The Heat is on

Yes it’s true, the heat is on and I’m not talking about the big three in Miami. I’m talking about my business trip to Phoenix two weeks ago where I experienced, for the first time, what AZ summers have to offer. I believe it got up to 112 degrees the last day we were there! Luckily I’m a day walker and the sun had nothing on my red headed skin. The purpose of the trip was to visit a couple partners of OS who resell our products but of course we took advantage of the situation and hit up a little D-Backs game. It just so happened the Yanks were in town. Boooooooooooooooooo!!!!! We got to the stadium early and had dinner in a nice restaurant in the right field bleachers. The AC in the stadium felt fantastic. Thank goodness the roof was closed. Just as we got up from dinner to head to our seats in the first inning A-Rod smacked a shot over the left field wall. In then heard something that caught me off guard. The crowd erupted in cheers. I never heard so many people cheer for an opposing team. We hurried to our seats and again to my amazement there were no Diamond Back fans in sight. I was surrounded by Yankee fans. It was like a bad dream or something. They dominated the stands. Honestly, I think there were just as many Yankee fans if not more than D-Backs. I must admit though they were extremely loud and annoying, I found the Yankee fans quite comical. We had some loud drunk dudes in our section starting the funniest cheers. They were saying things like “We sell tickets” to “single ladies” with the beat of a drum in the background. The funniest though came in the ninth inning when the D-Back put in Tony Abreu to pinch hit. I’m guessing he’s Bobby’s younger brother? Anyway the Yankee fan next to us started a cheer (keep in mind for a guy on the D-Backs) that went something like this…Boom, boom, boom let me here you say a Abreu (Crowd then followed with an “Abreuuuuuuuuuu”). It doesn’t have the same effect writing it in a blog but it even made the loyal D-Back fans laugh. Guess you had to be there. Yanks ended up spanking them of course. I’m wondering how ever lose when 8 out of your 9 starters are currently or have been all-stars? It’s just not fair. Oh well, at least they’re fun to watch and they sell out stadiums anywhere they go. As for the stadium I give it 9-10. Pretty sweet place with a lot do. Good time in PHX.

Party at Petco...Go Dodgers

My travels took me to another ball park in May. This trip however was not for business but strictly pleasure. Ash and decided to go down to San Diego for a little surf and baseball. We met our friends and Aaron and Mercedez Attig who live in Irvine to join us on the journey. The first stop was Churches. A popular beach outside Camp Pendelton. Ash, aka lil shredder, carved the wave into pieces and left Aaron and I stranded like beached whales on our boards. We eventually gathered ourselves and had some nice rides. After a fun day at the beached we showered up put on our Dodgers gear and drove to Petco.
Ashley got us tickets in the right field bleachers that was an all you eat section. I was a little hesitant, thinking the food would be junk, but surprisingly the hot dogs were really good. The stadium was littered with Dodgers fans who came piling in by the bus load (literally). With a Matt Kemp home run in the 7th the Dodgers won. For those who haven't been to Petco field it's a must visit. We took a good hour in the middle of the game just walking around park.
One downside about the stadium is they are very limited on parking. Luckily we found the last spot in some paid lot about five blocks away. When we got to the car after the game it had been broken into and our stuff was everywhere. To our amazement, no windows were broken and the only thing stolen was a roll of quarters. He even left our expensive sunglasses sitting on the seats. I guess I forgot to lock the car…my bad! I felt awful considering the fact that it was mother-in-laws brand new car. I’m so lucky nothing happened. Besides that little incident the game was a blast. It was my third time to Petco and definitely won’t be my last.

Dirty South

In May work brought Jake and I to yet another major league ballpark. The beautiful Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia. The game featured the Braves vs. Phillies. A couple days before the game I decided to pick up some tickets on stub hub. We decided to go to the game an hour early so we'd have plenty of time to soak it up. As we approached the stadium I was in awe with the ambiance they had created around the park. They had volunteers smiling and welcoming you to the ballpark. Pep bank music played over loud speakers as we walked around the monuments of Hank Aaron and many other Atlanta greats. took some pics and decided it was time to go in. I gave the usher our tickets and with disappointment in her eyes she looked at us and said I'm sorry these tickets are for tomorrows nights game! Noooooo how could this be. I swear I put the right dates on stub hub. Then again this is a common mistake a seem to make when booking airline tickets. So much travel is making me loose my mind. The ticket office couldn't help us so I called stub hub. After about twenty minutes of waiting I finally got a hold of someone and stub hub and luckily they switched the tickets for me. That was an interesting twenty minutes as we stood outside and watched the southern peeps filter into the stadium. To my amazement all the the dudes wore the same outfits which consisted of Sperry Topsiders, khaki shorts (slightly above the knee), polo shirt, ball cap with a creased bill that's frayed, sunglasses hanging around their neck by a chum, and last but not least a beer in their hand with a cooler sleeve around it. It was so weird. Seriously, they all were dressed like that. I felt like I was surrounded by a bunch of river guides. Anyway sorry about the tangent but it's important so you can have a better mental pictures. We finally got into the stadium and again the exceptional customer service continued. Ushers escorted us to our seats and wiped them down with a towel. Even the girl behind the counter and Chickfilet was all smiles. I was very impressed to say the least. That whole thing about southern hospitality couldn't be more true. The game turned out to be a snoozer. We left at the top of the ninth with the Phillies up 2-0. What impressed me most that night was not the players nor the food but the great service. In the all the parks i've been to around the country Turner Field without of doubt treats you best. We got so caught in the moment that we both bought Braves hats. You kidding me?! I hate the Braves. The hat did look way good on my head though so I couldn't resist. Anyway the next morning as Jake and I got ready for work we turned on Sports Center to see the recap of the nights events. To our dismay they spot lighted the Braves/Phillies game calling it the game of the night. "Ummmm...was there something we missed" I said to Jake as I stood there with my towel wrapped around my waist. That was the most boring game I've been seen in years. I think the only two runs were scored on sac flys. Sure enough in the bottom of the 9th with two outs Troy Glaus and the rookie phenom Jason Hayward hit back to back jacks. Then in the bottom of 10 Nate McClouth hits a walk of shot to right field that I swear the guy sitting next to us reached over our empty seats and caught!!! We couldn't believe it but it was lessoned learned the hard way. We vowed that we would not leave another game early this summer or better yet ever. All and all the trip to Atlanta was great. Another stadium bits the dust.

Opening Day in Oakland

Jake and I had were headed to San Fran for some bitness and it just happened to be opening day weekend for MLB. Coincidentally a few days prior to flying out I ran into my buddy Dave Nixon at Maglebys Fresh in Provo. Dave lives in Oakland currently while he plays for the Raiders. I told him I'd be in town and asked him if he wanted to come with us to the game. He said he'd love to and he'd see if he could get us some tickets. He called me a couple days later when we were headed up to the airport and said he got us box tickets in Al Davis's suite. Um....sweeeeeeeet! It seemed to good to be true. We got to the game and sure enough the great outside linebacker from Brigham Young University had the hook up. We pretty much had the box to ourself. It was me, Dave, Jake Berry, and Todd Crofts (OrangeSoda VP of Marketing). It just so happened that at the same time of the baseball game was the National basketball championship with Butler and Duke. Lucky for us we had three flat screens in the suite to watch it on. It was a mans dream as our eyes went back and forth from one ball game to another. As for the Coliseum, I couldn't think of a worse ballpark to have to play in. It was opening day and the stands were about half full. They played the Mariners, I'm not sure who won but it was a beautiful way to kick off the 2010 season.

So Close yet so Far Away

As many of you know I have a goal to go to every major league baseball park in the country. Lucky for me my dad has the same goal. When I graduated high school my dad took me and my brother Cary on a baseball/golf trip back east. The trip started in Boston and when we had our golf clubs jacked from the hotel parking lot the first night the focus turned to baseball. On that two week trip we went to Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, and Yankee Stadium. It was an experience I'll never forget. We decided to start a tradition that for every park we went to we would collect a mini bat for the home team. Now ten years later the bat collection is quite impressive. With internships back east, and now being able to travel twice a month for work I've been able to cover some serious ground. I've decided now that for every park I attend I will do blog post about the experience. So here we go...

Hall of Shame

I remember last year on Sports Center they laughed about a minor league player (John Odom) who was traded for 10 wood bats! Everyone laughed about it but I remembered thinking "what about the poor kids feelings?" At the time I wondered how he was handling it but no sources followed the story. I totally forgot about the whole thing until I stumbled upon this article today on ksl.com http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=249&sid=5753725
Turns out after a long hard year the Odom just could not take it anymore and overdosed on drugs. He was butt end of many jokes in the club house and ridiculed by opposing team's fans. The article says in the beginning he was able to laugh it off and joked about it frequently. He at one time even refered to himself as the batman. Eventually however it started to ware on him. One night as he warmed up to pitch in Amarillo, TX the opposing team had the batman theme song playing on the PA. In between innings fans blasted him. That was basically the icing on the cake. He just could not take it anymore. He eventually told his coach he needed to go home and figure things out. He fell back into some bad habits and ended up killing himself with drugs.
The part of the story that really disturbed me was the fact that the team that traded him in Calgary did it as a publicity stunt. Thier president Peter Young was offered $1000 for him but insisted to make the trade for ten maple bats. Riplys Believe or Not ending up buying the bats for $10,000 dollars to put in one of their museums. Hey Riplys I have an idea, why don't you put those bats in your Hall of Shame?! Calgary wanted a publicity stunt and they got one. Who's laughing now?