th anniversary of the franchise, opening their season on March 27 at home against the Angels, kicking off a six-game homestand that also features the Twins.  They will make their first visit to Sacramento, the new home of the A’s, in the last weekend of April.

The interleague schedule sees the Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Padres coming to Guaranteed Rate Field, while the White Sox will go on the road to face the Pirates, Reds, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Rockies, and Nationals.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a three-game weekend series at Wrigley Field in mid-May followed by another weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field the last weekend in July.

After wrapping up the home portion of the schedule in mid-September against the Orioles and Padres, the White Sox wrap up the 2025 season on the east coast, battling the Yankees and the Nationals to finish up the year.

On the north side, the Cubs head to Japan to open their season on March 18 with a two-game tilt against the Dodgers in Tokyo.  They return to the US to face the Diamondbacks on March 27 before heading to Sacramento for the first time to face the A’s.  They open up the home portion of the 2025 season on April 4 against the Padres.

Aside from the A’s, the Cubs will head out on the road to face the Twins, Angels, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers, while the Mariners, Orioles, Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals will be coming to Wrigley Field.

Only ten of their 25 games in September are against their NL Central rivals, which could make a difference should the Cubs find themselves in contention.  They end the year with a six-game homestand, facing the Mets and the Cardinals.

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Say Hey

Last night, during the slate of games on the night’s schedule, the Giants issued a statement that Willie Mays, the 93-year-old Hall of Famer, had passed away earlier in the day.  The 24-time All Star spent 23 seasons in the majors, batting .301 with 660 home runs, 339 stolen bases and 3,293 hits.  He won only two MVP awards, despite leading the NL in WAR nine times.

Mays began his career in the Negro Leagues, when he was just 16.  He played with the Birmingham Black Barons for three seasons, prior to joining the Giants, and was originally scheduled to appear at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, the same stadium he played in 75 years earlier, along with the Giants this week to honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues, but he announced he would not attend late last week.

Both local teams were home and playing last night, with the Cubs hosting the Giants and the White Sox, with Mays’ former teammate Steve Stone in the booth, hosting the Astros.  The Cubs held a moment of silence between innings, the first notification some of the Giants starters, including pitcher Logan Webb, had that Mays had passed.  On the White Sox broadcast, Stone told stories of his time as a young rookie pitching with the Hall of Fame center fielder behind him.

Mays leaves behind a tremendous legacy, not just in New York and San Francisco, where he starred for those 23 seasons, but across all of baseball.  The Say Hey Kid may now be gone, but his spirit lives on and he will never be forgotten.

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All Time Team Records

After a long, disappointing winter, the 2024 baseball season is set to get underway tomorrow.  To celebrate, it is time once again to look at the all-time team records for games that I have identified as having attended dating back to 1984.  Last year, I tied 2011 for my eleventh highest game total of all time, an increase of ten games from the year before, and managed to see 21 out of the 30 teams, so there should be some nice changes.

The White Sox just may be worse this year following a disappointing 2023, with new general manager Chris Getz treading water by bringing in defensive upgrades who can’t hit their way out of a paper bag.  On the other side of town, the Cubs brought in Craig Counsell to push a team that overachieved back into playoff contention but didn’t do a whole lot to improve the roster to help him do so.  The 2024 season may just be a maddening year on both sides of town.

All-Time Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
California Angels 2 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 16 4 0.800
Florida Marlins 15 8 0.652
New York Yankees 19 12 0.613
Colorado Rockies 11 7 0.611
Cleveland Guardians 3 2 0.600
Philadelphia Phillies 13 9 0.591
Toronto Blue Jays 17 12 0.586
Los Angeles Angels 20 15 0.571
Boston Red Sox 19 15 0.559
Washington Nationals 7 6 0.538
Cleveland Indians 31 27 0.534
Chicago Cubs 235 213 0.525
Chicago White Sox 366 342 0.517 Continue reading →
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Should I Even Worry About A 10,000 Step Club?

My world was very different four years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit.  I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my third best year to date, and, with upcoming trips to Boston and California already on the docket, things were looking good to add a good number more and add some new tales to this list of my Top 25 step days.  Then, the corona virus happened, the world basically shut down for the next year or so, and I stopped needing to leave the house.  I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which theoretically gives me plenty of free time to go out for walks, but, in practice, leaves me homebound more often than not.  I managed just two 10,000 step days for the just completed ninth year of Fitbit usage, which is my worst total since I started this whole step tracking thing some thirteen odd years ago, leading to a total of 285 since I started keeping track back in 2011.  With that in mind, here’s the list of my Top 25 step days, which has now stayed static for four years.

1: 4/14/2018 – 27,470 steps

My best single day total is from my April 2017 trip to New York to see Angelina.  The day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Empire State Building.

2: 7/21/2018 – 27,278 steps

My July 2017 trip to Virginia, to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob with Jeff and Val, fell just short of the top spot.

3: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps

2013’s trip to Disney World, which spent 5 years as my single day best, included excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom, and yes, falling 12 steps short of 25,000 still irks me.

4: 6/3/2019 – 24,665 steps

The first full day of 2019’s summer trip to Washington DC spent most of the day at the Smithsonian Zoo.

5: 8/8/2019 – 23,866 steps

Late in the summer of 2019, I spent two weeks in San Francisco for a work trip.   On my last full day, I went out after work, walking to Pier 39 and then back the other direction to Oracle Park to see the Giants take on the Phillies.  My totals would have been even higher, but I was dead tired and took an Uber back to the hotel after the game.

6: 3/18/2018 – 23,780 steps

My first day in Las Vegas for the 2017 IBM Think conference, the day’s totals include gallivanting around town, including a late night trip up to Caesar’s Palace from the MGM Grand to see Absinthe.

7: 10/24/2018 – 23,362 steps

My October 2018 trip to Boston to see Angelina for our birthday gives us our next entry.  While she was in class, I took tours of Fenway Park and Harvard, before meeting up with her for a late lunch and then heading to the airport for the trip home.

8: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps

My one-time second highest day took place during the ill-fated trip to Disney World in March of 2016.  The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.

9: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps

Still my highest total at home in the state of Illinois, the next entry comes thanks to the 2013 BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.

10: 12/29/2018 – 20,374 steps

We wrap up the top 10 with 2018’s trip to California and the trip to Disneyland to see Danny perform with the Lincoln-Way Marching Band.

11: 8/5/2017 – 20,218 steps

The next entry came in August of 2017 on the first day of my trip to Boston with Danny and Michael.  After landing in town, we traipsed to the Science Museum, a breakfast joint, our hotel, and, finally, Fenway Park.

12: 7/14/2017 – 20,208 steps

Down to #12 is my 2017 trip to Disney World, a one day journey with Angelina to celebrate her high school graduation. Continue reading →

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2023 Final Standings

A disappointing season on both sides of town came to an end this weekend, leaving both Chicago teams home for October.  The Cubs looked like a lock for a Wild Card spot heading into September, and even were holding on to the last spot within the past week, but managed to squander their lead.  The White Sox, on the other hand, managed to lose 100 or more games for just the fifth time in franchise history.  Despite all this, I ended up attending 43 games, tied with 2011 for my eleventh highest total of all time.  I only managed to add one new stadium, bringing my total up to 28.  All told, I managed to see 21 of the 30 teams.

2023 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Toronto Blue Jays 2 0 1.000
Philadelphia Phillies 2 0 1.000
San Diego Padres 2 0 1.000
Miami Marlins 1 0 1.000
Chicago Cubs 9 2 0.818
Milwaukee Brewers 2 1 0.667
Seattle Mariners 2 2 0.500
San Francisco Giants 1 1 0.500
Oakland Athletics 1 1 0.500
St. Louis Cardinals 1 1 0.500
Detroit Tigers 1 1 0.500
Cleveland Guardians 1 1 0.500
Tampa Bay Rays 1 1 0.500
Baltimore Orioles 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 15 21 0.417
Arizona Diamondbacks Continue reading →