I went to Wrigley Field for the first time in 2007 and was pleased that the promo on gameday was an Aramis Ramirez bobblehead doll. Some 18 months later of staring at this thing on my desk, I just noticed that it was sponsored by Fannie Mae.
I’m guessing we won’t see them sponsoring too many more of these.
Astros expect LF Lee to be ready for spring training
The fractured left little finger that sidelined Houston Astros left fielder Carlos Lee for the final seven weeks of the season has healed, the team announced Tuesday.
Lee has to be part of the formula for any success next year. This is great news.
When I was younger and my family took cross-country trips for family reunions and the like, I always made a point of trying to find a baseball game somewhere, anywhere, to go see. The Internet was still nascent technology and finding games was usually a losing proposition, but I managed to catch games in Norfolk, Virginia, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In recent years, I’ve made trips to see my hometown Houston Astros and, as an anniversary present, to see the Chicago Cubs play in historic Wrigley Field. Mostly, however, I spend my baseball life at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, home of the Astros’ AAA Express team. The Express, of course, started life as a AA team in the historic Texas League, and this leads me to my goal for next baseball season.
There are eight teams in the Texas league, four of which aren’t horribly far from me. San Antonio is 2 hours south on I-35; Corpus Christi is a few more hours past that; Frisco is 3 hours north on I-35; and Midland is 5 hours west. The northern teams - Little Rock and Springdale, Arkansas, Springfield, Missouri, and Tulsa, Oklahoma - are also clustered together, with the Oklahoma and Missouri teams a mere 3 hours apart, and the Arkansas teams likewise only a few hours apart.
I think I’m going to make it a point, in 2009, to visit each Texas League park. Three weekends to visit the Texas teams, and a week’s vacation to hit the norther teams. Once the 2009 schedules hit, I’ll post detailed info, but hopefully I can line things up so that I can hit San Antonio and Corpus in a weekend, take weekend trips to Midland and Frisco, then hit the northern cities while taking a long weekend or a week on the road.
Mobile News Network
The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
To quote another former MacGenius, “Wear a helmet!”
I realized this week that minor league baseball has made me a baseball snob. I’m leaving for a short trip to Houston this weekend and since the Astros are in town, my thoughts turned to snatching a couple of tickets and catching a game. In the end, I gave up on seeing the Astros and elected to end my trip a little short and hurry back home to catch a Triple A game in Round Rock instead.
My season tickets for the Round Rock Express are in Section 113, Row 2. That’s about 20 feet behind third base, just off the end of the third base dugout. We’re so close to the action that we can hear the umps make the call, we can hear the players calling “I got it!” on pops, and we can hear the coaches when they come out to yell at the umps. We’re not just there to see the game, we’re in the game.
Damned near the best seats in the house and face value is $12 a seat.
The comparable section at Minute Maid Park in Houston runs $50 a seat, and you’ll never get anything closer than about 30th row unless you go to Stubhub. There, you’ll spend between $70 and $120.
That’s when I realized I’d just drive home and catch an Express game. Minimum $140 for two decent seats (not even counting concessions!) and see my favorite major league team, or sit second row, third base, at AAA in a cozy, friendly stadium with sane concession prices?
Not a tough choice.
