Baseball Cities Tour

May 24 - we spent most of the day in Yosemite National Park. The views are breathtaking and one could spend a lot more time here. We took a two hour tram tour of the Valley Floor which was guided by a Ranger. This allowed us to see most of the most famous views and the highlights but really covers only about 1% of the parks area. Well worth a visit.

Tuesday, May 22 - We had really great seats at this park for a while. We had tickets for Row 1 Sec 328. That is where we sat until the beginning of the game when season ticket holders informed us we were in their seats. Apparently we were in the Upper Box Sec 328 and our tickets were for Upper View Sec 328. Only off by about 5 rows really. Pictures are from our real seats. This is a great park! If you had a young family and wanted to instill in them a love for the game this would be a great park. There were lots of fun things to do before the game with the kids. The Coke bottle in the outfield next to the large glove is actually several slides for adults and kids. There is a small T-ball field out in that area and “stuff a bear” where you can make your own Lou Seal (the team’s mascot) or a bear with Giants apparel. On the lower level, there is a both where you can watch a real major league baseball being stitched or have your name carved into a bat. (They had this same thing at Angels Stadium also.) The park is right on the bay at the edge of downtown San Francisco. You can watch all size boats, yachts and cargo ships sailing by while you are watching the game.

Sunday, May 20 - This stadium is showing its age and with talk of building a new one, it is no wonder it has not been through the renovations that some of the others the same age have. This game was between “cross bay rivals” – Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants. The place was packed with fans from both teams. Things got interesting right from the start in the stands. There were four young men sitting 2 or 3 rows in front and to the left of us. During the playing of the National Anthem one of them remained seated and was being very obnoxious. As you would expect, others in that area expressed their displeasure with this person. Language got rough and within minutes, security removed these people from the stadium. A special thank-you to Ernie, Paula, Linda, Kent and Greg. They picked us up at our campground and took us to a lovely brunch before the game and delivered us to the stadium. Paula & Linda are Karen’s cousins. It was great visiting with them as it has been a few years since we had seen each other.

Since the Angels were playing the Dodgers, we saw Nomar again but we also got to see another former “Let’s go Angels” were followed by “Let’s go Dodgers”. Just what you would expect in a “Freeway Series” as this rivalry is called. Before the game we heard the best rendition of the National Anthem yet. It was sung by a 10-year old young lady named Taylor (unfortunately I did not catch her last name) with a great voice. She returned to lead the 7th inning stretch traditional “Take me out to the ballgame”. The home team prevailed.

Thanks to Robert Daeley for mentioning our site on his Blog - http://www.trolleydodger.com
If you are a Dodgers fan, you will definitely want to check out his site and if you aren’t, you might want to go there to see what he said about us and to learn where the term Trolley Dodger came from.

Dodger Stadium is situated on a hillside overlooking Los Angeles. It is 46 years old but has been updated as have most of the older stadiums. Prior to the game, the Covina Charter Oak Youth Baseball Champions were introduced and took their position on the field with their Dodger counter parts. During batting practice, trivia about the Dodgers and the stadium is displayed on the jumbotron. At all the games so far we have seen players that have had a prior connection to the Boston Red Sox but this game really had that Red Sox connection. The Dodger manager is Grady Little (a former Red Sox manager), the starting pitcher was Derek Lowe and the first baseman was Nomar Garciaparra (two of my former Red Sox favorites). The Dodgers did win! Home teams are now 5 – 5.

We arrived in downtown San Diego in time to walk around the historic part of the downtown – The Gaslamp Quarter before heading to the ballpark. At the ballpark it was 70’s Retro Night. A radio station was giving out 70’s black afro wigs, some of the fans were dressed in disco style clothing and the team was wearing their “throw back” uniforms. As each Player came to the plate, his picture was displayed on the jumbrotron but it had been digitally altered to have a70’s look – some had huge mustaches, some had huge afros and others had the long hippy hair look. Prior to the start of the game, the Navy ROTC Color Guard presented the flag and the Catholic Schools All-Star Choir sang the National Anthem. Between two innings they had “Dress your Pet” presented by Petco – on the jumbotron they showed pictures of pets sporting their Padres’ attire. Oh, they had a different way of painting the lines on the field here. They sprayed them on (see the picture). Have to say, the fans were really into the game and the 7th inning stretch singing of “Take me out to the Ballgame” was the most rousing rendition to date.

We drove through farm country that lead right up to the mountains! We stopped at the Painted Rocks Petroglyphs Site. We arrived in Yuma to find the temperature a toasty 100 degrees. Mornings and evenings were comfortable but midday we stayed inside with the air conditioner running. Hard to believe only a few days before we were running the furnace hoping the water would not freeze.

Not a lot of hoopla here. This is a nice stadium in downtown Phoenix. It has a retractable roof, which was open for this game. On the scoreboard prior to the start of the game they show the “roof status” and it shows that it was 87o outside and 74o inside for this game. There is a pool in the outfield and there were people “watching” the game from the pool. Leslie Pools is one of the advertising sponsors – thus the pool.

On May 6th, we drove through Oak Creek Canyon, which was a thrilling drive from the top of the mountain down to the bottom of the canyon. There were many switchbacks and the road was narrow but the views were worth it. We went this route instead of the interstate in order to stop in Sedona. What a nice town surrounded by the Red Rocks. Next stop was Montezuma’s Castle National Monument. Here we took a short walk to enjoy the ruins of a five-story, 20 room cliff dwelling built in the early 12th century by the Southern Sinagua farmers.